Thursday July 21, 2016 Vol. 4, No. 21
The Weekly Post
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PASSION FOR PRAIRIE
By JEFF LAMPE
By BILL KNIGHT
Flat tires, an aching knee and a scary collision that destroyed his cart haven’t been able to stop Dean Troutman on his 600-mile walk from Princeville to Memphis. The 85-year-old Troutman is still expecting to reach Memphis on Monday (July 25) in his quest to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. By Tuesday evening (July 19), Troutman Troutman had reached Dyersburg, Tenn., despite 100-degree temperatures and another flat tire on his cart. Those problems pale in comparison to the issues that arose on July 12 outside Goreville, Ill. While walking that morning, Troutman was forced to leap to safety when a
ELMWOOD – School District 322’s next phase in its $6.9 million facility upgrade is nowhere near take-off, but the Board of Education on Monday unanimously approved a “flight plan” of sorts, voting to adopt a “Construction Manager at Risk” approach to deliver the project, which will undergo engineers’ walkthrough today (July 21). The Board’s building committee last week discussed four delivery methods with District Architect Jim Kemper of Demonica Kemper Architects of Peoria and Chicago. The methods also include Construction Manager-Agent, Design-Bid-Build, and Design Build, according to Board member Val Ramirez. A Construction Manager-Agent approach has someone as a coordinator, but the District holds all contracts with contractors and sub-contractors; the traditional De-
Weekly Post Staff Writer
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For The Weekly Post
Greg Herrmann has been raising native plants since 2009 and now has more than 70 native species, including prairie blazing star (below, right). Photos by Jeff Lampe.
Herrmann has a knack for natives By JEFF LAMPE
WILLIAMSFIELD – As Greg Herrmann talks on a warm, humid Tuesday morning, bees buzz around in all directions and butterflies land delicately on flowers nearby. Being in the presence of all those insects is one reason Weekly Post Staff Writer
Herrmann, 28, is so happy to work with native plants and helps explain why he created – with the assistance of his parents, Dean and Dawn – Pleasant Prairie Nursery. Interested in plants and nature since a young age, Herrmann said it was while Continued on Page 2
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Mower Man Farmington man enjoys tinkering with tractors By BILL KNIGHT
FARMINGTON – A few miles south of here on Illinois Route 78, a man has crawled beneath a small tractor on a hoist as The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” softly floats out from a radio in a single-stall garage. Struggling to get to something that needs attention, 67-year-old Tom Bussey takes a break and wipes some sweat off his forehead, like a surgeon, only with skinned hands. “These old IH models are a booger to For The Weekly Post
Tom Bussey of Farmington enjoys buying, selling and maintaining older lawn tractors, but is not in the mower repair business for others. Photo by Bill Knight.
work on,” he says. “I picked up this in Canton. It was a trade-in, and they think there’s a transmission problem, but I don’t know. “I wouldn’t say I’m a specialist in anything,” Bussey says, laughing, surrounded by dozens of Cub Cadet garden tractors, with more inBussey side a nearby shed. “And I’m slowing down somewhat – alContinued on Page 7