7-1-2011

 

4TH OF JULY CELEBRATION AT PATRIOT'S PARK AGAIN THIS YEAR

The Kingsbury Park District and the Shriners are putting on the annual 4th of July celebration at Patriot’s Park this coming Monday.  KPD Director Jerry Sauerwine said this year’s event will feature food by the Shriners, the Muny Band at 6:00 p.m. and fireworks starting at dusk.  Donations bins will be out to help pay for the cost of the fireworks, and anyone donating $25.00 or more this year will receive a commemorative T-shirt from the KPD.  Shriner’s will help direct parking this year and local police will be on hand to help direct the heavy traffic flow that surrounds this annual fun event. 

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UNIT 2 SCHOOL DISTRICT 2010-2011 BUDGET IN THE BLACK

At the June Unit 2 School Board meeting, it was announced the 2010-2011 budget is in the black. While this was good news to the board, board member Young expressed his concern if next year’s budget would look as good since the district received so much grant monies the past fiscal year. Superintendent Strieker said they have kept this in mind when projecting next year’s budget and were conservative on a lot of their expenses. The District received the May state aid payments and a few other FY11 payments totaling $964,931.00. They also received the first Montgomery County tax payment of $10,163.00. The State of Illinois has disbursed about $9.4 million for FY11 so far this year and the district has received about $8.6 million of this money. The board approved starting a process using a new DNT imaging system to scan current personnel records.  The new system should improve access to records and hopefully rid the district of all paper storage.

 

FEDERAL PRISONER PLEADS GUILTY TO TAX FRAUD

Michael S. Chaney, age 41, originally from St. Charles, Missouri and currently a prisoner at FCI Greenville, pled guilty recently to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering.  Chaney was charged with participating in an income tax refund scheme.  Chaney faces up to an additional five years imprisonment, a fine up to $250,000.00, and three years supervised release. 

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MADISON COUNTY RECEIVES $250,000 GRANT

The Illinois Criminal Justice Authority awarded Madison County a $250,000.00 Adult Redeploy Illinois grant.  According to Probation and Court Services Director Judy Dallas, the redeploy funds will be used throughout the entire alternative court system in the drug, mental health and veterans courts with special emphasis on court-involved veterans, helping them break the cycle of alcohol and drug addiction while providing treatment for combat related mental health issues.  Dallas said, “This program will save taxpayer dollars as it is much more cost effective to maintain lower level offenders in the community where they may receive treatment rather than sentencing them to prison.”

GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES STATE OPEN DATA SITE

Governor Pat Quinn announced the launching of a state website providing open access to state data and greater transparency in state government. The State of Illinois Open Data site, Data.Illinois.Gov, is a searchable clearinghouse of information from state agencies that will help inform residents about the operation of state government and encourage the creative use of state information, including the development of applications for mobile devices that may be built around the data. The data site is an initiative of the Illinois Innovation Council, created by Governor Quinn in February, to promote economic development through innovation and the engagement of citizens, developers, academia, and industry.