The co-founder of an Adams County-based charity that builds homes for the at-risk veterans has had his trial for alleged theft pushed back to January.

Muddy River News reports that 63 year old Mark Lawrence of Quincy appeared in Adams County Court this morning before Associate Judge Roger Thomson. Lawrence is charged with Class 1 felony theft, and Class 2 felony theft. If convicted of either felony, Lawrence faces 3 to 15 years in prison, along with fines and restitution costs.

Lawrence and his wife, Chris Lawrence, were the founders of 2x4s for Hope in 2015. The local charity builds homes for homeless and at-risk veterans. However, in November 2021, the organization’s board voted to remove Mark Lawrence as president and Chris Lawrence as treasurer. The 2x4s for Hope board also filed a civil suit against the Lawrences for theft of money and materials from the charity. The Lawrence’s have filed a counter-suit. Both suits remain pending according to court records.

According to an indictment filed in May, Mark Lawrence is alleged to have been selling donated tools Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation to Jacksonville and Galesburg Warehouse Bargains stores and then, allegedly keeping the money. The donated tools were supposed to be used for building tiny homes for veterans. The Illinois State Police are said to have investigated the pawning of the tools back in November of last year. Chris Lawrence was not named in the May indictment.

Lawrence was scheduled for pre-trial motions this morning but the case has been stricken from the December jury call and a status has been set for January 4^th.

Jacksonville Police and Fire responded to a report of a structure fire late Saturday night.

A call of a fire came in from the corner of Walnut Avenue and North Diamond at 10:27PM. Upon arrival, fire officials learned that the actual physical address was 995 North Prairie Street. Fire crews could see the rear side of the structure just perpendicular to the garage was on fire up to a short porch’s soffit.

Fire crews were able to prevent the spread of the fire into the interior of the home with a single attack line. Fire crews were able to clear the scene at 11:07PM. Damages were estimated to be around $6,000.

According to a fire investigation report, the homeowners were not helpful in providing information into the cause of the incident. A Jacksonville Police report says that a male juvenile resident of the home told police that he had started the fire with logs outside of the home in the driveway.

No further information about the incident is currently available.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced yesterday a Macoupin County man was sentenced to 6 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for solicitation of child pornography followed by two years of probation for possession of child pornography.

22 year old Allyn M. Burtle of Nilwood was sentenced on Thursday by Macoupin County Circuit Court Judge Joshua Meyer after pleading guilty to one Class X felony count of child pornography solicitation and one Class 2 felony count of possession of child pornography with a victim under the age of 13. 

Raoul alleges Burtle requested pictures that were sexual in nature from a child he met while playing an online game despite knowing the child was under 13 years old. In September of 2020, investigators from Raoul’s office, with the assistance of the Macoupin County Sheriff’s Office, executed a search warrant at Burtle’s residence and arrested Burtle after digital forensic examiners located child pornography depicting other victims on his cell phone.

Raoul’s office prosecuted the case with Macoupin County State’s Attorney Jordan Garrison’s office. The case was a part of Raoul’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The task force has received more than 24,100 CyberTips and has been involved in more than 408 arrests of sexual predators since 2019.

Lincoln Land Community College’s Child Development Center has been awarded a grant from the Illinois State Board of Education to offer a Preschool for All Expansion (PFAE) classroom at the center in Springfield.

Twenty spaces in the classroom are available to preschool children ages three to five who come from families with identified needs. The classroom is designed to supply high-quality early learning experiences to these children at no cost.

Priority eligibility factors for the program include low income, a language other than English spoken in the home, developmental needs and other family risk factors. Information collected through a child screening and parent interview will decide those families most needing service.

Laurie Rhodes, director of the LLCC Child Development Center, says in a press release that the expansion will allow more children in the area to be ready for elementary school after helping them through a high-quality preschool environment with multiple supports. 

The LLCC Child Development Center will hold initial screenings for the program from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7; Tuesday, Dec.13; and Wednesday, Dec. 14. To schedule a screening, call 217-786-2450. The center is located at 5090 Shepherd Road in Springfield.

The largest solar farm in Illinois is now under construction.

WMAY and the Sangamon County Growth Alliance say work on the Double Black Diamond Solar Farm began once crops were harvested from the farmland where the solar panels will sit between Morgan and Sangamon counties. The 4,100 acre project will provide power to Chicago and other Illinois communities over the next 35 years, according to the lease agreement.

Swift Current Energies owns the project. The Illinois Times reported on Thursday that Swift says the project will bring $71 million in tax revenue over the 35-year life of the project, and that it is expected to generate 976 jobs during its 12-to-18-month construction.

The project is expected to double the state’s megawattage for residential homes, producing approximately 593 megawatts, enough to power approximately 85,000 homes in the state. Opponents of the project say it takes valuable farmland out of use.

The project is expected to cost $535 million and is expected to be fully operational by 2025.

Jacksonville Police arrested a woman yesterday afternoon in connection to an investigation to a burglarized business from Thanksgiving Day.

Jacksonville Police officials say that 52 year old Patricia L. Maddox of the 700 block of West State Street turned herself in to police at the police station at 4:24PM Sunday.

Maddox was allegedly the lone actor in a burglary to Papa Murphy’s Pizza, located at 1119 West Morton Avenue, that occurred between 7:58PM and 8:15PM on Thanksgiving Day. A cash register and an undetermined amount of money was taken, and damage to other cash registers were discovered by employees of the business on Friday morning.

Jacksonville Police Detectives say no other arrests are forthcoming in the incident. Maddox remains held at the Morgan County Jail without bond.

The Beardstown Police Department and Cass County Sheriff’s Office are in search of a suspect from an armed robbery from last Monday night.

The Cass County Star Gazette reports that a male suspect, approximately in their 20s or 30s, wearing black clothing and a black face covering entered the Stoplight Liquor Store, located at the junction of Illinois Route 125 and Arenzville Road, at 7:57PM on Monday, November 21^st.

Upon entry, the subject displayed a hand gun and removed an undetermined amount of money from the cash register and then fled the premises in a vehicle.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office is reported to be gathering surveillance footage to provide a description of the vehicle and further information on the alleged suspect.

If you have any information into the incident, you may anonymously call the Morgan-Scott-Cass Crime Stoppers at 217-243-7300. Tips may also be submitted online at by going to www.morganscottcrimestoppers.webs.com and clicking the leave a tip button on the home page.

You may also call the Cass County Sheriff’s Office directly at 217-452-7718, or the Beardstown Police Department at 217-323-3131.

Jacksonville Police are investigating a Thanksgiving Day burglary of a business.

Police received a phone call at 9:39 yesterday morning from employees of Papa Murphy’s Pizza located at 1119 West Morton Avenue saying that the business had been burglarized overnight.

Upon arrival, police were shown where a cash register was taken. The management office door was left open, and wires were cut on the other registers. A police report says that the burglary occurred sometime between 7:58PM and 8:15PM the previous day. The business was closed at the time of the burglary.

No amount of cash was named in the report. The report did not include whether or not police were able to obtain any surveillance footage of the area for possible suspect. The incident remains under further investigation.

If you have any information about this incident, you may call the Jacksonville Police Department at 217-479-4630 or leave a tip with the Morgan, Scott, Cass Crime Stoppers at 217-243-7300. Tips may also may be submitted anonymously online at morganscottcrimestoppers.webs.com. Click on the “leave a tip” button on the homepage. You may also text in a tip to the number 274637. The first word of the text tip must be payout.

The Jacksonville Public Library is looking to restore its social media presence.

Head Librarian Jake Magnuson says that the library’s Facebook page was taken down recently and it has caused the library to put a hold on future programming: “Well, unfortunately, right now we are putting our programming on a little bit on hold to kind of re-evaluate it. We had some issues where our Facebook Page got taken down for unknown reasons. We’ve had to restart that whole thing, and it’s really put us in a hole as far as number of followers. It has limited our outreach of our advertising for our programming. We’ve had kind of sparse attendance for the past couple of events. We’re going to try and build things back up before we get into offering too much programming.”

Magnuson says as far as members of the library staff know there was no reported posts or nefarious outside actors that got into the Facebook account but the folks at Meta had decided the page had violated some community standards: “We just got a message from Facebook one day saying that [the page] was taken down, unpublished, due to their community standards. We couldn’t get an answer as to why. None of us had seen anything that was on there that was suspicious. We never had anything reported. It was just there one day and gone the next. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of recourse sometimes with those type of things.”

Magnuson says if you previously followed the page, search out the new page on Facebook and follow it to help the page get its reach back up to its previous level. The new page is currently linked up on the library’s website. Magnuson says the Facebook page is helpful for those people who don’t physically come to the library to stay in touch with what is going on, and having the page taken down was a pretty big blow to the library’s marketing campaign for events.

For more information, visit the library online at jaxpl.org and you can also find and follow the new Facebook Page at this link.

The Jacksonville Municipal Utility Department is having a busy Thanksgiving Day.

A major water main break took an extended amount of time to be discovered this morning. Several residents in the west end of Jacksonville reported severely decreased water pressure.

The break was discovered this afternoon and is currently being completely repaired.

A boil order is now in effect for the following locations until further notice (SEE MAP): starting on the north side of West Morton Avenue to West Lafayette Avenue between South Westgate Avenue and Illinois Route 104; also including all residences on South Westgate over to South Grand between Mound Road and West Lafayette Avenue.

City Officials say due to the overwhelming work put into fixing the most recent water main break, the water pressure has been restored but the City of Jacksonville is under the boil order. They say it is imperative that the community conserves water in order to allow for the system to recover. Under this water conservation effort, the following actions are not allowed: washing cars, decks, houses, sidewalks, garages, or any other outside structures; and topping off or filling hot tubs.

For further questions, call 217-479-4600 or 217-479-4616. You may also email questions to esda@jacksonvilleil.com.