Scott County Times
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2020
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AITC takes poultry education to Bluffs Elementary. See page A2 Cole Williams named to dean’s list at CulverStockton. See page A3
SPORTS Lady Cougars open tournament with a win. See page A7 Cougars turn it on in second half. See page A7
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VOLUME NO. 153 NUMBER 5
Outreach Center receives DOT grant for box truck By CARMEN ENSINGER Scott County Times Last Tuesday was a very special day for the Winchester Outreach Community Center as they received the keys to a box truck that was purchased through a very generous grant from DOT Foods. The box truck is a 2013 GMC Savannah that was delivered to Marshall Chevrolet. It will be used to travel to Springfield to the Central Illinois Food Bank and pick up food for their monthly food donation on the last Saturday of the month. Kenny and Marsha Mayner run Outreach Community Center and they are always looking for grants to help purchase needed items for the Center. “DOT Foods has been very good to us over the years,” Marsha Mayner said. “Two years ago we wrote a grant to them and were able to purchase the 10x10 cooler we have in the back to store cold items such as milk and butter.” This grant was a 50/50 matching grant for $11,000 which means the Outreach had to raise $11,000 as well to match the donation from DOT. “We applied for the grant in the fall and were notified right before Christmas that
we had been awarded the grant,” Mayner said. “During the month of December we put the word out and raised the $11,000 in one month thanks to some very generous people.” The Mayner’s are all about staying local so they asked Jay Marshall at Marshall Cheverolet to look for them a vehicle that would suit their needs. “He got right on it and would call us when he found one and then one day he called and said he had found one that would suit our needs,” Mayner said. “It’s not super big but it has a 12 or 14 foot box on the back and only 33,000 miles and is super nice.” Mayner said it is a big change from the pickup truck and box trailer – their own personal vehicles – that they have been using to bring back the food. “This new vehicle is going to allow us to bring back four to six palets of food – depending on how they stack them back there,” Mayner said. “It is not super big so if one of the girls needs to go get food or whatever they could drive it.” The vehicle is going to allow them to bring back so much more food than they have in the past – which is much needed. “Over the last couple of
Submitted photo
The Outreach Community Center took possession of a box truck last week to be used to get food for the Center’s monthly food giveaway. The truck was purchased from Marshall Chevrolet thanks to an $11,000 grant the Center received from DOT foods and thanks to $11,000 in donations from the community for their half of the 50/50 matching grant. Left to right: Caitlin Hobson, DOT Foods: Jay Rueter, Marshall Chevrolet; Kenny Mayner, Outreach Community Center; Marsha Mayner, Outreach Community Center; Andie Fundel - Board Member of the Outreach Community Center; Mysti Dahman, Debbie Rhoades and Kenny Mayner, Jr., Outreach Community Center Board Members and of the Outreach Community Center and Bailey Keech, DOT Foods. Submitted photo
years, the number of people we serve has just gotten higher and higher,” Mayner said. “The need for more and more food has been there but we just haven’t had the means to haul that much food back until now.” Mayner said they serve an average of around 150 individuals and families a month. However, for the months of November and December that (See, GRANT, A2)
Kanny Mayner, with the Outreach Community Center in Winchester, loads up boxes of food for their monthly food giveaway last Saturday into their new box truck. The truck was purchased using a $11,000 grant from DOT Foods and a matching $11,000 raised during the month of December when the Center learned they were going to receive the grant.
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Scott County Times Obituaries listed in this issue: Grady All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Winchester approves Winchester to hold second public hearing bus lease proposal on drug testing policy “We are just finishing By CARMEN ENSINGER Scott County Times Winchester Superintendent Kevin Blankenship informed school board members that around 20 people attended the first town hall meeting regarding the proposed drug testing policy for both Winchester and Bluffs School Districts. “We went through some concerns and listened to input from parents,” Blankenship said. “There were some very positive comments and some had some serious concerns and questions that we tried to answer the best we could.” The town hall meeting in Bluffs had only one community member in attendance. “Overall we had two pretty good town hall meetings,” Blankenship said. “We have started meeting with students for input and are hoping to have that
completed by this week.” Another town hall meeting was set for Jan. 29 at the high school auditorium at 6 p.m. “We will be meeting with a couple of third party testing vendors this week so we should have more information and be able to narrow it down,” Blankenship said. “Before any final decision is made one of those vendors needs to be present to share with the board so you will have all the information you need.” Blankenship said just to clarify things that the board is looking at March before they will make a final decision. While discussion of the drug policy was not on the agenda, during the public comment section, Molly Traw made a statement to the board asking them to think long and hard before passing such a policy. (See, POLICY, A2)
By CARMEN ENSINGER Scott County Times Winchester School Board members approved a bus lease proposal from Thomas for the lease of eight 77 passenger conventional buses and two 29 passenger buses at a cost of $153,149 per year for a three-year lease. The district’s lease with Central States for four conventional buses and four transit (flat nose) buses and one 29 passenger mini bus and one lift bus is up this year. The district received only two bids. The bid from Midwest Bus sales of Litchfield for the conventional buses was $153,149 while the bid for the transit buses came in at $201,000. The second bid was from Central States whose bid for all conventional buses was $171,700 and $189,753 for four conventional and four transit buses. “It really comes down to the preference of the drivers,” Blankenship said. “Some of them prefer the regular buses and some prefer the flat nose buses. Board member Jody Clanton wanted to know why the bids were so much higher this year over the last time the board signed a lease.
up with a five-year lease and they will not take our current buses back.”
Kevin Blankenship superintendent Winchester Schools. “We are just finishing up with a fiveyear lease and they will not take our current buses back,” Blankenship said. “The reason being they already have a surplus of used buses so they don’t need them because they are not moving or selling. They have kept everyone in their leases to their finality.” After much discussion, the board opted to go with the conventional buses. “I think we can make it work and if not we can reconsider and possibly get out of the lease after two years,” Blankenship said. “Our current lease is not up till June. We have some pre-k (See, LEASE, A2)
23rd Annual Winchester EMS Chili cookoff
Carmen Ensinger/Scott County Times
Glenn Carmean and Ben Monroe, cooking for Big Daddy’s Dog House, give one last check to their pot of chili before the opening of the 23rd Annual Winchester EMS Chili Cookoff Saturday afternoon. This year there were 12 entries for chili and seven entries for the salsa competition.
Carmen Ensinger/Scott County Times
The Winchester Independent Order of Odd Fellows had an entry in the 23rd Annual Winchester EMS Chili Cookoff held this past Saturday at the EMS building. Left to right: Wilson Newman, John Paul Coonrod, Kenny Maynar and Mark Schmidgall.