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Shirley Bartelmay of Lincoln, scheduler
for the Postville volunteers, said she has all January slots filled
but one. The site is open noon to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
Schachtsiek had manned the site on Fridays and Saturdays before his
retirement.
He will be missed. Thressia Usherwood,
executive director of Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan
County, said Schachtsiek was "wonderful to work with; very, very
supportive; very tourism-minded"; and she added, "I’m going to miss
him terribly."
"Oh, he was great because he helped
with everything," Bartelmay agreed. She explained that Schachtsiek
knew the answers to a great variety of questions and was "an
excellent training person."
[Photos by Lynn Spellman]
[Shirley Bartlemay explains a display at the
Postville Courthouse to new volunteers Stuart Churchill, Ruthetta
Getchel and Judy Alberts.]
A volunteer herself, Bartelmay
conducted a training session for three new volunteers recently, using
materials compiled by Schachtsiek. Those trained were Judy Alberts,
Stuart Churchill and Ruthetta Getchel, all of Lincoln. Two others
are in line for orientation in the near future.
Bartelmay said the 32 volunteers
already in place "really stepped forward" and were very cooperative
about helping to fill the void left by Schachtsiek’s departure. The
volunteers were organized in March 2000, and most of the first
participants are still active. The corps comprises both retired and
working people.
Mount Pulaski Courthouse is being kept
open the same hours, noon to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, by
its corps of volunteers. In Mount Pulaski the city clerk’s office
handles the scheduling. Maintenance duties at both sites have been
assigned to two New Salem workers. But Mount Pulaski is experiencing
less change than Lincoln because Schachtsiek did not keep regular
hours there; he came instead for special events.
On Dec. 1, 1992, under threat of being
closed by the state, the Mount Pulaski Courthouse became the only
historic site in Illinois kept open entirely by volunteers.
Schachtsiek supplied historical training for the volunteers, and
Wally Kautz of Mount Pulaski acted as model for a day of on-the-job
instruction. Kautz said the program has worked well, and he believes
all the volunteers have enjoyed the experience.
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this article]
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Schachtsiek trained two Mount Pulaski
volunteers in December. Kautz surmised that, if new volunteers step
forward before a site director is named, he will train them. There
are currently just under 30 Mount Pulaski volunteers. Each works one
day per month.
Robert J. Coomer, superintendent of the
Historic Sites Division of the Illinois Historic Preservation
Agency, spoke to Postville volunteers in December. He has submitted
a letter to his director requesting an exemption to fill the site
director post. Ultimately, the decision will be made by the Illinois
Bureau of the Budget. Coomer said he is optimistic that the position
will be filled. If approved, it will take at least 60 days to post
the opening and interview applicants. The state considers Postville
Courthouse and Mount Pulaski Courthouse to be one site requiring one
curator.
[Judy Alberts and Ashley, Jackson and Ruthetta
Getchel listen to volunteer instruction from Shirley Bartelmay.]
Bartelmay said it is important to keep
the courthouse sites open because of the tourists and dollars they
draw to the county. Postville recorded 1,610 visitors in 2002, an
increase from the previous year. If three-fourths of those visitors
came from out of town, and they bought gas, food and other items and
many stayed overnight, they spent over $100,000 in the county, she
calculated.
Records show that last year’s Postville
visitors came from 33 states and the District of Columbia plus 11
foreign countries. Asian tourists are especially intrigued by
Abraham Lincoln and tend to be already well informed when they
arrive, Bartelmay noted.
Volunteers
at each site direct tourists to other area attractions, including
Lincoln College Museum and Under the Prairie Frontier Archaeological
Museum in Elkhart.
[Lynn
Spellman]
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"This is not a
constitutional change," said Mitchell. "This bill puts in place
guidelines or procedures that future governors must follow before
making these critical life-or-death decisions -- with the hope being
that they give prosecutors and victims an opportunity to voice their
opinions before making a final decision."
House Bill 191
requires the following procedures to be followed by future governors
in making final clemency decisions, including:
* Preventing the
governor from granting clemency without a full hearing and report
from the Prison Review Board.
* Requiring the
Prison Review Board to notify the victim of the crime and the
state's attorney prior to any hearing on a petition for clemency.
[to top of second column in
this article] |
* Requiring the
Prison Review Board to conduct a comprehensive hearing on the merits
of each petition including materials submitted by victims and
survivors.
* Requiring the
board to submit an open report to the governor for his
consideration.
"We all agree
that we need to look at our death penalty system in Illinois. No one
wants to execute an innocent person. However, it is apparent that
Governor George Ryan abused his constitutional authority, and we
must also reform the way executive pardons and commutations
decisions are made," said Mitchell.
[News
release] |
