The Morgan County Commissioners met for less than 5 minutes yesterday morning, undertaking just two action items.

Commissioner Chair Ginny Fanning says there were four major bills on tap for the county this month: “We have bills in the amount of $82,268.32. Included in that is our DevNet for our computer equipment maintenance at $10,609.55; our Regional Office of Education quarterly invoice which will close this fiscal year at $20,274.80 and then we had two budgeted items that we pay yearly. The first is to our animal control for our annual county fee of $14,667 and then to the Morgan County Health Department for the solid waste management that they take care of and that is a budgeted amount of $5,000. Those were the four larger items that we had for this bill cycle.”

During Chair remarks, Fanning says the upcoming county budget should be available for public inspection on Friday. Commissioner Brad Zeller says that three union contracts are under current negotiations and the salaries for employees covered under those contracts will be amended into the budget after Friday at some point. He indicated that contract negotiations are coming along fine and does not expect any problems.

The county’s new fiscal year begins on September 1^st.

The Morgan County Health Department announced a large jump in COVID-19 cases from the previous week.

99 cases were reported for the week ending Sunday, August 8^th. The case ranges from infants all the way up to persons in their 80s. It’s a 28-case jump from last week’s reported 71 cases.

The Health Department also received notification of two additional deaths attributed to the virus over the past week. Currently, there are 95 active cases with 6 of those hospitalized.

According to currently listed outbreaks in the county, Jacksonville Skilled Nursing & Rehab currently has 14 staff and 37 residents positive for COVID-19. The Jacksonville Wal-Mart currently has 10 staff positive for the virus.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health’s current vaccination data, Morgan County has 42.32% of the population fully vaccinated.

The Illinois State Fair is offering a way to get a refund on purchased grandstand tickets.

Tickets purchased in person or by phone through the state fair grandstand office can be refunded by submitting a form with the purchased ticket(s) attached. The refund form is available at the state fair box office and online at the bottom of the Illinois State Fair webpage.

The refund form and ticket(s) can either be mailed to, or dropped off at, the state fair box office. The Illinois Department of Agriculture says customers who purchased tickets through Ticketmaster will need to contact the ticket sales and distribution company directly to request a refund.

The updated requests for refunds comes on the heels of State Fair Officials requesting proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for the standing-room-only area at outdoor grandstand concerts and also the mandate that masks must be worn for all grandstand attendance. Free masks will be provided at entrances to the fair and at the grandstand, where the concert performances will take place.

An electric cooperative board member is heading to the east coast to represent the area’s electric co-ops on the national stage.

Warren Goetsch of Williamsville of the Menard Electric Cooperative was chosen by his Illinois electric cooperative peers to represent the state’s electric cooperatives on the board of directors of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Goetsch was elected during the July 29 Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives annual meeting. He will begin serving a two-year term in March 2022 after the current term of Director Phil Carson of the Tri-County Electric Cooperative expires. Carson is stepping down after 16 years of service, where he served as Board President from 2016-2018.

Goetsch has served as a Menard Co-op board member for 34 years and is the immediate past chairman of the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives. Goetsch currently serves on the NRECA Director Advisory Group. The Menard Co-op serves customers in portions of Cass, Logan, Macon, Mason, Menard, Morgan, Sangamon and Tazewell counties.

NRECA is the Arlington, Virginia.–based trade association that represents the interests of more than 900 cooperatives and 42 million members across the country, as well as public power districts and public utility districts. The board is composed of one representative from each of the 48 states served by electric cooperatives.

WLDS/WEAI is questioning the legality of a recent executive session at a public meeting.

WLDS/WEAI has filed a request for review with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office Public Access Counselor about the Village of South Jacksonville’s August 5^th meeting where they were advised by Village Attorney Rob Cross to enter into executive session to hear Public Comment.

Cross said to the Village Board on Thursday night there was an exception on Public Comment when it came to personnel matters: “I think if we are going to have comments about any individual, I think the board should hear them in executive session so we are not airing comments about individual employees in public. That’s why there is that exception, so if the comments are all about an individual, you can adjourn into executive session and hear those comments in executive session – let them speak in executive session. That’s up to you, but that’s what I recommend.”

After that advising, Mayor Tyson Manker then asked the board for a motion to adjourn into executive session to discuss personnel, which the board moved to do at that time. The four individuals who signed for Public Comment then provided the Board of Trustees their comments one by one during the closed session.

WLDS/WEAI has requested a review when it comes to the legality regarding public comments being placed in Executive Session under the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

Requests for comment from Cross or Village of South Jacksonville Administration has not been returned.

A nearly two year old bill to help the state get rid of surplus property championed by 50th District State Senator Steve McClure was signed into law Friday.

Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the state Surplus Property Disposal Act, a bi-partisan bill reintroduced this past Spring by McClure, who is a Republican, and 43^rd District Democrat Senator John Connor and Rockford Democrat Senator Steve Stadleman.

The bill makes significant changes concerning transfers and sales of surplus real estate owned by the State of Illinois.

McClure says it may help get the Jacksonville Developmental Center grounds sold in the long term: “It’s going to make it inevitably easier to try to get rid of the property in Jacksonville that’s been – let’s face it – just totally blighted and run down through no fault of the people of Jacksonville; but quite frankly, all the fault lies with our state. This is just going to make it a little bit easier to move that property because I think everybody at this point has agreed to the fact that it’s got to go. We can’t do anything to try to restore the buildings on the property or anything of that nature. We’ve got to unload it. It’s going to make it easier to unload the property. Now, other steps are needed to be taken to clean up the property and that sort of a thing, but this is a good first step.”

The bill allows Central Management Services to sell surplus property for no less than 75% of fair market value before such property has been offered to an interested unit of local government or made available at public auction. It provides for a notice period of 30 days in which a state agency or governing body is to notify CMS of their interests in acquiring a surplus state property.

McClure hopes these changes will help clear the path for an entity to step forward to purchase the grounds in Jacksonville and put them back to use.

An exchange between a village trustee and the village mayor has led to a new decree being signed in South Jacksonville.

Village Trustee Tom Jordan called Mayor Tyson Manker into question this past Thursday during approval of the Village of South Jacksonville’s July minutes. Jordan pointed out that the July minutes had Manker leading the Pledge of Allegiance during four meetings in the month. The question began a fiery exchange:

Jordan: “I’m just going to point something out here.”
Manker: “By all means, take the floor, Tom.”
Jordan: “Okay, alright. In these minutes that we have copies of here. [They say] the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mayor Manker. You have never led a meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance in here and it’s never been on the agenda, and I wonder why that is.
Manker: “Why do you think, Tom? Do you think it’s because I’m unpatriotic?”
Jordan: “I just think it’s strange that you don’t lead…start the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Can you explain that?”
Manker: “Okay. Thanks for that.”
Jordan: “Could you explain why?”
Manker: “I’d be glad to. It’s because when I was 19, I served in the United State Marine Corps overseas. I watched friends die. I watched blood bleed on soil…I bleed red, white, and blue.”

Manker went on to receive comments from the floor questioning why he wouldn’t begin the meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance or directly answer Jordan’s question. Jordan went on to say he wasn’t questioning Manker’s service, but was “befuddled” why Manker wouldn’t lead a meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Manker retorted: “What befuddles me is why you haven’t asked me this question before this moment in front of everyone, to score points.”

Trustee Stacy Pinkerton interjected into the ongoing exchange saying that she had asked Manker multiple times why he hadn’t had the pledge recited.

Manker responded: “Why do we not have the Pledge of Allegiance? Because we are conducting business meetings that are supposed to be short and sweet. We are raising a 120-foot flag next month.”

On Saturday, Manker issued Mayoral Order 02-2021 “at the request of several local citizens and with the appeal of generating patriot spirits” aying that “henceforth the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States shall be included on every Agenda and recited at the beginning of all business meetings in the Village of South Jacksonville.”

The order will lead off tonight’s Special Session meeting under the Mayor’s Report. The second item is Manker re-appointing of Eric Hansell as the Village’s Chief of Police at 5:45PM. Hansell was terminated on Monday by Manker. Reasons for the termination have not been issued by Manker. In emails and statements gathered by WLDS, Manker and Hansell have exchanged alleged allegations of insubordination, an incident of alleged misconduct in which Hansell assisted a now-terminated Village employee surrounding a DUI, and an allegation of sexual harassment. The Village has not issued public statements on Hansell’s ouster and now reappointment.

The original agenda sent out on Friday was set to have the board overturn Manker’s action of terminating Hansell after a scheduled executive session at 6PM. The agenda was amended and re-posted on Saturday afternoon with the additions of the Mayor’s Pledge of Allegiance Proclamation and Hansell’s appointment to his former post. The meeting is set tonight in person for Village Hall on Dewey Drive at 5:45PM.

UPDATE: We have been notified that there are two meetings tonight. The first being the 5:45PM meeting set to appoint Eric Hansell as Village Police Chief and go over the Mayoral Order. The second meeting is set for 6PM and contains the Executive Session to decide whether Hansell’s termination should be overturned, with a public action item.

A missing 1-year-old girl was found dead in a pond yards from her family home early this morning.

According to several media outlets, the toddler went missing at approximately 10:30 Saturday night. Fox 2 News in St. Louis reports that her parents say they went out to dinner and were getting her ready for bed when her older brother let her out the front door by mistake by leaving the door open.

According to the Belleville News-Democrat, she wandered off from their home near the area of Ash Bridge Hollow Road and North Mississippi River Road just south of Gilead in rural Calhoun County. The area is a mix of farmland and woods with some steep terrain due to the Mississippi River nearby.

KMOV says that search and rescue dogs led officials to a pond 300 yards away where they tracked her scent overnight. Her body was found around 6 a.m. this morning by a volunteer. She was pronounced dead by Calhoun County Sheriff and Coroner Bill Heffington.

No additional information has been released and the investigation into the girl’s death is ongoing.

Another state agencies’ computer system has been hacked. The Illinois State Police is notifying about 2,000 Illinoisans with Firearm Owners Identification cards that their personal information may have been compromised in a hack of the agency’s portal. Illinois State Police officials said the information of about 2,000 FOID cardholders may have been accessed in the hack. ISP says they will be contacting those individuals.

According to a press release, Illinois State Police officials said in response to the hack, they are “restricting the use and access of personal information that FOID card applicants submit in their online FOID account that could match Illinois resident personal identification information unlawfully obtained from any number of previous cyber breaches,”

Agency officials said they continue working with other law enforcement agencies to further investigate the origins of the hack.

The hack follows other recent cyberattacks on state government agencies such as the Illinois Attorney General’s office and the Illinois Department of Employment Security.