The Weekly Post
Thursday July 18, 2013 Vol. 1, No. 21 Hot news tip? Want to advertise? Call (309) 741-9790
“We Cover The News of West-Central Illinois With A Passion”
Serving Brimfield, Dahinda, Edwards, Elmwood, Kickapoo, Laura, Oak Hill, Williamsfield and Yates City
****************ECRWSS*****
PRSRT. STD. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Elmwood, Illinois Permit No. 13
FREE!
Carrier Route Presort RURAL BOXHOLDER LOCAL P.O. BOXHOLDER
Compliments of Our Fine Advertisers!
Local grad improved health for many By BILL KNIGHT
Years after retiring from the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Nursing in Peoria and decades after helping to eradicate smallpox and malaria from Iran, Robah Kellogg died on June 23, leaving a legacy of bringing health to scores of communities and to countless individual homes. “At one village in Iran where she went, all the homes but one had smallpox,” said Kathy Baldwin, a former Kellogg student who became Director of UIC’s College of Nursing. “She gave hundreds and hundreds of vaccinations and basiFor The Weekly Post
cally eliminated smallpox there. “When I was first a student [at the College of Nursing] in the ’70s, I went to my first home health nurses conference and was at a lunch there and someone asked where I went to school, and Robah was mentioned, and people said, ‘Robah Kellogg is your instructor!!’ “I’d had no idea that she was a national name.” Indeed, she was a practitioner and a scholar, writing for publications such as the “American Journal of Public Health and the Nation’s Health” and the book “Quality Home Health Care: Redefining the Tradition.”
A 1938 graduate of Elmwood High School, Kellogg earned a Bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College and completed the Cook County School of Nursing program, earned a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan and a public health nursing certificate from the University of Minnesota. She worked as a public health nurse in Rochester County in Minnesota, then the Agency for International Development and U.S. Public Health Service, which took her to Iran for more than two years and South Korea for three. Continued on Page 2
BACK AT HOME
Milbrook Twp. considers request for road closure Commissioner Dean Creason explained that county zoning proLAURA – Besides the routine hibits closing the road when public business of paying bills and receiv- access is blocked. ing tax funds from the County, Options may exist for about a Millbrook Township trustees at dozen neighbors concerned about their monthly meeting on July 9 several incidents of parties in the discussed closing a road and open- half mile rural area, but petitioner ing Spoon River, where recent Pat Carlton was referred to the flooding has damaged one of Peocounty for staff advice. ria County’s three hisAdditional property actoric bridges. No Goat Farm quisition may help, or a Township trustees Read the full story variance could be reunanimously voted to quested on appeal to the behind the curious renew memberships to “No Goat Farm” county. the Township Officials sign that hangs on Meanwhile, the hisof Illinois, the TownPrinceville-Jubilee toric but abandoned Road in Peoria ship Supervisors of bridge over the Spoon County. Page 4. Illinois and the WestRiver a mile and a half ern Illinois Regional north of Elmore on West Council, renewed the White Road needs attenliability insurance policy from the tion after spring flooding damaged Lyle R. Jager Agency of Kewanee a piling and brush has snagged for the township’s Community against the single-span steel strucCenter Board of Managers, and ac- ture, requiring crews to clean up knowledged receipt from the Peothe debris. ria County Treasurer’s office of Since the bridge, built in 1910, more than $33,000 for the townwas designated as historic, there ship and about $25,000 for the road are restrictions to what work can and bridge budget. be done and how, but state or fedA petition from area residents eral funding may be available, so was presented requesting that the the trustees will seek more infortownship vacate a portion of North mation and discuss the matter in Whittaker Road, but Highway August. By BILL KNIGHT For The Weekly Post
Tim Farquer is the new superintendent and principal of Williamsfield schools. Photo by Bill Knight.
Homecoming for Farquer By BILL KNIGHT
WILLIAMSFIELD – It’s a homecoming of sorts for the new superintendent of Williamsfield School District 210, Tim Farquer. Farquer, 40, started this month as Superintendent and Principal at Williamsfield schools, where the Dahinda native graduated and his mother taught until her retirement, and where he previously serviced on the Board of Education for eight years. It’ll be an adjustment, but Farquer says he’s prepared to cope with what For The Weekly Post
Williamsfield and public education throughout Illinois face. “I view challenges as opportunities,” he says. “Our opportunities are endless due to our strong community and dedicated staff. Our dedicated staff has high expectations of themselves, each other, and the kids who walk in our doors. Our size makes us much more agile than most districts so we can initiate improvements that increase our efficiency at a much faster rate. This is especially useful during these turbulent times.” After earning an Associate degree at Continued on Page 2
Robah Kellogg (right) and an Iranian woman ‘make rounds’ to vaccinate people in the late 1950s.