Mac Alum Foundation Announces 2023 Homecoming Dates

The MacMurray College Foundation and Alumni Association announced this week the dates for next year’s Alumni Homecoming weekend.

This year’s alumni weekend was held in June and brought together nearly 500 MacMurray College alumni from across the country.

Next year’s alumni weekend has been announced for June 23^rd through the 25^th. Activities will still be held on the former campus that is now in private ownership to various parties, with most scheduled festivities to be centered around Annie Merner Chapel and McClelland Dining Hall.

Highlights will include the 50th year reunion for the Class of 1973, with special invitations for the Classes of 1972 and 1974 to join them. Other class reunions are also hoped to be held. A Saturday evening dinner will feature Foundation awards as well as alumni awards presented while the college was active.

The MacMurray Hall in the Jacksonville Area Museum will again have a special display, in addition to the regular exhibits. The Foundation also plans to host a reception for MacMurray Scholars as the Foundation continues to provide scholarships for higher education.

In a newsletter this week, co-chair of the Foundation’s Alumni Engagement Committee Willy Stanton says he’s excited to work with the dining hall and chapel’s new ownership and fellow MacMurray alumni Brian Reilly and Cured Catering. As more information develops, interested people can get updates on the Foundation’s website, MacAlumFoundation.org.

Early Voting Going Well in Morgan County, Clerk Addresses Marking VBM Ballots

Morgan County Clerk Jill Waggener says that early voting in the county is going well.

Election Day is officially less than two weeks away, and Waggener says numbers are steady at the courthouse: “Early voting is going very well. Right now, as of Tuesday afternoon, we’ve had 409 voters and grace-period voters coming into the office. We’re still about 14 days away from the election, so I expect that number to grow. Our vote by mail (VBM), I know we sent out approximately 672 ballots.”

Waggener says some concerns have been raised about how to mark ballots and whether or not a marker would spoil a ballot: “I know for the instructions call for you to use a ‘marking pen.’ What they mean by that is a ballpoint pen not a marker. Anyone who still has a ballot at home that hasn’t voted, just remember to use a ballpoint pen to mark your ballot.”

Waggener says the marking pen issue hasn’t been a problem so far, but she has heard that some voters are uneasy and hesitant about it spoiling their ballot. She says that a marker wouldn’t bleed through enough to cause issues with tabulation machines, but she says to be on the safe side, use a ballpoint pen to mark your ballot at home.

Waggener says that the next Saturday early voting event will be held November 5^th from 9AM-Noon prior to Election Day. She says she doesn’t currently see a need for extended hours but will continually reassess that need based upon traffic at the courthouse over the next two weeks.

City of Winchester to Add Lincoln Statue to Central Park

The City of Winchester hopes to add its name to a list for people looking for historical stops made by Abraham Lincoln.

Winchester Mayor Rex McIntire presented to the Winchester City Council on October 5th a proposal to purchase a life-sized Abraham Lincoln statue to erect on the city square.

The statue would be to commemorate Lincoln’s first speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act in August 1854 and its effective repeal of the Missouri Compromise. At the time, Lincoln had thrown himself back into the political arena to oppose the act and political rival Stephen Douglas’ philosophy of popular sovereignty when it came to a state’s decision of whether or not it should permit slavery or not. Lincoln had retreated to his law practice after serving a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 7th Congressional District.

The Scott County Whigs invited Lincoln to Winchester to speak a meeting whose official business was for appointing delegates to the senatorial and representative convention. The Illinois Daily Journal of the time provided the only account of this first speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Lincoln calling it “a masterly effort” in which he opposed the act. Currently, a small rock monument and sign commemorates the location of the speech in the park.

McIntire says a marker on the square currently sits where Lincoln delivered the speech in the former Scott County Courthouse which used to be located on the square. The current courthouse, the county’s third in its history, was erected in 1885 to the northeast of the square.

McIntire hopes the statue will bring more tourism to Winchester: “I think it’s a great idea because, for one, it commemorates our ties with Lincoln and also to maybe draw attention from some of the folks who tour the state looking for Lincoln sites. It would help bring business into town and help our business community.”

McIntire says that since the Winchester Square is considered a part of the city’s TIF District, funds from the TIF fund that have been used to beautify the square will be used to purchase the life-sized statue: “One of the things that you have a TIF fund for is to improve business. This project would definitely be a big part of this. We have ample funds in there. What we’ve previously spent our TIF funds for has been to rehabilitate store fronts in the TIF district and we’ve also helped with repairing roofs in making sure these historic buildings remain intact.”

McIntire says that Anne Moseley of the University of Springfield’s Sangamon Experience was on hand for the October 5th meeting to talk about the significance of the statue and to possibly include it as one of the “Looking For Lincoln” sites.

McIntire says to receive a designation with the statue will further help spur business and interest in the Winchester Square.

McIntire hopes to have the bronze statue, with an expected cost of a little more than $6,500, unveiled in the Spring of 2023 with an official ceremony.

South Jacksonville Stiffed By AT&T Rep

The Village of South Jacksonville was stood up by a representative of AT&T this past Thursday at their monthly Committee of the Whole meeting.

A representative was scheduled to appear at the meeting and give a presentation on possible locations to stick a cellphone tower to deal with the village’s ongoing dead zone problems that also causes trouble for 9-1-1 emergency service calls.

The Village has been pursuing a location to place the tower for months. Village President Dick Samples says he doesn’t know why a small township should be pursuing a multi-billion dollar international business to provide better service to its customers: “I don’t know why we are so concerned. This is a huge company, and wherever they want to put this tower, they will put it. Our concern should be in the fact on where they choose to put it and if it’s legal to put it there. I’ve got the same problems as everybody as far as service – It sucks. It’s terrible. Why aren’t these guys doing something about it? I don’t know. You’re going to have to ask AT&T. [The representative’s phone number] is hung at Village Hall. Whenever you come in to pay your water bill, it says if you’ve got an AT&T problem, it says who to call. If they don’t want to fix it, I suggest getting another supplier.”

When asked about the recent superseding indictment of Michael Madigan and AT&T entering a deferred prosecution agreement with the federal government for a bribery scheme involving the former Illinois House Speaker, Samples says he’s not sure if that’s causing a hang up of movement on the village’s local problem: “It could be. I’m sure there is more involved in this than I’ll ever know or ever be involved in or with. But, yeah, it plays a part. I think they all got a little piece of the pie and were all getting subsidies from AT&T – I’m talking about all the state’s representatives – they all got money from them.”

Whether it’s having the bigger problem with the federal government or simply dragging their feet or not finding a suitable spot yet, Samples doesn’t know. He says if AT&T had a spot selected to put a tower that the company would likely have already started construction. He recommends village residents file a complaint for their poor service or simply switch carriers.

Morgan Commissioners Purchase Vehicles For Assessor’s Office, Elected Official Usage

The Morgan County Commissioners authorized the purchase of two new county vehicles this past week.

Two Ford Escapes were purchased for just under $56,000 from Westown Ford in Jacksonville at fleet pricing for the county.

Morgan County Commissioners Chair Brad Zeller says it will help out with one county office and the county’s elected officials’ travel on county business: “We have needed a vehicle for the Assessor’s Office for a long time. They have operated with the Sheriff’s leftover cars, and they just require maintenance all the time. We can’t keep that vehicle on the road, so we purchased one for their full-time use. Then, we purchased a second one also for the Assessor’s Office to use on a temporary, part-time use when they can get two crews out in the county to help expedite the reassessment process. Then, we will have the other vehicle to use for elected officials and employees to use when they have to travel to educational seminars and continuing education. This will be a really nice purchase for the county, and we were really pleased to purchase them locally.”

In other business, the board approved just over $2,500 to pay an engineer to begin the planning stages of upgrading the lighting and electricity in the main courtroom at courthouse. The money was allocated out of the county’s over $207,000 of monthly bills.

The board also approved the final fund transfers from last year’s budget on Monday. The most significant were for over $36,000 into the animal control budget. Zeller told the commissioners an additional revenue stream needs to be explored for Animal Control as fines and fees aren’t keeping up with operational costs. The other significant transfer was over $38,000 into the County Jail budget. Zeller says that utilities and operational costs increased significantly at the jail during the last fiscal year.

JSD 117 Puts Hold on Moving School Boundaries

Jacksonville School District 117 is going to put moving boundaries on hold.

In communication sent out district-wide yesterday afternoon, Superintendent Steve Ptacek says that after weighing data and thinking further about proposals to move more students into Washington Elementary and out of South Elementary’s boundaries, he wants the district to wait 2 years before any redrawing of boundaries takes place.

Ptacek had proposed moving approximately 40 students who reside in Rolling Acres trailer court out of South Elementary’s boundary and into Washington’s due to large class sizes and overcrowding at South.

He says that given Washington’s extreme age that it might have played a large factor in Washington losing 44 kids from its school over the last 5 years, and has been the cause of South and Eisenhower gaining over 30 students in the same time frame because of newer schools in those locations.

In the meantime, Ptacek says he may recommend to the School Board to require proof of residency for all K-5 students next year, not just for incoming kindergarten students. Ptacek says the proof of residency update will be discussed at the November school board meeting.

Jacksonville Woman Arrested For Two Counts of Elder Abuse

More information has been released about an arrest that occurred last week in reference to an elder abuse incident from early October.

Jacksonville Police were called to a residence in the 1100 block of King Street on Saturday, October 8^th at 9:45AM about an elderly person who had fallen and needed medical attention. The elderly female was transported by EMS to Jacksonville Memorial Hospital.

According to charging documents, 60 year old Annette R. Hipkins of that location has been charged with two counts of Criminal Neglect of an Elderly Person, a Class 3 felony, in connection to the October 8^th incident. The document alleges that Hipkins “knowingly failed to perform an act that she knew or should have known was necessary to maintain the life and health” of the victim and allegedly caused their life or health to be in danger by allowing the victim, who had fallen on the floor, to lay there for in excess of 8 hours, failing to call 9-1-1. For the second count, it alleges that Hipkins failed to keep the victim’s residence in a habitable condition.

Hipkins was arrested on October 19^th and booked into the Morgan County Jail and is currently held on $25,000 bond. Hipkins appeared in Morgan County Court on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty. Hipkins’ defense counsel, Public Defender Tom Piper, has filed a motion to modify Hipkins’ bond, which will be heard on November 15^th. A pre-trial conference has been set in the case for December 7^th.

South County Girls’ Cross Country Team Heading to Sectional After DQ Appeal

The South County girls’ cross country team will be going to the Sectional this Saturday after several days filled with heartache and controversy.

Two runners were disqualified on an individual basis this past Saturday at the Petersburg-PORTA Regional meet for allegedly running outside the bounds of the course. Pleasant Plains Senior Jaidynn Albers and South County freshman Madigan Burger were given the disqualification after allegedly running in front of a football goalpost on the course instead of running around it, a difference of less than 5 feet. Both runners were in the lead pack in the race.

According to Franklin Athletic Director Katie Slaughterback, who was not in attendance on Saturday in Petersburg, says there was no clear markings for runners during the girls’ race to follow to the finish line according to accounts given to her and pictures taken of the course at the meet: “The expectations of the host is to have white athletic markings to show the course and then, to have multi-colored flags approximately 6 feet above the ground, I’m not sure, signifying which way to turn or to go if it’s straight. There were no markings of that sort, but accounts did say there was an arrow on the ground as you exited out of the woods cutting through a gate to enter the track and football field [heading towards the finish line]. Apparently the arrow coming out the gate just pointed towards the field goal post, but did not indicate whether a runner was to turn to the right or to the left.”

Slaughterback says that the main official for the meet then made a change for the boys’ race that followed the girls’ race. She says that the official ensured that their race would not have any such confusion on where to turn at the goalpost: “The main IHSA official told his assistant to go down to that spot [where the disqualification occurred] and direct the boys so that the mistake didn’t happen again. We have a picture showing the official. He’s in a white polo with bright orange sleeves with one hand up in the air and the other hand pointing the boys in the correct direction. So, it was clearly different for the boys’ race than for the girls’ race.”

Parents and South County Cross Country Coach Jason Courier attempted an official appeal to the ruling, because Burger was the final participant on the South County team that made them a full squad. According to IHSA rules, it takes 5 runners to qualify as a team for Sectional competition.

With Burger’s completion of the race, South County would have qualified as a team for Sectionals. Pleasant Plains, due to the numbers on their team, were still able to qualify for Sectionals as a team despite Albers disqualification. Albers, in turn, will also get a chance to compete despite her Regional run being disqualified.

Courier told the Franklin School Board last night he was willing to take the appeal to the courts if it needed to go that far because he felt a great injustice was done to his team and the school. The school officials were set to have a meeting over Zoom with the IHSA Board of Directors at 1PM this afternoon in an attempt to appeal the disqualification and allow the runners to compete at Sectionals.

A little after 11AM today, IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson made the meeting moot by issuing the following statement in a letter to the school: “It is my determination that the markings on the course, along with the limited guidance offered to the runners during the race created a reasonable misinterpretation of the course path leading to the disqualification of the runner(s).”

The South County Girls’ Cross Country team will now be allowed to participate at the Elmwood Sectional on Saturday with no scoring changes amended to the Regional meet.

Bob Evans Recalls Italian Sausage Rolls Over Rubber Contamination

Bob Evans has recalled thousands of pounds of pork sausage across the U.S. due to possible rubber pieces found inside the meat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service made the announcement Friday, recalling more than 7,500 pounds of the Bob Evans Farms Food Inc. products.

The raw 1-pound Italian pork sausage products were made on September 8^th and might contain pieces of thin blue rubber pieces. The following items were subject to the recall:

1-lb. chubs containing “Bob Evans Italian Sausage” with lot code XEN3663466 and a “USE/FRZ BY” date of 11/26/22, with a time stamp between 14:43 and 15:25. The products subject to recall bear establishment number “EST. 6785” inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to retail locations nation-wide.

Health officials reported the issue was found after receiving consumer complaints reporting thin blue rubber in the meat. There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.

Consumers who have purchased this item are encouraged to either throw it away or return it to the place of purchase for a refund.

Papini Resigns As UIS Provost

The University of Illinois-Springfield is searching for an interim provost.

The State Journal Register reports that Dr. Dennis Papini has resigned according to an email sent out today by Chancellor Janet Gooch.

University of Illinois Springfield faculty members professed “no confidence” Papini in late April. Faculty members cited failure in leadership, including enrollment mismanagement, creating of a toxic campus climate, and alleged misallocation of university resources. Papini has been in the position of UIS’s provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs since July 2017.

Gooch says that she is working to secure an interim provost and once the appointment has been made, Papini will begin serving as a faculty member in the Department of Psychology in the College of Health, Science and Technology.