The Village of South Jacksonville Board of Trustees didn’t speak about the outcomes of an executive session during a special session last night.

The village met in special session for an executive session to discuss possible appointments to the Village President position and the Village Clerk position, and to determine two raises for two village employees.

One village board member, John Stewart, was not in attendance last night. Stewart says he wasn’t going to attend a meeting because he doesn’t feel like village residents had enough notice about the contents of the meeting: “Honestly, I didn’t see a point to it. Look at this way, we are without an executive head. In my opinion, we don’t need to be discussing any executive issues or matters until we can appoint a full-time president. I would have been fine showing up to the meeting had that been on the [agenda], but with the agenda, it was not mentioned, period. I don’t think we should spring this on the Village of South Jacksonville residents at the last minute to pick a new person, if that’s what they chose to do in executive session or even the open session.”

The trustees made no formal announcements at the end of the meeting on who would fill either open position. Instead, the village voted to table a possible salary increase for Village Works Superintendent John Green and approved an initial 3.5% salary increase for village office employee Amy Oxley.

In old business, Trustee Paula Belobradjic-Stewart presented the board with new renderings of another change to the village’s official seal. A consensus chose a new design for a silver emblem with the Prairieland Heritage Museum, the new American Flag, and minor other changes drafted by Rick Ralston. The new seal is an expected to be an official action item at their next regular meeting in January.

Village Trustee Megan Davidson said during new business that she wanted to move the village towards direct deposit for monthly payroll. Village Treasurer and Office Manager Tiffanee Peters had pushed back against the idea according to Davidson, and instead wanted to maintain the idea of giving paper checks to village employees. Peters, who was not in attendance last night, allegedly shot down the idea of direct deposit with Trustee Tom Jordan. Jordan suggested that Davidson and Peters get together on the details on how to make direct deposit happen.

The trustees came to a consensus that at the next meeting in January that an action item to create a direct deposit system and a digital way to keep time sheets would be implemented and voted on for approval.

Davidson asked during committee of the whole why the village never offered it as a convenience to employees, especially with most modern-day employers offering it. Davidson said the idea was silly that the village didn’t offer it to employees. She said she heard about a problem with an unnamed employee with their check each month: “I had one person say that their bank is in Springfield, so they have to take a picture of [the check] and send it to the bank. Then, it takes two days to get into their account, or they have to drive to Springfield and deposit it.”

Village Police Chief Eric Hansell says that the time sheets in his department are still handwritten and calculated.

The final item of business, which was a lengthy discussion, was for a special committee of the whole meeting directly after the business meeting. The board discussed how much money they were will willing to grant to Jose Lopez for a renovation of the former Reichert’s Banquet Hall.

The question came down to the business model that Lopez had presented to the board. Megan Davidson, the finance committee chair, said that she would not be up for the village giving a loan to meet his $350,000 ask for his business: “He is looking for a final answer, and I would just assume make a final decision, and then we will vote on it at the next meeting. He’s asking for $350,000 with part of it being the TIF money and part of it being a loan [from the village]. I feel like we need to discuss it. I’ll be honest I don’t like the idea of a loan. We are not in business to do a loan. There was no collateral. It was just a personal guarantee, and I don’t think it’s the best for the village.”

The board conceded the point about the loan being a bad idea, but was still unsettled on the amount of money and the length of time to grant Lopez money from the TIF. A major sticking point was that the business model had been presented as a banquet hall, bar, and possible video gaming establishment with a limited bar food menu. Davidson noted that because Lopez was working on an existing structure, the county assessor’s office says that the assessed value of the property would not go up. There were also concerns about long-term revenue generation from the business, since it was not going to be a full-fledged restaurant.

Lopez, who has been in attendance at several prior meetings, was not in attendance last night to offer any further explanation or rebuttal to the board.

A final decision on the TIF application is expected at the next village business meeting in January. A committee of the whole meeting is scheduled for December 15^th, but some members have said that meeting may be postponed until the end of the month.

A name has emerged as a possible replacement for Mike Murphy in the Illinois House’s 99^th District.

The Decatur Herald & Review reports that Springfield resident Kelly Thompson, a project manager for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce-affiliated Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group, plans to seek the appointment to Murphy’s seat.

Thompson told Lee Enterprises on Wednesday that her experiences in helping businesses navigate the complex regulations of government, while preserving the beauty of Illinois, uniquely qualifies her to bring a business, government, and agricultural perspective to the Illinois General Assembly.

The Herald & Review reports that Thompson plans on using the possible appointment to Murphy’s seat as a springboard to challenge 48^th District Senate Democrat Doris Turner in 2022.

Thompson’s appointment is not a certainty. She faces an open application process that ends at 5PM Monday, December 13th. Thompson will be among the names that Sangamon County Republican Chair Dianne Barghouti Hardwick, committeeperson Drinda O’Connor, and Sangamon County Administrator Brian McFadden will choose from.

The Sangamon County Republicans are planning on a public meeting on December 30^th to announce Murphy’s successor. Murphy’s 99^th District Seat covers everything in the western portion of Sangamon County.

Murphy resigned his spot in the General Assembly earlier this month so he would not have to challenge 95th District Republican Avery Bourne in a primary next year in their newly drawn district. Murphy instead opted to take the job as the president and CEO of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce.

The Mt. Sterling Municipal Airport is receiving more than $1 million for safety improvements for its taxiway.

The Quincy Herald-Whig reports that the airport is expanding its taxiway to accommodate for a recent uptick in traffic.

Paul Walker, Mt. Sterling’s Airport Manager, told the Herald-Whig that Dot Foods in Mount Sterling is a primary customer of the airport, both for their company and bringing in representatives of other companies that are working with Dot. However, he says recently, the airport is servicing a lot of private planes for celebrities visiting Brown, Adams, and Pike counties to deer hunt this time of year.

The taxiway expansion is being paid for by a $1.35 million grant with a $150,000 local match. The grant was part of $94 million distributed to nearly 100 airports across the state through the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois capital infrastructure plan.

The project will expand the airport’s taxiway to the north end of the 5,905 foot long runway, making for a more complete circuit for planes coming in and taking off so that planes no longer have to turn around on the current runway.

Also receiving funds through the Rebuild Illinois program was Pittsfield’s Penstone Municipal Airport. It received $157,500 to buy snow removal equipment.

The Petersburg community has come together to help out a classroom that was devastated by fire last month.

A PORTA High School art classroom went up in flames last month after an electrical issue, and art students at PORTA High School lost everything in the room.

WICS Newschannel 20 says that several members of the Petersburg community have stepped up with donations of numerous art supplies to the class in the wake of the fire.

According to the report, the room is currently inhospitable and won’t be able to be opened back up until sometime next year.

The class is still taking donations for supplies through their Amazon wish list here.

Illinois’ Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountablity says the state’s pension liability did something it hasn’t done in 4 years – it shrank.

According to a special pension briefing released last week for the end of November, the state’s unfunded pension liability shrank by $14.3 billion from last year down to $130 billion. That’s a nearly 10% decline from the previous year. According to the report, during the recent 15-year period, there have been only 3 times that’s happened – 2011, 2017, and now 2021.

Crain’s Chicago Business says that the news should be somewhat tempered because the COFGA figures are based on market values of pension-fund assets and are not blended or averaged over the last 5-year period. In other words, the state’s pension funds enjoyed exceptional returns on investments, earning anywhere between 23 and 25 percent. Crain’s says the normal expected rate of return has been between 6.5 and 7 percent.

Crain’s says the state still is contributing roughly $2 billion a year less than the amount it is actuarially required to reach its eventual full funding.

A Springfield attorney made history on Tuesday when the U.S. Senate confirmed him to become the next U.S. attorney for the Central District Court of Illinois.

73 year old Gregory Harris will become the first Black person to be the Central District’s top prosecutor.

Illinois Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin announced the confirmation, saying Harris’ many years of experience as an assistant U.S. attorney, more than a decade in private practice, and several years of work in the Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender along with his diligent and principled approach to law make him the right fit for the job.

Harris will replace Douglas Quivey who had been serving as the acting U.S. Attorney in the Central District since March, after former U.S. Attorney John Milhiser submitted his resignation to President Joe Biden on February 11^th. Milhiser, a Republican and the former Sangamon County State’s Attorney, was appointed by former President Donald Trump in August 2018, and was confirmed by the Senate in January 2019 with the support of Durbin and Duckworth.

Harris’ appointment will become official when he is sworn in sometime in January.

A Greene County man is heading to prison after pleading guilty to drug charges in court yesterday.

40 year old Daniel J. Davidson of Roodhouse pled guilty to one count of delivery of methamphetamine less than 5 grams. Criminal information for the case was originally filed in October 2019 by the Greene County State’s Attorney’s Office. However, an order was entered in November 2019 to seal the case and charges were waived. In May of 2020, pursuant to the State’s Attorney’s Office the case was unsealed and reinstated.

On the evening of June 4, 2020, Greene County Sheriff’s Deputies and Roodhouse Police attempted to apprehend Davidson on a warrant in the case at home on West North Street in Roodhouse. Davidson was allegedly attempting to hide from law enforcement inside the home. After a brief pursuit and struggle, Davidson was arrested in the incident and went on to be cited for ggravated battery of a peace officer, resisting a peace officer, and attempting to escape or elude police in the incident. All of those charges were dropped per the plea agreement in court yesterday.

Davidson was sentenced to 3 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, 1 year of mandatory supervised release, and a $500 county fine plus fees and court costs. Davidson was given credit for time served in the case.

13^th District Congressman Rodney Davis is joining a group of bipartisan legislators to help address the country’s supply chain issues.

The Critical Infrastructure Manufacturing Feasibility Act has been introduced to the House with the goal of identifying how supply chain issues can be mitigated and how more goods, along with jobs, can be created in the US. Davis says the U.S. needs to identify where in the country’s manufacturing portfolio are critical points in the supply chain not manufactured.

“Our goal is to identify what we are not doing in this country, what we are not producing here. Things like masks, at the beginning of the pandemic there was a shortage of face masks because America did not produce them. Now we have a shortage of computer chips that will go into vehicles or go into electronics because America has not been producing those. Our goal is to identify where those shortages are and bring that production back to the United States. Long term we have to begin processing our rare minerals into computer chips that will make our electronics work well into the 21^st century.”

Davis says the best way that the country can insulate from supply chain issues is to manufacture more goods in the United States and not be at the whims of trade with foreign nations. Davis says he hopes over the long term that the act will put manufacturing back in rural communities, especially.

“My goal long term is to come up with some kind of a program working with an agency, let’s say like the Small Business Administration, so that if a company decides to locate to an area around Morgan County for example that has some industrial park space. An industrial park space that may have been paid for in partnership by the Federal Government through the USDA or EDA. If a company decides to locate to that area then what we would envision is, once that company met a threshold of a certain amount of employees and begin producing those products that have been identified as shortages in our supply chain, then they might have their initial business loan somewhat forgiven. I think that would also encourage much more production within the United States because we are going to show the rest of the world that the United States is not going to give up the future of manufacturing into the 21^st century.”

The legislation 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 critical infrastructure sectors. The key sectors in the bill range from Agriculture, Chemicals to Transportation and Water Treatment.

The bill is currently awaiting a committee assignment.

A Hillsboro woman with a last known address in Waverly wanted in several Central Illinois counties on various charges is back on the run.

25 year old Abigail L. Martin failed to appear in Morgan County Court yesterday for a pre-trial hearing on a forgery charge. Martin’s charges in Morgan County stem from an incident on the afternoon of April 1^st, 2019 in which she allegedly entered a Jacksonville car dealership with an intent to purchase a vehicle using a presumed stolen check.

Martin also faces charges in Montgomery County for which she failed to appear in court on November 1^st for a pre-trial hearing. The Montgomery County charges stem from an April 29, 2020 arrest by Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies after a former employee of the Hillsboro Rehabilitation and Health Care Center reported Martin for practicing as a nurse without a license at the center. n investigation by Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies revealed 2 former employees of the facility who had worked with Martin claimed that she could not perform basic nursing skills. Later it was learned that the license that Martin was allegedly using was that of another person. Martin is currently facing a felony identify theft charge and misdemeanor practicing as an advanced practice nurse without a license in Montgomery County court, as well as bond forfeiture in the case.

Martin’s alleged crimes also filter into Fulton, Greene, and Madison Counties. The charges range from practicing as a nurse without a license in a Madison County hospital, theft, identity theft, possession of a stolen vehicle, and deceptive practice.

If Martin is found guilty of any of the charges in each of the counties, those sentences could possibly be consecutive and for a lengthy amount of time. Martin was found fit to stand trial in the Greene County case earlier this summer.

Virginia High School is on remote learning for the rest of the week.

Superintendent Gary DePatis announced on the district’s Facebook Page on Monday that in conjunction with the Cass County Health Department, the high school would be on remote learning due to the current percentages of positive COVID cases. Students will resume in-person education back at Virginia High School on Monday, according to the announcement.

Elementary and jr. high students will continue to attend in-person. The only event effected by the decision to go remote was the cancellation of the elementary school’s Holiday Music Program on Wednesday next week.

In conjunction with the remote learning period, high school athletes will not be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities.

Virginia was the 3^rd School District in Central Illinois today to announce it would be returning to remote learning. Buffalo-Tri City announced that it would be on remote learning until January 10^th while it deals with a large percentage of Covid cases.

Pleasant Hill had to cancel their basketball game with Calhoun tonight at the North Greene Spartan Classic, after their district also decided to go fully remote due to a massive uptick of Covid exclusions and isolation cases along with a surge of influenza cases within the district.