By JEFF LAMPE For The Weekly Post FARMINGTON – The Farmington City Council on Monday voted unanimously to accept a bid from UCM, Inc., for upcoming resurfacing of Apple Street, First Avenue and Second Avenue. UCM of Tremont offered the lowest of two bids submitted for the resurfacing project, which is funded by Motor Fuel Taxes. The UCM bid of $483,361.45 was under an engineer’s estimate of $530,619 and well under the bid of $604,175.16 from Tazewell County Asphalt. The council also voted unanimously to purchase an Owl Pro camera, laptop and necessary wires to allow for livestreaming of future council meetings…

Princeville’s festival back minus beer tent By JEFF LAMPE For The Weekly Post PRINCEVILLE – While the beer tent is gone for another year, most activities that have made Heritage Days a popular event in Princeville are back this weekend after a one-year, pandemic-related hiatus. Getting to this point was not always certain, though, according to Beth Duttlinger, president of the Princeville Civic Association, which organizes the festival. “Some of this was like a wing and a prayer when we were doing the planning, because we weren’t sure how much would be open,” Duttlinger said. “So we’re very fortunate the state…

Board says it is watching budget By JOHN A. BALLENTINE For The Prairie News WYOMING – Four Stark County residents voiced concerns about a school renovation project during the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting of the Stark County Board of Education. The speakers told board members that the school renovation project should be put on hold, asked them to reconsider building a new school and expressed concerns about higher tax rates. Local farmer Doug Milby said in his statements that he “didn’t attend some of the other information meetings” because “I was gone, I wasn’t here.” Milby, in addressing…

Incidents & Accidents Stark County 6-14 – A rural Toulon resident reported an unoccupied wrecked vehicle located just south of 1100N and 200E. A note located on the extensively damaged van stated that the occupant(s) had sought to get help. Authorities had the vehicle towed and impounded. The incident remains under investigation. 6-14 – Blayze N. Ryder, 18, Neponset, was ticketed for disobeying a no passing zone. In a preliminary report, a ticket was issued in conjunction with a two-vehicle accident that occurred at Route 78 and Duncan Road. The accident remains under investigation through the Stark County Sheriff’s Office….

NOTE: Charges are merely an accusation. All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Elmwood man dies in one-vehicle collision ELMWOOD – A “medical event” may have been the cause of an Elmwood resident’s pickup truck leaving the road at the T-intersection of Graham Chapel and Dogtown Roads in Elmwood. The vehicle then hit the guide wire of a power line pole sometime before 5:45 a.m. on June 21, according to a Peoria County Sheriff’s report. The wire then pulled the pole down on the truck. Kenneth J. Musgrave, 55, of Elmwood, was pronounced dead…

My Place St. Jude event tops $130,000 By JEFF LAMPE For The Weekly Post YATES CITY – Despite August heat in June and the lingering after-effects of a pandemic, Saturday’s My Place St. Jude Benefit managed to continue an impressive trend. Since the benefit began in 2003 with $1,000 raised for St. Jude, the amount of money generated during the one-day event in this town of 750 has increased every year. This year’s total of $130,248.97 tops the 2019 amount of $126,112.12. “I never would have thought that could happen,” said Sharon Coykendall, who helps organize the event along with Jody McKinty…

By PHIL JOHNSON For The Weekly Post WILLIAMSFIELD – Hot bats and a pair of pitchers delivered a Class 1A regional title to ROWVA-Williamsfield Monday in an 11-1 thrashing of Roanoke-Benson. Ahead 6-1 after five innings, R-W (11-5) scored five in the bottom of the sixth to end the game by way of the 10-run rule. The Cougars put on a 10-hit parade, which was very well distributed throughout the lineup. Brodie Secrist hit 4-for-5 with one RBI, Hunter Ramage was 2-for-4 with a triple and an RBI, Denver Weedman drove in two, Adam Kohl tripled and had one RBI and…

By JEFF LAMPE For The Weekly Post Two local softball teams ended last Friday hoisting Class 1A regional plaques – one expected and one a surprise champion. Actually, regional plaques are being mailed by the IHSA since there were technically no home regionals. But the point is, two teams earned a postseason title after following different paths. While top-seeded ROWVA-Williamsfield routed two regional foes, 18-0, a young Princeville squad continued its late-season improvement with a pair of wins. And neither showed any sign of slowing in the sectionals, with each winning 1-0 pitcher’s duels on Tuesday. For R-W (17-11), Katelyn Aldred…

Farmington girls top Knoxville for sectional title By JEFF LAMPE For The Weekly Post FARMINGTON – The bonuses keep coming for the Farmington track team. One year after not being able to compete due to COVID restrictions, the Lady Farmers not only qualified eight athletes for Thursday’s Class 1A state track meet, they also won a surprise sectional title last week at Knoxville. The Lady Farmers tallied 66 points to top host Knoxville (64 points) and Kewanee Wethersfield and Stark County (62). Princeville was eighth with 38 points. “I think we were all in shock, because we thought Knoxville was going…

By JOHN A. BALLENTINE For The Prairie News TOULON – Toulon’s sanitary sewer lift station is going to cost the city $188,630 more than what was estimated to cost last fall. City Engineer Ed Andrews of the Farnsworth Group told the Toulon City Council on Monday that bids for the project’s construction were opened on June 3 and Stark Excavating, Inc. was the low bidder. Stark’s bid of $688,630 is to construct the lift station at Whitaker Street and West Prairie Street, although Farnsworth’s handout states “The lift station’s force main was…at Turner Avenue and Henderson Street” for the connection…