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Police protect us.
Why don’t we protect them?

Another state law that doesn’t make any sense

By Mike Fak

[JULY 16, 2001]  The LDN recently ran an excellent article by Lynn Spellman regarding the financial plight of Sheriff’s Deputy Bob Spickard. Spickard, charged with battery and official misconduct while on duty, was exonerated of the charges by a jury of his peers in less than an hour. The costs Deputy Spickard faces defending himself are the kind of expense that for all working stiffs might take years to repay. That is flat-out wrong.

There is the possibility Deputy Spickard didn’t do this whole affair the right way. Perhaps if he had gone to the County Board and asked for representation or simply asked the judge to appoint a public defender to represent him, Spickard would not be facing the monstrous attorney fees he now is faced with. That, of course, is easy for you or me to say. We were not facing the loss of not only a job but a career. We were not facing the possibility of being sent to jail to be among the very individuals we have spent our adulthood placing in incarceration. Can you really fault the deputy for erring on the side of caution? I can’t. I know you can’t either.

The point that really frustrates me about this whole affair is that a county officer, while performing his duties, was charged with criminal malfeasance by an individual and has to personally foot the bill to prove he acted according to the law. Regardless of the fact that state law says this is correct, I beg to differ.

 

Officers, whether city, county or state, should not have to pay their own court costs and attorney fees to defend themselves while performing their duty. Especially after they have been found not guilty.

It has been brought to light that city and county officers have the option of purchasing insurance to protect themselves from such financial duress, but is that the way it should really be? Are we not asking these people to protect us, place their lives on the line if need be for lousy pay, and then by Illinois law have the nerve to tell them: "By the way, if someone brings charges against you that a jury states are false, you are on your own financially." This is flat-out wrong.

 

[to top of second column in this commentary]

Now I want it clear that I am not blaming the County Board for not making this coverage automatic. I am not blaming the sheriff either for not making insurance protection a requirement. Who I am blaming is the Illinois legislature that doesn’t see that officers of the law need basic, required protection from the expenses brought on by lawsuits, especially those that are adjudged inappropriate. I am blaming a union that doesn’t think from Day One that insurance protection in a day and age of frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit should be a part of every negotiating session. I am blaming an Illinois governor who just made a big deal out of awarding medals to many brave Illinois police officers but also doesn’t think they deserve to have mandatory insurance protection to prevent what just happened to patrolman Spickard. I have to ask those award-winning officers how long an attorney will represent them if the only collateral they have is one of those medals.

Deputy Robert Spickard performed his duties on July 29, 1999, as his training dictated. He was charged with criminal battery and official misconduct but was found not guilty in the time it takes to eat a sandwich. For his life to be under financial duress because of this just isn’t right. It just isn’t.

Tuesday night the County Board will vote on whether to assist the deputy and his family with the expenses he incurred due to this lawsuit. It may not be required by law for them to do anything in this matter. Regardless of this fact, I hope the board offers at least some financial assistance. It’s the right thing to do.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak's commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 


Promote the real Route 66

By Mike Fak

[JULY 12, 2001]  I really liked the question. A viewer on the show wanted to talk about Route 66. The gentleman asked why Route 66 isn’t the real Route 66 anymore. Not being a native, I was unaware that the real route actually went through the heart of Lincoln and not around the beltline as the signs now direct.

The question was simple. In the event we are trying to promote tourism, why don’t we want the nostalgia buffs associated with journeys along the historic road to go right through town? Secondary thoughts such as, "Wouldn’t this cause travelers to use our gas stations, restaurants and other businesses?" immediately came into the conversation. The caller has a good question. Why don’t we promote the old Route 66?

The history of the famous road is not as easy to determine as one would think. More than 7,000 websites are directed to an inquirer about the old highway. Many of them are in foreign languages, including Thai, showing an investigator there is a world interest in this concrete slab of Americana. A great many of the sites, unfortunately, are commercial. "Buy this souvenir or that trinket" fills the Web. Maps on the highway — to be kind, in my words — are poor at best. Descriptions of the highway’s incredible number of nuances as it snaked its way across the country are lacking in sufficient detail. It has been a chore to find what I have, but allow me to share my initial research with you.

The original road was 2,448 miles and stretched from downtown Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif. Crossing eight states and three time zones, this early 20th century roadway wasn’t completely paved until 1937. Commissioned as a highway in 1926, the route used as many existing portions of road as possible to link Illinois with California. It is this meld of old and new that has given Route 66 its legend. With twists and turns that make no sense except to a 1920s federal road commissioner, the highway wriggles its way westward like a drunken sailor.

It is this nuance that gives the route its charm and attracts the lasting fondness of nostalgia buffs. Unlike the highways of today, which speed through or around the cities in this country, Route 66 caused motorists to actually visit the towns on the way to Santa Monica.

 

 

 

[to top of second column in this commentary]

It seems that in the 1950s, as America began its courtship with haste and as Eisenhower’s national highway program went into full gear, routes such as I-55, I-40, I-15 and I-10 were melded into the old route. This left parts of the original highway, as well as the towns it dissected, out of the nation’s travel itinerary.

In fact, one of the route’s primary websites admits that there are still stretches of the original Route 66 waiting to be discovered.

Talking to Lincoln residents, I find that it seems we are still aware in this area of the original road. Coming into town on the north end, by Kickapoo Street, the road jaunted west on Keokuk until heading southwest by following Fifth Street until it reached Washington Street. A left turn snaked the road through the cemeteries and back out to the service road headed to Broadwell.

This makes it obvious to an observer like myself that a great deal of our community and its businesses could become part of the itinerary of travelers looking to relive a part of America’s traveling habits. The fact that the original road went past Postville Courthouse as well as the soon-to-be-refurbished historic well across the street begs us to ask why Lincoln can’t get at least our part of the historic road on the maps of perhaps millions of nostalgia buffs.

It wouldn’t take a lot of time or money. Just a few interested citizens and a set of road signs are all that is needed. I will be happy to tell the world on the Web that Lincoln has the original road available for their travels through our area. In an electronic moment, 7,000 websites and millions of history buffs will know about us.

Isn’t technology amazing? Perhaps that’s why things such as an old, meandering, time-consuming highway are becoming lost. Things are getting easier and quicker, including car travel. I’m not convinced that they are getting better.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak's commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 


The em space is a staff writer's commentary section with observations about life experiences in Logan County and beyond.

— Mary Krallmann


Watch for houses going by

Houses usually stay put. We live in a mobile society, but unlike tent dwellers who lived on the plains before our time, we think of most structures in relatively permanent terms.

So I kept watching when I saw signs that a move was ahead for a local house. The first clue I really noticed was that the back porch had been detached. I also saw a newly dug basement a few blocks away. Then one Friday night a small bulldozer was unloaded at the house. I got more excited at noon a few days later when the machine scooped out bushes in front. I thought the house might be gone by the time I came by again, but it had just moved up and over. The building wasn’t exactly beside itself, but beside where it used to be.

For about a week the house stood there higher than before but with curtains at the windows as usual. I especially liked to notice the outside water faucet with no connection to the ground. For a while a newly delivered telephone book in its yellow sack leaned against the front door, several feet above the ground. I imagined that when the house arrived at its new place, someone would want to call — by cell phone, I suppose — and say they made it all right.

I began to wonder about arranging for such a move. I figured it wouldn’t be that much different from getting an insurance quote or making an appointment for repair work, but since I’ve never owned a lot or a house, the subject seemed about as likely as calling a travel agent for a ticket to the space station. Someone could use the idea for a comedy routine.

Hello. Do you move houses?

OK, good. Here’s a situation. It’s getting too crowded where I live, but I’m tired of packing and unpacking, and I still like the house itself. I was wondering if someone could pick up the whole thing and put it somewhere else. I have no idea how much it weighs. I could give you the measurements if that would help. I did find a place with a better view, and it’s not too far away. So what do you need to know to give me an estimate?

I discovered there actually are places on the Internet where people can exchange information like that.

Moving structures is nothing new, though. There’s a record of such a move in England about 400 years ago. Moving houses on the prairie was not uncommon. As Chicago grew, wooden buildings in the city were moved to outlying areas. Memoirs of Gustaf Unonius provide details.

A recent book called "Silent Observer" includes a child’s view of a house move about 100 years ago in Nova Scotia. A woman who had been an illustrator used watercolors and words to convey her memories of waking up one morning with the house swaying as horses pulled it, while men placed logs for rollers underneath.

Today there are hydraulically controlled dollies and unified jacking systems. In coastal areas, some houses are transported on barges.

Churches, railroad stations, theaters, an airline terminal, apartments and restaurants have been moved. Preserving historic structures is one motivation, but newer buildings are relocated too. In order to make room for a mall, a ticket building for Opryland tourists was moved only four years after it was built.

Hundreds of houses had to be relocated before construction of the Kennedy Space Center. Houses have also been moved to make way for new roads. Sometimes people can get a bargain house if they arrange to move it, and some firms that move houses also sell them.

Structural moving is said to be the oldest and largest recycling business. A slogan on equipment for the recent local move said, "Save a Tree ... Move a House!"

Accounts of building moves include the report that a glass greenhouse was relocated and "not a pane was broken." One homeowner commented that the dog’s water bowl didn’t even spill during a move. Then there was the time a house took a "side trip into the ditch." Damage was "minimal": four cracked floor joists.

Unusual things happening to structures around us draw our attention. There’s curiosity even in cases of damage from fire, wind or floodwater, but with a carefully planned event such as a building move, it’s a more positive situation.

For most of us, it’s not an everyday sight when a building goes on to new digs. I wasn’t around when the actual move happened here recently, but the house isn’t there anymore, so I know it went by.

[Mary Krallmann

If you follow some links, you can find a variety of stories and pictures of house moves.

http://www.iasm.org/

Website of the International Association of Structural Movers

http://buildingmovers.com/

Website for the building moving industry

 

Where They Stand

Where They Stand is a commentary section that poses a question about a specific issue in the community. Informed individuals present their position with facts, opinions or insights on the issue. The following commentaries have been printed, unedited, in their entirety, as they were received. If you have further comment on the issue, please send an e-mail message, complete with your name, address and telephone number to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com.


 

By the Numbers

Population estimates in Logan County
30,798 Total population, 1990
15,380 Rural population - 49.9%, 1990
15,418 Urban population - 50.1%, 1990
2,875 Projected births, 1990-1998
2,736 Projected deaths, 1990-1998
3,143 Persons below poverty level - 11.8 %
258 Average marriages per year
135 Average deaths per year

Alexis Asher


Logan County high schools: 1960-2000
1962 Middletown High School consolidated with New Holland
1972 Atlanta High School became part of Olympia School District
1975 Elkhart High School consolidated with Mount Pulaski
1979 Latham High School became Warrensburg-Latham
1988 New Holland-Middletown High School consolidated with Lincoln Community High School
1989 San Jose High School consolidated with Illini Central (Mason City)

Alexis Asher


Lincoln High School history

1859

Lincoln School District

5

School buildings in 1859

1

"Grammar school" in 1859

1

High school teacher, Mr. January, in 1859

1870-71

Central School opened

1898

High school building started

1900

High school dedicated, Jan. 5

$20,000

Cost of new high school

1920

Election authorized community high school District #404

1958

Dedication of new Lincoln Community High School, 1000 Primm Road, in auditorium, on Nov. 9

Alexis Asher


How We Stack Up


This feature of the Lincoln Daily News compares Lincoln and Logan County to similar cities and counties on a variety of issues in a succinct manner, using charts and graphs for illustration.

Racial makeup of selected Illinois counties

 



What's Up With That?

 

 

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