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.

The Morgan County Commissioners met in quick fashion this morning with just two action items.

The most important was paying the county’s bill. Morgan County Commissioner Chair Brad Zeller says only one bill was out of the ordinary in the current cycle: “We have bills in the stated amount of $50,835.89. The only bill that I pulled out was $10,609 for DevNet.”

DevNet is the county’s software licensing company.

Zeller gave an update about American Rescue Plan funding after the meeting. He says that the county is very grateful for the extra funds to help complete the Morgan County Health Department’s move to the former Putnam-Springer Center on the old MacMurray College campus. He says once the move is completed in March, the county is looking at one more major project with the funds: “Then, we are going to be able to do a very substantial upgrade to the security system at the Morgan County Jail that [the commissioners] feel is way overdue. It’s been a blessing for Morgan County to have that extra influx of capital money.”

The commissioners will meet again next week. Zeller says it’s a bit out of sequence for them to meet two weeks in a row, but they need to take care of some more routine business prior to the end of the month.

The Morgan County Health Department is looking to move into its new location this Spring.

Morgan County Health Department Administrator Dale Bainter says they have tentatively selected May 1^st as their first day in their new location at the former Putnam-Springer Art building located at the corner of North Clay and East State.

Bainter says that the move and renovations of the site has undergone some delays: “Of course the supply chain issues being what they are, we are dealing with that ourselves…but the building itself is coming along nicely and we will be very excited to move into more than double the square footage and be able to serve our community in a more efficient manner than serving through the pandemic in our current location.”

Morgan County Commissioner Chair Brad Zeller says that federal American Rescue Plan funding has helped make the move a reality: “We’ve been able to put that new money into our new health facility, which is going to be a state-of-the-art facility in the city and will represent the whole county. We are really looking forward to getting that building open and up and running. They’ve run into some supply issues. We were hoping to having it open in January, but it will look like it will be March before that building is open.”

Bainter says they had hoped to be in the building by now, but the delays in materials had backed everything up. Bainter says he’s excited to more than double the health department’s square footage, by adding more storage space, waiting room space, and exam rooms.

Bainter says it will also eliminate the need to store things at multiple locations throughout the community: “We have a couple of storage sites that we use – small storage facilities. We hope to bring all of that in house, which once again, will make us more efficient in cost, more efficient in not having to go off-site to get our location. We have things poked away in multiple places around the community, and that’s always a little bit difficult as we are running our vaccine clinics. We always had to start a day or two in advance just to make sure we could round up all that equipment and put it in place and be up and running. While our teams was very efficient at it, it will be wonderful to have everything under one roof.”

The Health Department, which has had space at a premium for some time, has been at the former Bill’s Star Market location at 345 West State Street since the 1980s.

The first of a series of public hearings on an electricity transmission line slated to come through West Central Illinois will happen next week.

A public hearing on the Grain Belt Express Transmission project, which aims to connect residents of Illinois and other states with clean electricity sources, will be held from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15th at the Pike Senior Citizen Center in Pittsfield, located at 220 West Adams Street.

The project has gained siting approvals in Kansas, Missouri and Indiana and is working with the Illinois Commerce Commission to gain state regulatory approval in Illinois.

As a part of its regulatory approval, the transmission line must hold public hearings on the primary and alternate routes of the line running about 200 miles through central Illinois from Pike County to the Indiana State line.

The meeting will be an open house format where attendees can come and go as they please.

Additional public meetings will be held in March and April. Those who wish to attend a meeting virtually can do so online right now through February 21st at https://grainbeltexpress.com/illinois

Innvenergy estimates that the Grain Belt Express line will create 2,200 jobs, bring $1.2 billion in new economic activity and provide $33 million in new tax revenue to local communities over the next 20 years.

For more information on the project, visit GrainBeltExpress.com, leave a message on the project’s hotline at 866-452-4082 or email connect@grainbeltexpress.com.

State Senator Steve McClure was happy that Governor J.B. Pritzker mentioned giving more money for crime prevention in his annual State of the State address yesterday.

McClure says that the Governor’s proposal doesn’t go far enough: “I did like that crime was mentioned. However, the issue with crime has been not just throwing money at the problem, it’s been actually solving the issue and working with our side of aisle to get that done. One of the concerning things for me and members of our caucus has been the governor talked about witness intimidation. However, here’s the deal – while the governor says he’s going to give money for a program to help hide witnesses – that’s fantastic – but at the same time last year, in January at 4:30 in the morning, a bill was passed that takes away the ability of law enforcement to detain people in jail on pre-trial detention for the offense of witness intimidation. There is no greater message that is sent to scare witnesses than the moment after someone intimidates you that person is back on the streets in the neighborhood. That’s extremely troubling.”

McClure also hit on key points in the governor’s budget about federal relief dollars and new permanent spending for the state. McClure says he’s going to play the long game when it comes time to vote on the governor’s proposed budget: “It’s going to be very interesting to vote on the actual budget, and I’m going to have a long-term view when I vote on the budget. We have to address crime. It’s a crisis. Just speaking about it is not enough. The Democrats have to come to the table with Republicans to work on this issue. We’re ready to do it, but unfortunately, our side has been totally ignored. We are seeing the terrible results of that right now throughout our state.”

Pritzker’s budget includes increases for the Illinois State Police to graduate more state troopers, provide resources to the new forensic laboratory in Decatur, and for the purchases of more body cameras. Increases also are projected at the Department of Corrections for IT investments and staffing for medical needs, education, and re-entry programs. The budget also proposes $20 million to support a Gang Crime Witness Protection Program.

Another State Representative is blasting what she’s seeing as gimmicks in Governor J.B. Pritzker’s recent budget address.

93^rd District Representative Norine Hammond says that the governor’s budget isn’t making any long-term structural changes to how the state spends its money: “I think it’s ironic that a year ago that the governor was calling for this Graduated Income Tax, and if it didn’t pass, there was going to be these draconian budgets going forward. Then, fast forward to [this week], the governor is saying that we now have a $1.7 billion surplus. If you actually pare down and look at the numbers, we can see that our spending is outpacing our revenue growth. That is something that we are going to have to deal with in the coming months and the coming years. You can say it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that we have federal ARPA funds, but that’s what’s getting us through right now.”

Pritzker says the state is in its best fiscal shape in years and is proposing some temporary tax relief for Illinoisans that include a temporary suspension on the state’s grocery tax, changing the state’s motor fuel tax, and temporary property tax relief.

Hammond says the $2.5 billion in new permanent spending that Pritzker is proposing will outpace the state’s revenues once federal American Rescue Plan money disappears. Hammond characterized the address as a “bailout budget” for the state.

Democrats have chided Republican reactions to the State of the State address, asking Republicans how the state did under former Republican Governor Bruce Rauner. They have tagged some of the pot-shots at Republican lawmakers with the Twitter Hashtag #spelunkingformisery.

The Illinois State Police Academy made history this week.

On Tuesday evening, the State Police Academy welcomed the Illinois chapter of the NAACP to their headquarters to become the first state police academy in the nation to adopt the 10 Shared Principles.

The 10 Shared Principles is a document created by the national NAACP that builds on equality, dignity, and respect by law enforcement with their policing, especially for communities of color.

NAACP President of the Illinois State Conference Teresa Haley and Deputy Director for the Division of the Academy and Training Colonel Marcus Gipson were on hand for the signing on Tuesday.

Gipson says that the State Police were already implementing several components of the 10 Shared Principles into their training prior to the signing: “About a year ago this past January, the ISP adopted the Shared Principles, so we have already taken the steps to live out those Principles within the agency. And to further commitment of these values, the ISP Academy is demonstrating our commitment at the entry level position because the Academy is the first step in becoming a trooper. This is a logical commitment along that path to instill the values of the agency. In addition to that, our Principles stand to build a mutual trust between law enforcement and the community. Our academy is the first academy in the nation to adopt these principles, which is a part of our curriculum through courses such as Ethics, Rules of Conduct, Cultural Diversity, Biased-Based Policing, Duty to Intervene, and other courses to build relationships and trust with the community.”

Gipson says that training on dignity and respect remains ongoing for the career of a trooper: “We instill from Day One to treat all people with dignity and respect. These principles are not only taught but are followed on a routine basis through the 29 weeks of training. We also train our current troopers [on these Principles] on an annual basis.”

Gipson says that ISP and the NAACP have had a strong relationship in recent years, and the signing of the 10 Shared Principles will further enhance that relationship and ISP’s relationship with the statewide community. He says this is yet another way the ISP Academy strives to be the top police academy in the nation.

The Winchester Civic Group is hosting a special shopping event in Downtown Winchester today.

The Galentine’s Day shopping event is today beginning at 9AM. Co-owner of Winchester’s Rural Cyclery Jackie Kuchy told the Scott County Times that the event will be similar to the Winchester Hometown Christmas event.

Shops in the Winchester Square will open and have specials for shoppers throughout the day. Kuchy told the Times that her business will feature food and drink specials and live music by local artist Gianna Hines from Noon to 2PM.

Organizers hope to make the event an annual outing.