There may be a delay in a new Abraham Lincoln Statue coming to Winchester.

Winchester Mayor Rex McIntire says a search for an affordable statue to commemorate Lincoln’s first speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act propelling him back into national politics is taking a long time because of the need to find a correct manufacturer: “We found statues that we can afford…and this is going to sound bad, but they are made out of the country, and by that I mean made in China. To be honest, I don’t want to put a Lincoln statue in our square that was made in China. We are trying to find an affordable one that’s made here in the States. We’ve found some but so far, they are just beyond our budget, and by beyond our budget, I mean several times beyond our budget.”

You can read reminiscence about Lincoln’s delivery of the speech by Dr. James Miner of Winchester at this link.

McIntire says a group is still looking diligently for a manufacturer to get a new statue placed at the location soon. McIntire says in the meantime, the city is still looking at applying to become a Looking For Lincoln Heritage Trail community.

Ann Moseley, whose family has connections to Winchester, is assisting with the application. Moseley is the the director of engagement and curator for the Sangamon Experience and acting director of the Center for Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield. McIntire says that beyond the statue of Lincoln in the park, there is a possibility to mark the Miner House on Cherry Street, where Lincoln stayed when he visited Winchester.

McIntire says its important for people to know of Lincoln’s connection to Winchester: “Many people don’t realize that it brings people to town when you have a connection to Lincoln like this. People would be surprised about how many people come to Winchester to look at the [Stephen] Douglas statue. There is so many people across the United States that take an interest in Lincoln being one of our most famous and best, if not our greatest President. There are a lot of people that I think would come to check out the sites that we have here. To me, it’s important to bring people to Winchester and it’s important to our businesses.”

McIntire says he doesn’t think of Winchester as being a tourist destination, but the Lincoln designation would give people from all over the country a reason to stop and explore Lincoln’s connection and see all the other amenities the city has to offer.

The North Greene School District is joining several other school districts in ROE #40 and Lewis & Clark Community College as a part of the RISE Network for classes.

The Rural Illinois Shared Education Network or RISE allows students to take remote classes with a live teacher that otherwise wouldn’t be offered at their high school.

North Greene Superintendent Mark Scott says that it’s advantageous to having a live, nearby teacher teach a class as opposed to an automated classroom with no one-on-one interaction: “For an example, I haven’t had a Spanish teacher here at North Greene for probably 7-8 years while Carrollton, Greenfield…they have somebody that lives in district that teaches Spanish. Instead of using some of these [online classes] like Ingenuity Online and this self-paced learning where it’s just a student at a computer, this RISE Network, our kids will have an actual instructor they can communicate with in real time. They won’t be in the same room with them. The Spanish teacher could be in Carlinville, Jerseyville, Carrollton, or Greenfield; but they are actually going to have a teacher in front of them. It’s a pretty neat setup that kids can ask questions and the teacher can respond. It’ll be like being in class but virtual.”

Scott says it will cost the district just a little over $5,000 to enter into the network. He says the offerings won’t just be a one-way street. North Greene will also be offering course to other schools in the network: “This is going to open up a lot of course offerings for our kids that we can’t provide right now. Likewise, we have some programs [that no one else has]. We have criminal justice, a dual credit course. A lot of these other local schools don’t have that, but we have it. Their students will be able to participate in that if they wanted to with our teacher being the in-person instructor. We would be able to send that out to other students in these other schools that participate in RISE. We send all of our schedules into RISE, and then, they create course offerings. One thing that we are seeing that’s kind of an issue but not really is that we are on block schedule. With some of these districts being on traditional schedule or block schedule in the network, some of these courses, for instance, might have to be early bird before school or offered after school.”

Scott says that RISE Network’s representatives will be spending much of the rest of the winter figuring out scheduling so that a few offerings may be ready at North Greene this Spring starting in January. He says he hopes a full slate of classes will be ready to go through the network for students returning in the Fall.

Scott says that the equipment for RISE courses arrived at the district two weeks ago. He says that getting everything set up and running will put the capstone on becoming a part of the network, which the district started exploring almost a year ago. Scott says it helps alleviate some smaller school districts in the region’s struggle to find and keep full-time teachers.

Jacksonville School District 117 saw a drop in designation on their financial audit for Fiscal Year 2022.

A two-point drop in score from their financial audit was largely due to the district spending more this past fiscal year and the recent bond sale, according to Principal CPA Suzanne Steckel of accounting firm Zumbahlen, Eyth, Surratt, Foote & Flynn: “You guys have always been, as long as I’ve been coming in…and probably years before that, always coming in at recognition [status]. This year we dropped down to the review [level] at [a score] of 3.35. So in order to be at recognition, you have to be somewhere in between a 4.0 and a 3.54. A couple of things that changed was your expenditure-to-revenue ratio. I mean you guys had money that you were trying to spend, improvements you were trying to do. You had the bond. So, this year at June 30, 2022, you spent $1.15 for every dollar that you brought in, where the year before you were spending 94 cents for every dollar you brought in. In order to get back up to a 4 [rating], you have to spend less than a dollar…so you are spending less than you are receiving is the whole point. And then, the other one that changed is your percentage of long-term debt. You’ll see it’s [rated] at a 1. It was a 2 last year, and that’s just all due to the bond issue that you guys just did.”

Steckel also recommended some clean up of some internal controls at the district: “There has been some turnover in the payroll department. There’s been some issues with the TRS reporting. So, I think that if somehow you can come up with some sort of a review process or something to make sure that those reports are getting filed accurately would be very advantageous. And then, we noticed…we test a sample of expenditures, so we also look at purchase orders. We noticed that the purchase orders…there were some purchase orders that were being issued after the purchase. So, you know, really the whole process and the whole internal control is that the purchase order gets done before a purchase is made. The other things is, is that we recommend in your purchase order system…it’s set up for passwords but it’s not setting up to change those passwords. So, you know, just to have those passwords update occasionally, every 6 months, every 60 days…whatever you find works for the district [is recommended].”

Steckel says the district did have one finding where there were some funds that were over budget. Steckel says she is working with District Treasurer Richard Cunningham to work to make sure that all of the district’s expenditures are accounted for when the amended budget is published in June of this coming year.

Superintendent Steve Ptacek largely attributes some of those over-budget funds due to the property tax payment coming in July instead of June this year: “Our revenue this year was lower than our expenditures, and that is due to the property tax that we were getting each year in June, which would have gone into last year’s fiscal year and it was delayed until July. So it’s going into this fiscal year. Therefore, we’re almost $9 million short for the revenue for last year. It doesn’t impact our fund balances at all, but it does make last year’s fiscal year look as if we over spent. It’s definitely really marked on the one financial profile that says ‘Hey, you spent more money than you brought in.’ But, next year it will be back on track and back to a 4, which is the highest ranking.”

Steckel did note in the district’s financial profile that the property value in the district increased by 1.9% from the previous year, average daily attendance of number of students increased, and the district’s overall cash balance and capital outlay all increased to help offset the $10 million property tax payment shortfall in the previous fiscal year. The district’s annual financial report will be completed and submitted to the Regional Office of Education by December 14^th.

The Menard County Sheriff’s Office has released a description and some information about the circumstances relating to a person’s disappearance near Petersburg on Friday.

According to a press release, on Friday, a 76 year old white female was reported missing from Springfield. The missing female’s vehicle was located on the east edge of Petersburg near the Illinois Route 123 bridge, where Route 123 intersects with Second Street. A widespread search by multiple agencies then began involving both ground, water, and air search teams. As of Sunday morning, the missing person has not been located. No clothing description is available.

This is an ongoing and active investigation, and search efforts continue. The Menard County Sheriff’s Office and Petersburg Police are seeking information from anyone who may have been traveling in this area during the late night/early morning hours on Friday and observed a person matching this description walking in the area.

Anyone with information requested above is asked to please call 217-632-2273 and provide the information to the Menard County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center.

No further information is currently available.

Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon has identified a man who was struck and killed by a vehicle on Interstate 55 in Springfield on Friday evening.

48 year old Edwin Bartosh of Springfield was pronounced deceased by Allmon shortly after 7PM Friday on I-55 northbound near mile marker 96 near the Illinois Route 29 exit. Bartosh is said to have been struck and killed by an oncoming vehicle.

Allmon said in a press release Saturday night that an autopsy has been scheduled for Monday. The death remains under investigation by the Sangamon County Coroner’s Office and the Illinois State Police.

The disciplinary hearing for an Adams County judge was continued Thursday in Chicago.

The Journal Courier reports that a hearing before the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board in a case against Judge Robert Adrian was continued. Adrian’s attorney, Amanda Hamilton requested additional time for discovery in the case. According to the report, she said that the review of evidence would only take about a week but with the holidays upcoming, requested the hearing be moved to January.

Adrian is charged with conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice and brings the bench into disrepute. The complaint against Adrian was filed after Adrian vacated the conviction of 18 year old Drew S. Clinton of felony criminal sexual assault during a bench trial in October 2021. Clinton was accused of sexually assaulting a 16 year old female who had passed out during a graduation party. Adrian initially convicted Clinton in the case, but reversed his decision during sentencing, saying that Clinton’s 5 months detention in the county jail was plenty of punishment in the case. Adrian then went on criticize the parents and attendants to the party in his closing remarks.

The complaint then stemmed from actions Adrian took during the next week after the trial in which he removed an Adams County prosecutor from his courtroom after the prosecutor had reacted to a social media post critical of Adrian’s decision to vacate the ruling. The complaint also claims that on April 8^th, Adrian made false statements while testifying before the Judicial Inquiry Board.

If the Judicial Inquiry Board finds Adrian guilty of any of the charges, he could possibly be removed permanently from the bench.

Adrian just recently won retention to the bench in the Eighth Judicial Circuit in the November general election. According to unofficial totals, he garnered 61.8% yes votes to be retained. A judge must gain at least 60% of the vote to be retained.

Judge Adrian’s next hearing before the Judicial Inquiry Board is scheduled for February 2nd.

The Menard County Sheriff’s Office and several other agencies are currently conducting a missing persons investigation.

According to a press release from shortly after 5:30 last night, the Menard County Sheriff’s Office said they were assisting the Petersburg Police Department with a missing persons investigation along the the Sangamon River near Hurie Park.

Also assisting in the search was the Petersburg City Fire Department, the Petersburg Rural Fire Department, Menard County Rescue Squad, Menard County EMS, the Athens Fire Department, Tallula Fire Department, Illinois Conservation Police, and the Springfield Fire Department.

This is still an active and ongoing investigation this morning. The Menard County Sheriff’s Office says there is no threat to the public. The public is being asked to stay away from the area at this time. No description of the missing individual has been given at this time.

The Menard County Sheriff’s Office could release no further information this morning.

A Central Illinois school superintendent has died after a brief battle with cancer.

WMAY reports that 44 year old Ben Thielen died of complications from pancreatic cancer on Tuesday. Thielen had learned just last month of the diagnosis.

Thielen previously taught and coached various sports in the Pleasant Plains School District before joining Edinburg in 2019.

Thielen is survived by his wife Morgan and their three children. Theilen was also the younger brother of Springfield Park Board member and former alderman Kris Theilen. Visitation will be Monday evening with funeral services Tuesday at West Side Christian Church in Springfield with burial to follow at Farmington Cemetery. Staab Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

The Beardstown Fire Department responded to a single story structure fire last night in Beardstown.

According to a report, at approximately 10:30 last night, the Beardstown Fire Department responded to a structure fire at a residence in the 1100 block of Walnut Street.

Fire and smoke were showing near the roof of the home. According to the report, fire damage was contained to a bathroom and bedroom of the residence. The occupant, who was home at the time of the fire, was able to evacuate safely and call 9-1-1.

Fire crews were on the scene for about an hour and a half. Cause of the fire is undetermined at this time.

The Beardstown Fire Department was assisted at the scene by the Beardstown Ambulance, Beardstown Police, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Ameren-Illinois, and the American Red Cross.