Thursday May 14, 2015 Vol. 3, No. 12
The Weekly Post
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Farmington Fire: One year later, still few answers By MICHELLE SHERMAN
FARMINGTON – In the early morning hours of May 14, 2014, Emmanuel “Manny” Cervantes was alone when he died. But, family members and law enforcement officials say, he couldn’t have been alone for long. “How could he have gotten there? He didn’t have his bike, he didn’t have a phone,” said Cynthia Vinasco, Cervantes’s older sister. “We have no closure. We have no answers.” Cervantes, 35, of West For The Weekly Post
Emmanuel Cervantes
Lafayette, Ind., succumbed to the smoke created by a fire that destroyed a large portion of the Old School Center in Farmington. There were no alcohol or drugs found in his system, said Fulton County Coroner Steve Hines, and no signs of foul play
Ex-Elmwood resident pens romance novel By CHERYL HARLOW
ELMWOOD – Between her duties as a Supply Corps Officer in the U.S. Navy, former Elmwood resident, Tori Scotti found time to self-publish a romance novel. Scotti, a 2009 Elmwood High School graduate and a 2013 Bradley University graduate, joined the Navy in 2013 and is currently stationed in Norfolk, Va., as an Ensign aboard the U.S.S. Monterey. Scotti began writing her novel, Scotti “Where the Maple Leaf Falls,” as a student at Bradley but left it unfinished when she graduated. She started writing again while in the Navy and published the novel as T.M. Sweetbriar on Feb. 19, 2015. The 118-page novel appears to be a quick, light read upon first glance. But readers soon learn the novel also has more serious themes. What starts out as “smalltown girl meets handsome newcomer guy” soon turns into deFor The Weekly Post
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were discovered during the autopsy. Firefighters from 28 area departments spent 11 hours battling the blaze. Two weeks later, on May 29, 2014, Cervantes’s body was found on the third floor of the building by a contractor cleaning up the scene, according to a preliminary report from the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office obtained by The Weekly Post. Building owner Dan Meister called authorities around 4 p.m. that day to report a “foul odor” emanating from the property.
Cervantes went unidentified until June 16, 2014, when Hines revealed that the man’s white blood cells had been “superheated” by the fire, causing any DNA which could be used to degrade. He was identified using dental records from 2011, ending weeks of agony after Cervantes’s family last had contact with him May 12, 2014. At the time of his death, Cervantes was working for Jay Goldberg Events at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, assisting with setup for the Summer Continued on Page 8
SUCCESSFUL RESTORATION
Windmill back at Wildlife Prairie Park
By BILL KNIGHT
WILLIAMSFIELD – Recent student activities were reported to the Board of Education at its Monday meeting, mostly by students themselves, and legislative activities were shared by Superintendent Tim Farquer that could affect the District’s bottom line. Still dressed in their baseball uniforms, Tyler Jones and Easton Beard shared highlights of their experiences in the school’s professional mentor matching program. Jones, who said he’s considering a career in kinesiology, met with staff and job-shadowed at Peoria’s RiverPlex Recreation and Wellness Center and also at Bradley University’s athletic training facilities. Beard, who said he may pursue veterinary medicine, job-shadowed Dr. Suzanne Harshbarger at Brown Animal Hospital in Elmwood and also met with University of Illinois veterinary students and staff at Wildlife Prairie Park. Throughout, Beard was offered hands-on training with aniFor The Weekly Post
By BILL KNIGHT
BRIMFIELD – When Claris Tenbrook was a kid visiting an aunt and uncle who farmed in the Champaign area, he was so taken by a windmill there, it became one of two things he decided he wanted at his own home one day. “I’d go there in the summer and I was just fascinated by their windmill,” says Tenbrook, 82. “Eventually I really wanted one – and an old-fashioned gas pump.” He’s got both now on his rural home a few miles northwest of Wildlife Prairie Park, where he and his wife Sheila volunteer. And this week the 1932 Aermotor windmill on his land will have a neighbor at the park two miles south of Edwards. Wildlife planned to erect a
Billtown highlights successes
For The Weekly Post
Claris Tenbrook of rural Brimfield spearheaded the months-long effort to restore Wildlife Prairie Park’s old Aeromotor windmill, which was erected on a new base this week. Photo by Bill Knight.
1933 Aermotor windmill on Wednesday (May 13), one that Tenbrook spearheaded in restoring. Set for Wildlife’s CEFCU Children’s Heritage Area, the old-fashioned windmill will pump water out of a miniature well and demon-
strate how settlers used to work using wind power. It’s been a months-long effort, Tenbrook says. “We’re members at Wildlife and volunteer there, and every time I’d see this windmill in terrible disreContinued on Page 10
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