Thursday September 28, 2017 Vol. 5, No. 30 Hot news tip? Want to advertise? Call (309) 741-9790
The Weekly Post “We Cover The News of West-Central Illinois With A Passion” Serving the fine communities of Brimfield, Dahinda, Douglas, Duncan, Edwards, Elmore, Elmwood, Farmington, Kickapoo, Laura, Monica, Oak Hill, Princeville, Williamsfield and Yates City
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HOMECOMING 2017
By NANCY DAVIS
ELMWOOD – Some of you may have noticed a new man riding his bike around the north side of town and wondered who he is. The bicycling enthusiast is Paul, who recently moved to Elmwood from Peoria to live in a host home with Tina Hensley and her husband, Tim. A host home is similar to foster care. The difference is the person receiving services is not a child, but rather an adult with a disability who needs a little extra help. The home is licensed by the state and supervised by an approved agency, in this case EP!C from Peoria. Paul pays rent and the Hensleys receive reimbursement from EP!C to proInside vide a home and • American citizenship customized suprequires heavy burden. ports to Paul. Page 4. Tina Hensley • The Elmwood had been working school board OKs a at EP!C and heard budget and discusses about the host baseball and softball home program. coops. Page 8. • Obituaries. Pages She knew Paul, as 14-15. he worked there as well, packaging parts for Caterpillar. Paul needed a place to live and a person to help him with a few things, since his mother had recently passed away and he was alone for the first time. After talking with her husband, Hensley decided to see if Paul would be interested in sharing their home. “The most important thing to me was finding the right family,” Paul said. “I loved the trial visit with Tina. I didn’t want to leave, so we decided I could just stay.” Paul had never been to Elmwood before, but is enjoying the community. “Everyone is nice and friendly,” Paul said. Paul is also a big basketball fan, and is For The Weekly Post
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Parades, fancy dresses and crowns were all the rage as Farmington, Elmwood, Princeville and Mid-County all celebrated Homecoming on the same weekend. Clockwise from top left: businesses in Elmwood decorated their storefronts, including this cute E-B puppy in the window of Elmwood Veterinary Service; Dave Giagnoni got a picture of the entire Farmington Homecoming court; Elmwood’s court posed in the gym; and Collin Fairfield snapped Brandan Jones and Maddie Bowermaster.
Lorado Taft’s Black Hawk restoration delayed By BILL KNIGHT
As Fall started last week, little has changed for the 50-foot Black Hawk statue overlooking the Rock River 125 feet below a wooded bluff in Lowden State Park near Oregon. The long-needed restoration of Elmwood native Lorado Taft’s century-old concrete statue, which Taft called “The Eternal Indian,” was scheduled to be completed two years ago, but the effort was delayed by a dispute between experts For The Weekly Post
and the state apparently reneging on a promised grant, according to an area lawmaker. State Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) says the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) told him that it’s working to coordinate project engineers and a new conservator. Amy Lamb Woods of Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, a Chicago engineering firm specializing in concrete restoration, has been contracted to do the work. Woods, who’s worked on other Taft
works, including “Alma Mater” at the University of Illinois, previously worked on Black Hawk with conservator Andrzej Dajnowski of Conservation of Sculpture & Objects Studio, Inc. in Forest Park. However, the two disagreed on how the repairs were to be completed, and Dajnowski also complained that payment for the scaffolding he’d erected around the statue wasn’t to be provided. His contract with IDNR wasn’t renewed. Apart from the project’s details is how Continued on Page 9