The Belleville News-Democrat from Belleville, Illinois • A1

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2014 HIGHLANDNL.COM ESTABLISHED IN 1861 An edition of HITTING THE CENTURY MARK Highland woman turns 100 years old. Page A6 YEAR IN REVIEW See what made news in Highland in 2014. Pages A7-10 GIRLS BASKETBALL Highland still undefeated. Team eyes Mascoutah tournament title. Page B1 INDEX Obituaries A2 Letters A4 Police News A5 Sports B1-4 Health B5 Classifieds B7-8 Church News B9 Good Old Days B10 WEATHER Date Dec.

16 50 32 Dec. 17 37 28 Dec. 18 35 28 Dec. 19 38 26 Dec. 20 42 33 Dec.

21 44 36 The area received trace rain and snow on Dec. 16; and trace snow on Dec. 18. Weather data courtesy of Jeff Menz. Highland has been cho- sen as one of the top 24 cities to live in Illinois, ac- cording to AreaVibes.com.

The AreaVibes Livability Score was designed to help people find the best places to live. Highland scored 84 points out of 100 possible points, tying the city for 11th with 14 other cities in Illi- nois, including Edwards- ville. Highland Mayor Joe Mi- chaelis said he was not sur- prised with the re- sults. I think anybody who has lived in Highland for any length of time will tell you they were not sur- prised by the he said. Michaelis attributed ranking to the number of services the city offers its residents.

At the same time, the ranking recognizes the resi- dents, the local business community and great he said. make Highland a great community to live Michaelis said But Michaelis does not want the city to become complacent. Michaelis said he has been talking with City Man- ager Mark Latham about ways like to see the city improve. For instance, Mi- chaelis said like to see more jobs come to High- land. why we hold such things like the Gigbit busi- ness plan he said.

like this encourage businesses to locate in our communi- AreaVibes created the scoring system using a un- ique algorithm that took in- to account dozens of char- acteristics in seven differ- ent categories including nearby amenities, cost of living, crime rates, educa- tion, employment, housing and weather. There are a number of the metro-east communities rated as great places to live in the state, including St. Ja- cob, Mascoutah, Millstadt and Trenton, which each scored 82 points, according to AreaVibes. Aviston, Breese, Colum- bia, Smithton, Swansea and Waterloo each scored 81 points and also made Area- Vibes top 100 cities to live in list. The best city to live in Illi- nois is Leland Grove, which topped chart with 87 points.

According to AreaVibes, the cost of living in High- land is 2.7 percent less than the Illinois average and 4 percent less than the na- tional average. The estimated Highland crime index is 27 percent Website: Highland one of best places to live in Illinois BY MARK HODAPP News Leader Please see WEBSITE, A3 A A Daniel Leader Faith Baptist Church in Highland presented a live Nativity over the weekend. From left are Joseph (Danny Os- born), Mary (Rosie Pendegraft, Angel (Sierra Brinker), Shepherd Boy (Brock Rinderer) and Shepherd Man (Jon Rinderer). A Highland woman will lead the Jaycees for the en- tire state of Illinois in 2015. Tricia Buehne was elect- ed to the post during the 2014 Fall General As- sembly Annual Meeting held at the Hyatt Lisle hotel in Lis- le, Ill.

Also at the Gen- eral Assem- bly, Vanessa Birchler from the New Baden Jaycees was elected to the office of state programming vice presi- dent. Buehne has been a mem- ber of the Highland Jaycees chapter for 15 years and Local woman to lead Jaycees in Illinois BY MARK HODAPP News Leader Please see JAYCEES, A3 Tricia Buehne The lights have never shined brighter on the Hard Road stage than they soon will. A new lighting project for the theater and Highland Elementary School that started approximately a year ago is finally coming to fruition. old lighting system in the elementary school is very out of date and was never intended to be used for modern theatrical pro- said Evan Fifer, executive producer for Hard Road. The primary problem with the lighting system is not the instruments them- selves, but the dimmers, Fif- er said.

dimmer packs are obsolete and going bad. Right now, the lights typi- cally can only be ran at 80 to 85 percent intensity before they start flickering due to Fifter said. dimmer channels are completely shot and, there- fore, some lights work at all. The dimmer system is the heart of the lighting sys- tem and runs power to the lights and the light board. Without them, the lights work properly or to their full Hard Road will be replac- ing the dimmers and adding three new energy-efficient LED lighting bars.

using the facility will definitely be able to in- crease the possibilities by utilizing the lights we have with dimmers that will be able to be ran at 100 percent intensity with all channels Fifter said. The new dimmers are ve- ry expensive, but will not re- quire the maintenance the old ones do. They are also able to handle more chan- nels, if more lights should be added down the road. The new dimmers can also be integrated with new LED fixtures. The difference should be very noticeable to the at- tendees of shows.

is a crucial ele- ment of live theater, and with the new lights and dim- mers, we will be able to add effect lighting to the stage by simply sliding a bar on the light Fifter said. color imaginable will be a fingertip away, and one can set new moods and effects in a matter of sec- And that means shows New lighting system creates worlds of possibilities for new stage productions News Leader Please see LIGHTING, A3 A I A I A Mark Leader Neal Welz sets up his Polar Express at the New Switzerland Model Railroad annual display at McGinley Motors, located at 7 Shamrock Blvd. in Highland (on U.S. 40). The remaining hours of the railroad show are Friday, Dec.

26 from 6 to 9 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 28 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The show is free to the public. Donations are welcome and appreciated. More photos appear on Page A6..