It was there that the public also learned that there is some kind of litigation pending in the situation.

And while it’s unclear whether the litigation regards the city’s contract with the construction company, Greenwalt of neighboring Wayne County, or if it’s in regard to something pertaining to former mayor Ryan Hallam and his machinations that lead to the contract being signed to begin with.

Firefighters back on the job

Hallam resigned at the February 2013 meeting, literally days after having signed a contract with Greenwalt for an increased construction price (more than $60,000) over and above what the city council had agreed upon when the project to build a new fire station in Albion had come to the table in 2012.

And to exacerbate the situation, there was no vote on record authorizing Hallam to sign any contract at all.

At the March meeting, all construction was called to a halt while the council tried to figure out what was going on with the contract.

The situation escalated when in April, an orchestrated walkout of fire department volunteers was lead by Hallam (also a long-time firefighter with the department) in hopes to impact the council and cause them to honor the contract.

It didn’t work; and several firefighters—including the former mayor’s brother-in-law, Edwards County State’s Attorney Mike Valentine—rescinded their resignation, and the fire department is back to a full contingent, with new volunteers who are being trained joining the eight who came back to the force.

Swearing-in; letter to Greenwalt

At the May meeting (which opened with the installation of new mayor Steve McMahel, council members Dana Mosson and former Edwards County Sheriff Scott Meserole, who were elected in April, and Don Rigg, who was appointed to fill a position in Ward 3 for which there was no candidate, and city officials: city clerk Melissa Felling, and city treasurer Dennis Turpin), almost immediately afterwards, the council went in to executive session to discuss “litigation” with hired legal counsel, Troy Payne of Vandalia.

Following this session, Payne announced that litigation had been filed, and, in the same breath, that the contract for the firehouse was invalid.

This was the announcement the public had been waiting for—those on both sides of the issue, but particularly those who were in favor of the fire station. This bunch included the movers and shakers of the community (at least those who believe they are), representatives of which were in the audience, and who almost immediately began grumbling to the council on the action.

Grumblings from the POCs

Payne, sensing the impending questions from the attendees, stated that a letter had been sent to Greenwalt Construction offering answers in advance to questions Greenwalt might have; the city’s position toward Greenwalt as a contractor; and their position as to why the contract is invalid.

“When is Greenwalt going to get their money?” someone asked as the rumblings began. “Why haven’t they been paid the $60,000 yet?”

“We discussed what was going on in executive session and Greenwalt will be receiving a letter,” Payne answered simply.

“Letters don’t cure everything; it takes action,” Darren Greenwalt, who was in the audience, told Payne to no avail. Shortly after that comment, Greenwalt got up and left city hall.

Mary (Jenks) Erickson, one of Albion’s “POCs” (people of the community), then stood and read a little speech she’d prepared, saying that the council must consider the consequences of the placement of the fire department, and that the location of the fire house is a “forever decision” (excepting, of course, where the previous fire house was located, it can only be presumed).

The council was unmoved by the presentation, and the meeting continued.

Violating state laws as to records

Adhering to state law as it came to keeping records, Alderman Terry Harper advised that when he went to review some of the older closed session recordings from a few months back, they were “not available.”

He stated that he was told the recordings were “removed” by former city clerk Gary Mason.

“Only the council can review and/or destroy the recordings,” Harper reported, “and not only that, but these recordings are supposed to be kept for at least 18 months.”

The statutory authority he was citing was 5 ILCS 120/2.06, the portion of Illinois Open Meetings Act that pertains to recording both open and closed sessions of public meetings.

There was no mention made of any possible legal action being taken against Mason for destroying public records. However, it seems to follow all the spurious activity having been taken on the council over the past year, after Alderwoman Karen Shupe began raising questions and submitting FOIAs about the operations of the fire department.

Diversionary tactics

As if to divert attention away from the matter, Rochelle (Shelly) Thomason, who ran unsuccessfully for alderman in Ward 1 in the April election, spoke up at that point and began hashing at the already-rehashed-to-infinitum subject of where Harper resided.

After running for and attaining Ward 1 alderman in 2011, then-mayor Hallam, perhaps sensing that he now had a couple of honest people on the council (Arroll Stewart joined Harper in a successful election bid that year, and, combined with Shupe’s presence, formed nearly half the council, who immediately began examining expenditures and making appropriate cutbacks in city spending…including the mayor’s father’s involvement in city insurance; see April/May 2013 edition), launched an attack against Harper, alluding to the possibility that the successful CPA was residing, not in his home in Ward 1 (which he’d live in for over a year at the time) but above his office on the square downtown.

The matter actually ended up in litigation, with Harper definitively proving that his residence, where he really did live (he is just a workaholic who spends long hours in his successful business), was indeed in Ward 1.

Nevertheless, Thomason began sniping about “where you really live” to Harper in the middle of the meeting.

“Listen,” Harper told her in his usual, placid tone, “if you want to take me to court over it, that’s not a problem; I’ve already been once to prove my residence is not at my office.”

“There are several people who don’t believe you,” Thomason snapped.

“Yeah, and I bet we can point those people out, huh Terry?” a woman (unidentified by Disclosure staff) in the audience, piped up. ‘I was there when you were going to court for that.”

This left Thomason at the end of her diversion from the Gary Mason/recordings destroyed topic, as most everyone in the room chuckled along with Harper and the unidentified woman, and the subject was apparently concluded…for the time being.

Both had been charged with Burglary, three separate counts of Unlawful Possession of Converted Vehicle, Criminal Damage to Property and Theft.

Police say on March 24, Brandon K. Trost and Cody D. Brown, both 17 and both of Albion, knowingly entered the building of JDL Industries, located at 421 East Elm Street, Albion with intent to commit a theft from JDL Industries, being US currency having a value not in excess of $300; and caused damage to a window and a quarter machine.

In the same day, police say, Trost and Brown possessed a 1995, 2004 and a 1988 Dodge Pickup Truck, being people not entitled to possession of the vehicles.

A cash bond was set in the amount of $5,000 for both boys.

On May 3, Trost was convicted of Burglary and two of the Unlawful Possession of Converted Vehicle charges and was sentenced to seven years DOC, then four years probation, and ordered to pay $3,520 for restitution, a fine of $1,000, $2,427.44 to Edwards County along with several other fees.

More recently Brown was charged with a single count of Arson after an incident on April 22, in which he was accused of igniting all the burners on all the stovetops of El Ranchito Mexican Restaurant in Albion and leaving them going, which the incident caused fire damage to the building.

The building is the former Dairy Queen, then Elsie’s Diner, owned by Craig and Mary Borowiak.

Court documents show that he was also charged with Burglary “for entering said building to commit an Arson.”

Brown is being held at the White County Jail on a $10,000 cash bond.

Charged with stealing in the courtroom

In an unrelated incident, another teen, Randy J. Crews, 18, of 130 W. Terminal St., Lot 44, Albion has been charged with Theft from where he was sitting in the Edwards County courtroom waiting for his case to be called from another alleged theft incident, this one Retail Theft.

Authorities say on April 30, Crews obtained unauthorized control over property from Shirley Mewes, and he was then said to have stolen United States currency, having a total value not exceeding $300, sitting right there in the courtroom. Mewes was present observing something going on in the morning’s proceedings.

Her belongings from the swiped purse were later found floating in a toilet in one of the restrooms just outside the courtroom on the second floor.

With the punk kids being dumb as they are these days, Crews apparently didn’t realize that everything going on on the second floor was being monitored—and recorded—by a video camera, and the whole thing was pretty much captured and pointed to him as the perp.

A cash bond has been set in the amount of $1,500.

Crews still has the charge pending of Retail Theft less than $300 that is said by police to have occurred on January 2.

Both cases were set for a pre-trial on May 21.

Cody Brown

Cody Brown, 18, has been charged today in Edwards County with a single count of Arson after an incident on April 22, in which he was accused of igniting all the burners on all the stovetops of El Ranchito Mexican Restaurant in Albion and leaving them going, which incident caused fire damage to the building (but fortunately, the newly-re-formed Albion Volunteer Fire Department was able to put down quickly). The building is the former Dairy Queen, then Elsie’s Diner, owned by Craig and Mary Borowiak.

But that’s not all Brown was charged with.

Court documents show that he was also charged with Burglary “for entering said building to commit an Arson); then a second count of Burglary for entering the business of JDL Industries on East Elam in Albion with intent to commit a theft; Criminal Damage to Property (two doors at JDL, in excess of $300); a second count of Criminal Damage to Property at JDL (this being a 1998 Jeep Cherokee); a third count of Criminal Damage to Property at JDL (this being a 1993 Mercury Cougar XR7; and misdemeanors in the form of Criminal Trespass to a Vehicle (for operating a vehicle belonging to JDL, a 1986 Ford F-150 4X4 pickup); a second count of Criminal Trespass to a Vehicle (for operating the 1998 Jeep Cherokee at JDL); and a single count of Theft for stealing less than $500 of currency belonging to JDL.

A 16-year-old was also allegedly with Brown and has been charged in connection with the alleged crimes, but we don’t have those as the kid was charged as a juvenile (nor do we know if this is a male or female juvenile). Brown is being held at the White County Jail on a $100,000 bail ($10,000 cash bond).

Whatever possessed this kid to allegedly go on this spree might shake out in the future; but for right now, he’s just set for a first appearance tomorrow in Edwards County court

Apparently, eight of the firefighters, as you will read here in this letter, were misled as regards tendering their resignations, and they have rescinded said resignations and are currently on duty to fight fires within the city and the rural fire protection district. They are joined by Browns Fire Department, which is also one of the best-equipped and well-run fire departments in the area.

Kudos to the eight who stepped forward and have told the truth.

Ray Vaughn, above, mayor-
elect of Olney, was but
one of the candidates that defeated incumbent mayors in southeastern Illinois.

SO. ILL.—The regional voter turnout had a wide range depending upon the number of offices up for grabs, this for the April 9, 2013 consolidated election.

Municipal and township races, as well as a handful of ballot questions, were the biggest draw for this go-round, but sadly, not big enough: an overall average of Disclosure’s main counties of coverage had a deplorable voter turnout. In the 13 downstate/south counties Disclosure regularly covers, most of it in the Second Judicial Circuit, the average among the 13 was 30.21 percent turnout. This featured a high of 47.95 percent in Gallatin County (where turnout is typically high) to what’s being called a “historic low” in Wabash County of 6.8 percent (where turnout is typically one of the lowest in the region)…meaning the nation’s apathy toward doing something about the political climate, one that begins with the reluctance to serve/run for office, might be fairly said to end at the ballot box when “there’s no one to vote for.”

Here now are the unofficial outcomes of the main counties in Disclosure’s coverage area for the Consolidated Election 2013; the totals in this, obtained on deadline, are not final and may change pending counting of absentee and provisional ballots.

Clay County

Clay County saw few contested races, most of what they did have contested falling into the realm of the townships’ trustee races.

However, there was a four-candidate race for three spots as Clay City village trustee. Mike Delonshaw came away from that with the top votes at 109; Rod Franklin next at 104 and Dan Patridge seated with 81 votes.

And the village of Xenia had a village trustee race, this one with three of five. Selected were Suzie Hosick, 48 votes, Thomas J. Henson, 43 and Bill Bradley, 39.

Also in the village of Xenia was a two-woman contest for village clerk; Dawn Cazadd prevails over Jenny Gould by one vote, 35-34.

A three-way race for highway commissioner in Xenia Township saw D. Allen Bonham emerging winner over Mike Burdine and Cody Gould, 47-33-31, respectively.

In Oskaloosa Township, that same position went to Rick Payne over Jason Guinn, 80-24.

Four trustees in Larkinsburg Township were selected from amongst eight: Wesley Horath, 85 votes, Louise Beccue, 76, Lloyd Weidner, 56 and Dale Wayne McKinney, 50. Four competed for the position of highway commissioner in Larkinsburg Township, and Ernest Elledge took the least at 66 votes, almost twice his next-nearest opponent, Dean McKinney with 26, while Eric Yingst and Glenn D. Yingst each received 18 votes. And a Larkinsburg Township supervisor was chosen: Claye Warren, who defeated Eric I. Bailey, 74-58.

Blair Township also saw a race for trustees, with Jon Vandyke, 120 votes, Dwaine Worthy, 116, Kenny Hilderbrand, 85 and Stewart Smith, 72, attaining those seats. Blair Township’s highway commissioner will be Ronald L. Kincaid, who defeated Alan Slagley and David McPeak, 89-50-23.

Louisville Township had one challenged office: Highway commissioner, which is now Matt Byers, defeating Tommy Ballard 230-140.

Harter Township has four trustees selected from six competing: Ted Whitehead, 600, Raymond J. Muhs, 526, Amy Sailer Leonard, 522 and Joe Gilliland, 492. Harter Township also had a race for highway commissioner, in which James S. Tackitt prevails over challengers Johnny R. Williams and Bob Meares, 472-259-223.

In Bible Grove Township, four of five were chosen for township trustee: Neil Gould, 82 votes, Reggie Birch, 71, Aaron L. Hardin, 69, and Darren Birch, 48. Also in that township, Cory Wendling defeated Andy Wood 54-49 for highway commissioner.

In Clay City Township, Darrell Britton defeated Kevin Henry for highway commissioner, 140-104. That county also had four trustees selected: Terry Woodrow, 138 votes, Rod Franklin, 133, Steve Spitzner, 122 and Bill Staser, 121.

On the Clay City Community Unit School Dist. (hereinafter all referred to as “CUSD”) 10 school board, Kelly Hance, Amy Dulaney and Darren Lewis will be seated. There were 43 write-in votes.

For Flora CUSD 35, Curtis Leib, Rick Porter and Justin Cook will be seated.

And the North Clay Unit 25 School Board will seat Darrell McKnelly, Ryan Ballard, Cecil Cochran and David Simmons; there were 23 write-in votes for that board.

Five people were elected to serve on the Xenia Fire Protection District Board of Trustees, this after a mass walkout last year of firefighters over real irresponsibility with department money courtesy of Daniel Edgington, who is now out: Shand Kanitz, Randy Hockman, Burl DeWayne Wesner, Joyce M. O’Donnell and William P. Moorman will serve where only three were serving last year, and will be elected instead of appointed by the county board. This was accomplished by a ballot question placed by citizens petitioning their government last year to rectify the situation, and they were successful in their endeavor.

Crawford County

Crawford saw a turnout of 33.39, prompted by mayoral/village president races in their various towns/villages.

Robinson saw the retention of their incumbent mayor Roger E. Pethtel over challenger Lon M. Smith, 923-375.

Flat Rock chose Larry Keeler over Brandi Weber for mayor, 77-32.

Palestine also kept their incumbent mayor, Pat Schofiel, over Candy Carter and Earnie Mendenhall II, 281-62-60.

Races on councils/boards came from Ward 2 in Robinson, where Karen Bowman bested Nikki Aldrich 117-79. In Palestine, three were selected for village trustee: Harry Gene Purcell, Ricky Stork and Lloyd Dunlap, 307-247-243.

In townships, Honey Creek had a race for supervisor: Greg Wampler defeated Daniel Gower, 279-220. They also had a selection for township clerk, with Lynn McCleave defeating Beverly Hemrich, 275-223. And for highway commissioner, Chris Bonnell defeated Ralph Weger, 341-167.

Hutsonville Township had competitors for township trustees; four of six prevailed: Guy Rumler, 199 votes, Mike Kraemer, 192, Ryan Love, 176 and Todd Seaney, 168, with Seaney narrowly defeating Rob Lowrance, 167, and Tim Terry, 164, for the final seat, the outcome of which could change upon official tally, it being so close.

Martin Township selected four trustees from a field of five: Bill Midgett and John Russell received 87 votes, Danny Mundhenk, 84, and Madeline Harris and Dewayne Mundhenk received 75 each, tying for fourth; no word as of press time was available on how that matter was going to be settled.

In Montgomery Township, a race for highway commissioner was decisively settled for Ed Carpenter over Michael Eakins, 200-49.

Oblong Township also had a highway commissioner race, and Jerry Ping took it over Jerry D. Lewis, 569-139.

In Prairie Township, a highway commissioner race saw Gerald Hill prevail over William Gamblin, 140-63. And in that same township, four trustees were elected: Lyle Crane, 146 votes, Chris Weck, 131, Charles Guyer, 127 and Derek Staley, 125.

In Robinson Township, a highway commissioner’s race had David Lachenmayr trouncing former Crawford County deputy Troy Love, 1,364 to 497. A township supervisor was chosen: Larry McCoy, 1313, over Debra Dix, 567. And four trustees were selected: Patrick J. Richards, with 1,097 votes, Lori Ann Hodge, 1,018, Shirley A. Berry, 1,003, and Gregory C. Wolfe, 942.

The Palestine Public Library had selected for them three trustees, Rhonda Kaye Eller, Terrie L. McDaniel and Robert F. Taylor.

Crawford County’s voters in the Hutsonville CUSD 1 chose Chad Guyer, Mike Knecht and Tina Callaway for their school board picks; in Red Hill No. 10’s District, Jim Legg outpaced Bob Christy and the third and fourth picks were Roger Kissen and Dixie Purcell; for Palestine’s school board, Crawford’s picks were Shari L. Eckert, Matt McCoy and Susan J. Hawkins; and Oblong School District No. 4 selected Todd Musgrave, Chad Pusey, and Michael Higgins.

Edwards County

In Edwards, the voter turnout was centered in Albion, where big ward races were going on and a “wet/dry” vote would enable those within city limits to buy and sell alcohol in a retail setting as opposed to just the clubs. Voter turnout, therefore, was a respectable 38.3 percent.

No mayoral race was on tap, as former mayor Ryan Hallam ceased to be an incumbent candidate in early February, which was predicated, it’s since been learned, on the possibility that he fraudulently signed a contract for construction of the new Albion fire station (see related story). As such, the only one on the ballot was former mayor Steve McMahel, who nevertheless received a symbolic 556 votes, displaying a showing of support for the town’s new mayor.

On the city council it was firefighter supporters versus supporters of the public’s right to have their tax dollars spent wisely, and it went fifty-fifty.

Ward 1 saw the peoples’ candidate, incumbent Aarol Stewart, prevail over former alderman Kevin Savage and firefighter supporter Rochelle Thomason, 151-107-73.

Ward 2 had two seats up for election, and saw firefighter candidate/former sheriff/former firefighter Scott Meserole take the seat over contender/peoples’ candidate Randy Speir, 101-72. While Meserole was ostensibly put up as a candidate by the firefighters, however, he indicated to Disclosure the day after the election his disgust with the fireman walkout, and how the churlish behavior was one of the things he saw during his tenure as sheriff…and was a big factor in his April 2008 resignation, as he “couldn’t get anything done” because of childish public officials in Edwards County.

Former firefighter Dana Mosson barely defeated the peoples’ candidate in Ward 2, David Works, 66-64. Since this is an unofficial total, it remains hopeful that there may be absentee/provisional ballots that could change this outcome over the next 30 days.

Edwards County doesn’t have townships, but instead has road districts. There were a couple of contests as such: In Road District 1, Mark Beehn prevailed over Tony Keortge, 83-44, and for clerk in that road, the ill-tempered Jackie Knackmus was finally ousted by the more gentle Robert E. Keortge, 69-59. In Road District 2, the only other contest, a write-in made a better showing than a ballot contender but both were still defeated when Robert Headley prevailed with 35 votes; on the ballot was Nancy Cowling who garnered 22 votes, but edging ahead of her was write-in Mike Greathouse with 29 votes. Tying with Cowling was another write-in, Robert Hayes, in that district.

Completely overlooked in all the mayhem was the fact that the village of West Salem has a convicted felon on the board. Only two board positions were open, and Don Cornelius and Logan Yates took those. Yates, however, is a convicted felon from a 2001 Burglary in Clay County. Disclosure checked with Clay County and the felony has not been expunged, as was what was reported to have been the case when Mike Ristvedt held a board position in West Salem after a federal weapons (explosives) conviction more than 20 years ago. However, when Disclosure checked with Ken Menzel at the Chicago office of the Illinois State Board of Elections, it was discovered that expungement doesn’t matter: in the state of Illinois, according to Illinois Municipal Code, a convicted felon of any length of time (one year ago or 50) cannot hold a city or village elected office. Disclosure is in the process of making a report to the Illinois Attorney General on the matter, as far too much of this kind of thing is going on in the state, and it’s being totally ignored by uninformed people and media alike.

Also in West Salem, two were selected from among a field of three for the coveted position of library trustee: Mary Jane McKinney and Kelsey Adam Schilt beat Elmer Ellsworth Lytle, 153-92-41.

And of course, the “wet/dry” vote went well for those who were looking to overturn the decades-long prohibition of alcohol sales in a place other than a club (or illegally out of the back door of certain residences) in Albion: voters elected to remove it 333-323, meaning the city can now reap the benefits of having a potential liquor store, or even a nice restaurant that sells wine, beer and mixed beverages with a meal, on their sales and other taxes. Amusingly, because of the backwards-sounding wording on the ballot question, Indiana television stations reported for hours on April 9 and 10 that the prohibition had been upheld and the town was still “dry.”

Gallatin County

The little southern county of Gallatin once again lead the pack in the Consolidated Election with voter turnout: 47.95, still low, but number 1 in the coverage area. Several contested offices in villages and townships, as well as a ballot question about the ubiquitous public safety tax, prompted the run to the polls.

In the village of Equality, Brittany Johnson took the office of village clerk with 135 votes, over Patricia Barnes, 58, and April Bilski, 25. A write-in on the village trustee ticket, Bruce Gowan, actually came in the third of three with 123 votes; Garrett Wargel and Billy C. Moore were the to two vote recipients with 173 and 131, respectively.

In the village of Junction, a write-in also lead the night, and landed the office of village president over incumbent Melinda K. Robbins, 23 to 18.

In the village of New Haven, a trustee race was on, with Zella Medlin, Amy Lashley and Brigitte Browning, 130-86-73. They are joined by Jackie Wicker, who was the only one running for a two-year unexpired term.

In the village of old Shawneetown, a trustee race found Kenny Oldham, James Back Jr. and Nell A. Moore-Rosser prevailing, 51-47-37.

In the village of Ridgway, Anthony Drone (204), Mike Kitchens (183) and Ardon Smith (160) took the lead in the trustee race.

In the city of Shawneetown, David Barker, who ran unsuccessfully for circuit clerk last year, prevailed in the mayor’s race, besting Robert Boon and Terry Williams 184-174-75.

Township races were heated in Gallatin, particularly in beleaguered Equality, where the Bayer-Glover combine has held sway for years and to the detriment of that area. While many of their supporters were retained as trustees, other offices were overthrown. In particular, that of highway commissioner in Equality Township was a big deal, and former Equality mayor Lee Parker handed Jimmy Bayer his butt on a platter with a vote tally of 195 to 154. For township supervisor, it was David Casey over Doggie Poshard narrowly, 165-156, that vote likely muddied by the presence of third candidate Bill Springer, who took 27 decisive votes away from the main two. And for township trustee, Cletus Wargel took top votes at 268, followed by the nasty-tempered Pat Frohock, 223, then Terry G. Wood, 172 and Don Collins, 169.

Ridgway township had a supervisor’s race: Robert McGuire prevailed against Barbara Stricklin Rodgers, 188-153.

New Haven Township had a highway commissioner race, where David Chamberlain received 93 votes to Jim Fromm’s 89.

Shawnee Township also had a highway commissioner race: Jay Barton won against Sherman E. Rider, Jr., 67-35. There also was a township trustee race, and Kimberly Bryson and Sandy Willis each received 52 votes, followed by Rhonda Twitchell (34) and Misty Hazel (30).

Members of the Gallatin County CUSD 7 board were selected: Rob M. Wood (954 votes), Gary Clayton (863) and Richard Case (819).

Gallatin voters also gave in to another public safety tax, passing it 1210-633.

Hardin County

A bit of confusion ensued at one polling location in Hardin County, marking a weird election there, where there was only a 33.5 percent turnout, very very low for one of the southeasternmost counties in the coverage area.

While county prosecutor Tara Wallace investigated and released press information the day after the issue, that didn’t seem to soothe those voters who received a ballot containing incorporated candidates for those voting in unincorporated areas.

It didn’t help that Wallace’s numbers for the outcome of votes in Rosiclare didn’t match the unofficial final tabulation Disclosure obtained from the county clerk’s office.

Wallace’s press release stated that the six ballots that were given to voters in unincorporated Rosiclare incorrectly wouldn’t have made a difference to the emerging candidates from the particular race of city commissioner, even if all those voters had selected candidates on that ballot—something they weren’t supposed to do, being that they lived outside Rosiclare city limits. However, they were handed ballots meant for those within city limits.

Wallace’s numbers had Bryan Keith Stone receiving 216 votes; Roger D. Brazell, 168; Final tabulation on the unofficial results released at 8:15 p.m. that night read Stone, 261; Brazell, 204; Oxford, 187; Williams, 173; Winchester, 172; Atkinson, 170; Stoker, 158; Lane, 165; and Hayden, 69.

In Rosiclare, the mayoral race wouldn’t have been affected by just six votes: Roy W. Tolbert prevailed over Rusty Warren, 250-172, although many news outlets were reporting the reverse on that night for some reason.

In the village of Cave-in-Rock, incumbent mayor Marty Kaylor kept his office against the challenge of Perry Foster, 57-34.

In Elizabethtown, the citizenry, remembering what Heck Rose did to them a couple of years ago, gave him a resounding “NO” for his bid (again) for the office of mayor—from which he’d “retired” (read: resigned) in 2011—and voted to keep incumbent Bertis Cook, 84-58.

They didn’t have much of a choice when it came to village trustee, as all three running were elected, but a message was sent to Heck’s sister, Sandra “Sandbags” Conkle: only her close friends and family were interested in having her back as a village trustee, all 27 of them. The other two running, Rebecca Barnard and Bruce Hemphill, had much better showings by comparison: 105 and 78, respectively.

Sandbags, regular readers will recall, had the distinction of enduring a slow-speed comeapart during the 2011 flood, wherein her true colors showed during the emergency of residents not having drinkable water, and Sandbags stubbornly refusing to distribute water hoarded at the village fire department, where her husband, the then-alive Ed Conkle, was fire chief.

A Hardin County school board race saw former HC Schools principal Jimmy Stunson, who also “retired” last year after numerous reports of kids on the school bus waving to him as he sat on a village barstool in the afternoons, exchange the barstool for a seat on the board. Top vote recipient for the school board race was Jerry D. Fricker with 839; followed by Ricky D. Williams, 702; Natalie Vaughn, 572; and Stunson’s 550.

And Hardin, too, passed a public safety tax like Gallatin did, displaying the power of the Democrats in both counties, who believe it’s okay to tax the citizens beyond their limit, then tax them some more. The PST, which will not preclude raising of property taxes if the county fathers believe it’s necessary, at least didn’t have a landslide victory like Gallatin: 561 to 472.

Hamilton County

A mayoral contest in McLeansboro and a few challenged seats on townships, as well as McLeansboro’s own wet/dry vote, were big enough draws to bring Hamilton County’s overall voter turnout to 38.13, on the higher end of the southeastern part of the state.

Long-time McLeansboro mayor Dick Deitz was a landslide over challenger Matt Bilderbeck, whom Disclosure learned has had numerous run-ins with the law and has a somewhat shady past, and only ran because he “wanted to prove he could.” Unlike Logan Yates, however, he doesn’t have a felony conviction, and therefore could run legitimately. Yet, he was stomped: 668-177, proving Deitz’ popularity and capability as the city’s mayor keeps the voters coming back to him term after successful term.

One contest was had in the city’s wards: Ward 1, where Dennis Crain defeated Billy Glenn, but not by much: 218-197.

The village of Dahlgren also had a mayoral race, with Steve Wilkerson easily sliding past David Wicks Jr., 99-26.

Township trustee races were held in Crouch Township, where Denise Hopfinger (67 votes), Brian Lueke (62), Richard Hatfield (55) and Ron Webb (54) edged in over Dwayne Smith (53 votes) for the four seats; and McLeansboro Township, where Dennis Johnson (645 votes), Kyle Ingram (642), Becky Cross (639) and Bill Ingram (585) prevailed.

A race for highway commissioner in Twigg Township had Jeffrey “Tinker” Wheeler squeaking past Randall Price, 115-113.

The vote for Hamilton County Board of Education had Tom Maulding with 1,335 votes, Randal Kirsch, 1,207, Larry Launius, 1,233 and Danny Anselment, 1,141.

And the wet/dry was decisively in favor of going wet, with 534 votes for “not prohibiting the sale of alcohol in the city,” 341 for continuing the prohibition.

Jasper County

Jasper County, in the Heartland area of Disclosure’s coverage, saw a voter turnout of 24.19 percent of registered voters, about mid-range amongst the counties and likely because there were no big challenges there. Mayors or village presidents ran unopposed in the municipalities: Mark Bolander in Newton; Jason Kirby in Hidalgo; Jack Thompson in Ste. Marie; Robert Flowers in Wheeler and Sanford Andrews in Yale.

A few village trustee races were on tap: in Wheeler, Charles Emmerich and Edward Schmidt each received seven votes, and Gerald Short received five, to attain the trustee seats there. And in Yale, Jerry Middleton (10 votes), Jamie Smith (9), Jerald B. Andrew (9) and Phillip Wagner and Nicholas Huddleston (both receiving 6 votes) vied for the positions; county clerk personnel said it was up to the village to determine who would fill the fourth slot between Wagner and Huddleston.

In townships, Crooked Creek had trustees selected: Christopher Parr (89 votes), Robert Young (74), Jeff Carr (68) and James Houser (66) prevailed there. Hunt City Township saw a tie vote for first place, Jerry Tharp and Tarry Birch (34 votes), Lafe Graham (31) and James Miller (28) win trustee seats. And Smallwood Township selected four: Paul C. Will (114 votes), Daniel A. Stark (109), Nicholas Milliman (90) and David Kistner (89) selected from six.

Fox Township had a road commissioner race, in which David Pilman defeated Robert Smithenry, 76-65.

In school board races, Jasper CUSD 1 had Gordon Millsap (921 votes), Holly Farley (863) and Mandy Rieman (792) emerge the top three; Casey-Westfield CUSD C-4 had a little input out of Jasper, with Robert L. Dougherty, Alan Hutton (whose name was spelled “Hurron” on some ballots) and Terri Cox being selected as their picks among voters for that district.

Lawrence County

A couple of major mayoral races highlighted ballots in Lawrence County, but voter turnout was still dismal there: 26.85 percent, amongst the mid-range for the coverage area.

The big story was the unseating of two-term Lawrenceville mayor Brian Straub, who’d fallen considerably out of favor over the past couple of years due to two debacles, one involving the water department, and one involving his own use of city credit cards.

Emerging victorious in light of this was the city’s clerk, Don Wagner, who’d signaled is intent to run as mayor after the credit card flap last summer.

Challenging both the incumbent and the city clerk was Ed Brumley, who in the early stages seemed to be an odds-on favorite but couldn’t quite muster the support either Wagner or Straub had.

As a result, Wagner pulled ahead in the final stages of the race (and it was somewhat tense at first, as he was lagging at the outset, and the count took several hours), and defeated the other two, 458 to Straub’s 338 and Brumley’s 208.

Lawrenceville had one ward race: Ward 3, where former county board member David Courtney stomped incumbent Don Goff, 333-158.

The other big race in Lawrenceville generated plentiful jokes about payment of water bills, and with good reason: Janice Laslie, running for the office Wagner was vacating in seeking the mayoral seat, was challenged for city clerk and was soundly defeated by Rodney Nolan: Nolan 729, Laslie 241. Laslie might have been the beginning of the nails in Straub’s political coffin in late 2010 when it was revealed that she and her husband Bruce were receiving special dispensation for a water bill they owed that exceeded $3,000. It was later shown to be that Straub himself owed a back bill dating over 90 days late, but he had never been charged the same late fees others would be were they late on their bills. In some cases, voters have long memories; the Nolan-Laslie matchup was one such case.

In Ward 1, Wendell Stevens; Ward 2, John Waldrop; and Ward 4, Janice S. Holcomb, all ran unopposed.

In other municipal races, the next big news was Bridgeport, where the new mayor received symbolic votes of support as he too ran unopposed. Brad Purcell received 241 votes, not challenged by outgoing Max Schauf or any other candidate. Of 1,205 registered voters in Bridgeport, approximately 300 in the incorporated area voted, meaning Purcell received an 80.3 percent turnout unopposed—a startling number, given that Schauf’s in 2009 was something like 16 percent—and that shows that Bridgeport voters do indeed have sense…when they have a decent candidate.

A ward race was up in Bridgeport as well: former alderman Robin Wirth was up against James Hamilton and David Hammel, but Wirth prevailed: her vote tally was 15, by comparison to Hammel’s 8 and Hamilton’s 5. Ldora “Button” Laughlin in Ward 2 and Tyler Griffin in Ward 3 each ran unopposed.

A mayoral race in St. Francisville saw the unseating of incumbent mayor Stan Williams, who lost to Donald Ravellette: Ravellette 117, Williams 105.

In township trustee races, Denison picked John R. Clark, 175; Rita Sue Tillotson, 157; Dora Glenn, 148 and Alfred Mushrush, 126; Lawrence Township selected Bruce Morey, 824; Don R. Myers, 744; Jenny Schick Chapman, 649 and Roger Orr, 610; and Russell voted in Amber O’Dell, 81; Sue C. Gerhart, 77; Joe Weber, 68 and Alan Thompson, 64.

Bond Township selected a clerk, Billie Taylor, over Cynthia A. Hays-Morris, 61-45; Bridgeport Township picked a road commissioner, Stevan J. Moore over Woody R. Rousey Jr., 224-133 and a township clerk, Lisa Lemeron, over Thomas Daniel Stanescu, 243-104; Christy had a race for township clerk, Jenny Roark v. former county board member Bonnie Hann, resulting in Roark 107, Hann, 93; Lawrence selected a township supervisor in Kimberly Yost Winningham, 763 over Becky Piper, 609, and a road commissioner, Bill Shick, who ran and won against David Mefford, 956-439; and Russell chose a township highway commissioner from amongst three: Gabe Foreman took ethe lead over Richard Churchwell and Keith Fisher, 58-44-34.

Red Hill CUSD 1 saw Bob Christy take the most votes for school board, 621, followed by Dixie Purcell, 619, Ashley Ryan, 517, and Jim Legg, 449.

Richland County

It was a mixed bag in Richland, with the good and the bad featured in a voter turnout of 28.78 percent: roughly twice the turnout of the 2009 race.

At that time, the city of Olney’s mayoral race was a face-off between the highly-detested and very detestable Tommie Fehrenbacher and challenger Mark Lambird. Lambird prevailed, bringing an end to the corruption that surrounded Fehrenbacher for eight years, which included sweetheart deals between the city and the county, and alleged under-the-table bids for state facilities being sited on property Fehrenbacher owned…for which he was briefly investigated by state agencies in his second term.

However, Lambird didn’t fare as well this go-round because the Fehrenbacher crowd was in force…this time backing an attorney, Ray Vaughn, to run as challenger against Lambird. Vaughn was Fehernbacher’s pick because he’s a likeable enough guy and has nothing shady in his history. The only problem is, he’s a mere figurehead so that Fehrenbacher can operate through him, behind-the-scenes, this according to many who keep an eye on Fehrenbacher and his doings in the city. The Fehrenbacher crowd was able to drum up enough support to thwart Lambird’s retention: 927-788. Sadly, with the minimal turnout, it’s apparent that voters could have turned this election around with just a little effort, had it come to light sooner that Vaughn was Fehrenbacher’s front-man, but it came a little late in the game, and the damage was already mostly done. Now Olney is back to under-the-table and backdoor doings, and, worse, is being run by attorneys: Vaughn, and city manager, city attorney Larry Taylor, the real brains of the operation as Olney does not have a “strong mayor” form of government.

A no-show at the returns this year was bi-annual pest Brian James O’Neill II, whose stench precedes him when he walks into the courthouse…but not this election. O’Neill ran for mayor against Vaughn and Lambird, delivering a massive diatribe to the Olney paper as his candidate profile which, as usual, made about as little sense as the five-minute speeches to which he’s now limited at public meetings. While many believe O’Neill is mentally challenged, the only real problem the man has is that he’s stupid and simply doesn’t know it, and uses his obliviousness to target certain people in the community and make them as miserable as possible. For whatever reason, O’Neill has a handful of jokers that vote for him in his district, and this year, besides himself and the woman he lives with, there were eight casting a vote for his mayoral challenge, meaning he’s lost someone in the district (four years ago he received 11 votes)…but whether by death, moving out of the area or gaining a modicum of common sense, is not known at this time.

Two incumbents were seeking another four years on the council—Bob Ferguson and Gary Foster—and apparently, Foster’s grumbling personality got him booted this year. Ferguson, propped up by the same Fehrenbacher crowd who put Vaughn in place, received the most votes of the four competing: 913. This was followed by John McLaughlin, who will replace Foster, with 843 votes; then Foster with 706, and challenger Jeremiah Brown, 570. What it will take to get Ferguson booted like Foster just was remains unknown but is a challenge for 2017.

Across the county, there weren’t many matchups. Two other mayoral races came from Noble, where incumbent Richard Clark took his fourth term over challenger John C. Mason by two votes: 70-68; and Parkersburg, where Tom Hanna defeated challenger Darlene Clark, 53-37. Also in Parkersburg was a race for village clerk, where Sandra Reich prevailed over Kelly Hanna, 63-26.

Otherwise, in Claremont, the legal status of their mayor (this year, by 13 symbolic votes, as no one ran against him and the voter turnout for the village was a dismal 14.1 percent) remains unanswered: John Joyce was found a few years ago to still have an illegal immigrant status when he announced that he couldn’t hold a liquor license for the village’s only convenience store because he was in the country illegally. The Illinois State Board of Elections also advised Disclosure that it is highly illegal for an illegal to hold an elected position in the state, so Disclosure is taking that matter up with the Attorney General’s office at the same time as the issue of felons holding public office following this election.

Township trustee races otherwise dominated the landscape in Richland: in Madison, Dave Bricker (129 votes); Austin Ridgely (128); Shawn Rose (122) and Franklin Dorney (102), the entire slate of Republicans, prevailed as trustees; in Noble Township, Gerg Amerman (228); Steve Hemrich (222); Mike Shan (196); and Brian VanBlaricum (186) were selected; in Olney Township, trustees selected were Jeff Fleming (1,230); Carmen Kowa (1,163); Heather Cecil (1,075) and Donald Barnett (863); in Preston Township, Dennis R. Graves (207); Wade Wilson (196); John R. Snider (176) and Kyle Henton (147) were chosen.

Township offices had matchups, these coming from Bonpas, where there was a highway commissioner race between Don Gayer (winner with 71) and James. M. McDowell (68); German where James Schneider prevailed with 76 votes over James L. Jones’ 10; Noble, where township highway commissioner went to Pat Morgan with 203 votes to Kenneth Wilson’s 183; Olney Township, where an assessor’s race was won by Kimberly J. Houchin 1,322, over Mary Kay Stoltz, 593; Preston Township, which had three offices up for grabs: township clerk, going to Kim Kuhl with 180 versus Donna Whitaker-Mitchell, 105; township assessor going to Michelle Kuenstler, 147, against Cathy Bromm’s 140; and highway commissioner, going to Phil Kuenstler over Chad Stanley, 186-106.

The only contested school board race was at East Richland CUSD 1, where Pete Seals and Alex Cline prevailed over incumbent Micah Grimes, 1,655-1,253-918.

The ballot question regarding raising Richland County’s sales tax another .25 percent appeared yet again and was defeated, despite county engineer Dan Colwell’s implorings in a mass mailing showing how high many of the county sales tax rates were all around Richland. Voters weren’t swayed, likely thinking “too bad for them!” and opted against any more raising of the tax, which is at 6.75 percent already. Colwell tried to convince voters that the money would be put to good use and used only for county road purposes. The reality is that all it would do is free up money in the larger funds, and county spenders would then have more to play with in their particular departments. So the voters sent a message to the county: Be more responsible with the money you have, and stop asking to get it from US.

Saline County

The feature of Saline County’s ballots this year was that there were so few offices being challenged, resulting in a dismal voter turnout of 26.63 for one of the more highly-populated counties downstate.

A single mayoral race came from Raleigh, where James W. Agin defeated Charles Maloney, 56-36. In that village was also a selection of three trustees; those were Jean Ellis, 53 votes, Ron Maloney, 51, and Athel Wiseman, 46.

A village trustee race was held in Galatia, where David L. Grant took top votes with 127, followed by Rickey Cates, 103, and Larry Kukla, 99.

Township trustee races occurred in Galatia, with Mike Triplett taking top votes at 174, followed by Larry Darnell with 155, Gerald W. Heflin with 150 and Merlina Pritchett with 139; Harrisburg Township, where Roger Angelly received 1,054 votes, Roger Craig, 1,051, Steve Horn 854 and Lovie Stunson, 699; and Raleigh Township, with Ron Bradley receiving 180 votes, Willard Prather, 156, Jack Whitlock, 146 and Sarah Davis, 137.

Township offices that were challenged were East Eldorado road commissioner, which went to Greg McKinney over Kevin Boulds, 744-331; Raleigh Township road commissioner went to Pervis Ellis, 173 over Dean Hutcheson’s 74; and the big race, that of Harrisburg Township road commissioner, wherein Bob Holmes defeated Harrisburg police chief Bob Smith, 973-880.

A selection of three for Carrier Mills-Stonefort CUSD 2 landed Stephen Scott Figg 186 votes, followed by Jeff Parks, 179, and Sammy J. Dudley 177…just edging out Georgia Cowger with 173 votes; however, Cowger, a long-time school board member, was saved from being booted off the board with votes from other CM-SCUSD districts, in particular, in Williamson County.

And a ballot question failed. Voters were asked if the sale of bonds should be made to build a new high school; the district was told NO 1,239 times, to a yes vote of 1,075. Reports were that a student at the polling place in the old high school accessed the public address system on election night and was asking people to vote for the bonds in question; he was shut down, but whether anything will be done about him remained unknown as of press time. The general consensus was that he should be given a stern talking to and it be done with…but electioneering is electioneering, and some believe the kid should be punished in accordance by existing state laws.

Wabash County

The reports of having an abysmally-low voter turnout in Wabash County—6.5 percent—repeatedly offended a large group of people…apparently, the populace of the county themselves. However, they were the only ones who could change that, by first putting up their own candidates and then getting the vote out…neither of which was done this election cycle.

While low contests were blamed, that should never be the excuse for not going to the polls, if for no reason other than to show everyone it can and should be done. But with only one mayoral race county-wide—in Bellmont, where it certainly did matter—that was a hard package to sell.

There, the office of mayor was finally appropriately filled, after pissy—and now, charged—Colby Rigg resigned in a snit in the summer of 2011. Rigg was appointed mayor in 2007 with the resignation of then-mayor Ed Bowman, and was then duly elected in 2009, but couldn’t stick it out. Bowman—father of convicted serial killer Greg Bowman, who is on death row in Missouri—decided to take a stab at it again this election cycle and ran against Larry Sloss for the office. Apparently Bellmont thought the wiser of putting Bowman back in charge—after all, he could potentially appoint Rigg back in, as Rigg isn’t convicted yet and can still hold public office—and voted in Sloss, 28-25.

The only other contests in Wabash came from road districts, specifically district 2, where Joe Hall defeated contenders Danny Deisher and Alan Marx, 70-36-22. District 3’s contest was between Derek Guisewite and Timothy Glick, 66-37.

There was a write-in win for school board in Wabash CUSD 348, where Teresa Hocking succeeded in that with 124 votes. On the ballot were Kyle Peach, 351, Jared Alka, 310 and Timothy Schuler, 303.

And for Allendale CUSD 17, Tia Speth Morgan received 72 votes, Beth Etzkorn 68, Richard D. Gochenour 63, and Mike Wilson, 36 as a write-in.

Wayne County

The big story in Wayne is the loss for incumbent mayor to a challenger, and that had Wayne’s larger precinct turning out in droves, resulting in a decent (for Wayne, anyway) turnout of 32.44 percent.

Mayor Mickey Borah lost to contender Chuck Griswold, and what a loss: Griswold 1,125 to Borah’s 429. Where all of Borah’s throngs of supporters were from 2001, 2004 and 2009, at which time he was supported by Fairfield’s paper and a host of RINOs (Republicans in name only) is unknown, but the choice of whether they stayed home, lost interest or defected could be any and all. Whatever the case, it was a stunner in a way, and yet again in a way, not: The Griswold family is well-known in Fairfield for being upstanding, decent citizens, and Chuck is very well-liked, as stated in last month’s issue. So the upset is certainly one to take note, as public sentiment can be fickle and sway with the wind.

Ward races were seen in Ward 1, where Ralph Barbre defeated incumbent Tom Tucker, 205-179; in Ward 2, where Jim Griffith defeated Clifford Reever, 176-130; Ward 3, Steve Robinson defeating Ron Rush 183-174 and Ward 4, David Fletcher defeating Phillip E. Williams, 273-174.

In village races, Sims had three trustees selected: Stephanie Harris with 32 votes, Billie Moyer, 31 and Donny Robertson, 27; Wayne City, where LaDonna McKinney received 190 votes; Benny Garner, 180, and Diana Wood, 142, and James G. Smith received 135 votes for an unexpired 2-year term over Shawntell Desch, 100.

For township trustees, in Elm River, Austin Lambrich took top votes at 42, followed by Frankie Molt and Rob Neikirk both with 38 and John Harrington with 36; Indian Prairie, Lawrence Pennington received 167 votes, followed by Randy Hilliard, 150, Jeff Barnard, 132, and Justin E. Smith, 117; Mt. Erie saw Jerald Hubble get 89 votes followed by Dennis Taylor’s 73, Randy Hedrick with 72 and Clayton Massie with 67; Orchard Township went to Donald Sharp, 93, Richard Greenwalt, 79, Inez O. Copelin, 76 and William Copelin, 74; and Zif township, where the Hosseltons hold sway: Larry Leon Hosselton came in with 36 votes, followed by Warren Scott Hosselton, 34, Claren Lee Hosselton, 33 and Lee Garrett Hosselton, 30.

Other township office races were found in Barnhill for highway commissioner, where Shular Smothers defeated Jerry Webb, 137-53; Big Mound’s highway commissioner went to John K. Jones Jr. over Jack Monroe, 275-192; Indian Prairie highway commissioner went to Mark A. Talbert versus Lyle Lee Allen, 57-50; a three-way race in Jasper Township for highway commissioner with Brent Opell taking the most votes, 325, over Matt Kinney’s 187, and Ray Webb’s 66; a highly amusing three-way race in Lamard Township, where incumbent Richard (Grant) Hoskins badly defeated his challengers, Craig Donoho (96) and convicted arsonist/operator (along with the vile and somewhat dangerous Rich Tuttle) of the ridiculous Wayne’s World website, Roy Finley, who managed to get 42 of his friends and family—most of them the west Wayne yellowhammers—to vote for him; Mt. Erie Township’s highway commissioner race went to Chris Massie over Steve Bass, 80-27; Orchard Township highway commissioner went to Kevin Greenwalt, 94 votes over Jesse Kidder Jr.’s 52; and Zif Township highway commissioner went to Loren Lee Kauble by one vote over Randall Gill, 26-25.

Geff CCSD 14 school board will be composed of Ken Taylor with 131 votes, Kim Belangee, 115 and Shannon Lambert, 90. Jasper CSD 17 will be Kimberly Liston with 241 votes, Anita Pond, 235, Connie Mitchell, 202, Christopher Otey, 180; Wayne CUSD 100 will be Denise M. Barbee with 503 votes, Andrea Lewis, 453, Karen D. Haile, 355 and Bruce Johnson, 299; Fairfield CSD 112 will be Heidi Hodges, with 1,104 votes, Andrew Miller, 91, Dan Coomer, 871, and Joe DiMaggio, 866.

White County

Another upset occurred in the city of Carmi, where a big mayoral race found the incumbent ousted; the contest assisted a 30.99 percent voter turnout county-wide.

Carmi’s mayor David Port was defeated by challenger, alderman Jeff Pollard, 774-758. Many have wondered if the vote weren’t split by the presence of another contender, Bill Mears, who garnered 466 votes. Nevertheless, Pollard, still espousing bringing a hospital to Carmi (after the previous one folded in 2006, unable to keep up with the illegal immigrant population in White and nearby counties flooding the emergency room as if it were a clinic so they could get free healthcare), appealed to the greater number, and he emerged victorious.

The Carmi city clerk position went to Brian Allen, 887 votes, over Dee Blazier, 787. And a couple of ward races were on the Carmi ballot: Ward 3 re-elected Steve Winkleman, 187 to challenger Doug Redman’s 116; and Keith Davis took 396 votes in Ward 4 to defeat Leon Groves, 307.

In Crossville, Konnie Harrington, apparently having dumped Tony Wolf (father of child sex offender Tyler Wolf from five years ago), was the top vote recipient with 142, followed by Jeff Spencer, 140 and Stephanie Martin, 89, to be seated as village trustees.

Township trustee races were in Carmi Township, where Jeff Bohleber received 1,083 votes, Anthony Huffer, 1,064, David Hall, 971 and Roger Heckler, 847; Emma Township has Terry Frashier with 76 votes, David Delong, 75, Tom Scates was almost thrown out this time with a reduced 61 votes and Anna Baumgart, 59; Enfield Township has Bill Williams at 69 votes, Karen McKinney, 66, Scot Weiss, 61 and Chris Mitchell, 52; and Phillips Township has Cindy Hodgson with 226 votes, Ruth Ridenour, 181, Nicholas Combs, 155 and Terry Oeth, 152.

Other township offices that were contested included Burnt Prairie highway commissioner, which is Alan Williams over Charlie Kempton, 84-52; and Phillips highway commissioner, Denny Coston, 195 to Thomas Murk, 155.

In Grayville, school board votes went to Vanessa Fullop, 128, Charles Turner, 100, and Robert Armstrong, 99.

ALBION—An orchestrated walkout of volunteer firefighters for the Albion city/rural fire department was held on the night of a special meeting, called to address stopping the construction of a new fire station.

The April 8 walkout underscored the divisiveness created over two factors: Calls from members of the city council for accountability in spending, and objection to those members’ concerns by others of the council, this lead by former mayor Ryan Hallam.

It was in fact Hallam who created the walkout, bringing in 19 of 23 firefighters to sign a resignation statement completed before the meeting.

But the entire drama was staged, it appears, in order to detract from one glaring problem: the contract under which the new fire department is being built appears to have been signed and okayed illegally.

And Hallam’s signature is on the bottom line.

The Shupe

Repeatedly indicating that the matter is over increased costs of the fire station, mainstream media has done little but provide sleight-of-hand for those butting heads with members of the city council who have for the past couple of years been attempting to control costs in every aspect of city business.

One aspect came to the fore a year ago in May when Alderwoman Karen Shupe saw in the local paper that fire volunteer Dana Mosson had transported his high schooler to the Edwards County prom in a fire truck. Indicating what an irresponsible use of equipment that was, she set about to learn certain expenses as regards running the fire department—and was immediately besieged with attacks, both verbally and in the form of fire trucks on practice runs once a month blaring their horns past her Main Street residence.

Hallam, in his February 3 resignation, seemed to blame Shupe for all the contention, arising from a handful of Freedom of Information Act requests she had submitted to fire chief Kent Nale.

This was the beginning of the combustion.

Changing bids

At the March meeting, it came to the attention of the council that construction on the new fire station—sited in a rather bizarre location, the old Lovins Pharmacy building lot next to McDonald’s, a poor spot because fire trucks pulling out onto highway 15 would be subjected to heavy school and Champion Labs traffic at least twice a day—had gone about $60,000 over budget already, due to “change orders.”

Searching for the contract that specified what orders had been in place according to the original bid versus what labor and materials were running currently, no one on the council could locate a contract.

On April 2, a copy of the “contract” was mailed to the council. In it, it had a bid called “Bid 3” attached for a total amount of $624,340…for a larger building than had been presented to and approved by the city council (what was called “Bid 2) on October 1, 2012. Bid 3 had never been mentioned to the council, and the council had never authorized any more bidding for the fire station after Bid 2 was approved…so Bid 3 was unauthorized.

Further, the contract mailed to the council (of which there was no official copy, nor fire station plans, found in city hall) showed it was between the “contractor” (Greenwalt and Sons Construction) and the “owner,” Albion Fire Department…an entity unable to legally “own” the station; only the city and/or rural fire district could “own” it.

Even further, the “contract” was found to have been signed by then-mayor Hallam on January 18, 2013. Meeting minutes showed that no discussion or approval had been given by the council to sign the contract, increased costs or not. Hallam had only been authorized to sign for Bid 2, in the amount of $562,288…and authorization hadn’t been formally given as of Jan. 18.

The contract the council received Apr. 2 wasn’t signed by the city clerk (who had also resigned, with Hallam, 17 days after the signature); the city seal hadn’t been affixed to it; the city attorney hadn’t reviewed it; the enclosed plans hadn’t been approved by an architect with an attendant seal; there was no list of sub-contractors; there was no deadline for completion of the contract; and details, like inclusion of electrical and plumbing work, were missing from the contract.

Special meeting called

Resultant of this, the remaining council (the alderman who had acted as pro tem mayor in Hallam’s absence in February, Brett Berger, had also resigned) called a special meeting April 8 to “authorize the council to seek independent counsel to evaluate and explain the rights and obligations of the firehouse contract” and to “determine whether work can be stopped pending validity of the contract on the firehouse.”

Firemen show up in force

When Hallam learned that the fire station work might be stopped, the rally was on to force the council to “call off” their plans to cease construction. There was, Disclosure has learned, a certain level of hubris associated with the siting of a fire station where the firemen could gather, sit and drink coffee (and on certain nights, beer) and watch everything going on out on the main drag through town. The fire department had, over the past several years, come to believe itself a “good ol boys” club for them to pal around in, not just provide a service to the area.

The two items of business on the agenda were not discussed immediately. At first, the source of funds for the construction (reportedly a Rural Development loan) was discussed, as well as how the contract got signed by Hallam.

“Plans got done,” Hallam reported from the audience, “and Brett (Berger) was there and acting as a liaison between the council and fire department.” Hallam then said Berger gave him the approval for the expansion, which accounted for the increased cost.

The council, however, already knew Berger had not done such a thing.

Shupe brought up seeking independent counsel at that point, stating “At least we’ll know where we stand.”

The firefighters began muttering under their breath at the motion, one of them stating clearly, “She’s never known where she stands.”

Mayor pro tem Kevin Harper heard the hateful statement.

“If you guys don’t calm down,” he told them sternly, “then you’ll leave.”

The firemen and the various citizens they’d brought with them in their show of force began attempting to persuade the council to just approve a new bid for the contract, which included an extra $60,000, despite the fact that no one knew where that money was going to come from.

In the melee

Amidst this mess, Edwards County High School Comp/Lit instructor Melissa Felling, seated in the audience in front of Hallam, turned around and said, “Hallam, I had you in my English class at school and I don’t know if you forgot, but ‘liaison’ is the talking between a group of people, not a ‘person signing between groups,’” displaying what several were already beginning to figure out: there was some hedging going on with the signing of the contract; but to what end?

Hallam repeated that Berger had told him to sign the contract.

At that point Shupe moved to hire an attorney to look at the contract and examine its validity. The unspoken presumption at that point was that the construction, therefore, would stop until the contract could be declared valid by independent counsel.

Hallam arose, shaking (although whether out of anger or fear couldn’t be determined), and read the resignation letter from the 19 firemen.

“We know when enough is enough,” he stumbled through what ended up being a highly self-aggrandizing speech, “At this present time, we the members of the Albion Fire Department do present our resignation, effective immediately. We are no longer appreciated and it’s time to move forward. This is not a reflection on the citizens of Albion. We have loved serving you. This is a reflection on the current city council that questions every move, does not appreciate us. It’s very unfortunate when a few rotten apples can spoil the whole barrel. There’s over 300 years combined experience on this department; it’ll take so many years to replace this experience, as Harry Truman said, ‘enough is enough.’” He then read the names of the resignees.

Kevin Harper summed it up immedately.

“All I have to say is that you weren’t hired here; I don’t know why you have to resign from here,” he said mildly but with impact.

The Watchdogs

Many of the firemen, present for their big dramatic exit, began to storm out, with Sam Smith providing one last jab at Shupe by throwing his radio in front of her and muttering about “38 years of experience; YOU get out at 1 in the morning,” displaying no humility at all.

Interestingly, Edgar County Watchdogs, having read the drama about the fire department situation from reading coverage in Disclosure, were present. The team of John Kraft and Kirk Allen (who is fire chief in Kansas) advised from the audience that if ever there was a need for an emergency meeting of the council, this was it, and the council (because it was an emergency and therefore no need to wait the requisite 48 hours for an agenda to be posted) determined that they needed to appoint a fire chief and have locks changed at the station. However, without the resignation letter, they were unsure who was still on the fire department, so a chief couldn’t be appointed, and a locksmith couldn’t be called to tend to the keypad at that time of night.

The immediate concern of stopping construction was addressed at that point, with Darren Greenwalt stating he would “wait to continue work until we have a valid contract.”

So another special meeting was called for Wednesday, Apr. 10.

The fearmongering begins

Naturally, at that meeting, the city’s ‘risk manager,’ Randy Hallam, father of Ryan, was available to put the fear of having no (or at least, only a few) active fire volunteers in the city’s volunteer department.

The city’s insurer is Burnham and Flowers, with Randy Hallam as the ‘agent of record.’ This has been the situation for a couple of years; prior to his son becoming mayor in 2001, Hallam was not only the ‘risk manager’ but also bid out the insurance from time to time to ‘keep the premiums as low as possible.’ However, he received a 10 percent commission over and above the premium cost, which resulted in a constant raise for Hallam.

When this was changed in 2011 to bid out the insurance instead, the city saved about $25,000 a year in premiums. Hallam still makes premiums from the carrier as agent of record, but this take is much reduced now, and it’s largely due to the newer members of the council since 2011: Arrol Stewart and Terry Harper, who, along with Shupe, have been doing what they can to save the city money wherever they can…which effort has included what the fire department is doing.

Hallam gave his own soliloquy about how “dangerous” it would be to be without fire volunteers, and how the city needed to “come together” and do what they could to compromise. He spoke of Champion Labs (Albion’s only industry) and the school facing increased risk, and talked at length about how the city’s ISO (Insurance Services Office) rating could rise, meaning that everyone would face increased premiums. It appeared, with every turn of phrase, that Hallam was promoting mass hysteria if the city didn’t back off, end their plans to examine the contract via independent counsel, and allow the fire department to spend as much money as they wanted in order to construct “their” fire house how they saw fit.

His pleas, which were word-for-word with a local “anonymous insurance agent” in the local paper printed that same day, fell on deaf ears.

The council determined to hire attorney Troy Payne from Vandalia as special counsel.

It was determined to change the code on the fire department keypad; but Kevin Harper mentioned that there were several keys to city hall that just “weren’t accounted for” and pointed out that mayor-elect Steve McMahel, present at the meeting, had found a locksmith to address that particular issue.

A fire chief could not be selected at that time per that agenda item, but it was determined that there were at least five volunteers available to staff the station and respond to fires (indeed, they already had, to a field fire earlier that day) and the Browns Fire Department had already pledged mutual aid to Albion.

No action was taken on the agenda item of selecting a go-to person to go between the contractor and the city council; this appointment would be pending review by Payne of the “contract” and its validity.

And no action was taken on discussion/approval of the contract on the new construction of the fire house, the very first item on the agenda

In the meantime, mainstream media continues to either focus on the wrong facets of the problem, or is ignoring the matter altogether. In a place as small as Albion, every dime matters, especially to media, and with a fire department staffed by volunteers who own the only businesses able to advertise in said media, it doesn’t pay to always tell the truth.

Jason Laws’ mugshot from December 2012.

EDWARDS CO.—Jason Laws, the man who was found to have filched hundreds of thousands of dollars from Albion’s House of Prayer church, has entered a plea in his case as of this morning, 04.11.13.

Laws was charged last December with Theft greater than $100,000 from a place of worship, a Class X felony, and two counts of forgery, both Class 3. This morning, with appellate prosecutor David ‘Rollover’ Rands handling the case on a conflict for Edwards’ prosecutor Mike Valentine, a plea was negotiated in all the felonies: Guilty of the Class X and the first of the two Forgery counts.

Laws was subsequently sentenced by judge Mark Shaner to three years DOC on the Class X Theft, and three years probation on the Forgery.

He’s also been ordered to make restitution in the amount of $283,422 to the House of Prayer as part of his sentencing, as well as complete 300 hours of public service work as soon as his DOC sentence is fulfilled. There’s no indication in current paperwork as to whether the $100,000 cash bond Laws was able to post in the case on Dec. 19, 2012, will be applied to the restitution. Laws has not been transported to DOC as of yet, and his status is unclear as of press information we obtained from Edwards County’s State’s Attorney’s office; look for updated information in the upcoming print version next Tuesday, or the e-Edition, which should be appearing online beginning Monday night.

An emergency meeting, called for tonight to address serious issues facing the city of Albion after an orchestrated firefighter walkout Monday, was fruitful if for no other reason than it identified the “Albion insurance agent the Navigator interviewed” for a front-page story today about how the city’s insurance was going to skyrocket now that they didn’t have an adequate and full fire department.

That “Albion insurance agent,” Randy Hallam, stood and gave a presentation tonight, stating increase of the city’s ISO (Insurance Services Office) rating could be “catastrophic,” citing specific sums of increases for different insurance ratings. “That’s for a home. Imagine what it would be for a be for a business, the school system, and Champion.”

We know Hallam to be the guy because he delivered the speech to a crowd at Albion city hall tonight nearly verbatim as what’s quoted on the front page of Albion’s newspaper. He would have done well to change it up a bit if he were going to stay under the radar…but it wasn’t hard to figure out.

Why all the shucking and jiving, and trembling on the part of Hallam as he delivered his speech?

Randy Hallam

Because he’s set himself up for a raise, basically: Hallam gets a commission as the city’s “risk manager,” wherein his job is to bid out the insurance from time to time to keep the premiums as low as possible. Hallam used to get 10 percent of premiums above and beyond the insurance cost; that changed in recent years, but he still gets a commission. So if Albion’s insurance goes up because of the walkout of 19 of the city’s 23 volunteer firefighters, guess who benefits?

And guess whose kid was the former mayor who started this whole debacle, including resigning after he signed an allegedly illegal contract, then orchestrated the grand walkout?

That’s right…Randy Hallam’s kid, Ryan. Former mayor who resigned February 3, about two weeks after the contract, not brought before the city council for approval, was signed. Oh, and bumped up by about $62,000 over a previously-set cost, to build the new fire station. In Chicago politics, something like that is often known as a “kickback”…but of course, that’s not what we’re saying it is. For now, anyway.

Tonight, following Hallam’s revealing (and dramatic, what with all the “I had a nightmare…” proclamations) speech, it was determined that the council would hire an independent attorney, Troy Payne of Vandalia, to research the contract signed in January without council approval and see what can or should be done about it. They also noted that 13 volunteers were going to sign up, and a chief was going to be assigned from among these. Keys from city hall have “gone missing” so the locks to that building and the fire department (including key code) are being changed.

So the only thing that remains is that IF the city’s ISO rating (which is at 5, a very good rating) changes because their insurance carrier, Burnham and Flowers, has been PRE-notified that there’s a “crisis” brewing because of the mass walkout, it’s a pretty good bet who let B&F know about it.

And why wouldn’t they be notified? There’s plenty of money to be made in a good crisis…even if it was only temporary, and is now for all intents and purposes over. After all, that’s what orchestrating a crisis is for…right? Downstate, apparently, has taken their cue from Chicago for years…and it doesn’t appear that this is going to change any time soon.

Former mayor Ryan Hallam reads his snippy letter of resignation, which mainstream media will glorify come Wednesday, while just about everybody else looks disgusted.

The fire department—which resigned almost in total last night, with the exception of two (reportedly, Carl Porter and Brad Nale) at a special city council meeting—lost their most ardent supporter when former mayor Ryan Hallam resigned in February, shortly after signing an unapproved contract for the building of a new fire station in town. They put up candidates in various wards: in Ward 1, it was Rochelle Thomason (although contender Kevin Savage has been a supporter) versus third contender Arrol Stewart; Stewart prevailed tonight.

In Ward 2, sympathizer and former sheriff Scott Meserole won over contender Randy Speir, 101-72.

In Ward 3, fireman Dana Mosson—the one whose debacle with bringing his son to the prom on a fire truck a year ago started much of the uproar over how fire department equipment was being utilized—took the position by two votes over David Works, 66-64.

Fortunately, the town has a new mayor: former mayor Steve McMahel, who hasn’t made noises one way or the other, but whose common sense will likely prevail. This will make the lineup NOT in favor of the churlish fire department members who walked out last night: Ward 1 belongs to Stewart and Terry Harper; Ward 2, Karen Shupe (the target of much of the fire department’s ire) and Meserole; Ward 3 is Mosson and an open spot due to the resignation of Bret Berger; and McMahel—effectively 5 to 2 on fire department votes.

Albion, after decades and decades of what amounts to prohibition (except for private clubs, which hearkens back to prohibition), finally lifted such a thing and voted to go “wet” and allow liquor sales within the city limits. This will help things considerably as regards revenue and development if the right people get involved and get something going; the city has some awesome old buildings that would make quaint pubs/bar & grill-type places.

And in a bizarre little turnaround, the village of Browns went out on a limb and voted Todd Bailey in as mayor. THAT will be some interesting meeting material for whomever is still bothering to cover such a thing. Bailey defeated long-time mayor Harry Duncan.

More in the print version; be sure to pick up a copy next week, or get our online version by enrolling in a membership that gets you the e-Edition.

However, the reasoning behind this one is a little less honorable than what was going on in Xenia, where the fire department left in protest of the egregious expenditures and irresponsibility of one board of trustees member.

In Albion, it appears it’s utter pissiness over their fire chief, Kent Nale, either not securing the proper contract for the building of a new fire station in town…or not bothering to get the contract at all.

The construction, as we reported in the current edition, is well over budget (last check had it at more than $60,000, and without the first brick being set). There was a special board meeting held tonight to address this specific issue. Apparently it’s been addressed, and apparently, it’s not to the satisfaction of the firefighters, who have had themselves a little good ol boys club in Albion for far too long…and who have been operating outside the guidelines of many restrictions, most of them having to do with Illinois’ Open Meetings Act.

We’ve learned that there may in fact have been an OMA violation tonight—prior to the special meeting. It appears that a “meeting before the meeting” was held amongst the firefighters, who at that meeting determined they were going to resign. Former mayor Ryan Hallam was at the meeting tonight and spoke out about the contract for the new building, which he claimed he’d signed prior to his resignation back in February, using as his “liaison” former alderman Bret Berger.

There’s just a couple of problems with all this, though: Berger had already advised the council that he had nothing to do with Hallam signing the contract…and Hallam signed the contract without bringing it before the council for approval.

In light of this, it would appear that Hallam could be in very hot water. We’ll examine that prospect in the upcoming print version.

Two things caused us some amusement tonight. One was the presence of the Edgar County Watchdogs, John Kraft and Kirk Allen, who have been watching the Albion debacle unfold in our pages as we sell quite a few papers up in Edgar County, covering the Watchdogs’ uncovering of corruption. Because the Watchdogs have experience with belligerent boards and councils whose mottoes are “well that’s just the way we’ve always done it,” they were right at home in Albion and offered their expertise to the council during and after the meeting. During the meeting, it was noted by the Watchdogs that if ever there was a cause for an emergency meeting, a city without a volunteer fire department was it. So they suggested the council call an emergency meeting…and they did, for immediately after the posted meeting. There, it was determined (with the help of the Watchdogs) that there needed to be yet another meeting, this one scheduled for Wednesday evening, at which time the city would 1–appoint a fire chief (yes, Kent Nale resigned, too); 2–hire an attorney to look at the contract issue and 3–take immediate action to secure the current fire department building…making for a busy week, what with the election and all.

The other thing that caused us some amusement was the fact that Kraft noted at some point during heated discussion that he was recording everything with his audio recorder. Albion resident Jane Harris, evidently a goodolboysfireman supporter, had a fit from the back of the room, shrieking that Kraft “couldn’t do that, that’s illegal!!” to which Kraft turned around and informed her in his brusque way that he sure as hell COULD record a public meeting, and everything that went on in it. Some people still believe that public meetings should be private affairs, evidently…but in Albion, despite the fact that two newspapers and an adjacent county’s radio station covers council meetings there, it took Disclosure and the Watchdogs to get the citizenry off its ass and realize that it’s THEIR tax money that’s being spent, and apparently, there’s a reason why property taxes in Albion are so godawful high.

Jade will have a newsblast in the morning; we anticipated that she might do one tonight but the emergency meeting kept her late. And of course look for complete coverage in the upcoming print version, on stands at these fine vendors including Bruce Lee in Albion and Liquor Barn in Grayville, and of course you can always read the paper right here from the comfort of your computer if you enroll in the online membership and get the e-Edition.