A line of strong thunderstorms was indicated on radar just to the west and south of the ferry crossing.

The ferry connects Kentucky highway 91 with Illinois Route 1 across the Ohio River between Crittenden Co., Ky., and Hardin County in Illinois. It normally operates from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. central, seven days a week, carrying about 500 vehicles across the Ohio in an average day.

Things are back up and running now…sorry for the delay in reporting.

Maynor was relieved of duty as chief deputy and from the Hardin County Sheriff’s Department April 30.

Newly-elected sheriff JT Fricker has told Disclosure that the decision to relieve Maynor was strictly budgetary.

Tom Maynor

“There seems to be some people trying to make more out of this than what it is,” Fricker told Disclosure. “It was a financial decision that began saving the county money immediately.

“The letter signed by myself and Tom specifically says this was in no way a disciplinary decision.”

Part of the savings with the current setup include the deputy who took Maynor’s place on the roster, Bobby Deppin, drives his own car back and forth to work.

Deppin lives in Saline County as did Maynor, who did drive his cruiser back and forth from Harrisburg to Elizabethtown everyday.

Now Hardin taxpayers are not footing the bill for the additional gasoline and wear and tear on the cruiser.

According to sources, Deppin is also not working a full 40-hour week, as was Maynor.

Those hours are being absorbed by Fricker who, according to sources, is on-call 24/7 and works an average 12-hour day.

When asked about his hours, Fricker told Disclosure he doesn’t like talking about himself because he considers the work of his department a group effort with everybody pulling together, doing what it takes, to get the job done.

State’s attorney’s take

After a little back and forth on the definition of “employed,” state’s attorney Tara Wallace told Publisher Jack Howser that Maynor was still working for her office but was not getting paid.

Well, actually, he is paid $1 but Wallace said, but “a dollar is equal to just about no money in my book.”

Wallace said she has checked on rumors that Maynor has been “let go” from several police departments for one serious infraction or another but nothing concrete has surfaced.

“Tom has worked hard for this office and is coming in now for little or no pay to finish up the cases he was handling,” Wallace told Disclosure. “I have checked with authorities myself and have been presented no proof of wrongdoing on Tom’s part past or present. I have never made decisions on rumor and don’t intend to start now.”

Wallace’s support of Maynor has not wavered since rumors surfaced in early April.

Dupo incident

According to an article appearing in the Wednesday, March 6, 2002 edition of the Belleville News-Democrat (which is available online), Maynor, while employed by the New Athens police department, was at the American Legion Hall on Fifth Street, Dupo as “part of a (February 16, 2002) Valentine’s Day party crowded with off-duty police officers” when a couple of the cops “slipped into the ladies room with a digital camera.”

Maynor along with St. Clair County Deputy Matt Jany were later arrested and charged with misdeameanor Disorderly Conduct for “going into the girls bathroom and taking obscene pictures of girls,” according to court documents; Maynor was also charged with misdemeanor Assault for allegedly threatening Dupo firefighter James Smitt, who was serving as bouncer at the party.

Witnesses said Smitt wasn’t the only one Maynor mouthed off to; Legion Commander Jim Wolf advised Maynor and  harassed his bartender, Irma Gould, when she found them in the restroom and ordered them out.

To add insult to the situation, when Maynor and Jany left the building, one of them (patrons couldn’t identify which) showed his ass—literally, by dropping his pants all the way to the floor before shuffling out.

The Dupo police chief, Doug Keys, present at the party, disagreed with the arresting officer and covered for the two, stating that they “didn’t actually go into the restroom with the digital camera, just stood outside taking pictures of their dates who were inside.”

However, that completely contradicts Gould’s statement that she went in and found them there, which was the thing that actually lead to the allegations and charges.

Maynor’s case (number 02OV0000803) was later plead down to a simple Disorderly, and he went on to work at another police department because no one took action at that time.

Another incident in Dupo had made the papers two years prior, when Maynor was being scrutinized for “impeding an investigation” into an incident that involved one of his friends in the village.

To read the entire article, which appears in the current (May-June 2013) print version on stands now, simply sign up for an online membership and get your e-Edition, or visit any of our vendors, including those in Hardin: The Rose Hotel in Elizabethtown or Harbison’s at Karber’s Ridge.

Unconfirmed reports of political friction

There are unconfirmed reports of a bit of a political tussle between sheriff Fricker and prosecutor Wallace.

Neither could confirm reports of difficulty between their two offices.

(Publisher’s note: We would advise watching this story as many details are currently being held by Disclosure pending confirmation).

“It appears they were after drugs,” Hardin County sheriff JT Fricker told Disclosure.

NOT the pharmacy in question…just a generic image

Fricker said the break-in took place sometime after midnight, Thursday, May 16.

“It was an employee who came to work on Friday morning and found that someone had thrown something through a window to gain entry,” Fricker said.

The sheriff said the only thing taken was hydrocodone.

When asked, Fricker said he was not prepared to discuss any potential evidence gleaned from surveillance cameras located at the pharmacy.

He did confirm that Illinois State Police Crime Scene Technicians were called to process the scene for evidence.

“We are expecting to make an arrest in the pharmacy break-in in the very near future,” Fricker said.

Sheriff Fricker said his department is also investigating an unrelated residential break-in during which a PlayStation 3 was taken.

Only this time, it’s because he’s no longer employed in his chosen vocation.

Maynor, 39, of Harrisburg, has been chief deputy at the Hardin County Sheriff’s Department since the new administration took over last November, post-election.

However, that position was short-lived when, on April 30, Disclosure received a press release consisting of a couple of sentences.

This press release indicated that Maynor had, as of that day, been relieved of duty as chief deputy, and had also been relieved of duty as an officer of the county.

The simple press release was made into a website post and a little bit of Maynor’s history—which has been produced in past issues of Disclosure since his employment in Hardin County had begun—was added to flesh out the post, since there wasn’t very much to it.

The history was as brief as the press release: that Maynor had been relieved of duty, or quit, from other police forces in the state, including as chief in Galatia, as well as from Dupo as an officer. In one of those cases, it was noted, his termination had come as a result of being accused of either photographing or videotaping females in a restroom.

The response was considerable backlash from many in Hardin County, several of whom have apparently come to be under the impression that Maynor was God’s gift to the people who had been suffering under one incompetent law enforcement officer after another throughout the county since the late Ed Conkle and former sheriff Joyce Cullison had been bringing in questionable hires.

Maynor was one of those, according to people in the area who were aware of his background.

For those who are not, the facts are clear.

The Dupo issue

According to an article appearing in the Wednesday, March 6, 2002 edition of the Belleville News-Democrat (which is available online), Maynor, while employed by the New Athens police department, was “part of a Valentine’s Day party in a bar crowded with off-duty police officers” when a couple of the cops “slipped into the ladies room with a digital camera” to take themselves some pictures.

Maynor, then 27, and St. Clair County deputy Matt Jany, also then 27, were accused of doing this at about 11:35 p.m. February 16, 2002 at the American Legion Hall on Fifth Street, Dupo.

The two were later arrested and charged with misdeameanor Disorderly Conduct for “going into the girls bathroom and taking obscene pictures of girls,” according to court documents; Maynor was also charged with misdemeanor Assault for allegedly threatening Dupo firefighter James Smitt, who was serving as bouncer at the party.

He wasn’t the only one Maynor mouthed off to; Legion Commander Jim Wolf advised that the two harassed his bartender, Irma Gould, when she found them in the restroom and ordered them out.

To add insult to the situation, when the two left the building, one of them (patrons couldn’t identify which) showed his ass—literally, by dropping his pants all the way to the floor before shuffling out.

The Dupo police chief, Doug Keys, present at the party, disagreed with the arresting officer and covered for the two, stating that they “didn’t actually go into the restroom with the digital camera, just stood outside taking pictures of their dates who were inside.”

However, that completely contradicts Gould’s statement that she went in and found them there, which was the thing that actually lead to the allegations and charges, so someone was covering up for somebody.

Maynor’s case (number 02OV0000803) was later plead down to a simple Disorderly, and he went on to work at another police department because no one took action at that time.

Another incident in Dupo had made the papers two years prior, when Maynor was being scrutinized for “impeding an investigation” into an incident that involved one of his friends in the village.

Ran off with the babysitter

And while Maynor’s history on-the-job in St. Clair County wasn’t the cleanest, his personal life at the time was under fire as well.

At that time, Maynor, working as a police officer in Marissa, Ill., had a babysitter on a regular basis for the three kids he and his wife Kellie (now Satterfield) had.

And, according to sources close to the situation, a day after the babysitter — Sadi — turned 18, Maynor ran off with her and left the wife and kids.

A court-ordered OP is reported to have been in place by the family in order to have protected Sadi, but Maynor ignored it, and his employers ignored the fact that he ignored it, once the underage girl came of age.

Maynor is currently still married to her. It’s been reported that he keeps her isolated from her family, who has been rumored to be in possession of pornographic photos he took of her from when she was a child, babysitting for his young family.

Problems with being attracted to young females persisted over the years, sources in Pope County have advised Disclosure, and may have been what lead to Maynor’s dismissal from that county as well as from the city of Rosiclare in Hardin County.

It remains unclear exactly what lead to Maynor no longer working for the Galatia police department in Saline County…but with the ongoing track record, plenty of good guesses could be made.

‘Employed’ by SA’s office

Disclosure continues to investigate Maynor and his activities in Hardin that may have lead to his dismissal, just as he continues to be employed—at the salary of $1 per year—by the Hardin County State’s Attorney’s office as an investigator, at a savings to the taxpayer.

The state’s attorney (Tara Wallace) has to use, at her discretion, a state stipend of $6,500, something the state has offered for a number of years to assist county prosecutors. Area state’s attorneys have used that to provide the people with an assistant state’s attorney, an investigator (where there is a small number of overworked law enforcement officers, the SA has within his/her purview to create such a position), or do any other number of things with the funds, including redecorating a decrepit office that’s not been tended to properly over the years by previous uncaring prosecutors, as Wallace has found hers to be in; so a dollar a year is quite the savings.

Wallace is remaining open-minded about the issues with Maynor, but is proceeding with caution, according to what she’s told Disclosure.

In the meantime, the chief deputy’s position is open, and Sheriff JT Fricker has not announced who he’s even considering for the spot. But be watching future issues of Disclosure and of course disclosurenewsonline for updates.

According to authorities, Charles Nick Wenzel, 43, whose father Burt made the term “Wenzel Weed” famous in southern Illinois counties, has been charged, not with pot, but in connection with methamphetamine manufacturing.

Wenzel has been charged with one count of Unlawful Participation in Methamphetamine Production after authorities say on or about March 29, 2012 he knowingly manufactured 15-100 grams of meth and Unlawful Possession of Anhydrous Ammonia.

Cash bond in the case has been set at $15,000.

Saline history

Wenzel was arrested in Saline County in 1992 and charged with Unlawful Use of a Weapon by a Felon, Bringing Contraband into a Penal Institution, Obstruction of Justice, Unlawful Possession of Firearm Ammunition and Unlawful Possession of Cannabis.

He pled to the obstruction charge in return for the remaining charges being dismissed and was sentenced to 30 months in IDOC.

Again in Saline, he was convicted August 2000 of Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Manufacturing Materials and sentenced to another two years IDOC.

He still has an outstanding drug case in Saline from 2010 in which he is charged with Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Precursors less than 15 grams, Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Manufacture Materials, Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine less than five grams, Unlawful Possession of Cannabis and Unlawful Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

 Sexual abuse con gets conditional discharge

A Rosiclare teen, convicted of Criminal Sexual Abuse, was sentenced to mere conditional discharge in the offense.

According to court records, Kyle R. Holloman, 19, of Rte. 601 Box 75, Rosiclare was taken into custody April 12 and charged with committing an act of sexual penetration April 7, with a victim 15 years of age when he placed his penis in the vagina of the victim.

He was released from custody the same day as his arrest after posting a $150 cash bond.

Holloman pled guilty April 30 and was sentenced to 18 months conditional discharge and was ordered to pay $750 in fines and fees.

Arrested parolee back in prison

Bradley Beasley, 30, has been charged with Aggravated Assault after authorities say on or about March 26 he knowingly used a deadly weapon thereby placing James Curtsinger in reasonable apprehension of receiving a battery, and one count of Unlawful use of a Weapon when he knowingly possessed a “dangerous knife” with the intent to use it unlawfully against Mr. Curtsinger.

However short-lived his freedom, Mr. Beasley was released on parole February 6 on a three-year sentence for a felony conviction of Unlawful Possession of a Firearm from 2012 and returned to the Department of Corrections March 18 following this latest arrest.

He is expected back in court sometime next month.

From Mexico

Donald J. Cooper, of 617 Cleveland St., Mexico, Mo., has been charged with one count each of Disorderly Conduct after authorities say on or about April 18 he knowingly acted in an unreasonable manner as to alarm and disturb Hardin County Deputy Shawn Turner and provoke a breach of the peace.

Cooper is also charged with Aggravated Battery after he made physical contact of a provoking nature with Turner.

A third charge of Criminal Damage to Property alleges that two days prior, April 16, he did so when he damaged the property of Linda Ford, identified as a 2007 Ford F150 Lariat truck, with damage between $300 and $10,000.

He was released from custody after a $1,000 cash bond was posted on his behalf by Kenneth M. Cooper, of 1640 East Liberty, Mexico, Mo.

Court documents indicate that Don Cooper failed to show up for his scheduled court date on April 30 at which time his preliminary hearing was continued at his request to June 4.

Ignores forbidden housing

Marcus Shore, 303 Poplar St., Stonefort, has been charged with Criminal Trespass to State Supported Land after police say on April 18 he knowingly entered the building at Apartment 11 of the Hardin County Housing Authority, located on Hardin St., Rosiclare after receiving prior notice from housing authority representatives that such entry was forbidden.

Shore is a babydaddy of one of local crazygirl Martina Oliveda Shore-Reeves’ kids, and has been a part of her recent exploits, including being named in various orders of protection to keep him away from certain people trying to protect Martina’s offspring.

Shore was released from custody the same day he was arrested for the alleged trespassing, after a $150 cash bond was posted.

Rosiclare residentials

Laura L. Patterson, 34, of Rosiclare, has been charged with two counts of Residential Burglary the first after authorities say on or about April 17 she knowingly and without authority entered into the dwelling place of Helen Hicks located at Sixth St., Rosiclare with intent to commit theft, and the second on or about April 21 when she allegedly did the same thing at the dwelling place of Sherry Flynn, located at Hopkinton St., Rosiclare.

Cash bond has been set in the case at $2,500.

Hardin County prosecutor, the lovely Tara Wallace

Wallace noted last night (04.30.13), after the announcement by Hardin authorities that Maynor was relieved of duty from the sheriff’s department, that Maynor was still on duty as the county prosecutor’s investigator. This was per an agreement Wallace had struck with Maynor upon taking office: that he would work for the cash-strapped county as an investigator for her office for a dollar a year.

Ordinarily, the prosecutor’s office is given a stipend of roughly $6,500 a year from the state to use as the prosecutor sees fit. In other counties in our coverage area, this stipend has been used toward annual funding for inclusion in the appellate prosecutor’s special prosecutor program (the one that sends David ‘Rollover’ Rands to counties on a conflict, and at a cost of $7,000 a year), toward the hiring of an assistant prosecutor (like Richland does with the hire of Todd Reitz), or to pay for a private investigator to go out and investigate cases the prosecutor’s office is handling but which might put a strain on the local constabulary’s regular duties to investigate.

Maynor, Wallace said last night, is still in her employ, but at a lot lower cost than $6,500 a year. What she’s doing with the state stipend is unknown, but touch-ups to her office might be a good guess, as there were ceiling tiles falling down last time Disclosure was in it.

Tom Maynor

We’re learning more about Maynor’s past employ (which was touched upon last night as having been in Galatia and Dupo); today we learned that he has also been employed by the city of Rosiclare in Hardin County, as well as the Pope County sheriff’s department, both of them years ago, and both of them from which, our sources are telling us, he was also let go.

We’re studying up on the “why” of the let-go, as there seemed to be a lot of people who took issue last night with the “why” of the let-goes from Galatia and Dupo. We’ve been told of a reason for the release from Rosiclare; be watching for updates after we get documentation for it.

Maynor was appointed to the position after newly-elected Sheriff Jerry Thomas (JT) Fricker took the office in November 2012.

Maynor has had a rough way to go in the past as an officer, being terminated from Galatia as police chief, as well as from Dupo as an officer, in recent years. What this was over thus far remains unclear, however, at some juncture he was accused of either photographing or videotaping females in a restroom.

More as we get it; keep checking back.

Tom Maynor

According to sources close to the family, the situation with the boy arose earlier this week when he was being harassed in class by another boy.

The harassing boy was calling the kid in question a “cocksucker” and saying equally-vile things about his mother.

The kid tried to ignore the harassment (which, apparently, was “not heard” by any adult in the classroom) but when it got to be too much, he did what any red-blooded teen would do: he got up and punched the harassing kid in the face.

Of course, the boy (who is rather big for his age, and outweighed/outsized his harasser by quite a bit) got in trouble for punching. Not the rotten kid with the foul mouth. But, to show that he’s a decent fellow, the kid who was being harassed called his tormenter the next day and apologized to him. The harassing boy (who was by now sporting a black eye) accepted the apology and everybody thought everything was fine.

That is, until a group of hoodlums began harassing the kid by sending him texts.

These texts were being sent by a group of black kids (the boy in question is white), who were telling this eighth-grader that they were going to “beat him dead.” These texts went on for the better part of last night, April 18, 2013.

So the mother printed the texts out last night and took them up to the police department (our understanding was that it was Elizabethtown, but that might not be the situation, it might be somewhere else; we’re working on that). And, according to our sources, nothing was done in response to them.

This morning (04.19.13) the kid goes off to school, having an appointment at 1 p.m. for something, and for which his mother was going to pick him up shortly before.

His mother arrived before 1 and the school principal approached her, advising her that there was “bad news.”

The “bad news” was that the boy “had been hit.”

The mother was told that the kid was having the regular 11:30 lunch time, and was seated in the cafeteria with s table full of girls. An older boy (we’re hearing he was age 16) approached the younger, telling him to “take his glasses off.” When the younger boy refused, they argued verbally for a minute about it, then, right there in the middle of lunch, the older boy attacked the younger. There were two adults supervising the cafeteria. Apparently neither of them responded in order to pull the boys apart.

The younger boy had been sitting at the school for about an hour and a half in that condition when his mother arrived to pick him up for his 1 p.m. appointment. No one called her to tell her her boy had been brutalized. There was no word on where the 16-year-old was. The younger boy had “knots the size of a fist” all over his head. For all anyone knew, he could have been having a brain bleed for that hour and a half and could have been in grave condition by the time she arrived. As it was, she took him for medical help immediately. The report we’ve gotten is that he has a concussion and a broken jaw.

It’s kinda like that…only worse, in Hardin.

We’ve been able to reach Sheriff JT Fricker about the situation. He said his office was notified about reports of a beating, the notification coming from the grandfather and mother of the victim, coming to him after school was out today. The protocol, Sheriff Fricker says, with an incident such as this is that the school must contact the sheriff’s department, and that hadn’t happened as of end of school today. So Fricker says he plans on going to the school Monday and conducting interviews of the administration and of witnesses, and will relay any and all information/reports to the state’s attorney for further action.

But the bullying situation in Hardin County is, as this illustrates, largely out of control.

Last year we had the “kill list,” wherein a spat going on between teenage girls too big for their britches resulted in the expulsion of two of them, and subsequent joint Orders of Protection, which, we hear, are not being upheld (this according to a scathing letter to the editor in this month’s issue; you’ll have to get one, or sign on to the e-Edition, to read it). There have been other, non-stop bullying issues in Hardin, as there have been in neighboring Gallatin and Saline…and no one seems to want to do anything to stop it.

What could have been done last night, with the texts being sent like they were, is unknown. We don’t know what law enforcement officials took the complaint, but whomever it was, they didn’t relay it to the sheriff. But we do know that some authorities, particularly through the school system, seem content with just letting this stuff cycle on.

It will be interesting to see what Sheriff Fricker does on Monday. Check back between now and then to see if there are any updates.

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.

HARDIN CO.—The reports of ballot confusion in Hardin County last night were met with swift response by the county’s new prosecutor, Tara Wallace.

Wallace just issued the following in the form of a press release, explaining what her investigation into the matter showed, and what the results mean for the county and the Consolidate Election 2013.

In the consolidated election which was held on April 9, 2013, several questions were posed to the voters.  The unincorporated areas of the county received ballots which listed the following:  candidates for the Hardin County K-12 School Board, candidates for Southeastern Illinois College Board of Trustees, candidates for the Regional Board of Education and a proposition as to whether or not to impose a 1% public safety tax.  The incorporated areas of the county received ballots which listed the following:  candidates for the Hardin County K-12 School Board, candidates for Southeastern Illinois College Trustees, candidates for the Regional Board of Education, a proposition as to whether or not to impose a 1% public safety tax, and the positions of Mayor, Commissioners, Village President, Trustees, and Clerk depending on the type of government that each municipality has.

The judges at each polling place are assigned the responsibility of making sure the voters have the correct ballot.  Unfortunately, at the Rosiclare polling place, due to human error, six individuals were given the incorporated ballot (001) when they should have received an unincorporated ballot (004).  As of today’s date, the State’s Attorney, Tara Wallace, has not been advised of wrong ballots being distributed at any other polling place (Stone Church, Monroe, McFarlan, Cave-In-Rock and Rock Creek).

The Rosiclare election results based on votes cast at the Rosiclare precinct on election day were as follows:

Mayor:  Roy Tolbert -206; James Warren-121.

Commissioners:  Bryan Stone-216; Roger Brazell-169; Brett Oxford-156; Ricky Williams-150; Robert Winchester-133; Margo Stoker-128; Wesley Atkinson-120; Donald Lane-53; and Waylon Hayden-34.

Therefore, six votes would not make a difference in the outcome of the city election.

Tara Wallace contacted the Illinois State Board of Elections and reported the mistake and legal counsel concurred with Mrs. Wallace’s opinion that there was no impropriety; the mistake was due to human error.  The State Board of Elections relayed to the State’s Attorney that this kind of mistake is not unusual, that they appreciated the due diligence of the State’s Attorney and now it was up to the candidates as to whether they wanted to explore the options available to them.

State’s Attorney Tara Wallace would like to thank County Clerk, Jill Cowsert, and her office for their cooperation and assistance in rectifying the situation in a speedy and just manner.

Wallace would like to add: “I would also like to thank all of the election judges in every precinct.  They have a lot of responsibilities on election day and obviously their training cannot address every situation which is presented to them. “