Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 11

cm FRAL ILL el Sunday, September 5, 1999 Decatur, Illinois Review Political Watch (M Rinni(9 INO mmm tore 0- --r- I-' Vl VI kl kl WjJ Local stations add, change programming as am. viewership numbers continue to grow. moves to 5:30 a.m. delivery By DAVID BURKE Staff Writer else out there putting more resources into their morning program." The newscast will include anchor Patrick Gordon, joined by Jennifer Lindsey. Meteorologist Kevilee Douglas, recently hired from Eau Claire, will give the weather report.

The newly named "Sunrise Today" will include local, national and world news in 15-minute cycles, along with the weather. "People are working more, people are trying to make more out of their morning hours than they used to," McLaughlin said. "People are busier now, getting their kids up for school and getting to work themselves. That's kind of what we expect. We don't expect people to flip the TV on and sit there for two hours." Reports just for the morning news will also be a new addition, he said, with features on health and families.

"People's craving for the news in the morning is a lot different than at 6 and 10 (p.m.)," he said. "It's NEWS Continued on B3 a.m. "We want to add another hour to peoples' days," said Cathy Fleming, circulation sales and marketing director. "We understand the newspaper is important in people's lives, and we want to give them more time to spend with it." Gulledge said that circulation and distribution manager Jim Knierim has coordinated an improved distribution system that will guarantee the 5:30 a.m. arrival.

"When we know we're at 100 percent, we'll be promoting it," Gulledge said. DAVID BURKE DECATUR Wanting more people to wake up to the newspaper, the Herald Review is promising weekday delivery of 5:30 a.m. to its subscribers. In a recent push by the Herald Review, about 90 percent of the customers already receive their morning paper by 5:30. The remaining 10 percent should see the earlier delivery within 60 days.

"Our customers are telling us that they want earlier delivery, said Publisher Michael Gulledge. The Saturday and Sunday Herald Review will still have an estimated arrival time of 7 DECATUR Television has opened its eyes to the thought of morning news. Until recently, like the rest of the nation, Central Illinois had little or no local TV news before 7 a.m. But the times have changed. WAND (ABC, Decatur) now has a 60-minute newscast.

WCIA (CBS, Champaign) has an hour-and-a-half, plus time during network news from 7 to 8 a.m. And beginning Tuesday, WICS (NBC, Springfield) will start its news at 5 a.m., continuing for two hours. Just a year ago, WICS went to a 90-minute news-, cast at 5:30 a.m. "We've been pleasantly surprised with our viewer-ship at 5:30," said news director Sean McLaughlin. "We didn't know how that would go over.

"The numbers in morning news continue to grow and grow and grow. I suspect you'll see everyone Macon County Historical Society Event -1 i I 1 t. Chairman unites labor for United Way funds Robert Sharif has already scored victories in effort to increase union participation. By BOB FALLSTROM Community News Editor DECATUR Robert Sharif knows how to be persistent. He's been calling, calling, calling, talking, talking, talking to union leaders, business agents and union members.

His goal: More organized labor participation in the United Way of Decatur and Macon County fund-raising campaign. The campaign kickoff meeting is 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday at Lock Stock Barrel. Sharif and other campaign managers and workers will gather for food and music and to pick up campaign supplies. "Together, We Write Happy Endings" is the campaign theme This lx.

is designed to mmm -i i rn- i linn Herald Review ohotosJoseDh C. Garza be a happy 'There's a STITCHERY: Carol Hubbard, left, of Macon and Emmy Moore, center, of Decatur show off their handiwork on a quilt with Jessie Orwe and Millie Grosse, not shown, at the Yesteryear Fair on Saturday at the North Fork Church grounds. TYUS INGRAM Burton opens with apology Decatur City Council Member R. Nicholas Burton came back a new man following a recent vacation getaway to Michigan. In one of the most sincere proclamations in recent council history, Burton opened last Monday's meeting with an apology to Community Development Director Cecil Collins for publicly chastising Collins during the council's Aug.

2 meeting. Collins had been the subject of a Herald Review story the prior Saturday that detailed the director's unwillingness to respond to repeated requests from a reporter for the story on him and his department. During the public meeting Burton told Collins that he was "disappointed" to see that the director had made himself unavailable, adding that public figures are often asked to respond to the media. In retrospect, Burton said it was the wrong thing to do and that it was a recent vacation to Michigan that allowed him to clear his mind and come to the conclusion that his actions were improper. "I apologized for being uncivil," he said.

"I owed an apology and I made it." Following the meeting, Collins accepted Burton's apology and said there were no ill feelings. "Nick Burton has a great passion for this city, and I look forward to working with him during this healing process," he said. FUNNY BUSINESS: In trying to sell the Department of Corrections on the idea of putting a prison in Moweaqua last week, mayor Vennard Dowd brought up the very successful Central football team. He noted that the team has gone to state four of the seven years the school has been in existence, including winning the 1997 state title. The presentation prompted Corrections Director Donald N.

Snyder to talk football with state Sen. N. Duane Noland, R-Blue Mound, whose district includes Moweaqua and Decatur. Snyder said he played football for Pittsfield High School and was a member of the teams that finished 64-0. "I was never beat in high school," Snyder bragged.

"In your high school career you never lost a game?" Noland said. "Were you on steroids?" Noland turned out to be quite the jokester during that IDOC regional hearing on prison sites. During the hearing Dowd brought laughter to corrections officials when making reference to Moweaqua's town bar- ber not having hair, which prompted the senator to later add in jest, "Yes, and did you also know that the town dentist has no teeth?" DOUBLE DUTY: Newly-hired Decatur Public Transit Administrator Paul McChancy seemed to be everywhere last week. McChancy's had his first official day on the job Monday as the city's transit overseer. But there was still a little issue of working with the Economic Development Corporation of Decatur and Macon County in trying to bring a prison to the area.

So McChancy the county's former Planning and Zoning Department director on Tuesday sat in that capacity on a panel of local city and business leaders to pitch a pair of potential sites for two planned state prisons. Ron Ingram and Billy Tyus cover politics and government for the Herald Review. Springfield Bureau Writer John C. Patterson contributed to this column. DMii Ms ers 4 A LH nt4 lot of potential.

I've just scraped the tip of the iceberg so By ARVIN DONLEY Staff Writer beginning. A tire builder at Bridge-stone Firestone Inc. and a union official with the United Steelworkers of America Local 713, Sharif is chairman of a new United Way division. Organized labor previously was combined with the construction division. "I've been trying to 'CI Robert Sharif, chairman of organized labor division press cider more than 70 years ago, when a gallon of cider sold for 25 cents and a bushel of apples cost just slightly more.

Offering a free sample to a passer-by, Kimmons jokingly said: "We don't ask for money, all we want to do is get rid of the rotten apples." Shelling and grinding corn and milking a wooden cow named "Elvira" were among the more popular activities for the children. Ten-year-old Dani Anderson, with help from Marny Elliott of the historical society, learned to sew a four-patch quilt for Beanie Babies. "I didn't even think she would be interested in it," said Anderson's grandmother, Sandra Melhorn. "I keep askinff if she wants to 20 home and fin DECATUR The Macon County Historical Society's annual Yesteryear Fair has a little something for everybody. As always, funnel cakes, bluegrass music and colorful quilts were among the most popular attractions for the hundreds who attended the first day of the fair on Saturday.

Oh, and don't forget the shade trees. With temperatures soaring into the 90s, many fair-goers were thrilled to see the event moved back to its original home at the North Fork Church, where dozens of tall trees block out the sun. "This is the perfect location for it," said Sandy Johnson of Decatur. "It's where it belongs. If they didn't have this shade, I don't think I'd be here." The fair, which is free, continues today from 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m. Moving from the treeless ground of the Macon County Historical Complex wasn't the only new twist at this year's event. Homemade root beer and sweet-tasting apple cider squeezed from a 120-year-old double-barrel press made successful debuts. Operating the cider press was 88-year-old Lee Kimmons of Decatur, who learned to OLD-FASHIONED CHORE: After trying Merle Bowers' old corn sheller, Alex Tueth, 6, decided to take his corn and try the next step, the grinder. Alex was trying these old farm implements at the Yesteryear Fair on Saturday.

"It brings out the instruments that you don't normally hear," he said. A checkerboard medallion quilt will be eiven awav todav. Tickets cost $1 each or ish it there, but she wants to finish it here. I think it's great." Giving the event that "Yesteryear" feel were bands playing bluegrass and folk music. Moments after his bluegrass band, The Johnson Family, had finished playing, Doug Johnson tapped his feet to the 19th-century folk sound of The Skiffles, a group of senior citizens playing mountain dulcimers, a four-string banjo and an six for $5 and are available at the fair.

The quilt measures 87 by 97 inches, and proceeds will benefit the Macon County Historical Society. Shuttle bus service is available from Baum School and Thomas Jefferson Middle School. satrons a line on county's history Library gives set up a mechanism for payroll deductions for all union members," he said. "Some members have this, many do not. We need to get everybody taken care of.

"I look at this effort as a groundbreaker, a stepping stone for next year and the years thereafter. There's a lot of potential. I've just scraped the tip of the iceberg so far. I want to thank BridgestoneFirestone and Local 713 President Roger Gates for allowing me this time to try to write a happy ending." Already a victory: Michael T. Carrigan, business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 146, said his members will be offered payroll deductions.

Another victory: Labor is making an impact with a truck raffle by the Decatur Trades Labor Assembly designed to add $5,000 to the United Way fund. The winner of the red 1999 Dodge Dakota Sport pickup will be drawn in Central Park on Monday, following the 10 a.m. Labor Day parade. Raffle tickets are still available for $10 each. "The truck raffle has brought about more awareness of the United Way," said Amy Girardi, the AFL-CIO community services liaison.

"I'm overwhelmed and pleased with the ticket sales." Girardi works with more than 50 union locals. In addition to the labor emphasis, another new division is retirees and service clubs, led by Bill Oliver, former city council member. There are 10 divisions, headed by Harry McMillan, BridgestoneFirestone plant manager. Last fall, the United Way surpassed its goal by $18,000, raising $2.3 million to be allocated to agencies throughout Macon County. By TONY RE10 Staff Writer The display runs along the wall of a large alcove on the south side of the ground floor adult division in the new library building, housed on the same floor as the local history section.

The display first appeared in the old library building, two weeks before it closed, and drew a lot of attention from passers-by. Sue Hemp, assistant city librarian and head of the library's adult division, said it was too valuable an asset to leave behind. "Jack has a strong interest in local history and the knowledge of how to pursue and pull a fine exhibit together," added Hemp, 50. "He had offered to share this with us, and we have been very happy to accept and find room for it." Aldrich, retired from a career HISTORY Continued on B3 DECATUR Amateur historian Jack Aldrich says Macon County can trace its history all the way back to 1829. And, soon, you can too.

Aldrich has created a wall exhibit at the new Decatur Public Library which officially opens at 10 a.m. on Tuesday using copies of old documents and maps to chart the county's birth and show how its boundaries were shaped over the years. Additional records, housed on paper and microfilm, allow browsers to look up their own forebears, charting where they lived and the land they bought. "I think this will interest anyone curious about history or their own ancestors," Aldrich said. "It tells us something about who we are, where we came from." 7 Herald ReviewKelly J.

Huff TRACING THE YEARS: Jack Aldrich, right, and Decatur City Librarian John Moorman look over a piece of Aldrich's exhibit Wednesday that tracks the birth of Macon County. Aldrich's exhibit will become a permanent part of the new library when it opens on Tuesday..