Thursday Feb. 11, 2016 Vol. 3, No. 48
The Weekly Post
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“We Cover The News of West-Central Illinois With A Passion” Serving the fine communities of Brimfield, Dahinda, Duncan, Edwards, Elmwood, Farmington, Kickapoo, Laura, Monica, Oak Hill, Princeville, Williamsfield and Yates City
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Heroin not just a big-city problem any more By BILL KNIGHT
A 32-year-old woman in May was arrested in Brimfield after emerging from a restroom at a convenience store with a hypodermic needle and heroin. The next month, a 27-year-old Farmington man was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and a hypodermic needle, and a month later was arrested at a fast-food restaurant on the same charges. In October, a 25-year-old Brimfield man was arrested for possession of heroin and hypodermic needles. A 35-year-old Elmwood woman who’s been For The Weekly Post
Williamsfield advances on open source
convicted of multiple charges of controlled-substance and drug paraphernalia possession since 2011 had her probation revoked in December. And among Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll’s 28 heroin-opiate fatalities in 2015 was a 47-year-old woman from Kickapoo. Many other heroin users have not been arrested or hospitalized, according to law enforcement, which sees the intensely addictive drug as a growing problem in rural areas as well as cities –
“People buy it in the city ... and go back home to whatever small towns they live in.” – Mark Greskoviak so much so that several levels of the criminal justice system are now targeting the worsening crisis. Heroin use has increased in rural areas in recent years, says Peoria County Sheriff’s Capt. Mark Greskoviak. “It’s easier to get than it used to be, and it’s cheaper, too – less expensive than prescription
drugs [on the black market],” he says. “People buy it in the city – a hub around here for sales – and go back home to whatever small towns they
live in.” Nationally, statistics show about 30,000 heroin-overdose deaths per year – up about 28 percent since 2013. And Peoria County is one of 191 U.S. counties with drug poisonings of between 5 and 7.5 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
SNOW SEASON HERE
By BILL KNIGHT
WILLIAMSFIELD – School District 210 continues to promote openly licensed educational resources (OER), as teachers, administrators and students on Feb. 5 explained the transition to Carl Sandburg Community College’s winter network meeting, Superintendent Tim Farquer is set to take part in a Feb. 26 event in California as part of Williamsfield’s designation as an “ambassador school” in the U.S. Department of Education’s #GoOpen initiative, and the District will host educators from Northern Illinois University on March 8 to see progress in OER and also STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). “Open source for us is all about accessibility,” Farquer said. “We want our kids to get to find quality information – regardless of whether it’s within our walls or not – and open sources can offer the best, most
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Blessman leaving Brimfield By TERRY BIBO
For The Weekly Post
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For example, OSF St. Francis in Peoria and OSF St. Mary in Galesburg together reported 67 heroin overdoses last year, according to OSF’s Shelli Dankoff, and UnityPoint Health averaged one incident dealing with heroin every 9 days, according to UnityPoint’s Blake Long. Narcan (or Naloxone) – the chemical administered for accidental and non-accidental overdoses of heroin and other opioid drugs – is increasingly needed by emergency personnel such as ambulance crews and firefighters. Advanced Medical Trans-
BRIMFIELD — Brimfield Community Unit School District 309 Superintendent Joe Blessman is leaving. “It’s true,” he said Monday, a week to the day after accepting a position with Orion Community Unit School District 223 near the Quad Cities. He will start work there July 1. Blessman In some ways, the timing might seem peculiar. Months of school board meetings were spent haggling over his contract here. On more than one occasion, the meeting was moved to the cafeteria/common area to accommodate crowds while board members adjourned into a lengthy executive session nearby. For The Weekly Post
Snow geese and blue geese have been flying over central Illinois in large numbers in the past few days. Photo by Gretchen Steele.
Snow geese flocking across Illinois
What’s with the squeaky white geese all over the place? That’s been a hot topic as snow geese have been frequenting our area of late. The flocks of white geese with black-tipped wings – also joined by blue geese, a color variant of snow geese – are migrating north to breed-
ing grounds in the tundra of Canada and northern Alaska. Most birds in our area are flying from roosts on the Duck Creek cooling lake near Canton to find food. Vegetarians, they eat any and all parts of plants including stems, seeds, leaves and waste grain. Because of continued pop-
ulation growth (the flock is estimated at about 3.5 million) and concern over the impact on the fragile tundra, hunting seasons have been liberalized. In 2014, an estimated 1,962 Illinois hunters shot 82,161 snow geese in the special conservation season that lasts through March 31.
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