About LDN

Letters to the Editor

About LDN

Lincoln Daily News.com
601 Keokuk St.
Lincoln, IL 62656

TEL: (217) 732-7443
FAX: (217) 732-9630

Lincoln Daily News publishes daily news about the Lincoln/Logan County area on the Internet at www.lincolndailynews.com. (We are not a print publication.) All subscriptions are free!

Content:

The articles published in Lincoln Daily News are the result of research, interviews and news releases submitted. Any opinions expressed are those of the writers.

Our staff:

In the office

Managing editor: Jan Youngquist

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com

Technician, photo editor, graphic designer: 
Jeff DeMarco

Text processing: Mary Krallmann

Advertising sales and public relations:

Lucky Eichner:  ads@lincolndailynews.com

Writers
[Click here]

For employment information, contact us.

Our mission:

The mission of Lincoln Daily News is to tell the stories of Logan County in a contemporaneous manner, with lively writing and a predilection for simple truth fairly told. Lincoln Daily News seeks a relationship with the good people of Logan County that is honest, neighborly and never patronizing. Lincoln Daily News presents news within a full context that contributes to understanding. Lincoln Daily News is more interested in the marketplace of ideas than the competition of personalities. Without shrinking from the bold delivery of unvarnished fact, Lincoln Daily News operates from the premise that God's creatures deserve the presumption of right motive. Lincoln Daily News eschews malice and cynicism; it approaches every person with dignity and every subject with equanimity. In short, Lincoln Daily News informs, stimulates and entertains.

Corrections:

Please contact us by phone, fax, mail or e-mail with any information about mistakes, typos or erroneous information. If the error is in an item that is still in the paper, we will correct it online immediately.

Our services:

Lincoln Daily News provides daily news, sports, features and commentary on Lincoln, Logan County and the surrounding area. 

To promote local businesses, we offer display advertisements at very reasonable rates and links to business websites. Call (217) 732-7443 or
e-mail ads@lincolndailynews.com. 

To submit classified ads, click here.

"Happy ads" are a special feature to enable our readers to celebrate birthdays, graduations, anniversaries and other good news. Call us for details.

Letters to the Editor

The Lincoln Daily News publishes letters to the editor as they are received.
 The letters are not edited in content and do not necessarily reflect 
the views of Lincoln Daily News.

Lincoln Daily News requests that writers responding to controversial issues address the issue and refrain from personal attacks. Thank you!

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Please send your letters by e-mail to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com or by U.S. postal mail to:

Letters to the Editor
Lincoln Daily News
601 Keokuk St.
Lincoln, IL  62656

Letters must include the writer's name, telephone number, mailing address and/or e-mail address (we will not publish address or phone number information). Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to edit letters to reduce their size or to correct obvious errors. Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to reject any letter for any reason. Lincoln Daily News will publish as many acceptable letters as space allows.

To the editor:

Last year, New Holland-Middletown School district became associated with the Logan County Sheriff's Department through the Adopt-A-Cop program. Sgt. John Cook became "our cop."

Over the past year and a half, Sgt. Cook has visited with our students many times. He has presented many topics, such as seat belt safety, gun safety, fingerprinting and stranger awareness. On Sept. 11 of this [school] year, he spent time with the children to make sure that they felt safe and to dispel any fears that they may have had in regard to the terrorism. This meant a lot to the students and the teachers. On one of his visits, Sgt. Cook took the children for a ride in the squad car and explained the equipment and the training involved with his job. Sgt. Cook, Officer Jackson and Chief Montcalm had a cookout at the school for all of the students. He has made our students feel so important and has built up their self-esteem. The experiences that Sgt. Cook has provided for our children have been very beneficial and motivating.

As beneficial as these programs have been, Sgt. Cook has given our children something far more valuable.

[to top of second column in this letter]

I have watched, over the past year and a half, how the children's feelings regarding the police have changed drastically. Many had very negative feelings associated with the law officers. Many kids were reluctant to interact in the discussions or participate in the activities. Due to Cook's kindness, patience and guidance, those feelings of fear and distrust have changed to respect and adoration. Now all of the students anxiously await Sgt. Cook's visits. He begins with a group hug, which has become so important to all of the kids. Sgt. Cook has made the Adopt-A-Cop program a huge success at the New Holland-Middletown Primary School.

A couple of weeks ago, we learned of Sgt. Cook's plans to retire from the Logan County Sheriff's Department. This was sad news for the students and staff at New Holland-Middletown School. We wish the very best for Sgt. Cook. He has made an impact on the lives of many people. Sgt. Cook will be missed.

Sincerely,

Lynn Corley

Fourth-grade teacher

New Holland-Middletown Primary School

(posted 4-30-03)

To Lincoln Daily News:

Thanks for your contribution in making the Community Health Fair on April 5 an overwhelming success.

We are estimating more than 1,400 people from the Lincoln-Logan County area visited this year's event. More than 60 exhibitors set up displays, informational booths and/or provided health screenings.

The continued success of the event would not be possible without the support of the community. Another BIG thank-you to each of you at Lincoln Daily News who helped in promoting the event.

Thanks again for your continued support, promotion and coverage of the health fair. Hopefully we can enlist your help again next year.

Marcia Greenslate and Marcia Dowling,
event coordinators

(posted 4-26-03)

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Please send your letters by e-mail to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com or by U.S. postal mail to:

Letters to the Editor
Lincoln Daily News
601 Keokuk St.
Lincoln, IL  62656

Letters must include the writer's name, telephone number, mailing address and/or e-mail address (we will not publish address or phone number information). Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to edit letters to reduce their size or to correct obvious errors. Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to reject any letter for any reason. Lincoln Daily News will publish as many acceptable letters as space allows.

How can we be ready for a disaster if we have no warning that it may happen?

On Friday, April 4, 2003, a storm loomed over Lincoln. Residents may have been aware of the tornado warnings that were issued, but let me assure you that many schools and businesses were unaware of the issued warning. I work on the west side of town. I left work at 3 p.m. to pick my daughter up at Zion Lutheran School, unaware that there had been a tornado warning issued for Lincoln. I saw that the sky was dark but did not really think of anything beyond a typical thunderstorm. I picked up my daughter and returned to work at 3:10 p.m. Less than two minutes later a gentleman entered our business and said the sky was green over Wal-Mart and the clouds were swirling. Rain and hail were coming down hard by now. Thirty seconds or so later the door to our business was ripped opened by the wind, and debris began swirling. A window was blown out of a truck in the parking lot next door. Three to four minutes after all of this started, after the damage was done to Zion, McDonald's and other places -- three to four minutes after the "tornado" hit -- then the "warning siren" went off.

[to top of second column in this letter]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but it is a "warning" siren, isn't it? Shouldn't it go off before the storm hits, not after? If that storm had hit 10 minutes sooner, it would have caught WL-B and ZLS right in the middle of dismissal, and we could have lost lives. It took a phone call from a concerned parent whose child stayed after school for track practice to make the school aware of the potential for a tornado. The school took action and got the children and parents inside to safety. As it was, five vans and one car sustained damage in the parking lot of ZLS, plus some structural damage was sustained. Had this parent not called, who knows what may have happened?

Shouldn't there be a plan in effect that would warn the schools and businesses that do not have weather radios or televisions? Unless you have a TV or radio, you have no way of knowing a tornado may be on the horizon. There were four mobile home parks in the path of this storm. They had no warning unless they happened to be watching TV or listening to the radio. Shouldn't the siren go off before the storm hits? How can we take shelter if we have no warning?

Christie Huskins

Lincoln

(posted 4-26-03)

Dear Lincoln Daily News:

We at Logan County ESDA office would like to elaborate on how we specifically assist communities in the activation of their outdoor warning sirens. First of all, these sirens are not just meant for storm warnings. Several years ago they were primarily put in service for wartime.

Today they are also used in chemical warnings and to assist in severe outdoor weather warnings, if possible. Our office works in conjunction with every municipality that has storm spotters to assist in setting off the sirens as severe weather approaches. Emergency managers or department heads in your municipality can also order the activation of the sirens at any time.

As a storm approaches, the four things that activate the outdoor weather sirens are tornado, funnel cloud or wall cloud headed for a metropolitan area; the fourth thing is when winds sustain (not gusts) 55 mph. That is what happened on April 4 of this year. When the winds reached 55 mph the sirens were immediately activated.

You must also remember that a microburst is a storm that develops and erupts from that point forward. There is no early detection of a microburst as there is with the signature storm of a funnel cloud or tornado that has a visual effect. Microbursts cannot be detected before they strike -- similar to lightning. Out of a severe thunderstorm you cannot detect where lightning is going to strike, the same way you cannot detect when a microburst will strike. Even though a microburst is very rare, we now see that they do happen. Pay attention to severe thunderstorm warnings.

[to top of second column in this letter]

In 2001 Logan County ESDA received a STAR Grant that allowed us to place weather warning radios throughout the county. Every school was offered these radios and all accepted them except one, which already had their own system. We also offered the radios to any pertinent gathering places and all fire departments throughout the county. We are now checking schools and finding that many have not changed their batteries, they are not on, or not working, or don’t have an attendant monitoring it. Make sure your local school is using the radio and has someone attending it. Any school or business can call our office if there is a problem with an approaching storm. It is impossible for us to phone and/or contact every business and school as a storm approaches.

Logan County ESDA offers an annual weather spotters class free to the public. This was given on March 28, 2003. The National Weather Service issues the alerts. ESDA weather spotters are activated when NWS issues weather watches. Just as you have a smoke detector and a CO detector for your safety in the home, we recommend that you also have a weather radio and change the batteries twice a year. Please remember that the person that can help keep you the safest from any emergency is you.

We hope this clarifies any questions that you may have. We are definitely here for the protection of the citizens.

If you have any further questions, you may call Logan County ESDA, 732-9491.

Logan County ESDA

(posted 4-26-03)

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