Greene County citizens have lobbied the Greene County Board to place a landmark at the site of the Greene County Almshouse’s cemetery.

The Almshouse was destroyed by an arsonist’s fire in mid-August. Approximately one quarter mile from the building is a small cemetery where many former residents of the almshouse were buried. There are no names or headstones marking the graves.

According to records gathered in 2003, the cemetery has approximately 40-50 people buried in it. The group of citizens brought it to the Greene County Board on October 10^th with final approval at their regular business meeting on October 12^th.

According to a report from the Greene Prairie Press, Shields-Bishop Funeral Home was contacted and paid $3,800 for a three-foot by four-foot stone with 31 names to be engraved on it. The marker will be placed on the Almshouse property where the cemetery is located.

The Board agreed to pay for the stone out of the county’s farm fund. The farm fund generates revenue from the 250 acres that surround the Almshouse grounds and the county rents out.

No timeline has been given on erection of the monument. The remains of the Almshouse building are expected to be demolished some time this winter.

The Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau has given away a little over $10,000 to local fire departments.

The local farm bureau distributed $10,030 to the Beardstown, Chandlerville, Waverly, and Woodson volunteer fire departments for the purchase of various pieces of first responder equipment as a part of their 2^nd annual Agriculture and Rural Fire Protection Grant program.

CMFB Vice President Doug Coop said in a press release that the grant program was created to help local fire departments respond to rural and farm emergencies. Coop says that the farm bureau learned through the application process just how much financial assistance local fire departments need in purchasing and maintaining equipment.

Coop says that if any community member would like to personally donate funds to help local fire departments to purchase equipment, to contact the Farm Bureau Office at 217-245-6833 or visit the office at 1152 Tendick Street in Jacksonville.

The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Illinois Department of Human Services have notified the public of an incident within the State of Illinois’ Application for Benefits Eligibility (ABE) system’s Provider Portal.

The ABE system is the eligibility system for State-funded medical benefits programs (Medicaid), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The Provider Portal within ABE enables Medicaid providers to submit benefit applications for individuals online, with their consent. On August 22^nd, the state says they discovered an issue embedded within ABE’s Provider Portal. Upon investigation, the Departments discovered that individuals who applied to become Provider Portal users potentially could see certain customer applications, before they were approved users, if they clicked on certain buttons in a specific order that was different from the displayed instructions while logged into their account. This means that benefit applications that were submitted through the Provider Portal prior to August 23^rd could have been accessed by users who went to the Provider Portal and went through the provider application process.

To date, the State of Illinois says they do not know of any actual or attempted misuse of anyone’s personal information as a result of this incident, and they say information indicates the risk of access or misuse is low. The Departments do not have a basis to think many people were adversely impacted. In response, the state shut down the ABE systems for repair and reopened it on September 29^th.

The Departments notified the potentially affected individuals, the members of the Illinois General Assembly and the Office of the Illinois Attorney General on Friday of the incident.

The Departments are providing one year of credit monitoring and a dedicated phone line to provide assistance and further information about this incident. Individuals with a question about this incident can call 1-844-700-0330. The assistance line is available until January 23^rd. Potentially affected individuals can also contact consumer reporting agencies to place a free fraud alert or security freeze on their accounts, or the Federal Trade Commission to learn more about fraud alerts, credit freezes, or other identity theft resources.

Jacksonville Main Street has received a major award from the State of Illinois.

Main Street was been awarded The Lieutenant Governor Award for Excellence in Downtown Revitalization in the Organization Category, recognizing work to host the 2021 Illinois Main Street State Conference.

The Lieutenant Governor Award for Excellence in Revitalization is one of the most notable awards for Illinois Main Street communities to achieve for their work in bringing economic development in their community.

Joining Jacksonville Main Street was Action Brown County, who received a Lt. Governor Award for Economic Vitality in revitalization and relocation of its annual events.

In a press release, Jacksonville Main Street Executive Director Judy Tighe thanked Jacksonville Main Street’s dedicated team of volunteers that serve the community.

The awards were officially announced in a ceremony on Wednesday at the Illinois Main Street Conference in Bloomington.

The Village of South Jacksonville is looking at amending it’s gaming license ordinance.

Currently, the village has two open gaming and liquor licenses for taverns and the village has no taverns, with ET’s Zodiac closing more than 3 years ago.

The Village Board of Trustees wants to do away with the tavern license designation completely and move one empty license for a new space in Colony South located in the 1400 block of South Main Street, owned by The Freiburg Family out of Quincy.

The new location will be known as The Lucky Clover. Village President Dick Samples says he doesn’t see any problems adding another gaming location in the village: “We’ve had none whatsoever. Like Police Chief Eric Hansell discussed during our meeting, there is no police problems with them. There is no issues within the village. There is no problems with people coming in and saying, ‘We don’t want another gambling facility.’ Nobody has said anything. It was advertised in the newspaper, and nobody has come forward saying they don’t want another gambling facility here in South Jacksonville.”

According to numbers presented by Maxamillions President Tanner Freiburg at the village’s committee of the whole meeting on Thursday night, the current Max-A-Millions location in Colony South generates approximately one-quarter of the village’s over-$15,000 in monthly tax revenue from their gambling machines. Freiburg predicted that the second location across the plaza may bring in similar numbers.

The village board of trustees are expected to vote on the change to the gaming and liquor license ordinance at their November business meeting.

Two men were arrested in Jacksonville yesterday afternoon after a physical altercation involving a machete.

Jacksonville Police were called to the intersection of Hockenhull and Cox Streets at 5:26 yesterday evening in reference to a physical disturbance involving a machete between two individuals.

After a lengthy investigation, police detained two male subjects after they got into a physical disturbance after a verbal argument – 32 year old Paul D. Grey of Murrayville and 35 year old Tyshawn G. Barnes of the 700 block of East Douglas Avenue.

According to police reports, Grey allegedly struck Barnes in the head with the machete and Barnes struck Grey with the machete during a fight. Grey was later transported to Jacksonville Memorial Hospital for treatment for non-life threatening injuries. Grey and Barnes are currently lodged at the Morgan County Jail.

Grey has not officially been booked into the Morgan County Jail, but Jacksonville Police say he has been cited for aggravated battery.

Barnes has been cited for aggravated battery and was also cited on a Lee County failure to appear warrant for aggravated battery to a peace officer. Barnes is currently being held on bond.

The Village of South Jacksonville wasn’t just dealing with a broken phone system at Village Hall this week. Village President Dick Samples revealed Thursday night during the village board’s monthly committee of the whole meeting that South Jacksonville water customers are currently on the City of Jacksonville’s water system.

Streets & Utility Superintendent Brian English notified the board of trustees of a list of problems at the village’s water plant located in Oxville in rural Scott County. Broken generators, inoperable 5-ton dump trucks that failed state inspection, lagoons in disrepair, vegetation growing through water pipes, multiple broken valves and chemical pumps were just some of the things described by English to the board, which were also supported by copies of photographs that were circulated among the trustees. English says that the reason why the village is on the city water is because the main water pump that sends potable water from the water plant to the village is broken. English informed the board that the water pump would be removed with a crane on Friday morning to be repaired to get the village’s water back online as soon as possible. No timeline on when that would occur was given.

English also says that a building down at the water plant that was being renovated is currently incomplete: “So Clint Stevens was the one doing the work, and from what I’ve gathered on everything, we’ve paid him…and it’s not done. We have no fascia. The fascia is not done. There is no guttering. None of the back side fascia boards are up. None of the soffit.” English confirmed to the board that per the contract, the work was supposed to already be completed.

Stevens pleaded guilty to a single count of home repair fraud in Morgan County Circuit Court in May. Stevens currently has other pending civil litigation for violation of construction contracts with several other private parties in the county.

Village President Dick Samples went on to criticize prior Streets & Utilities Superintendent John Green for not keeping up with maintenance on items at the water plant: “At the water plant, I hired Bryce McCormick as the [part-time] water superintendent to replace John, and he’s interim until Brian can get his license. We had to pay John $1,000 a month to sign off on the water. Bryce has sent a list of repairs and improvements. All of these repairs and improvements are down at the water plant at Oxville. That act right there is more than John has ever done forever on it. This water plant, in my opinion, has been held together with bubblegum, bailing wire, and paper clips with nothing being spent on it forever. That’s one reason John was able to keep his budget X-amount of dollars because he never spent on anything.”

McCormick is currently the wastewater operator for the nearby Village of Chapin. McCormick is also a volunteer firefighter for the Village of Chapin.

English told the village board while going through the pictures with the board of trustees that the problems were an accumulation of 20 years of deferring regular maintenance.

Samples said after the meeting that all of the necessary repairs and improvements are going to increase the utilities budget for the current fiscal year so that the water plant can get back in operation and functioning correctly: “It’s been about 20 years since the water plant was built. I don’t know when the last time the lagoon was cleaned, but it needed to be cleaned on a regular basis and it wasn’t. We hired Bryce McCormick and he went down there and he pointed out things that needed to be labeled, gaskets that needed to be changed, maintenance items that needed to be done, and that’s what [the utility department] is in the process of doing.”

When asked about a dollar amount on the problems that are currently being fixed, Samples says the costs aren’t extremely sizable: “I don’t have an exact amount. I don’t have any idea on what it’s going to cost. It’s nothing super. It’s nothing…$100,000 or anything like this. It’s just probably $20,000-$30,000 worth. I’m guessing, but I think it will be in that ballpark.”

Samples believes that village employees will have to complete the work on the water plant building. He says that he is possibly going to discuss the Stevens construction contract with Village Attorney Rob Cross before any further action is taken. Samples says he is going to investigate the current contract and how much Stevens has received in payment.

Samples does not believe that increasing the utility department’s budget to ensure the annual maintenance on things are done is going to change the village’s tax levy in the near term.

In a phone conversation between WLDS News with former Utility Superintendent John Green, Green says he doesn’t want to get down into the muck of name calling or accusations. He says he believes he did the best job he could do and that current and former employees of the village’s utility department can attest to the job he did as the department’s head and that he had no further comments.

Green resigned with the Village of South Jacksonville after 25 1/2 years to take a job to help maintain the City of Jacksonville’s Municipal Building grounds in June.