MacMurray College 2008 alumna Erin Geering is bringing back one of the college’s Advent traditions this holiday season.

Geering, in just a few short weeks, has organized a virtual version of MacMurray’s “Lessons and Carols.” It will be the first time that the program has been performed since 2019. Geering says it was an idea that she came up while she was healing up from a broken leg and ankle at home in Colorado: “It all started when I broke my leg and ankle this Fall. I suddenly had a lot of free time. As we were getting closer to the holidays, I wanted to engage some volunteer work with the MacMurray Foundation. That just got me thinking about what Advent was like on campus. For me, I loved what was called ‘Lessons & Carols’ at the time that I was there. It happened at Annie Merner Chapel and it was a candlelight service involving folk music, carols, and scripture. I missed it. I know that the MacMurray closure has been really difficult for a lot of people in different ways. I was hoping that as we get closer to the holidays that we could gather, if not in person, but virtually to try to celebrate something that for me was a really beautiful tradition and I think it was important to other people, as well.”

The virtual event, which is free and open to the public, will be held this Friday at 5PM via Zoom. Those wishing to attend can register by visiting this link. Geering says she’ll take it from there to get you into the program: “I’m pleased with what we’ve been able to pull together on such short notice. I’m still getting communication from people who want to be involved. There is a link for you to register to attend. I will send a Zoom link to anyone who registers. There is a short form to fill out. You can click on ‘MacMurray affiliation’ if it exists, but I also know this is important to the community so there is no need to be part of anything associated with MacMurray College if you want to attend. The event will be live this Friday, December 16th at 5PM Central Time.”

The lineup will include dulcimer music by Mike Anderson, a poetry reading by retired MacMurray professor Dr. Robert Seufert, a message from Dr. Claire Jerry who now resides in the Washington D.C. area and works for the Smithsonian Institute, Dr. Beth Fender, and ascripture reading by fellow MacMurray alumna Tiffany Pitman-White. Geering says there may be some last minute additions and surprises as a part of the program.

UPDATE 12/17: We are told the man involved in this explosion has been released from the hospital and is at home recovering.

A Greenfield man had to be flown from his home after a water heater he was attempting to light the pilot light on exploded.

The Journal Courier reports that the Greenfield Fire Department was called to a residence in the city at approximately 7AM this morning after an explosion was reported. Greenfield Fire Chief Cory Hudson told the Journal Courier that an unidentified man was attempting to light the pilot light on a water heater when it exploded in his face.

Hudson said the unidentified man had minor burns on his face, but there was concern he had inhaled some of the fire and there might be damage to his esophagus and lungs. Hudson told the paper that due to initial concern of the man’s injuries the Greene County Ambulance Service called for a Life Flight helicopter for transport.

The Journal Courier did not receive a report on initial damage to the home or an exact address. The incident remains under investigation by the Greenfield Fire Department.

The City of Winchester has a question about Elm Street.

Winchester currently has two Elm Streets within its limits. City Attorney John Paul Coonrod raised the possibility of changing the name of one of the two South Elm Streets that run parallel to each other at the regular monthly city council meeting on December 7th.

Mayor Rex McIntire says the two streets have been like that since he can remember: “It’s been like that since I was a kid and went to school here. Elm Street itself runs from the north end of town, north of Jefferson Street and it goes straight into the center of the high school. If you’re driving south on Elm Street, when you get to Cross Street, which runs in front of the high school, Elm Street ends right in front of the high school there. Then, actually on south of the football field is a short section of the street that is still Elm Street. We discussed this the other night. There was a parallel street just a block west that is also called Elm Street for some reason. I don’t know why that came about years ago, and it runs between the football field and the bus garage, which eventually runs down to the elementary school.”

McIntire says that the change will have minimal impact on home addresses. Coonrod told the Journal Courier this past week that there was a recent incident in which first responders were delayed in getting to the correct Elm Street address. Outside of this single incident, Coonrod couldn’t recall any other times where there had been issues with responders and the postal service getting where they need to be.

McIntire says with the recent discussions of the Lincoln statue in the downtown square and the city attempting to get on the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Trail, the consensus appears to be name the smaller of the two Elm Streets after the 16^th President: “We had a discussion about the name change. Of course, I told the city council that I’m trying to get the city involved with this [Abraham] Lincoln community push. I said that we didn’t have a street in town named after Lincoln. The city council thought that was a pretty good idea maybe rename it Lincoln Street or Lincoln Lane or whatever we’re going to call it. I think Lincoln is what we are going to rename it. In fact, Alderman Lawrence Coultas is going to talk to our school Superintendent Kevin Blankenship to see about his thoughts and let him know what we are going to do. It will only effect the addresses of 3 houses, and of course the School Board Office and Administration Office is on that street, too and then, the grade school. It’s going to be a minimum impact on just a few houses. Going north, none of the houses face that street. It runs from Cherry Street down to the grade school.”

Coonrod told the Journal Courier that if the council does move forward with renaming the street, residents would be responsible for ensuring their address is changed on their driver’s license and elsewhere.

The Morgan County Commissioners were the first taxing body in the county to pass their property tax levy Monday night through a truth-in-taxation hearing.

Nearly all taxing bodies in the county are holding truth-in-taxation hearings this month in an effort to capture nearly $37.2 million in new growth in the county within the last year. The majority of the new growth has been attributed to the Lincoln Land Wind Project as well as two large solar farms being installed in the county.

Morgan County Commissioner Chair Ginny Fanning says its likely not going to change the amount of property tax collected from individual home and land owners, unless they had reassessment or were affected by the new growth: “This tax levy will help determine the rate of what will be on people’s tax bill. It does not have any factor in determining how much their taxes are going to be. It’s the rate. With this levy amount, we are thinking that the rate will go down for Morgan County. That is just for our tax levy. I cannot speak for the other taxing bodies.”

Fanning says the property tax “pie” has grown and all of the taxing bodies are attempting to capture the windfall from the growth: “That’s why we have to capture this new construction because it’s going to make the ‘pie’ larger, and then, it will be distributed hopefully in appropriate increments to everyone that way. Since we are a PTELL county, our property tax extension law, the limitation there means that we can’t go over 5%. Now that everybody has this opportunity – that’s why we are all holding these truth-in-taxation public hearings so that people can come and hopefully understand a little bit more about how this process goes about. I know that it’s confusing, but it’s the factor of the Consumer Price Index that we get from the Department of Revenue combined with our new construction. Those two factors are really what triggered the truth-in-taxation hearing.”

Fanning says that the Consumer Price Index has hovered around 2% the last 2-3 years, and new growth has been about $2 million for the last 3-4 years, which she says is well under triggering the 5% PTELL threshold.

The rate increase this year amounts to 11.4% in hopes of capturing the growth. Fanning says she is unsure if next year will bring about more of the same with continued further possible growth by the wind farms and a possible new pipeline. She says next year will again be dependent upon CPI.

The vote for the levy passed unanimously with no members of the public on hand to provide comment or object to any portion of the ordinance.

Three people were arrested on Jacksonville’s north side after an argument at a bus stop this morning.

Jacksonville Police were called to the 1100 block of King Street at 7:32AM after a caller reported a large physical disturbance at a bus stop.

Upon arrival, police separated several individuals from a fight outside a stopped bus and also removed an adult from the bus. According to a police report, 39 year old Daniel T. Ochs of the 1100 block of North Diamond Street was arrested and cited for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct after boarding the bus without permission, refusing to get off the bus when commanded to do so, and then getting into a physical altercation with the bus driver alarming students on board the bus. 33 year old Heather N. Ochs also of the 1100 block of North Diamond Street was also arrested and cited for disorderly conduct after police say she boarded the school bus without permission, yelled threats towards the bus monitor during Daniel Ochs’ physical altercation with the bus driver, and alarmed students on the bus. 32 year old Shawna M. Werries, also of the 1100 block of North Diamond, was arrested and cited for disorderly conduct after police say she boarded the bus without permission, yelled and alarmed students.

Daniel Ochs was also cited later for failure to appear warrants out of Schuyler County and Sangamon County for traffic violations. Daniel Ochs remains held on bond at the Morgan County Jail.

Heather Ochs and Shawna Werries have since posted bond and been released from the Morgan County Jail.

The Jacksonville Police arrested a man early this morning after an attempted armed robbery on the Illinois College campus.

According to a press release, at approximately 4:45AM this morning, officers received a report of an armed individual and attempted armed robbery in progress on the Illinois College campus.

Illinois College Public Safety was the first to respond and directed arriving police officers to the third floor of an unnamed dormitory in which the suspect, identified as 26 year old student Devin C. Hall was encountered. Police say Hall was armed with two bladed weapons. Officers quickly de-escalated the situation and convinced Hall to lay on the floor of the dorm. Hall was then taken into custody without further incident.

Jacksonville Police Detective Doug Thompson said in a press release that due to the quick actions of students alerting Illinois College Public Safety and an immediate response from Jacksonville Police officers, there were no injuries and the suspect was apprehended within minutes of the initial call.

Hall has been cited for two counts of Armed Robbery and three counts of Home Invasion and is currently lodged at the Morgan County Jail.

Thompson says this is an ongoing investigation and anyone with further information can contact the Jacksonville Police Department directly at 217-479-4630 or leave an anonymous tip through the Morgan-Scott-Cass Crime Stoppers at 217-243-7300.

Prairieland United Way has scheduled its pre-allocation informational meeting.

The meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, January 19^th at 9AM at the Jacksonville Municipal Building, 200 West Douglas Avenue, in the commission room on the second floor.

Executive Director Karen Walker says the meeting starts the process for doling out the funds raised from the annual fundraising campaign: “Of course we are currently in our campaign mode, so we are really working hard to raise those funds. The next piece of that…the next step of that is then, what do we do with those funds once we do raise that money; and that’s putting it out into the community and seeing how can we best invest that money into the programs that we need in our community that need it. So, that’s the next step.”

The meeting will be for any 501(c)3 non-profit organization in Morgan, Scott, and northern Greene counties who are interested in applying for 2024 United Way assistance. Walker says the meeting will help organizations gather the necessary paperwork and understand the essentials on how to apply for funding: “We’ll go over the application. It’s a multiple-page application that we have. Basically, we’ll go over the requirements to be a United Way agency, a partner agency also the need to have regular board meetings [of that agency], a current list of board officers, when they meet, an annual report audit…all of the financial responsibilities that you would expect, a current list of their by-laws, and such things. We want to make sure that people who are investing with us obviously giving their money often times want to look at those things to do a charitable donation and follow those same rules so that they are giving to a non-profit that is for sure a 501(c)3.”

Applications will be due back to the Prairieland United Way in February. From there, scheduling of presentations by the eligible agencies will take place. For more information, agencies and their representatives can contact Karen Walker at 217-245-4557.

Morgan County taxing bodies are in the midst of multiple truth-in-taxation hearings this month.

The taxing bodies are going beyond a 5% increase threshold in their annual tax levy in an attempt to capture every dollar provided by the increase in estimated assessed value of property caused by the Lincoln Land Wind Project and other green energy projects in Morgan County. Morgan County is a Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) county. PTELL is designed to limit the increases in property tax extension (total taxes billed) for non-home rule taxing districts. The limit is at 5%. Whenever a taxing body goes beyond that 5% increase, a public hearing must be held explaining why the taxing body is seeking the more than 5% increase.

Franklin Superintendent Jeff Waggener says these massive increases in aggregate tax levies are a one-time deal for the county: “When the wind farm came on, an increase in growth came with it. We had a partial payment with it last year of about 3 or 4 months, and so we were able to try and capture that new assessed value. That’s the only time as a ‘tax cap’ county that we can do that when there is a new revenue that is possible for the district to pick up. This year we are levying for the entire wind farm, which was predicted when they came and talked to everyone about the project was going to be about $1.65 million the first year, and then it will go down every year after that. As it comes on this year, we only have one chance to encumber all of the money that’s due to the district.”

In a letter sent out by Franklin Community Unit District #1 on December 8th, the aggregate percent levy this year will be a 54% increase in an effort to capture over $1.7 million. In the letter, the 54% is said to not be the amount that individual property tax bills will be increasing, but is the increase in valuation of property that the school district is levying this year compared to last year.

Waggener says he understands that this process is confusing for everyone: “As a school board, it’s confusing to the school board at times. It’s confusing to our constituents for sure because we are that ‘tax cap’ county. In our levy information letter we sent out, we wanted to start the informational process of getting it out to our people and explaining what we’re doing, why we have to do what we’re doing, and then the revenue that will be captured from the wind farm for the district. In the letter we sent out, it was just our intention to start the conversation and make people aware of where we’re at as a district and give them a little background leading up to our truth-in-taxation hearing on Monday, Dec. 19th. That’s when I’ll do a full, formal presentation of the levy and answer questions.”

The Franklin School District truth-in-taxation hearing will be held Monday, December 19^th at 6:30 in the high school media room. Jacksonville School District 117, Virginia School District, and Waverly Community Unit District #6 are also holding similar meetings this month.

The former chief prosecutor in Brown County has been sworn in to become the resident judge in Schuyler County.

Chief Judge of the 8^th Judicial Circuit swore in Mark L. Vincent on December 2^nd at the Schuyler County Courthouse. Vincent is filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Scott J. Butler, which had been filled since Dec. 4, 2020 by the appointment of Ramon M. Escapa. Escapa was running unopposed for election this November, but was tragically killed on June 19^th while riding his bicycle in rural Schuyler County.

Vincent and Dustin Clark both ran for the position on write-in ballots, and Vincent was declared the winner last month, according to Muddy River News.

Vincent began his legal career in private practice in Cass County before being elected as the state’s attorney in Schuyler County in 1996. Vincent then maintained a private practice in Rushville and Mt. Sterling from 2000 to 2008 before serving three terms as the state’s attorney in Brown County. Vincent lives with his family on a farm near Camden.

UPDATE 12/16: WLDS News spoke with Jacksonville Police Chief Adam Mefford about the incident on Friday. He says due to a miscommunication in the office, this investigation remains open and active. He could provide no further details.

A teacher at Our Saviour Grade School has been dismissed for what school officials are calling inappropriate and unacceptable communication with a student.

The Journal Courier reports that 5^th Grade teacher Amanda Martin has been officially dismissed after the student’s parent filed a complaint with the Jacksonville Police Department, according to a statement obtained by the Journal Courier from the Diocese of Springfield.

The Diocese says that Martin was terminated after information was shared police and assessed by school administration and diocesan staff for what is being called inappropriate and unacceptable communication with a student that is in violation of the diocese’s safe environment policies.

Jacksonville Police officials told the Journal Courier that the content of the communication did not rise to a level of criminal charges and there was no basis for an arrest.

A note was sent to parents, and the statement from the diocese urged anyone with information on any child safety matter to contact police. The statement from the diocese also referred individuals who may have knowledge of abuse of a child to contact the Diocese’s Child Abuse Reporting and Investigation number at 217-321-1155 and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-2873.