Another year gone by, we've told a lot of stories

Monday marked the beginning of the third year of operation for The Sentinel. At approximately 1:15p, after nearly three months of research and planning, I published the first Sentinel story on December 14 in 2018.

The last 12 out of the past 24 months has been surrealistic. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, an offer to buy The Sentinel and covering just one sporting event since February 28, like 90% of the population on this spinning mass of rock I can't wait for this year to be over. I know normal is still ways off but it needs to hurry up and get here.

I haven't had the Corona or the vaccine. I'm thankful for not getting both at this point. I'm feeling pretty confident that if I make to January 1 without either, 2021 will be a piece of chocolate cake with orange icing and sprinkles.

I enjoy being a journalist, meeting people, telling their stories and doing my best to keep loyal readers informed. The past year has been an awful time in the news business. It has been rough a row to hoe between the COVID pandemic and the proliferation of slanted news outlets that intentionally omits or misrepresent facts to further an agenda of division that is testing the core values of our nation.

The Sentinel is a labor of love. I'll likely never see even a modest financial return on the sweat equity that allowed me double the number of stories I published during the past year. While business owners are skeptical about using online papers to reach a wider audience with their brand, the Coronavirus pandemic has essentially flushed the traditional advertising model, which paid for the production of weekly and daily papers, down the proverbial crapper.

Despite the pandemic, The Sentinel has published more than twice the number of stories and articles, 398 to be exact, than in the previous year. In the past 12 months the online publication has added a Photo-of-the-Day series, published over a dozen Spartan Spotlights featuring SJO students from the Class of 2020, and added a Coronavirus Dashboard to track the number of cases locally. In June, The Sentinel added the villages of Sidney, Philo and Tolono to its area of coverage.

The most-read story in the past year, On the fence about getting vaccinated? You might not have a choice has been read over 12 thousand times. The Sentinel's story announcing the Illinois Rural Health Association virtual conference in October is the second most popular story followed by our story on the double homicide in St. Joseph.

In case you missed them, we also published six pieces on money and finance from Jake Pence. Jake is the President of Blue Chip Real Estate and a consultant for Fairlawn Capital, Inc.. A 2019 graduate from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois, he graduated from St. Joseph-Ogden High School in 2016 where he was a three-sport athlete for the Spartans.

I'm looking forward meeting the challenges for the next 12 months. Sheltering-in-place gave me the opportunity to refine my web design skills. Over the next nine months oursentinel.com will undergo a gradual makeover to become even more refined and more user friendly.

Finally, I would like to encourage readers to send your Letters to the Editor. Tell us why we should support local candidates for village and township elections, congratulate or thank a neighbor. We welcome your opinion on masks, restaurants ignoring or following Illinois' Tier 3 mitigation, or if schools should be open or close. Remember oursentinel.com is YOUR sentinel watching over our communities.

Hope to see here again next year!

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Clark Brooks, Publisher

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Bright Beginnings Learning Center opening soon

While they don't expect to open their doors for a few months, owners Carolyn Jones and Nicole Uher are looking forward to welcoming students and families to their new preschool and daycare facility in St. Joseph. The two women, both with roots in the village, hope to open the Bright Beginnings Learning Center sometime this June.

Located at 501 Peters Dr. in St. Joseph, the owners plan to offer child care services for kids from six weeks old through age twelve. The duo are remodeling and working hard to prepare the facility for mandatory inspections by the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the public health district and the State Fire Marshall. Uher expects the inspection and permit process to take 90 days.

"We will only be opening half of the building to start," said co-owner and director Nicole Uher, who has been working with Jones on the project for the past two years. "In this phase there will be four classrooms: one infant room ages six weeks through fourteen months, one toddler room ages fifteen months through three years, one preschool room ages three years through five years, and one after school/summer room for children ages five years through twelve years."

Uher says they will offer an after school program for children ages five through twelve.

"We will have one of our staff members walk over to St. Joseph Grade school and pick up the children in our program, then walk back with them to our facility," Uher said. "While in our care children will be able to complete homework, play games, and play outside on our playground all supervised by staff of course."

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"We believe children learn best through play and communication with their peers"

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Children enrolled at the school will also be allowed to attend our program on days out of school and during breaks in the spring and summer.

Uher had been licensed home child care provider for 5 years. She credits her start in the profession back to when she was a teen offering babysitting services.

Meanwhile her business partner, Jones, who was raised in St. Joseph, has been doing licensed home childcare for over 20 years.

"We looked all over Champaign county for the perfect place for our new adventure. There are tons of buildings out there, but it takes something special to run a daycare as there are many requirements by DCFS and Public Health that have to be followed," Uher said. "When we stumbled across this building on Peters Drive, we knew instantly it was meant to be as it was located in the perfect location near the schools.

"Also, it was built in a wonderful layout that is needed for our business."

Uher later learned that her grandfather farmed the land where the structure now stands.

"My Dad and Grandpa have since passed away so getting this land back in the family is very special to me," she explained. "(Considering) my Dad was also raised in St. Joe so it was on my list of places to consider."

It was quickly a no-brainer for the pair who made to make an offer to purchase the property.

"We first looked at this land in November of 2019. We made an offer fairly quick after, but it took about a year to get things settled as there were drainage issues that needed to be corrected before we could take ownership."

Once DCFS completes their inspection, Uher said they will make the final decision on how many children we are able to serve in each class. She anticipate having the capacity to provide services for 62 children in phase one of Bright Beginnings' operation.

The business, which is independently owned and operated, will accept CCRS and DCFS vouchers for families who qualify for their programs.

Bright Beginnings will follow a curriculum that is approved by Illinois Early Learning Standards. There will also be many play based activities.

"We believe children learn best through play and communication with their peers," Uher said.

The center is not taking applications or issuing guaranteed spots at this time. The owners plan to initiate that once they have secured all the permits needed to run as a licensed facility. In the mean time, Bright Beginning has created a wait list for parents interested in enrolling their kids. For more information concerning enrollment send an email to bblcstjoe@gmail.com.

Photo of the Day - December 15, 2020

Taking the charge

St. Joseph-Ogden's Jordan Brooks takes a charge in SJO's home game against St. Thomas More on January 16, 2018. The Spartans held on to pick up their seventh straight victory after their State Farm Holiday Classic loss to Quincy Notre Dame, squeaking by the Sabers, 95-92. Brooks, a senior and prolific 3-point shooter, finished with season with program best of 82 treys. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

Ameren Illinois customers will see smaller bills in 2021

Collinsville - Residents who rely on Ameren for their electricity will find their bills a little smaller in 2021. Under the plan approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), the typical Ameren Illinois residential customer will save approximately $12 per year on the delivery portion of their electric bill beginning next month.

"Under performance-based ratemaking, Ameren Illinois is constructing a smarter electric infrastructure, reducing the number and duration of outages and keeping customer rates stable," said Richard Mark, Chairman and President, Ameren Illinois. "As the electric grid continues to evolve, we must continue to make strategic investments to strengthen our system. Having a transparent and fair cost-recovery mechanism in place is allowing us to do just that while providing real and tangible benefits to our customers and the communities we serve."

Thanks to an approximately $48.7 million overall reduction in revenue, the rate reduction will be the third consecutive rate decrease for Ameren Illinois customers and the seventh overall rate decrease since the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act (EIMA) – or Smart Grid Bill – went into effect in 2011. The company says Ameren customers will pay 2.4% less each month for energy next year than they did 10 years ago. The company says their residential rates are 21 percent lower than the national average.

"Today's residential energy customer wants affordable, reliable energy. They also want to know that we're looking to the future and working on providing them with cleaner energy options," said Mark. "In the last few years, we have developed and tested systems needed to produce and store renewable energy. Our customer satisfaction results show that these efforts, along with our daily work modernizing the energy grid, do matter."

Since the company began implementing its modernization action plan, 1.2 million smart meters have been installed, power poles and wires have been strengthened, and more delivery infrastructure is being placed underground. These improvements, along with new outage detection technology, have resulted in a 20% improvement in system reliability.