Richie Fulkerson will begin his tenure as Fairfield Chief of Police on July 12th, after he was appointed to the position and approved by the City Council Tuesday night. He says he has nearly 30 years of experience with Illinois State Police that will help him run a smaller city force, and, though the budget will be smaller, he says Fairfield is well-equipped. Several Fairfield FFA members were honored at an awards ceremony at SIU Friday as part of the District 5 State FFA Convention. Sara McGehee received her State Winner plaque for the second straight year in the FFA State Agri-Science Fair in Environmental Systems. Nine chapter members also received their State FFA Degrees this year. The Wayne County Board will meet tonight at 7 in the upstairs courtroom of the Wayne County Courthouse. Republican Chairman Ron Woodrow is set to fill one board vacancy for District 7 and put forward a name for a replacement for another position for District 4. The board will then discuss courthouse repair and amendments to county liquor licenses. The Fairfield City Band will have its second performance of the year tonight at 7 on the Wayne County Courthouse lawn, weather permitting. In the event of rain or incompatible conditions, the concert will be held at the First Christian Church, per Band Director Josh Livesay. Tonight's concert will feature music for movies and stage. The Albion City Council will meet in special session Monday night at 6 at City Hall. It is scheduled to immediately move to executive session to consider the employment of a police officer, and action is possible upon return to open session. As discussed at Monday's meeting, Police Chief Mike Judge has found an officer candidate, and he would like to hire him immediately so he can go into training in January. The Wayne County Health Department announced one new case of COVID-19 yesterday, bringing its total to 1,798; three people were in isolation. Wabash County announced two cases in the past week and sat at 1,312, with three people in isolation. White County announced no new cases and hasn't moved from its total of 1,811 cases since May 22nd. The state Department of Public Health announced 408 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday and 23 additional deaths. Statewide totals sat at 1,386,262 cases and 22,997 deaths. The Southern Region had a positivity rate of 1.2 percent on June 6th, down from 1.3 percent on the 5th. River stages as of early this morning: the Little Wabash east of Fairfield stands at 19.99 feet, above the 17 ft. flood stage. Meanwhile, the Skillet Fork at Wayne City has a reading of 6.31 feet (flood stage is 15 ft.). The Little Wabash below Clay City is at 8.57 feet (flood stage is 18 ft.). Bonpas Creek at Browns reads 11.13 feet, and the Little Wabash at Main Street in Carmi reads 19.78 feet. The Wabash River at Mt. Carmel sits at 9.76 feet. Today's crude oil price is $63.00, unchanged from yesterday. The July crude oil price is $69.78, down $0.68 from yesterday morning. The guest today on the Community Connection will be Illinois gubernatorial candidate Paul Schimpf. Community Connection airs at 7:30 on AM 1390 and 103.3 FM. "Morning Coffee" will feature Mark Turner and Jeremy Smith. "Morning Coffee" is between 8-9 a.m. on 104.9 weekdays. To listen to a podcast of Morning Coffee and Community Connection, click on "About Us" on the top right of wfiwradio.com. Then, from the dropdown, make your choice of program.