Julie Willson
Serving the communities in Stephenson County
VOL. 87 • NO. 41
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WEDNESDAY, OCT. 6, 2021
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Hard at work in Pearl City schools
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Above left, Pearl City students Alex Reed and Nathan Buss in Janet Rauch’s sixth-grade class work on science vocabulary flip charts last week. Above right, Allison Brouhard’s fourth-grade class shows the results of their experiment to model the process of cellular respiration after learning about the circulatory system in their reading class.
Report details community colleges’ impact on economy, earnings By Jerry Nowicki Capitol News Illinois
Illinois community colleges have a multi-billion dollar impact on the state’s economy and will be “integral in making a recovery from the pandemic an equi-
table one,” according a new report from the Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies. The Illinois Community Colleges’ Economic Impacts and Student Employment Outcomes report said the
indirect economic output tied to community colleges in 2020 was $3.5 billion. Directly, the state’s 48 community colleges employed 32,867 individuals in 2020 at a total combined salary of $1.3 billion.
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Lazaro Lopez, chair of the Illinois Community College Board, said at a news conference unveiling the study that it proves what an economic force the state’s community college system is. “As the largest workforce training provider in Illinois, community colleges create an educated and skilled workforce that addresses current and future needs of many critical industries throughout our state,” he said. “And through this work, community colleges provide a substantial economic benefit for the state and local communities where they reside.” An investment in a completed associate degree is worth $238,000, according to the report, meaning someone completing a degree can expect to earn that much more over 40 years than if they did not.
See impact, Page 5
Fall armyworms do the most damage as caterpillars. The caterpillars start out green and then change to brown and black as they mature.
Destructive pests seen in area fields Fall armyworms feed on leafy greens of crops The extended summer-like weather has given fall armyworms the opportunity to continue marching north from the southern states. While it isn’t unusual to see them in the fall, conditions created the perfect storm for larger numbers to migrate north sooner than usual, according to officials at the University of Illinois Extension. “Fall armyworms are usually seen in some capacity every year,” commercial agriculture educator Phillip Alberti said in a news release. “It’s definitely something for farmers to be on the lookout for right now.” While the preferred environment for fall armyworms is alfalfa and hay fields, they can be found in corn and soybean fields and have even been reported wreaking havoc in lawns. The devastating pests have reached northern Illinois over the last few weeks, officials said. Stephenson County dairy farmer Lorilee Schultz said she is currently battling the
worms in her alfalfa fields. “Armyworms aren’t normally on my radar this time of year,” Schultz said in the release. “Luckily my neighbors told me they were having issues with them, so I was able to check my fields right away. They still managed to do quite a bit of damage quickly.” “Often a hayfield will look like drought-stress with patchy, discolored areas,” Alberti said. “When scouting for armyworms, it’s important to go during the cooler parts of the day, morning and evening, when activity is the highest.” In Schultz’s field, the damage was apparent within a day. “You can see light green to brown spots throughout the field. This field is only three to four years old; I was hoping to get another good year out of it before having to replant the alfalfa crop,” Schultz said. “I’m worried about how well the field will winter and what impact this will have on next year’s forage quality and quantity.” Fall armyworms do the most damage as caterpillars. During this 14- to 22-day stage of their life circle, they do the most damage to crops,
See pests, Page 5
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