Jacksonville Police are investigating a break-in that occurred Friday afternoon.

According to a police report, officers were called to a residence in the 800 block of South Clay just after 3:00 pm Friday. It was reported to police that sometime between 1:00 and 1:23 pm, an unknown person entered the residence and removed an undisclosed amount of property.

The incident remains under investigation, and Jacksonville Police are asking anyone with information concerning this incident to contact the Jacksonville Police Department by calling 217-479-4630 or leaving an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers of Morgan, Scott, and Cass Counties by calling 217-243 7300.

A Jacksonville area service organization is again helping to celebrate Mother’s Day with a touch of spring.

The Jacksonville Sunrise Rotary Club has announced the return of its annual Mother’s Day Geranium Sale during the month of April. The sale items are four-inch potted red geraniums and are being sold for $6 each.

Anyone interested in purchasing red geraniums may contact any member of the club to place an order. Club members will deliver purchased geraniums on or after May 10.

Sunrise Rotary Officials say the fun event is one of the club’s fund-raisers, supporting the many programs and service projects that make the community a better place.

Jay Jamison with the Sunrise Rotary says just look for Sunrise Rotarians wearing the “Ask Me About Geraniums” tags, and they will be glad to take your order.

Club members must turn in the money for their orders by Tuesday, April 30, to make sure the flowers are ready for delivery before Mother’s Day.

A new exhibit featuring the history of the Jacksonville Developmental Center will officially open to the public this weekend at the Jacksonville Area Museum.

The state-operated Jacksonville Developmental Center opened as the Illinois State Hospital and Asylum for the Insane in 1851 and for more than a century was one of the city’s largest employers. The facility was literally a small city within a city, complete with buildings and services to care for the thousands of people who received treatment there. It was renamed several times through the years, including as the Jacksonville State Hospital in 1910, before being finally named the Jacksonville Developmental Center in the 1980s. More than 400 people were employed there when the State of Illinois closed the facility in 2012.

Jacksonville Area Museum Board Chairman Allan Worrell said in a press release that the facility is one of the crucial pieces of the city’s history: “The Jacksonville Developmental Center is one of those institutions that is synonymous with the history of our community. We hope visitors will come to learn, or re-learn, the story of this iconic facility.”

The exhibit includes illustrations, photographs and artifacts and follows the history of the Developmental Center from the time it was officially authorized in 1847 through the next century and a half. The exhibit gives an unvarnished look at the institution, including its treatment of residents through the decades. Companion oral histories available on the museum website podcast page, www.jacksonvilleareamuseum.org/podcasts, feature interviews with former Developmental Center employees who describe their experiences there.

A special preview of the Jacksonville Developmental Center exhibit for museum members only will be offered on Friday evening, April 5th, with the exhibit opening up to the public on Saturday.

The museum is located in the old Post Office building at 301 E. State Street, and its regular schedule is Wednesday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. There is no admission fee but a donation of $5 is suggested to keep the museum operating.

The exhibit may move from time to time this summer as the museum begins its Phase II expansion.

No one was injured, however, a Jacksonville Fire Department vehicle sustained minor damage when an outbuilding was destroyed by fire in rural Jacksonville Friday night.

The Jacksonville and South Jacksonville Fire Departments responded to a call of a barn that was fully engulfed with fire located at 1616 Portuguese Hill Road at approximately 10:30 pm.

Upon arrival, Jacksonville Police reported to fire personnel that no one was inside the structure which by then had become fully involved. According to an initial incident report, crews deployed lines and began attacking the fire from a distance due to the intensity of the blaze.

Approximately three to five minutes after arriving on scene, a power line along the main road shorted and began burning. The line, which was located above one of the Jacksonville Fire Department’s apparatus engine trucks, then fell onto the top of the truck.

Fire crews abandoned both the hand line and engine due to the hazard. Ameren Illinois had been called to the scene and crews were able to power down the line and remove it from the vehicle.

A Jacksonville Fire Department porta-tank and two South Jacksonville Fire Department tankers were used in extinguishing the blaze. The barn burned to the ground in the incident and has been deemed a complete loss, estimated at approximately $30,000. No estimated value of the contents was able to be determined.

Fire Department officials say the owners of the barn were out of town at the time of the fire and a neighbor called in the fire. The cause of the blaze will likely not be able to be determined although the incident remains under investigation.

Officials say the Jacksonville Fire Engine received only minor damage to the cover and both hard suction lines. They say the vehicle can continue being in service this weekend and will be pressure tested on Monday to ensure no further damage was sustained.

No one was injured in the incident. Crews were on scene for approximately two hours and 15 minutes.

More information has been made available on the arrest of a west suburban Chicago man at an area truck stop this week.

On Wednesday at approximately 2:30 pm, 36-year-old Syed M. Makki of Glendale Heights, Illinois was taken into custody at the Love’s Travel Center in South Jacksonville.

According to a press release by the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office this morning, the arrest stemmed from a coordinated investigation that led to the contact with Maaki at the truck stop.

Makkai was taken into custody on an active warrant out of the state of Colorado, and approximately $1.1 million in gold bullion was seized at the time of his arrest.

According to the report, a portion of the gold was linked to a fraud and theft case in Douglas County, Colorado. The gold has since been released to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and has been transported back.

Maaki was arrested and housed at the Morgan County Jail where he is being held pending extradition to Colorado. The Morgan County Sheriff’s Office was assisted in the investigation by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Illinois State Police, and Morgan County State’s Attorney’s Office.

A Greene County man has been charged with multiple counts of child pornography and weapons charges after he was arrested this week.

59-year-old William L. Orr of Greenfield was taken into custody on Wednesday after a search was conducted at a residence in the 300 block of Main Street in Greenfield.

According to the Journal-Courier, Officers from Greenfield police, Illinois State Police South Central Illinois Drug Task Force, and Greene County Sheriff’s Department, along with investigators from Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office were all involved in the operation.

On Friday, Orr was charged with five counts of possession of child pornography, four counts of failure to register as a sex offender, six counts of possession of a firearm by a felon, and three counts of possession of ammunition by a felon.

Orr is on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry stemming from a conviction in 2011 in Macoupin County Court for aggravated criminal sexual assault, and according to the report, has previously been convicted for failing to regularly report or correct his address information with authorities as a registered sex offender.

Orr remains held at the Green County Jail and is next due in court on Wednesday.

Some area ag students excelled during a national conference held in Springfield this month.

Lincoln Land Community College hosted the 2024 National Professional Agriculture Students Conference on March 11-14 at the Springfield campus for nearly 500 students and advisers. Of those, eleven LLCC Ag students earned awards in the competitions.

The LLCC Soils Specialist Team of Maggie White of Murrayville, Will Jenkins of Raymond, and Jhia Walker of Morrisonville won second place.

Another of LLCC’s Soils Specialist Teams earned fourth-place honors. Team members included Matt Crow of Franklin, Braylee Gilmore of Carlinville, and Leah Sargeant of Springfield.

Two LLCC students won second place in Employment Interview events. Alex Sidener of Rochester placed in Ag Equipment and Machinery, and Braydon DeCounter of Springfield placed in Livestock Sales and Service.

LLCC’s Agronomy Team of Sidener, Wes Bland of Eldred, and Clay Aylesworth of Mount Pulaski won fourth place. The College Bowl Team of Kearns, Bland, Sidener, Walker, and Kaitlyn Zeedyk of Springfield placed fifth.

The students earned the right to compete at the national event by placing in the top three at Illinois PAS contests held earlier this year. This is the 25th year that LLCC students have participated in this national competition, made possible this year by grants from the Kreher Farm Perpetual Charitable Trust.

PAS is a nationally recognized student organization that brings education and industry together in agriculture. In addition to competitive events, the conference provided an opportunity for students to attend leadership and career development sessions.

More information is available at llcc.edu/agriculture.

A Jacksonville man facing first-degree murder charges in Morgan County is still on course to see his day in court next month.

40-year old Joshua Wilson appeared in Morgan County Court Friday morning for a status hearing. He is facing three counts of first-degree murder in the February 2021 shooting death of 26-year-old Malcolm V. Fitts in the parking lot of the Turner High Rise Apartment complex.

Visiting Macoupin County Judge Kenneth Diehl presided over the hearing via Zoom Meeting from Macoupin County due to scheduling issues. Morgan County State’s Attorney Gray Noll says, aside from one issue that still needs to be resolved, the trial remains on pace to go to trial in late April.

“There was one issue that was brought up in regard to an outstanding motion to suppress that Mister Wilson’s previous attorney had filed. That still either needs to be ruled on or withdrawn. Other than that issue, I think the parties are both ready to proceed.”

Wilson’s former attorney, Marcus Shantz of Springfield, filed a motion to suppress certain state’s evidence in April of last year. Shanz’s motion calls for the suppression of video from the Turner Highrise the night of the shooting due to time lapses totaling approximately 34 minutes of film time that the motion says is missing.

Noll said during the motion hearing that the cameras were motion-activated so no recordings were made during those 34 minutes.

During this morning’s hearing, State’s Attorney Noll said to his knowledge that the motion had not been ruled on, following Shantz’s withdrawal from the case last summer due to health reasons.

Morgan County Public Defender Devon Vaughn said he and his client needed to further discuss the previous motion, however, deciding whether to proceed with or withdraw it would not impede the trial. Noll says he and Vaughn will be meeting soon to discuss a number of details ahead of the trial, which at this time, is not being delayed.

The trial is set to begin on Tuesday, April 23^rd. If convicted, Wilson faces between 20 years to natural life in prison.

The Schuyler County Fair in Rushville is inviting everyone to a free-will meal aimed at helping the families of a recent tragedy.

On Monday the Rushville community was rocked by a tragic two-vehicle crash that claimed the lives of two adults and three preschool children from the area.

Members of the Schuyler County Fair have since come together rapidly to put together a fish fry fundraiser that will be held the majority of the day on Sunday to help not only the victims’ families but also the community as a whole.

The fish fry is a carry-out-only event and will take place at the Schuyler County Fairgrounds in Rushville. Nate Wallice with the Schuyler County Fair says the day after the accident, members began working to figure out how they could help.

“Tuesday morning a few of us got together and we were trying to figure out what we could do to help raise some money for those families. And fortunately, we’ve got a pretty good-sized fairgrounds out here and several buildings.

We have a newer food building that we can set up in and do all the fish frying in there and all the serving. We’ve got a big midway around the whole fairgrounds that we can line up cars here and we just have the space, and twenty board members to help put this all together.”

There is no cost for the carry out only fish fry as organizers wanted to make it a completely free will donation offering. Wallace says right away, many members of the community stepped up to help make the event happen.

“And now of course the volunteers are just pouring in. We’ve got tons of help and it’s been really overwhelming how much help. It’s really just incredible how much help has come out for this thing and we’re going to make it happen. It’s going to be big and we hope to raise a substantial amount of money for these families.”

Wallace says even if someone wants to contribute but doesn’t have the means to donate funds, they should consider themselves welcome to come eat as the event is intended to raise the spirit of the community just as much as to raise funds.

In a corresponding move, the Versailles Fire Department has canceled their planned fish fry that was also scheduled for Sunday, in an effort to help drive traffic to the Schuyler County event.

The carry-out-only fish fry will run from 11 Sunday morning to 7 in the evening, featuring a menu of fried fish, baked beans, potato salad, bread and butter, and a beverage.

Delivery service is available within Rushville city limits only. Anyone needing a delivery should call 217-248-5388 to place your order.

Attendees are asked to enter the fairgrounds on East Scripps Street in Rushville where you will be directed by volunteers on how to proceed through the line.

An Illinois banking group with locations in the area is warning customers of potential scam calls.

CNB Bank and Trust officials say they have been notified that some customers have been receiving fraudulent phone calls from someone claiming to be from CNB.

E-Banking Group officials are urging customers to be on alert and never confirm or give the suspected fraudster any personal information.

Instead, officials say anyone who receives one of these calls should hang up and then contact your local CNB Bank & Trust branch as soon as possible to report the call.

Branches located in the WLDS/WEAI listening area include Jacksonville, Carrollton, Carlinville, and Pittsfield.