Letter from Washington—power; Plum Book; inaugural
By Jim Nowlan
The quest for power, influence and importance drives politics, and D.C. is the pinnacle of governmental power. I define power as the capacity to force someone to do something he had not planned to do, e.g. vote for a bill he wanted to vote against. Most people in Washington lack power, yet that doesn’t stop them from acting important, as if to suggest they do indeed have power or influence when they don’t.
Aides and college interns often travel the corridors of their imposing congressional office buildings with brows furrowed, as if they are on missions that will reshape the Western world.
At the moment, the quest for power is being measured by success at gaining appointment by the President-elect to one of the 2,000 high-paying positions at his disposal. The posts are listed in the “Plum Book” (because of its color), which campaign supporters pore over to identify just the jobs they hope to land, whether special assistant to a cabinet secretary or one of the many assistant secretaries at Health and Human Service and other agencies.
This is what happens in the transition that is going on. Out with 2,000 Bush appointees and in with those of Obama. (Some of the Bush political appointees are able to become certified in non-political civil service jobs before Obama takes office--and asks for their resignations. Even these people are not totally safe, as games can be played. For example, a person in the Senior Executive Service [for high-ranking civil servants] may be assigned anywhere in the world by their superiors, such as Juneau, Alaska, or Panama City, Panama, which may not be that attractive.)
One way to schmooze those on the inside, that is, those who will recommend the appointments to Obama’s top staff, will be at the inaugural ceremonies and balls. What potential pandemonium that will be. Two million or more people are expected to observe the swearing in of our new President. Hotel packages, if any are still available, are going for as much as $40,000!
Scores of balls will be held the evening of the January 20 Inauguration. Many state societies hold black tie events and that of the Illinois Society is already a hot ticket, on the premise that the many Chicagoans already in the Administration- in-formation will be present and that Barack and Michelle may do a drop by in their frantic schedule of going from ball to ball.
The Illinois Society is a networking group of people out here who are from our state. I went to the Illinois Society Ball in 2004. All the powerful GOP congressmen and many Democrats attended a forgettable banquet dinner and then everyone table-hopped. Quite a scene—hundreds of people moving from table to table to say Hi to folks they knew, or wanted to know.
All in the quest for power and influence and importance. This is not a quest for the meek and self-effacing. One has to market himself by aggressively working the telephone and email addresses of people who may have access to someone on the inside of the decisionmaking process.
I recall a transition for Gov. Jim Thompson at the state level. One weekend, the campaign manager came into my office to lament that he had a stack of 400 telephone messages on his desk, all from people who expected, or at least hoped for, a call back. Multiply that by 20 or so and you can get a sense of how overloaded the lines are into the Obama transition.
I think I may come home inauguration weekend, which is four days long. Washington’s Birthday is on Monday and the big event on Tuesday, which is also a federal government holiday, at least here in D.C.
On the other hand, I have a staunch Republican friend, who actually worked in the Bush Administration and had a good seat for the last inauguration. He plans to bring his teenage son to the January 20 event, even though he will be several football fields away from the podium.
“I want to impress on my son just how important and majestic the peaceful transfer of power is.” Not many nations in this world outside North America and Western Europe transfer power peacefully from one administration to the next. So the Inauguration is worth watching, if on television, to remind us how blessed we are.
County Watch—farmland; Ruth; Marcine; Cliff; kudos
By Jim Nowlan
“Good” farmland values in central western Illinois appreciated on average by 20 percent during the past year, according to the August AgLetter from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. This was the sharpest increase of any region in the bank’s 5-state territory.
Avid News reader Ruth Talbert of the Galesburg area recently sent fascinating information about the role of Stark County residents in the Underground Railroad that helped move slaves from Missouri through Illinois and up to freedom in Canada.
In a new book on the topic (The Underground Railway in Western Illinois), author Owen Muelder of Knox College writes about “Niggers Point,” the name given by slave hunters to a hideaway barn on the property of W. W. Webster south of West Jersey. The Webster family still owns land where the barn must have been located.}
Mr. Webster worked with S. G. Wright and Jonathan Pratts as active conductors on the Underground Railroad. I believe Wright was pastor at the liberal (abolitionist) Toulon Congregational Church. According to Muelder’s source Harriet Hall Blair, daughter of slave conductor Dr. Thomas Hall, slaves would have been transported from Niggers Point north and east, probably on to a small station in Elmira Township, where the names Calvin Winslow and James Burwell and Burwell, Jr. are noted, and then on to Boyd’s Grove east of Bradford.
Western Illinois was inhospitable territory for the Underground Railroad. So after getting through Stark and into Bureau, home of the famous abolitionist Owen Lovejoy, the going may have been easier for the slaves and their conductors.
Sounds like a fascinating book, but pricey at $45, so check at your local library and use the marvelous inter- library loan service.
Speaking of history from the Civil War era, Marcine Rashid of LaFayette owns a set of about 40 letters written home to West Jersey throughout that war by Amasiah Chamberlin (wonder when the family added the “a” in Chamberlain?).
Marcine gave me a chance to see the letters, which are absolutely captivating. In one place, Chamberlin talks of breaking into the homes to Confederate women to take the chickens and all the food they could find. “We told them (the women) that their poultry were now ‘Union chickens.’ At other places during the Battle of Corinth, he speaks of the brutality of war in unflinching terms.
Marcine is transcribing all the letters, which will be of great value, and The News will run several of them.
Nice gesture. Cliff Lester is a 1948 graduate of Toulon High now living in California, back for a high school reunion over the Fall Festival weekend. On Sunday, the Stark County High Dance Team stopped at Pizza Hut in Wyoming after painting the towns’ storefront windows with homecoming encouragements. Seeing the team, Cliff bought pizza and whatevers for all the team, saying he wanted to do something to help.
Kudos to co-chairs Sheri Copple and Tracy Thorne, of the Wyoming and Toulon banks, respectively, and to all the officers and city chairs for the splendid Stark County Fall Festival held this past weekend. The key supporting cast included: Dede Rice, Peggy Moats, Hillary Colgan, Aaron Goodman, Doris Howell (who brought Bradford back into the fold), John and Donna Gerard (new chairs at Toulon), Sandy Milby, Peggy Gray, Fred Sams and Karen Gruszeczka. If I missed any folks, as I’m sure I did, let me know and they will be acknowledged next week.
County Watch — Dr. Cahill; LaFayette Home Nursery
By Jim Nowlan
Bradford native Dr. Bernard Cahill passed away last week at age 79. He must have been quite a fellow. The nationally-recognized but self-effacing Dr. Cahill pioneered the field of sports medicine and earned the title of “Mr. Sports Medicine” from his peers. He was committed to helping young athletes train properly for sporting events and also to repair them when they became hurt.
As a 15-year-old farm boy, Bernie Cahill fibbed his way into the U.S. Marine Corps just in time for the Battle of Okinawa in the Pacific. According to the Peoria Journal-Star, the young Cahill later met the hordes of Chinese soldiers at Yalu River in Korea. “His feet barely saved after frostbite and shrapnel pried from his body, Cahill took a battlefield commission and wound up his service as an adviser in the French-Indochina War,” which preceded the Vietnam Conflict.
LaFayette Home Nursery plans to phase out in trees and shrubs business but go full steam ahead with its popular prairie grass department, which serves customers across the Midwest.
According to Colleen Stevens of the nursery, the business will fulfill all orders and jobs on the books. “We’ll still have chemicals and treatments for ash borers as well as bark mulch service,” Colleen said, “and someone to spray for bag worms.”
The LaFayette Home Nursery will hold an auction of trees and shrubs, “probably in early November,” said Colleen.
Schock-Callahan square off in Bradford
By Jim Nowlan
In a mostly congenial debate between the 18th District congressional candidates, front-runner Aaron Schock (R) and prominent challenger Colleen Callahan (D) traded barbs over campaign contributions and etched their differences on Iraq, immigration and agricultural price inputs.
“How does Aaron Schock take $5,000 from Exxon-Mobil (an oil producer)?” declared Callahan, suggesting Schock has a lack of independence on the energy issue.
Schock retorted by noting that with $2 million raised, a $5,000 contribution is not going to affect his vote.
“And my opponent has received a contribution from Hugh Hefner (of Play Boy notoriety), in California,” added Schock, suggesting that Callahan was also receiving major out-of-state contributions of a questionable sort.
Iraq, immigration, inputs show differences
On Iraq, Schock stated that he believed the “surge” (of troops) in that country has worked and that he believes in listening to the commanders on the ground in Iraq to shape his decisions.
Callahan argued that “it is time to leave Iraq and stop spending $12 billion a month in that country.”
Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer said that his plan called for bringing the stakeholders in the region (other Islamic countries) into the process to and make them responsible for solving the problems in the region.
On immigration: “Shame on us for building a wall,” stated Callahan. “If we build a 12-foot wall, someone will build a 12 ½-foot ladder.” Callahan supports creating a path to citizenship for those illegals who really want to become citizens, and she also favors a guest worker program.
Schock said we need to: 1) secure our borders; 2) provide preferential treatment for high-skill workers, and 3) have a guest worker program.
In response to a question from the mostly farmer audience about high input prices, Callahan declared that, “We have to take a look at mergers and consolidation in the ag industry. Record grain prices are being matched by record input costs.” Schock opposes federal intervention in the capitalist system regarding mergers and consolidation.
“I’m for off-shore drilling and drilling in Alaska, as well as for nuclear energy development,” said Schock, when the questions turned to energy.
Callahan favors the “25 by 25” program of the Illinois Farm Bureau, which has set a goal of 25 percent sustainable energy production by 2025. “We are borrowing money from China to buy oil from Saudi Arabia,” she added.
Green party candidate Schafer favors extending the production tax credit to all sustainable energy sources, including wind and solar. He noted that a recent break-through in solar power will make that form of sustainable energy more attractive and effective.
Schafer added that the USDA Laboratory in Peoria needs to be doing twice as much research, as it is at the cutting edge of sustainable energy research.
Candidates tout backgrounds
Aaron Schock is a two-term state representative from Peoria. In his twenties, Schock became widely known when he was 19 for his successful write-in campaign to election to the Peoria School board. Touting his experience as a lawmaker, Schock noted that he passed more legislation as a freshman House member in Springfield than any other freshman.
Callahan talked about her family and farm background, her independence and her career as a farm broadcaster. “After 30 years as a farm broadcaster,” observed Callahan, “listeners would come up to me when I announced my candidacy to exclaim, ‘We had no idea you were a Democrat.’” Callahan and her husband also hosted a fundraiser for Republican congressman Ray LaHood several years ago.
Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer is an astronomer and educator who works full time for the Lakeview Museum in Peoria.
“As a scientist, I will bring expertise on global warming, which is going to affect us all,” he said, adding that it was the overriding issue facing the world.
Farm Bureaus host debate
The Stark, Henry and Bureau county Farm Bureaus hosted the debate, which was held in the comfortable meeting room of the Bradford First Baptist Church this past Monday morning. Questions from the audience provided the format for the 90-minute exchange among the candidates.
Schock and Callahan both presented themselves as knowledgeable, articulate, highly skilled public speakers.
News acquires the local Chillicothe Independent
By Jim Nowlan
Stark County Communications (publisher of The Stark County News) has acquired the Chillicothe Independent newspaper through a stock transaction.
The Independent is celebrating its 10th year of publication as a weekly newspaper that emphasizes, like The News, positive developments in that community and on the activities of the people, school and organizations of the Chillicothe area.
Chillicothe is a city of over 6,000 people in north Peoria County along the Illinois River, approximately 10 miles east of the southeast corner of Stark County.
“The papers are similar in size and circulation,” stated News general manager Rich St. John, “and nearly 9,000 postal patrons of Chillicothe represent a market of almost twice size of Stark County. There is significant room for growth in the expanding Chillicothe area, which excites me.”
St. John sees opportunities for cost savings through consolidation of business and other services as well as for combined advertising sales in the Peoria and Stark markets.
A major change at the Chillicothe operation will be the development of an active website, similar to the popular countyenews.com site in Stark County. Stark County resident and college student Jason Musselman will develop the new website.
The Independent started a decade ago as a local hometown paper when the long-standing Chillicothe Bulletin was purchased by what is now Gatehouse Media, a national newspaper giant that also owns the Peoria Journal-Star and The Kewanee Star Courier.
Scott Miller and his sister Karen Moewe, who also served as the editor of the paper, have operated The Independent. Moewe will be stepping down as editor of the Independent, however, other primary staff at the Chillicothe newspaper will remain the same.
Staff at the Stark County News will assist the Independent staff during a transition period.
News recommends a
NO vote on ballot issue
By Jim Nowlan
The November ballot includes the question of whether voters should call for a new state constitutional convention. I recommend a No vote.
Many readers may be unaware that the states even have constitutions, blocked from the sunlight as they are by the vaunted U.S. Constitution, which by the way drew heavily upon the Massachusetts state charter for its inspiration and language. State constitutions provide the framework for government—the structure of the three branches; powers accorded to local governments; revenue raising and limitations thereon, for example.
Aware that change in the basic charter might be needed, the framers of the 1970 Illinois document provided that every 20 years the question of a new constitutional convention (or concon for short) be put before the voters; the question is on the ballot in November 2008. If voters approve a call, election of 118 delegates follows and the body may propose a new constitution or a list of separate amendments.
The present Illinois Constitution is a good, though not perfect document. The document can, however, be amended as necessary and has been 10 times. For example, in 1980 voters reduced the size of the legislature and eliminated a unique multi-member voting scheme.
Constitutional scholars generally feel that these important state charters be limited to principles and framework, and that they not tie the hands of elected representatives in future decades.
The 1970 Illinois charter replaced an 1870 constitution, which had been considered inadequate and constrictive almost from the year of its enactment. There has been no hue and cry from scholars, civic groups or voters about the need to replace the 1970 document.
Some people have suggested that a constitutional convention might be able to improve state government operations by providing for the recall of our present governor and legislative leaders. A “recall” provision could not be put in place before the 2010 elections for governor and state lawmakers, so 2010 is the time to deal with that issue.
In my mind, there simply aren’t enough strong reasons to go to the expense and distraction of a convention at this time. I suggest a No vote on this issue, which is at the bottom of the ballot.
County Watch—Tony; Carl Peve; Frank; Ted; Buddy
By Jim Nowlan
As of this week, Green’s Family Grocery in Toulon celebrates its first year anniversary. Kudos to Tony and his team for always presenting a neat, clean, well-stocked store that is a great benefit to Toulon and the area. Thanks, Tony.
Tony is a basketball referee and former athletic standout at Elmwood. Tony and his crew are starting out soon with grade school basketball, “to get their legs under them.”
LaFayette village president Carl Peve gave a talk this past Saturday at the Illinois Municipal League annual convention in Chicago, which always draws several thousand participants. As the oldest mayor in Illinois at age 92, Carl delighted his session’s audience of several hundred with lessons learned as mayor.
Carl won some appreciative laughter when he said he had one hard-and-fast rule—he never answers the phone after 6 o’clock.
Since I was also a speaker at the convention, we drove back together. The harvest in the Chicago region is quite a ways behind that in our area.
Last week I wondered out loud about the spelling of the family name Chamberlain.
Frank Mannix called to explain why the “a” was put, by mistake, in the name of the West Jersey Chamberl(a)ins. Shortly after the Civil War, the family read of the courageous exploits of the Chamberlain (with an “a”) from Maine whose men successfully defended the critical Little Big Top at Gettysburg. The family decided that they must have been spelling their name wrong, so they changed it.
But Frank says the family was wrong, and that the long-time spelling had been “lin,” without the “a.” Frank said the early family Bible of Amasiah Dutton Barber Chamberlin of New Hampshire recorded early family members and the spelling was indeed Chamberlin.
Frank has turned over all genealogical investigations to the county “geenee” society, as he refers to those good folks.
And now, you have the rest of the story.
My friend farmer Ted Fairfield was in a serious auto accident this past summer. He is still recuperating from surgery and is doing okay, but is in no position to get his crops in. I used to help him bale hay (oh, my aching back). Wish I had a combine, Ted. Best wishes for a continuing recovery.
Shortly after appearing at the Hub Ballroom during the winter of 1958, the legendary Buddy Holly died in a plane crash as he headed to, or was it from, the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.
I received word that the Surf (just like the Hub) is still alive and will present a major tribute to Buddy on February 2, with Bobby Vee and other stars from the era as well as younger bands that do the 1950-60s music. Friends of mine are making the pilgrimage.
I was at the Hub, lo those 50 years ago, as a junior in high school. Drove there in my 1952 Plymouth Coupe.
“Oh, that’ll be the day. . . .”
County Watch—farmland; Ruth; Marcine; Cliff; kudos
By Jim Nowlan
“Good” farmland values in central western Illinois appreciated on average by 20 percent during the past year, according to the August AgLetter from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. This was the sharpest increase of any region in the bank’s 5-state territory.
Avid News reader Ruth Talbert of the Galesburg area recently sent fascinating information about the role of Stark County residents in the Underground Railroad that helped move slaves from Missouri through Illinois and up to freedom in Canada.
In a new book on the topic (The Underground Railway in Western Illinois), author Owen Muelder of Knox College writes about “Niggers Point,” the name given by slave hunters to a hideaway barn on the property of W. W. Webster south of West Jersey. The Webster family still owns land where the barn must have been located.}
Mr. Webster worked with S. G. Wright and Jonathan Pratts as active conductors on the Underground Railroad. I believe Wright was pastor at the liberal (abolitionist) Toulon Congregational Church. According to Muelder’s source Harriet Hall Blair, daughter of slave conductor Dr. Thomas Hall, slaves would have been transported from Niggers Point north and east, probably on to a small station in Elmira Township, where the names Calvin Winslow and James Burwell and Burwell, Jr. are noted, and then on to Boyd’s Grove east of Bradford.
Western Illinois was inhospitable territory for the Underground Railroad. So after getting through Stark and into Bureau, home of the famous abolitionist Owen Lovejoy, the going may have been easier for the slaves and their conductors.
Sounds like a fascinating book, but pricey at $45, so check at your local library and use the marvelous inter- library loan service.
Speaking of history from the Civil War era, Marcine Rashid of LaFayette owns a set of about 40 letters written home to West Jersey throughout that war by Amasiah Chamberlin (wonder when the family added the “a” in Chamberlain?).
Marcine gave me a chance to see the letters, which are absolutely captivating. In one place, Chamberlin talks of breaking into the homes to Confederate women to take the chickens and all the food they could find. “We told them (the women) that their poultry were now ‘Union chickens.’ At other places during the Battle of Corinth, he speaks of the brutality of war in unflinching terms.
Marcine is transcribing all the letters, which will be of great value, and The News will run several of them.
Nice gesture. Cliff Lester is a 1948 graduate of Toulon High now living in California, back for a high school reunion over the Fall Festival weekend. On Sunday, the Stark County High Dance Team stopped at Pizza Hut in Wyoming after painting the towns’ storefront windows with homecoming encouragements. Seeing the team, Cliff bought pizza and whatevers for all the team, saying he wanted to do something to help.
Kudos to co-chairs Sheri Copple and Tracy Thorne, of the Wyoming and Toulon banks, respectively, and to all the officers and city chairs for the splendid Stark County Fall Festival held this past weekend. The key supporting cast included: Dede Rice, Peggy Moats, Hillary Colgan, Aaron Goodman, Doris Howell (who brought Bradford back into the fold), John and Donna Gerard (new chairs at Toulon), Sandy Milby, Peggy Gray, Fred Sams and Karen Gruszeczka. If I missed any folks, as I’m sure I did, let me know and they will be acknowledged next week.
County Watch — Dr. Cahill; LaFayette Home Nursery
By Jim Nowlan
Bradford native Dr. Bernard Cahill passed away last week at age 79. He must have been quite a fellow. The nationally-recognized but self-effacing Dr. Cahill pioneered the field of sports medicine and earned the title of “Mr. Sports Medicine” from his peers. He was committed to helping young athletes train properly for sporting events and also to repair them when they became hurt.
As a 15-year-old farm boy, Bernie Cahill fibbed his way into the U.S. Marine Corps just in time for the Battle of Okinawa in the Pacific. According to the Peoria Journal-Star, the young Cahill later met the hordes of Chinese soldiers at Yalu River in Korea. “His feet barely saved after frostbite and shrapnel pried from his body, Cahill took a battlefield commission and wound up his service as an adviser in the French-Indochina War,” which preceded the Vietnam Conflict.
LaFayette Home Nursery plans to phase out in trees and shrubs business but go full steam ahead with its popular prairie grass department, which serves customers across the Midwest.
According to Colleen Stevens of the nursery, the business will fulfill all orders and jobs on the books. “We’ll still have chemicals and treatments for ash borers as well as bark mulch service,” Colleen said, “and someone to spray for bag worms.”
The LaFayette Home Nursery will hold an auction of trees and shrubs, “probably in early November,” said Colleen.
Schock-Callahan square off in Bradford
By Jim Nowlan
In a mostly congenial debate between the 18th District congressional candidates, front-runner Aaron Schock (R) and prominent challenger Colleen Callahan (D) traded barbs over campaign contributions and etched their differences on Iraq, immigration and agricultural price inputs.
“How does Aaron Schock take $5,000 from Exxon-Mobil (an oil producer)?” declared Callahan, suggesting Schock has a lack of independence on the energy issue.
Schock retorted by noting that with $2 million raised, a $5,000 contribution is not going to affect his vote.
“And my opponent has received a contribution from Hugh Hefner (of Play Boy notoriety), in California,” added Schock, suggesting that Callahan was also receiving major out-of-state contributions of a questionable sort.
Iraq, immigration, inputs show differences
On Iraq, Schock stated that he believed the “surge” (of troops) in that country has worked and that he believes in listening to the commanders on the ground in Iraq to shape his decisions.
Callahan argued that “it is time to leave Iraq and stop spending $12 billion a month in that country.”
Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer said that his plan called for bringing the stakeholders in the region (other Islamic countries) into the process to and make them responsible for solving the problems in the region.
On immigration: “Shame on us for building a wall,” stated Callahan. “If we build a 12-foot wall, someone will build a 12 ½-foot ladder.” Callahan supports creating a path to citizenship for those illegals who really want to become citizens, and she also favors a guest worker program.
Schock said we need to: 1) secure our borders; 2) provide preferential treatment for high-skill workers, and 3) have a guest worker program.
In response to a question from the mostly farmer audience about high input prices, Callahan declared that, “We have to take a look at mergers and consolidation in the ag industry. Record grain prices are being matched by record input costs.” Schock opposes federal intervention in the capitalist system regarding mergers and consolidation.
“I’m for off-shore drilling and drilling in Alaska, as well as for nuclear energy development,” said Schock, when the questions turned to energy.
Callahan favors the “25 by 25” program of the Illinois Farm Bureau, which has set a goal of 25 percent sustainable energy production by 2025. “We are borrowing money from China to buy oil from Saudi Arabia,” she added.
Green party candidate Schafer favors extending the production tax credit to all sustainable energy sources, including wind and solar. He noted that a recent break-through in solar power will make that form of sustainable energy more attractive and effective.
Schafer added that the USDA Laboratory in Peoria needs to be doing twice as much research, as it is at the cutting edge of sustainable energy research.
Candidates tout backgrounds
Aaron Schock is a two-term state representative from Peoria. In his twenties, Schock became widely known when he was 19 for his successful write-in campaign to election to the Peoria School board. Touting his experience as a lawmaker, Schock noted that he passed more legislation as a freshman House member in Springfield than any other freshman.
Callahan talked about her family and farm background, her independence and her career as a farm broadcaster. “After 30 years as a farm broadcaster,” observed Callahan, “listeners would come up to me when I announced my candidacy to exclaim, ‘We had no idea you were a Democrat.’” Callahan and her husband also hosted a fundraiser for Republican congressman Ray LaHood several years ago.
Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer is an astronomer and educator who works full time for the Lakeview Museum in Peoria.
“As a scientist, I will bring expertise on global warming, which is going to affect us all,” he said, adding that it was the overriding issue facing the world.
Farm Bureaus host debate
The Stark, Henry and Bureau county Farm Bureaus hosted the debate, which was held in the comfortable meeting room of the Bradford First Baptist Church this past Monday morning. Questions from the audience provided the format for the 90-minute exchange among the candidates.
Schock and Callahan both presented themselves as knowledgeable, articulate, highly skilled public speakers.
News acquires the local Chillicothe Independent
By Jim Nowlan
Stark County Communications (publisher of The Stark County News) has acquired the Chillicothe Independent newspaper through a stock transaction.
The Independent is celebrating its 10th year of publication as a weekly newspaper that emphasizes, like The News, positive developments in that community and on the activities of the people, school and organizations of the Chillicothe area.
Chillicothe is a city of over 6,000 people in north Peoria County along the Illinois River, approximately 10 miles east of the southeast corner of Stark County.
“The papers are similar in size and circulation,” stated News general manager Rich St. John, “and nearly 9,000 postal patrons of Chillicothe represent a market of almost twice size of Stark County. There is significant room for growth in the expanding Chillicothe area, which excites me.”
St. John sees opportunities for cost savings through consolidation of business and other services as well as for combined advertising sales in the Peoria and Stark markets.
A major change at the Chillicothe operation will be the development of an active website, similar to the popular countyenews.com site in Stark County. Stark County resident and college student Jason Musselman will develop the new website.
The Independent started a decade ago as a local hometown paper when the long-standing Chillicothe Bulletin was purchased by what is now Gatehouse Media, a national newspaper giant that also owns the Peoria Journal-Star and The Kewanee Star Courier.
Scott Miller and his sister Karen Moewe, who also served as the editor of the paper, have operated The Independent. Moewe will be stepping down as editor of the Independent, however, other primary staff at the Chillicothe newspaper will remain the same.
Staff at the Stark County News will assist the Independent staff during a transition period.
