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* i■ I? IifHARRISBURG, ILLINOIS • 350I| ff *f fg wto *•fl■f:flIIpi' m ♦ 2.«-4-I' I/.•V4Atiftg*■fi1~wtf - -I-a.!*iIWEATHERTonight: 60 percent chance of rain,low In the 60s. Thursday: 60 percentchance of rain, high around 85.Chance of rain Friday, dry through the weekend, highs In the 80s, lowsin the 60s.Tuesday was 85; low was 61. Precipitation to 7 a.m.: 0.33 Inches.WEDNESDAY, sept. 2,1992 © vol. 78, no. 551 iumiINSIDEHarrisburg hires safety director.—Page 3Commentary..........2Records ..... 4Business...............5...............6-7Sports......Comics.........8 ..9Lifestyles Classified 12-13Fall SportsA preview ofUbieties in areaschools.Section InsertAgency lay-offsendanger children,picketers sayBy NICK MARIANO ■Staff Wrlter^HMore picket signs went up in Harrisburg Tuesday afternoon, but the additional pickets were not about a strike or union grievances,though they did concern employment and children in Southern Illinois.On Oct 1 of this year, Barb Poston of the Illinois Department of Family and Children Services (DCFS) and 14 other resource specialists and licensing workers will lose their jobs in Southern Illinois due to budget cuts approved by the General Assembly this summer.According to Poston, that is a cut of 75 percent of the work force that recruits, trains and supports foster homes and day care centers forchildren served by the DCFS.Additionally, 11.4 percent of those workers throughout the state will be laid off for the same reason.“This mean the quality of care that children will get will go down. Without the support of professional workers, foster parents are going to eventually drop out,” Poston predicted.Poston says the need for quality foster homes that can handle difficult behaviors of children who come from broken or troubled homes is essential so that children can adjust to new environments.“Foster parents particularly need that support,” she added.According to Poston, two resource specialistsand three license workers will handle what 19 workers managed in 27 counties of Southern Illinois, from Effingham to Cairo.“This is a blow, a very damaging blow to die quality of care for children,” she said of the expected lay-offs.Parents hopingpressure on board,will end strikeBy CURTIS WINSTON Staff WriterSTOP THE LAY-OFFS — Barb Poston, a resource specialist with the Department of Children and Family Services who is being laid-off Oct. 1 due to budget cuts, is joined in an informational picket by other employees of the Harrisburg office, foster parents and a foster child to stop the lay-offs. (Nick Mariano photo)Joining workers of the DCFS in the informational picket in front of the DCFS office on Raymond Street at 12 p.m. were foster parents, foster children and members of the AFSCME union, which represents the interest of DCFS employees throughout the state.Marilyn Tomkow, children welfare specialist of the union, said the union is calling upon the governor’s office and four legislative leaders to hold an emergency summit meeting to address what many of the picketers termed a crisis situation.“If they can get together and address the crisis, it would be beneficial to the children we serve. We are hopeful they can stop the lay-offs,” she said.The four representatives requested by the AFSCME to meet are House Speaker Mike Madi-gan, Minority Leader Lee Daniels, Senate Minority Leader Pate Phillip and President Phillip Rock.There has been no response to the request from the governor’s office as yet, Tomkow said.Peggy Zdzieblowski, who has been a foster parent for about ten children over four years, said, “It’ll leave us without out resource worker. She’s there for us. She is our sole support.”And Jo Funaro, a foster parent of 27 children since she enrolled seven years ago, added, “There are too many foster children for the amount of foster parents we have. Being a foster parent is very stressful. We need more of them.”As a thunderstorm rolled into Harrisburg from the southwest Tues-day night, parents in the Unit 3 school district were meeting to discuss the teachers’ strike.Black clouds filled the sky, bolts of lightening flashed on the horizon and the wind was whipping up as Cindy Foster and Lynn Towery blew up a storm of their own.The pressure is not being put where it belongs,” Towery told a crowd of about 100 people gathered at the big ball diamond in Harrisburg Memorial Park. “It needs to be put on both sides... both sides need to give.The strike by teachers in Unit 3 isin its 11th day today, with no end in sight. The district’s 147 teachers, members of the Harrisburg EducationAssociation, are striking because theyhave no contractNegotiations on the new contract were last held Aug. 24 but ended in a stalemate over vacancy and transfer language, salaries and insurance.The “last and best” offer from the board was a three-year contract offering raises of $400, $550 and $600each year. The board also proposed a $40 increase in insurance benefits.The board has refused to call new negotiating sessions and has stated that it expects HEA to sign on to its final offer. HEA also refuses to call for new negotiations, saying it has done all the compromising and negotiating since efforts to draw up a new contract started in April.Contract language dealing with hiring for vacant positions also wasproposed by the board, with the union giving up its all rights to extra-duty positions and exclusive rights to teaching positions. The board wants the right to hire from the outside if only one internal candidate applies for a teaching position.Board of Education President Gary Ellis has said that the vacancy and transfer language takes the hiring authority away from the board, giving control to the union. A survey of about 20 other Southern Illinois school districts revealed that just two, Johnston City and West Frankfort, have similar contract language. Ellis has said this lends more credibility tothe argument that board should “have the ... final say-so” on hiring teachers.HEA wants the 21-year-old vacancy hiring clause kept mostly intact. It restricts the board to hiring only internal applicants for vacant teaching and extra-duty positions. However, HEA President Jim Butler has said the union is willing to give up rights on extra-duty positions, but won’t give up exclusive rights to teaching positions.So as both sides in the strike continue to stubbornly adhere to their last offers, Towery and Foster began efforts last week to organize parentsof Unit 3 students into a group that is calling for an end to the strike.On Monday, the parents started their own picket at the Unit 3 Central Administrative offices, demonstrating as HEA members walked their pickeLThe parents’ counter-picket, see STRIKE, Page 4Jordan charged in murderBy NICK MARIANO_Staff Writer_The Saline County state’s attorney filed three counts of first-degree murder against a 19-year-old man suspected of having shot and killed a Carrier Mills resident after presenting in court Tuesday evidence suggesting the suspect admitted to shooting the victim.First Circuit Court Judge Arlie Boswell ordered that joe W. Jordan, formerly of Golconda, be held without bond for the murder of 54-year-old Ralph Thompson at the request of State’s Attorney Rod Wolf.Jordan had been a fugitive for about 10 days after the shooting and was considered a flight risk,Wolf said.Thompson was shot three times and killed Aug. 11 at his Carrier Mills home. He was found outside his home covered in a quilt two days later by a neighbor passingThompson’s home. He was shot twice in the upper left arm, once with a shotgun and then a high-powered rifle, and once in the back with the high-powered rifle.The counts allege that Jordan intentionally and knowingly killed Thompson, and that Jordan knew such an act created a strong probability of death.Special agent David Elwood, of Illinois’ Division of Criminal Investigation, testified that Jordan admitted to shooting Thompson three times. However, he did not indicate the cause of the shootings.Nor is it clear whether or not Jordan made the statement in Nevada, where he was arrested Aug. 21 for theft and burglary, or if he made the statement with local law enforcement agencies during two interviews with Jordan upon his return to Saline County on Monday..The theft and burglary offenses occurred the day of Thompson’s death when Jordan allegedly stoleSee MURDER, Page 4Incumbent adapting to changes in circuit clerk’s officeEditor’s note: This is part of a series of reports on candidates for Saline County offices in the Nov. 3 general election.By NICK MARIANO_Staff Writer_As time passes by, with it environments change, including the functions of a governing office. To cope with the change, to be able to survive, especially in the political arena, an office holder has to be ableto accept the new responsibilities that come with the changes.It’s that philosophy Republican incumbent Ron Ledford is adhering to as he bids for a fourth term as thecircuit clerk of the First Judicial Circuit Court in Saline County this fall on Nov. 3. It’s that idea that has enabled him to adjust to growing responsibilities since December, 1980, when he unseated Democrat Circuit Clerk John Utter with desire more than anything else.In that election year, when aspeeding ticket cost $35, the circuit clerk’s office was merely a collection agency for Springfield, collecting fines and court costs ordered by the court in Saline County.But, today, 12 years later, the office has grown from a collection agency to an administrator of funds directed to at least 12 different programs from the fines and costs the office collects from guilty persons,not taxpayers.And it is money staying in Saline County.According to the 41-year-old candidate, the circuit clerk’s office collected $400,000 in fiscal year 1981. In FY ‘91, he estimates theoffice will collect over $1.5 million in fees, some of which will be directly applied to the suite programs in SaJinc County.‘‘The state is more and moreto do them with. The job is much more complicated that it was in 1980,” said Ledford, who resides in Eldorado.Ledford, however, is partially at fault for the rapid changes occurring in the office because of an idea he and two other clerks of the Illinois courts had in 1982 — computerization — and a chance to regain control of the booming office.“The computerization of this office put us in control of the office. I’m proud of being a part of the team to computerize. It’s now being used in half the counties in the state,” he said of the 1986 automation in his office.According to Ledford, he, with the help of Congressman Glenn Poshard, a Democrat, was able to set up an automation account whichTHE CHALLENGERDemocrat candidate Joe Murphy,would lake a percentage of fees r'ghl' ,alks s,ra,e9* wi,h lllinois ReP- David PhelPs' D-EkJorado, atmandating us to do work that is un- from court costs to maintain and op- *^e Stonetort Reunion Friday evening. (Nick Mariano photo)related to the court. The state is saying, ‘Here’s jobs to do,’ but unfortunately they don’t provide resourcescrate the computers, saving taxpay-See LEDFORD, Page 4Challenger Murphynot backing do wnBy NICK MARIANO Staff WriterTHE INCUMBENTputer files with DeputyFacing what his opponent faced 12 years ago, a long-standing incumbent, this election year’s challenger running for the circuit clerk’s office in Saline County is not backing down, which is how the incumbent won in 1980.“1 realize I’m at a disadvantage,” Democratic candidate Joe Murphy acknowledged, “but I have to come back to the fact that Jim Fowler didn’t know that much about his office, nor did Jay Williams know that much about his office when they were elected, Murphy noted about other county office holders.And he admits, “I don’t know the day-to-day role (of the circuit clerk’s office) as Ron Ledford does, just as he didn’t when he first took office.”burg hasn’t been involved in the changes he says he has seen in all the county offices during his tenure on the Saline County Board.Murphy has served on the board for eight two-year terms since 1976. For the last six years, he has served as Saline County Democratic chairman, which Murphy describes asstrictly a service position.By combining his experience asa county board member serving the public and his vocation as a self-employed insurance representative and fanner of 400 acres near Stonefort, Murphy says he is qualified for the office because he is service oriented.“Being a self-employed person, I think I’ve had to be financially prudent. I’ve had to make improvements. You can’t continue in any business without improving yourself. And I have with hard work. IlooksThai, of course, does not mean think I have the qualities for the job.the 55-year-old candidate of Harris-See MURPHY, Page 4.....
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Harrisburg Daily Register
Harrisburg, Illinois, US
Wed, Sep 02, 1992
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