One business goes away and another will go in its place later this month on West Morton Avenue.

Niemann Foods announced earlier this week that they had purchased the Super Wash location at 404 West Morton Avenue to put in a new coffee and snack shop.

Niemann Foods tells the Journal Courier the new location will be known as Perk Coffee. Niemann representatives told the Journal Courier they hope to have the location open some time this summer.

The Jacksonville Super Wash will have its final day of operation on February 24^th. Owner Todd Nelson told the Journal Courier that the public can use their tokens for car washes or exchange them for money up until that time. Nelson thanks the Jacksonville community for his past 19 years of operation.

Perk Coffee will offer drip coffee, smoothies, frappucinos, pasteries, Lotus Plant energy drinks, and other snacks. The full drive-thru option is the first to be built from the ground up for the company.

A historical marker will go up at the Old State Capitol to commemorate a major moment in Springfield history, and the United States.

Thursday marked the 15^th anniversary of Barack Obama’s announcement that he would seek the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Obama made the announcement in bone-chilling cold on the steps of the Old State Capitol on February 10^th, 2007. He would return there 18 months later to announce Joe Biden as his running mate on a blistering hot day. Obama went on to become the first Black President of the United States, and the fourth Illinoisan elected to the office.

Obama also served as an Illinois State Senator from 1997-2004 in Illinois’ 13th Senate District. The district represented Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park–Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn.

The historical marker will be unveiled with a formal dedication ceremony later this year.

The Illinois Department of Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture announced yesterday that they have approved Sam’s Club and Meijer Grocery for SNAP online purchasing.

With these additions, Illinois LINK card users can now purchase groceries online through eleven retail chains across the state. Illinois has about 1.8 million SNAP recipients. The Pritzker Administration has grown the number of available retailers by at least 4 since March 2020.

Illinois SNAP customers who want to shop at Meijer must reside in an area where Instacart is an option. Additionally, Meijer grocery locations are accepting Online EBT through Instacart. Various Sam’s Club locations in Illinois will begin accepting EBT as a form of payment using their “Scan & Go” mobile application beginning this month.

Other grocery retailers interested in becoming part of the program can learn more and apply at the USDA’s website.

Related updates on Illinois’ Online SNAP program are posted at DHS.Illinois.gov/OnlineSNAP.

A New Berlin native has been named director of the Office of Alumni Affairs at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

Cassie Mattson has been selected to run the office. Mattson previously worked as manager of events and the Future Leaders Alliance at the Illinois Bankers Association. She succeeds Julie Robbs, who retired from SIU in December.

Mattson said in a press release yesterday that she plans to build on existing programs while exploring new avenues for networking, growth, wellness and advocacy within the Alumni Society.

The Jacksonville Public Library will be losing two key pieces this month.

Head Librarian Chris Ashmore resigned suddenly this past week. According to communications with Ashmore, health concerns were behind the decisions. Ashmore says he plans to remain in Jacksonville, but needs some time away.

Assistant Director & Adult Services Librarian Sarah Snyder will be leaving the library on February 17^th. She will be moving out of the area.

Jacksonville Public Library Board President Mary Fergurson says that a search to replace both of the library’s top officials will begin on Monday during their regular scheduled meeting. Fergurson says she’s very grateful for what Ashmore and Snyder did for the library during their years of service. Fergurson says in the meantime that library staff will fill the remaining shifts in the interim until a new director and assistant director is named.

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.