A popular Jacksonville gathering space is undergoing a brand and concept change after deciding to part ways with its corporate partnership.

The Waters Edge Winery & Bistro of Jacksonville is ceasing operation as a Waters Edge Winery franchise effective immediately, according to an announcement by the venue this afternoon.

In the statement posted to the Waters Edge of Jacksonville Facebook page, founder and president of Waters Edge Wineries, Ken Lineberger said after much analysis over the last two years of operation, they have concluded that less populated markets like Jacksonville are unfortunately not the best fit for their urban winery model.

Franchise owner and operator Mike Hayes said in the release that after discussion with the corporate franchise office, he agrees that the winery has not performed at a level consistent with corporate expectations or his own.

Hayes says the retail winery operations are being shut down at this time however, it will not affect any current scheduled events as the Wine Barn facility was not a part of the franchise system.

Hayes says in the meantime the winery building will be undergoing some interior renovations and will reopen under a new name with an increased focus on special events.

In the announcement, both Hayes and Lineberger thanked Waters Edge and Jacksonville for the opportunity over the last two years and wished each other success in the future.

One person was killed in a two-vehicle crash yesterday morning in Greene County.

According to a preliminary report by Illinois State Police, at approximately 6:30AM Thursday, a truck tractor semi-trailer was traveling eastbound on Illinois Route 108, one mile west of the Greene and Macoupin County line.

At the same time a pick-up truck was traveling westbound at the same location. State Police say for an unknown reason, the westbound pick-up crossed the center line of the road and struck the eastbound semi head on in the eastbound lane of travel.

According to the report, the driver of the eastbound semi was transported to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The driver of the westbound pick-up was pronounced deceased at the scene by Greene County Coroner Danny Powell at 7AM.

An autopsy is being scheduled and the identity of the deceased is being withheld pending next of kin notification. The death remains under investigation by the Greene County Coroner’s Office and the Illinois State Police.

Some green spaces on the down plaza in Jacksonville may be changing hands soon. The Jacksonville City Council approved putting up for sale two separate parcels of property during their regular meeting Monday night. The lots are located at 203 and 205 East Morgan Street and 42 North Central Park Plaza.

City Attorney Dan Beard says the city decided to entertain the idea of letting go of the lots after interest was shown by at least one individual recently. “The council declared some property down on the plaza as surplus property which is a first step they legally have to take in order to dispose of those properties.

One is the lot just west of the old Sears building and the other is the lot south of the old Denney Jewelers on Morgan. With both of these, individuals expressed interest in acquiring those lots for some projects that he is looking to do downtown. So the council has agreed that that’s surplus property. We’ll publish a resolution in the newspaper indicating the terms of sale.”

During the workshop discussion, Beard reported that the lot at North Central Park Plaza was appraised at $10,000, and the lots on East Morgan were appraised at $8,000 each.

Per statute to declare the properties surplus, the parcels not only have to be appraised, but the city has to receive at least 80% of the appraised value in order to accept a bid.

He says one thing that is unique about this type of sale under the municipal code is that the city does not have to accept the highest bidder, and can take into account each bidder’s proposal for the use of the property as a motivating factor in the sale.

Beard says any bidders who are interested can submit a bid by next Friday, September 8^th. The bids will then be considered during the next scheduled council meeting on the following Monday, September 11^th.

The Jacksonville Police Department will soon have an updated version of a multipurpose tool in the toolbox that has already made a big impact in local cases.

The Jacksonville City Council approved a request by Chief Adam Mefford for the purchase of a new aerial drone for the police department Monday night. Currently, the department is using a loaner unit after the existing drone experienced a catastrophic internal failure in June.

The Jacksonville Citizens Police Academy Alumni purchased the first drone about four to five years ago, according to Detective Luke Poore who is the department’s main drone pilot.

He says at the time, that drone was the most technically advanced, however, the new one is far and away more capable. “The technology is changing as fast as computers used to. They haven’t necessarily plateaued yet. It can actually handle pretty much any inclement weather that we want to put it in. Because we don’t get to pick and choose, it’s not always seventy and sunny when we have to work.

It also has self-heating and fast-charging batteries. It comes with a charging case that if we are in the field, we can charge the batteries from ten percent to ninety percent in about thirty minutes. So with the number of batteries we are going to get, we could pretty much fly all day long.”

The new drone will also have a four-camera system that includes a 200 times zoom and even a thermal option Poore says could one day be used to assist the fire department in locating hot spots in a large structure fire for example.

Drones of this size and capability are regulated by the FAA, and pilots like Poore must be certified in order to operate them. He says as more officers become certified, the greater the capability the department will have for a tool that has already played a vital role in two major incidents this year.

“After we get more pilots we are probably going to have more uses than what we’ve had in the past. But it’s not something that we are going to use every single day. Recently with the older drone that is no longer working, we were able to find a fleeing suspect who I believe was wanted on multiple warrants on multiple charges in about thirty seconds when he was hiding in a cornfield.

That was the perfect storm, that’s probably never going to happen that fast again. But it was very beneficial to have at that time. And then obviously the incident we just had down here at Church and College. The information that we were able to get and relay to the guys on the ground at the time was paramount.”

In both instances, the suspects involved were taken into custody without major incident or injury to them or law enforcement. Poore says though there is a bit of a stigma in the public when it comes to police flying drones overhead. He says though that there are only specific times they can be utilized by police.

“There’s only one law on the books in Illinois and it’s the Drones As First Responders Act, and so we are only going to use the drone for essential police services so to speak. If we are going to be doing anything surveillance type-wise or anything or things along those lines, we have to have a search warrant.

We can use it for crash scene and crime scene photography, we can also use it for search and rescue missions and other things along those lines. There is a certain set of criteria where we are not allowed to fly the drone.

We are not going to fly over people’s houses just to see what is going on in their backyard. That is by far and away something we are not going to do. We are not spy planes, we are not using them to infringe on anybody’s rights in any way shape, or form. It’s just another tool to help us do our jobs safely.”

The new drone will cost the department just over $14,500.00. Chief Mefford told the council that insurance on the last drone will provide approximately $5,800 of that cost, and the rest will be paid for via funds from a $15,000 reimbursement from the department’s body camera program so nothing is being paid out of the general fund. e says the new drone should be received within the next month.

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

In the early morning hours of Saturday, August 26^th, firefighters from the Jacksonville and South Jacksonville Fire Departments responded to a structure fire in storage units located at 337 West Lafayette Avenue.

The facility was not hooked up to utilities of any kind and the fire has been deemed suspicious and remains under investigation by the Jacksonville Police Department and Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Jacksonville Fire Department officials estimate damages to the structure at $80,000, with contents of the various storage units totaling an additional $20,000.

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 www.morganscottcrimestoppers.webs.com or calling Crime Stoppers at 217-243-7300.

Anonymous tips may also be submitted via the Morgan, Scott, Cass Crime Stoppers mobile app, or by texting to the word CRIMES, that’s the number 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.

Morgan County appears to be in good financial health. The Morgan County Commissioners approved the county’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget during their regular meeting on Monday.

Commissioner Chair Ginny Fanning says overall they are very pleased with the county’s financials for the new fiscal year. “We do have a balanced budget in our general fund and we are appreciative of our department heads and elected officials who presented their budgets earlier last month and made it possible for us to be able to balance our budget.

Our revenue sources are all looking very good for the upcoming year. We did lower our fines and forfeits due to the Safe-T-Act and not knowing exactly what that will entail for the upcoming year, so we’re going to be monitoring that closely.

Fanning says the budget includes a three percent raise across the board as well as an additional five hundred dollars for county employees. Included in the budget is grant funding for the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office.

Fanning says the grant will allow for a deputy to assist workers with the Department of Children and Family Services. “The sheriff was able to get a DCFS grant for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and that’s going to enable them to have an, I’m going to call it a resource officer, for one of the deputies to travel with the DCFS person to go to homes and be a safety factor for them.

That is a new program that has been initiated and so we are very pleased that our sheriff was able to get involved in that and I think it is going to be a wonderful safety factor.”

Commissioner Brad Zeller reported that included in the budget is funding for the continued exploration of creating a human resources position. Fanning says the proposal is still in the exploratory stages.

“We have never had an H.R. position here, we do have resources through our risk management folks. So when we’ve had questions, we have had a person that we are able to go to and get the information needed. However, it would be a wonderful thing to have someone actually in-house able to do that. That position has not exactly been job description determined because there are some other things we are hoping that they will be able to do.”

Zeller said during the meeting that they are unsure if there would be enough work for a full-time HR employee need, so they are looking at possibly creating a position for someone who could multitask and take over some other, yet to be determined, duties that would justify creating a salaried position for the role.

In other business, the commissioners unanimously approved a number of final bills for FY 2023, as well as the reappointment of Jacob Meyer to be a Commissioner for the Indian Creek Drainage District.

Two people were arrested last week after officials from Pike County Sheriff’s Office and West Central Illinois Drug Task Force executed a search warrant.

According to a report from the Pike County Sheriff’s Office on Friday, August 25^th at 9:49 pm, the court-authorized warrant was executed at a residence in the 200 block of Commercial Street, in the Pike County Village of New Salem.

Subsequent to the execution of the search warrant, law enforcement officials seized suspected psilocybin mushrooms, methamphetamine-related drug paraphernalia, syringes, a digital scale, 19.7 grams of methamphetamine, and United States Currency.

According to the report, 37-year-old Joshua W. Taylor of New Salem was arrested for unlawful possession of more than 15 grams of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, unlawful possession of methamphetamine more than 15 grams, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of hypodermic needles, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

Also taken into custody was 28-year-old Jordan A. Clendenny of Griggsville. She was arrested for unlawful possession of methamphetamine.

Both were arrested and remain lodged at the Pike County Jail. Taylor is being held on $500,000 bond with 10% to apply. A request by Taylor to be able to go to drug treatment was denied by the court. He is next scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing in Pike County Court on September 12^th.

Bond for Clendenny was set at $5,000 with 10% to apply. She is next due in court on September 26^th.

A Pike County woman was arrested this week after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services responded to a report of child abuse.

According to a report by the Pike County Sheriff’s Office, Deputies along with DCFS representatives responded to a complaint of child abuse at a local school district.

School employees had reportedly observed busing on a child and reported their concerns to DCFS. As a result of the investigation, 27-year-old Katie M. Smith of Barry was arrested late Monday morning on charges of aggravated battery to a child and unlawful restraint.

She was arrested without incident and lodged at the Pike County Jail. Smith was arraigned in Pike County Court on Tuesday where bond was set at $30,000 with 10% to apply.

She was ordered to refrain from any unsupervised contact with her children, and any contact must be supervised and approved through DCFS.

No one was injured when a fire broke out in the basement of a Jacksonville home this afternoon.

Jacksonville Fire Department crews were called to a report of smoke coming from a house located at 421 West College Avenue just after 2:00 p.m. Wednesday.

Jacksonville Fire Department Captain Matt Summers says the crews were actually on their way to do some company training when the call came in. “It could have been a lot worse but the guys got a handle on it real quick.

We made access through the rear to the basement and were able to knock down the fire with a single-inch and three-quarter line. The fire was probably limited by a lack of oxygen and the house was all closed up, nobody was home at the time. When the family came home they saw the smoke and called us.

So thankfully everything went pretty well, saved the house and everything in it. Just had a little bit of damage to the basement and the floor joists. But it’s a solid old home and I’m sure they are going to be able to fix and replace everything.”

Summers says there was a significant amount of fire damage in the electrical wires above the area where the fire occurred however, the cause remains undetermined at this time pending further investigation. Crews were on scene for approximately one hour.