1 Front Volume 141 No. 5
Friday, March 28, 2014
The Tonica News
Single Copy Cost 50¢
LGS addresses money issues By Ken Schroeder news@tonicanews.com
LOSTANT — The Lostant Grade School Board met in regular session on March 19. One of the main items on the agenda was financial account balances and the recommendations of the finance committee. “We looked at where we are in the year and what we have in our checking and savings account.
We have approximately $572,000 to get us to the end of the year, and when you take out payroll and estimated high school tuition to two other schools, we’re looking at a $7,000 balance total,” Superintendent Sandra Malahy said. “I believe that is absolutely cutting it too short. “We have approximately $186,000 in our working cash fund. We can transfer money from that
fund into another fund,” Malahy said. “It is the committee’s recommendation that we transfer $150,000 from working cash to the education fund which basically will get us through payroll and tuition charges.” The board OK’d the transfer with the stipulation the funds are replaced in the working cash fund with the incoming tax money. The board also dis-
cussed the certificates of deposit that are coming due for the board. “We have three CDs totalling $900,000, and they’re all due in the summer and early fall,” Malahy said. “The first one comes due in July, and it’s $350,000. What we’re recommending is when that matures, we take it and spread it out into 30-, 60-, 90-day or six months, so if we come to a time when we’re running out
of money, we can take a CD as it’s rolling over and put it into the education fund.” In other action, the board: • Voted to raise school fees to $75 a semester; $25 will be reimbursed if registration is completed on time. An optional $25 fee will also be assessed which would be used to purchase most of the classroom supplies a student will need for the school year.
• Discussed some new security measures the school would like to implement to increase safety for the school’s students and faculty. • Learned about a maintenance grant received by the school. The grant is a 50/50 grant for $12,600 and will be used for repairs and renovations to the school’s kitchen.
See LGS Page 3
Forrest looks for economic growth By Ken Schroeder news@tonicanews.com
Editor’s note: This is another story in a series, as the Tonica News talks with members of the boards in the Tonica area and gets their views on what is going on in their communities. LOSTANT — Andy Forrest is a relative newcomer to the Lostant Village Board, elected in the April 2007 election and currently serving his second four-year term. He’s also the village fire chief and was named police commissioner by village Mayor Fred Hartenbower. “I got on the board to help the town. I was already on the fire department, and I wanted to get more involved in the community,” Forrest said. “The late Mayor Jim Cooper said I should do it because there was an opening, so I took him up on it. I was a write-in candidate at the last minute. There were two uncontested spots, so we ran and got on. (Board member Chris Does was elected at the same time). I’ve been on ever since.” Forrest’s father was a school board member when the high school was open, but otherwise, Forrest said there’s no real history of community service in the family.
See Forrest Page 3
Tonica News photo/Ken Schroeder
Morgan (left) and Ethan Phillips practice playing their violins. The Phillips siblings have been playing violin for six years.
Fiddlin’ in the family By Ken Schroeder news@tonicanews.com
LOSTANT — Morgan and Ethan Phillips of Lostant are like many other siblings. Sometimes they get along; sometimes they fight; and sometimes they make beautiful music together. Fourteen-year old Morgan is a freshman at Putnam County High School and has been playing violin for six years, while Ethan, 11, started a little bit younger, at 5. “We were at our grandma’s house, and there was a violin
which wasn’t even fully strung. I was just messing around with it, and Mom said, ‘Let’s get you some violin lessons,’” Morgan said. The children’s mother, Lisa Phillips, didn’t play violin before then, but her grandfather had. “My mom had several of my grandpa’s old violins, and they were not strung,” Lisa said. “One of them had a few strings on it, and she started, picked it up and was plucking it. She was 6. She seemed to like it, so we found a violin teacher, and that was it.”
Inside
Vol. 141 No. 5 One Section - 8 Pages
Dancing in the halls See Page 2 © The Tonica News
Music has run in Lisa’s family. Lisa’s father didn’t play violin, but he did play the mandolin, which has the same fingerings for notes. Ethan picked up the bug from his sister, who would quiz him on parts of the violin. “She would ask me what certain parts of the violin were, and I started calling out different parts,” Ethan said. “She asked me, ‘Why don’t you start playing?’ so I did.” Morgan’s love for playing has gotten her some notice. “There was a fiddle competition that I won, and I’ve been
Putting real life careers into math lessons See Page 8
in the orchestra. I got an honorable mention in a concerto competition,” Morgan said. Morgan won the competition at Illinois Valley Community College a year ago. This year, she didn’t do quite as well. “I was practicing, and apparently I practiced too much,” Morgan said. “It would have been nice to know I could do that.” Morgan and Ethan plan on playing for a long time, and awards may come their way for both of them as they continue their family’s musical tradition.