the weekly post 2/21/13

The Weekly Post debuts

Highlights aplenty for retiring superintendent

Elmwood streetscapingshould begin in March

By THE WEEKLY POSTFor The Weekly Post

What you’re holding in your hands isthe first official copy of The WeeklyPost, a weekly newspaper serving thecommunities of Brimfield, Edwards,Elmwood, Kickapoo, Laura, Yates Cityand Williamsfield.

The Weekly Post will be deliveredevery Thursday via mail and on news-racks to 5,000 readers in the above-mentioned communities.

Our goal is to print informative, en-tertaining stories on government andschools, sports and business, cultureand crime in our communities and inwestern Peoria County.

To do that we have assembled a vet-eran staff of journalists that includeswriter Jeff Lampe, columnist/commen-tator Bill Knight, award-winning writerTerry Bibo and Keith Butterfield, a for-mer Journal Star reporter and CaterpillarInc. spokesman.

In addition to seasoned journalists,

we will feature local contributors suchas Elmwood photographer Amy Davis,Brimfield businessman Roger Kepple,retired Elmwood teacher Mit Beres,Kasey Eberle of Brimfield, humoristJon Gallagher, Melinda Cote of Kick-apoo. We will also make space forworks by students from area highschools and colleges.

Lampe, a long-time outdoors andsports writer for the Peoria Journal Starand Decatur Herald & Review, pub-lishes the monthly Heartland Outdoorsmagazine. He and his wife Monicamoved to Elmwood in 2004 and havethree sons attending school in Elm-wood: Henry, Victor and Walter.

In addition to leading the ElmwoodAll Outdoors Show since 2010, Lampeis an Elmwood city alderman and isactive coaching youth sports. He andhis wife help manage the ElmwoodTownship Community Center. Monicawill help run The Weekly Post office.

By BILL KNIGHTFor The Weekly Post

ELMWOOD – Construction has been afact of life in Elmwood since 2010 andthat won’t change in the downtownsquare any time soon. Some may viewthat as an inconvenience, but the com-munity will probably appreciate thedramatic improvements – and breatheeasier – thanks to two state grants anda local zoning ordinance the CityCouncil approved unanimously onTuesday, Elmwood Mayor J.D. Huls-lander said.

“It’ll definitely pay off in the longrun,” said Hulslander, who concededhe has heard grumbling from mer-chants. “But we worked with the engi-neers, and the contractors are obligatedto provide easy access to all the busi-nesses throughout the project.”

As for the rest of the community,Hulslander said, “The way it’ll makethe downtown look, it’ll be great foreverybody.”

The council on Jan. 21 voted to ac-cept a bid of $471,685.31 fromLaverdiere Construction of Macombfor Phase I of the DowntownStreetscape Project, which will im-prove both sides of the 100 block ofEast Main St. The bid was about$26,000 higher than estimates, and thecity has approached the Illinois De-partment of Transportation to addressthe shortfall.

Work is expected to begin next

month and take about 11 weeks, al-though work will halt during theStrawberry Festival on June 4.

Phase I of the project, funded by a$515,112 grant from the Illinois Trans-portation Enhancement Program(ITEP) and $128,000 from the city’sgeneral revenue fund, will renovatesidewalks, gutters, curbs, crosswalks

By TERRY BIBOFor The Weekly Post

BRIMFIELD – AskDennis McNamara ifbuilding a $16.8 millionnew school is the high-light of his career and hepauses.

“Yeah... ” says the re-tiring Superintendent ofBrimfield CommunityUnit School District 309,who will retire in June.

Then he reconsiders. Two of his students

have gone on to theMassachusetts Instituteof Technology. Otherstrain as doctors, lawyersand electricians, he says.In particular, he recallsone student who seemeddestined to drop out ofhigh school. All the kidwanted to do was workon cars. Redirected to-ward a college in South-ern Illinois for abachelor’s degree in auto

mechanics, the studentcaught fire and nowtravels around the coun-try as a trainer for Gen-eral Motors.

“That is where you ac-tually feel like you madea difference in some-one’s life,” McNamarasays. “He found hisniche.”

Not to downplay thenew school. When hefirst came here in 1990,a self-described “cityboy” from Peoria, Mc-Namara ran aroundshutting all the doors atthe old building for se-curity reasons. Then he

found out that’s how al-ready-secure countrypeople handled air-con-ditioning.

Of course, that’s 23years ago. In its secondyear of operation, thenew building sportscomputerized geother-mal heating – andlocked-door security

Continued on Page 2

Here is an artist’s rendition of the 100 block of E. Main St. in Elmwood afterstreetscaping improvements are completed. The first phase of the street im-provement project will start this spring.

Dennis McNamara willretire as Superintendentof Brimfield CUSD 309at the end of June.

Continued on Page 2 Continued on Page 2

FREE!Hot news tip? Want to advertise?Call (309) 741-9790

The Weekly Post“We Cover The News of West-Central Illinois With A Passion”

Serving Brimfield, Edwards, Elmwood, Kickapoo, Laura, Yates City and Williamsfield

RURAL BOXHOLDERLOCAL P.O. BOXHOLDER

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PRSRT. STD.U.S. POSTAGE PAIDElmwood, Illinois

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Carrier Route Presort

Stories? Ads?Visit with a staffer

from The Weekly PostMonday, Feb. 25 fromnoon to 1 p.m. in theBrimfield Public Li-brary’s conferenceroom.

ThursdayFebruary 21, 2013

Vol. 1, No. 1

Elmwood passes zoningElmwood now controls its own

zoning, after the council’s unani-mous approval of a new zoning or-dinance and the appointment of aZoning Commission.

The zoning law mostly meanssafety for residents, clarity for prop-erty owners and certainty for devel-opers – all administered byElmwood instead of Peoria County.

Discussions about zoning startedafter the June 5, 2010, tornado dam-aged dozens of local structures.Builders complained about thecounty’s control of the process, dif-ferent land-use priorities, and theinconvenience of traveling to thecounty courthouse.

Michael Seghetti, the Peoria attor-ney who assisted in developing theordinance, explained that Elm-wood’s zoning is based on thecounty’s laws, but was fine-tuned to

Continued on Page 2

www.wklypost.comTHE WEEKLY POST • Thursday, February 21, 2013

We Cover The News of West-Central Illinois With A Passion

Knight, recently retired as deputy di-rector of Journalism at Western IllinoisUniversity, also worked at the JournalStar, and continues to write a syndi-cated column. He and his wife TerryBibo have lived in Elmwood for 21years; their son Russell Baker gradu-ated from Elmwood High School in2005 before graduating from KnoxCollege and St. Louis UniversitySchool of Law.

Knight served on boards for MapleLane Country Club, the Elmwood FallFestival, and U of I Extension/PeoriaCounty, and was active in Boy Scouts

and youth baseball.The Post will operate out of an office

at 115 W. Main St. in Elmwood. Wewill also have office hours in Brimfield.

Helping run the office is Shelly Bro-dine of Elmwood, who attended highschool in Yates City. Brodine is mar-ried to Dan Brodine and has two chil-dren in the Elmwood schools: Parkerand Paige. A third child, Ashley, is anElmwood graduate.

We invite readers to submit storyideas, pictures and stories.

Contact Lampe at 309-231-6040, [email protected]. Better yet, stopby and visit our new office.

POST: Paper will offer local news

McNAMARA: Funding a worry

COUNCIL: Elevator expansion OKd

ZONING: Elmwood in charge of destiny

measures. It took years of work andexpertise from people around the com-munity to make a new building hap-pen, McNamara says. But that’s notmost important.

“Bricks and mortar certainly don’tmake kids smarter,” he says. “Provid-ing opportunities does.”

Considering the lingering effects of2008, Brimfield is fortunate to have alow number of students eligible for thefree-lunch program – 8 to 11 percent –and a relatively-strong housing market.Unlike most small towns, it still has amanufacturing base with Kress Corp.Oddly, such strengths can actually hurtwhen the state of Illinois thinks youcan afford to take a hit.

Looking forward, McNamaradoesn’t hesitate to name what he seesas the district’s biggest problem: er-ratic funding. The state owes Brimfieldschools roughly $600,000.

“We got our first transportation pay-ment a month ago,” he says. “But wedidn’t stop running buses.”

Not only is funding reduced and de-layed, he says. Low interest rates meanreserve funds don’t generate themoney they used to make – and mostof those funds are restricted anyway.Scholarships and grants are harder toget. Students end up taking out bigger

loans and graduates have difficultygetting jobs to pay them off.

“It’s sad,” McNamara says. “I reallyam fearful for what the financial situa-tion brings for the future for thesekids.”

Ultimately, he says, taxpayers footthe bills. That has to be considered, es-pecially when Springfield demands ex-pensive changes in education withoutfunding those changes. McNamarasays he’s been “extremely blessed”with a dedicated staff that has made itpossible to balance these needs.

Brimfield Education Associationpresident Monica Carnall-Freanerechoes his fears.

“We’re always concerned aboutschool funding. Fully funding as op-posed to partially funding,” she says.“All of these issues affect everybody.They affect us and the kids and thecommunity.”

Despite the challenges, and the offi-cial retirement, McNamara predicts hewill still be involved in education.

“My mission has always been: Thisis children first and foremost,” he says.“We’re providing opportunities forthese kids to be productive citizens insociety some day.”

The school is built. The mission goes on.Terry Bibo can be reached at

[email protected]

Continued from Page 1


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and ramps and add ornamental streetlamps and hand rails and Americanswith Disabilities Act (ADA) improve-ments. Elmwood is responsible for 20percent of IDOT’s anticipated con-struction costs of $445,300. However,all six bids were higher than IDOT es-timates, and Laverdiere’s low bid wasstill $26,385.31 higher.

ITEP grants are intended to promoteand develop streetscape beautification.

TERRA Engineering has been work-ing with the city on the project.

Meanwhile, Phase II of theStreetscape was approved by the statefor a $1.7 million grant, the only proj-ect to be funded from 12 counties inwest-central Illinois’ District 4 and theeighth highest award out of 54 fundedprojects.

With designs and engineering yet tobegin, the Phase II process will takemonths. The city’s 20 percent obliga-tion for Phase II is about $426,000.

In other business, the council unani-

mously approved vacating parts of theright of way of Rose and Lynn streetsadjacent to Ag-Land FS’s ElmwoodElevator, and an alley on the north sideof the site if the corporation agrees topay $20,000, reimburse the city for re-lated legal fees and pay to relocate anyaffected infrastructure in connectionwith a planed $2.5 million expansionat South Magnolia Street location.

The council on Feb. 11 unanimouslyvoted to support Ag-Land’s proposaland to negotiate with the company oncity property needed for the expansion.

Ag-Land Grain Manager ChuckDoubet said the expansion will vastlyimprove collection of corn-chaff dustfrom the air and also reduce traffic.

“We think it’s a win-win for thecompany and the community,” Doubetsaid. “The new dust emission controlunit will help eliminate the dust. Theproperty taxes will increase with theincreased value of the facility. Andthere’ll be jobs, in construction and inthe operation itself.”


Here is an artist’s rendition of the 100 block of E. Main St. in Elmwood afterstreetscaping improvements. This is the corner of Main and Magnolia.

711 N. HURFF, ELMWOOD: 4-5 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath,new construction located on 9th Fairway with over oneacre! Over 14ft. vaulted great room w/stone fireplace &exposed trusses, granite in kitchen, master suitew/whirlpool tub & custom tile shower, 3 plus garageplus many nice amenities! $375,000

305 N. MARRIETTA, YATES CITY: Great 3 bedroom tri-level on 3/4 acre corner lot, lower level fireplace, hugemaster bedroom, 2 car attached garage, heated sun-room, almost 2000 sq. ft. too! $129,900

208 S. TURTLE CREEK, ELMWOOD: Newer 3 bedroomranch with full basement part. finished, master suite hasdoor to deck, vaulted ceilings in living room, 2 car gar.,deck plus freshly painted! $109,900

316 OAK HILL, HAPPY HOLLOW: Nicely remodeled 2bedroom ranch, fireplaced family room, heated work-shop, gazebo, access to stocked lake, trails etc. Leasedland. $55,900

RESERVE YOUR BUILDING LOT NOW! Newer Elmwood subdivision, underground utilities,

close to country club, shopping & schools! Call now!

address Elmwood’s characteristics.“Changes we made in the language

were housekeeping in nature,” Seghettisaid, noting the ordinance takes effect10 days after approval and authoritywill transfer automatically to the city.

“No one’s zoning changed,” addedPat Landes, a Peoria zoning expertwho’s been a consultant in Elmwood’szoning adoption process. “We changedthe current code to tailor it to Elm-

wood.”Elmwood Director of Development

Dick Taylor said, “Elmwood will be incharge of its destiny.”

Elmwood Mayor J.D. Hulslander ap-pointed and the council approved thecity Zoning Commission as AndreaClark, Larry Cox, Jim Grimm, PatMcGuire, Tom Mottaz, Allan Nau-mann and Val Ramirez. Mottaz wasappointed and approved as chair andRamirez was appointed vice chair.


www.wklypost.com


THE WEEKLY POST • Thursday, February 21, 2013

THE WEEK AHEADCommunity Events

s St. Jude Run – An informational meeting forthe first St. Jude Kickapoo/Brimfield to Peoria Runwill be held March 11 at 7 p.m. at the KickapooSportsman’s Club, 11125 U.S. 150, Brimfield. Run-ners of any skill set will be accommodated in thenew event.

Fund Raiserss Chicken and noodles – Yates City’s Faith

United Presbyterian Church, 107 W. Bishop St., willhave a chicken & noodle dinner from 4-7 p.m. Satur-day to benefit the Handicap-Accessible Door Fundand also the Farmington Food Pantry. The menu willfeature “Nancy’s Noodles,” plus mashed potatoes,green beans, tea, lemonade or coffee, and dessert.

The dinner will cost $7 and $3 for children.s EEBY breakfast – March 2 is the date for the lat-

est fund raiser breakfast for EEBY (Elmwood-Ed-wards-Brimfield-Yates City), which sends gift boxesto U.S. troops.

Set for 7-10 a.m. at the United Methodist Church,821 W. Main St., the breakfast will offer sausage,fruit, biscuits & gravy, pastries, juices, milk and cof-fee, according to organizer Gerry Pettit.

The all-you-can-eat breakfast will cost $7 and $3 for kids 10 and younger.

s Fish fry – St. Patrick’s Church in Elmwood hasscheduled a fish fry for each Friday of Lent, continu-ing through March 22, at the parish hall, 802 W.Main St. Besides fish and/or shrimp, the menu in-cludes baked potato or french fries, coleslaw, apple-sauce, roll, drink and dessert. The cost is $9 and $4for children, and carryout orders also are available.

Benefits Caleb Siegel Benefit – A benefit for Caleb

Siegel of West Peoria, whose family is well knownin Brimfield and Elmwood, will be held Saturday atthe Fraternal Order of Eagles at 1704 SE Lane inPeoria from 2-11 p.m. Proceeds will help Caleb payfor a bone marrow transplant. He suffers from a raredisorder called Franconi Anemia. Call Dawn Mennelat (309) 303-0564, Chuck Traver at (309) 370-4742or Carrie Frazer at (309) 224-8465.

Youth Sportss Youth Baseball – Brimfield Youth Baseball As-

sociation sign-up dates are March 2 and 9, 9 a.m. tonoon at the Brimfield Grade School cafeteria. Formore information contact Rick Miller at 264-4154 orDan Keyt at 635-1384.

s Youth Soccer – Registration for the CantonYMCA soccer program will be held March 2 from10 a.m. to noon at the Elmwood Township Commu-nity Center. Teams are being organized for Elm-wood, Brimfield and Farmington. There will also besoccer clinics for second through sixth graders start-ing March 5. Call Mark Sawyer at 647-1616.

Other Eventss Fish, tree sales – The Peoria County Soil &

Water Conservation District fish and tree sale is on-going. Tree orders are due by March 15, and grasscarp fish orders are due by March 29. All otherspecies orders are due April 10. Call (309) 691-7040,ext. 3 or obtain additional information and order ac-cess online at http://peoriacountyswcd.trip.od.com.

Availability in Fulton and Knox Counties is similarhowever deadlines may vary. Please contact the ap-propriate county district office for details. FultonCounty SWCD: (309) 547-2215, ext. 3. KnoxCounty SWCD: (309) 342-5714, ext. 3.

By KELLY O’BRIENFor The Weekly Post

PEORIA – Just a fewweeks ago, Gertie thegroundhog predicted anearly spring for centralIllinois. Maybe you pic-tured warmer tempera-tures and greener grassthan the snowy scenegreeting us right now.

But is your home re-ally ready for spring al-ready?

A trip to the SpringHome Show this Friday-Sunday at the PeoriaCivic Center could helpyou prepare.

“Whether you arebuilding a new home, re-modeling your existinghome, or just dreamingof projects for the future,the show offers a one-stop shopping experi-ence for localconsumers,” said LisaScott, director of theHome Builders Associa-tion of Greater Peoria,which sponsors theevent.

The largest consumerhome expo in downstateIllinois, the SpringHome Show attractedmore than 250 area ex-hibitors and 20,000 visi-tors last year. Scottexpects similar numbersthis year.

Attendees can expectan informative experi-ence from expert adviceby local builders andhome-improvement pro-fessionals accessible onthe show floor, to moreextravagant displays,

such as a completely fur-nished modular homebuilt inside the CivicCenter by HomewayHomes.

Also, live presenta-tions will address com-mon concerns. “PlasterMan” will demonstrateproper repair techniquesfor plaster and drywallproblems.

Also, “Mole Hunter”Jeff Holper will teach ef-fective ways to removedestructive moles fromlawns.

The show targets do-it-yourselfers, but has en-tertainment, too.

The well-known Disc-Connected K9s – WorldFamous Frisbee Dogs,will perform throughoutthe weekend, and MadDog & Merrill of theTV’s “Midwest Grill’n”will share recipes onstage.

Also featured will be

the “Investing in Amer-ica” custom motorcycleby Orange CountyChoppers for GAF, thelargest manufacturer ofcommercial and residen-tial roofing. The bike,featured on DiscoveryChannel’s “AmericanChopper” in December,will be displayed in theRiver City Roofingbooth.

“We’re a GAF MasterElite certified companyserving within 50 milesof Peoria,” said RiverCity Roofing owner

Timothy Garrison. “GAFmanufactures the shin-gles we install, so ithelped us to secure thisactual bike.”

Show hours are 4-9p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-8p.m. Saturday; and 11a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Ad-mission is $7 for adults(age 18+), seniors (60+)are half price, and kidsyounger than 18 get infree.

For other informationvisit the Websitewww.OfficialHome-Show.com.

Home Show features over 250 vendors

The Spring Home Show being held at Peoria’s Civic Center this Friday throughSunday is the largest consumer home show in downstate Illinois, annually at-tracting more than 20,000 visitors. Submitted photo.

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All of us have had our lives in-fluenced by social institutions –family, school, friends, organiza-tions, church,etc. EveryoneI’ve known hasbenefited frombeing exposedto a variety ofsuch influencesand, in mostcases, one ortwo of themhave showngreater appeal than others, andthey helped determine a directiontaken for life.

Sports has been one of those in-stitutions and, as is the case withothers, has seen its place in soci-ety change. The time now devotedto sports came at the expense oftime spent on other activities,whether because of longer sea-sons, year-around training,younger players or opportunitiesfor females.

Yes, a pivotal moment in the de-termination of the place of sportsin American society and sports’

influence on our lives and our freetime came with the passage ofTitle IX legislation 41 years ago. The original law – the EducationAmendments of 1972 – didn’teven explicitly mention sports. Itspurpose was to require educa-tional institutions to maintainpolicies, practices and programsthat don’t discriminate againstanyone based on sex.

Under this law, males and fe-males are expected to receive fairand equal treatment in all arenasof public schooling: recruitment,admissions, educational programsand activities, course offeringsand access, counseling, financialaid, employment assistance, facili-ties and housing, health and insur-ance benefits, marital and parentalstatus, scholarships, sexual harass-ment, and … athletics.

Specifically, the statute reads,“No person in the United Statesshall, on the basis of sex, be ex-cluded from participation in, bedenied the benefits of, or be sub-jected to discrimination under anyeducation program or activity re-

ceiving federal financial assis-tance.”

An admirable goal, perhaps. Butone with unintended conse-quences.

Before, active participation incompetitive sports was limited;most schools didn’t field girlsteams. Discussion of that fact isoften accompanied by the ques-tion, “Can you imagine?”

Indeed, Title IX was the turningpoint that led to sports opportuni-ties for girls. No longer the exclu-sive bastion of boys and men,sports quickly came to belong toeveryone.

But sports also became more ofa driving force in families’ lives –especially demands on time andconflicting priorities that pulledparents and siblings in differentdirections.

This was a major change in theimportance of sports as a focalpoint in our nation and our way oflife. Daily newspapers’ sports sec-tions had been where the triumphsand travails of men were told to

Rambling through west-central Illinois as peopleopen their mailbox and say,“What is this?”

uuu Good question. What isthis new newspaper in yourmailbox?Why?Andhow?First off,no, youdo notowe any-body forthis publi-cation.Thanks to the unwavering,even devious, encourage-ment of Bill Knight, we arestarting a weekly newspa-per that will be delivered tonearly 5,000 homes inBrimfield, Edwards, Elm-wood, Kickapoo, Laura,Williamsfield and YatesCity. Crazy? Probably,though my hungry kidshope not. To make thiswork we promise to report

the news of our communi-ties. See, I still believelocal news and opinionmatters, particularly insmall towns. While big-town papers struggle asthey cut staff and offer lessfor more, many weekliesare thriving. Why? Goodweeklies provide localnews people can’t other-wise find. That’s our goal.

uuu “Why print a paper. No-body reads any more,” youmight still say. OK, so noteveryone reads. Even so,one common commentfrom people since westarted working on thisproject is that they lookforward to catching up onlocal news. Time will tell ifthat was lip service. Butwhere else are you going tofind detailed statistics forthe Elmwood boys basket-ball team? Where else areyou going to read aboutKickapoo getting a recy-cling bin? Where else can

you find 16 pages of hyper-local news?

uuu OK, admittedly, this firstissue is a bit heavy on Elm-wood information. Thatwill not be the case everyThursday. But for the pastfew weeks I’ve basicallybeen chained to the officetrying to get this paperlaunched. About as far asI’ve roamed is Elmwoodhigh school, which iswhere I cornered assistantbasketball coach JoshFugitt, who provided methe stats you will find inthe sports section. My goalwas to also provide statsfor Brimfield andWilliamsfield, but thosewill have to come later.Fugitt, who could not out-run a chunky guy like me,was the only coach I couldcatch. But look out Bob An-derson, I’m on your tail.

uuu Who will you read aboutin this column? Anyone

and everyone. And watchfor nicknames, as they in-trigue me. The best to crossmy path lately is ChickenHawk. Hmm. Maybe he isworthy of a feature. ... Onething you won’t see us dois put together a fake read-ership survey to placate ourcustomers, such as the Peo-ria Journal Star is advertis-ing right now. What a joke.All the JS has done in thepast three years is to cutstaff and shrink the paper.Now they are pretending tocare what readers want?Unless this survey canwrite a story, take a picture,build an ad or deliver apaper it will not help read-ers get what they want. ...Parting shot: Instead of asurvey, here is a plea, and apromise: Send us yourstory ideas and we will doour best to follow up onthem. I mean it when I saythat this is your paper.Contact Jeff Lampe at 231-

6040 or [email protected]



Betting that local news still matters

JeffLAMPE

The Weekly Postwww.wklypost.com

More opportunities ... at what cost?

Continued on Page 5

MitBERES

The Weekly Post is published everyThursday (except the last week of De-cember and the last week of June) byLampe Publications LLC, 115 W. MainSt., Elmwood, IL 61529. All phone numbers area code (309).

Postmaster – Send address changesto The Weekly Post, P.O. Box 745, Elm-wood, IL 61529Phone – 741-9790 Fax – 741-9365Email – [email protected] Hours – 9-5 Mon-Wed, 9-12, 4-6Thurs, 9-4 FriNews – Jeff Lampe 231-6040Classified – Shelly Brodine 741-9790Advertising – Jeff Lampe 231-6040Contributors – Mit Beres, Terry Bibo,Keith Butterfield, Melinda Cote, AmyDavis, Kasey Eberle, Jon Gallagher,Roger Kepple and Bill KnightDeadlines – News due Tuesdays bynoon. Retail ads Mondays by noon.Classified ads Fridays by 2 p.m.Subscriptions – One Year: In Illinois$100. Outside Illinois $150Obituaries, Births, Weddings – Formsare available at our office at 115 W.Main St. in Elmwood.Seen by 10,000+ readers every week!

Attention Elmwood residents:They’ve fixed the fire siren.

I SAID, THEY FIXED THE SIREN!Sorry for yelling. I needed to do that

just in case you were within two milesof the thing when it went off.

Two years ago, when I was movingback into my apart-ment following thetornado, I had myboss and a co-worker help me. Wewere in front of thePost Office when thenoon whistle wentoff.

These two cityboys must’vethought that a terrorist attack was im-minent. One took up a defensive fight-ing position (like karate would help)and the other sort of ducked. Bothended up with their hands coveringtheir ears.

“What was that?” one asked after thewhistle died down. “You having an-other tornado?”

“Noon whistle,” I answered. It wasFebruary and the temperature was insingle digits, so the possibility of a tor-nado was rather slim.

“These rednecks have to be toldwhen it’s time to eat?” the boss asked.

I explained that it was a tradition, notonly in Elmwood, but in almost everysmall Midwestern town. Neither of thecity boys had heard of such a thing.

They should be here for a fire.The fire whistle, perched on top of

City Hall, has been around a long time,probably as long as anyone recalls.

Back when fire departments werefirst organized, they didn’t have sirens.Usually there was a firehouse towerwith a bell. If a fire broke out, some-one ran to the firehouse and pulled on

ropes that rang the bell while someoneelse hooked up horses to the wagon.

Folks who were nearby droppedwhat they were doing and headed forthe firehouse where they would jumpon a wagon, find out where they weregoing, and head for the fire to form abucket brigade. Bucket brigades werepeople who’d line up and hand bucketsof water down a line to someone whowould then throw it on the fire.

Eventually, wagons carried tankswith hand-pumps (which resulted insome fires actually being extin-guished). Then in the early 1900s mo-torized trucks took over for horses.Mack trucks and the Reo Motor CarCo. produced models such as the ReoSpeed Wagon (did you know the bandwas named after a fire truck?).

About this time, bells began to be re-placed by electronic sirens. Most smalltowns didn’t have the need or funds forfull-time firefighters, so sirens, muchlouder than bells, were a way to callvolunteer firefighters to the station.

Plus, whenever the siren sounded,others knew that fire trucks were aboutto race through town. This was impor-tant because there was still a lot ofhorse traffic in smaller towns so thesiren let people know to get the horsesoff to the side of the road so theywouldn’t be spooked by fire engines.

The fire siren began to be used as asignal for other things, too. Manysmall communities, especially if theyhad a lot of farms close by, would(ahem) fire up the siren at noon sofarmers and hired hands would know itwas time for lunch. Back then theydidn’t have cell phones.

The tradition of blowing the sirenwhenever there’s a fire continued, eventhrough the days of firefighters carry-ing pagers to alert them to fires. (I’ve

seen firemen racing toward the stationminutes before sirens sounded. At firstI thought they were psychics.)

Sirens also still warn motorists thatlarge trucks with excited drivers wouldsoon be rolling, as well as alertingnosy people to prepare to follow thetrucks and have fodder for gossip.

In Knoxville, where I spent the first40-some years of my life, we didn’thave civil defense sirens like Elm-wood. So the fire siren was used forcivil defense, too. A few times whenfunnel clouds were sighted close totown, the siren would blast.

In Elmwood, I first became aware ofthe fire siren shortly after moving here.My wife and I had just been marriedand returned from our honeymoon intoa house behind City Hall. I’d heard thenoon whistle and thought it was loud,but I hadn’t been treated to a full firewhistle yet.

That all changed one morning about3 when the siren, about 50 feet fromthe bedroom, went off.

I’ve slept through ringing telephonesand alarm clocks on occasion, but lateme tell you, a fire siren that close toyour open window will bring youstraight up out of bed, speaking intongues, and wondering why someonedidn’t give you more advance warningabout Armageddon.

It’s been quiet since the siren broke afew months ago, but it’s back, warningus of a fire somewhere in the commu-nity, shaking loose plaster in nearbyhouses, sending dogs into fits of howl-ing, and waking babies in the middleof their naps.

I didn’t realize how much I hadn’tmissed it.

www.wklypost.com THE WEEKLY POST • Thursday, February 21, 2013

GUEST VOICES

The Elmwood siren is wailing once again

A doubly happy birthday

JonGALLAGHER

To the Editor:What is at the top of your to-

do list to celebrate your 65thbirthday?

Well, my husband likes to gohunting. And our son andnephew talked him into goingwith them on a wild hog hunt inMissouri in the middle of a coldJanuary.

My husband’s birthday is Jan.19, so they planned the week-end months in advance. I haveto admit I thoroughly enjoyedthat they gave me a very quietweekend to myself (an earlybirthday present for me, nodoubt).

They left Friday and stayed ina warm hotel. Then their funstarted Saturday, when threeother members of the huntingparty arrived and they checkedin with the owner of the hog-hunting area to get rules andterritories they would hunt thatnight.

The hunters all saw a beauti-ful night full of stars ... themost my husband said he hadseen in a long, long time.

The entire group admitted itwas cold sitting out there and

they all said they should havetaken more items to keep warm.

Our son heard some wildhogs.

Our nephew saw a smallmountain lion in a tree.

But, alas, nobody saw anywild hogs.

They returned home about 9on Sunday and my quiet week-end didn’t change very much,as they were tired and ready fortheir familiar beds.

It took several days for themto share more details about thepretty scenery and the rest ofthe weekend. I guess they en-joyed “the hunt” because theyalready talked about their nexttrip and which night-visionscopes they should buy fortheir rifles.

I just groaned, shook my headand said, “Whatever.”

But I do wonder when mynext quiet weekend will be.

And at least I have time untilSeptember to decide what Iwant for my 65th birthday.

It will for sure not be a trip toMissouri for a wild hog hunt!

– Sue PowersYates City

Thank You!™ Thank You for all the kind wordsof encouragement as we embarkon this new business venture.

– The Lampe Family™ Thank You to Bill Juraco for do-nating the desks in our office andhauling them all the way to Elm-wood. No matter what anybodysays, there are still plenty of goodpeople out there willing to do nicethings for others without personalgain or applause. Thanks!

– Jeff Lampe

readers who were men and womenalike, but by men as one-time partici-pants and women as observers.

Within a few years, sports coveredvolleyball, softball and sports playedby high school girls and collegewomen (and, eventually, professionalswho came from athletic careers inschool), albeit not usually on the frontpage.

Families found themselves withwhole new areas of involvement forhalf the population, plus an abundanceof recreational and adult organized ath-letic activities.

Where do we find the time? People weren’t sitting around doing

nothing before 1972, of course, butnowhere near as much of our time wasspent on organized sport for kids.

Society – areas, towns, neighbor-hoods – went from six or seven kidsputting together a pickup game of“pitcher’s hand out” on some sandlotto uniforms and umpires and coachesand parents driving children here andthere and sitting in the stands watchingand yelling – and sacrificing some-thing they’d otherwise be doing.

I don’t know when the first game ofT-ball was played, but it, too, gave us awhole new age group to include.

Sure, there have other factorssqueezing families’ time, from thetemptation to sit in air conditioning towatch TV, to an economy that almostrequires second incomes instead ofpermitting a stay-at-home parent. Butchanges in sports have been signifi-cant.

As families adjust, what’s beengained – and what’s been lost? That’ssomething for future discussion.

Delicious Shrimp or Catfish, Potato, Slaw, Roll & DrinkEvery Friday During Lent

Serving 4:30-6:30February 15, 22 March 1,8,15 & 22

Letter PolicyThe Weekly Post welcomes let-

ters from our readers. Email us [email protected] or mail to:Letters, The Weekly Post, P.O.Box 745, Elmwood, IL 61529.

Include your first and lastnames, your full home address,home phone and a phone numberwhere you can be reached duringthe day.

Letters should be no more than250 words. Longer submissions of500-600 words will be consideredfor our Other Voices feature. Let-ters will be edited and may beused in print or electronic form.



BERES: TitleIX meant lessfamily time

802 W. Main St. • Elmwood

Carryouts Available – Call 742-4921

St. Patrick’s ChurchFriday Fish Fry

FOR SALEFISHING GEAR: Old fish-ing gear free to a goodhome. Various rods andreels in different states ofrepair and disrepair. Ideallythe rods would go to ahome with some young-sters eager to start fishing.Or to a high school bassangler. 309-231-6040VACUUM CLEANER: KirbyUpright Sweeper, Model

610 D, instructional CD, at-tachments, carpet sham-pooer, $700. 309-635-3791PLATE BOAT: 2007 AADcustom 20-foot plate boat,115 hp Yamaha four-stroke,84” beam, livewell, jack-plate, tandem-axle trailer,[email protected]

WANTEDDECOYS, CALLS: Seekingold duck decoys and duckcalls. 309-741-9790



PUBLIC RECORD

IN BRIEF

CUB SCOUTS: A fewscouts from ElmwoodCub Scout Pack 58helped at Kiwanis’ re-cent pancake break-fast. Pictured are, front,left to right, GarrettGerman and Cory Al-caraz, and back, left toright, Ethan Anderson,Tyler Sheridan, Bren-dan Stevens andTommy Stratton. Pack58 will hold its annualBlue & Gold banquetSunday at 4 p.m. at theCrossroads Church,615 E. Ash St., accord-ing to pack leader BrettStevens. BrimfieldPack 53 will hold itsown Blue & Gold ban-quet in April. Photo byBill Knight.

CLASSIFIED ADS

ClassifiedRates

Classified ads cost$7 for up to 20 wordsand must be prepaid.Call (309) 741-9790 orvisit The Weekly Postat 115 W. Main St. inElmwood. Forms willsoon be available atwww.wklypost.com.

FSB bank boardadds Doug Whitney ELMWOOD – DouglasWhitney of Elmwood hasjoined the Farmers StateBank board of directors. APeoria native, Whitneymoved to Elmwood inJune 1996 with his wife,Traci, and their two chil-dren. Whitney is President ofWhitney & Associates,Peoria, a firm specializingin geotechnical engineer-ing, subsurface investiga-tions, constructionmaterials testing and envi-ronmental investigations. Whitney is actively in-volved in many local or-ganizations. Whitney isthe third generation toserve on the Farmers StateBank Board of Directors,following in the footstepsof his grandfather, L.Richard Whitney anduncle, George I. Whitney.

Brimfield libraryiPad drawing BRIMFIELD – Want towin a free iPad? Then logon to Facebook and addthe Brimfield Public Li-brary to your list of“likes.” One lucky resident ofthe Brimfield Public Li-brary District winner willbe drawn on Saturday,Feb. 22, and will be an-nounced on the library’sFacebook page and via itsTwitter address, @Brim-

field_PL. The winner has untilWednesday, Feb. 27 toclaim the prize or a newwinner will be selected.

Officers electedat EDA meeting ELMWOOD – JasonCenters was elected vicepresident and Steve Davissecretary at the January23 meeting of the Elm-wood Development Asso-ciation (EDA), whichreturned president AmyDavis and treasurer Jen-nifer Beard to their posi-tions. Dick Taylor, EconomicDevelopment Officer forthe city, said loan moneyfrom the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture remainsavailable for businesses.Interested Elmwood busi-nesspeople should contactTaylor at City Hall: (309)742-2351.Elmwood historicalsociety elections ELMWOOD – TheElmwood Historical Soci-ety in January re-electedpresident Doug Whitney,vice president CharlotteHaley, treasurer DanKeefer and secretaryWanda DeMent, and ap-proved Cathy Meyers’proposal to lead work tobring the Lorado Taft Mu-seum archives up to date. The group will meet at7 on Tuesday evening atthe museum; publishedreports incorrectly saidthe next meeting was in

March. Don Dean, BruceHoward and GeneShissler remain on the so-ciety’s board of directors.

Shed deer antler contest underway ELMWOOD – White-tail bucks have been drop-ping their antlers allwinter and now ElmwoodInsurance Agency, Inc. isgiving outdoors enthusi-asts a chance to seek outthose unique trophies. EIA, located at 102 E.Main St. in Elmwood, isholding a shed antlercontest through April 15. All entries will re-ceived a free t-shirt andthe top three antlers willbe officially measured.Highest scoring antlerwins a $25 first prize. While full heads arewelcome to be submittedfor display at the insur-ance agency’s office,only shed antlers will beconsidered for contestpurposes. Call (309)742-2141 to learn more.Leitch named toseven committees PEORIA – State Rep.David Leitch (R-Peoria)was named to seven com-mittees for the 98th Gen-eral Assembly, includingthe Joint Committee onAdministrative Rules. Hehas also been namedDeputy RepublicanLeader for Downstate.

Police Reportss Elmwood/Peoria County – The

following are police reports from thePeoria County Sheriff and ElmwoodPolice Department.

• Elmwood police last week steppedup enforcement of school speed zones,issuing four tickets alone on Feb. 14 atthe West Main Street and North Mag-nolia Street school crossings, wherethe speed limit is 20 mph when schoolchildren are present.

Police also remind motorists thatcell-phone use while driving is illegalin school zones.

• Dale Coulter of Brimfield on Feb.11 reported the burglary of items fromhis disabled car on Taylor Road, Sher-iff’s officers said.

• Dwight King of Elmwood on Feb.4 reported a house burglary at his resi-dence, where televisions and otherelectronic items were stolen.

Detectives from the Peoria CountySheriff’s department are investigating.

• The Shell station at the Kickapooexit off Interstate 74 reported multiplethefts of fuel on Feb. 7, police said.

• Deer remain a nuisance on theroads. For example, sheriff’s officersreported Daniel Keyt of Brimfield onFeb. 7 avoided a deer but struck afence on Sommerfield Road, LesterAtwood of Elmwood on Feb. 10 strucka deer on Illinois Route 78; AmandaFarris of Bartonville on Feb. 13 strucka deer on Lamplighter Lane in Kick-

apoo; and Martha Regier of Princevilleon Feb. 14 collided with a deer onPrinceville-Jubilee Road.

• Adam Schelske, 17, of Brimfieldon Feb. 6 was arrested for illegal trans-portation of alcohol and having alcoholin his system under the state’s “zerotolerance” law, according to police re-ports.

s Yates City – For the month of Jan-uary, the Yates City police departmenthandled: 7 traffic stops, 7 warnings, 1ordinance and 9 reports. Reports wereas follows:

• Jan. 2, two medical calls• Jan. 4, suspicious person• Jan. 7, follow-up on car burglaries• Jan. 12, suspicious incident involv-

ing vehicle registration• Jan. 15, domestic dispute• Jan. 22, person down, private prop-

erty accident• Jan. 24, parking violation, ordi-

nance warning• Jan. 29, alarm ringing.The department also spent $36.92

with MCTC Telephone, $35 withSupreme Radio and $1,117.32 withLou Lakis Ford.

Real Estate Transactions9809 N. Fox Creek Drive, Brimfield,

Vance W. Weisbruch, Patricia A. Parettand Susan E. Wright to BenjaminMackey and Leanne Skuse, $231,000.

AnniversariesBob and Betty Pacey of Brimfield

will celebrate their 60th wedding an-niversary on Feb. 28.

www.wklypost.com



Leo J. RahnKICKAPOO – Leo J. Rahn, 79, of

Kickapoo, died on Feb. 14 atMethodist Medical Center.

Born Aug. 15, 1933, in Peoria toJoseph and Estella (Wissing)Rahn, he married Donna M. Clarkon Oct. 6, 1953 in Brimfield. Shesurvives.

Also surviving are his children,Linda (Randy) Siegel of Kick-apoo, Joseph (Cindy) Rahn ofElmwood, Sharon (Dale) Lynn ofChillicothe, Julie (John) Wielandof Brimfield, and Connie (Steve)Schindler of Laura; nine grand-children; two great-granddaugh-ters; one brother, Robert Rahn ofKickapoo; and two sisters, HelenMeyer of Bartonville and Mary(Raymond) Stenger of Kickapoo.

Leo was a U.S. Army veteran.Funeral Mass was held on Feb.

19 at St. Mary’s Catholic Churchin Kickapoo. Burial will be in St.Patrick’s Cemetery in Kickapoo.

To send condolences, visitwww.wrightandsalmon.com.

Betty MorganCANTON – Betty M. Morgan, 70,

of Cuba, the grandmother of anElmwood man, died on Feb. 13 atGraham Hospital in Canton.

She was born Oct. 21, 1942, inKirksville, Mo., the daughter ofFranklin L. and Leota M. (Crea-son) Dobbs. She married HowardS. Morgan on Sept. 3, 1960, inKirksville, Mo. He died on Jan.17, 2013.

Surviving are one son; onedaughter; one daughter-in-law;five grandchildren, includingJacob (Taylor) Morgan of Elm-wood; two great-grandchildren;and one sister.

A memorial was held Feb. 17 inCuba. Burial of ashes will be inCuba Cemetery at a later date.

To send condolences, visitwww.henrylange.com.

William KelloggLAURA – William H. Kellogg,

87, of rural Laura died Feb. 11 atCornerstone Rehabilitation &Health Care Center in PeoriaHeights.

Born Oct. 5, 1925, in ruralLaura, the son of Samuel A. andElla B. Oakes Kellogg, he marriedLois Zimmerman on Dec. 27,1951, in Syracuse, Ind. She diedin October of 1982. He then mar-ried Judy Baum in 1990 inWilliamsfield. She survives.

Also surviving are six children,including Tanya Bycroft of Elm-wood, 18 grandchildren, and threesisters.

Funeral services were Feb. 15 atHammitt-Hott Funeral Home inPrinceville. Burial was in FrenchGrove Cemetery in rural Elmwood.

Condolences may be left atwww.hammitthott.com.

Charles E. FosterELMWOOD – Charles E.

“Chuck” Foster, 49, of Elmwood,died 11:26 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15 atGraham Hospital EmergencyRoom in Canton.

Born March 18, 1963 in Peoria,

to Archie and Roberta (Hall) Fos-ter, he married Tina Keel on July31, 1983 in Peoria. She survives.

Also surviving are his father,Archie Foster of Elmwood; twochildren, Lynn (Paul Simpson)Foster of Knoxville and AustinFoster of Elmwood; three broth-ers, Rodney (Cindy), Billy, andBobby, all of Elmwood; two sis-ters, Beth and Lynn, both of Elm-wood; and two grandchildren.

Funeral services are Friday, Feb.22 at 1 p.m. at Oaks-Hines Fu-neral Home in Elmwood. Visita-tion is 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Burialwill be at Oak Hill Cemetery.

To leave condolences, visitwww.oakshinesfuneralhome.com.

Sammy MarksityWILLIAMSFIELD – Sammy

George Marksity Sr., 71, ofWilliamsfield died on Feb. 9 frominjuries sustained in an accident inGilson.

He was born Feb. 27, 1941, inSouth Pekin, the son of GeorgeSamuel and Francis Lillian (Com-bis) Marksity. He married KarenElizabeth Neff on Sept. 6, 1964,in Rockford.

She survives, as well as threechildren; three sisters; and fivegrandchildren.

He was a U.S. Army veteran.Cremation has been accorded,

and a memorial service will beheld at a later date. Rux FuneralHome in Williamsfield is incharge of arrangements.

Condolences may be left atwww.ruxfuneralhome.com.

Today’s Obituaries• Leo J. Rahn, 79, Kickapoo• Betty M. Morgan, 70, Cuba• William H. Kellogg, 87, Laura• Charles E. Foster, 49, Elm-wood• Sammy Marksity, 71,Williamsfield


ELMWOOD – Some big-citycynics might look at the wifeof a banker and the wife of ajanitor and see class differ-ences. Bettye Lott and SusieKeefer would laugh.

They were classy ladies.“They were dear, dear

friends,” recalls Bettye’sdaughter, Pam Paige.

Bettye and Susie died a fewweeks apart this winter, andit’s still hard to imagine.Sometimes it takes a while forabsences to sink in.

This month, when earlyrobins seem to shiver amid thedormant shrubs in Elmwood’sCentral Park, and generationsof churchgoers turned out forAsh Wednesday, realizationhit.

“That’s right,” it wasthought. “Bettye and Susie aregone.”

It’s like hearing it anew, al-though Bettye and Suzie diedon Dec. 16 and Jan. 19, re-spectively.

The friends were much dif-ferent but a lot alike. Bettyewas married to Farmers StateBank owner Bob Lott, andSusie to grade school custo-dian Wes Keefer. However –typical of many rural commu-nities – they socialized andshared many experiences, es-pecially the knack for lettingquiet smiles light up rooms.

Bettye went to DePauw Uni-versity, where she was in asorority, then worked for atime as an administrator atFrances Shimer College inNorthwest Illinois. She mar-ried Bob Lott in Louisville in1943.

Susie was born in Belgiumand worked as a clerk andtranslator for the U.S. Armyafter World War II. She mar-

ried Wes Keefer and they livedin Elmwood starting in 1948.

For a bit, Susie worked atFarmers State Bank, but asWes went on to work mainte-nance and construction at Illi-nois Central College andJobst, she spent more timeraising her kids. Still, she vol-unteered at Wildlife PrairiePark and Proctor Hospital, andtaught French at Bradley Uni-versity.

Although Bettye had earneda college degree and workedat a college, she became a stu-dent of Susie’s when Bettyedecided to learn French. Suzie– who also was fluent in Ger-man as well as English – waspatient and helped Bettye pre-pare for a three-week tour ofFrance.

At home, both women hadgone through the ecumenicalChristian renewal programcalled Cursillo, and for years

they took part in an interde-nominational prayer groupwith several locals, from Pres-byterians and Methodists toSt. Patrick’s Father John Horn.Susie enjoyed music from theBig Band era and playingcards, especially pinochle, andcheering for her belovedChicago Cubs.

Bettye enjoyed gardeningand planting trees and bushesaround Elmwood, and was ac-tive in the E.O.W. Literary So-ciety (which met Every OtherWednesday). She especiallyliked Ralph Waldo Emersonand had saved the line, “Whatlies behind us and what liesbefore us are tiny matterscompared to what lies withinus.”

Susie and Bettye wereclassy; grand ladies.

It seems odd to use that pasttense “were,” and every nowand then – like a clap of thun-

der or that soft sound a leafmakes scraping across thesidewalk – it’s thought, “Oh,yeah. Susie and Bettye aren’there anymore.”

However, so much of whatthey left – from family toflowers to faith – remains thatit’s comforting to feel theirpresence in the small miracles,like a good book or a doublepinochle, lovely blossoms or awin at Wrigley Field.

Lott, Keefer shared friendship and faith

OBITUARIES

A WONDERFUL LIFE

The late Susie Keefer andBettye Lott of Elmwood wereclose friends.

Call (309) 676-6729 to donate!



CONGRATULATIONS!Brimfield High School Illinois State Scholars

CHRISTOPHER LANCESon of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Lance

MEGAN MEINKEDaughter of Mr. and Mrs. LawrenceMeinke

BRIANNA STREITMATTERDaughter of Mr. and Mrs. David StreitmatterThe Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) salutes the top achieversin the high school class of 2012.

Illinois State Scholar winners rank in the top 10 percent of high school sen-iors. Selection is based on SAT, ACT and/or Prairie State Achievement scores,and/or class rank at the end of the junior year. While the prestigious recog-nition does not include a monetary award, recipients are encouraged to citethe honor on applications for college admission and scholarships.

CONGRATULATIONS!

NOLAN STREITMATTERSon of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Streitmatter

Brimfield recycling availableBy KASEY EBERLE

For The Weekly Post

BRIMFIELD – Residents looking torecycle cans, cardboard and plastics inBrimfield and Kickapoo still haveplenty of options.

Recycling containers are made avail-able in front of the Brimfield VillageMaintenance Building, located on thewest side of town across from thenewer car wash off of U. S. Route 150.Brimfield’s recycling services of morethan four years are open to the publicand accessible to anyone.

A recycling bin has also been addedin Kickapoo at the township buildingthanks to funding by the BrimfieldPublic Library, which collects dona-tions to offset the $50 per month fee.The library and the Village of Brim-field also each contribute toward recy-cling in Brimfield.

“Recycling in Brimfield is so easy,”Lonye Gilles told me during a recentvisit. “No sorting is necessary. At ourhouse, we have a trash can right out-side the door. Everything that can berecycled goes into it.

“When it gets full, we simply take itto the recycling bins on the west side[of Brimfield]. Why throw it into thegarbage to go into a landfill when put-ting it into a separate can for recyclingis as just easy?”

Gilles, character educator and healthcare supervisor of Brimfield School

District, was named Peoria County Re-cycling Educator of the Year for 2010.

She said that community involve-ment in the Brimfield recycling pro-gram inspired her to help coordinatethe grade school’s plan involving staffand students alike.

In Brimfield and Kickapoo you maydrop off paper items, magazines andeven those old and outdated telephonebooks you have taking up spacearound the home or office. Computerand office paper are also items ac-cepted for recycling, however, pleaserefrain from contributing constructionpaper in to the containers.

Other items including cardboard canbe added to the containers. Please re-member to break down any boxes tofurther conserve much needed space.Aluminum, steel tin cans, and lightsteel such as coat hangers, bicycles,shelves, and such are also items wel-come to be added for recycling.

Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 plastics –numbers that are listed within the recy-cling triangle, including grocery bagsand bubble wrap may also be added.

Because the Brimfield RecyclingProgram is co-mingled, it is not neces-sary that items be sorted as of now.

Additional information on the localrecycling program can also be foundonline by visiting the library Websiteat www.brimfieldlibrary.org.

Early better for student aid filingBy MELINDA COTE

For The Weekly Post

Late winter is a busy time of year,with basketball and Scholastic Bowltournaments, Girl Scout cookies, Lent,taxes … and “FASFA” – the Free Ap-plication for Federal Student Aid.

The absolute deadline for filing theFAFSA isn’t until June 30. However,since colleges need time to assemblefinancial-aid packages for students, thesooner a FAFSA is received, the betterthe chance students from Brimfield,Elmwood and Williamsfield have forobtaining financial aid.

Who should apply? Any area studentplanning to attend college in 2013 andhoping for financial aid of any kindmust submit a FAFSA application tothe U.S. Department of Education,which provides more than $150 billionto college students in federal grants,loans and work-study funds. Informa-tion on the application will determineeligibility for assistance.

Filing a FAFSA online isn’t as easyas that sounds – but it can be handledif you’re prepared. Parents need togather several types of documentsneeded to file the FAFSA, and doingso beforehand saves save time andheadaches.

First: a PIN. Everyone must file for apersonal identification number. First-time filers must request a PIN atwww.pin.edu.gov. Parents with morethan one child in college may use thesame PIN to electronically sign all ap-plications. The student’s name, date of

birth, address and Social Securitynumber all are required to apply for aPIN.

An electronic PIN will be given im-mediately if desired, or a paper copycan be delivered by mail. Informationprovided will be forwarded to the So-cial Security Administration for verifi-cation. Once verified, the PIN may beused to access and update personal in-formation.

Second: Federal tax information. In-formation from the IRS 1040, 1040Aor 1040EZ is required in order to filethe FAFSA, and information from boththe student and the parents’ tax returnsare required. Taxes do not have to befiled; estimates may be made.

Bank account balances (both check-ing and savings), plus investments (in-cluding stocks, bonds and real estate,as well as farm and business assets forboth the student and parents) also mustbe reported.

Students also will need a copy oftheir driver’s licenses.

Next: School Codes. Colleges thatare being considered by the studentmust be listed on the application. Findcodes at www.fafsa.ed.gov/.

Last: Don’t forget to “sign” the ap-plication. The final step in completingthe FAFSA is to sign the application –with the PIN.

Check progress on the application aweek to 10 days later at the FAFSAweb site.

EAGLE AWARD: Seth Kollreceived his Boy Scouts ofAmerica Eagle award lastSaturday at a ceremony atSt. Patrick’s Church. The18-year-old member of Ed-wards Troop 352 accom-plished his Eagle byearning more than 21 meritbadges and completing aproject to erect three score-boards at Sweetwater Park.The Elmwood High Schoolsenior, son of Douglas andHeidi Koll, said he plans toattend Eureka College andstudy actuarial science andmathematics education. BillKnight photo.


ELMWOOD – Elmwood schools areexceptionally good, according to thestate of Illinois, but that designationrefers to instruction, not infrastructure.

So short-term fixes and long-termsolutions to building woes compete forresources of District 322, which at itsJan. 28 meeting discussed swelteringclassrooms and leaking roofs as wellas hiring special-education aides, pay-ing for fence repairs and receiving astate award for excellence at its ele-mentary school.

Grade school students need morecomfortable classrooms, the boardagreed, but providing air conditioningcould range from $10,000 for residen-tial-grade units to $68,000 for com-mercial units to $190,000 for a“chiller” system, according to an ar-chitect – plus improved ceiling insula-tion.

“Our teachers are good stewards andadvocates for their students,” saidboard member Dean Cantu. “Gettingwindow units is kicking the problemdown the road, and too often tempo-rary remedies can become long-termproblems.”

Superintendent Roger Alvey saidhe’d bring to future meetings more in-formation on possible costs and fund-ing choices. He added that aninvestigation into minor roof leaks re-vealed additional damage, and repairsto the roof and support trusses may be

necessary.An architect is inspecting the ceiling

and roof this month.Meanwhile, Elmwood Elementary

School Principal Tony Frost an-nounced that the Illinois State Boardof Education (ISBE) notified him thatthe school earned an Academic Excel-lence Award for 2012.

Nearby, Brimfield and Princevillegrade schools also received the honor.Elmwood Elementary also is one of 16Illinois schools nominated by the ISBEfor the 2013 National Blue RibbonSchools award. Winners will be an-nounced in the fall.

In other business, Frost reported thatthe grade-school entrance will have anew security arrangement includingtwo sets of locked doors, Alvey clari-fied that a $40,000 Illinois Clean En-ergy Foundation grant will pay for 90percent of the Wind-for-Schools pro-gram, and that the district scored 3.9out of 4 in its ISBE financial profile.

Also, Jeanne Blessman and JulieWagner all were hired as special-edu-cation aides, for the high school andgrade school, respectively, bills wereapproved to pay more than $3,000 tofix fences damaged in minor vehicleaccidents.

Counselor Janelle Meyers reportedthat students have completed MAP(Measure of Academic Progress) tests,which this year will be broken downby grade levels and subjects to permitbetter analysis for trends.

www.wklypost.com



EDUCATION

School board eyes facilities

Kindergartenopen house BRIMFIELD – The2013-14 Kindergartenopen house and registra-tion is Thursday, March 7at 6 p.m. at BrimfieldGrade School. If you havea child who will bekindergarten eligible (5years old by Sept. 1),please contact the gradeschool office at 446-3366. You will have access tomeeting teachers and vis-iting classrooms and cantake a bus ride.

Williamsfield up-grading phones WILLIAMSFIELD –The Williamsfield SchoolBoard last week accepteda bid from Heart Tech-nologies to upgrade thetelephone and public-ad-dress systems. The bid of $73,583.21was low bid received. Theproject should be finishedby the end of the schoolyear. In other business, theboard OK’d a $25 pre-registration fee for stu-

dents attending the Gales-burg Area VocationalCenter. The fee is dueMarch 15 and will be ap-plied to GAVC’s the totalregistration fee of $175.Brimfield GradeSchool honored BRIMFIELD – Brim-field Grade School hasearned Academic Excel-lence and Academic Im-provement awards fromIllinois State Board of Ed-ucation. Elmwood Ele-mentary School was alsohonored by the board.

Fourth graders at Elmwood Elementary School attended their fourth annual Vet-eran’s Party for Valentines on Feb. 15. Students sang anthems of the fivebranches of the military, as well as “God Bless the USA.” Photo by Amy Davis.



By KEITH BUTTERFIELDFor The Weekly Post

YATES CITY – Travel writer HenryMinizburg in his 2001 book “Why IHate Flying: Tales for the TormentedTraveler” lamented that the troublewith flying is “we always have to re-turn to airports. Think of how muchfun flying would be if we didn’t haveto return to airports.”

Many a weary air traveler mighthave shared such thoughts – perhapsnot appreciating that having an airportseems to beat most imaginable alterna-tives.

But such musings don’t trouble Daveand Cathy Shipley of rural Brimfieldand a group of private aviators whoenjoy flying from – and returning to –the Shipleys’ Tri-County Airport nearYates City.

An airport –in variousforms – hasexisted sincethe late 1940son the 28 acresamidst formerstrip-mine andcurrent farmland along Illi-nois Route 8about two miles west of Yates City.

Dave Shipley says, “Many probablydon’t even know there is an airporthere,” but adds that over the years,many Knox and Peoria County avia-tors, plus private fliers from much far-ther away, have enjoyed its lush grass

runway and aircraft support offerings. For example, one of the partners a

while back was a commercial pilotbased in Chicago, and the airfield hashosted many casual “fly-in” visitors,such as those who pop in (or, down)with their aircraft to shop on the an-nual Spoon River Drive before head-ing off into the blue yonder a fewhours later.

But the operation today has come along way from its start as a private fly-ing club on a coal-mining company’sland, even earning a coveted award forprivate airports in 2008.

Reflecting on his long-term affilia-tion with the airport, Dave Shipley re-members several partnerships in whichhe’s participated to keep the operationgoing. The last one ended with thepassing of his long-time friend and fel-

low private avia-tor CharlesSauerwein, whoalso hailed fromthe Brimfield area.

The partner-ships and operat-ing agreements allhad twists andturns, some takenout of necessity, at

times. Shipley’s experience started notlong after he started using the airportin 1984, when the mining companythat owned the ground decided to sellto another group (“unless we wanted tobuy it”).

And the ownership/operationschanges continued with the inevitable

changes that life’s journey brings forindividuals, including different inter-ests, priorities, families, aging anddeaths.

But today, it’s the Shipleys who havebeen the sole owners for the past sev-eral years, and who have continued toimprove the operation. Shipley sayshe’s learned to keep his businessmodel focused and not stray from it.

“We want to offer value for nominalprice,” he says. “Our value is in pro-viding storage for aircraft.”

Accordingly, the 31 hangar spacesmostly house planes today, thoughthere are a few spaces occupied byother “recreational” type items, likeboats and trailers. Also finding a nicefit at the airport is a radio-controlled

flying group, which uses the runwayand hangar space.

A recent achievement – and affirma-tion that the Shipleys had the businessmodel right – was the airport’s 2008designation as Private Airport of theYear by the Illinois Department ofTransportation’s Federal Aviation Ad-ministration-affiliated Division ofAeronautics. The award recognized theShipleys’ overall excellence in the de-velopment and ongoing operation ofthe airport.

In the private airport industry, it’sTHE award, Shipley says.

“The odds of winning are less thanwinning the lottery,” he says.

Construction of a new airport office,

Decades of happy landings at Tri-County Airport

“I always wanted to fly. Running the airport combines my hobby with a businessand offers me the best of both worlds,” says Tri-County Airport owner Dave Ship-ley. Photo by Keith Butterfield.

Continued on Page 11

www.wklypost.com



FAITH MATTERS

Book links humor, religion

BRIMFIELDBaptist Church

S. Jefferson St., Brimfield(309) 446-9754

Brimfield Evangelical Free Church

11724 N. Maher RdBrimfield

(309) 446-3571Brimfield United Methodist Church

Pastor Leonard Thomas135 S. Galena St., Brimfield

(309) 446-9310St. Joseph’s Catholic

Church314 W. Clay St., Brimfield

(309) 446-3275www.stjosephbrimfield.org

St. Paul’s LutheranRev. Michael Liese

228 W. Clay St., Brimfield(309) 446-3233

Sunday – 10 a.m. serviceUnion Church

105 W. Clay St., Brimfield(309) 446-3811

Pastor Stephen Barch

Zion Episcopal Church205 E. Van Buren St.

Brimfield(309) 446-3811

EDWARDSBethany Baptist Church7422 N. Heinz Lane

Edwards(309) 692-1755

Bethel Bible Church9728 W. Powder Mill Rd.

Edwards(309) 676-3217

Christ Alive! CommunityChurch

9320 West US Highway 150Edwards

Korean Presbyterian Church of Peoria

7910 N. Ford Rd., Edwards(309) 683-8556

ELMWOODCrossroads Assembly of

GodPastor Tim Cavallo701 W. Dearborn St.

ElmwoodSunday – 10:30 a.m. service

(309) 830-4259Elmwood Baptist ChurchPastor Dennis Fitzgerald-Pastor Jay Richerson

701 W. Dearborn, Elmwood(309) 742-7631

Sunday – 10:30 a.m., 6p.m. services

Wednesday – 7 p.m. serviceFirst Presbyterian Church

of Elmwood201 W. Evergreen, Elmwood

(309) 742-2631Sunday – 10:30 a.m. service

St. Patricks Catholic ChurchFather Paul Stein

802 W. Main St., Elmwood(309) 742-4921

Saturday – 4 p.m. mass

Sunday – 10 a.m. massUnited Methodist ChurchPastor Mark Graham

821 W. Main St., Elmwood(309) 742-7221

www.elmwoodumc.orgSunday

Sunday school 9 a.m.New Day Worship 9 a.m.,

Service 10:30 a.m.

KICKAPOOSt. Mary’s

9910 W. Knox St.Kickapoo

(309) 691-2030

LAURALafa United Methodist

ChurchPastor Kristi Berkebile Hopp20300 W. Walnut Creek Rd.

Laura(309) 995-3371

WILLIAMSFIELDSt. James Catholic Church

111 S. Olive St.Williamsfield

(309) 446-3275Sunday – 8:30 a.m.

Williamsfield UnitedMethodist Church

Pastor Jennifer Seder430 N. Chicago Ave.

Williamsfield(309) 639-2389Sunday – 11 a.m.

YATES CITYFaith United

Presbyterian Church107 W. Bishop St.Yates City, IL 61572(309) 358-1170

You Can Sponsor This

Listing!Call

(309) 231-6040

Area Church Listings

as well as a flight-planning and loungearea three years ago put a real capstoneon the pride and care the Shipleys havefor the operation.

There are several continuing touches– including Dave’s addition of severalhangar buildings on the site (withsome help from family and friends), tothe golf-course-fairway quality towhich he mows and trims the 2,900-foot by 150-foot runway and groundsevery two weeks throughout thespring, summer and fall.

It’s always been about his love offlying, he says.

As a young man, “I always wantedto fly,” says Dave, adding that hecouldn’t afford a plane – or the tradi-tional flight training, for that matter.So, he took his entire ground-schooltraining without ever being in a plane.“It’s not the way I’d recommend doing

it,” he says, “but I knew if I could passthat, I would fly.”

Over his 30 years as a pilot, he’s en-joyed owning multiple aircraft. (“I hadthree at one time,” he says, grinning).Today he enjoys his 1969 Cessna 172.

As for the future of the airport, Ship-ley says the past is probably prologue.Private aviation – aircraft, venues andpractices – have changed over the lastfew decades and that will be ongoing.

But whether it’s providing a placefor the growth of experimental “homebuilders” of aircraft, radio-controlledaircraft for hobbyists, or just having aplace to enjoy his family and grand-children and his hobby, Shipley looksforward to spending it at his airport.

“I have a hobby that pretty muchpays for itself,” he says with a smile,adding that he’s happy he’s also pro-viding a service to others who enjoysimilar interests.

Continued from Page 10AIRPORT: Flying hobby pays for self

Get Fit in 2013!At the Elmwood Township Community Center

What You Get• Exercise Equipment• Volleyball• Treadmills• Basketball• Tumbling• Pickleball

Coming Soon!• New Weight Room

Call 309-231-3350 or 309-231-6040

Annual membership costs:$200 for a family$150 for an individual(NOTE: Add $25 if you live outside

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Reasonable people may jump to theconclusion that a book written by aprofessor of pastoral theology at Cen-tral Baptist Theological Seminary inShawnee, Kan., has to be deadly dry.

They’d be wrong.Wholly wrong.Holy wrong, even.Rather than deadly dry, “Laughter in

a Time of Turmoil:Humor as SpiritualPractice,” by Dr.Richard P. Olson, islively fun.

Further, the 40-yearBaptist pastor haswritten a title that’s atonce silly and serious,simultaneously inspiring and also a re-freshing diversion from holy-rollerpomposity.

Offering thoughtful descriptions ofvarious types of humor and why theywork, Olson touches on Sara’s smile,Jesus’ joy and other perspectives thatare less historical and more hysterical.

“I am persuaded,” Olson writes,“that a healthy dose of humor, playand lively, supportive friends can helpone heal when bruised, and can pro-vide the needed rest/recuperation whenone is fatigued, burned out, weary andstressed out, to uphold those who takeon the heavy responsibilities for theChristian cause.”

The book, just published by Wipf &Stock in Eugene, Ore., is eminently

quotable. For example, there’s Dr. Eu-gene J. Fisher, Distinguished Professorof Catholic-Jewish Studies at SaintLeo University and author of “The Di-vine Comedy: Humor in The Bible” inReligious Education: The official jour-nal of the Religious Education Associ-ation.

Fisher writes, “The Hebrew Scrip-tures are filled with a sense of playful-ness, especially with the language …Satire, gentle wit, and even farceabound in almost every book … TheHebrew Bible sings. It laughs. Itmakes bad jokes and shows a tendencyfor slapstick.”

Presbyterian minister M. ConradHyers, author of “And God CreatedLaughter: The Bible as Divine Com-edy,” writes, “Faith without humor be-comes fanaticism. Humor without faithbecomes cynicism.”

Olson – who recommends more in-dividuals and more congregations andother faith communities use morehumor – adds, “Humor is a precondi-tion to our healing and our growing inholiness. It helps us to get out of theway, to loosen our grip, to lessen ourneed to control, and to let God be God.It helps us in this because it encour-ages us not to take ourselves too seri-ously, for when we do, it is almostimpossible to grow in holiness.”Laughter in a Time of Turmoil is a

196-page paperback that retails for$23; ISBN-10: 1610978668 and ISBN-13: 978-1610978668



Warning light on for cornBy WILLIAM C. BAILEY

Director, WIU School of Agriculture

It was hard to comment about therain we had last month without some-one saying, “Yes, but we need more ofit.”

We all remember last year’s drysummer and fall. In August I wroteabout the effects of the drought on thecorn crop with a special point madeabout the importance of the comingseason.

So, with an eye toward the soon-to-be-planted corn and soybean crops,consider how the weather is treatingdownstate Illinois and other corn- andsoybean-producing states.

The most recent data, from the U.S.Department of Agriculture, indicatesdrought conditions continue to plagueIowa, which received only extremelylimited precipitation for all of January.Almost half of the state is reported tobe “very short” of topsoil moisture. Asimilar situation holds for Kansas –nearly half the state is also reported tobe “very short” of moisture.

In contrast, Indiana received 144percent of normal precipitation duringJanuary.

Another publication, the U.S.Drought Monitor, shows more than 80percent of Minnesota is classified asbeing in extreme or severe drought andall of Iowa is rated between moderateto exceptional drought.

A year ago at this time, 60 percent ofIowa received no drought ratings at all. Last year on January 30, Illinois wasexperiencing the opposite of the cur-

rent situation –no county in Illinoiswas classified as having any droughtindications.

Today, nearly two thirds of Illinois isclassified as either in moderatedrought or abnormally dry. WesternPeoria County and all of Knox Countyare abnormally dry.

Clearly, 2013 is starting a lot dryerthan last year.

The point of going through all ofthese numbers is that while a slightly-wetter-than-normal January certainlyhelps the moisture situation for Illinoisfarmers, there is a long way to go toeven get back to normal.

We’ll probably continue to hear,when it rains, “We need more of it.”

So where does this leave agricultureas we look toward the next crop ofcorn and soybeans?

U.S. ending stocks of corn (the totalamount of corn left at the end of thecrop year) are at their second-lowestlevel, with the stocks-to-use ratio (ameasure of how much of a buffer thosestocks represent) at a record low level.

A similar situation, but slightly moredire, exists for soybeans. Both soybeanending stocks and the stocks-to-useratio for this crop year are at their low-est level since at least 1980.

We really do need to get more rain.The past several planting seasons

have been wetter than normal. While itis always difficult for farmers to watchthe rain come down when they need tobe out in their fields, this year theymight be willing to take a rain delay ortwo on their field work.

THE FARM FIELD

Brimfield FFA seeking membersBy KASEY EBERLE

For The Weekly Post

The Brimfield FFAChapter is working to as-semble its annual FFAAlumnae Roster. Thechapter would like toreach out to new or re-turning members.

Membership is afford-able at an annual or lifemembership level.

And you do need notto have been a prior FFAmember or student atBrimfield to become amember. Anyone andeveryone is welcome!

If you moved to thearea after high schooland support agriculture,or perhaps participatedin FFA back home,Brimfield FFA welcomesyou as a member.

Is your son or daughterenrolled in an agriculturecourse in school? Youtoo, are welcome to join.

Becoming a new mem-ber or maintainingAlumni membership al-lows the Brimfield FFAstudents to participateand compete at a local,state and national levelinvolving chapter mem-bership.

Sustaining an active

local alumni roster alsoprovides eligibility andfunding for scholarshipsto be used for educa-tional and leadershipcamps where expensewould otherwise have tobe furnished 100 percentout-of-pocket.

FFA makes a positivedifference in the lives ofstudents by developingtheir potential for pre-mier leadership, personalgrowth and career suc-cess.

For additional infor-mation or to learn whatthe FFA organization of-fers students and alumni,please visit the websiteIllinoisFFA.org or na-tionally at FFA.org.

Please also feel freefollow the BrimfieldFFA chapter’s participa-tion through the schooldistrict’s website atwww.Brimfield309.org.

An annual member-ship level includes duesin the amount of $15each year. A lifetimemembership level in-volves a one-time pay-ment of $200.

Membership for 2013is due March 1.

Contact Kasey Eberle-

Simmons at (309) 678-8407, or mail your duesmade payable to ‘Brim-field FFA Alumni’ to:Brimfield High School;Attn: Brimfield FFA;Alumni; 323 E. ClintonStreet; Brimfield, IL61517

EVERYONE EATS OUT!BUT WHERE SHOULD READERS DINE?

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RESTAURANTHERE!

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FOR ANSWERS SEE PAGE 12

1. LITERATURE: Who created the char-acter of Walter Mitty?2. GEOGRAPHY: Which Central Ameri-can country has coastline only on thePacific side?3. GAMES: How many players are on avolleyball team?4. U.S. PRESIDENTS: Which presidenteventually courted and married awoman who was briefly his school-teacher?5. HISTORY: What was the name of thesystem of racial segregation used inSouth Africa in the second half of the20th century?6. MYTHOLOGY: Which Greek heroinerefused to marry any man who couldnot beat her in a foot race? 7. ANCIENT WORLD: What field ofstudy was Euclid known for?8. MUSIC: What is a hurdy-gurdy?9. FIRSTS: Who was the first (andonly) woman to win the Medal ofHonor?10. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: Why is acatamaran different from other boats?

Answers1. James Thurber2. El Salvador3. Six4. Millard Fillmore. Millard and AbigailFillmore were only a couple of yearsapart in age.5. Apartheid6. Atalanta7. Mathematics, specifically geometry8. A hand-cranked string instrument9. Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, for hermedical work during the Civil War10. It has two hulls

(c) 2013 King Features Synd., Inc.



Authorities warn ofphone bank scams


ELMWOOD – Appar-ent attempts at fraud byphone and by emailwere reported by resi-dents of Elmwood ear-lier this month.

A woman on Elm-wood’s northwest sideon Feb. 5 reported re-ceiving a phone callfrom someone claimingto represent PublishersClearing House and no-tifying her that she hadwon more than $1 mil-lion.

The caller said that acheck would be deliv-ered that morning andthat a check for $1,200for “fees” was requiredin order to receive thewinnings.

The Elmwood womanhung up but receivedtwo similar calls beforecalling Elmwood police.Officer Larry Hammerresponded but no onepurporting to be from asweepstakes showed upto collect the fees.

Police ask people whoreceive such suspiciouscalls to phone 911. The

real Publishers ClearingHouse warns of suchscams on the web page:info.pch.com/consumer-information/fraud-pro-tection.

Elsewhere, currentand previous Elmnetcustomers reported sus-picious emails with thesubject line “SecurityUpdate from KeyBank.”

Elmwood’s FarmersState Bank, which hasno ties to the fraudulentemail, expressed cus-tomers concerns to KeyBank.

FSB President Jen-nifer Beard said Elmnetsubscribers should notclick on the email, norshould they click on anyof the attachments.

The real Key Bankhas requested that Elm-net subscribers receiv-ing the email shouldforward it to KeyBank’s identity-theftprotection desk, whichcan be reached at:[email protected]

Extension surveying multigenerational needsBy BILL KNIGHT

For The Weekly Post

The University of Illinois Exten-sion and Elmwood’s Multigenera-tional Planning committee thisweek begins surveying area resi-dents to gauge interest in commu-nity activities.

“We have created a survey thatwill allow people of all ages tovote on the types of activities andcourses they would like to see inElmwood,” said Ashley Walls, a Uof I Urban Planning graduate stu-dent coordinating the communityplanning effort with Extension ed-ucation Kathy Brown.

“For example, would you like tosee a bicycling group, participatein a knitting course or partake insome fun gaming activities?”Walls added.

The survey will be distributed atschool, churches, civic organiza-tions and local drop boxes wherepeople can be picked up anddropped off. Those sites are Elm-wood City Hall, Elmwood Com-munity Bank, Farmers State Bank,Jordan's Mobil Service Center,and the Morrison & Mary WileyLibrary

The survey also can be com-

pleted online at https://www.sur-veymonkey.com/s/ElmwoodAC-TIVITIES

The committee will compile sur-vey data after March 25, 2013.Once tallied, the survey resultswill be shared by the committee,which will begin looking for waysto meet people’s needs and hopes.

The committee asked that peo-ple with questions or those seek-ing additional surveys to distributeemail Amy Davis([email protected]) orDoug Whitney ([email protected]).

1870s ELMWOOD: This photo from 1870 shows the old Chronicle Printing Office and other stores lo-cated on the corner of Main and Magnolia in Elmwood that was destroyed by the tornado in 2010. Thesmall building on the corner across the street enclosed a cistern used by firefighters. Photo courtesy ofBruce Howard.

REMEMBER WHEN

www.wklypost.com



The Week

Elmwood High SchoolBoys Basketball Stats(Regular Season)

Points Per Game AverageNick Jehle 17.5Jake Soehn 11.2Tommy Ramsay 9.6Cal Vrchota 9.1Jake Osmulski 5.0 C. Reicheneker 4.2 Colby Brown 4.1Matt Jehle 1.2Kyle Alcaraz 1.0Austin Teel 0.9Trent Scotti 0.9Jake Callister 0.8Matt Almasi 0.8Dan Kepple 0.7Zack Dwyer 0.0Tom Almasi 0.0Rebounds PG Average

Cal Vrchota 6.7Jake Soehn 5.8Nick Jehle 3.8Jake Osmulski 2.6Tommy Ramsay 1.9C. Reicheneker 1.9Trent Scotti 1.3Colby Brown 1.2Assists PG Average

Tomm Ramsay 3.7Jake Osmulski 1.8Jake Soehn 1.5Nick Jehle 1.5Austin Teel 1.0Free Throw Percentage(Minimum 10 Attempts)

Tommy Ramsay .793Jake Soehn .653Nick Jehle .643C. Reicheneker .560Jake Osmulski .533Field Goal Percentage

Cal Vrchota .705Jake Osmulski .549Colby Brown .495C. Reicheneker .482Tommy Ramsay .466Jake Soehn .439Nick Jehle .4253-Point FG Percentage(Minimum 10 Attempts)

Tommy Ramsay .442C. Reicheneker .385Nick Jehle .369Matt Jehle .300Jake Soehn .287Colby Brown .278

NOTE: We will print se-lected season statistics forBrimfield and Williamsfieldboys and girls basketballteams and for Elmwoodgirls teams as they becomeavailable.

SCOREBOARD

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

MARCH MADNESS: Lewis, Mathews led teams

Noah Isbell, ElmwoodAllow me to mention myself in this article.

Noah Isbell is one of my teacher assistants. Thushe aided Coach Gregg Meyers, me and others inorganizing the 2012 sectional cross country meet.When Noah finished the sectional first out ofabout 150 runners, he wasobviously both tired andexcited. “You won therace you made the plansfor. You do it all!” I saidto him at the finish line. Itwas a cool moment.

Noah is like many otherEHS student-athletes, heis very busy. We like that!Along with his sectionalchampionship, Noah took11th at state. He has also been a mile and two-mile runner in track. Breaking the 10-minutemark in the two-mile is his greatest track thrill.

Noah has been surrounded by running most ofhis years. His father, Terry, ran at Farmington andBradley University. His older sisters, Liz andKate, were EHS harriers and tracksters. Noahalso speaks of inspiration from his mother, Lynn,and grandmother, Jessie Isbell. Other great sup-porters include Coach Meyers, brothers Job andPaul and his many teammates.

Noah is considering Bradley and SIU-Ed-wardsville for college and aspires to study to bean electrical engineer. Noah also enjoys reading,wakeboarding on water, kayaking, snowboardingand jamming to heavy metal music. It wouldseem EHS senior Noah Isbell does it all!

– Phil Johnson

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went on to lead the Bombers inscoring every game that season.

Ironically, in the biggest winof the year – a thrilling 66-65sectional defeat of Rock IslandAlleman – Lewis did not postthe game winner. That honorwent to Troy Endress on a re-bound of a Lewis shot withunder 7 seconds left.

“I’ve had a lot of people tellme that was one of the best highschool ballgames they haveever seen,” WilliamsfieldCoach Bob Anderson said.

The next step was not as kind,as Williamsfield fell 65-53 toSt. Francis de Sales in the quar-terfinals at Peoria’s Civic Cen-ter. After leading 29-26 athalftime as Lewis scored 18 of20 in one stretch, Williamsfield(28-3) could not hold off thebigger, faster Pioneers – whoseenrollment of 520 wasn’t far offthe population of Williamsfield.

“We’ve been underdogs inevery game in the postseason,”Anderson said after the game.“What’s greater than any ac-complishment or victory wehad all year is how proud I amthat these kids played so hard.”

That despite using just sixplayers and giving many inchesto most opponents.

“That team had a star inLewis and every one was allcomfortable with that. Theplayers were all comfortablewith their roles,” Andersonsaid. “That was a very mentallytough team.”

Lewis wound up an all-stater

and topped his coach’s careerscoring mark at Williamsfieldwith more than 2,300 points.

Williamsfield’s other regionaltitles came in 1964 under theone-class system and then in thetwo-class system in 1982, 1985and in 2007 – three times whenthe squad was seeded third.

But Anderson said his bestteam of all might have been the1996 squad that included Lewis(28 ppg as a junior) and Dono-van Klein (19 ppg). That teamlost in the regional final toPrinceville, which had upsetFarmington in the semifinals.

BRIMFIELDThe Indians also made a run

to the Class A quarterfinals atAssembly Hall in 1979 underthe late coach Don Mathews,whose teams had an impressivefhree-year record of 81-6 from1976-1979.

That hot streak included re-gional titles in 1978 and 1979,the only two Brimfield has wonprior to winning Class 1A re-gionals each of the last threeyears under Coach Scott Carl-son during a 92-7 run.

Mathews’ 1979 team went29-2 and was led by his sonEddie, a second-team all-statesenior guard who averaged 23points per game. Eddie Math-ews wound up topping 2,000points for his prep career andlater played at Bradley.

Brimfield also had depth thatyear, as 6-foot-3 transfer DuaneDunn averaged 17 ppg, 6-3 cen-ter Greg Nevells chipped in 12ppg and Joe Hanks and Rod

McKown were good for 11 and10 ppg respectively.

But after tight wins in the sec-tional final over Monmouth(53-52) and Lena-Winslow inthe Sweet 16(53-50), Brim-field ran into aquarterfinalbuzzsaw.Eventual third-place finisherTimothy Chris-tian shot 73percent in its 74-43 victory, including a floor-length basket at the end of thefirst half.

“It’s not right when the otherteam shoots 73 percent,” DonMathews said at the time. “Wethought maybe if we stoppedtheir inside game they mighthave trouble with their outsidegame. But they didn’t.”

That did nothing to diminishDon Mathew’s record at Brim-field, which had gone 27-128 inthe seven years prior to himtaking over as head coach.

“My dad took a lot of pride inBrimfield and the basketballteam, and that gym was ourhome,” said Eddie Mathews,who followed his father intocoaching and is at Limestone.

Last year’s Brimfield squadlooked primed to follow in thefootsteps of the 1979 team afterrolling to an unbeaten 33-0record and a No. 1 ranking inthe final polls heading into thesupersectional.

Led by second-team all-staterDanny Dwyer and honorable

mention pick Nick Unes, Brim-field posted the school’s bestwinning percentage and tied foroverall wins.

But the Cinderella season un-wound in an upset 58-48 loss toNo. 7 Carrollton.

Even so, Brimfield fought tothe end in that game. Afterfalling behind 41-24 at onepoint, Brimfield went on a 20-8run to close the gap to 49-44with 3:26 remaining. Ultimatelythat was not quite enough, asCarrollton went 7-for-12 fromthe free throw line down thestretch.

ELMWOODShortly after the split to two-

class basketball in 1971-72, theElmwood Trojans looked to bea basketball program on therise. Elmwood won its first re-gional title in 1973.

The problem for Trojans fans,though, is they are still waitingfor a second regional win – adrought of 40 years.

YATES CITYThe Illinois High School As-

sociation records show only onepostseason title for Yates City,that a district crown back in1957. Those were the one-classdays when small schools had tofirst battle through district com-petition in order to face largerschools in the regional.

But there’s no question YatesCity gets some credit for a fewregionals won by Farmington,in particular while 6-7 JoshWatznauer and 6-4 MattGoedecke were leading theFarmers to fourth in 2007.


Don Mathews

Elmwood JVshootout ahead ELMWOOD – Elm-wood High School willplay host to its fifth an-nual Trojan Frosh-Sophbasketball shootout Feb.23 and 25. Participating teams arefrom Kewanee, IlliniBluffs, Canton, NorthFulton and United. Games start at 9 a.m.on Saturday, Feb. 23.Each team will playtwice that day. So far this year theElmwood JV team re-mains unbeaten with arecord of 20-0. The Elm-wood JV will play Ke-wanee at 10:20 a.m. onSaturday and then faceUnited at 3:40 p.m. Based on Saturday’sresults, teams will playon Monday, Feb. 25 forfifth place, third placeand the championship.The fifth-place gamestarts at 5 p.m. with theother two games to fol-low – meaning thechampionship should tipoff around 8 p.m.

Elmwood Insurance Agency, Inc.Scot Jehle & Janice Nash

P.O. Box 827 Elmwood, IL 61529

309-742-2141

[email protected]@elmwoodinsurance.com



Weekly Post SportsLocal teams favored in boys regional

By JEFF LAMPEWeekly Post Staff Writer

The history of boys basketball teams in TheWeekly Post circulation area proves at least onething: the value of a regional championshipshould not be understated.

In the past 41 years of two- and four-class boysbasketball, Brimfield, Elmwood and Williams-field have combined for 11 regional plaques ac-cording to records kept by the Illinois HighSchool Association.

Three teams. Four decades. Eleven titles. Obviously, winning a regional championship is

no easy task.But heading into this

week, our local highschools were favoredto add to that totalafter earning the topthree seeds for theClass 1A PrincevilleRegional. And No. 3seed Williamsfield(23-9) held up its endon Tuesday, defeatingLewistown, 56-49.

As a result theBombers earned a

semifinal matchup with No. 2 seed Brimfield(21-6) on Wednesday, a game that was decidedafter our press time. Brimfield had won the firsttwo meetings by a combined four points.

Also Wednesday, top-seed Elmwood (24-5) putits nine-game winning streak on the line againstPrinceville. The host team reached the semifinalswith a 41-37 victory over Stark County.

Winners of Wednesday’s games advance to Fri-day’s finale at 7:30 p.m. at Princeville. As isoften the case in regionals, all title game scenar-ios involve rematches. Elmwood owns two winsover Brimfield, for instance, but has dropped twogames to Williamsfield.

Friday’s winner advances to a sectional semifi-nal Tuesday, Feb. 26 at Brown County HighSchool in Mount Sterling.

In the case of top-seeded Elmwood, a regionalwin would represent a significant achievementthe likes of which have not been seen in genera-tions. Elmwood’s last regional championship wasin 1973 – a time when the parents of some of thisyear’s team members were still youngsters.

Check back next week for a regional recap.

Swimmer just misses stateBy JEFF LAMPE

Weekly Post Staff Writer

An uncommon red t-shirt sold surpris-ingly well at Brimfield High School thisyear, considering there is no team to buythem. But who wouldn’twant to wear the rarest ofBrimfield athletic garb?Who else can say they owna “Brimfield Swimming” t-shirt?

Not many. Junior AustinBennett was the lone swim-mer on the Brimfield “team”and may well be the first In-dian to compete in a sec-tional, which he did lastSaturday for the thirdstraight year.

At the East Moline Sec-tional Bennett placed secondin the 500 freestyle in a time of 4:49,just two seconds off the state qualifyingstandard. Bennett’s 200 individual med-ley time was 2:03, four seconds off thestate standard. Swimmers can qualifyfor the state meet by winning at sec-tional or by meeting the time standard.

The sectional was part of a rigorousseason of practice for Bennett. Take

Christmas break as an example. Whilefriends on the Brimfield basketball teamrested, Bennett spent his holiday in two-a-days, shuttling between pools at Peo-ria Manual and Washington’s Five

Points Recreation Center. All the swimming has

helped Bennett improverapidly, which is good sincehe did not start swimmingcompetitively until eighthgrade. That happened at theurging of family friends Jeffand Timberly Miller of Ed-wards.

“I was terrible at first,”said Bennett, a member ofPeoria’s Developmental Or-ganized Competitive Swim-ming team. “I thought aboutstopping just because I was-

n’t getting better. Then last year I reallystarted improving.”

Next school year Bennett has theadded goal of reaching the state meet.Beyond that is an even more lofty ambi-tion. “I think it would be really cool togo to Rio (for the Olympics) in 2016,”he said. Sounds like plenty more two-a-days are in the works.

The Week FRIDAY, Feb. 22

• 7:30 p.m. – PrincevilleBoys Basketball Re-gional Final, atPrincevilleTUESDAY, Feb. 26

• 7:30 p.m. – Boys Bas-ketball Sectional Semi-final: Winner ofPrinceville Regional vs.Winner of Griggsville-Perry Regional, atBrown County HS inMount Sterling, 7:30p.m.FRIDAY, March 1

• 7:30 p.m. – Boys Bas-ketball Sectional Final,at Mount SterlingTUESDAY, March 5

• 7:30 p.m. – Boys Bas-ketball Supersectional,at JacksonvilleFRIDAY, March 8

• 2 p.m. – Class 1ABoys Basketball StateTournament, at PeoriaCivic CenterSATURDAY, March 9

• 12:15 p.m. – Class 1AThird-Place, at PeoriaCivic Center• 2 p.m. – Class 1AChampionship, at Peo-ria Civic Center

Billtown, Brimfield own Elite 8 visitsBy JEFF LAMPE

Weekly Post Staff Writer

They may not have had a player over 6-foot-2,but the 1997 Williamsfield Bombers boys basket-ball team still stands tall among The Weekly Postteams in terms of postseason success.

A review of March Madness Memories for Brim-field, Elmwood and Williamsfield shows two state

trips among several successful seasons – most re-cently Billtown’s 1997 Elite Eight berth. Here’s alook at postseason memories for our area schools.

WILLIAMSFIELDThe tone for this season was set in the opening

game, as Travis Lewis poured in 54 points forWilliamsfield in a 73-60 win over Delavan. Lewis

MARCH MADNESS MEMORIES

SCHEDULE

Continued on Page 15

Austin Bennett of Ed-wards competed in histhird straight stateswimming sectionallast weekend.

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Submit Your Scores,Stats and Standings!Call (309) 741-9790

Regional Wins1964 – Williamsfield1973 – Elmwood1978 – Brimfield1979 – Brimfield1982 – Williamsfield1985 – Williamsfield1997 – Williamsfield2007 – Williamsfield2010 – Brimfield2011 – Brimfield2012 – Brimfield2013 – TBA

the weekly post 2/21/13

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