The City of Winchester is clamping down on delinquent utility bills.

The city has been reviewing budget billing practices over the last month after it was revealed at the January business meeting that several people weren’t keeping up with payments.

The city installed a 3% extra charge last year to help residents catch up from historically high natural gas bills during the month of February after a polar vortex shut down half the nation’s natural gas infrastructure causing record-high prices.

Last night at the Winchester city council meeting, Mayor Rex McIntire says there are approximately 97 delinquent accounts in the city, which accounts for about 12-and-a-half-percent of the city’s total customers.

He says the city has been lenient to help people get caught up, but time is now up for people to pay up and get caught up: “We were pretty lenient after the Covid situation and then the [polar] vortex that happened in February of last year. We were trying to get along and help people, but there are certain people that are just taking advantage of the situation and abusing our generosity. I’m just getting to the point…that every month we have the same people that are late paying. Some of them want to pay a partial payment. They won’t pay their payment off. We’re just to the point where we are going to go back to the way the language in the ordinance reads. In fact, like I said at the meeting, I want to change one of the ordinances to stiffen the penalties.”

The city’s ordinance says that anyone who is late one month on their level pay bill would be immediately kicked off of level pay and be required to immediately pay their balance.

McIntire says that for certain people who are delinquent the city may be lenient, but it’s a case-by-case basis: “I’m not saying we won’t look at situations. There are certain people sometimes maybe they are sick. We do that anyway. Someone might be suffering from cancer or something or other happens and they are having a difficult time. We bend over backwards to try and help them. I’m mainly looking at the people that just abuse the system on a regular basis.”

McIntire proposed doubling re-connection fees for customers who get utilities shut off by the city in order to curb frequently delinquent accounts. He says by doubling the fee, it should make people want to pay their bill on time each month. McIntire says that the city’s budget billing will be recalculated in April and customers on budget billing will likely see a change on their monthly bill in May based upon the recalculations.

McIntire once again emphasized that any customers with the City of Winchester has their bill due on the 25^th each month, regardless of if they receive a bill in the mail or not. He encourages any customer of the city to call or come to City Hall and ask questions or if they need assistance.

13^th District Congressman Rodney Davis spoke on the House floor yesterday in support of United States Postal Service reforms that are receiving bipartisan support.

House Resolution 3076 known as the Postal Service Reform Act is slated to make the postal service financially viable by 2030 and expand services and renew reliability.

Davis told Congress from the floor that the postal service is vitally important to rural communities across the nation: “I have been a strong supporter of the Postal Service throughout my time in Congress. The Postal Service serves as a lifeline to rural communities across our country, especially in Illinois’ 13th district which I represent. For many families, the Postal Service delivers live-saving medication, benefits, and messages from loved ones. Its services are critical. That’s why I have been a leader in supporting it and its employees like the Letter Carriers and Postmasters who are truly essential.

Because of the Postal Service’s importance to my constituents, I have worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to lead on initiatives to ensure it is not privatized, delivers mail on Saturday’s, and retains strict service standards.

The Postal Service keeps us all connected in ways electronic communication and other services cannot. Additionally, it finishes delivering packages for private companies in more rural regions like mine.

I’m glad we are here today voting on this vital piece of legislation that will provide more funding and resources to our postal employees.

This bill importantly makes the Postal Service financially viable for generations to come and implements efficiencies that will protect taxpayers and consumers alike. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy projects this legislation will save the Postal Service $58 billion over next 10 years and correct the agency’s long-term financial problems by 2030. Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office estimates this legislation will save the federal government $1.5 billion over 10 years.“

The bi-partisan bill will maintain six-day delivery services for both mail and package delivery and mandates an “integrated delivery network” of both. It also creates a public accountability data portal for weekly performance information, as well as mandates reporting to Congress every 6 months. It also makes changes to postal service retiree benefits and health insurance plans. It also allows the postal service to enter into agreements with state, local, and tribal governments to offer services such as the processing of hunting and fishing licenses.

The bill ultimately passed the House yesterday 342-92 and now heads to the Senate for consideration. Congressman Darin LaHood and Congresswoman Mary Miller voted against the bill.

A temporary restraining order on the state’s judicial subcircuits taking effect was suspended yesterday by the Fourth District Appellate Court.

Madison County State’s Attorney Thomas Haine filed for the TRO in Springfield late last month. Sangamon County Judge Ryan Cadigan granted the TRO.

Haine expressed his disappointment in a press release yesterday, but did find a silver lining in the Appellate Court’s ruling: “We find significant encouragement in the Appellate Court’s analysis. In today’s summary order, the Appellate Court pointedly asked for a deep consideration of one of our central concerns: ‘the issue of whether the General Assembly can eliminate all at-large judgeships within a particular judicial circuit.’ The Appellate Court then ‘encourage[d] the parties and Circuit Court to proceed expeditiously in this matter given the implications on the upcoming elections.”

Haine said in the press release that he’s confident that the Constitutional questions at the center of his argument will ultimately fall in his favor. A preliminary injunction to the Circuit Court is scheduled to move forward next Tuesday.

The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services is launching a series of virtual town hall meetings to engage with community members across the state to gather input as the state prepares for its regular review of Illinois child support guidelines.

The virtual town hall meetings will be held on Wednesday evenings beginning on Feb. 9 and running through the spring. Each meeting will target a certain geographic region of the state that corresponds with one of the Division of Child Support Services regional office service areas.

The first two virtual town hall meetings will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 9 and Feb. 16, and will target residents of the counties the Springfield regional office, which serves the entire WLDS/WEAI listening area.

Participants are asked to register online in advance of those events at the HFS website.

Governor J.B. Pritzker says the state is moving quickly to get a recent temporary restraining order against his mask mandate in schools overturned.

Pritzker said yesterday that the Friday ruling by Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow is out of step with public health guidance and is causing chaos for schools: “Judge Raylene Grischow’s ruling is out of step with the vast majority of legal analysis in Illinois and across the nation. Most importantly, it constrains the ability of the named school districts to maintain safe in-person learning requirements…Hundreds and even thousands of people in a community are affected when there is an outbreak in a school that’s gone maskless. That affects not only whether a school will go remote, but also whether workers at local businesses will get sick; and therefore, whether those businesses can stay open. Poor legal reasoning should not take one of our most effective tools off the table. So, again, I’ve asked the Attorney General to continue to aggressively appeal this decision so that school districts can do what they need to do to keep students, staff, and the community safe.”

Jacksonville School District 117, Virginia School District, and several other districts in the region have gone to mask-optional policies awaiting the ruling.

The Southern Illinois attorney at the center of the suit, Thomas DeVore, says school districts are on notice and he told the State Journal Register yesterday that any district enforcing the mask rule would be doing so at their own legal and financial peril.

DeVore told WMAY that he would seek a contempt of court ruling against Chicago Public Schools, who was planning to keep the mask mandate in place despite the TRO.

A ruling on the stay of the TRO has yet to be issued by the Fourth District Appellate Court.

The Illinois State Board of Education is looking for groups to help ensure kids have access to healthy meals over the summer this year.

ISBE Principal Consultant Tim Murphy says schools, park districts, camps, and churches should sign up to help distribute the state’s summer meal program: “It’s still winter, but we know it’s really important to start thinking about summer meals and launch the ISBE search for sponsors and sites for the summer food service program. It’s very important because we know that hunger doesn’t stop when summer vacation begins. We launch this search really early to get sponsors and sites across the state. It’s so important to get these meals for children during the summer because there are so many of them that rely on these meals during the school year.”

Nearly 18 million meals were served to students last summer, although kids in some counties weren’t able to access the program because of a lack of groups to distribute the meals. Organizations can sign up for the program online at https://www.isbe.net/nutrition.

A recently appointed General Assembly member says she hopes to stick around for four more years.

New 99^th District Republican State Representative Sandy Hamilton, appointed just 2 weeks ago, says she plans on running for the 48^th District Senate seat against Democrat incumbent Doris Turner.

Hamilton announced the bid yesterday in an official release. By choosing a Senate race, Hamilton avoids a primary against current 87^th District Republican Representative Tim Butler, as the two are drawn into the same district in the most recent remap.

Hamilton and Turner are both filling unexpired terms. Hamilton replaced Mike Murphy last month, who resigned to become president of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce. Turner was appointed to the 48^th District seat after Andy Manar resigned last year to become a Deputy Governor for Governor J.B. Pritzker.

The third and potentially final suspect has been arrested in an alleged armed robbery in Jacksonville from last month.

Jacksonville Police arrested 40 year old Edith M. Schubert in the 700 block of West Douglas Avenue at 2:42 yesterday afternoon serving a warrant.

Schubert is the final person of interest arrested in connection to an aggravated armed robbery that occurred on the evening of January 13^th in the Rolling Acres Subdivision on East Morton Avenue. Officers determined at the time that the victim had been robbed of personal items and an undetermined amount of currency at gunpoint by 3 suspects inside of a vehicle.

The first suspect in the case, 24 year old Lillian D. Gaines, was arrested on January 19^th. 38 year old Jonathan P. Parrish was also arrested in connection to the case on January 21^st.

Schubert was also wanted on a Pike County warrant for failure to appear on a possession of methamphetamine charge. She remains lodged at the Morgan County Jail awaiting a first appearance in court.

A broad-based coalition of local governments statewide is joining Illinois lawmakers in calling for the State to increase local revenue funds to lessen the property tax burden on homeowners.

Since 1969, local governments across Illinois have received a portion of income taxes generated by residents and businesses, known as the Local Government Distributive Fund. For years, the State allocated 10% of total income tax collections to local governments through LGDF, but since 2011, it has gradually reduced their share to just 6.06% today.

Executive Director of the Illinois Municipal League Brad Cole says county governments and municipalities need that money to continue to provide services directly to people who pay the taxes: “Municipalities have been receiving less and less funding from the state and more and more unfunded mandates, so we are just simply requesting that our funding be returned to the level that it was previously and help us do the work at the local level that residents require…The reasoning in the past [that we’ve been given about the reduction in funding] has been because the state needed the money. Now, we are seeing where there are more dollars available for the state so we are seeking to have that [funding] returned so that local governments don’t have to increase local taxes and fees.”

Cole says its an annual issue of whose money is it and how much of it is actually going to be provided to municipal governments. Cole says the stripping away of funds hits the smallest communities in the state the hardest: “Certainly the smallest communities have the fewest resources to be able to handle their problems or address their issues. Very small communities only have state-shared revenues and property tax, so those only go so far. When one of them is cut, the other is left to carry the burden. For very small communities that need to replace their infrastructure – whether it’s water and sewer or sidewalks, or anything else – when the Local Government Distributive Fund is cut or when it’s not fully funded at what was the 10% level, then those things go without getting done.”

IML is just one of 12 other organizations pushing for the restoration of the LGDF to help bring stability to local government budgets across the state. In its most recent proposal, the coalition is asking that the 10% level of funding be restored by 2025.