Bugle Newspaper 2-18-21

F e BRUaRy 17, 2 0 2 1 Vol . 6 5 i ss U e 17

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news from plainfield Joliet shorewood lockport crest hill Bolingbrook Romeoville downers grove Westmont Woodridge lisle niles morton grove park Ridge & more

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SUBMITTED PHOTO

Will county state s attorney James glasgow hosted a Virtual Valentine s day for Veterans.

Will coUnty

a virtual Valentine s day for Veterans Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow invites the Will County community to view “Virtual Valentines for Veterans” prepared by local school students throughout Will County. Students and their teachers in Will County schools sent messages and held up Valentines they prepared via Zoom, and others send pictures of the children holding up their Valentine messages for veterans to see.

“We know that isolation has increased as a result of the pandemic, and we need to make sure our veterans are not forgotten,” Glasgow said. “Our Virtual Valentines initiative was a way for all students, whether in the classroom or learning remotely, to thank our veterans for everything they have done for us and learn about the contributions made by our dedicated service members.”

The Virtual Valentines can be viewed beginning at 6 a.m. Valentine’s Day, February 14, on the Will County State’s Attor-

ney’s website at www.willcountysao.com.

Additionally, both the Will County State’s Attorney and Will County Veterans’ Assistance Commission Facebook pages will be featuring the Valentine’s Day photos and videos received by our local students and their teachers throughout the Valentine’s Day. “Many don’t realize that Valentine’s Day has ties to ancient military history,” said Will County Veterans Assistance Commission Superintendent Kristi McNichol. “The VAC appreciates State’s Attorney Glasgow showing some love to our veterans outside of the obligatory holidays and including kids is like icing on the cupcake.”

Glasgow established the annual Valentines for Veterans program last year. Residents are encouraged to share the Virtual Valentines on Facebook, or by copying the website link and emailing it to any veterans they know who might benefit from a Valentine’s Day thank you.

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schools

Plainfield teacher honored for promoting local music scene Drauden Point Middle School music teacher Tim Placher received the Rev. James E. Allen Award for Service to the Community on February 12, 2021 for his passionate efforts to promote local music.

The award is given by Project Acclaim, a Joliet organization that honors individuals and organizations “who show selfless devotion of community by direct action, perform actions that have a community-wide impact, and perform actions that have enhanced the best interests of the community.”

Project Acclaim’s mission is to honor those who show civic and community pride.

The organization chose Placher for his commitment to and passion for promoting the Joliet-area music scene, said Project Acclaim President Jayne Bernhard.

She and Project Acclaim member Quinn Adamowski presented the award to Placher.

“Simply put, Tim brings people together and makes it happen,” Bernhard said. “Music happens.

Joy happens. Through his pursuits, he bolsters community spirit,” she said.

Placher was surprised by the visit and honored to receive the award.

“While it’s always nice to have others validate your work, the true credit for our projects’ success goes to the whole team of musicians, venues, and support people who keep saying “yes” to whatever music idea I concoct,” Placher said.

Thank you especially to my Drauden Point Middle School choir families for their amazing support of our two Rialto Square Theater shows,” he said. “I am sincerely appreciative of everyone’s continuing support.”

In 2019 and 2020, Placher directed the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Songbook, Plus!” held at the Rialto

Square Theater. The event featured a symphonic gathering of local musicians.

The 2020 concert took place February 8th, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It included more than 30 local performers and drew 1,000 people to watch Joliet’s best musicians on stage.

Placher also gathered many of these same local artists just before Christmas last year and released the “YuleTube Christmas Songbook” on YouTube.

“Tim is 100 percent deserving of the Project Acclaim Award,” said Drauden Point Middle School Principal Kai Freeman.

“His passion to educate students, invest hours upon hours into his craft and be so influential in the music community has been so impactful. Drauden Point is extremely proud of Mr. Placher,” he said.

Placher started teaching choir and music at Drauden Pointe Middle School in 2004. Before becoming an educator, he served as an attorney for the City of Joliet and reporter for several northern Illinois newspapers.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

project acclaim president Jayne Bernhard (left), and member Quinn adamowski presented the Rev. James e. allen award to drauden point middle school music teacher tim placher to honor him for his passionate efforts to promote local music. drauden point principal Kai Freeman (right) helped surprise placher with the award..

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dUpage coUnty

Community Vaccine Clinic moves to fairgrounds The DuPage County Health Department (DCHD) announced thatas of Feb. 10, the DCHD COVID-19 Community Vaccination Clinic will relocate to the DuPage County Fairgrounds located at 2015 Manchester Road in Wheaton to expand its vaccination capacity as vaccine supply allows. Vaccinations are available by appointment only to individuals signed up on the DCHD registration form.

“I’ve been proud to work closely with the Health Department as we have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic and worked to reduce its impact on our residents,” said DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin. “Right now, I’m also proud to say DuPage County is leading the collar counties in getting vaccines into people’s arms with over 100,000 doses administered to residents and 2.88% of its population now protected with two doses.”

In DuPage County, DCHD developed its community vaccination plans using a decentralized approach. To achieve this, vaccination plans were built upon the existing public and private partnerships within the County. This provides the ability to utilize the existing infrastructure to vaccinate as many eligible individuals, as quickly as possible.

“The community vaccination plans developed are both flexible and scalable based on vaccine supply using a decentralized community vaccination model.

Recognizing the large-scale effort necessary to vaccinate county residents, DuPage County Health Department realized early on it would require a strong network of partners which we are fortunate to have,” commented Sam Tornatore, DuPage County Board of Health President.

Currently, DCHD has partnered with close to 100 healthcare providers to ensure widespread access to vaccine once more supply is available. However, only 42 partners are currently receiving vaccine allotments due to the limited supply.

In addition to the thousands of vaccines administered through vaccine clinics at hospitals, outpatient providers, and pharmacies each week, the DCHD COVID-19 vaccine clinic has also vaccinated between 1,500 – 2,000 people per week and just last week administered their 10,000th

vaccine. Through this expansion, if vaccine supply allows, the community clinic could vaccinate up to 5,000 people per week.

The new site provides a convenient, central location in the county for residents to access and a safe indoor space to protect the staff, volunteers, and residents receiving the vaccine from the winter elements. The DCHD COVID-19 Community Vaccination Clinic will continue to operate Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. by appointment only.

“We are very fortunate to have a robust network of healthcare providers in DuPage County who are committed to administering vaccine as soon as it is available,” shared Karen Ayala, Executive Director of DuPage County Health Department. “When doses arrive, they do not sit in freezers for extended periods of time. Appointments are opened, links to schedule an appointment are sent, and doses are administered into the arms of those in the eligible

groups.”

Individuals who would like to register for vaccine through DCHD, should visit www.dupagehealth.org/covid19vaccine. Anyone who does not have access to the internet, a computer, or who needs support with registering for vaccine, including language assistance, should call the Health Department at (630) 682-7400 and a representative will assist them.

As residents wait for vaccine to be available to them, the Health Department urges everyone to do their part in preventing the spread of COVID-19 by wearing face masks, physical distancing, avoiding in-person gatherings, washing their hands, and isolating or quarantining when necessary. Everyone, including those who have been vaccinated, should continue using these measures to help end this pandemic as we learn more about how COVID-19 vaccines work in real-world conditions.

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Help Wanted

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state

High court offers rules for remote criminal hearings

By saRah mansUR

The state’s highest court issued new rules last week to help courts transition to remote hearings for criminal cases as the pandemic continues to disrupt court operations statewide.

Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne Burke said the order “provides guidance for our courts to address the backlog of criminal cases created by the COVID-19 pandemic,” in a news release last week.

Courthouses shut their doors last March, allowing only essential matters to be held in-person and temporarily halting jury trials in criminal and civil cases and affecting criminal defendants’ right to a speedy trial.

In May, the Illinois Supreme Court issued an order that directed circuit courts to return to normal operations on June 1 and gave local judges discretion to allow for remote or in-person hearings.

In-person civil and criminal jury trials have slowly resumed with social distancing and other public health guidelines in place in nearly all counties, except Cook County where in-person jury trials are still on hold.

The Feb. 11 order states that certain criminal hearings, such as initial appearances or non-substantive status hearings, can be held remotely, even if the person charged with a crime objects to a remote hearing.

Other hearings, such as sentencing hearings or hearings where a plea of guilty will be entered, must be conducted in-person unless the person

Capitol News Illinois

charged with a crime agrees to participate remotely, according to the order.

Bench trials, where a judge decides the verdict instead of a jury, can be held remotely if the person charged consents in writing and the judge finds that doing so will not jeopardize the integrity of the trial process.

However, the order does not allow for remote jury trials under any circumstances.

The new rules contained within the order were proposed by Illinois Supreme Court’s Court Operations During COVID-19 Task Force, which formed in June in response to challenges caused by the pandemic. The February order only applies to criminal cases where a person could face jail as a penalty.

Richard Kling, clinical law professor at Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law and a criminal defense attorney, said the latest order is the court’s attempt to balance the necessity of conducting criminal hearings and trials with the safety concerns of COVID-19.

This new guidance expands the court’s order from May that paused what is known as the speedy trial law, which affords a person charged with a crime the right to a trial by jury within a certain time period after arrest, generally 120 days.

A criminal defendant’s right to a speedy trial is codified in Illinois statute, and is contained in the Illinois

constitution. Defendants who are held in jail beyond the timeframe allowed under the speedy trial law without being given a trial must be released from custody.

The Illinois Supreme Court’s May order paused the speedy trial clock retroactively from March 20. For criminal defendants who have been in jail since that time, the order excludes the past 11 months from the timeframe by which the defendant is allotted under the speedy trial law.

Chief Judge Eugene Doherty of the 17th Judicial Circuit said the latest order “gives some relief” to defendants who may be unable to have an in-person jury trial.

“What the Supreme Court’s rule makes clear is that you can do a (criminal) trial by bench in a remote setting,” Doherty, who is vice-chair of the task force, said in a phone interview. “So, that’s one additional option that might allow somebody to go to trial that couldn’t go to trial if the remote option were not available.”

Doherty said this order is one of the more important developments from the COVID-19 task force.

“This recent rule, which is a temporary COVID rule, represents, I believe, an effort to clearly define what the rules of the road are with respect to remote hearings in criminal proceedings,” Doherty said.

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