Last month’s Duck Race sponsored by the Wabash County Retail Merchants Committee is being deemed a big success. Just over $4,000 was raised with the proceeds going to continued improvements at Merchants Park.
And, the date has already been set for next year’s Duck Race. It’ll be held on July 25th with a Christmas theme. Proceeds from next year’s Duck Race will go toward a new Santa house.
WSJD File Photo
Wabash County continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in southern Illinois. The latest figures from the state’s department of employment security shows Wabash County with a 3.6% rate in June, down from 4.1% in May, and the 4.9% mark in June of last year.
In The Mt. Carmel-Olney area, employment gains were posted in Government, Trade, Transportation, and Utilities, Leisure and Hospitality, Educational and Health Services, Other Services Natural Resources and Mining, and Professional and Business Services.
The lowest jobless rate last month in southern Illinois was in Hamilton County at 3.3% while Alexander County has the highest at 8.1%.
Wabash District #348 is joining other districts around Illinois who have chosen not to implement Public Act 1020522-more commonly known as the National Sex Education Standards act. According to the act, if a district does offer comprehensive sexual education then that curriculum must align with the National Sex Education Standards and establishes criteria for classes that teach comprehensive personal health and safety and comprehensive sexual health education.
At Monday night’s school board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Chuck Bleyer said he had fielded questions about the act and whether the district was implementing the standards…
The act went into effect on June 14th in Illinois.
The full law can be found here”
https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=102-0522
Wabash County Commissioners have pledged to work with the Mt. Carmel Lion’s Club to clean up Froman Park. The park, which also bears the Lion’s Club name, has fallen into a disarray with high weeds and grass making the entire facility nearly unusable. At Monday’s county board meeting, Melissa White of the Lion’s Club asked for guidance from the county in cleaning up the park…
White said the Lions recently paid someone to weed eat around one of the shelter houses, the dumpsters, and other areas. She said two of the trees planted this year by the Department of Transportation have already died because they were choked out by weeds. Commissioner Rob Dean said the county mows the property but that has been hampered by a mower that had mechanical issues. He said now that the mower is back in service, more regular mowing will now take place. Dean said he would meet with Lions members to develop a plan to get the park and lake cleaned up.
Wabash District #348 superintendent Dr. Chuck Bleyer told the school board Monday night that after a variety of delays in the Riverview Stadium renovation project, there’s finally some good news. Bleyer said the surface on the all-weather track will be put down starting on Monday. After the surface is in place, Bleyer said no one will be allowed on the track or turf field for three weeks while the new track cures. Originally, the track surface wasn’t scheduled to be put down until later this fall. Bleyer said after the opening football game was moved to Marshall, that puts the first game on track for Friday, September 16th…
But, Bleyer did offer a brief bit of caution…
Even with moving the first game of the season to Marshall, Mt. Carmel will stay have 5 home football games during the regular season this year.
This week crews have been installing new handrails at the Stadium.
This week crews have been installing new handrails at the Stadium.
At the August 17, 2022 Allendale School Board meeting held in the Library of Allendale School, the board:
● Approved the tentative 2022-2023 Budget and will display it in the school office for the next 30 days.
● Set the 2022-2023 Budget Hearing for September 21, 2022 at 6:05 p.m.
● Voted to not release the closed session verbatim minutes of March 16, 2022; April 20, 2022; June 22, 2022; July 20, 2022.
● Approved the hiring of Luke Laws as Part-time Evening Custodian.
Knox County – A criminal investigation conducted by the Indiana State Police and Vincennes City Police has resulted in the arrest of a Worthington man for Robbery and Intimidation.
Indiana State Police and Vincennes Police investigated two armed robberies that occurred at the Sunshine Spa located at 1876 Hart Street in Vincennes. The first robbery occurred on July 3 and the second robbery occurred on August 13. During both armed robberies, a male entered the business, displayed a handgun, and left the business with an undisclosed amount of money. No one was injured during the robberies.
During the investigation, detectives were able to identify the suspect in both robberies as Davis R. Miller, 25, of Worthington, IN. Detectives with the Indiana State Police and Vincennes Police located Miller yesterday evening at his residence in Worthington and arrested him without incident for the two alleged armed robberies. Miller was transported to the Knox County Jail where he is currently being held on bond.
This is an on-going criminal investigation.
Arrested and Charges:
Davis R. Miller, 25, Worthington, IN
Robbery with a Deadly Weapon, Level 3 Felony
Intimidation, Level 6 Felony
Investigating Officer: Detective Nick Hatfield, Indiana State Police
Assisting Officers: Detective Lowe and Detective Alexander, Vincennes Police
All criminal defendants are to be presumed innocent until, and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
EVANSVILLE – Patrick Garrett, 33, of Evansville, Indiana, was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.
According to court documents, Garrett was employed as a Sales Specialist for a business located in Gibson County, Indiana. Garrett was responsible for handling accounts payable and accounts receivable. From April 9, 2021, to July 16, 2021, Garrett devised and executed a direct bill and fake invoice scheme to steal $87,192.26 from his employer.
Garrett purchased approximately 62 items for himself from Amazon and other retailers by charging the purchases to his employer without authorization. Garrett’s fraudulent purchases included a car, five gas motorcycles, three electric scooters, an Apple iPad Pro, an Apple iMac Pro desktop computer, an Apple MacBook Pro laptop computer, and two drones. Garrett entered false or altered information about these purchases into his employer’s accounting system to conceal the fraud.
Garrett also submitted false invoices into his employer’s accounting system for services he claimed were provided by Garrett Ventures. Garrett created the company in 2018 and served as its Chief Financial Officer. No services were ever provided by Garrett Ventures to Garrett’s employer.
Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana; Jeffrey Adams, acting Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service; Rodney Hopkins, Inspector of Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and Sheriff Timothy Bottoms of the Gibson County Sherriff’s Office made the announcement.
The U.S. Secret Service investigated the case. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Gibson County Sheriff’s Office provided valuable assistance. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young. As part of the sentence, Judge Young ordered that Garrett pay restitution of $87,192.84, forfeit any illicitly purchased items, and be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for two years following his release from federal prison.
U.S. Attorney Myers thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Miller who prosecuted this case.
PARIS – An Illinois State Police (ISP) Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) death investigation resulted in the arrest of Preston Wallace, a 20-year-old male of Paris, IL, for First Degree Murder. Also arrested was Gabriel Wallace, a 38-year-old male of Paris, IL, for Aggravated Battery (Class 3 Felony), and Mob Action (Class 4 Felony). Gabriel Wallace was also arrested on two unrelated Class X felony warrants for Home Invasion.
On August 6, 2022, at approximately 8:58 p.m., Paris Police Department (PPD) responded to a call of a fight in the street in front of a residence in the 700 block of N. Central Street. The victim, 69-year-old Gary L. White of Paris, IL, was transported to a local hospital and later to regional hospital where he succumbed to his injuries on August 8, 2022.
On August 12, 2022, an arrest warrant for Preston Wallace was issued by Edgar County State’s Attorney’s Office. PPD took Preston Wallace into custody on August 12, 2022 and he is being held in the Edgar County Jail on a $500,000, 10% to apply bond. Gabriel Wallace was taken into custody by PPD on August 12, 2022 for his outstanding warrants and charged with the additional charges stemming from this incident. Gabriel Wallace is being held in the Edgar County Jail awaiting a bond hearing on Monday, August 15, 2022. No additional information will be available for release.
Preston Wallace (05/20/02)
Gabriel Wallace (05/10/84)
From Gibson County Sheriff’s Department:
Scams are constantly going around. They're always changing, but some certain types tend to remain popular.
One report from earlier today was regarding a grandchild needing bail money.
The caller stated his name was Michael Roberts from the Public Defender’s Office of Massachusetts. The phone number displayed was 971-308-0298. Note: That area code is originally from Oregon, and while numbers can be ported anywhere, a Public Defender's Office is unlikely to have an out-of-area phone number.
The caller stated that their grandchild was in jail and needed bail money.
Spoiler alert: the grandchild was not in jail.
If you get a call from somebody stating your grandchild is in jail, or a call from somebody claiming to be your grandchild, and they need bail money, or money for emergency vehicle repairs, hospital bills, etc., be highly skeptical. Hang up and call them back at a number you know to be theirs or reach out to somebody who will know if they are in jail (perhaps their parents).
Do not give out any personal information over the phone or provide any kind of payment to these scammers. They'll often ask for bank account numbers, credit/debit card numbers, or maybe have you buy various gift cards at the store and read the card numbers over the phone to handle things.
Once you do that, that money is gone fast.
For more information on being aware of and avoiding scams, go to https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-avoid-scam
