Month: November 2020

By HERB STUFFLEBEAM For The Weekly Post FARMINGTON – The Farmington Historical Society and Museum, in cooperation with the Farmington American Legion, has started a project to place a flag holder medallion on each veteran’s grave in eight local cemeteries. This is part of a six-year project to digitize listings for these cemeteries. While digitizing and visiting these cemeteries, it became apparent that most veterans were not identified. Digitized information is available at the Farmington Historical Society and Museum and at the Farmington Area Public Library. The cemeteries are: Oak Ridge, Hill, Pleasant Hill Chapin, Providence Chapel, Coal Creek Dunkard,…

Design meeting to be scheduled By John A. Ballentine The location of Toulon’s proposed sanitary sewer lift station will be at the southeast corner of Prairie and Whitaker Streets. That is the lowest site of the area where the lift station will become part of Toulon’s extended sanitary system. The problem that exists now is raw sewage is being deposited into a waterway at that location, which feeds west in to Indian Creek. According to city engineer Justin Reeise, of the Farnsworth Group, the lift station installation cost will be between $200,000 and $240,000. Reeise said that he will be…

By BILL KNIGHT For The Weekly Post Besides affecting the nation’s health and economy, the ongoing pandemic changed much of schools’ assessment data offered in the 2020 Illinois Report Card, released Oct. 30. But other details offer glimpses of the state’s students and school districts. Starting last spring, the pandemic disturbed schools’ instruction and operations, interfering with methods to measure changes since 2019. For the first time, there’s very little assessment on academics. “COVID-19 impacted most student data, limiting year-to-year comparisons,” said Jackie Matthews, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). Due to COVID-19’s impact, Illinois this year…

By JEFF LAMPE Weekly Post Staff Writer Winds gusting over 60 mph on Tuesday brought down tree limbs and power lines across the area and damaged several roofs, smaller buildings and trailers. In Elmwood, the winds ripped off the back half of the roof of the Horeb Lodge building at 114 N. Magnolia St. The building houses the Post Office, Uptown Cafe, the Mason’s meeting room and apartments. While a few bricks scattered below, most of the roof remained on top of the building, but allowed rain water to pour inside. There were no injuries. “All of the sudden, water…

By JEFF LAMPE For The Weekly Post One of the most anticipated elections in years sent record numbers of voters to the polls and decided some races – with a few still to be determined nationally and in Illinois. By Monday, more than 3.5 million voters had already cast early ballots across Illinois and turnout Tuesday was strong locally and across the state. The marquee race between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden was decided early in Illinois. With 74 percent of the vote counted, the Associated Press was calling Biden the winner in Illinois with 54.3 percent…

By JEFF LAMPE Weekly Post Staff Writer While some of Illinois’ questions were answered in Tuesday’s election, many more remain undecided in regards to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The continued debate over how best to deal with a recent dramatic upsurge in positive cases is resulting in special school board meetings, proclamations of civil disobedience, new lawsuits and more. First to the schools. Last week, the Illinois Department of Public Health changed its classification of basketball to a highrisk sport from its previous designation of medium-risk. And Gov. JB Pritzker has said that basketball can’t be played until spring. That…

Princeville boys take 3rd at regional By JEFF LAMPE Weekly Post Staff Writer PETERSBURG – There was no question about the winner at Saturday’s PORTA High School boys cross country regional. With runners divided into three flighted races instead of the usual one large race, Elmwood-Brimfield’s third-ranked team had an even better chance to prove its dominance. Trojans runners finished first and second in the first two races and swept the top three spots in the final boy’s race. E-B had five of the top nine finishers in the race and saw its top seven all finish in the top…

Elmwood’s first family of XC ends successful 13-year run By JEFF LAMPE Weekly Post Staff Writer ELMWOOD – After 13 seasons, more than $12,000 in running shoes and six state cross country trophies, the last Hoffmann will run a race for the Elmwood-Brimfield Trojans this Saturday. Senior Luke Hoffmann is the last of four brothers to run for E-B and Coach Gregg Meyers. Each has been part of a state championship team: Jordan, 26, in 2008, Kelly, 23, in 2013, and Cooper, 20, and Luke in 2017. Parents Bruce Hoffmann and Penny Silzer say that 2017 championship, when Luke was…

By BILL KNIGHT For The Weekly Post Rural communities had about 900,000 fewer jobs this August than August of 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). However, the outlook is improving from earlier this year, and rural America is holding on to jobs better than urban or suburban areas. Besides the number of jobs, the average jobless rates also are better in rural areas than metro areas. In The Weekly Post area, Fulton, Knox and Peoria Counties all lost jobs in the year-to-year comparison, but the percentage declines in Fulton and Knox weren’t as bad as the national…