No one was injured when a house was severely damaged by fire in Jacksonville Saturday afternoon.

Crews from the Jacksonville and South Jacksonville Fire Departments responded to a call of a garage fire at 858 West Superior Avenue at approximately 2:15 pm.

Jacksonville Fire Department Captain Daniel Klendworth says while they were en route to the address, they were informed the fire had spread to the unattached house.

“Our substation [crew] arrived on scene first and pulled a line. There were mixed reports from residents and bystanders that there was someone in the house. The guy who lives at the house said sometimes his brother is there and sometimes not. Once we pulled a line and got our water going we completed a search of the residence and there was nobody inside. The search was negative which is always good to know.”

Crews also searched the house immediately to the east after they were told a dog was inside. Klendworth says although the neighboring house did sustain some damage from the fire, no smoke entered the interior and the pet was found safe during the search.

Fire crews were on scene for approximately two hours suppressing the fire and keeping it from spreading to adjacent homes. Klendworth says they do not believe the fire was suspicious, however the State Fire Marshall’s Office has been called in to help determine a possible cause of the blaze.

Damages were estimated at $100,000.00. The garage and a truck parked in the driveway are a total loss. Klendworth says the rear portion of the home will need to be replaced and the rest of the structure renovated, but the structure is not a total loss.

One of the world’s tallest holiday attractions returns to Downtown Jacksonville.

The Farmers State Bank & Trust Company has again transformed its 110 foot tall building into one of the biggest Christmas countdowns in the world, as the “World’s Tallest Advent Calendar” will again grace the east side of the historic building.

Each window contains a symbol of the season and will be revealed each starting December 1^st through December 24^th.

According to the announcement made over the weekend, this year’s advent display will include famous people from Jacksonville’s history along with many other holiday favorites.

Just like a home Advent calendar that contains candy, the public is invited to go inside the bank lobby and get a sweet treat to celebrate the days until Christmas during business hours.

On Sunday, December 1st at 4:30 pm, the Illinois College drumline will be on hand to provide musical accompaniment to the first reveal of the season.

The project was partially inspired by Uelzen, Germany, which transforms its town hall each Christmas. Jacksonville and Uelzen have been doing student exchanges for over 30 years.

The “World’s Tallest Advent Calendar” will remain until January 5, 2025. Details and descriptions of the artwork can be seen on the Farmers State Bank & Trust Company’s Facebook page where a description of the next window revealed will be posted daily.

The 2^nd Annual Jacksonville Festival of Lights returns this week, along with a plethora of holiday events in and around Jacksonville through the end of the year.

The Festival of Lights will again be lighting up the Morgan County Fairgrounds beginning this Friday night.

Jacksonville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Brittany Henry says the light display will have a different look this year and some slight adjustments have been made to the schedule.

“Hours are a little different from this year to last year. They are doing Thursday and Sunday from 5 to 8 pm, and Fridays and Saturdays from 5 to 9 pm. They will have special extended hours on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day from 5 to 9 pm.

The cost is very affordable, it is ten dollars per car for up to eight passengers, twenty dollars for vehicles between nine to 15 passengers, and there was a bus that went through last year, so it is fifty dollars for a bus to drive through. So if you have a large group they can definitely accommodate you.”

Henry says there is also a brand new event happening at the fairgrounds during the Festival of Lights. “There is also a new Rudolf Fun Run that will happen in conjunction with the Festival of Lights. That will kick of on December 15^th from 5 to 6:30 pm. It will be located at the Morgan County Fairgrounds. There is a five dollar entry fee, but that includes snacks, a photo op with Santa, and a lot more under the grandstand where the run comes to an end.”

Henry says the Festival of Lights has quickly added to an array of holiday offerings in Jacksonville, which she says has had a big impact on both the economic and tourism for the city. “We noticed last year there were a lot of people regionally that drove over to experience the light show, and when they were done they were sticking around Jacksonville and doing some fun things in town.

So for us, not only are we looking at that it is a growing tradition for Jacksonville and our community members, but we’re also looking at the impact from a visitor perspective that it gives people a chance to hop in the car, come take a day trip to Jack, explore the Festival of Lights, but then also get downtown to our beautiful lit up square.

We’ve got a lot of amazing lit-up window displays that will be happening. Jacksonville Main Street has been promoting those with a contest. But then we also have a lot of great shopping. It’s a great destination to get a lot of those Christmas and holiday gifts taken care of.”

Henry says from Pinkmas, to the Santa House and more carriage rides around the square are just some of the events adding to a packed schedule of events each week in downtown Jacksonville now through the new year.

For more information on the Jacksonville Festival of Lights, look them up on Facebook or call 217-291-5722.

You can also find more information on all the holiday happenings downtown via the Jacksonville Main Street Facebook and website, as well as area events via the Jacksonville convention and Visitors Bureau web and social media sites.

The Jacksonville City Clerk is reminding the public that the time to renew a number of licenses is fast approaching.

City Clerk Angela Salyer announced the reminder today that rural fire protection contracts as well as licenses for bowling alleys, movie theaters, skating rinks, taxi services, tree trimmers, children’s hospitals, tattoo parlors, and horse-drawn vehicles expire with the City of Jacksonville on December 31, 2024.

Annual rural fire protection coverage is provided by the Jacksonville Fire Department. Owners or occupants of rural commercial, industrial, residential, and farm property, located within a certain radius of Jacksonville, can obtain this contractual service through application in the City Clerk’s Office.

Salyer says the annual fee is determined by the assessed valuation of the applicant’s property. Farmsteads are assessed on current improvements upon one-half acre of rural property. For more information about Rural Fire Protection- contact Jacksonville Fire Chief Matt Summers at 217-479-4656 or by email at jfdchief@jacksonvilleil.gov.

For more information about the renewal of licenses, permits, and contracts, contact the Jacksonville City Clerk’s Office at 200 W. Douglas Avenue, by phone at 217-479-4613, or by email at cityclerk@jacksonvilleil.gov. The Clerk’s Office is open on weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m

A taste of Hollywood feel takes center stage tomorrow night in downtown Jacksonville as the Illinois Theater will host a movie premiere red carpet event.

Independent Loami, Illinois-based filmmaker Ash Hamilton, along with many of his cast of characters, will usher in the premiere of “F’d: Tales from the End Times“.

F’d: Tales from the End Times was shot in 2023 and tells multiple stories that all take place during the world’s end. The horror film uses multiple directors and features many extras from the Jacksonville area.

Portions of the film were shot on location at Danenberger Vinyards near New Berlin, and Hamilton says when they went looking for what he calls the linchpin location for the film, they found it here in Jacksonville at the former MacMurray campus.

I think it was my wife who said I think MacMurray in Jacksonville could be an option. We went on the campus and there was a spot that we just fell in love with. We were like this is exactly what we need because we can put our camera here, we’ve got this enormous fog smoke machine we can put it and the industrial fans over here, and it was just everything we were looking for.

What was even crazier was the response that we got locally in looking for extras. One day alone we had almost 90 ninety people out there wanting to be extras. And if you’re trying to make something look chaotic and big and crazy, if you’ve got people running around everywhere- it sells it, it really sells it.”

The film has been making its way around the film festival circuit and has already played in several areas including London and Los Angeles, and has even collected an award nomination to two along the way.

The Illinois Theater red carpet premiere comes just ahead of the film’s release on several streaming platforms in early 2025. Hamiton says holding a premiere here in Jacksonville became a must-have event after their experience working on the film in the community.

“We wanted to make sure though that something was bigger and more of a very centralized sort of event here in Jacksonville, like that was very very important to us. So many people helped us out here. So many people turned out. We had so many people that were in the film in one capacity or another as extras that we really wanted to do something in a theater.

We wanted people to come in, we wanted to roll out a red carpet, we wanted to do a step and repeat wall so we could all take photos. We wanted to get as many of the actors here as possible so that everyone here can realize that it’s not just about filming here. It’s about coming back and saying look what this is a part of now. Look at all the people who have recognized that everyone here did such a fantastic job.

You guys are playing in countries where they had to dub this already and we didn’t have distribution back then. So I want to give that experience to people, to first of all see it in the theater. Because it’s a very big movie for a very small budget, and to be able to see some of the things that we pulled off that I don’t think people at all are expecting.”

The F’d: Tales from the End Times Red Carpet Premiere starts at 7:30 Saturday night at the Illinois Theater in Downtown Jacksonville.

A special raffle for signed copies of the movie poster, signed vinyl records of the soundtrack, and a Blu-ray of Ash’s previous film Holes in the Sky: the Sean Miller Story will be held.

An after-party will also be held at KJB’s where there will be a celebration of the film featuring an apocalyptic cake from downtown Jacksonville’s own Holly Cakes Bakery.

Tickets are going fast. To order tickets: https://www.internet-ticketing.com/websales/sales/ILLJAC/start?film=1303&fbclid=IwY2xjawGceZJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTkUFCMP92u7UCZZsMmsXe0CcB18wzMU07J_IwRQhXneuenWudN8ynKGyQ_aem_nQup–Nz7_gtQEZShQw2wA

A vacant structure was destroyed by fire Thursday night on the east side of Jacksonville.

Jacksonville and South Jacksonville Fire Departments were called to the scene of a structure fire in a mobile home trailer in the Rolling Acres trailer park located at 1042 East Morton Avenue at 11:45 Thursday night.

According to a report by the Jacksonville Fire Department, the first crews arrived on scene approximately five minutes after receiving the call and found heavy flame and smoke coming from one side of the trailer.

Witnesses at the scene said the trailer had not been occupied however, they had seen squatters going in and out of the structure. No utilities were active at the time of the fire.

Firefighters were able to knock down and contain the fire to the interior of the structure. No injuries were reported and crews were on scene for a little over 90 minutes extinguishing the fire and then ventilating and overhauling the structure to prevent it from rekindling.

Damages have been estimated at $25,000 in property loss and $5,000 in contents. The cause of the fire remains unknown at this time. The Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshall was called in to conduct an investigation into the cause.

Crime Stoppers of Morgan, Scott & Cass Counties are requesting information to assist the Jacksonville Police Department in their investigation in a recent theft from a vehicle.

According to police reports, sometime between October 1st and November 9^th, an unknown person(s) entered an unoccupied Chevrolet Silverado pickup that was parked in the 1700 block of West Morton Avenue, where a black electric air pump and various tools were then removed.

Crime Stoppers is asking that anyone who has information concerning this incident, or any other crimes within the three-county area, submit an anonymous tip online by going to the Morgan, Scott, Cass Crime Stoppers Facebook page and clicking the contact us button on the home page, online at morganscottcrimestoppers.com. or calling Crime Stoppers at 217-243-7300.

Crime Stoppers reminds the public that all tips are anonymous and if your tip leads to an arrest, you are eligible for a cash reward.

A Jacksonville man was arrested early this morning after he intentionally ran his vehicle into another occupied vehicle.

29 year old Michael B. Johnson of the 100 block of South Diamond Court was taken into custody early this morning at the Jiffi-Stop convenience store located at 841 West Morton Avenue.

At approximately 1:45 am officers responded to a report of people fighting in front of a residence in the 700 block of South Fayette Street.

According to police reports, Johnson intentionally struck another occupied vehicle with his own vehicle, which also had children inside. Johnson is also accused of breaking the victim’s windshield by striking it with his fists.

He was arrested and booked into the Morgan County Jail for domestic battery, endangering the life of a child, battery, criminal damage to property, reckless driving, and disorderly conduct.

He remained held as of this morning at the Morgan County Jail pending an appearance in court.

The Jacksonville Fire Department responded to a call of a vehicle fire yesterday.

According to a fire department report, an apparatus responded to the 1800 block of West Lafayette Avenue at approximately 5:15 Friday evening.

Upon arrival, the crew found a 2004 Chevrolet Silverado with fire showing from the engine compartment. Firefighters used a hand line and were able to quickly extinguish the fire without incident.

The owner of the vehicle told fire department officials that he was driving down Lafayette when he and another passenger started smelling smoke. He said he pulled over and when they got out, they found fire coming from the bottom of the engine compartment.

Officials say the damage was contained to the engine compartment and front of the cab. No injuries were reported. Damages were estimated at $35,000 to the vehicle and $1,000.00 in contents.

The trial of a Pike County man facing 19 domestic violence and sex-related felony counts came to an end in Pike County Circuit Court Friday.

After more than four hours of deliberation, the eight-woman and four-man jury found Austin Rodhouse, 30, of Pleasant Hill guilty on all charges Friday afternoon.

The nine-day trial proceedings included what Pike County Assistant State’s Attorney Leecia Carnes called “graphic and vile evidence” of abuse Rodhouse inflicted on his wife and their two sons, ages three and four in their Pleasant Hill home, according to a report by Muddy River News.

Rodhouse was found guilty on three counts of aggravated domestic battery, one count of criminal sexual assault involving force, four counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, two counts of child pornography, three counts of indecent solicitation of an adult, and three counts of aggravated battery to a child.

According to the Muddy River News report, Rodhouse showed no emotion while the verdicts were being read. His wife, identified in court documents as CC, was joined in the gallery by family and others in support of her and her sons.

During the trial, CC testified as to the intensity of the abuse Rodhouse both subjected her to and forced her to perform on their two sons.

Judge Charles H.W. Birch set a sentencing date for Rodhouse on January 15th. Following the guilty verdict on all 19 counts, he faces up to natural life in prison.