State Hires New Gardner

Jeff Jansen, the longtime executive director of the Oakley-Lindsay Center in Quincy, is scheduled to start a new job next week with the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Jansen's title will be local agency liaison and safety outreach coordinator for IDOT's District 6. He will be in charge of working with small communities in search of beautification projects, grant writing and area right-of-way acquisition. He also will work with IDOT safety programs.

Mike Claffey, a spokesman for IDOT, confirmed that Jansen will start next week at an annual salary of $62,200. Claffey said the position exists elsewhere in the state but has not previously existed in West-Central Illinois.

The state job will give Jansen a chance to qualify for benefits under the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. He was enrolled in IMRF during his time as an alderman and director of administrative services. But Jansen fell short of the eight years needed to get a pension.

You're FIRED !!!

Rosie O'Donnell will not be back on "The View," ABC announced Friday, two days after she and co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck got into a huge political dust-up live on the talk show.

Who is sorry to see this happen....

Seatbelts ?? Really....

By Rajah Maples
Posted: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 at 9:24 PM

You've probably heard of the Click it or ticket campaign, which targets drivers who don't wear their seat belts.

*This* year, officers plan to increase their patrol of *night-time* drivers.

Illinois State Police Master Sergeant Dorman Deeder says studies have shown that 60 percent of all fatalities that happen at night happen because drivers didn't buckle up.

So state police plan to pay *extra* attention to night-time drivers to help decrease that statistic.

Translation:

For fatal crashes occurring from midnight to 3:00 AM, 77 percent involved alcohol in 2003. The next most dangerous time period for alcohol-related crash deaths were 9 PM to midnight (64 percent of fatal crashes involved alcohol), followed by 3 AM to 6 AM (60 percent of fatal crashes involved alcohol). (NHTSA, 2004)

Pain in the Gas

If the QHW is going to feed me a line of crap, there're gonna need a bigger spoon.

After reading Saturdays article on why the price of gas is going up in Quincy, it took me about 40 minutes and 2 cups of coffee to blow this story to shame. It's taking me longer to write and explain how I came to this conclusion.

First. Do you think a "convenience store director of operations" is going to tell you the truth ? First statement is there will be a "temporary interruption of fuel flow" then says "The Magellan pipelines are expected to be off line for as much as a month." Huh. What?

My comparison of this statement is a temporary interruption is that that your power will be restored after we fix this problem in an hour vs. the hurricane has torn out the entire power lines to the area and it will be days until the power is restored.

A quick search on Google with the Magellan statement turns up nothing.

Another search on Google for Magellan Pipelines turns up their company website. It shows that the pipeline runs from OK up to Chicago. OK hang with me here. The assets page shows the pipeline in detail.

The first terminal is in Columbia MO. A search of this so-called "gas outage" shows nothing. Next terminal is Palmyra MO. Next is Heyworth IL. Closest locations to this is Bloomington and Springfield IL. Another search shows no problem here either. Also shows that Bloomington gas prices are 10 cent cheaper than Quincy. Looking at SPFLD gas prices, they are also 10 to 15 cents cheaper too.

So....I do have some knowledge of how pipelines work and I know that a pipeline that runs through the Midwest runs THRU the Midwest. Cost would prohibit it from running from OK to Columbia, OK to Palmyra, OK to Heyworth. Keep up with me here. So if the the SAME pipeline feeds the Columbia, Palmyra, and Heyworth, How come they don't have the same supply problem WE do???

How come gas is cheaper in Bloomington and Springfield that runs thru the SAME gas line that feeds Palmyra in the same state with the same taxes ???

I do believe we are gettin' hosed at the pump.