The Weekly Post
Thursday May 17, 2018 Vol. 6, No. 12 Hot news tip? Want to advertise? Call (309) 741-9790
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Farmington OKs waiver for tuition
HONOR FLIGHT
By BILL KNIGHT
FARMINGTON – Monday night’s predicted storm never came. It didn’t rain, either. Before the Board of Education approved a policy waiving tuition to enroll children of employees who live outside the district by a 4-3 vote, many in the anticipated overflow crowd were there to recognize students and teachers. And Inside even public com• Scent of lilacs ments were more fotriggers memories. cused on student Pages 14-15. bullying than the • Obituaries. proposed tuition Pages 16-17. waiver policy. • Pages from the The Board estabPast. Page 18. lished the tuition waiver for five years, after which the District can revisit the issue. Kelly Brewer, Kay Farali, Chad Johnson and John Martin voted for it; BJ Oldfield, Kelly Threw and Ron Zessin voted against it. None of the three opponents explained their position in open session. Four citizens spoke against it. Former teacher Dave Giagnoni opposed the policy since beneficiaries’ property taxes wouldn’t be going to the school or other For The Weekly Post
Bill Troy of Kickapoo gestures to the crowd after returning to Peoria Airport following the first Greater Peoria Honor Flight of 2018. Photo by Collin Fairfield. Below right, Mike Sullivan of Elmwood joined his father, Dr. Robert P. Sullivan, on the trip.
Honored at last
Local veterans aboard latest Honor Flight By JEFF LAMPE
Exhausting but worthwhile. That’s the way Mike Sullivan of Elmwood described being part of the Greater Peoria Honor Flight held on May 8. Sullivan accompanied his 89-year-old father, Dr. Robert P. Sullivan, on Weekly Post Staff Writer
the first of three Honor Flights scheduled this year from Peoria to Washington, D.C. Joining the Sullivans on the flight were other locals, including Paul Korth of Elmwood and Bill Troy of Kickapoo, who was accompanied by his daughter, LauContinued on Page 2
Continued on Page 8
The Keeley Cure was a boon for Dwight By MYKE FEINMAN
The Keeley Cure initially had gold in it, but the real gold was in the number of satisfied alcohol or other drug-addicted customers who were cured and the social support system from the community of Dwight. Lynn Neville brought the history of the Keeley Institute to life for those attending a recent meeting of Dwight Historical Society at the Prairie Creek Public Library in Dwight. Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, the son of a country doctor, was born in 1832 in New York. He headed West as a Of The Paper
young man, graduating from Rush Presbyterian Medical College in Chicago. In 1864, he enlisted and served in the Union Army during the Civil War. “As an assistant field surgeon, he knew opiates were used as anesthesia, as well as alcohol, and the opiates, alcohol and tobacco were also often used in excess by the soldiers ... and they became addicted,” Neville said.
Keeley’s theory was that drunkenness is a disease. “Keeley suspected that the alcohol, opiates and tobacco contained ‘toxic germs’ that – taken in large and repeated quantities – poisoned the brain, altered the cells and resulted in a disease,” Neville said. Keeley came to Dwight in 1866, working as a traveling doctor on a 400-mile circuit. While doing medical duties, he also worked on a cure for drunkenness. Major Curtis Judd, a prominent businessman in Dwight, became Dr. Keeley’s brother-in-law in 1888, and was a major financial Continued on Page 13
Founders of the Keeley Institute shown on a 1939 plaque are Leslie E. Keeley (from left), John R. Oughton and Curtis J. Judd. Photo by The Paper.