Two Franklin students are headed to a state competition for their precision in reciting poetry.

Thaddeus Bergschneider and Cole Delaney recently earned first and second place in the Central Illinois Poetry Out Loud Contest held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts on Thursday afternoon. Bergschneider’s winning recitation was of “I Am Offering this Poem” by Jimmy Santiago Baca.

Bergschneider and Delaney will advance to the virtual Illinois State Contest in March. The Illinois State Contest will feature recitations by two students from each Poetry Out Loud region in the state. The Illinois State champion will advance to the national contest.

973 students and 17 teachers in 6 schools began the 2022 Poetry Out Loud season in Central Illinois last Fall. One of the recitation judges for the competition was Matt Schwartz of Jacksonville.

Poetry Out Loud in Illinois is a collaborative project of the Illinois Arts Council Agency and seven agencies, each of which hosts a regional contest. The Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest is a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through analysis, memorization, performance, and competition. The National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation, in conjunction with state arts agencies, support this nation-wide program with participants from all fifty states plus Guam, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

The Village of South Jacksonville handled mostly personnel issues last night during their regular board meeting.

Treasurer Tiffanee Peters was missing from the meeting for the second month in a row. Village Attorney Rob Cross was also not in attendance. Trustees Jackie Killion and Stacy Pinkerton attended the meeting remotely.

In the first action item of the night, the Village Board failed to approve the appointment of former trustee Todd Warrick to the open trustee seat in a vote of 3-2 against the appointment, with trustees Tom Jordan, Stacy Pinkerton, and John Stewart all voting ‘no’.

Village President Dick Samples voiced his displeasure with the vote after the meeting: “I was very disappointed that [Warrick] wasn’t voted in tonight. He’s got to go through another 30 days if he so desires. If he doesn’t, I understand that 100%. It’s super tough to find anybody that wants to work out here. My condolences to this guy, I apologize to him. I should’ve found out the vote beforehand and said ‘come’ or ‘don’t come,’ but somebody didn’t vote the way they was supposed to tonight, and by that, I mean they promised me the way they’d vote and they didn’t do it.”

Samples says he’s also had trouble filling the open Clerk position due to similar arguments about recent drama that has occurred in the village over previous administrations: “It’s still open. We don’t have anybody in line to do it. It’s another matter of probably myself training somebody or something. Whatever. I’ve got all I can do right now before I can worry about a clerk.” Village employee Clay Johnson continues to do the job of the clerk at meetings for the village.

In other personnel business, the trustees approved the promotion of Sergeant Brian Wilson to Detective at the village police department. The village also approved the hiring of Anley Gerdes and Joe Perry to full time officer positions. Village Police Chief Eric Hansell that the police department would now be fully staffed for the first time since February of last year.

The Village Fire Department recently held elections for assistant fire chief positions on Monday. The village board approved the appointment of first assistant chief Dave Bye and 2^nd assistant chief Dave Sausito.

In other village business, the board approved a TIF agreement of up to $270,000 with Jose Lopez for renovation of 1852 South Main Street into a new banquet hall facility at the old Reichert’s Banquet Hall building. The board also approved the purchase and adoption of a newly designed village logo. Board members suggested that they look into trademarking the logo, which comes in both silver and gold, during discussion at the next village committee of the whole meeting. The village also approved to sell or dispose of several old computers, computer screens, old squad car parts, and miscellaneous other items that have been taking up space at village hall. A comprehensive list of items will be available to the public at a later date.

The next meeting of the village board was also set for a committee of the whole on Thursday, February 17^th at 6PM.

The City of Winchester took the first steps in upgrading its water mains in a massive project last night.

The city council entered into an agreement for a Preliminary Engineering Agreement with Benton & Associates to lay out the brevity of the project and its cost.

Greg Hillis and David Pace of Benton & Associates says the agreement would give the city the flexibility to pivot towards grants with either the EPA or the USDA, depending upon where the best cost reduction to the city would lie.

Hillis says the $15,000 cost for the agreement gets everything ready for the project to be designed: “Right now you are looking at if we do everything [in the water system], and we’re just doing some ballpark numbers right now for construction costs. You are around $2,635,000 to do everything that we are talking about, but on top of that, you’ve got what are called non-construction costs. That’s the engineering. There is legal bond counsel that has to be put into that also. So, right now, we just threw in 30% for all those non-construction costs because we don’t what they are yet. That’s what this P.E.R. does to put all of those numbers together. Right now, if you are looking…and as I say this is a $2.6 million project with all those other [costs], the project would be around $3.4 million, and that’s with your interest in there and everything else.”

The $3.4 million project will help the city solve its long-standing issues with water pressure on its north side, water main breaks, and replace any existing lead service lines. The agreement will be presented to the council for a final approval within the next several months after preliminary studies are completed with the city’s utility department. Hillis says if the preliminary studies determine that the current service lines are a health, life, and safety risk to the public, the city may be able to qualify for a better interest rate or more funding to get the project completed.

Greene County is scrambling to find a county engineer before the Illinois Department of Transportation suspends it’s Motor Fuel Tax funding.

Greene County has been without an engineer since David Marth resigned in December 2020. Last month, the county received a notice from IDOT that if they don’t have a new full-time engineer in place by March 25^th that their motor fuel tax money would be cut off.

The Greene Prairie Press says that the County Board is currently floating the idea of adding a sign-on bonus for a potential candidate to the position. IDOT has supposedly told the board that county engineers have been a tough-to-fill position in recent years, since IDOT requires at least 6 years of experience in order to even apply for the job.

A letter from the Greene County Board will be going out to Township Commissioners this week detailing the situation, letting them know their Motor Fuel Tax money will be suspended next month unless the position gets filled.

13^th District Congressman Rodney Davis’ measure to mitigate supply issues and create more manufacturing opportunities in the nation passed the House this morning.

The Critical Infrastructure Manufacturing Feasibility Act directs the Secretary of Commerce to conduct a study on the feasibility of manufacturing more goods in the United States, in particular, products that are key to our critical infrastructure sectors. The bill directly includes feasibility studies for manufacturing products in rural communities, industrial parks, and industrial parks in rural areas.

It would require the Department of Commerce to submit the study within 18 months of the bill’s full passage.

Davis says it’s the best way to insulate the country from global supply chain problems. He says critical infrastructure in the country shouldn’t be at the mercy of foreign nations, especially country’s that are antagonistic towards the U.S. The bill now heads to the Senate for committee assignment.

A portal through which Illinois tenants impacted by COVID-19 can apply for rental assistance is back online after a programming problem compromised some personal information.

An applicant called the Illinois Housing Development Authority last Tuesday alerting them to the personal information breach.

Agency spokeswoman Amy Lee told the Bloomington Pantagraph that the applicant said they saw someone else’s document when they logged into their rental application.

The portal went offline and all access to external users was blocked while the agency resolved the issue. The portal went back online last Thursday after IDHA found a coding error on the application website. IDHA says that the error likely affected about 100 out of the over 89,000 rental assistance applications in their system.

A family of 4 was displaced by fire last Friday in rural Virginia.

The Cass County Star Gazette reports that a home located at 1392 Walnut Road, about 7 miles southeast of Virginia, was fully involved with fire in the second story when first responders arrived shortly after 12:30PM on Friday.

The Ashland Fire Department gave mutual aid as knock down of the fire took approximately 5 hours. Virginia Fire Chief Donnie Reynolds told the Star Gazette that the home was a total loss. No cause or origin of the fire was reported.

The local chapter of the American Red Cross provided immediate financial assistance to the family. All occupants of the home, which included two adults and two children, made it out safely. A mild burn on the hands of one of the occupants was reported, but there were no other serious injuries.

The Illinois Attorney General has weighed in on a ruling that was vacated in Adams County in a sex assault case last month.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul says he is asking the Illinois Supreme Court to order Judge Robert Adrian to impose a lawful sentence to 18 year old Drew Clinton in accordance with state law. Adrian found Clinton guilty of felony criminal sexual assault in October 2021 to a 16 year old female minor victim. On January 3^rd, Adrian vacated the conviction and said that Clinton’s 148-day imprisonment in the Adams County Jail “was punishment enough.” Adrian’s admonishments from the bench and his vacated conviction drew international outrage. Adrian was later removed from the criminal docket by Chief Judge of the 8^th Judicial Circuit J. Frank McCartney on January 13^th. Calls for Adrian to resign from the bench have been ongoing.

Clinton was originally charged with 3 counts of criminal sexual assault for assaulting the victim at a graduation party in Quincy. The 16-year-old victim was unable to give consent when she was assaulted by Clinton because she had passed out after consuming alcohol, and according to the victim’s testimony at trial awoke to find Clinton on top of her with a pillowcase shoved over her face.

Adrian found Clinton guilty of one count of criminal sexual assault, a felony, after a bench trial that included testimony from the victim and witnesses at the party. However, when sentencing Clinton, Adrian plainly stated his intention to not sentence Clinton to prison due to his age and lack of a criminal history, as mandated by Illinois’ mandatory minimum sentencing requirements. Instead, Adrian vacated the conviction and released Clinton from custody. Raoul’s mandamus complaint urges the Supreme Court to order Adrian to reinstate the verdict and issue a sentence consistent with the mandatory sentencing range set in statute.

Raoul said in a press release today that the mandatory sentencing range for the offense is 4-15 years in prison according to state law: ““The mandatory sentencing range set by the Illinois General Assembly for felony criminal sexual assault is four to 15 years in prison. In addition to the insensitivity to the victim in this case, the judge’s decision to vacate the conviction and call the 148 days Clinton served in county jail ‘plenty of punishment,’ demonstrates an abuse of power.”

Raoul’s actions comes after collaboration with the Illinois Appellate Prosecutor’s Office and Adams County State’s Attorney Gary Farha’s Office. Farha put out an appeal to David Robinson, the chief deputy director at the State’s Attorney’s Appellate Prosecutor’s Office in Springfield on January 19^th. Robinson is also the deputy director of the Fourth Judicial Appellate District.

Adams County State’s Attorney Gary Farha says that he hopes that this will show victims that the justice system does work: “Victims of sexual assault often make the decision to not come forward because they believe that the criminal justice system will not believe them nor protect them. The victim in this case took the brave steps of reporting the crime, cooperating with the investigation, and testifying at trial. Because of her courage, the defendant was convicted of his crime. There is nothing more frustrating and disheartening to our community, this victim, and to all victims of sexual assault when any defendant avoids the legal consequences of his conduct. We appreciate the hard work of the Attorney General and the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office in ensuring that this brave young woman have the opportunity to see her attacker held responsible.”

Raoul points out in the mandamus that by refusing to enforce a valid criminal statute, the judge acted as a quasi-legislator and usurped the authority of the legislative branch while undermining confidence in the judicial process. Raoul further argues that Adrian’s comments at the sentencing hearing demonstrate his own recognition that he lacked the authority to depart from the mandatory minimum sentencing range.

The victim at the center of the case, 16 year old Cameron Vaughan of Quincy has since come forward to discuss her struggles throughout the case. Vaughan appeared on Wednesday on Dr. Phil in an exclusive interview discussing details of the case and the fallout of coming forward.

A bill to protect DCFS caseworkers in the line of duty is gaining traction in the General Assembly.

Senate Bill 3070, known as the Knight-Silas Act, would make DCFS workers a protected class, similar protections afforded to first responders. 48^th District State Senator Doris Turner, who is chief sponsor of the bill, drafted the bill after the murder of Deidre Silas in Thayer last month while Silas was on a call about child endangerment at a residence.

Under Turner’s measure, if a person assaults someone they know is a DCFS caseworker or investigator, it will be considered aggravated battery rather than battery, a felony. A perpetrator of the crime must also be 21 years of age since children can be under the care of DCFS until the age of 21.

Turner told WAND-TV yesterday that the bill is receiving bi-partisan support, as language of the bill continues to be amended and provisions continue to be added.

SB 3070 passed the Criminal Law Committee yesterday and now heads to the full Senate for further consideration.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association have teamed up for a new proposal to fight organized retail crime.

Rauol is pushing legislation that would give prosecutors more power to go after crime rings and allow the Attorney General’s Office to convene a statewide grand jury: “By improving the ability of the Attorney General’s Office and state’s attorneys to prosecute these crimes, we can deter these smash-and-grab crimes and other violent thefts we have become too accustomed to seeing on our daily news. These crimes are perpetrated by sophisticated criminal enterprises coordinating the thefts of many items of high value. Those items are often sold and re-sold, and the funds are often used to fund drug trafficking and human trafficking.”

IRMA Chief Executive Rob Karr says that organized retail crime has grown exponentially over the last 5 years resulting in a changed shopping experience across the state – from the small mom & pop store to the high-end retailers: “O.R.C. is an insidious crime and often it has tentacles that spread into other areas of illicit activity. While organized retail crime has been an issue for many years, over the last 5 years, it has grown over 60%. We have all borne witness, as Illinois has become a national epicenter. Despite the hundreds of millions Illinois retailers spend on security every year, we see the result of this unchecked plague everywhere. We see it in the headlines of our news feeds. We see it when we go to the store when everyday items like toothpaste and razor blades are behind cages or a coat we want to try on is tethered to a rack.”

Karr says its the first time in his 30 years of working in retail that safety and crime are top priorities for retailers across the state. Karr says that not only will it go after the criminal doing the crime, closing loopholes in the court, but it will also go after a criminal attempting to fence stolen merchandise: “The proposal would also propose adopting regulation for the online third-party marketplaces where some people are fencing their stolen goods by seeking to adopt the INFORM Act being discussed in Washington D.C. We would hope to enhance public and private coordination statewide through all stakeholders. This all out collaboration is designed to provide real-time information, intelligence gathering, and collaboration in addition to the task force the A.G. has started. We would also require timely and proper notice to the victims of organized retail crime.”

The third-party electronic marketplace provision mirrors a current provision before Congress proposed by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. The proposal by the Attorney General’s Office and IRMA now heads to the General Assembly for consideration.