Miller Farms store opens Friday Page 8 Percy man gets federal jail time Page 2 Serving The Area With Local News Since 1980 Court update Page 3 P’ville hospital awards Page 13 © Copyright 2015, County Journal www.countyjournalnews.com Volume 37 Number 6 28 Pages Your Local News Leader Thursday, February 11, 2016 75¢ Perry Co. board violated Open Meetings Act, says AG By Travis Lott would be gone or cancelling Neil Olson, assistant attor- the closed session recording New developments have his vacation. ney general, sent a written re- and its corresponding min- come to light on whether or Media reports conflicted, ply to Egbert’s request last utes. not members of the Perry due to different sources, but month. However, the request from County board of commission- some papers—including the The reply states that the the attorney general is not ers violated the Illinoios Open County Journal—suggested Perry County board violated binding, which leaves it up to Meetings Act late last year. that the closure was dis- the Open Meetings Act by dis- the board whether or not they The Illinois attorney cussed during the closed ses- cussing subjects in closed want to release the recording. general’s office maintains sion of the November 5 meet- session outside the scope of “The county clerk is prepar- that they did. ing of the board of commis- exceptions allowed by the act. ing a thumb drive to present The issue arose in Novem- sioners. According to Olson’s letter, to each board member so that ber after the Perry County Members of the board later the board had contended that they can listen to it and de- Highway Department closed admitted they did discuss the the discussion fell under the cide if they’re going to release due to an internal dispute matter during the closed ses- exemptions laid out for collec- it,” said State’s Attorney when engineer Brian Otten sion. tive bargaining. David Stanton. took his scheduled vacation. The Illinois Open Meetings However, Olson concluded In other news, the board ap- A temporary supervisor had Act has a specific set of that approximately 48 min- proved a resolution that at- been assigned to take over guidlines for how a closed utes into the closed session, taches Perry County to an ef- during the time Otten would portion of a public meeting the board began discussing fort spearheaded by the be gone. However, at the last should be conducted in order matters that did not fall under United Counties Council of minute, that person decided to ensure transparency of the the exemptions. Illinois to repeal recent not to take the temporary po- governing body with the peo- In accordance with that con- changes to jury costs. sition. ple it governs. clusion, the attorney gener- The state law recently This left Otten with the op- Jeff Egbert, publisher of the torney general’s office to re- al’s office has requested that changed to require jurors be tions of either closing the de- Pinckneyville Press, filed a view the minutes of the No- the Perry County board pub- partment for the days he request with the Illinois at- vember 5 closed session. licly disclose the portion of Continued on Page 5_____ Chester High School counselor honored Sabens goes to White House for ceremony By Travis Lott she does for the school that conference, which is where A local school counselor is earned her the honors—they Obama unveiled the Reach the recipient of a prestigious come as a result of complete Higher initiative two years honor from the state of Illi- dedication to her profession. ago. nois. She has served on the “(Sabens) has an insatiable Franciene Sabens has been state’s counselling associa- drive for research and prac- the Chester High School tion board for three years and tice,” said Kelton Davis, re- counselor for eight years. In in that time helped imple- gional superintendent of 2014, she was chosen as coun- ment the national Reach schools. “She stays current selor of the year for Illinois. Higher initiative, which was with counselors all over the She was then nominated by introduced by First Lady country, and as a practicioner, the state for the 2016 national Michelle Obama. she applies her theory.” counselor of the year award, Sabens also coauthored the Through all of the state and for which she was a finalist 2013-14 Illinois model for national work she does, she and went to the White House school counselling and has never loses sight of what’s in Washington, D.C. last presented it to schools important. month for an award cer- throughout the state. “My favorite part is still just emony. Chester High School can’t seeing the students succeed,” “It was pretty cool because afford to send her to national Sabens said. “That success I’m from such a small conferences, so she puts up means something different for Chester High School counselor Franciene Sabens with Eric school,” Sabens said. her own money to attend the every student, and every little Waldo, executive director of the national Reach Higher However, its not just what national school counselling success is important.” initiative. Dr. Bardo receives Chester fire was Morrison award likely arson: Bert Dr. Harold Bardo, Sparta involved on numerous By Travis Lott native and former faculty ath- search committees for SIU A fire that occurred at 507 Solomon Street in Chester early letics representative for and has been part of the table February 4 is under investigation by Chester police and the SIUC, was recently selected crew for men’s basketball state fire marshal. to receive the Paul Morrison since 1973. Award. He was an appointee to the The fire is being investigated because of where it started on Sparta Commissioner Gary National Collegiate Athletic the back of the house and the speed in which it burned. Stephens noted the honor Association Amateurism “There was no other ignition point on the back of the house,” Monday at the town’s city Cabinet and the NCAA Divi- said Marty Bert, Chester fire chief. council meeting. sion I Leadership Council, Bert said the fire burned under the porch and worked its Bardo will be given the where he served as the way to the roof, damaging the upstairs and attic. Morrison award March 4 dur- council’s liaison to the Divi- The upstairs was destroyed, and Bert said there was smoke ing the Presidents Hall of sion I Student-Athlete Advi- Dr. Harold Bardo and water damage throughout the house. Fame Breakfast at Peabody sory Committee. He also The fire was mostly burned out by the time firemen arrived, Opera House in St. Louis. served on the MVC finance counseling in the School of leading Bert to believe that an accelerant, such as gasoline, The Morrison award is pre- committee. Medicine and the associate was used. sented to honor individuals Bardo was an instructor at chairperson for medical edu- “Whatever they used burned out,” Bert said. “It didn’t have SIU in educational psychol- who have made significant cation in Carbondale. enough sustaining heat to keep going.” contributions to their respec- ogy in 1968. He joined the Bardo is a life member of the The Ellis Grove Fire Department was called to assist, and tive league-member institu- School of Medicine faculty in SIU Alumni Association and tions, the Missouri Valley 1985 and became director of Bert said the scene was cleared just a few hours later. Conference or collegiate ath- its medical/dental education has helped raise money for There were only two residents home when the fire broke out, letics in general. preparatory program. scholarships during the pro- Courtney Carter, 44, and his mother. Both escaped unharmed. Bardo retired in 2014 after He also served as an acting ject hope and opportunity Carter was recently in the news after a wreck January 30 in 17 years in his most recent associate dean for fiscal af- campaign. He also received which he ran the stop sign with his car at the intersection of position at SIU. He also fairs in the College of Educa- the university’s Lindell W. Route 150 and Shawneetown Trail, seriously injuring his 25- served as interim director of tion. He was an assistant Sturgis Memorial Public Ser- year-old passenger Amanda Reeves of Percy. athletics multiple times, was dean for minority affairs and vice Award in 2014. Cutler gets grant for radium removal The Village of Cutler has dium levels in the water have filtered out of the water. been approved for a grant been below the maximum al- The estimated cost of the through the Department of lowable level since the sec- project is $335,000. The DCEO Commerce and Economic ond quarter of 2012, but the grant will provide $258,325 of Opportunity to fund the EPA still requires the village that. village’s radium reduction to implement a reduction “We were eventually going to plan. process. have to come up with the Village Clerk Pat Boyce said The village selected a treat- money one way or another,” the village has been search- ment process used success- Boyce said. “If we had to bor- ing for funding for the plan fully in other Illinois commu- row that kind of money, water since 2012, after Illinois EPA nities, and that process was bills would have to be raised tests showed a high level of approved by the EPA. to compensate. That is some- radium in Cutler’s ground “We were just waiting on thing that just cannot hap- water in 2011.