City Beat

  It’s been almost a week since it happened but many of us are still trying to wrap our minds around the result of the 20th annual WSOY Community Food Drive. It was held last Friday and collected money for over 8 million pounds of food, blowing by last year’s total of 2.2 million pounds!…

       The 20th Annual WSOY Community Food Drive will be held Friday (Oct. 8) and will continue to collect monetary donations only in response to growing need and COVID-19. This is one of my favorite events of the year and I have been to each one of them over the years before, during and after…

       IT DOESN’T seem possible that Brian Byers of WSOY’s Byers & Co. has been on the air for 25 years! That’s really quite an accomplishment, considering that he is live on the air three hours a day, 5 days a week, and he does a great job of holding the interest of listeners. It…

       I’ve pointed out in past columns the crazy way that a lot of people are driving on Decatur’s streets and roads and it seems to be getting worse. Of all the “near-accidents” I’ve personally witnessed involving irresponsible drivers I think the award for the “most heart stopping” near-accident came at the downtown intersection of…

       Why is the vaccination rate so low in Macon County? It’s a little over 42% at this stage. I received information from Emily Lamb, a Public Relations Specialist for QuoteWizard by LendingTree, LLC, with the latest update on its vaccine hesitancy report. Lamb stated: “Our analysts reviewed the main reasons people aren’t getting vaccinated.…

       It’s been 20 years this coming Saturday since a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the militant Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States of America happened on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. On that day, those of us old enough to remember, had horrific, sad memories burned into our…

       • IT SHOULD come as no surprise that Macon County has taken a big step back, along with most of the rest of Illinois, in our fight to defeat COVID-19 and its variants. Despite the pleading, begging and warnings issued by about all segments of our community in leadership and professional services positions, only…

       I knew when I received the notification that the Joint Crisis Communication Team (CCT) would be holding a press conference Friday in the Macon County Office Building that it would not be good news — and it wasn’t. The message delivered was: “Macon County continues to experience high transmission levels of COVID-19.” In fact,…

      I enjoyed getting to know Interim Police Chief Shane Brandel better during a one-on-one conversation in my office at the Tribune recently. Brandel was appointed to the position by City Manager Scot Wrighton and began his duties on July 30 when Chief Jim Getz retired. Brandel was serving as deputy police chief before his…