The Weekly Post
Thursday August 14, 2014 Vol. 2, No. 25 Hot news tip? Want to advertise? Call (309) 741-9790
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Questions swirling around Williamsfield EMS (Aug. 11), the Board went into executive session for 45 minutes to discuss unspecified legal issues and later unanimously approved hiring Chicago lawyer Edward F. Bruno at a rate of $300 per hour. Bruno has argued cases at the state’s Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, but did not reply to a request for a comment. Likewise, the Williamsfield Fire Protection District
By BILL KNIGHT
WILLIAMSFIELD – Rural communities can be strong yet fragile, so a recent rescuesquad shakeup and reported warnings of decertification of Emergency Medical Technicians and the local Emergency Medical Services program in Williamsfield have been a topic of hot conversation. At the Williamsfield Fire Protection District Board of Trustees’ meeting on Monday For The Weekly Post
(WFPD) attorney, Dawn Conolly of Galesburg, Fire Chief Jamie Klein, and five trustees all declined to comment on why Bruno needs to represent the district, a tax-supported operation that’s received annual tax payments of more than $230,000 from Knox County plus more than $8,000 from Peoria County, service fees, bequests and other revenues. One trustee later spoke on the condition his name not be
used since he wasn’t authorized to speak, and said Bruno will represent the WFPD in a dispute with the state. However, details remain scarce. Some claimed correspondence was received with an imminent deadline after which dissolution was possible. Others cited OSF St. Mary Medical Center and a disgruntled Oak Run resident as involved. However, OSF EMS System Coordinator Melissa Stokes re-
ferred questions to OSF attorney Anca Adams, who said OSF’s only role is as WFPD’s area resource hospital. Adams said any letter did not originate with them. The WFPD has dozens of volunteers at stations in Williamsfield, Dahinda and Oak Run. Some are certified Emergency Medical Technicians, but several recently resigned, according to sources at the fire protection board meeting.
Farmington school OKs solar panels
TOM STRAPPE MEMORIAL RIDE
Riding on in memory of Strappe
By MICHELLE SHERMAN
FARMINGTON – The Farmington Community Unit School District 265 Board of Education on Monday (August 11) approved a $2 million contract to install a 2,600-module solar array on the roof of the school building. The contract, which includes a provision to not begin meaningful work for seven days in Inside the event of a petition • Williamsfield from the public, was School Board awarded to Farnsworth eyes a likely Group Inc. of Peoria. budget deficit District 265 was for this year. awarded a $1.15-million See Page 13 grant in May from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. The remaining $800,000 of the project cost will be bonded out to the taxpayers over the course of seven years. The district’s current bonding limit is $3.2 million. “We’ve looked at it every single way, and $800,000 working cash bonds, on paper, I understand that’s sticker shock,” said board member Dakota Horn, responding to public questioning of the district’s capability to carry the debt. “I think it would be an absolute disservice to the taxpayers and the students to not pursue it.” Members of the public have until MonFor The Weekly Post
By KIM BEHRENS-KAUFMAN
The rumble of the engine. The rush of the wind. The relief of hitting the open road. Just three reasons why Rhonda Strappe loves her motorcycle. “My husband Tom got me into it. He’d been riding all of his life,” she smiles. The fun and thrill of the ride motivated the Elmwood couple to hit the road each weekend, and even join For The Weekly Post
Continued on Page 8
The late Tom Strappe of Elmwood helped start a benefit motorcycle ride for the OSF Richard L. Owens Hospice Home. Now in its sixth year, the annual event has been renamed the Tom Strappe Memorial Ride.
Weaver legacy went beyond angus herd By MICHELLE SHERMAN
PEORIA – When Robert “Bob” Weaver passed away in July at age 90, he left behind a legacy far beyond that of his prized Black Angus cattle. “He was 25 when he bought the farm on (Illinois Route) 150” in Peoria, said one of his sons, Steve Weaver. “He was willing to take that risk.” Bob Weaver and his wife, Virginia Weaver, took risks on many other enterprises in the intervening decades, For The Weekly Post
including Kentucky Fried Chicken franchising and helping to found Youth Farm. Born Aug. 25, 1923, on a farm in Fisher,, to Avery and Lena Weaver, Bob Weaver drove horses to school everyday, which he Weaver credited with the start of his lifelong love of horses. At age 12, he purchased his first
Angus heifer, Enid Dell III. According to the September 2005 issue of “Angus Journal,” she was pregnant with a bull that Bob Weaver later sold at auction. With that money, he purchased another bull for $330 at the auction. That bull sold the following year for $2,000. These transactions set off a chain of choices which eventually lead to the Weavers owning “one of the premiere herds of Black Angus cattle in the country,” his obituary said. Continued on Page 9
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