The Morgan County Commissioners say that a balance budget is on tap for fiscal year 2022.

Commissioner Chair Ginny Fanning says despite the challenges of last year, revenues and expenditures are balanced with no surprises, but federal grant money jumped due to the American Rescue Plan: “We are fortunate that we are presenting a balanced budget for 2022. We have seen a slight increase in some of our revenue line items such as sales tax, income tax, and so forth. One of the line items that will show a large increase (if people do take a look at our budget) is under our federal grants, because with the American Rescue Plan Act, the county is receiving $6,537,672. That is showing as a revenue item, but also then as an expense item.”

Fanning says the county has some time to evaluate how to spend the money, but everything else in the budget is standard: “That money will be able to be spent until 2024. We are not expecting that to be spent in this fiscal year, but we wanted to, of course, include it in our budget. We also under our line items, we have added our wind energy escrow income of $100,000, which is for the road use agreement [for the Lincoln Land Wind Project.] There are a few new items in our budget for this year, otherwise it is very standard. According to what the previous years have shown, [the commissioners] appreciate very much our elected officials and our department heads who have been very cautious in their spending.”

Fanning says that the county has given all the non-union county employees a 3% raise while negotiations with the 3 remaining unions for the county still under negotiation.

One of the plans for spending of the ARP funds is going towards the Morgan County Health Department’s move into the former Putnam-Springer Arts Building on the former MacMurray College campus. Work is currently under way to replace the roof and install a parking lot on the east and south sides of the building. Fanning says that the move should be completed by the end of the year.

The Jacksonville Area Museum will have a lead-in program ahead of their Smithsonian exhibit in November.

According to a press release today, Constitution Day will be commemorated in Jacksonville on Wednesday, September 15th with a program on free speech in America. The program, sponsored by the Jacksonville Area Museum, will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Lovejoy Hall at 520 West College Avenue and is free and open to the public.

Illinois College Professor Dr. Dane Wendell will present “Can Free Speech Last in America Today?” The program will serve as lead-in to the Smithsonian “Voices and Votes” exhibit coming to the Jacksonville Area Museum on November 20th through December 25th.

A Zoom link for those who wish to attend remotely will be posted prior to the event on the Jacksonville Area Museum’s Faceook page.

The Jacksonville Area Museum will officially open to the public on September 25th. Visit jacksonvilleareamuseum.org for more information or to become a member.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Department is reporting a 1-vehicle crash at approximately 4:30 this afternoon

There is a possibility that the vehicle may have hydroplaned due to wet road conditions.

A dark, gray van left the roadway and overturned into a ditch on Arenzville Road just south of Six Mile Road in rural Cass County. No injuries have been reported.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Department reported the road was closed for approximately one hour due to clean up. No further information is available.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is launching a new project to digitize thousands of related images and documents.

Thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Illinois State Library, Lincoln Library officials will be scanning and digitizing everything from rare and delicate photos of Lincoln to posters, memorabilia, and letters.

Library spokesperson Chris Wills says the extensive project will cover several hundred items: “What’s really going to be special about this is it will be provided in such high resolution – 600 DPI. When someone downloads one of these, they will be able to see it basically the same way they would see it here at the library in person looking at these documents with their own eyes. We’ve got, of course, just pictures of the president but also hundreds of posters related to him. For instance, the Wanted poster, the reward poster that was put out after his death and then all kinds of memorabilia produced over the years.”

Wills says the project will likely take library personnel a couple of years to complete. The images will be available to the public on the Illinois Digital Archives’ website at idaillinois.org.

Two Jacksonville area assisted living centers have been fined by the Illinois Department of Public Health for violations over the last quarter.

The Journal-Courier reports that Campbell Court, located at 426 East Douglas Avenue was fined $6,250 by IDPH for a Class A-violation for a resident who broke his femur after falling in the shower. Campbell Court is operated by Galesburg-based Community Living Options. A December inspection report says that the fall occurred in November of last year requiring the resident to have surgery and then after release from the hospital, the 62-year old male resident was readmitted to the hospital days later for pneumonia. Campbell Court has filed an appeal in the case.

The report also says that Heritage Health-Jacksonville self-reported to the Illinois Department of Public Health on Nov. 7 that an 82-year-old woman was taken to the hospital after falling the day before. It was determined the resident had fallen five times in the 60 days prior to the hospital visit according to an investigation report. Heritage Health was fined $2,200 for the Class B violation.

A third nursing home in the area is also being sued by an area family in Morgan County Court for negligence. Jacksonville Skilled Nursing and Rehab operated by Covenant Care Jacksonville, LLC was sued for wrongful death on June 16^th for failing to put protocols in place for a female resident prone to falls. The results of the ongoing litigation have not been released.

Morgan County’s COVID-19 numbers took a step in the right direction over the weekend.

25 new cases were reported today since the Morgan County Health Department’s previous report on Friday. The majority of cases are in age groups 20 and below.

There remains 93 active cases in the county with 11 currently hospitalized. Of the recently reported outbreaks, 4 employees and 3 residents remain positive at Heritage Health; 10 employees are positive at Nestle; 2 employees and 2 residents are at Cedarhurst; and 16 cases remain positive at Wal-Mart.

The total of new cases over the last week was 79, that’s 30 cases down from a previous high of 109 two weeks ago.

The War in Afghanistan is officially over.

According to the Pentagon, at 3:29 Eastern Standard Time yesterday, the last C-17 lifted off with American troops out of the country, completing the longest war in U.S. History, surpassing the Vietnam War by roughly 5 months.

The nearly two-decade long conflict had its presence felt here in the area with the deaths of Sgt. Matthew W. Weikert of Jacksonville on July 17, 2010, Staff Sgt. Joshua D. Powell of Pleasant Plains on Sept. 21, 2010; and Sgt. Andrew R. Tobin of Jacksonville on August 24, 2011.

Overall, 90 Illinois residents died in the conflict. 19,950 soldiers were wounded in total for the United States.

The Pike County Sheriff’s Department arrested four individuals over the weekend on various drug and gun charges.

On Thursday, August 26th, at approximately 10:54PM the Pike County Sheriff’s Department conducted a traffic stop on Interstate 72 near milepost 20, just outside of Barry.

Subsequent to an investigation, police arrested 43 year old Christy L. Bass of Amarillo, Texas and 45 year old Barry C. Washington of Hart, Texas on valid warrants out of McLean County, Illinois. Additionally, Bass and Washington were arrested on new charges of unlawful possession of methamphetamine, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, and unlawful possession of hypodermic syringes after a brief search. Both Bass and Washington are lodged at the Pike County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bond.

On Friday, August 27th at 1:11AM, the Pike County Sheriff’s Department conducted a traffic stop on Illinois Route 106 near 475th Street in Detroit. Subsequent to an investigation, the driver, 22 year old Dakota L. Matthews of Roodhouse was arrested on charges of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, and unlawful use of weapon after a brief search. Matthews is lodged at the Pike County Jail on $5,000 bond.

At 8:22PM Friday, he Pike County Sheriff’s Department executed a court-authorized search warrant at a home on 340th Avenue in rural Griggsville. Subsequent to an investigation, 59 year old Douglas D. Reese of Griggsville was arrested on charges of unlawful possession of methamphetamine, unlawful possession of hypodermic syringes, and unlawful possession of firearms by a felon. He is currently being held on $12,000 bond at the Pike County Jail.

An Auburn man’s family is suing Memorial Health Systems to allow for a controversial treatment for COVID-19.

The family of 61 year old Randy Clouse of Auburn is suing Memorial to allow for the administration of the drug Ivermectin to be use to treat Clouse’s COVID infection.

Ivermectin is an FDA-approved medication that’s used to treat parasites in both humans and animals. The FDA has not approved the drug to be used for treatment of COVID-19 though, and according to their website from March of this year. The World Health Organization also said in March that the drug can only be used within clinical trials still under way and that’s effectiveness against COVID-19 is inconclusive.

Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida’s Poison Control Centers have all recently reported an increase in calls about negative reactions from people that have taken ivermectin doses meant for animals on their own time.

According to WICS, the Clouse family is being represented by Buffalo, New York-based attorney Ralph Lorigo found a Sangamon County doctor to prescribe the medication and a local judge has sided with the family to allow the drug to be used. According to the report, Clouse has been on a ventilator for the past 25-30 days and the hospital has followed their sets of protocol to treat the disease. The hospital has refused to follow the court order and the lawsuit will be heading to court. Memorial has not issued a response about the case due to pending litigation.

A West Central Illinois organization continues to help find homes for homeless veterans in the area. 2×4’s for Hope started construction on their eleventh tiny home and their first project in Rushville on Saturday.

WGEM in Quincy reports that a veteran, who had been homeless for several months, will be able to move into the newly constructed unit on Sunday. 2X4’s For Hope is a global 501C3 non-profit organization founded by Mark and Chris Lawrence of Quincy in 2015 to help build homes for homeless and at-risk veterans. The group has completed home builds in Quincy, Lincoln, Carthage, and Madison with upcoming projects set for Mt. Sterling.

Each home measures 576-square feet and costs around $45,000 dollars to build. Lawrence told WGEM that the homes are completely free for the veterans. Each home is constructed using boards signed with hopeful messages for the veterans by donors.

The group will hold a ribbon cutting for the home on September 17^th.