The Fairfield Public School District 112 Board of Education met Monday night and heard an update on its Superintendent Search from Tim Buss, with the Illinois School Board Association. Interim Superintendent Diana Zurliene says community survey responses have been collected, and brochures advertising the position were mailed out yesterday. The Association has already had some people fill out the applications for the position, and it will continue to accept them until Valentine's Day. The board anticipates interviewing candidates around the first of March, and a new superintendent could be approved by the board at the March board meeting, to take office in July. Edwards County Treasurer Debbie Smith says 98 percent of real estate taxes has been collected, as of yesterday afternoon, along with 93 percent of mobile home taxes. Delinquent taxes were published Monday in the Wayne County Press due to Edwards County no longer having a local paper. The Edwards County Tax Sale will be held on February 9th. Any missing payment must be received by 4 p.m. on the 4th to avoid the sale; if a taxpayer has not paid their taxes, she says it is in their best interest to pay at her office in the courthouse to ensure the amount is correct and it is received before the sale date. The Wayne City Kissner Public Library hosted a fellowship event Monday night with Illinois Heartland Library System Membership Coordinator Anna Yackle. The event included a Library Board meeting, as, well, and it reported it has sold out of nuts for their winter fundraiser. The Friends of the Library group is also looking for more workers to help with fundraising this year to allow the library to have more community events and to make it less dependent on village donations. Last month was wetter and significantly warmer than one year ago. At the WFIW/WOKZ studios, we received three inches and 96 hundredths of rain in December, with a single day high of an inch and two tenths of rain on the 18th. Last December, we recorded two inches and 43 hundredths of rain. The average high for December was 56.5 degrees, which was also higher than the November average; last December, the average high was 44.9. According to coronavirus.illinois.gov, Wayne County added 156 cases of COVID-19 from Friday afternoon to yesterday. Edwards County added 76, White County added 155, and Wabash County added 176. Hamilton County saw its case number jump by 77, Richland County by 182, and Lawrence County by 141; Jefferson County had the biggest jump in the area at 336. Statewide, the site showed 93,343 new cases since Friday afternoon and 251 additional deaths. Statewide totals sat at 2,682,983 cases and 29,350 deaths. The Southern Region had a seven-day positivity rate of 17.5 percent on the 15th, up from 17.4 percent on the 14th. Its seven-day average availability for ICU beds was at four percent. River stages as of early this morning: the Little Wabash east of Fairfield stands at 8.94 feet, below the 17 ft. flood stage. Meanwhile, the Skillet Fork at Wayne City has a reading of 5.44 feet (flood stage is 15 ft.). The Little Wabash below Clay City is at 7.05 feet (flood stage is 18 ft.). Bonpas Creek at Browns reads 2.76 feet, and the Little Wabash at Main Street in Carmi reads 7.09 feet. The Wabash River at Mt. Carmel sits at 9.72 feet. Today's crude oil price is $78.50, up $1.75 from yesterday. The February crude oil price is $86.26, up $1.18 from yesterday morning. The guest today on the Community Connection will be Robert Misseri, with Paws of War. Community Connection airs at 7:30 on AM 1390 and 103.3 FM. "Morning Coffee" will feature Mark Turner and Ken Otey. "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.