MONMOUTH, Ill. – No team scores were kept at Saturday’s five-team Midwest Invitational track meet, but Monmouth College had four athletes turn in provisional qualifying performances.
The Fighting Scots won 15 of the meet’s 42 events and were especially good in the men’s high jump where they took the top five spots. The women’s shot put nearly equaled the men’s high jump performance, taking four of the top five places.
JANUARY 23 BASKETBALL SCORES
Women
Monmouth 77
Lawrence 58
Men
Lawrence 89
Monmouth 65
LATE NEWS
Power Outage Leaves Residents, Stores and College In The Dark
by Emily Friedrich
(Monmouth, Ill.) A severe ice storm swept across much of western Illinois on Thursday, leaving 4,015 people without power in Monmouth alone.
Ameren Illinois Utilities pressed all their emergency resources into action to fix "galloping" electrical lines that caused most of the outage in the area. Power lines "gallop" only under a dangerous combination of winter conditions. Ameren spokesperson Neal Johnson calls the situation a “phenomenon.”
Johnson says, “Most of the power has been restored to Warren County, but northern Mercer and southern McDonough counties were not so lucky. McDonough was hit bad with 10,000 people affected.”
Ameren restored power to most areas by midnight, but many communities continued to experience sporadic loss. Monmouth College, one of Ameren’s largest power users in Warren County, did not shut down despite the outage.
Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students Jacquelyn Condon, believes the College handled the situation well. Students were notified by text message and voicemail early Friday morning that classes would proceed as usual for the day.
Condon was not as impressed with Ameren’s performance and said, "Approximately five years ago Ameren became our carrier, and shortly afterwards we began to have power outages. This latest outage is the third or fourth in five years. It is one thing for power to go out briefly, and it is another for it to go out for hours and hours.”
Meals were still available to students in Stockdale Center that was powered by a generator, but all other academic buildings were without heat. Condon says, “The College owns a number of generators that are deployed at times when the power goes out. Physical Plant works with the Power Company to determine when they believe power will be restored and on their best advice, secures additional generators.”
Vehicle Vandalism Continues in Monmouth
by Andy Drea
(Monmouth, Ill.) In his report to City Council, Monmouth Police Chief Brad Zeigler announced that recent car thefts in the city are continuing into 2010. The thefts have been occurring across town since mid-December. Most of the cars have had windows broken to gain entry or items have been taken from unlocked cars.
Zeigler said he had “No comment” as to any suspects in the case, only that “We are working aggressively to arrest the perpetrator . . . and recommending to people to not leave items of value in the front seat,” Zeigler said.
Also, EMC Public Works Director Andy Jackson updated the council on the progress of the new wastewater treatment plant, which was described by City Administrator Eric Hanson as “the biggest project ever” for Monmouth. The plant is now scheduled to be operational in Spring 2010, while final touches, including sidewalks and other exterior construction, are slated to be completed mid-summer. The wastewater treatment plant will be energy-efficient and reuse produced Methane for its own energy, making it self-sufficient. Any unused Methane will be sold to Ameren to generate profit. Already, the project has been cost-efficient as the project has stayed under budget, using only 90 percent of the money set aside by the city, according to Hanson.
