It was the worst kept secret in Illinois politics, but it came to fruition yesterday.

Billionaire Ken Griffin announced his $20 million donation to the Richard Irvin/Avery Bourne gubernatorial ticket yesterday.

The contribution is one of the largest donations so far to the campaign. It is only surpassed by a $90 million donation that Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker made to his own re-election campaign one month ago and a similar $35 million from Pritzker in March 2021.

In the statement released yesterday, Griffin says he wanted to support Irvin because of Griffin’s business Citadel. Griffin says Pritzker’s policies are hurting his and Illinois’ business climate overall.

Illinois State Board of Elections filings of campaign finances over the last three weeks show that Irvin is gaining major support from several CEOs from around the state including Chicago’s Duchossois Group, Pathways.org CEO Shirley Ryan, and retired Abbot Laboratories CEO Miles White.

According to the same state board of elections filings, none of Irvin’s four competitors in the Republican gubernatorial primary have received donations larger than $30,000 since the start of the year.

Marnico Village residents are having problems with water run-off.

Situated off of U.S. 67 to the west of Jacksonville, the group of homes is experiencing back up in their sewer system.

The new president of the Marnico Betterment Association, Luke Marquardt, Jr. brought a petition to the Morgan County Commissioners this morning asking that the special service area tax assessed to residents of Marnico Village be used to fix the ditches to allow for better drainage: “Our ditches have not been maintained. The water is actually going into our sewer, and it’s overloading our lagoon tremendously. Since we don’t have ditches that run off, the water sits there. [It is causing] our roads to just fall apart. Everybody drives by one another so the road breaks off and slides away. We would like to possibly use some of the [SSA tax] money or have something done to get our water run off fixed.”

Marquardt says he’s not received any help or response from Road District #6 Commissioner Roger Ore when he’s brought the problem to him for answers.

Marquardt believes that if the problem persists, residents of Marnico Village are going to lose their property. According to Marquardt, the SSA Tax assessed by the county is used to pay the village’s electric bill for the year and for an oil and chip program for the village’s roads.

Marquardt says oil and chipping the roads does no good unless the drainage problem is fixed: “There is no sense of putting oil and chip on the roads if it’s going to erode because the water is just sitting there. Like I said, the water is not flowing and it’s going into our lagoon system and our sewer system and overloading it. Our back wall [to our lagoon] could possibly just [break] and then nobody out there would have sewer. Then, our land would be worth nothing because we can’t put septic tanks in.”

The county commissioners said they would facilitate a meeting between County Engineer Matt Coultas, Ore, Marquardt and someone from the commission to come up with a solution and answer the questions about the SSA funds in the coming weeks.

A Jacksonville man who fled police in an attempted traffic stop back in November pled guilty to one charge in Morgan County Court last week.

27 year old Marquis D. Carey-Nelson of the 800 block of Illinois Avenue did not yield to police and at one point reached speeds of more than 70 miles per hour in his attempt to flee police in Jacksonville on November 5^th.

Carey-Nelson’s vehicle was eventually detained at the intersection of South Main and Morton Avenue where according to police, Carey-Nelson refused to exit the vehicle and resisted arrest. No injuries were sustained by officers or Carey-Nelson during the scuffle.

During the investigation at the scene, Carey-Nelson was found to be in possession of a firearm without a FOID card along with cannabis. His Indiana driver’s license was suspended at the time, and there was no insurance on the vehicle.

Carey-Nelson was arrested and originally cited for Aggravated Fleeing or Attempting to Elude a Peace Officer, Unlawful Use of Weapon, no possession of a FOID card, Driver in Possession of Adult-Use Cannabis, Resisting/Obstructing Arrest, Driving While License Suspended, Reckless Driving, and No Valid Insurance after Officers attempted to stop him for driving reckless.

Carey-Nelson pled guilty to one count of possession of a firearm without a FOID card on Friday. He was sentenced to 1 year of probation, plus court costs. He was given credit for 3 days served in the Morgan County Jail. The court also ordered that the firearm seized in the arrest to be destroyed.

13th District Congressman Rodney Davis has introduced legislation to make the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts permanent.

Davis first introduced the legislation in September 2018, and it quickly passed the House but stalled in the Senate.

The original tax reform bill passed by the House in November 2017 made the individual rates and deductions permanent, but eventually were made temporary by the Senate to abide by budget reconciliation rules. Currently, the individual rate cuts will expire in 2025. Davis’ current legislation would make the individual rate cuts permanent.

Davis says the IRS has acknowledged that the tax cuts help the middle class: “We’ve seen the IRS finally come around and say what [House Republicans] have been saying that working with President Trump, helping craft and pass the Trump Tax Cut bill has put more money in the pockets of middle class families than any other income level. Now, the problem with the Trump Tax Cut Bill – the Democrats in the Senate would not allow the individual tax rates to be permanent. They are going to expire. We need to fix that, and that’s exactly what my bill does. The tax savings that families are enjoying now do not need to go away. The Democrats were okay with corporate tax rates being permanent but not individual tax rates. My bill would help families, help small businesses who file as pass-through companies and not through the corporate tax code – that’s the reason why we need to get this done.”

Davis’ current bill would permanently double the standard deduction to $12,950 for single filers and $25,900 for joint filers; double the Child Tax Credit to $2,000 with up to $1,400 refundable; retain certain popular tax deductions; and keep a 20% tax deduction for certain small businesses.

The Protecting Family & Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2022 was referred to the House Ways & Means Committee this past Wednesday.

A nominee for the open seat on the South Jacksonville Board says he’s fine with the decision of the current board not approving his appointment.

Todd Warrick was nominated to return to the Board of Trustees by current Village President Dick Samples. Warrick failed to receive approval to be appointed last Thursday night by a 3-2 vote.

Warrick says he understands the decision: “First of all, I didn’t ask to come back. They reached out to me on several occasions and asked me if I would consider coming back to being on the board. This last time I said ‘yes, I would.’ I mean, the vote…does it surprise me? No, not really. You know, if they don’t want me on the board; I’m okay with that.”

Warrick says that he understands at least one of the reasons why one of the trustees voted against him. Stacy Pinkerton was one of the three ‘no’ votes last night. Warrick says that he and Pinkerton had a disagreement in 2019 when Pinkerton posted a profanity-laced Facebook post reacting to a Spanish-speaking customer coming into the engine-repair shop owned and operated by her and her husband. Pinkerton would later apologize for the post and take it down from her social media. Subsequently, when Pinkerton’s trustee seat came up for election, she was voted off the board. Warrick says he and Pinkerton have had a disagreement about that particular situation: “I know with Stacy, it’s because I had called her out a couple of times on what she had said on social media about her husband’s business when somebody came in there that didn’t speak English. I thought that was extremely unprofessional as a trustee to do something like that. I understand she doesn’t agree with me on that, but that’s her thoughts.”

Warrick says if he is eventually installed, he hopes to be a part of helping the village get a new water tower and bring back a full-time ambulance service. Warrick says he doesn’t blame the village president for how the vote went last Thursday night: “I think Dick is going to do a great job here. Dick has been with the village for a long time. Everybody knows him. He is the most knowledgeable person on that board about the village’s business.”

For now, Warrick says he will await the board’s future decision.

The Village of South Jacksonville has two new ordinances they are working on for passage in the near future.

The first ordinance that will be discussed in the upcoming Committee of the Whole this Thursday night is an ordinance governing solar energy.

Village President Dick Samples says that they need to get something on the books: “The solar ordinance is something that came upon us very, very quickly. It’s brand new. It’s a matter of what are [people and other cities] doing, what they are not doing, and the way things are going up.”

The ordinance would govern any incoming solar energy installations either commercial or residential. It will dictate the height and appearance of any ground mount or roof top installations.

The second major ordinance the village is looking into is the governing of animals. Samples says that a variety of animals have been an issue in the village for a long time: “It’s been a problem forever and a day – chickens, and cats, and turkeys – all kinds of animals. If you want animals, then, go live in the country. Don’t subject your neighbor to these kind of conditions and all that, because they didn’t move into town or want to live in town next to this kind of stuff.”

The ordinance defines what a Nuisance animal is and the penalty for said animals causing problems. Any citation for a nuisance animal has a fine set at $100 and may have the animal impounded at Morgan County Animal Control.

Samples has also made recommendations as well as Code Enforcement Officer David Bobb on upping building permit costs in the village. Samples said during the Village’s Board meeting last Thursday that the increase is to bring the village in line with surrounding towns of similar size.

All three issues will be discussed in full during the upcoming Village Board’s committee of the whole meeting on Thursday. If a consensus is reached, the new ordinances would likely fall on the March action items agenda.

The Scott County Historical Society is looking at undertaking a major project at the Winchester Depot.

Last Monday night, Stevie VanDeVelde and Sonnie Hoover spoke to the Winchester City Council in order to ask for TIF funding to help with the remodel of the interior of the building.

VanDeVelde says that the building hasn’t seen renovations on the inside in quite some time: “We have been discussing with the Scott County Historical Society with ideas and funds about trying to do some renovations to the interior of the Depot. The interior has not been updated since it was refurbished about 30-40 years ago. As many of you know, Bread of Love utilized the Depot for their lunch meals for many, many years. And that’s really kind of got us starting about trying to update the interior because the carpets are pretty stained from all of those meals in there from over the years.”

The historical society is asking for a little over $30,000 to complete the purchase and installation of new flooring, new kitchen counters, new plumbing and fixtures, and paint. They hope to rent out the Depot and use it in conjunction with the Winchester Civic Group for community events, rentals for private events, and to continue good usage of the building.

VanDeVelde says they initially reached out to Mayor Rex McIntire to see if there were any grants they could obtain, but McIntire did not think there were any available. The city had originally sought historical building grants for the Winchester Hotel several years ago but could not find any at the time.

VanDeVelde says that Covid-19 has curbed the historical society’s ability to raise funds through their annual fundraisers. She said they were willing to use some of the Historical Society’s small built up fund balances and she would be willing to pursue writing grants if there were any place she could submit a request to.

The City voted in favor of granting the request.

Jacksonville Police are investigating an overnight shots fired incident.

Police were called to the 600 block of North Prairie Street after a caller advised they had heard two gunshots to the north of their residence at 2:07AM this morning.

After a brief investigation, police determined that unknown suspects fired multiple rounds into an occupied residence. No injuries were reported. The investigation remains ongoing.

Police say they have no persons of interest at this time in this case.

If you have any further information, please call the Jacksonville Police at 217-479-4630. Callers may also leave an anonymous tip with the Morgan-Scott-Cass Crime Stoppers at 217-243-7300. Tips may also be submitted via text message at 274637. The first word of the text tip must be “PAYOUT.”

A fundraiser planned Sunday to benefit the Illinois College Fine Arts Series has been canceled.

The Journal Courier reports that the Death By Chocolate event set at Barnes House has been canceled due to Covid concerns of the college.

Garrett Allman, chair of the Fine Art Series, told the Journal Courier that the chocolate deserts and performance by the IC Faculty Jazz Quartet hopes to return next season. He says that the series will make do with the generosity of the series’ donors this year.

The next concert in the Fine Art Series is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 25th at Rammelkamp Chapel at 7:30. Organist Homer Ferguson III returns to Illinois College. Ferguson has served churches in several denominations and states, and is currently organist and choirmaster at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Southern Pines, North Carolina.