Time may come to an end in 2023 – the Pike County village of Time that is.

There are approximately two dozen people who live in the small hamlet in Pike County’s east Central region, just about a mile south of Pittsfield. The town was established in 1857 and has never housed more than 200 residents in its history.

Little is left of the town’s 19^th Century history that brought in a store, a flour mill, a blacksmith shop, and a school. The 1906 bandstand in Time’s Square was a popular tourist stop during the former Pike County Fall Color drives.

On November 8^th (Election Day), the remaining residents will decide if Time will remain an actual incorporated village with a village government or be dissolved.

If the village is dissolved by majority vote, it would be completed by January 2023.

Some concealed carry permit holders in Greene County may have invalid permits.

More than 200 concealed carry certificates issued last year through instructor Terry Lumma of Shipman were determined invalid after Lumma was charged with forgery and providing a false certification in June 2021. According to officials, the Illinois State Police’s Firearms Services Bureau received a complaint in December 2020 alleging Lumma was not teaching the concealed carry license classes according to state law. After a five-month investigation, the bureau’s investigators said they found evidence to support the allegation. All of the Lumma’s students were sent letters last year notifying them of their concealed carry status and received a 60-day grace period to complete the requirements for a new concealed carry license.

The Alton Telegraph reports that Jersey County Sheriff Mike Ringhausen says about 100 people in Jersey County and others in Greene received the letters notifying them of the issue. The issue is specifically with people receiving training after March 1, 2018.

To obtain a concealed carry license, a person must undergo 16 hours of training, including both classroom and range instruction, and pass a background check.

Crime Stoppers of Morgan, Scott & Cass Counties are requesting Information to assist the Jacksonville Police Department in their Investigation in a recent Burglary.

Last Wednesday, the Jacksonville Police received a report that a Storage Unit located in the 600 block of East Morton Avenue had been damaged and entered into and had items removed.

A Red 2009 Yamaha Grizzly ATV was removed from the storage unit.

Jacksonville Police are asking anyone with further information to submit a tip online by going to www.morganscottcrimestoppers.webs.com and clicking the leave a tip button on the home page or calling Crime Stoppers at 217-243-7300.

Tips may also be submitted by texting 274637 (CRIMES). The first word of the text tip must be “payout.”

If your tip leads to an arrest, you are eligible for a cash reward.

The City of Jacksonville announced earlier this week they’ve issued a peddler permit to an alternative electric supply retailer.

The permit for Clae Solutions Corporation started on Wednesday and will run through Saturday at 8PM. Representatives will be doing door to door solicitation from 9AM to 8PM each day and may ask homeowners to provide utility bill information and make an offer for homeowners to sign up for an alternative supplier for their electricity.

City Clerk Skip Bradshaw wants to make one point very clear to Jacksonville residents: “I’m not sure exactly what these people do, but I do want to inform the public that they do not represent the City of Jacksonville, nor do they represent Ameren, nor do they represent [the city’s] electric supplier currently, which is Homefield Energy. We are in the process of a new aggregation program, to extend the program. There’s more to come on that at a later date. My initial response to the public and information to the public is that [Clae Soultions] does not represent those three parties.”

Bradshaw recommends that people not give any information to representatives of Clae at all. Bradshaw says the city cannot prevent a company like Clae doing solicitation, but he says that the company has been warned that if there are any complaints brought to the attention of city hall that their permit may get pulled.

If you have any questions about the permit or wish to file a complaint, you may call the Jacksonville City Clerk’s Office at 217-479-4613.

One of West Central Illinois’ most popular restaurants reopened over this past Saturday after being closed for nearly 3 years.

The Barefoot Restaurant in Hardin, now located at 106 South Water Street, held a massive reopening starting on Saturday. The restaurant has been shut down since the summer of 2019 flooded its former location. Anticipation of the reopening for the restaurant had grown over the last several months after delays in equipment delivery had slowed down the reopening process.

Now under new ownership, the reopening saw over 1,000 people through the doors on Sunday, according to the Calhoun News Herald.

Operating hours are 11AM to 9PM Tuesdays through Sundays. It now features outdoor patio seating but all of the original Barefoot recipes.

For further information on the menu and more, visit the Barefoot Restaurant on Facebook or call 618-576-9002.

A Carrollton man will be serving local jail time for the next three months after being found guilty in Greene County Court back in June for a 2020 sexual assault of a minor.

23 year old Tanner L. Schofield of Carrollton was found guilty by a jury of a single count of predatory criminal sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 13, a Class 2 felony, on June 25th in Greene County Circuit Court.

Schofield was originally charged with a Class X Felony Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault of a victim under the age of 13 after being arrested in September 2020. According to charging documents, Schofield was alleged to improperly touched a minor victim family member for sexual gratification on or about August 13, 2020 at a Carrollton residence.

Schofield’s conviction came after 3 days of testimony and the charge being amended in court. The case was tried by Special Apellate Prosecutor Lorinda Lamken of Springfield for the state.

The original class X felony charge is a non-probationable offense that carries a 6-60 year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections. The amended class 2 felony carries a 3-7 year sentencing range to IDOC, but is probationable by the court’s discretion.

Prior to sentencing on September 30th, two victim impact statements were given in court according to the Greene Prairie Press – one by the victim’s mother and the other by the victim. The victim told the court that they are currently on medication for psychological effects stemming from the incident that has caused them severe pain and personal trauma.

After a brief recess, visiting Jersey County Circuit Judge Allison Lorton sentenced Schofield to 90 days in the Greene County Jail, 3 years of adult probation, and ordered him to pay a $1,500 fine plus fees and court costs. Schofield was also given a restitution order to pay for co-pays to the victim’s family for the victim’s continued mental health starting with the current year. The amounts will later be set by the court. Schofield is also being ordered to undergo sex offender treatment and any other recommended mental health counseling and treatment as ordered by doctors.

Schofield asked for a stay on his jail sentence to October 19th to attend a family gathering and also submitted motions for acquittal and a request for a new trial. All three requests were denied by Judge Lorton and Schofield was remanded to the custody of the Greene County Sheriff to begin serving his local jail sentence.

The Pike County Board is holding a budget hearing this evening to continue working on getting an audit.

Pike County was placed on the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s Do Not Pay List last week after Pike County continues to have issues with getting budget numbers corrected so an audit can take place.

WGEM reports that Pike County Clerk Natalie Roseberry says that the county board alerted auditors more than a year ago that the county needed help transitioning from their former payroll system, CIC to Paycom. Roseberry says the transfer of information required entering many years of data manually into the new payroll system.

Roseberry says many errors in the payroll system from the previous CIC system resulted in some employees not having correct Payed Time Off and overtime among other data. Roseberry says it’s because the county has never conducted a full blown payroll audit.

Roseberry told WGEM that the county paid accounting firm WIPFLI, $20,000 to help facilitate the transition back in January. In June, the firm alerted the Pike County Board that only one payroll out of 12 had been completed in the new system and they needed to teach the new system to the county to proceed forward. Roseberry said WIPFLI told them they could not complete the work due to staffing shortages stemming from COVID-19 and they underestimated the amount of work needed to transfer the old data over into the new payroll system would take. Roseberry said to resolve the lack of all the data being in the new system, WIPFLI attempted to train the county to proceed. However, Roseberry said the training was insufficient and numbers for a new budget continue to remain way off.

WIPFLI informed Pike County last Thursday that they were backing out of their 3-year contract with the county. WGEM says that WIPFLI has refused comment.

Pike County must now find new auditors for 2022 to get removed from the Do Not Pay list. Roseberry says that the Illinois Comptroller’s Office says that 18 other counties in the state are also facing similar issues.

The budget hearing will take place at 7 p.m. this evening in the upper courtroom of the Pike County courthouse in Pittsfield.

An 18 year old Kane man has been charged for causing the death of a man in a car vs. motorcycle crash back in late February.

The Greene County State’s Attorney’s Office filed 3 charges of aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol resulting in the death of an individual on September 22^nd against 18 year old Caydn J.R. Chapman.

According to Illinois State Police reports at the time of the crash, Chapman was the driver of a 2008 black Dodge Charger that was traveling westbound on Kane Road and while approaching U.S. 67 stopped at the sign briefly before proceeding through the intersection on February 28^th. At the same time, a 1976 bronze Harley Davidson motorcycle driven by 53 year old Winfried Tasker of Jerseyville was traveling southbound on U.S.67.

Tasker’s motorcycle collided with the rear end of the Dodge Charger ejecting Tasker from the motorcycle at the intersection. Tasker was later flown from the scene by AirEvac with life threatening injuries. Tasker would die as a result from his injuries on March 8^th at an area hospital.

Chapman was cited initially for failure to yield at an intersection, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, disobeying a stop sign, and failure to wear a safety belt.

According to the September 22^nd charging documents, Chapman had a blood alcohol level and THC level above the legal limits at the time of the crash creating the aggravating factor in the charges.

Chapman is next due in Greene County Court on the charges on October 24^th.