Weekend storms pounded West Central Illinois. A few locations are in clean up mode this evening, and will continue throughout the week.

A severe storm system swept through Brown County on Friday night downing power lines and trees along Illinois Route 99. No injuries have been reported. Lime-sized hail hit some places in the area that shattered windows, damaged roofs, and dented cars. WGEM reports severe crop damage and structure damage to Kassing Lumber, A.C. McCartney Equipment, the Brown County High School baseball dugout and Prairieland Fuel.

A second system spawned multiple brief tornadoes on Saturday afternoon across Morgan and Cass counties.

Director of the Morgan County Emergency Management Office Phil McCarty says some significant damage was reported around 2:15 Saturday southwest of Arenzville in northern Morgan County: “We had what we suspect was a tornado touch down in the area of St. Paul’s Church Road and the Arenzville Road. We had some crop damage. We had some power lines down and some structure damage along that area.” No injuries were reported.

A half hour later, three brief touchdowns were reported within 2 miles of the City of Virginia and 3 miles southwest of Newmansville. Multiple reports of power outages, downed power lines, and structure damage was reported. Virginia High School’s greenhouse and bus barn were said to have received some damage. Crops were also downed in several areas. Ameren Illinois outage map showed a small number of customers remained without power this morning.

In Schuyler County, a tornado reported touched down near Littleton damaging a barn on Saturday afternoon, spreading debris near U.S. 67 and Caldwell Lane according to the Journal Courier.

Last night, flash flood waters were reported over the road on Interstate 72 near New Berlin. A funnel cloud was also allegedly spotted near Ashland according to WICS Newschannel 20.

Locally heavy rainfall occured in several areas of Springfield today, with some places reporting over 6 inches. Several cars were stalled in roadways and under overpasses within the city and rural portions of Sangamon County. Flooding near the Illinois River in low-lying areas is expected to continue this week. The National Weather Service says scattered storms are expected, especially east of I-55 tonight with rain returning into the forecast on Thursday.

Village of South Jacksonville Mayor Tyson Manker has terminated a previous practice involving “off the books” payments to an employee of the village.

In a press release on Friday, Manker says his office self-reported to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s legal division that former Village President Harry Jennings’ administration was unlawfully violating IMRF regulations that prevent retirees from working more than 1,000 hours while receiving retirement benefits.

In the release, Manker says that the Jennings Administration intentionally skirted this regulation by compensating a Village employee with “off-the-books” payments in order to avoid the annual IMRF hourly-work limit. Manker says the practice has been ended and the employee no longer works for the village.

Manker, in email communication about the situation, says he cannot reveal more information on the case.

An Illinois Republican Congressman is optimistic about a federal infrastructure bill to happen soon.

18^th District Congressman Darin LaHood said he was pleased with the recent bi-partisan compromise struck by the Biden Administration with Senators last week: “I’m optimistic that the Senate will take up action this week and next week. They are going to be the drivers of this initially. I give the Biden Administration and the bi-partisan group of Senators a lot of credit. They keep working at this and working on it, and they have made a lot of progress. It’s about a trillion dollar bill – doesn’t raise significant taxes. It has some user fees on airports and the rail system. It gives back a lot of COVID money to help pay for infrastructure and generic stromectol, but it’s a significant amount of money. It would be about a trillion dollars that would fund roads and bridges, and our locks and dams, and traditional infrastructure. We’ll see if it passes the Senate next week. If it does, I think it’ll pick up some momentum and it’ll come over to the House. I’m going to give it strong consideration if that happens. I’m looking forward to seeing this new progress that’s being made.”

Senate Democrats are still somewhat divided on the infrastructure bill, linking it to the fate of a large spending bill on child care and education. Details of the child care and education bill are still being worked on after President Joe Biden called for a larger package after announcing the infrastructure compromise.

LaHood says that infrastructure for Illinois is a big priority as the state’s highways and river infrastructure are in need of major investment: “I mean you can’t go far [in this state] without worrying about your car getting a flat tire. I mean there are potholes. There are repairs needed. There is critical infrastructure needs that are throughout Illinois. We need this [bill]. What I’m glad for is we are defining infrastructure in the traditional way. I know the Biden Administration had talked about human infrastructure, which would fund things like public housing and child care. We can have a debate on that, but we need to focus on traditional infrastructure – again, fixing up our roads, our highways, our bridges – they need significant help and that’s what this bill will do.”

Democrats hope the compromise will pass with at least 60 votes in the Senate to bypass the filibuster.

The Morgan County Commissioner met in quick fashion this morning. The majority of the meeting was opening of sealed bids for the county’s weatherization program through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in collaboration with MCS Community Services.

The county paid their monthly bills, with most of the outgoing costs going towards outfitting a new Sheriff’s Department vehicle according to Commissioner Chair Ginny Fanning: “We have received bills in the amount of $47,904.50. Quite honestly the only really big thing out of that, about 25% of it, is to GTSI for $10,232.25. I believe that was to outfit one of the new cars that the Sheriff’s Office got, so I think that was for the [Dodge] Durango.”

Morgan County Planner Dusty Douglas opened up 7 sealed bids for the upcoming Weatherization Program. Douglas says that people in Morgan, Scott, and Cass County can apply to the program to make their homes more energy efficient. Douglas says that opening of the bids is a required process by DCEO: “The Weatherization Program has been around, I guess, for about 25 years through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Our agency at MCS [Community Services] administers it for Morgan, Cass, and Scott counties. This is the annual going out and asking for bids on all the materials that will be used. Through the years, they have a pretty good idea in conjunction with the state what is going to be needed, so most of that is purchased up front and allocated per job as the year progresses.”

Douglas told the commissioners that an organized bid sheet on what the bids exactly were for will be presented on July 26^th. Commissioner Chair Fanning noted that 4 of the 7 companies placing bids were from Jacksonville. Companies making bids on the program were: Whole Energy & Hardware of Chaska, Minnesota; Benoist Brothers Supply Company of Springfield; Conner Company of Jacksonville; Energy Federation, Incorporated of Kaukauna, Wisconsin; R.P. Lumber Company of Jacksonville; Buchheit of Jacksonville; and Trone Appliance Center of Beardstown.

Fanning also said that the budget hearings for the county will come to an end on Friday after two hearings were held last week. The budget will be posted for 30 days for public inspection once the hearings are complete.

A Springfield man has been charged in the 3-year old murder case of 33 year old Earl Little in Pinckneyville Prison.

Special Appellate Prosecutor Jennifer Mudge filed three counts of first-degree murder in Perry County Circuit Court today. The charges relate to the death of Little that happened almost three years ago to the day in his prison cell which he shared with 34 year old Daniel Mueller. Little was found dead in his cell at the medium security prison on July 6th, 2018, supposedly hung by an electrical cord from an oscillating fan.

Little was imprisoned 8 months prior to his death for an armed robbery in DuPage County for which he had received a 21-year sentence. Mueller was in the fourth year of a 30-year sentence for the strangulation murder of his girlfriend in 2014 in Springfield. According to the State Journal Register, Mueller was moved to the Lawrence Correctional Facility shortly after Little’s death.

Little, who was from the Rushville and Quincy area, has never had his autopsy report released by the Illinois Department of Corrections nor his prison medical records due to the supposedly active 3 year investigation into his death in the Southern Illinois prison.

A wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Little’s ex-wife Megan Little of Beardstown in 2018 but it was later dropped for unknown reasons. Little’s family was planning on protests at the Perry County Courthouse and the prison later this month due to lack of movement in the case.

Charging documents say that Mueller “compressed the neck” of Little causing ligature strangulation. Bail has been fixed at $1 million.

A lawsuit between the Village of South Jacksonville and Labor Drive has still not been resolved as of Friday.

A resolution offer that was supposedly entered by previous Village President Harry Jennings has been taken off the table according to current Mayor Tyson Manker.

Manker says that the offer that included a $100,000 credit to Labor Drive for water bills has been scrapped: “I was able to meet with the plaintiffs and speak with them about some of their allegations, and what I can say at this point is that I ended the $100,000 credit that the previous settlement proposed to give the plaintiffs. I think it’s ludicrous, and insane, and not based on any fact. It was just a random, arbitrary number that was pulled out of thin air in the hopes that this would go away. What I can say is that I am fighting tooth & nail to minimize the liability to the Village of South Jacksonville.”

Manker says he doesn’t believe the village did anything wrong in the case and that there were miscalculations done on behalf of the plaintiffs. He hopes the claims will soon be extinguished. Manker says the current billing has been straightened out with Labor Drive: “We have gotten all of our billing straightened out from the problems of the past. The problem, however, was that over the last 5 years, the people of South Jacksonville saw their water rates raised a number of times and they were never told why. Well, they were raised to subsidize the costs of the Labor Drive lawsuit. We haven’t bought a new water tower. We haven’t replaced [water or sewer] lines. Service has not improved in any way as a result of those rate hikes.”

Manker says hopefully a resolution is forthcoming so that the village can start investment into those long-term infrastructure pieces mentioned to upgrade municipal water service. The case is next due in Morgan County Circuit Court for a motion on outstanding discovery on July 16th.

According to an agenda posted yesterday, the village will meet in special session tomorrow evening at 7PM. One of the items listed is a discussion about the ongoing litigation with Labor Drive.

The Fulton County ESDA office says the final fugitive from last week’s Fulton County Jail prison break has been taken into custody.

36 year old Zachary Hart was taken into custody at 11:37AM on the railroad tracks, east of the Wee Ma Tuk entrance. Authorities said Hart was heading east in the direction of Canton on County 5 Highway, according to WEEK in Peoria.

U.S. Marshals were searching an area northwest of Cuba when a resident called in a sighting of Hart at 8:39PM Saturday. The resident was able to capture Hart on camera. Searches in that area came up empty. He was eventually caught on the railroad tracks outside of Canton without incident.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office thanked Canton Police, Lewistown Police, Farmington Police, and the Illinois State Police for their continued efforts to locate Hart after Wednesday night’s jailbreak.

Officials say no further information is available at this time.

Springfield Police say they have arrested an individual in connection to the White Oaks Mall shooting that occurred over the Fourth of July weekend.

The Police Department reports on Facebook that they have not released the identity of the individuals because more arrests are pending and the nature of the investigation is ongoing.

Witnesses reported that an altercation between two groups occurred near the escalators on the second floor of the mall near Rogers & Holland Jewelers. on Saturday July 3^rd at approximately 6:30. The altercation eventually led to a gun being brandished and fired, sending a 19-year old male to St. John’s Hospital with a wound to the torso.

On Wednesday, Springfield Police announced that they believe the shooting was gang-related.

A Springfield State Senator is pushing back against the University of Illinois-Springfield’s effort to defund NPR-Illinois.

48^th District State Senator Doris Turner has sent a letter to the U of I system to reconsider it’s decision to phase out the $400,000 in annual funding the university gives in support of NPR.

Turner says in a press release that NPR-Illinois is one of the best sources of news for Illinois residents in an era that’s difficult to distinguish from slanted and genuine information. Turner says it will also be a large disservice to local journalism students.

Turner noted NPR’s state government coverage. She says that years ago that more than 30 news outlets covered Capitol news while less than 10 do so now.

The university will continue to provide and maintain operational space on campus for NPR Illinois, along with parking and security. The university announced earlier this week that they would phase out funding to the broadcast station over the next 5 years due to a budget crunch overall. NPR has said they will try to make up the funding through more private donations and fundraising efforts.

The Village of South Jacksonville appears to be getting back to normal with their budget this upcoming year. The Village slashed several department budgets last year with the prediction that revenues would be exceptionally low last year due to the pandemic.

Village Office Manager and Treasurer Tiffanee Peters kicked off the meeting that last year’s budget was fairly flat in a few departments but revenues were actually up compared to predictions, leaving a small budget surplus.

Village Budget Committee Chair Megan Davidson says that this year will likely have capital outlay projects in the budget that have been delayed: “I can’t speak for prior [boards], but I think it’s just kind of the way it’s going [needing upgrades]. You need to update your systems, and especially with the police and with the new [law enforcement] bill that went through [the General Assembly], we’re going to have to have to update our equipment for that, and just get everything up to date.”

Davidson says one thing that her and Peters will be working on in coming months is an accounts balance sheet and a revenue stream report for the village: “I asked for more reports to look at for the board every month just to have more transparency and for us to be more involved with everyday operations. I think that is the best way to go, just so we do know more of what’s going on in the village and to get to a better place financially.”

The budget will see an increase in salaries this year. One of those salaries may increase exponentially. The Budget Committee has asked Fire Chief Rich Evans Jr. to compile comparative salaries for both a full-time and part-time fire chief from other departments in the area.

Davidson says it has been awhile since the village’s fire chief position has seen a raise: “I think maybe not this budget. I mean I think it’s open for discussion, especially since we’re talking about the ambulance, it’s open for discussion. It’s nothing cut and dry. We’re going to talk to the rest of the board members and get their thoughts and move forward. I mean that position hasn’t seen an increase in several years, so I would like to see, especially with the increased amount of paperwork and all the requirements that the fire chief position has, I think it would be great to increase that.”

New vehicles for the streets department, code enforcement, a resurrected ambulance service, and the police department are also all on the table for the board to consider in the upcoming fiscal year. Computer and digital infrastructure and updates to Village Hall also have been marked in the budget for board approval.

The village’s budget will likely see approval by the end of the month in another special meeting by the full board and then posted for public inspection for 30 days before it is finalized.