Decatur Vote Illinois
Feb 15, 2024: Decatur Vote is Temporarily Closed. See the announcement.

Decatur Weekly Recap | Feb 3, 2023

Meta Report written by Reed Sutman on . Updated .

This week's recap includes two new candidate writeups, health department resignations, a DPS job fair, Prosecutor Shortages, advocacy for Catholic Schools, Letters to the Editor, and much more.

Candidates

Karl Coleman is running for Decatur City Council. He is focused on business development and community engagement. He wants to support entreprenuership and small business while incentivizing large businesses to come into the community, in hopes of increasing city revenue and creating good jobs. He wants to legalize cannabis dispensaries and repeal the city ordinance restricting access to Central Park. Read about Karl's interview.

Jacob Jenkins is running for Decatur School Board for "four simple reasons." He says we need to "reimagine public education" and put students first, build stronger community partnerships and "[bring] the community back into the schools as a way [to] help [stabilize] and engage families." And he wants to see better board governance and support teachers and staff. Read about Jacob's Interview

Will Wetzel for Decatur School Board will be covered next week.

Local Government

Health Department leadership resignations: Brandi Binkley will resign from Public Health Administrator effective Feb 7th, 2023. Assistant Public Health Administrator Bethany Krieg resigned. Chief Financial Officer Sheree Zalanka resigned. All three resignees gave vague reasons for leaving. Comments from public officials claim Binkley is leaving on good terms.

The Board of Health appointed Lindsey Munsterman as interim Public Health Administrator. Marsha Webb was appointed to an open position on the Board of Health.

There have been several controversial issues related to the Board of Health the last few years. These include partisan appointments to the Board of Health, restrictions to Binkley's authority over COVID updates which were later reversed, and an ordinance to allow indoor dining during COVID restrictions.

Macon County needs 4 new prosecutors: Macon County States Attorney Scott Reuter says "I do know there are less people going to law school and, of the people that are going, there are less people graduating and, of the less people who are graduating, there are less people that are managing to pass the bar." Coles County States Attorney Wagoner "believes the perception of state support for law enforcement was damaged by the passage of the controversial SAFE-T Act, which he said was seen by many as making it harder for law enforcement to do its job."

DPD makes statement about Tyre Nichols: DPD posted "The men and women of the Decatur Police Department are better than that. We have to be. We have worked hard to build a trust in the community." Some commenters agree with this sentiment. Some do not. One commenter said "Wait… are y’all any better ? The entire Black Community recently watched how you all handled that Black Man bsck in the summer" referring to the killing of Jamontey Neal, which Scott Reuter determined justified.

I believe police handled the Neal incident poorly & my choice of what to include in this summary is informed by that bias. Regardless, it is important to note that not everybody agrees with the sentiment expressed by DPD.

Schools

Job Fair: "4:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, at MacArthur High School." Decatur Public Schools are "looking for teachers, teaching assistants, maintenance, security, food service staff, bus drivers, and more." Several Colleges, Alltown, and Aramark will also be present at the job fair, seeking employees.

"The district also recently launched TeacherReady, an accelerated program for current substitute teachers to get their teaching certification, paid in full by the school district."

"Decatur Blaze visits South Shores School to introduce kids to hockey": "Major said that she planned to use the team's visit to talk about teamwork with her students, as well as dedication and practice, setting goals and working toward them, and watching part of a hockey game on the classroom TV to see how it all works."

Advocacy for Catholic Schools Bishop Thomas John Paprocki "told the children and adults at the Mass on Monday that teachers are ministers of the Gospel, and that mission of forming children’s faith and identity as Christians has to be infused into every subject at school." Bishop Paprocki says the whole catholic community should support catholic schools and that "We don’t want our Catholic schools to be just for the rich, or for the elite." He says he wants a return to no-tuition schools, but that will take time and work.

Robotics Competition: There was a robotics competition hosted at Millikin University for high school students. The three winners will go on to a state robotics competition, where business representatives are likely to attend.

Community Services

$25 Spay/Neuter + Vaccines: Cats only, February 17th, from The Humane Society and Northgate Pet Clinic. Applications due by Feb 8 @ 4pm. Call the Humane Society at tel:+12178760000 or get an application from 3373 N. Woodford St. in Decatur. First come, first serve.

Active Shooter Trainings Available "If you'd like to have this training at your business, church, etc., you can contact Officer Donaker or Tool to schedule a session: 217-424-2743, mdonaker@decaturil.gov or ttool@decaturil.gov."

Richland Gives Back Day: Richland hosted a collection of donations for a few organizations. See the link for a list of organizations and requested items. Richland also hosted the American Red Cross for a blood donation.

Scholarships Available: Apply for $500 to $6,000 for graduating high school seniors who have been accepted into college. Adults age 24+ can apply for up to $2,500. See Herald & Review for contact information.

2 Year 'Community Resource Liaison' Pilot Program: The Community Foundation announces a grant for $75,000 in 2023 and $75,000 in 2024 for a liaison to help connect unhoused people with community services & support Continuum of Care agencies.

Events

Feb 18th Gala @ 5:30pm: "The Black Chamber will celebrate local trailblazers during its Black History Gala on Feb. 18 at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel. Tickets are $50." See their facebook post or call 217-706-5074 for more information.

Feb 25th Documentary: "The African American Cultural and Genealogical Society will present a free showing of the PBS documentary 'Eyes on the Prize' on Feb. 25. The movie depicts portions of the Civil Rights movement." The Society is at 235 W. Eldorado St., Decatur

Movie 'Till' shown for MLK Day: The GreaterDecatur Black Chamber of Commerce hosted a showing of 'Till' at The Inc. Spot to help teach what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought.

READiculous Live Shows: On Tuesday, about 169 people attended a live acting-out of books at the Decatur Public Library. Learn more about readiculous

Culinary Scholarship Dinner: "Tickets are available for $125 each or $1,000 for a table of eight." "Proceeds benefit students in the Culinary Institute." Get tickets online

There are likely other events not covered here.

Letters To The Editor

See the full Letters to the Editor in Herald & Review.

  • Don Carmichael: Says the city council is looking to revise their "current neighborhood standards." Don writes about a 2020 ordinance that significantly restricted a property owners' ability to grow native plants in their yard. He critcized the new $20 fee to apply for a permit to grow prairie plants. He criticized the practice of "traditional grass lawns doused with toxic 'lawn-care' chemicals that maintain politcally correct 'curb appeal'." He writes more, on the topic of long-term environmental catastrophe. Disclaimer: I was a member of SONA at the time this ordinance was being proposed and I advocated in favor of Don's position and was involved in multiple meetings with city staff to revise the proposed ordinance. Don was not party to those meetings, and I was not representing him.
  • Dale Wise: "In regard to your two gun editorials of January 21, would you have printed the same ones replacing 'gun' with 'illegal alien'? Are there not already cities and counties in Illinois that ignore federal laws?" I believe he is referring to the editorials on Jan 20 Law enforcement must enforce laws and Jan 14th Passage of Illinois gun law was rushed.
  • Nicholas Burgener: I'm not really sure what the writer is arguing. They write of truth not being black & white, of laws needing to not be extreme, and of God.
  • Jim Newton: Argues that Democrats should "carry on" after their "pyrrhic victory" ("a win that wasn't worth it"), and "get out of the way" while "McCarthy and company are barreling toward the cliff."

Crime

There were a lot of articles about crime this week. Some for new crimes and some for convictions of or updates about past crimes. Several crime articles are listed in the 'Not Covered' section and were skipped due to time constraints.

In future weekly updates, I will likely reduce my coverage of crime news. I would like more time to cover local government news, macro-information (like crime stats), and news from more outlets. Recaps, so far, have been almost exclusively from Herald & Review reporting.

38-year-old man with an apparent gunshot wound: Police responded to 1300 block of North 22nd Street. Man had life-threatening injuries & was taken to hospital.

Owners to pay $840 for care of endangered dogs: In December, four dogs were rescued after being left out in the extreme cold. A fifth dog was put down. Judge R.C. Bollinger ordered the owners to pay $840 for the dogs' upkeep at Macon County Animal Control and Care Center. The case is ongoing. There is a vigil for the deceased dog at 6pm on Saturday Feb 4th in Central Park.

18 Year old allegedly stabs mom: The 51 year old woman was transported to the hospital. The incident is under investigation by the Macon County Sheriff.

5 year sentence for gunpoint robbery: 2 men held a driver at gunpoint on July 27th, 2022 and robbed the driver. The men fled, and the driver pursued in his vehicle. The driver has been charged with aggravated assault and criminal damage in excess of $10,000, after driving into an apartment complex. One robber was sentenced to 5 years in prison. The other is in Macon County Jail with a disposition hearing set for March 3rd, 2023.

13 year old died from gunshot: In Decatur, Monday, January 30th, 2023. "A 16-year-old juvenile was arrested on a preliminary charge of involuntary manslaughter and was being held at the Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center." The article links past incidents that don't appear to be directly related.

Car allegedly hijacked: An arranged sale of a car turned into a hijacking, according to prosecutors. The alleged hijacker has a pretrial hearing set for Feb. 22, 2023, and is in custody with a $2,000 bond required to be released.

Sexual Assault Charges: Brandon L. Mathis pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse, with several charges dropped, on the condition he testify against Tevin C. Ford, "regarded by prosecutors as the far more serious offender in the case who orchestrated the crime." "A sworn affidavit from Decatur police quotes the brothers (ages 15, 16, 17) as saying they were given cannabis, methamphetamine and alcohol before Ford and Mathis performed sex acts with them." Mathis faces 30 months probation and has already served his 180 day sentence in the Macon County Jail. Ford will be prosecuted federally in the hopes of harsher penalties.

Thank you

As always, thank you for reading. If you like my work, follow Decatur Vote on Facebook, tell me in the 'feedback' box below, or sponsor Decatur Vote for $10 per month.

You can also help by sharing this recap or any Decatur Vote articles or Facebook posts you find interesting.

News We Missed

Not Covered

These are stories I chose not to summarize, but might be of interest. Recaps focus on Decatur and Macon County news, with a particular interest in issues relevant to public policy. Some stories are skipped due primarily to time constraints.

Sources


This is an article about the topic Weekly Decatur News Recap.