Rambling through central Illinois, relieved there was no KC threepeat.
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If you sense pride oozing from the pages of this edition, that’s due in part to all the local college students making the Dean’s list at their respective schools.
As you may know, we publish names of Dean’s-list honorees who are graduates of the high schools we cover. Actually, we publish the names of some local Dean’s listers. Since so many proud parents and grandparents have asked about the list in recent weeks, here’s how that imperfect process works.
Many schools subscribe to Merit Pages, a service that sends out news about local students to various media members. Dean’s-list honorees and college graduates are among those we receive. At some point in the enrollment process, students are asked to provide media outlets to whom they want media releases sent.
Not all schools pay for the service, though. In fact, most Illinois colleges and universities are not subscribers.
That’s where parents and even grandparents often step in to let us know of their family success stories. We’re glad to hear from you, too.
The only problem is that honoring just one student from a school means we may miss others from our area who also attend that school. For instance, we recently got a note from a parent of an Illinois State University student who made the Dean’s list. Going to the ISU website confirmed the email, but a quick search by county showed there are actually 45 local students who made the ISU Dean’s list – and that doesn’t count anybody from Chillicothe who attended Princeville High School.
That’s one of the headaches that doing our own searches creates. And there are many. Not all colleges provide searchable databases. Some don’t include hometowns. Furthermore, we don’t know where all our local students are going to school, so the search is nowhere close to exhaustive. Even with all those imperfections, we’ll attempt to do our best. And kudos to all the Dean’s listers.
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State Rep. Travis Weaver attended last week’s meeting of the Elmwood Development Association and did a great job depressing everybody with a concise synopsis of our state’s budget woes.
Because of our $178 billion in unfunded pension obligations (some argue it’s only $145 billion), Weaver said Illinois is currently paying 30% of the state budget to handle those costs (some argue it’s only 25%).
Those costs will increase between now and 2045, when the state constitution will require 90% funding of pensions. How we get to that point will no doubt involve tax increases.
Weaver, who sure seems too sharp to be state politics, is working on a bill that could help mitigate some future pension problems. We’ll write more about it should his legislation gain real traction in Springfield.
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Some good news out of the EDA meeting is from the Elmwood Community Foundation, which has raised nearly $9 million of the estimated $12.4 million needed for its proposed Community Wellness Center. Fundraiser Micki McCarthy said discussions will start soon with businesses about five-year pledges for a donor wall in the facility. That’s good news, says McCarthy, who hopes to see ground broken on the facility this summer. … One business that might not be contributing is the Underground BBQ restaurant in Elmwood, where we had a tasty meal for the EDA meeting. UBQ is closing its Elmwood location after less than six months but will keep its Williamsfield venue open.
Contact Jeff Lampe at (309) 231-6040 or jeff@wklypost.com
