Thursday July 14, 2016 Vol. 4, No. 20
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
Williamsfield will raise water rates for upgrade
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The increase should generate about $1,250 per month to help pay for more than $25,000 in WILLIAMSFIELD – Residenwater-related projects also aptial customers will soon start payproved Monday, when the Board ing $5 more per month for water OK’d changing the water-treatin connection with the final work ment plant’s flow to reon the village’s water duce corrosion and system.The Village Inside updating the computer Board on Monday voted Williamsfield’s controller system. to raise the new miniSchool Board “We charge for water mum rate also including rejected a school what it costs to prosewer, garbage and reconstruction bid. vide,” said Village Prescycling to $47.25. Page 8. ident Mick Gray. “We’re The $24.25 rate for not trying to make a water service was last profit, [but] just pay for what raised in April 2015. “People don’t like bills to go up, we’re incurring. We still have a competitive rate.” but if we don’t do this, the cost Engineer Andy Logsdon of will be much higher later on,” said Trustee Jolene Tucker. Continued on Page 2 By BILL KNIGHT For The Weekly Post
Farmington adds wrestling By KELSEY WATZNAUER
FARMINGTON – The Farmington Board of Education voted Monday to approve wrestling as a school-sponsored activity for the 2016-17 school year after the team’s sixth self-supported season. In those six years, the program has gained the community support and student participation that the board previously asked of them, president of the school board Dakota Horn said. “I am ready to support this,” he said. However, Horn and other members of the board had some concerns about approving the team just 37 days before the new school year begins without a coach or definite facilities for practice and equipment storage. But now-former head wrestling coach and member of the board For The Weekly Post
Ron Zessin said he believed the program can succeed and recommended Jake Durbin as a candidate for head coach. Durbin wrestled in high school and at the University of Iowa. There will be an open application process for the wrestling position. “We have been very successful as a team without school funding,” Zessin said. “The school funding would just have the boys concentrate more on the sport instead of if we are going to have enough money for the next tournament or meet.” The total cost of the schoolfunded program is estimated to be $6,500 per year. This meeting also heard several presentations from staff. Guidance counselor Megan Reed spoke about financial aid and scholarships and how it has applied to Farmington graduates. In anticiContinued on Page 7
Sculptor Jerry Anderson of Kickapoo recently unveiled his latest creation, a bald eagle carved from linden wood. Photo by Bill Knight.
Gone with the birds Kickapoo man spends two years carving eagle By BILL KNIGHT
KICKAPOO – Temporarily mounted in a garage of a ranch house on Heinz Lane, the eagle is meticulous and magnificent. Carved from wood from a linden tree, it’s a virtually full-sized replica of the symbol of the nation, with a wing span of almost six feet, single feathers etched from the wood, piercing eyes and claws drawn up close to the body. Carefully painted with acrylics and coated with a matt varnish, it’s For The Weekly Post
the culmination of about two years of work by Jerry Anderson, who greeted well-wishers at an open house here last Saturday. “I worked on it about nonstop until this winter, when I did some work for St. Mary’s and then from February on I worked to finish it,” Anderson said. Soon, the eagle will be shipped to Delaware, where Jerry’s son Dave, the youngest of Jerry and Clarita’s five kids, put him in touch with a man wanting an Continued on Page 7