School Sports About to Return

School Sports About to Return

Volume 42 Number 4 Thursday, January 28, 2021 24 Pages | 75¢ School sports about to return By Dan Zobel The only exception is that In a matter of just a cou- indoor medium-risk sports ple of weeks, the outlook can only have contests on youth sports for the re- within their conference or mainder of the school year COVID region. has changed dramatically. The Illinois High School Since late November, zero Association board met Jan- sports, no matter what risk uary 27 to set season sched- label the Illinois Depart- ules for the remainder of ment of Public Health de- the school year. termined they were, have The original winter sea- been allowed to compete. son, which includes basket- That changed earlier this ball and bowling, is set to month, when Governor J.B. end soon. While the origi- Pritzker lifted the state- nal spring season, which wide COVID-19 Tier 3 miti- includes volleyball, football gation mandate. and boys soccer, is sched- Since then, all of the 11 re- uled to start with practice gions have advanced out of February 15. Shown is the vehicle after Steeleville firemen extricated victim Maria Jacinto. Tier 3, some as far as back One caveat to competition into Phase 4 of Pritzker’s is that masks are manda- Restore Illinois plan. One tory in practice and games. Woman saved from burning car of those regions to reach Social distancing must be that phase is Region 5, followed for players on the which includes Perry and bench and game personnel. Brothers, bystander carried water in trash can Jackson counties. Before an official game By Travis Lott ers to arrive on the scene, of the responding officers, As of January 26, six re- can be held, low-risk win- The quick actions of lo- followed by sheriff’s depu- the Kothe brothers and gions have yet to get out ter sports have to conduct cal police and community ty Jonathan Barbour. Keller, he doesn’t know if of mitigation, including practice for seven days. A members may very well The car caught fire in the Jacinto would have sur- Region 4. Randolph County basketball team must have have saved the life of an ac- engine. Bravo escaped the vived. and St. Clair County are in 12 days of practice prior to cident victim near Steele- vehicle, but her passen- “Timing’s everything in Region 4, which is the only a game. ville last Thursday. ger Maria Jacinto, 52, of something like that,” Reitz region in Tier 2 mitigation. The first day for contact According to a report Carbondale was trapped, said. “They kept it from get- The move to Phase 4 is days to resume in fall, from the Randolph County suspended by her seat belt. ting really bad.” significant, because that spring and summer sports Sheriff’s Office, a vehicle The Steeleville Fire De- Randolph County Chief means high-risk sports, was January 25. A contact driven by Vanessa Bra- partment was called, but Deputy Jarrod Peters said such as basketball, foot- day allows the coaches to vo, 18, of Carbondale was the fire was spreading he is grateful to work ball and wrestling, will be meet and hold practices southbound on Rockcastle through the car. alongside great local po- allowed to have contests with their players under Road Janaury 21 just after Police exhausted their lice and fire departments, within their conference the set health guidelines. as well as the community 11 p.m., when she swerved fire extinguishers as the and COVID regions. Once contests begin, as a whole. to miss a deer. Kothe brothers and by- Low-risk sports such as whether they are outdoors “With everything going The vehicle ran off the stander Willis Keller ran to bowling and medium-risk or indoors, schools in Phase on in the world right now, left side of the roadway, the nearby home of Jerry such as volleyball and soc- 4 regions can have a maxi- the community we have overcorrected and ran off Lohman, where they got a cer are allowed to compete mum of 50 spectators. here in Randolph County is in tournaments and have the right side, where it trash can and filled it with stand-up,” Peters said. competitions out of state. overturned and struck a water. They carried it back Peters said the bystanders Continued on Page 5 ______ pair of trees. The vehicle to the burning car and put their lives on the line to came to rest on the driver’s used it to slow the spread save strangers, just as the side with its roof against of the fire. police did. a tree. Soon after, Steeleville “They could have been Brothers Zachery and firemen arrived, extin- Lehnhoff gets just as easily injured in this Ethan Kothe of Steeleville guished the blaze and re- blaze as the person laying spotted the accident and trieved Jacinto from the inside,” Peters said. called 911. vehicle. Bravo was not hospital- prison sentence Steeleville police officers Steeleville Fire Chief Rich ized, but Jacinto was taken Chase Usher and Justin Reitz said that, had it not to the Sparta hospital with Took $3 million from Gilster-Mary Lee Baker were the first offic- been for the heroic actions serious injuries. By Travis Lott A rural Percy man is headed to prison after he admitted to taking nearly Levee districts in financial bind $3 million from Gilster- By Dan Zobel no plan is submitted, they Mary Lee over the course Area levee districts find risk being removed from a of almost 10 years. themselves in a bind. program that offers federal Mark Lehnhoff, 48, was Fort de Chartres Lev- Blaming help when damage occurs sentenced January 22 af- ee District Commissioner due to high water. ter accepting a plea agree- Mark Laurent, Stringtown “They know we don’t have ment. He was sentenced to Levee District Commis- unfunded the money,” Prange said. three years in prison and sioner Lynden Prange and “They’ve more or less said ordered to pay restitution. Gene Rohlfing of the Har- that to us. They mandate Lehnhoff, who was a risonville Levee District government that we have to come before private contractor work- spoke to the Randolph the Randolph County board ing with Gilster, admit- County board at its Janu- and the Monroe County ted to submitting several Mark Lehnhoff ary 22 meeting about the mandates board and see if both re- invoices between January problem at hand. spective boards would do 1, 2010 and August 1, 2019 nearly $2 million. Levee districts throughout a bond referendum to pay to Gilster for work he did Walker said it is highly Illinois, Iowa and Missouri need money. We need to for this. We point-blank not perform. unlikely that Lehnhoff have been given, what somehow come up with a told the Corps that’s put- In 2019, staff at Gilster will ever be able to pay Prange calls, an unfunded way to raise funds.” ting pressure on the county caught on to the scheme, that, but it will hang over mandate by the United Some of the work being boards. and the company contact- his head for the rest of States Army Corps of En- required is for the gravity “This is all coming from ed the Randolph County his life. gineers to make necessary drains and relief wells to Washington. The local of- Sheriff’s Office. “In case Mr. Lehnhoff repairs and improvements be tested. If they are not fice said they got a di- Randolph County State’s would inherit some mon- by 2023. up to par, they have to be rective from Washington Attorney Jeremy Walker ey or win the lottery, we “They walked the levee replaced. The levees also headquarters. They want said his office worked wanted to have that res- and find every hole and must have cameras. these problems fixed be- closely with Gilster to titution on the back end,” anything that is wrong,” Laurent explained that cause they know these dis- come to a sentence that Walker said. Laurent said. “Now, they the levee districts have to crepancies, that the levee is satisfied the company. While Lehnhoff was able want all this corrected, write a letter to the colonel 70-some years old and has to pay about one-third of which is not a problem. of the Corps of Engineers been repeatedly pressured “We either could have the money back, it’s still With the river being down by April 1 with a plan of with water. They know maximized his time in now, it’s the time to do it. how the necessary require- corrections or we could not clear where the money “Long story short, we ments will be satisfied. If Continued on Page 5 ______ maximize the amount of he’d stolen went in the restitution he has to pay,” first place. Walker said. Walker said his office Gilster chose to maxi- searched through bank mize restitution, and prior records, and there is no to his plea, Lehnhoff liq- evidence that Lehnhoff uidated much of his prop- had spent a great deal of erty, such as farmland money on the usual vices off of Huseman Road in such as gambling. Percy that he’d inherited “Honestly, I just think and other personal items, this guy was a bad farm- which he used to pay Gil- er,” Walker said. ster $945,374. Gilster President Tom “Basically, we zeroed him Welge said he is glad the out,” Walker said. issue has been resolved, If Lehnhoff ever comes and he is grateful for the into any money after he is work done by the state’s released from prison, he attorney’s and sheriff’s Crews work to contain a sand boil on the Prairie du Rocher levee in 2019.

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