According to a press release from the Jacksonville Police Department, at 5:26 pm officers responded to a call of a crash involving a vehicle and a pedestrian at the intersection of Dunlap Court and West College Avenue.

Upon arrival, officers found a female unresponsive in the roadway. Police along with members of the Jacksonville Fire Department and LifeStar EMS rendered aid at the scene. The female pedestrian was transported to Jacksonville Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced deceased.

Jacksonville Police officials say the incident remains under investigation, but as of the time of the press release, no arrests had been made. The Illinois State Police Reconstruction Unit was called to the scene of the crash.

Jacksonville Police are asking if anyone has information on this incident to contact the Jacksonville Police Department at 217-479-4630.

Jacksonville Police officials say the identity of the victim is not being released at this time pending notification of the victim’s family. Any further information about the victim will be released by Morgan County Coroner Marcy Patterson.

A special ceremony was held in the Jacksonville Memorial Hospital lobby this morning as hospital staff gathered to recognize one of their own.

Eric Davidson who serves as a nurse with emergency services at JMH was named the hospital’s 2023 Colleague of the Year. Davidson is a BSN and RN and has been with JMH since 2022.

President and CEO of Jacksonville Memorial, Trevor Huffman says he can’t think of a better time of the year to celebrate with this year’s Colleagues of the Month as he feels each one demonstrates the spirit of the holidays every day in their jobs.

Huffman says he’s proud of this year’s recipient. “I’m extremely proud that Eric got it. I mean, I’m proud of all the colleagues of the month, all of them were well deserving. But I can say when you’re in our ER, you see Eric is always smiling and maintaining that positive environment and attitude, even in some very difficult times. So I’m really appreciative of him, his service, and all the great work that our ER is doing.”

Davidson says he is honored to have been named Colleague of the Year. “I was kinda surprised but I’m very fortunate to be given this today. It shows that we really can make a positive impact in everybody’s life every day in our jobs and it shows something with everybody here today.”

Previous Colleagues of the Month who could not attend were: JoDell Paul, Environmental Services Technician, Ally Orris, Patient Care Technician, ICU, Terry Strohl, RN, Emergency Department

The colleague of the year is selected from 10 individuals who are chosen as a colleague of the month from January to November each year. Davidson was chosen as Colleague of the Month in May.

Two teenagers and an unborn child were among the victims of a pair of shooting incidents in Cass County last night.

According to an updated video press release on the Cass County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page from Sheriff Devron Ohrn this afternoon, just before 9:00 pm Thursday, officers were called to a residence located at 308 Philadelphia Road in rural Philadelphia after a male caller told 911 dispatchers he had been shot.

Ohrn says the male did not give the address, but officers were able to determine his location via the plotting feature of the 911 system. Upon arrival, Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies and Ashland Police found the man with a gunshot wound to the stomach, along with a deceased female victim inside the residence.

Officers treated the male at the scene until EMS arrived. Ohrn says that based on information provided by the male victim, authorities responded to a second residence located at 752 Lockard Street in the Village of Ashland, where two additional female victims were located.

53-year-old Christina Bell, and 16-year-old Alaria Bell, both of that address were pronounced deceased at the scene. 19-year-old Autumn Bell was pronounced deceased at the scene of her Philadelphia residence. According to a GoFundMe page set up for the family, Autumn Bell was pregnant and her unborn child also did not survive. The male victim was transported to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Cobren was found inside the vehicle with a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Jacksonville Police Department confirmed this afternoon that the suspect vehicle caught fire at one point during the incident. The Jacksonville Fire Department was dispatched and extinguished the fire. Officials said officers provided cover out of an abundance of caution for the firefighters.

Cobren was pronounced deceased at the scene by Morgan County Coroner Marcy Patterson. JPD officials say the incident including the cause of the fire remains under investigation, however after preliminary investigation, it is not believed the fire contributed to his death.

Ohrn says autopsies have been scheduled for Monday, December 18^th. The incidents remain under investigation. The GoFundMe page set up for the victims can be found here.

Ohrn says no further information will be released at this time.

The Morgan County Board has reorganized for the new year. During the regular board meeting on Monday, the commissioners elected Mike Wankel to serve as chair for the coming year.

Wankel was nominated by the Morgan County Republican Party to fill the commissioner’s seat vacancy following the passing of Bill Meier. The election as chair came almost two years to the day Wankel was officially appointed as Commissioner back in December of 2021.

Wankel, who won election to retain the seat last year, says he is grateful for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Morgan County. “I just appreciate the board’s support and also want to recognize Brad Zeller and Ginni Fanning’s dedication to this board, and hopefully I can be able to continue that.”

Outgoing Commissioner Chair Ginni Fanning was elected to serve as Vice Chair for the new year. Fanning announced back in October that she would not be seeking reelection to a new term in 2024.

As of the closing of the filing period, four Morgan County residents have tossed their hats into the ring for the seat that will be vacated by Fanning at the end of her term next year.

Area not-for-profit organizations are encouraged to attend a meeting next month that could lead to funding through the United Way.

The Prairieland United Way announced this morning an informational pre-allocation meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, January 18^th.

The meeting is for 501(c)3 not-for-profit organizations in Morgan, Scott, Cass, and Northern Greene counties who are interested in applying for FY2025 United Way funding.

Prairieland United Way Executive Director Karen Walker says that application requirements, procedures, and deadlines will be reviewed at the meeting.

She says several documents must be reviewed for an organization to be considered eligible to apply for a United Way grant, including the IRS tax-exempt letter, a copy of the constitution and by-laws, a copy of the non-discrimination policies specific to employment services, and a copy of the corporate charter including amendments.

Other documents needing to be updated annually for an organization’s annual file include a listing of the current board members, annual report, annual audit, and IRS 990 and AG990-IL.

Anyone with questions can contact Walker at 217-245-4557, or stop by the Prairieland United Way office located on the lower level of the Jacksonville Municipal Building at 200 West Douglas Avenue.

The pre-allocation meeting will be held on January 18^th at 9:00 am in the second-floor Commission Room of the Municipal Building

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

Sometime between December 6^th, and December 7^th, unknown person(s) removed tools from a work site in the 1300 block of South Main Street.

Among the tools taken were a DeWalt hammer drill, finish nailer, impact driver, circular saw and sawzall, three Pasload nailers, two Ryobi circular saws, and a Cobra two-way radio.

The police are 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, or calling Crime Stoppers at 217-243-7300.

Tips may also be submitted by texting to the word CRIMES (274637). The first word of the text tip must be “payout” Crime Stoppers says if your tip leads to an arrest, you are eligible for a cash reward.

The District 117 School Board officially approved the proposed 15% tax levy ask last night, but school administration says existing property owners won’t see their taxes increase near that much.

The Jacksonville School District Board of Education held a truth in taxation public hearing last night prior to the regular December meeting. The hearing is triggered anytime a taxing body requests more than 5% when setting a new levy.

Superintendent Steve Ptacek spent a lengthy period explaining why the district has to ask for so much of an increase over the previous year. He says because of PTELL, no matter how much the district ask is, existing property owners are capped at a 5% increase.

“The number one thing I want to clarify with everyone on the tax levy is that the property tax increase on existing property by PTELL is going to be limited to five percent or CPI (consumer price index) or five percent, whichever is lower.

So, therefore, I’m going to use last year as an example, last year’s CPI was at seven percent. All of the existing property in Jacksonville last year- on the total combined we had a five percent increase in the property taxes. But added on top of that every year is all of the new construction, and those new construction taxes can add on what we actually gain above that five percent.

We don’t know exactly how much new construction there is, especially with wind farms coming in and solar farms, and we all know we’ve got new coffee shops and other things around the city. So last year we asked for a ten percent increase and we got a nine-point two seven percent total increase in our taxes collected. Five percent of that was due to existing property and that was limited by the five percent or CPI whichever is lower rule. The other four point two percent was from new property that was added into the roll.”

The Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, or PTELL, was enacted by the General Assembly in the early 90s in an effort to cap how much taxing entities without home rule can increase property taxes, while still accounting for new growth in its area.

Ptacek says the combination of new construction and a PTELL cap at 5% meant many districts including 117 were left struggling to figure out how much new growth revenue they might very well end up missing out on.

“This year we didn’t know how much new property there was again, but we didn’t think we were going to be as close. Because if we don’t ask for what we could get, then we don’t get it. And in a PTELL district, we lose it forever. And when you lose all the increases it can be detrimental in the long run. So not really having an idea of exactly how much property is coming onto the tax rolls this year, we decided to ask for fifteen percent to make sure we capture any of that extra new property.

Now existing property owners should not have a concern because it’s not going to impact them, and I’ll give an example. If last year we’d asked twenty percent instead of ten percent, we still would have only gotten the nine-point two seven, and the existing property owners still would have had the capped five percent increase.

Now a five percent increase is the largest that we’ve ever had because CPI hasn’t been that high in the last twenty-five years. Bur people shouldn’t see that number because there is nobody who is going to have a fifteen percent property tax increase from our ask alone.”

Ptacek says if a property owner’s individual tax assessment went up dramatically over the year, they could see a much larger increase over the previous year’s tax bill, but the district doesn’t see any more money than the 5% capped by PTELL.

During his presentation, Ptacek said for example if District 117 had underasked by a half million dollars from their extension in 2012, the district would have lost $6.2 million in tax revenues this year.

He said if District 117 had missed out on the $6.2 million, they wouldn’t have had enough money, even with the bond sale, to complete the recent Washington Elementary renovation. Ptacek said during the presentation that anyone who has questions about the tax levy is welcome to contact him at the central office.

Last year, the district received just under 22% of its total revenue from local property tax revenues.

A Morgan County woman has been identified as the victim of a two-vehicle crash on Route 125 this morning.

According to updated reports from Illinois State Police Troop 6 officials, at approximately 7:30 am, troopers responded to the scene of a two-vehicle crash on Illinois Route 125 near Glick Road just east of Ashland.

State Police officials say a Chevrolet pickup truck was traveling west on Illinois Route 125 near Glick Road when at the same time, a Kia SUV was traveling east on Route 125 near the same location.

The Kia SUV reportedly pulled out into the westbound lane to pass another vehicle, and in doing so pulled into the path and struck the westbound pickup. The driver of the Kia SUV was declared deceased at the scene.

Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon announced this afternoon, that 48-year-old Crystal Shanks of Literberry was pronounced deceased at the scene. He says an autopsy was performed today and preliminary findings suggest Mrs. Shanks died from multiple blunt force injuries sustained in the crash.

According to the State Police, the driver of the pickup truck was transported to an area hospital with unspecified injuries. Shortly after the first crash, a second occurred near the same location involving a commercial motor vehicle and a passenger vehicle. No injuries were reported in the second crash.

Route 125 was closed to traffic in both directions during the initial investigation and was reopened at approximately 1:45 this afternoon.

Allmon says the incident remains under investigation by the Sangamon County Coroner and the Illinois State Police.

A Sangamon County man was sentenced to serve prison time in Morgan County Court last week.

54-year-old Orville A. Adams of Springfield and formerly of Plymouth, Illinois faced a number of drug and traffic charges in Morgan County Court Thursday.

Adams was arrested in Jacksonville during a traffic stop on Walnut Street in late August of 2021 for unlawful possession of methamphetamine and driving on a revoked or suspended license.

According to charging documents, at the time of the traffic stop, Adams was in possession of more than 100 grams of methamphetamine, a Class X felony. He also was charged with felony driving while revoked after having committed the offense at least two other times after his license was suspended due to a previous DUI arrest.

Adams was arrested in September of this year for possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine, and driving with a revoked license during a traffic stop on an undisclosed section of Route 104.

He was arrested again on October 23^rd of this year for methamphetamine delivery after he was found in possession of 100 or more grams of the drug, also a Class X felony.

On Thursday Adams pleaded guilty to both Class X felony charges of possession of 100 grams or more of methamphetamine. All other charges were dismissed per the plea.

Adams was sentenced to serve seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, followed by 18 months of mandatory supervised release. He was given credit for 270 days served on the first count and 59 days served on the second count.

Adams was also ordered to pay a $500.00 fine, plus fees and court costs of more than $2,000.00.