A Franklin teen who recently won a state competition for reading poetry is now winning a state competition for writing his own.
Franklin High School Junior Thaddeus Bergschneider recently took 2nd Place in the inaugural Illinois POETRY OURSELVES contest for his work “Arm the Children.” Bergschneider wrote and submitted his own work and was one of 17 other high school students invited to compete in the competition. Entries came from students who had been named Illinois finalists in a national competition for reciting classic and contemporary poems, Poetry Out Loud.
The Illinois Arts Council Agency sponsored and oversaw POETRY OURSELVES. The competition was based on an anonymous format where creations were read with no names or schools were identified on the work.
Winners will receive specially-designed trophies. All POETRY OURSELVES participants received a writing journal.
Jacksonville Police arrested a juvenile last night in connection to a shots fired incident.
Police were called to the 1100 block of North Clay Avenue around 9:21PM after a report of 6-7 gunshots being fired in the area.
Upon arrival, the suspect had left the scene and police discovered that several gunshots had been discharged into a vehicle during a disturbance.
At 11:11PM, police later located the suspect, a 16 year old male juvenile in the 300 block of East Walnut Street and was arrested for aggravated discharge of a firearm.
The current status of the juvenile is unknown. No injuries were noted in the police reports. According to Jacksonville Police, investigation into the incident remains ongoing.
The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department in tandem with the Greene County Sheriff’s Department executed two court-authorized search warrants yesterday at an apartment building in Hardin.
The search warrants were executed at 9:55AM yesterday at an apartment building located in the 300 block of South County Road in Hardin.
Subsequent to an investigation, three individuals were arrested:
32 year old Joshua A. Foster of Hardin was arrested for possession of methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Foster also has outstanding traffic warrants in Jersey County.
34 year old Carrie L. McAdams of Hardin was arrested for possession of methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance, and unlawful possession of hypodermic syringes.
52 year old William P. Conway of Hardin was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. Conway also has several outstanding charges in Greene County that include possession of methamphetamine, burglary, theft, and various traffic offenses.
All three subjects are currently being lodged at the Jersey County Jail pending a first appearance in court. The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office says the investigation is ongoing, with further arrests pending.
Greene County residents are being asked to weigh in on a survey about their Internet connectivity.
The Greene County Economic Development Group in partnership with a newly formed committee of community partners known as Better Internet for Greene County is working to bring more broadband accessibility and better Internet connectivity to the entire county.
Carrollton City Treasurer Diane Hendricks says a U Connect Illinois grant application for the City of Carrollton to do a study to bring broadband just to Carrollton quickly expanded the effort to bring broadband to the entire county: “According to mapping, the FCC considers Carrollton as having adequate Internet service. There is more funding out there to get broadband, so there is more funding we can apply for to help with infrastructure. Our consultant was telling us that we were not going to have a good chance for getting funding just for the City of Carrollton and that we should consider making it a county-wide effort. Greene County Economic Development stepped up and they paid the portion of the consulting fees to cover the cost above what the City of Carrollton had already paid to make this effort county-wide.”
Citizens from the entire county are being asked to do 2 things with the survey. The first is to perform a speed test with their Internet browser at home. The speed test will place a dot on a map for consultants to see the speed at that location. The second is a survey with questions. Hendricks says that addresses are not being sold to third parties and once the speed test is performed, mailing addresses are wiped out and are simply a dot on a map with an upload/download speed for Internet at that location.
Hendricks says the group would at least like to get 10% of the county to answer the survey before the close of the survey on April 14th to get a good picture of Internet speeds in the county: “Once we get all the speeds compiled, the consultant that we’ve hired will complete what’s called a rapid design study produced. Then, we can take that study and show it to Internet Service Providers like Frontier, Metro Link, Spark Life, and the different providers in the county. We can say to them that ‘You say you provide this much service in this area, but this is what people are actually getting. This is their actual upload and download speeds.’ Then, we can ask them what they can do to get us better service in these areas.”
Hendricks wants people to know that the ads in the local paper and online are not scams, but are simply attempting to solicit people to complete the surveys. She says it’s especially important for the more rural parts of the county who are under-served by connectivity to complete the survey.
You can find the survey and speed test at gcedg.com.
Two plans for coffee shops in Jacksonville moved forward last night.
The Jacksonville Plans Commission approved petitions for rezoning for the Perk Coffee location at 404 & 408 West Morton Avenue. Shan Clevenger of Niemann Holdings, LLC says its the first time the company is trying the drive-thru drink shop concept.
Jacksonville Development Director Brian Nyberg said during the meeting that no new curb cut would be needed, as the business would be using the existing drive from the old Jacksonville Super Wash location that is currently being torn down.
The second proposal for 1207 & 1209 West Morton Avenue located between Auto Zone and CNB Bank & Trust was also approved for rezone request for the 7 Brew/Take 5 coffee shop-oil change hybrid. Nyberg says the location is set to be sold outright to a development group from Fort Worth, Texas to build the hybrid concept at the location. There are some plat changes and another of other logistical items that will have to take place before construction begins.
Nyberg says though that traffic studies have been done at both locations and they should not disrupt the flow onto Morton Avenue: “Actually with the drawings that I’ve received from the Perk people, it has the stacking order on it [for the drive thru], so the Perk drive thru will have a drive off South Kosciusko Street and one drive off of West Morton Avenue. The other coffee shop, access for it will be through the stop light next to CNB Bank & Trust and on the hill, so that is through the parking lot off of Lincoln Avenue.”
Both plans will now go before the Jacksonville city council for a first reading of the requests next week.
A Pike County man was killed in a logging accident in southern Greene County last week.
The Greene Prairie Press reports that an emergency dispatch was received by the Greene County Sheriff’s Office at approximately 6:30 in the evening on Monday, March 28th of a man that had been struck by a tree.
Greene County Sheriff Rob McMillen told the Prairie Press that it was reported that a man involved in a logging operation south of Carrollton off of U.S. 67 had been doing some tree cutting work for a landowner near what used to be the Old Amish Shoppe.
McMillen says during the course of the logging operation that a tree ultimately fell on 51 year old Lyndle E. Labby, Jr. of Pittsfield causing traumatic injuries leading to his death.
No further information about the incident has been released. Services were held for Labby on Wednesday near Pearl.
Illinois College has completed the installation of a new, state-of-the-art medical simulation lab for its clinical nursing program.
According to a press release, the U.S. Economic Development Administration CARES grant provided over $237,000 to purchase innovative equipment and life-like simulators which are used in pre-clinical coursework to provide nursing students with hands-on experience providing patient care, assisting with births, administering injections and more.
18th District Congressman Darin LaHood announced Illinois College was a recipient of the grant last year to help address the national nursing shortage.
The College’s partners for the project include Lincoln Land Community College, Memorial Health System, Jacksonville Memorial Hospital, Illini Community Hospital in Pittsfield, the Two Rivers Economic Development District, and the Jacksonville Regional Economic Development Corporation.
n addition to the education of registered nurses through Illinois College’s bachelor of science in nursing program, the grant will support the training of certified nursing assistants through a partnership between the College and Lincoln Land Community College.
Illinois College says it is encouraging its nursing students to pursue CNA certification at LLCC after their first year so they can gain valuable real-world experience at local healthcare facilities. Beyond technical training, the relationship will give RN and CNA students and faculty the opportunity to work together, fostering greater collaboration and understanding of all levels of the nursing profession.
To learn more about nursing at Illinois College, visit ic.edu/nursing.
Groups are set to gather in Quincy on Thursday to protest an Adams County Judge’s ruling in a sexual assault case.
The Stand with Cammy movement is hosting a peaceful protest of Judge Robert Adrian’s reversal of Drew Clinton’s sexual assault conviction. Scheduled to attend the protest are Carrie Ward, chief executive officer of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault; Megan Duesterhaus, executive director of the Quincy Area Network Against Domestic Abuse (QUANADA); and Cameron Vaughan, the name sake of the movement and Clinton’s victim in the case, along with her father Scott Vaughan.
Duesterhaus says that the Stand with Cammy group is an off-shoot of Quanada: “The Stand with Cammy group – we have a steering committee. On the steering committee, I have my board president, myself, and my executive advocate actually sit on that committee. The rest of the committee is just grassroots community volunteers who really wanted to come forward and do more. They want to take action and be the driving push to keep momentum going so that we don’t just become complacent and allow the situation to fade away and prevent it from happening again because we didn’t do enough the first time.”
After finding the 18-year-old Clinton guilty of one count of criminal sexual assault during a bench trial on October 15th, Adrian reversed his decision at Clinton’s sentencing hearing on January 3rd and declared him not guilty. Adrian said the 148 days Clinton served in the Adams County Jail was “plenty of punishment” and released him from custody. Adrian also went on to blame parents for allowing alcohol to be served the night of the incident, and according to Adrian, allow teenagers present the night of the incident to run around in their underwear. Adrian’s comments from the bench drew international scrutiny from sexual assault victim advocates and victim organizations. Several groups characterized Adrian’s comments as victim shaming and victim blaming. Other groups said it was a prime example of why sexual assault and abuse never come forward to law enforcement.
Duesterhaus says the protest tomorrow will be highly organized and visible to the community: “At 11:30AM, we will be meeting at the John Wood statue in Washington Park here in Quincy. We have a march route mapped out that I believe will take us by some municipal buildings, the Adams County Courthouse, and it will be very organized, and a very peaceful protest, we anticipate with law enforcement present to ensure everybody’s safety, etc.”
Despite the ruling, the grassroots organization is pressing forward for a possible different avenue to have Adrian’s original guilty verdict reinstated. Duesterhaus says that one process is currently in motion to have Judge Adrian sanctioned: “We are not going to give up and say that it’s over and it doesn’t matter anymore. Judge Adrian is still sitting on the bench in the 8th Circuit, but we think that he should resign. We think that the harm he has caused this victim is beyond anything that he could do to repair it at this moment. The right thing for him to do is to remove himself from that position. I know that Cammy’s family has filed a complaint with the Judicial Review Board, which is the mechanism in place for filing a complaint against a judge in Illinois. That’s where it goes. There have been several other local community members that filed complaints very early on in January when the news first broke about this situation. I’m sure that the Judicial Review Board is aware that we have a situation here in Adams County and hopefully they will take that seriously. I believe they have the authority to enact some kind of sanctions and consequences for a judge who has lost the public’s trust.”
As of yesterday, a Change.org petition asking for Adrian to be held accountable for his decision has garnered over 175,000 signatures from around the world.
87th District State Representative Tim Butler has filed a resolution in the General Assembly to help Lincoln College students left in the lurch by the college’s announced closure.
Rep. Tim Butler-Springfield
House Joint Resolution 92 is currently in committee. Butler says his resolution would urge every higher education institution in the state to extend their application deadline for current students of Lincoln College: “[State] Senator Sally Turner and I have introduced joint resolutions that would urge the other schools in the State of Illinois to accept transfers from Lincoln College to waive fees, waive transfer fees, waive deadlines, waive residency requirements, and match any financial assistance that these students may have. Certainly, it’s a tough blow for not just these students but to the faculty, the staff, the community of Lincoln; but we’re trying to do all we can to soften the blow and make sure that especially the students have some place to be able to go to school next Fall and make it as easy for them as possible.”
The resolution also calls for the Illinois Department of Employment Security and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to work with the displaced Lincoln College employees to ease their financial hardships and support their attempts to find new employment.
The Morgan, Scott, Cass Crime Stoppers had a great start to the first quarter of this year.
Tips, arrests, and cases solved saw a slight dip at the end of the first quarter of last year. Crime Stoppers Coordinator Loren Hamilton says a combination of several things saw all of those categories jump back up to start this year: “Due to the nature of the beast, we cannot really attribute if the additional tips come from Cass County, Morgan County, Scott County because of the anonymity. What I can tell you though is our three new board members in Cass County have hit the ground running over there. They tell me that there is a lot of buzz on the streets about Crime Stoppers in Cass County now. I think the combination of that, our podcast, and our cellphone app all have attributed to the increased numbers.”
Hamilton says a number of individuals posted to the group’s Facebook page and website turned themselves in after being featured. He says individuals who turn themselves in is currently not something that they keep track of, but it does help Crime Stoppers’ main goal of getting crimes solved and criminals held accountable in the local court systems.
Over $2,700 worth of stolen property was recovered in the first quarter. 2 cases were solved and 9 arrests were made during that same time frame. Hamilton says that in the next quarter that Crime Stoppers hopes to be more visible in the community once again now that Covid-19 has subsided: “We are going to try our Trivia Night again that we had to postpone in January. We are talking about scheduling a Bingo night in Beardstown. National Night Out we are planning on bringing back this year in August here in Jacksonville. Just getting back to meeting people face to face in the community is something that we are really going to focus on in the next several months.”
The re-scheduled trivia at Bogart’s Banquet Hall in Jacksonville is set for Saturday, April 23rd with doors opening at 6PM. Team registration can be emailed to morganscott2010@hotmail.com. Teams are set at 10 people per team. Cost is $10 per person. Hamilton says he hopes the trivia night is a kick off of a great Spring and Summer for Crime Stoppers.
