The lawn chair brigade was out in full force Friday night for Bradford’s “Let Freedom Ring,” clumped in areas of shade, rather than rowed in military precision.  
Food, song, and enough patriotism to bring a tear to the eye of the gathered throng was enjoyed from the opening cheer by BGS orange and black-clad cheerleaders until the dance music for the adolescent crowd, as the sun slid slowly from the sky.
Let Freedom Ring.  Think about it.  Picture it.  Remember it from history.  It was a night of old fashioned Fourth of July town park entertainment.  Red, white and blue everywhere, waving freely in the perfect summer night.

The Toulon City Council met in a special meeting Wednesday evening to discuss the mayoral appointment of a new Toulon Police Chief.  The News was notified about the appointment last Friday evening by Toulon's Mayor Rick Collins.  The person appointed is Terry Engels, not Echols as previously published, who currently works at Black Hawk College in their Campus Police Department.  Engles was present at the special council meeting and stated that he has worked for both the Galva and Kewanee Police Departments in the past and has 16 years experience as a police officer. 
During the discussion, the council found that there are no applications for the part-time Police Chief position on file at City Hall, so they asked Engles to complete the paperwork so that it can be reviewed by the council before acted upon.   

Wyoming’s Annual Corn Boil will be held Saturday, July 24 at Thomas Park in Wyoming, Illinois.
Held annually on the next-to-last weekend in July, the Corn Boil is hosted by the Wyoming Area Chamber of Commerce in Wyoming, which is 40 miles from Peoria or Galesburg and 60 miles from Peru or the Quad Cities.
The event will have a food tent open from noon until 7 p.m. Food includes fresh local sweet corn, corn fritters, nachos, pork burgers, hot dogs, and rib-eye and pork chop sandwiches. The After Prom committee members will serve lemonade and 4-H will serve snow cones. 

Toulon Mayor Rick Collins informed The News that he had appointed Terry Echols as the new Toulon Police Chief.  Mayor Collins went on to state that this appointment needed to be approved by the city council.
The full-time Toulon police chief position has been eliminated and a new part-time position has been established.  Officer Robert Taylor, who the state currently recognizes as the Toulon Police Chief, has not applied for the part-time position and will turn in equipment to the city after his shift on June 30.
There has not been an official appointed Toulon Police Chief in the two years following the election of current Mayor Rick Collins.  At the end of May 2009, Collins fired Taylor, but city council members rescinded the action on June 1, 2009.  The city council did approve the job specification change for police chief from full-time to part-time during a special meeting held the end of May 2010.