Thursday Nov. 12, 2015 Vol. 3, No. 36
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Funding for school busing a long-term woe By BILL KNIGHT
A grade school student who lives east of Wildlife Prairie Park has to ride the bus to Brimfield schools; another who lives north of Interstate 74 near the Knox County line rides a bus to Farmington. Those students, times on buses and distance traveled are typical of many rural school districts that are trying to cope with inadequate state funding. Of course, the state currently isn’t paying public universities, road districts and even lottery winners, but superintendents in the Weekly Post area might say, “Welcome to our world” because For The Weekly Post
Springfield for years has been shorting schools in general and transportation funds in particular. “I am guessing that we will only receive two payments in this fiscal year,” says Princeville Superintendent Shannon Duling. “We are also figuring around 70 percent proration for regular/vocational transportation and 96 percent special-education proration. At those prorations, we would get just shy of $184,000. If we get two payments, we would receive around $92,000. This leaves another $92,000 shortfall. These are ‘prorated numbers’.” Proration is the practice of shorting the revenue recipient. It’s like someone
responsible for funding you stat2015-16 Transportation Funding ing, “Yes, you really need $10,000. Here’s $7,000.” School Number & State Funding % Riders Funding Shortfall “Prorations have been in the Brimfield 518 / 77% $60,000 25,714 70s (regular/vocation transElmwood 260 / 40% 29,502 25,957 portation) and upper 90s (speFarmington 1,149 / 86% 566,217 240,051 cial ed transportation) over the Princeville 358 / 46% 116,894 49,558 past five years,” says FarmingWilliamsfield 94 / 35% 81,000 34,714 ton Superintendent John Asally do get the prorated amount, but plund. “Looking back, it looks like the rarely do we get it in the current fiscal last year they were funded at 100 percent was 2010. While our expenses con- year, making it difficult on cash flow.” Adding political insult to financial intinue to increase (salaries, repair costs, fuel, etc.), reimbursements have contin- jury, well-to-do/property-rich districts like many in suburban Chicago have so ued to fall. much transportation money, they use “One of the other issues with transportation reimbursement is that we usuContinued on Page 8
Zoning board draws crowd in Elmwood
A ‘PLANE’ SPOKEN MAN
Suydam keeps busy sharpening blades and more
By JEFF LAMPE
By BILL KNIGHT
FARMINGTON – Two garages sit on different sides of a shaded lot in the south-central part of town, a small spa in a gazebo labeled “rabbit crossing” separating them. In one garage are old cars. In the other, behind a Ford F-150 pickup parked as if ready to head out, is a glass case filled with dozens of Stanley wood planes in a 44-year-old shop where Vaughn Suydam sharpens tools. Suydam, 77, started his part-time sharpening business in 1971 when he was still working at Caterpillar. “There wasn’t anyone doing sharpening here then,” he says. “There was a guy in Norris who stopped, so I had a brainstorm that I’d try it.” Suydam remembers driving to Minneapolis to the Foley-Belsaw company before it moved to Kansas City, and coming home with a load of new equipment. Retiring from Cat in 1991 after more than 28 years on the job – mostly in the foundry (“about three years on days,” he says, laughing) – he started sharpening saw blades, chain saws, circular saws, hand saws, mower blades and just about any metal with an edge. “I sharpen almost anything,” he says, his hand brushing the front of his plaid shirt.
ELMWOOD – Concerns about possible changes in permits for businesses operated out of the home drew a crowd to a Zoning Commission meeting here Tuesday night. But the Inside nearly 50 spectators who • Williamsfield packed Elmand Princeville school boards wood’s City Hall learned the have approved tax levies. See changes amounted to lit- Pages 9 and 12. tle more than housekeeping for the zoning board. “There are conflicts within the code itself,” said Dick Taylor, Elmwood’s zoning administrator. “It’s an obligation of the zoning board to clear these things up so you don’t have the conflicts every time someone comes in.” Elmwood adopted Peoria County’s zoning code three years ago and the city has made subtle changes in the text in the years since as issues have arisen. In this case, Taylor said he discovered examples provided in the home occupancy section that were not consistent with standards listed for the three classifications of home-based Weekly Post Staff Writer
For The Weekly Post
“There’s a girl coming by pretty soon with a paper cutter. “It keeps me off the street and out of trouble,” he adds, smiling. It keeps him busy, too, but less so than previContinued on Page 2
Vaughn Suydam keeps busy in retirement collecting wood planes and sharpening all sorts of blades. Photo by Bill Knight.
Continued on Page 2