The Illinois Department of Public Health has added a partner to enhance and expand K-12 schools COVID-19 testing.

To help increase capacity and facilitate faster access to COVID-19 testing in schools across the state, IDPH says it is partnering with the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Midwest COVID-19 Testing Coordination Center, known as MCC. IDPH is hoping to provide testing to all public and private schools that are now seeking to establish or expedite the onboarding of a testing program. The partnership will also allow IDPH to tap into additional federal funding under the HHS “Operation Expanded Testing” program.

The Biden Administration’s MCC covers 16 states and is managed by Battelle, a Columbus, Ohio-based non-profit research and development company.

Starting in April, IDPH announced 75% of Illinois public school districts outside of Chicago were eligible for free testing through SHIELD Illinois. All public and private schools outside of Chicago became eligible for free testing in July. SHIELD Illinois now has testing agreements with more than 400 school entities — more than 300 public school districts and more than 100 private schools. Those public districts represent more than 1,700 schools and more than 1 million public school students and staff outside of Chicago. However, more than 70% of SHIELD districts signed up after August 1^st, resulting in a surge in demand that has lengthened the time it takes schools to complete their onboarding steps.

In recent weeks, SHIELD Illinois has taken other steps to speed up the onboarding process: launching a dashboard to bring greater transparency so schools can better monitor their status, adding regional drop-off locations to reduce transportation time to labs, and hiring additional staff to assist schools with onboarding and testing.

According to IDPH, schools will follow MCC’s self-collection protocol and ship the samples to a member of MCC’s lab network. Shipping is covered by MCC and SHIELD Illinois. They will reimburse districts $8 per test to cover the cost for schools to collect samples and implement a testing program.

SHIELD Illinois has performed more than 1 million tests at schools, universities, colleges, community colleges, and businesses statewide. Schools looking for more information or to sign up for MCC testing testedandprotected.org.

The Morgan County Health Department has confirmed yet another death from COVID-19 today.

Health Department officials received confirmation of the death of a woman in her 70s at home on September 11^th from the virus. The death marks the 120^th in the county attributed to the virus. Morgan County Health Officials also confirmed 8 new positive cases today, bringing the total number of active cases in the county to 37, with 5 of those hospitalized.

The Cass County Health Department reported 8 new cases yesterday. They retracted one reported case from Wednesday. After further investigation, according to Cass Health Officials, the case was incorrectly assigned to Cass County. Cass’s current active case count is 70, with 5 hospitalized.

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced 19,224 new cases of COVID-19 reported for the state over the past week, including 209 additional deaths since their previous report on October 1^st. IDPH as of today, 54% of the state’s population is considered fully vaccinated. The preliminary 7-day statewide test positivity rate is at 2.6%.

The Village of South Jacksonville is one baby step closer to having a full time fire chief.

Last night, the village approved a transition to a full-time fire chief position. The ordinance that passed last night allows a couple of members of the fire department to temporarily run the fire department for current part-time Fire Chief Richard Evans, Jr. while the village works out particulars on creating a job description, salary schedule, and legal procedures for creating the new position in the village.

Village President Mike Broaddus explained why to the board he wanted to get the transition passed last night: “November 1st is the cut-off period for the fire department for their pay, okay? That’s when they get their Christmas check. They only get paid once a year – that’s their stipend and their pay. So, if we don’t get Rich now and we try to do it later on in the year, basically then what we are going to have to do is pay his stipend and all the calls he’s been on plus move him to salary. That’s why I’m so in favor of getting this done now, and there is also other projects that needs attention. We need to get our fire district [set up]. We need to get the ambulance going, but the thing is, we need Rich to have time. Rich is amazing, and he can’t keep going with what he’s doing. He can’t keep working a full-time job and giving of himself like this. There’s a toll on his family. We keep talking about this every month, and we keep pushing the can down the road.”

Broaddus says that the board deserves to give Evans an answer on whether he will become the full time chief or not by the end of the month. Trustee Paula Belobradjic-Stewart raised questions prior to the vote about the legal ramifications of creating a position specifically for a person without opening up the newly created position to the public at large to apply for it.

She says the questions arise from following proper procedure and also wanting to protect Evans from potentially being outbid by another person to come in and apply for the position. She also said she wished to avoid what had happened in the recent past: “Currently, we are facing 3 positions that were created without [the board] approving them. We haven’t dealt with those yet. We are creating a position that we don’t even have a job description for yet nor a salary range. I’m also confused about if we are creating a new position, I don’t feel it’s legal. If we already have someone in a part-time position, you just can’t create a new position and not open it, I would assume. What if there are full time chiefs somewhere else that want to apply? I’m playing devil’s advocate. Are we creating a position for this person or are you creating a position for the Village? This is the discussion we have not had.” Stewart said she was 100% in favor of creating the transition to begin discussion of actually creating the position.

Evans says overall the passage of the transition is the step in the right direction to move the department forward: “The duties that come with this position and the growing community. We are not a sleepy little village anymore. There’s a huge gap not being filled with just the daily duties to keep up with on the fire department. The community relations with businesses, the citizens, and also looking at our ambulance service coming back; we need somebody there to oversee the daily operations of it all. There is also a lot of time that’s put into administrative work.”

Evans says once the job is officially created and he is hired, he has several long-term goals for the department, including continued grant writing to update equipment on an annual basis and possibly transitioning the department to a hybrid department where 2 to 3 firefighters are considered to be employed full-time and on call 24 hours a day.

The village board is expected to reach a consensus or possibly will create an action item for a special vote at the end of the month’s scheduled committee of the whole meeting.

The State of Illinois has reached agreement with two more state employee unions requiring COVID-19 vaccines for certain state workers.

Governor J.B. Pritzker’s Office announced yesterday that the Illinois Nurses Association and Illinois Federation of Public Employees that will ensure that their nearly 1,300 state employee membership are required to be vaccinated.

The Illinois Nurses Association covers approximately 1,000 employees in many of the state’s long-term care facilities for the Department of Human Services, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and nurses who work in the Illinois Department of Corrections. The Illinois Federation of Public Employees covers about 160 employees working in Human Services and Veterans’ Affairs. Employees must receive their first shot by October 14th. Should an employee elect a two-dose vaccine, they must receive the second shot by November 18^th.

According to the agreement if employees don’t meet the dates, progressive disciplinary measures will be implemented, which may ultimately lead to discharge. The agreement includes a process whereby employees can seek an exemption based on medical contraindications or sincerely-held religious beliefs.

To further encourage vaccinations under the agreement with the unions, employees will receive an additional personal day. If the vaccine administration is not available during an employee’s regularly scheduled shift, the employee may be compensated at their regular pay for the time taken to receive the vaccine. In addition, vaccinated employees will receive paid “COVID time,” so that if a vaccinated employee gets COVID-19, or must quarantine due to COVID-19, they will receive a period of paid time off without using their benefit time.

Illinois reached its first union agreement with VR-704 on September 20^th covering 260 supervisory employees at the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.

A man stopped by Morgan County Sheriff’s Deputies with a half ton of marijuana in his vehicle nearly 4 years ago in South Jacksonville has yielded a guilty plea in the State of New York for whom the drugs actually belonged to.

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice Western District District of New York Office, 33 year old Robert Fiels of Springfield, Oregon plead guilty to being a part of a cross-country drug trafficking conspiracy. Fiels was cited for conspiring to possess with intent to deliver and distribute 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years to life in prison and a $10 million fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua A. Violanti, who is handling the case in the New York office, says that the defendant served as the main source in a cross-country trafficking chain for marijuana and marijuana-based products through using the U.S. Postal Service, andAmTrak. Fiels also utilized individuals, often called “mules,” including co-defendant 46 year old Syed Ahmad formerly of Houston, Texas among others to deliver those products between 2016 and June 2019. On June 29, 2020, law enforcement executed search warrants at three locations in Oregon associated with Fiels, including his residence, work apartment, and the residence of his former girlfriend where they recovered marijuana, marijuana-based products, Post Office parcels, drug paraphernalia, packing materials, scales, psychedelic mushrooms, liquid steroids, and two firearms. Fiels plea was able to be pursued due to multi-state jurisdiction cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and the DEA.

At approximately 10AM on December 31, 2017, Morgan County Sheriff’s Deputies along with other local law enforcement members along with the DEA recovered approximately a half ton or 1,000 pounds of marijuana from an RV driven by Ahmad and 24 year old Muhammed Usama after a traffic stop at Love’s in South Jacksonville. The marijuana belonged to Fiels, according to the release, and was destined for several locations around the country.

Charges remain pending in federal court against Ahmad and Fiels’ other associates. Sentencing for Fiels is scheduled for February 17, 2022.

Ameren-Illinois is deploying a new tool to help find gas leaks in the state.

The new “gas sniffer” vehicle works by deploying a high-tech analyzer on the rear of a hybrid electric car. As the vehicle drives through city streets, it detects the presence of methane and ethane and passes air samples to a device that records wind speed and directional readings, creating a digital map to pinpoint the possible location of a natural gas leak.

Eric Kozak, Ameren’s Vice President of Natural Gas Operations says it will help the company analyze its infrastructure faster and more efficiently: “We walk our entire gas system once every 4 years. That’s what we do looking for leaks. Our people carry an instrument and walk along the ground and do that with an instrument that has a sensitivity ranging in parts per million. This [new] unit in the vehicle actually has a sensitivity rating that’s one thousand times greater at parts per billion. It’s more sensitive technology. They literally drive it up and down the street and it puts indications of leaks on a map on a GPS-accurate map and then we can go investigate those [locations]. It’s actually really cool.”

Kozak says it will somewhat eliminate technicians walking yards and streets to detect leaks. Kozak says its yet another tool that Ameren can use to continue to be good environmental stewards, while providing good service to its customers.

October is Infant Safe Sleep Awareness Month.

Unsafe sleep is a leading cause of death for children one year old and younger. Last year in Illinois 114 infants died as a result of unsafe sleep practices. Department of Child and Family Services Spokesperson Deborah Lopez says there are important steps parents can take to ensure their babies are safe when they are put to bed: “Infants should always sleep alone, on their backs, and in a safe crib with a firm mattress and tightly-fitted sheet. The crib should be free of pillows, blankets, bumper pads, and stuffed animals and toys. An infant should never be placed in an adult bed or couch to sleep. Infants are in danger when they are in a location that is not in a crib, bassinet, or pack-and-play. They should be placed on their backs, as well; and should not co-sleep with another person.”

Of the children that died last year due to unsafe sleep practices, DCFS says 97 were found in locations other than a crib, bassinet, or pack-and-play, 73 were found in positions other than on their back, and 83 were co-sleeping with another individual at the time of death.

The Illinois Republican Congressional Delegation feel like the residents of the State of Illinois are being scammed by State Democrats on the Congressional redistricting process.

That was the sentiment released in a joint release by the 5 Republican Congress people yesterday:

“In Springfield and Washington, Illinois Democrats like to talk about empowering voters, but their sham redistricting process shows they only care about protecting their own political power. Illinois citizens have been clear that they want an independent redistricting process free of political influence, but as we speak, Democrat lawmakers are picking their own voters behind closed doors.

“We would hope Governor Pritzker keeps his campaign promise to veto any map drawn by politicians, but our failed governor has shown twice already that he’s perfectly fine with lying to the people of Illinois if it means his party can stay in power. The Democrats’ corruption in Illinois will continue as long as Pritzker and Democrats in Springfield can pre-ordain the results of elections before voters cast a ballot.” 

According to Capitol News Illinois, only one person testified at the scheduled Congressional Redistricting yesterday in Chicago. Ryan Tolley, policy director for the advocacy group CHANGE Illinois, urged the House Redistricting Committee to listen to community groups and afford them more opportunity than they had during the legislative redistricting process to review any proposed new maps before they are voted on.

The new Congressional maps have not yet been revealed. State lawmakers are expected to vote on them during the Fall veto session beginning October 19^th. The next public hearing is set for Noon Tuesday in Joliet.

Three free seminars will be held next week in Jacksonville to help residents pay their rent.

Jacksonville Memorial Hospital’s Healthy Communities Collaborative has partnered with MCS Community Services to provide the seminars for residents who have fallen behind in their rent payments due to COVID-19.

The seminars will be held at:

• 10 a.m. at Beecher High Rise, located at 301 West Beecher Avenune,
• 1PM at the Turner High Rise, located at 800 Hoagland Boulevard,
• 2PM at Vas Community Center, located at 612 North West Street

all on October 15^th in Jacksonville

Jacksonville Memorial Hospital’s Director of Community Health Lori Hartz says the goal from the seminars is to keep people from being evicted and to help tenants apply for rental assistance.

Illinois’ eviction moratorium expired this past Sunday.