Travelers heading westbound along Illinois Route 108 through Greene County will have to take the long way around to get to Calhoun County starting September 13^th.

The Illinois Department of Transportation is scheduled to close the Kampsville Ferry for approximately 17 days to make improvements and repairs to the Ferry’s landings on both sides of the Illinois River.

IDOT Spokesperson Paul Wappell says that motorists will see some big changes to the approaches after the repairs are made: “The project includes reconstruction of the approach roadway ramps to the Kampsville Ferry – one ramp on each side of the Illinois River. Reconstruction of the parking lots, sidewalks made ADA compliant, and new lighting facilities and pavement markings. The ferry closure is scheduled for September 13th through September 30th and it will be to reconstruct both approaches, roadways, ramps on each side of the river. The reconstruction involves removing the old pavement and replacing it with new, more substantial concrete.”

IDOT is using a combination of the annual Ferry Boat Program Funds from the Federal Highway Administration, with a 20% state match along with federal COVID Supplemental funds.

Residents in the area will have to travel approximately 10 miles south to Hardin to cross the Joe Page Bridge to pass over the Illinois River during construction.

The City of Roodhouse will be honoring a late citizen on Friday with a memorial in the city Park.

A large memorial rock is set to be dedicated to Dr. Ludwig Dech on Friday at 3PM. Dech, was a citizen and medical doctor in the northern Greene County area since September 1958.

Dech, a native of Yugoslavia, grew up in Germany, earned his doctorate in Austria, and then, immigrated to the United States in 1956. According to the Greene Prairie Press, while interning at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois and while taking his state board exam, Dech was recruited to come to Roodhouse because the town needed a physician at that time.

According to a 2000 article in the State Journal Register, Dech estimated that he delivered more than 1,300 children in the Greene County area during his years of practice. Dech formally retired in 2001 after serving at the old White Hall Hospital and in private practice for 43 years. He was also a common figure at the local high school each year performing sports physicals for student-athletes. Dech was a lifelong lover of outdoor sports and travel. Dech passed away at the age of 92 on July 25, 2019 in Carrollton.

A Carrollton woman who accused a Murrayville man of aggravated stalking and violating an order of protection will be serving time in the Greene County Jail.

41 year old Sarah R. Baumgartner gave an open guilty plea in Greene County Court on Monday for filing a false police report, a Class 4 Felony.

According to charging documents, Baumgartner told Carrollton Police on April 23rd that 48 year old Jason E. Wyatt of Murrayville had threatened her over text message on April 15th, threatened her in person on April 18th & 19th with bodily harm and sexual assault, and on April 19th detained her in a vehicle not allowing her to leave. The two were believed to be in a personal relationship that allegedly ended poorly.

Baumgartner had petitioned and was granted an emergency order of protection against Wyatt on March 19th. A warrant was issued for Wyatt’s arrest in the alleged incidents on April 23rd. Wyatt ended up turning himself into Greene County Sheriff’s Deputies on June 3rd for the case after the Greene County Sheriff’s Department placed a bulletin out for his arrest, believing him to be a threat to the public.

Baumgartner was also charged with wire fraud in the case after she allegedly attempted to bilk rental assistance out of Wyatt’s landlord according to testimony heard in court in early August.

Baumgartner was sentenced to 120 days in the Greene County Jail with credit for 48 days served, 30 months of adult probation, plus fees and court costs. The wire fraud charge was dropped per the plea. A separate possession of methamphetamine charge was dismissed with leave to reinstate.

The re-map of Illinois’ state legislative districts passed last night in special session. It now heads to the governor’s desk and in front of a 3-judge panel to see if it will remain intact.

If it does remain, it may result in the retirement of one Central Illinois Republican lawmaker.

WMAY reports that current 99^th District Representative Mike Murphy of Springfield says he will step aside rather than give a primary challenge to current 95^th District Representative Avery Bourne. The two GOP Representatives have been drawn into the new 108^th District that stretches from Menard County down to Staunton in southern Macoupin County.

Murphy, who was first elected to the Illinois House in 2018, says he’s known Bourne for years and sees her as the future of the Illinois GOP, and says he has no interest in facing off against her.

Locally, 100^th District Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer has been drawn into the new 99^th District which stretches from Ashland to Quincy. The district splits Morgan County in two, with the southern portions of the former 100^th district now on its own without Jacksonville. Davidsmeyer may face a primary challenge from 94^th District Representative Randy Frese of Quincy.

The state will have no ethics reform for now. The Illinois House failed to pass Governor J.B. Pritzker’s amendatory veto in the 11^th hour last night. Pritzker characterized the veto as a technical change involving language with the office of the Inspector General.

During short debate last night, Representative Kelly Burke, chief sponsor of the original bill pulled the bill from the record. To pass the bill, the House needed a 2/3 majority. Burke resubmitted the bill to be voted on after several House Democrats had left the session, but it failed to pass with a 59-35 vote along party lines. State Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer called the bill watered down and says it doesn’t go far enough to end corruption in the state: “If you ever want real ethics reform, we have to do it. We can’t just wait for the next group to come along and do the right thing. We have to be those people to do the right thing, and now is the time…or we can just continue to wait for more indictments and more things to slip by and let people to keep abusing this position. We need to pass real ethics reform, not watered down nonsense.”

Despite the lack of passage last night, the bill is a renewable motion and can be voted on again at a later time.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced on Monday that the state would be extending its eviction moratorium.

The court-announced order will extend the temporary stay on certain residential evictions has been pushed to September 18^th. The previous order to stay evictions was slated to end today.

The new order also includes provisions that exempt cases where rental assistance is clearly not viable and there is no reason to delay trial. Courts are to generally defer to the rental assistance programs for eligibility determinations, only substituting their own assessments when the matter is clear and free from doubt. The order also permits landlords to challenge the veracity of a tenant’s declaration.

Residents in Cass County can call Western Illinois Dreamers at 224-501-4479 or the Illinois Migrant Council at 815-995-0300 for assistance options. Those in need of legal assistance in the entire listening area may call the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance at 855-631-0811. For all other counties, visit illinoisrentalassistance.org or call 866-454-3571.

A Jacksonville man facing life imprisonment for alleged predatory criminal sexual assault of a minor is set to be re-evaluated by a psychologist.

36 year old Larry D. Johnson was evaluated by Dr. Daniel J. Cuneo back in January of last year. Johnson is facing four counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child in relation to events that happened to two juveniles in Jacksonville in September 2018.

Morgan County State’s Attorney Gray Noll explains that the court has now asked a second expert, Dr. Terry Killian to rule whether Johnson now qualifies to plead not guilty by reason of insanity: “Back in February 2020, the defendant was unfit to stand trial and was remanded to the Department of Human Services to a secure facility for treatment. He was treated, and ultimately, transferred back to the Morgan County Detention Facility after that treatment. There was a hearing and the defendant was fit to stand trial at that point. Since that time, the defendant’s attorney, Mr. [Tom] Piper has asked the court, and that motion was granted, that the defendant be evaluated for the purpose of [being found] not guilty by reason of insanity. The defense attorney, Mr. Piper, engaged Dr. Cuneo to perform that evaluation. However, Dr. Cuneo indicated in his evaluation that he couldn’t evaluate for not guilty by reason of insanity purposes, because, in his opinion, the defendant is still unfit to stand trial.”

Noll says that the motion of evaluation for not guilty by reason of insanity is tabled until Dr. Killian provides a report to the court within the next few months. During court today, Morgan County Judge Chris Reif asked Johnson directly to take care of himself, because there was some indication that Johnson had not been eating regularly and taking prescribed medication. Johnson told the court he wasn’t going to comply because he didn’t think the medication was helping him.

Johnson’s case is due for a status hearing in Morgan County Court on October 19^th.

An Auburn man’s family lost a bid in Sangamon County Court yesterday to administer an unapproved treatment for COVID-19.

The State Journal Register reports that the family of 61 year old Randy Clouse of Auburn lost her bid to force Memorial to allow her husband to receive ivermectin. The Clouse Family Attorney, Ralph Lorigo of West Seneca, New York argued in front of Sangamon Judge Adam Giganti that the family should have the right to try to save Clouse through the treatment. Springfield lawyer William Davis of Brown, Hay & Stephens, representing Memorial, said the drug as a COVID-19 treatment is unproven and potentially unsafe.

Davis also criticized the Chicago internist Dr. Alan Bain for prescribing the drug to Clouse, saying the doctor failed to perform adequate review of Clouse’s medical history and chose to ignore widespread medical advice about the use of the drug against COVID-19. Davis at one point argued that Clouse was being used a guinea pig, according to the SJ-R. In a written response to the suit on Friday, Memorial officials said Clouse’s medical condition is “presently improving,” and he no longer has an active COVID-19 infection but is currently fighting with a cyst in his liver. Giganti denied Lorigo’s request for a court delay for a day or two so Bain could review medical records of the cyst.

Giganti denied the family’s request for an injunction. It is unclear if the Clouse Family will appeal the ruling to the Illinois Appellate Court.

Ivermectin isn’t approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Association for use in COVID-19 patients. However, interest in the drug has grown since the resurgence of COVID-19 through the Delta variant. Families across the country have convinced several doctors to prescribe the treatment despite recommendations against using it from the CDC and the WHO.

Ivermectin in a pill form is used to treat parasitic worms in humans and a topical solution is used to treat skin conditions. Initial research on the drug in 6 active clinical trials are underway. The National Health Institute, who is supervising the studies, says there is insufficient evidence to recommend either for or against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 concluding more significant study is needed.

The Illinois College sports schedule gets into full swing this week, but only a select few people will get to see them in person. The first football game is Thursday night versus Lakeland College at 6PM. Men’s & Women’s Tennis kick off their home schedule on Friday, with volleyball starting its home schedule Tuesday, September 7th versus Webster University. View the schedule here.

The school released guidelines for attendance yesterday. According to the policy, only students, faculty, staff, and personally invited family members by athletes are going to be admitted to England Stadium, King Fieldhouse and Sherman Gymnasium. Student-athletes will have a limited number of designated passes to provide to family members to attend.

Interim Athletic Director Megan Roman says that the protocols are in place to protect and limit exposure to COVID-19 for the campus and its student-athletes as well as the community at large.

Those in attendance are asked to stay away from the playing surfaces before, during, and after competitions; leave at least 2 empty seats between household units, and leave the venue immediately at the conclusion of competitions. No tailgating will be allowed for any events this year. Masks are required for any indoor attendance.

Roman says that those who wish to watch football and soccer still have a chance to watch the games. She says with the current layout of England Stadium, fans may watch the game from behind the fence along Edgehill Road and Park Street. Roman says there is a nice berm that fans can put down blankets or set up chairs to watch the games outside the fence.

Fans of golf, tennis and cross country will not be required to be on a pass list but will be asked to stay in designated fan areas during competition.

Roman says the plan, like everything at this time, is fluid and may change depending on whatever turn the Covid-19 pandemic takes.

A northern Macoupin County school is moving to full remote learning and cancelling all extracurricular activities due to a large number of COVID-19 cases.

North Mac Community Unified School District 34 Superintendent Jay Goble sent out a voice mail to parents of North Mac High School on Monday afternoon informing them that the school would be entering full remote learning for an indefinite amount of time.

The changes came on the same day that about 50 students and a few staff members at North Mac High School walked out of class to protest the North Mac School District’s COVID-19 testing and quarantine policies. The walkout stemmed from six players on the North Mac High School football team getting exposed to COVID-19 on Monday, August 23^rd.

In order to play football against Riverton on Saturday, some of the players went and got rapid COVID-19 tests at White Oaks Mall in Springfield. The results came back negative, but the North Mac School District said the tests wouldn’t work to clear the students because the tests needed to happen on campus. Students had police called on them and the high school principal warned students against the walk out, according to a report from WICS Newschannel 20.

According to the voicemail sent out by Goble on Monday, “Currently there are 9 positive cases at North Mac High School and 118 students being quarantined, which is over 30% of the entire student body.” Goble says the quarantine and testing measures are directly from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the school is simply following protocols. Goble also has said that the remote learning call was not because of the staged walk-out. The Illinois State Board of Education has placed 60 districts on probation since Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a mask mandate on all schools on August 4th for not being in compliance with IDPH and the mask mandate protocols.

According to Macoupin County Court records today, four sets of parents have filed for a temporary restraining order against the school district’s policies for both quarantine and for the move to remote learning. The families have also requested a declaratory judgment of relief in a separate filing. The TRO and judgment name both the school district and Goble as plaintiffs. The families are being represented by Attorney Thomas DeVore. A hearing was held today in Carlinville at 2PM, with several of the families and students from the previous day’s walk out holding a similar protest at the courthouse prior to the hearing. 7th Circuit Judge April Troemper heard preliminary arguments in the case. However, a ruling on both the TRO and judgment have not been currently been released.

This is a developing story. We will continue to provide more information when it becomes available.