87^th District State Representative Tim Butler of Springfield is resigning.

Butler made the announcement this morning on Twitter, citing a new opportunity to work full-time with the Illinois Railroad Association.

Butler has served in the Illinois General Assembly since 2015 and was recently re-elected unopposed to his seat after winning in the June primary.

Butler says his fourth great-grandfather’s four terms in office under Abraham Lincoln were “good enough” and he thanked the constituents of his district for placing their trust in him for being their voice in Illinois’ government.

Butler says his resignation will be effective prior to the 103^rd General Assembly is seated in January.

Jacksonville Police arrested a man at mid-day yesterday after a road rage incident.

Police dispatch received an initial call from a female motorist at 12:21PM on Wednesday from the 200 block of East Independence Avenue saying that she was being followed after her car was hit and she was threatened with a gun.

At 1:14PM, police pulled over a vehicle matching the caller’s description in the 200 block of West State Street and arrested the driver, 24 year old Charles A. Ruble of the 700 block of South Church Street for aggravated assault and unlawful use of a weapon. Police say they found a loaded firearm after searching Ruble’s vehicle.

Ruble was later booked into the Morgan County Jail, posted bond, and was released.

The Village of South Jacksonville remains on the City of Jacksonville’s water today.

The village is currently experiencing problems with their pumps and other equipment at the Oxville water plant that have been down since the middle of last month.

Village President Dick Samples says the supply chain is the hold up: “We’re waiting on parts. Supposedly, they are supposed to be in this week, but what screws up this week is Election Day on Tuesday and Veterans Day on Friday giving two days of vacation, so to speak. It’s very possible the repairs could be pushed off to next week, but we’re simply waiting on parts is all.”

Samples says that interim Water Superintendent Bryce McCormick has come up with a checklist of items that need to be fixed and cleaned up at the water plant after lengthy deferred maintenance: “Bryce has been really helpful. He’s been working for us [for about the last month], and he’s come up with several different proposals of what we need to do down at the water plant to make it operate more efficiently. We have a lot of parts coming in. We’re doing more maintenance down at the water plant through Bryce’s requests…things that should have been done a long time ago…mostly just maintenance items. The water has been safe to drink but we are trying to make it better for our customers, and taste better, be better as far as not being as hard and all of that.”

McCormick will stay in his position until permanent Streets & Utilities Superintendent Brian English receives a license as a water operator from the State of Illinois. The licensure process could take up to 2-3 years depending upon the state.

Samples says it’s been a frustrating couple of weeks to simply have to sit around and wait: “Everything you do anymore, you have to turn around wait because of the backlog on parts and people that can do the work. Not the Village of South Jacksonville’s employees…I’m talking about people that we have to contract with like cleaning our wells at the water plant. It should have been done a long time ago, but it wasn’t and now you have to schedule that work sometimes 5-6 months, maybe a year in advance. We were placed on the waiting list, and we’ve got them both cleaned now but we’re now waiting on the parts to come in to fix the main pumps.”

Samples says that the cosmetic construction left to do on the water plant building remains outstanding. He says he has a couple of contractors he’s contacted locally to do the work, and similar to the parts the plant is waiting on, the contractors are busy, too.

The last time the Village had to purchase water from the City for this length of time was in July 2019 when the water plant at Oxville sustained a lightning strike disabling the plant’s control panel for several weeks.

The Jacksonville Salvation Army began their red kettle campaign yesterday.

The fundraising goal is set at $150,000 this year. This year’s theme is “Love Beyond Christmas.” Captain Chris Clarke says it hopes to spread the Salvation Army’s core value of spreading hope and love to struggling families not just during the holiday season of giving, but all year long.

Clarke says that only 5% of the total bell ringing shifts available have been filled. Anyone wanting to ring the bell this upcoming Season can sign up now at registertoring.com or by calling the Salvation Army at 245-7124. There are still over 3,000 hours of available bell-ringing this season.

Clarke says the local Salvation Army is looking for area businesses, churches, and groups willing to host Angel Trees, Kettles, and Holiday food drives. Individuals or businesses wanting to adopt a family for Christmas (provide toys for kids and a holiday meal for the family) can contact the Jacksonville Salvation Army at any time.

Those wishing to make a financial contribution can mail their donation to 331 West Douglas Ave, Jacksonville IL 62650.

A West Central Illinois county has joined about two dozen other counties in the state that have approved a referendum to separate from the State of Illinois.

Brown County voters approved a separation referendum on Tuesday night 1,444 to 441 to advise their county board to explore ways to leave Illinois.

Brown joined Hardin and northeastern Madison County on Tuesday in approving such a referendum. 23 other counties in the state have passed non-binding referendums during the 2020 elections with similar language. The question of whether or not a county can secede from a state in the first place is in dispute despite their being precedent for it occurring back in the early 1800s.

Tensions between downstate and Chicago and the suburbs have been growing over the last decade. Democrats, due in large part to liberal voting blocks in the northeastern corner of the state, have dominated the statehouse and the state’s executive offices causing a rift in policy and ideas of governance. Separation movements have been emboldened by recent elections showing Republicans winning downstate while losing in major cities, the City of Chicago, and the Chicago suburbs. The separatist movements have explored seeking to make downstate the 51^st state or to have counties get annexed into neighboring states.

Greene County authorities say that no policies or state standards were broken after an inmate at the Greene County Jail attempted suicide last Thursday.

Greene County Sheriff Rob McMillen reports that on Thursday, November 3rd at approximately 3:10PM a Greene County Jail corrections officer made contact with a 60-year old inmate being held at the jail to offer him and other prisoners the opportunity to go to the fenced in yard area for outdoor time at the jail in Carrollton.

All inmates, except for the 60-year old inmate, went outside at that time. McMillen says around two minutes later, the inmate closed the door to the bunk room. It’s at this time McMillen says the inmate fashioned a noose out of a single pair of socks and then proceeded to hang himself from the top bunk.

About 10 minutes later, McMillen says the correctional officer discovered the inmate and pulled him from top bunk, tearing the socks, and then cutting the remaining noose from off his neck. The inmate was said to have been unconscious and not breathing and CPR was immediately initiated. McMillen says that jail staff were able to establish a heart beat and got the inmate to regain breathing before EMS arrived.

The inmate was transported to Boyd Hospital in Carrollton, where he was later airlifted to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield. McMillen says the unidentified inmate remains in serious condition.

McMillen says an investigation was conducted, which included review of surveillance videos as well as a review of jail policies and state standards. McMillen says according to the investigation all policies of the jail and all state standards were followed, in conjunction with the incident. No further information about the incident has been released.

South Jacksonville and Jacksonville Fire units responded to a fire on the former grounds of the former Jacksonville Developmental Center.

The initial call came in to dispatch at 9:20AM at the site of the old Dietary building on the southwest corner of the property. Jacksonville Fire Chief Doug Sills says that it appears to be an act of vandalism: “Basically, the old dietary building here caught fire. It looks like we’ve had some vandalism going on here. I’ve been talking with Jacksonville Police and the custodian out here. They’ve run a couple of kids off earlier this week, but it looks like someone forced entry and we’ve got a little vandalism fire in the warehouse section. The fire extended to the roof deck. It was a relatively small fire, but with such a large building, it was difficult to get to the seat of the fire. Eventually, we found it and got everything put out. Nobody was hurt. No injuries. Basically, we’re mopping it up at this point.”

Sills says some furniture, exercise pads, and other remaining items located at the back of the warehouse of the building had been set on fire.

Sills says the fire was especially difficult to put out because of a lack of a water source: “As everybody knows, JDC has been completely shut down for awhile now, so all of the fire hydrants out here don’t work. We ended up having to lay a water line in from [South] Diamond Avenue. I believe that one failed, and we had to come back in off of Michigan Avenue in order to get a water supply back into the campus. That was problematic and took some time to get established. We do have one access point to the campus here. It is a little difficult to get around to it, but [the State of Illinois] did leave us one access point open. Apparatus were able to maneuver in to basically the seat of the fire or the building that was on fire, but water supply was definitely an issue.”

Sills says evidence of copper being stripped out of buildings, squatters, and structure fires on the campus have occurred multiple times over the last several years. Sills says in the instance of fire, he knows it’s a tough issue the city’s been facing since the campus closed: “They’re vacant buildings. The only life-safety factor is our guys and maybe if we have a transient person or one of the vandals in the building that might become trapped. We make sure that we sweep the building and get everything under control, but we’re not going to risk a lot to save a little.”

This is the second major fire on the JDC Grounds since June 2020. The State of Illinois has not made any announcement of recent plans to sell the grounds or clean up the property.

South Diamond and West Michigan Avenues remain closed at this hour while crews continue mop up of the fire.

A Virginia, Illinois man arrested in May on animal cruelty charges pleaded guilty in Cass County Court yesterday.

24 year old Enrique Rangel pleaded guilty to a single count of animal torture yesterday. Rangel was arrested on the charges on May 26^th by Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies. Rangel had been on house arrest during trial. According to a KHQA report at the time of Rangel’s arrest, a caller reported a man was using an object to beat a German Shepard outside of his home. Additionally, deputies said they discovered additional evidence that other mistreatment of the dog had happened days before.

Rangel was sentenced yesterday to 2 months probation, ordered to pay a $200 fine plus fees and court costs. He was given credit for 32 days served in jail.

An Ashland man is facing up to a decade in prison after violating Illinois conservation law. 60 year old John E. Harris of Ashland was cited by Illinois Conservation Police last Wednesday with 5 counts of unlawful buying, selling, or bartering with a commercial institution for wild game in excess of $300; a Class 3 felony.

Illinois Conservation Police allege in charging documents that Harris illegally harvested deer between December 2020 and November 2021 on five separate occasions.

Under Illinois law, Class 3 felony convictions provide for a prison sentence of 5 to 10 years and up to a $25,000 fine. Harris was arraigned on the charges in Cass County Court today. He’s next due in court for a preliminary hearing with counsel on November 21^st.