Scott County Times WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2017
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WINCHESTER, IL 62694
Serving our readers for more than 149 years
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VOLUME NO. 150 NUMBER 23
Times County clerk may face longer election hours your
NEWS
Bluffs observes Memorial Day. See page A2 JWCC presents info session on Truck Driver Training Program. See page B5
LOCALS
By JUSTIN A. COBB Scott County Times The county clerk may face longer hours during the next election if a legislative proposal to expand voting hours becomes law, according to Scott County Board of Commissioners chair Robert Schafer. It and other legislation were discussed during the commissioners’ weekly meeting Monday afternoon, which lasted about 30 minutes, Schafer said by phone the following afternoon. “There’s a proposed bill the county clerk’s office brought to our attention,” Schafer said. “I don’t know where it’s at as far as passage…but
it’s something to require the clerk’s office to be open prior to an election for eight days, even on Sunday.” The proposal would require the office to be open all day on Sunday and stay open even later during the week to accommodate early voters, according to Schafer, who said County Clerk Sandy Hankins would have more information for the board after an upcoming meeting of county clerks hosted by the Illinois State Board of Elections. “There’s quite a bit of discussion among clerks in the state. I don’t think any are in favor of it,” Schafer said. “I don’t know why they’re doing it. They’ve already extended
early voting, and now they want to do this?” Another item of legislation discussed was a proposed two-year freeze of property taxes across the state, as was the uncertainty over whether the General Assembly and the governor would finally agree on a budget before the new fiscal year begins July 1, according to Schafer. In other business, commissioners learned the circuit clerk’s office may need to have a terminal installed to facilitate electronic filing of civil cases at the courthouse, according to Schafer. Under a new law going into effect Jan. 1, 2018, all civil cases will need to be filed electronically, according
“There’s quite a bit of discussion among clerks in the state. I don’t think any are in favor of it.”
Robert Schafer Chair, Scott County Board of Commissioners to Schafer. “It’s just civil (cases) right now, but according to (State’s Attorney) Mike Hill and (Circuit Clerk) Staci Evans, criminal is coming up behind it, the way they thought,” Schafer said. Treasurer Mark Ford reported taxes remained outstanding on 21 mobile homes in the county as of Monday, the deadline having lapsed
Judge requests more information in detachmentannexation review
Coutlas 50th anniversary. See page A3
SPORTS
Cougars head coach resigns. See page B1
WEEKEND WEATHER FRIDAY, JUNE 9
84 62 High Low
SATURDAY, JUNE 10
91 67 High Low
SUNDAY, JUNE 11
93 70 High Low
Scott County Times Church . . . . . . . . A4 Locals . . . . . . . . . . A3 Marketplace . . . B2-3 News . . . . . . . . B4,B5 Real Estate . . . . . . B5 Timely Matters . . . A4 © 2017
Scott County Times Obituaries listed in this issue: Shive. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
June 1, according to Schafer. Scott County Nursing Center had 38 residents as of Monday, Schafer said. On the agenda for next week’s meeting, Monday, June 12, according to Schafer, will be to appoint someone to the MCS Community Services Board, which serves the three counties of Cass, Morgan, and Scott.
Elizabeth King/Scott County Times
Nursing Center
recognizes staff
Melissa Beer, left, an employee of Scott County Nursing Center in Winchester, accepts a certificate of appreciation from nursing center administrator Debbie O’Dell, right. Beer was one of several nursing center employees who were recognized at an awards banquet May 25 in appreciation for their hard work at the facility to meet residents’ needs. The county-owned facility’s Family Council will have a bake sale Saturday, June 10, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., to help purchase items for residents.
By JUSTIN A. COBB Scott County Times The circuit judge presiding over an administrative review of a Regional Board of School Trustees decision moving three parcels from Bluffs School District to Winchester School District has asked both parties to provide more information. “Both sides presented arguments. The judge requested additional information from both parties and gave them 10 days to do so,” Kevin Blankenship, Bluffs School District superintendent, said by phone Wednesday morning, June 7. The court hearing took place Thursday afternoon in Adams
County, where the Regional Board of School Trustees overseeing public school districts in the counties of Adams, Brown, Morgan, Pike, and Scott is headquartered. Bluffs School District filed the request for administrative review in November after the Regional Board of School Trustees in August approved a petition by Avery and Katie Maul to move the parcels from Bluffs School District to Winchester School District. Named as defendants are the Mauls, Winchester School District, the Regional Board of School Trustees, each of the seven trustees individually, and Regional Superintendent of Schools Jill Reis.
Opiate addiction: crime or disease? Part 2 By ROBERT LYONS Campbell Publications [Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series looking at opiate addiction throughout the region. Part two concentrates on the role of medical professionals and drug companies in the proliferation of the problem.] With law enforcement and at least some medical professionals agreeing a national epidemic was created by the over-prescribing of opiate pain killers, there is still no clear answer to eradicating the widespread prevalence of the drugs in society. Of the 18 deaths attributed to opioids since 2013 in Jersey County, just a handful have been attributed to heroin. The rest were linked to prescription opiates, usually ingested in combination with other chemicals intended for medicinal use. Greene County Coroner Danny Powell said the same trend holds true in his county. “A lot of them are not only on heroin, they’re on everything else,” Powell said. “It’s not so much the heroin, but it’s what they are lacing it with. I don’t know if these addicts even know what they’re getting.” Illinois, according to a WalletHub study, ranks 35th in the nation for number of drug overdose deaths. The same study ranked the state at 43rd for number of opioid pain reliever prescriptions per capita. When a narcotic prescription is filled, the information is entered into a registry that can be viewed by pharmacists and other health professionals. The intent was to keep drug abusers from visiting multiple doctors to get several prescriptions.
Even with a registry in place, detailing the ailments and prescriptions given to patients, Pike County Sheriff Paul Petty believes doctors are not being proactive enough to investigate claims of pain; the result would perhaps be to consider not prescribing addictive opiates. “You may try to convince me that you’re not recognizing that addiction, and I am going to call bull [expletive],” Petty, who is also the county’s coroner, said. “You can see it, it’s right in front of you.” He said of the eight to 10 deaths he has concluded were opiate related since 2012, there was one example in Pike County were a person who died had been receiving four opiate prescriptions from four different doctors. He said, while he believes the doctors themselves may not have been aware of each other’s actions, he thinks we are at a place in society where more accountability has to be levied on the medical profession. “We turn to drugs to answer a lot of our problems,” he said. “And in doing that, we’re introducing what we don’t know to be the outcome. We think we’re helping them but, the fallout to it is, there’s a risk.” Since taking office as coroner in Greene County in December 2016, Powell said he has already attributed six deaths in the county to opiates, including two from heroin. He said the drug problem is the driving factor behind his decision to perform a toxicology, if not an autopsy, on every death he investigates. “We have to be very careful on every scene that we investigate, because we’re seeing a rapid influx of opioids,” he said, noting his past experience as a first responder.
Opiate Overdose Deaths By County Illinois Residents, 2013-2016
County Campbell Publications Trade Areas
Any Opioid
Heroin
2013
2014
2015
2016
2013
2014
2015
2016
Calhoun
1
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
Greene
2
2
2
2
0
0
0
1
Jersey
2
3
5
4
1
0
0
1
Pike
0
1
0
2
0
1
0
0
Scott
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2013
2014
2015
2016
2013
2014
2015
2016
Adams
4
4
8
7
1
0
4
2
Madison
36
72
67
51
19
28
33
18
Other Counties
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health *Drug was determined to be a contributing cause of death Graphic by Brandon Steckel/Campbell Publications
“It’s not just young people, it’s everywhere. They’re taking morphine pills, pain killers and whatever they can get their hands on.” Though the drug problem associated with opiates has spiked in the past four to five years, Dr. David Harmon – emergency room director at Jersey Community Hospital and former family practitioner at Illini Medical Associates’ Hardin location – said the issue can be traced back to the 1996 introduction of OxyContin, a controlled release version of the opioid oxycodone. Dr. Harmon said medical professionals were led to believe the new drug was non-addictive
through massive marketing campaigns. So, Harmon said, it became heavily prescribed for a wide variety of pain sufferers. “We went from not using [narcotics] at all, to overuse,” Dr. Harmon said. Dr. Harmon said the desire for opiates among illicit drug users may be rooted in the prescribing of OxyContin. But, as doctors recognized the dangers of the drug and reduced the number of pills in circulation, a Mexican drug ring began bringing in to the United States black tar heroin as a cheap, accessible substitute. He said a milligram of OxyContin has a street value
of around $80, while black tar heroin users are able to satisfy their habits for less than $30 a day. “It was a natural thing for people to move to black tar heroin, because it was so much cheaper,” Dr. Harmon said. Petty said opiates are cheaper and more accessible than ever, and worries heroin is not the worst of it. He said drug users and dealers are mail ordering fentanyl from China, which is extremely cheap and 80 to 100 times more powerful than heroin. “Heroin is not providing you with the same high as when you started, so you are (See, ADDICTION, A2)