[January 02, 2025]  Dear Editor, Fellow Citizens, and Business Owners of Lincoln and Logan County, Family, and Friends:

As we soon will mark another special Holiday Season with Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, and the New Year, I reflect and pray more about our Country, World, and the Community we live in and ask God what He wants me to do for the next Year and Beyond to help all of us live collectively better. I ask Him to help me be a better person and help those in need to the best of my ability with compassion, and to treat everyone I encounter with respect. I think about the great City and County we live in and the great blessings we have experienced over the decades. But, like other smaller cities and counties, we have experienced a safe and good quality life for rearing our children and enjoying life in general.
 

But as many smaller cities and counties have been plagued across the US, Lincoln, IL is experiencing more and more social challenges -- negatives that detract from our safety and quality of life, our Children’s future education, attitudes, potential, and prospects. One cannot review the newspaper or journal articles without seeing hatefulness and crimes abound. Although, we don’t have the most current Illinois’ crime statistics yet, the City of Lincoln’s crime rate has increased in many areas within the past several years. Children handling handguns, many non-registered assault weapons, Heroin, Heroin with Fentanyl, Methamphetamines, etc. recently confiscated in Lincoln and Logan County by the US Marshals and our coordinating local law enforcement offices, show the devastating propensity for increased negative behavior. Our law enforcement officers are doing their jobs but it is like a strong wave of negativity has overcome our community. We applaud the US and State law enforcement offices for stepping in and assisting our local trained officers but the challenge is uphill. Many negative, extremely dangerous factors are pushing against us that were not present -- or at least not as prevalent, in the past. There are so many additional cyber/AI/dark web crimes being committed all across the USA that the average person has no knowledge they even exist until something drastic hits or they, themselves, are attacked. We need to protect all life and take care of our neighbors within this community to improve safety and the overall quality of life here. What really gets my attention is the fact the recent sting operations by the US government and our local departments that produced the stunning number of non-registered assault weapons flowing through our city. Lincoln and Logan County have always been in the center of illegal trafficking as we are the hub among all other larger cities surrounding us and the I-55, IL-121, IL-10, etc. corridors and our Amtrak and airports’ close proximities that greatly assist in moving illegal products from Point A to Point B through Lincoln. Illegal drugs use contributing to more mental illness issues, the increase in undocumented immigrants trickling in from these larger-population hub cities, and reducing to removing God from our daily environments, exuding hatred more than love for our fellow citizens, lack of housing, loss of jobs due to businesses closing or restructuring, lack of employment opportunities in general, and closures of two of our well-known educational institutions hasn’t helped our community. Do we want to live in a city where vandalism, theft, gun shootings, and death threats occur? Let’s work together as a committed community to chasing away the negatives and bringing in some great businesses, better streets and sidewalks, friendliness to our neighbors, and get this community back where it was.

We have a $23 million city budget for this fiscal year and yet the Aldermen and Alderwomen are not allowed to perform their duties as elected or appointed within the budget. Only a few Aldermen and Alderwomen are allowed to see the budget until right before its placement on the City Council Meeting agenda for approval.

There are no structured committees (other than the ones I established while serving as City Administrator for 2 ½ years until April, 2020, for the former and current mayor.) Although moving us closer in the direction I tried to get the City Council to reestablish, those few current committees are not the structured committees we have functioned under for approximately 130 years, by which they were extremely effective, the Aldermen and Alderwomen were the direct line communication to their wards and thereby knew what was going on. The ordinances were followed and discipline occurred when warranted. That is government functioning legally and efficiently.

For instance, if the recent Capone’s historic building purchased and unregistered assault weapons, etc. were confiscated by US Marshals and then the building itself was destroyed by a subsequent fire, and not insured by the owner, who picks up the tab for expensive demolitions? And why wasn’t the building insured by the buyer as one of the first required stipulations prior to the sale? Why isn’t the city being run like our own homes and budgets? I would bet most citizens had no idea about the large budget, as well as, not know anything about the additional dollar add-ins added to the proposed budget unbeknownst to the City Aldermen and Alderwomen who were required to vote on it! I have 57 collective years of federal, Illinois state, Logan County, and City of Lincoln governmental experience, as well as a BA degree in legal and political sciences to fall back on. The eight years I served as Mayor of Lincoln, 2 ½ years as City Administrator, and 2 ½ years as a Logan County Board Member have provided me with lots of facts that times you can only learn through osmosis.

Please think strongly about who you believe your next Mayor and elected Aldermen and Alderwomen, and other Elected Officials should be for our city to pull us out of the muck and mire we have been subject to and experiencing these past 15 years. Our city needs leaders with governmental experience, working knowledge of Roberts Rules of Order, and common sense to assist our city move forward. Our Aldermen and Alderwomen need to be allowed to properly do their jobs as stipulated by law and much greater communication with their wards, and work towards returning Lincoln, IL, to its previous quality of life.

You may reach me via email at: [e-mail], 217.816.0865, or by texting me at this number.

I am respectfully asking you for your vote in the upcoming Republican Primary Election to be held on February 25, 2025, and the General Election on April 1, 2025, if I am fortunate to win the Primary Election. I am asking for your positive suggestions to improve Lincoln, IL, because I care about our city -- the city where I was born and reared. I also welcome your volunteerism to assist us in getting Lincoln out of its slump and back to positive and healthy productivity.
Have a Great New Year! God Bless Lincoln, Logan County, and You.
 
Beth Davis-Kavelman, Re-Election Candidate for Mayor of Lincoln, IL

[Text from file received]