The Wayne County Farm Bureau Foundation has announced Wayne City High School’s Caitlyn Dickey, Colt Henson, Adam Loker, and Austin Schuster; Cisne High School’s Lexi Locke and Grace Milligan; and Fairfield Community High School’s Casey Opell and Callie Vaughan were awarded $750 scholarships. Vaughan and Wayne City’s Chasidy Greenwalt were also awarded $1,000 scholarships by the Young Leader Committee.
Fairfield Memorial Hospital reminds people it will bring its Digital Mammography Truck to the Horizon Healthcare Cisne Medical Clinic on May 29
th. Appointments will begin at 8 a.m., and walk-ins are welcome until 11 a.m.; after 11, patients will be seen by appointment only. People can call the FMH Diagnostic Imaging Department at 847-8249 to schedule an appointment.
Southern Illinois was hit by two lines of strong and severe thunderstorms Thursday afternoon. The region was placed under a severe thunderstorm watch. During the second round of storms, tornado warnings were issued for southeastern Clay and northeastern Wayne County during the 4 p.m. hour after emergency management spotted a funnel cloud two miles south of Flora. The cell that prompted the tornado warnings produced funnel clouds and landspout tornadoes in Altamont and the Tower Hill area in central Illinois.
The Fairfield Police Department is reminding citizens that Rosewood Lane is closed. FPD has received multiple calls of vehicles ignoring the road closure signs, as-well-as reports of people driving through yards to avoid the road closed signs. The public is asked to adhere to the posted signage and take alternate routes.
Illinois is currently reporting 1,346,398 total cases of COVID-19 in the state with 22,096 Confirmed Deaths and 2,347 Probable Deaths. To date there have been 23,007,188 total tests performed in the state with 4,319 variant cases reported. The current Illinois recovery rate is 98%. Total Illinois doses of the vaccine stand at 12,078,725 with 9,546,833 total administered doses. Illinois’ Vaccine Administration 7-Day Rolling Average is currently 71,219. The state currently show 7,975 Administered Vaccine Doses in Wayne County with 3,961residents fully vaccinated, or 24.25% of the County’s population.
The Greater Wabash Regional Planning Commission Board of Directors elected officers at its April 22
nd meeting. Joe Judge of Wabash County will continue as Commission Chairman, Rob Anniss of Richland County as Vice-Chairman, Scott Merkle of Wayne County as Secretary, and Randy Hallam of Edwards County as Commission Treasurer. The four were re-appointed to their respective posts for a
th through the 18
th. The event was cancelled last year due to COVID-19, and one of the driving factors in that move was a concern over acquiring state approval for shutting down a portion of the highway through Fairfield. This year, committee member Brad Jesop says the state has indicated a street closure shouldn’t be an issue. Anyone wanting information on booth rentals should call the Greater Fairfield Chamber of Commerce Office at 842-6116, and anyone wanting street rental information should call 599-2865.
The Greater Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Golf Scramble on May 21
st. Lunch, prepared by Big Boy Catering, will be served at noon, and the scramble itself will have a tee time of 1. Teams will consist of up to four players at a cost of $250. Registration forms must be returned to the Chamber by 3 this afternoon.
The Edwards County Board of Education will meet tonight at 7 in the ECHS Atelier Room 172 for a reorganization meeting. Judge Michael Valentine will administer the Board Member Oath of Office after the official election results are accepted, and the board will then elect a new President, Vice President, and Secretary to two year terms. The new board will also consider the employment of an ECHS boys basketball coach.
No injuries were reported in a two-vehicle accident at the New Hope Curve Friday afternoon. According to police reports, 79-year-old Burnt Prairie resident George E. Vines and 79-year-old Mill Shoals resident Patricia K. Vaught were northbound on Highway 45. Vines was driving a 2014 Ford Escape and slowed to turn onto a county road, and Vaught, driving a 2015 Ford Taurus, rear-ended him. No tow truck was called to the scene, but the vehicles sustained over $1,500 damage.