Single Copy Cost 50¢ Volume 147 No. 28
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Wednesday, March 11, 2015
County board looks at demolition policy By Ken Schroeder
news@putnamcountyrecord.com
HENNEPIN — The Putnam County Board tabled a proposal for a demolition application policy during its meeting Monday, March 9. Zoning officer Jim Burger brought the rough draft of the policy before the board, but board member Luke Holly said he was uncomfortable with the wording. “How much of this is encroaching on people’s property? We’re approaching a
fine line here,” Holly said. “How much information do we really need when someone wants to tear down a house? I don’t know why we need to be the person standing there saying, ‘You’re doing it right, or you’re doing it wrong.’” The rough draft included language on what size structures would be covered by the policy, as well as how much of the structure needs to be removed in each case. Many counties in the area do not have a demolition policy in place. Burger said he wants the application policy in place to
ensure demolition is done correctly and to ensure any removed buildings are noted on the landowner’s tax records. No fees would be involved in the application, but Burger said it would work as a system of tracking demolitions in the county. Treasurer Kevin Kunkel told the board many landowners had demolished buildings over the years that were still on the tax rolls up to 20 years later, before they were caught in a tax audit. Discussion on the matter was tabled to enable board members to fully review the draft.
The county currently does issue demolition permits, but there are no guidelines attached. In other action, the board: • Discussed upcoming road projects with county engineer Pat Sloan. Board members Willie Holmes and Holly asked how the road projects were selected and which roads fell within county jurisdiction. Projects are on line for this summer. • Appointed dentist Dr. Dina Lunken to the Bureau-Putnam County Board of Health. Lunken will fill the position left by the resignation of dentist Dr. Robert Dawe.
Magnolia’s Michael Glenn is Star Farmer Putnam County student now heads to state competition By Ken Schroeder
kschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
GRANVILLE —The Putnam County Chapter of Future Farmers of America and Putnam County High School agriculture instructor John Heiser have another reason for a little pride. For the second year in a row, a Putnam County FFA member has been recognized in the FFA Star program. Magnolia’s Michael Glenn was named Star Farmer for Section 5. “It’s an award for all five proficiencies that I’ve done since sophomore year in my SAEs, which are supervised agricultural experiences,” Glenn said. “It’s been a great experience. It was a long, bumpy ride, but I’m really glad it paid off.” “He was the best of the farmer candidates for the state degree,” Heiser said. “They compile all their books for all three years in all three areas. Glenn had beef production; he had corn production; and he also had soybean production. Those three things went into the weight to determine his Star candidate.” Also included in Glenn’s agricultural experience were jobs Glenn held in grain fabrication and tree farm management. He was questioned on all five topics in order to receive his rating. If Glenn wins at district competition this week, he will continue to the state competition. In addition to Glenn’s Star Farmer Award, he and Jake Orlando picked up state degrees at the sectional competition. Only 2 percent of all FFA members receive this honor. Six students won section proficiencies. Megan Wink won in ag education; Madison Brown won in beef production placement; Hunter Andracki won in food services; Bradley Wink in grain production; Neil Stasel in nursery operations; and Glenn in diversified ag production. Seventeen members competed in the sectional contest. Last year, Jon Mattern received a Star Award in agricultural placement. Vol. 147 No. 28 One Section - 16 Pages
Junior high girls exploring science PCJH science enrichment class sends nine to competition By Dixie Schroeder
dschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com
MCNABB — There are some people in the world who think boys might be better at science than girls. Those people have not been to teacher Jennifer Dudek’s science exploratory class at Putnam County Junior High School. “I have eight girls with five projects. Two girls are working alone, and the rest are working together,” Dudek said. The projects the students are working on are for the annual Illinois Junior Academy of Science (IJAS) science fair.
Each year, participating students at the junior high perform research, and using the scientific method, form a hypothesis and test a hypothesis, then summarize their findings. For the March 21 regional science fair, the students must write a 30- to 35-page, double-spaced formal paper, create a visual display of their project and write a presentation to give to judges at the science fair. Dudek said for the past 10 years, the students have had the opportunity to participate in the science fair. Eight of the 10 years, at least one student has had their project selected to go to the state competition. Students pick their own projects each year. The only requirement is that it is a project measurable with some sort of unit data. “So they can’t just do a survey ... They have to do something that they can
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apply a number system to. I encourage them to do something unique. We don’t test paper towels; we don’t do batteries,” Dudek said. “It helps get them chosen for state.” Erika Dean chose the project, “Does Humidity affect Electrical Current?” Dean said her father is really good with electrical things, so she figured he could assist her. “For my project, you have a white board that I designed. With the paper I wrote, some parts were easy because you know what you are going to write about. Others points like when you had to look for a certain amount of data for your project and turn it into an essay was a little bit challenging,” Dean said. “I choose the project ‘Does Hair Color affect the Perception of Intelligence?’”
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