A Roodhouse Floral business that’s been in the county for nearly a half century has changed hands.

Price’s Country Gardens officially became StemTation’s Florals & Gifts on July 1^st. The Greene Prairie Press reports that Samantha Milnes of Manchester officially took over the reins of the business from long-time owners James & Kay Price.

The Prices decided to enter into semi-retirement at the end of June. Milnes will operate the flower shop while the Prices will still sell garden plants and operate the nursery from April through June and make wreaths during the holiday season, according to the Journal Courier.

The Prices established Price’s Country Garden in 1974, when they bought the century-old building from its previous owners, a pair of North Greene teachers. James Price had worked inside the building since 1968.

Milnes, who has been helping at the store for the past six months, says that hours of operation will remain the same: Monday-Friday 9AM to 5PM, and Saturdays 9AM-Noon. For more information, visit the shop online at stemtationsfg.com or call 217-589-5113.

Information has been released about an arrest in Morgan County from yesterday evening involving the U.S. Marshals.

U.S. Marshals of the Central District of Illinois booked 24 year old Joshua D. Lowe of Springfield into the Morgan County Jail at 6:23PM on Cass County charges of home invasion, mob action, conspiracy, and battery.

According to the Cass County State’s Attorney’s Office, Lowe was involved in a home invasion incident in Beardstown on July 5^th where Lowe, 22 year old Jordan M. Horrer of Beardstown, and 39 year old John J. Hennings of Beardstown entered a residence with the homeowner present.

Hennings and Horrer were out on mandatory supervised release at the time of the incident, and have since been returned to the Illinois Department of Corrections after an arrest on parole violations.

Cass County State’s Attorney Craig Miller says the charges against Lowe are new and he is currently awaiting a first appearance in court. Miller says investigation and details about the July 5^th incident are pending as the investigation remains open and ongoing.

Lowe remains held at the Morgan County Jail without bond.

The Jacksonville Area Museum opened its J. Capps & Sons Ltd. exhibit to members of the museum last night before its official opening to the public this weekend.

Museum Manager McKenna Servis noted a large turnout of membership to the opening last night. The crowd held former employees of Capps, Capps’ Family descendant Ellen Miller, members of the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce, among others.

Servis says the large display had approximately 100 artifacts to curate that included blankets, sewing equipment, clothing, fabric, and several pieces of promotional material and advertisements

Servis says between 50-60 hours were spent each wekk over the last month were put in by members of the museum team, including m

useum member Laura Marks who oversaw most of the project. Servis says the hardest part of putting together the exhibit was finding early history of the Capps Family and the factory in Jacksonville: “Finding out the true history of the Indian blankets that Capps made was really the nitty-gritty research that took place for this exhibit is what is usually associated with museums. With all of the Capps employees and the Capps family members that are still here around Jacksonville, Capps history is still very much alive and changing. There was not a lot of research. It was mostly the gathering oral history and things like that, which went into the exhibit.”

Servis says its her biggest joy and biggest challenge with the museum’s management is finding out true information about hard-to-find history in the local area.

The Capps Clothing Company exhibit officially opens to the public on Saturday at 10AM. A $5 donation for adults who visit the library is suggested.

The consolidation of Bluffs and Winchester School District has hit a snag again.

The Bluffs School Board declined to form the Committee of 10, which would have been the next step in consolidation of the two districts. The committee would have been responsible for overseeing the process of consolidation, including establishing a property tax rate for a new district that would be placed on the ballot for voters to decide, and determining what the district’s assets like buildings would be used, among other responsibilities. A previous attempt to form the Committee of 10 failed last June.

Input sessions for the community also were sparsely attended last Spring.

Superintendent of both districts Kevin Blankenship told the Journal Courier that the Bluffs School Board isn’t wanting to continue to looking at consolidation. Both districts currently face questions on renovating heavily aged school buildings and declining school populations.

The Journal Courier reports that a most recent survey in both school districts found that both communities favor consolidation. A feasibility study conducted last year by Midwest School Consultants also favored consolidation. Talks about consolidating the two districts have stopped and started multiple times since the 1990s. The last attempt to consolidate the schools failed in 2008.

The Illinois Veterans’ Home in Quincy is experiencing an increase in Covid-19 cases among veterans and staff.

The Illinois Department of Public Health labs were able to confirm 16 residents and 10 staff positive for the virus recently.

Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs Director Terry Prince says thankfully none of the cases have resulted in anyone at the facility becoming extremely ill: “The good news is that in almost every case the residents have a mild sinus infection and some sore throats. Four residents were ultimately put in the hospital. Three have since returned, and one remains and that’s with non-Covid related symptoms. We do know that the vaccinations have had a major impact on the health and well-being of our residents. Our staff continue to wear PPE including N-95 masks and shields, and eye wear. Unfortunately, that isn’t necessarily the case in the regular community.”

Adams County is currently listed by IDPH to be at a high level of transmission for Covid-19.

IDVA reports that all positive residents at the Veterans’ Home have received at least 2 doses of the vaccine, and the majority have also had their booster shots. Prince says the Quincy home has been working with IDPH to enact protocols such as daily health screenings and limiting activities in affected areas.

IDVA officials say that visitors are still allowed, but families have been notified about the outbreak and have been asked to consider rescheduling current visits for the time being.

A Carlinville man has pleaded guilty to first degree murder in a 2021 stabbing in Virden

21 year old Dalton M.K. Obermark of Carlinville pled guilty yesterday to first degree murder in the February 1, 2021 stabbing death of 58 year old John W. Rennie at his home in Virden.

The Virden Police Department received a request for a well-being check at Rennie’s residence in the 700 block of North Dye Street just before midnight on February 1, 2021. Upon arrival, Virden Police officers found the garage door open and made entry into the residence where Rennie’s body was discovered with visible trauma, according to information reported by the Illinois State Police at the time.

ISP Zone 6 investigators later determined that at an undetermined time Obermark met Rennie at his residence and attacked him, stabbing him multiple times in the head, neck, and torso. According to a press release by Macoupin County State’s Attorney Jordan Garrison, Obermark took Rennie’s vehicle in an attempt to escape to the State of Florida. Obermark ran out of gas in the State of Tennessee and was taken into custody by local police at that location. Obermark was extradited back to Illinois and has been held at the Macoupin County Jail to await trial ever since.

Charges of possession of a stolen vehicle, aggravated battery through use of a deadly weapon, carrying a weapon and/or tool into a penal institution, a second charge of murder, and obstruction of justice were dismissed per the plea yesterday.

Illinois Route 267 between Rockbridge and Kemper on the Greene-Jersey County Line was shut down yesterday due to a stand off.

WBGZ in Alton reports that a portion of Route 267 through Medora was closed for several hours after authorities were attempting to determine if a man was armed and holding hostages in a home sitting along the highway. Traffic was re-routed for much of the afternoon while authorities from multiple agencies worked to defuse the situation. Helicopters were called in to keep an eye on the situation.

The incident was resolved peacefully with a woman and several children able to leave the home in the 31,500 block of State Highway 67.

The suspect, 33 year old Joshua J. Hearn of Medora, eventually came out of the home and was arrested without incident. Hearn has been cited for felony intimidation. No charges with the Jersey County State’s Attorney’s Office have been filed yet according to online court records.

Jersey County Sheriff Mike Ringhausen thanked the following agencies for their help: the Illinois State Police District 18 office, the Madison County Sheriff’s Department, ILEAS, Medora Fire Department, and the Jersey County Ambulance Service.

Hearn remains lodged at the Jersey County Jail pending a first appearance in court.

The Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines visited the Morgan County Commissioners Monday morning asking them to put in place a zoning ordinance specifically dealing with carbon dioxide sequestration pipelines.

Lan & Pam Richart of the coalition say that the group is comprised of various people on opposing sides of the climate change debate but have found the common ground that CO2 pipelines cause various problems.

Lan Richart says that the Carbon Capture technology allows the nation’s biggest polluters to continue their operations with public money.

“Part of the problem is that the technology is not advanced enough so that we are really going to be efficiently doing that, certainly not on an industrial scale. Secondly, our opposition to the pipeline network that is proposed nationwide, by the way, is that it’s being implemented by the very folks who are originally causing much of the problem, and that’s the fossil fuel industry.

The subsidies that are funding this build-up, the infrastructure, these projects, and fast-tracking them, are actually going into the oil and gas industry folks who know pipelines.

And we see the problem environmentally that carbon capture and storage, although in a concept it may work, and may be applicable at some point in the future. In the short term, it is in our opinion a way to perpetuate the oil and gas industry.”

Lan Richart says that much of the CO2 that is sequestered is used to enhance oil recovery from the ground instead of reducing the need for it. Pam Richart says that safety is one of the largest concerns for the pipeline, as the science for this type of pipeline has not been perfected.

“At this particular time, the technology isn’t really there to ensure it can be done safely. This is thirteen hundred miles, there’s only five thousand miles of pipeline in the entire country. Most of those are in short segments, they go from point A. to point B. Navigator has about thirty-two point sources that they are bringing in online trying to maintain the pressure, trying to make sure there’s no moisture in the pipe. When moisture gets in the pipeline it corrodes it and it erupts. So I’m not sure we’re ready for this yet.”

Pam Richart cites a CO2 pipeline rupture in February 2020 that evacuated the town of Satartia, Mississippi, and sent 49 people to the hospital as a reason for caution.

Alec Messina, who is an environmental attorney based in Springfield, was also in attendance at the Commissioner’s meeting Monday morning. Messina works with Navigator CO2 ventures and says he believes the concerns about the length of the pipeline as well as some of the other concerns raised by the coalition are overstated.

“These issues with regard to length and width and emergency response and needing to have certain setback sizes so that way there is no impact to residents, those are all things that are taken into account during the design of the project. And again, I appreciate the fact that they are raising important questions, but I think the point is all of those questions really are readily answerable.”

The Heartland Greenway is proposed to run just north of Chapin in northern Morgan County and will cut across the county, eventually making its way to the Taylorville area to a sequestration site. The Richarts say a comprehensive zoning ordinance would go a long way to protect the citizens of the county and hold Navigator, the owner of the project, accountable for land use and any problems that could occur.

The Richarts say anyone wishing to join in the fight against the pipeline can visit the coalition’s website noillinoisco2pipelines.org or call them at 217-607-1948.

Jeremy Coumbes assisted with this story.