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On November, 26th, 2020 at approximately 12:01AM, the Montgomery County, IL Sheriffs Office (MCSO) arrested a male who was identified as Roger A. Kluge, 53 of Cadet, Missouri for Possession of Methamphetamine 5 grams-15 grams, and Methamphetamine Delivery. On the above date and time while on routine patrol on Route 16 just east of Litchfield, IL, a MCSO Deputy was following a vehicle and observed the vehicle pull over to the shoulder prior to the Deputy engaging his emergency lights. Prior to the vehicle pulling over, the MCSO Deputy observed the vehicles make and model did not match the attached registration. After the vehicle pulled to the shoulder, the Deputy made contact with Mr. Kluge and informed him of his registration violation. During the course of the encounter, the MCSO Deputy located the items seen below. The MCSO Deputy seized approximately 8 plastic bags containing a crystal white substance which field tested positive for Methamphetamine. Mr. Kluge was placed into custody and transported to the Montgomery County Jail without incident. The white crystal subsatance seized will be sent to the Illinois State Police Crime Lab for further drug analysis. Roger A. Kluge, 53 of Cadet, Missouri is being held at the Montgomery County Jail under a $10,000 bond upon which the 10% rule applies. It should be noted that all suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The previous was provided by news release from the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office

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Hillsboro Police Department took a theft report of two snowplows and a salt spreader (seen in the back of the truck in the photo) on Friday, November 20, 2020. Please see information in the photos attached.

If you have any information that would help solve this crime or any other crime, visit the Crimestoppers website at www.macmontcrimestoppers.com to submit a tip OR download a free P3 app for your smartphone, OR call Crimestoppers at 1-800-352-0136. Any information that leads to an arrest could be eligible for up
to a $5,000.00 reward. Remember, Crimestoppers only wants your information, not your name!

A Nokomis man was killed in a one-vehicle rollover accident east of Nokomis early Sunday morning.

Robert Daniel Robinson, 46, of Nokomis, was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:15 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, by the Montgomery County Coroners office.

The accident occurred on Oconee Avenue, about a half mile east of White Settlement Trail. Nine members of the Nokomis Fire Department responded at 3 a.m. Sunday, along with the Nokomis Witt Ambulance Service, coroners office, and Illinois State Police, and were on the scene for two and a half hours.

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Crimestoppers is seeking information regarding a Burglary that occurred in the early morning hours of November 15h at the Nu-Way Deli, located in the Village of Panama in Montgomery County. The suspect forced entry to the business and stole a dispenser stand containing scratch off lottery tickets. The dispenser stand was found later, along a road near Pierron, Illinois, located approximately 20 miles south of Panama. A photograph of the suspect vehicle (a 2006-2010 Chevrolet Impala with front end damage including the drivers side headlight) and a video of the suspect may be viewed on the Facebook home page of the Montgomery County, IL Sheriff.
If you have any information that would help solve this crime or any other crime, go to the Crimestoppers website at www.macmontcrimestoppers.com to submit a tip or download a free P3 app for your smartphone, or call Crimestoppers at 1-800-352-0136. Any information that leads to an arrest is eligible for up to a $5,000.00 reward. Remember....Crimestoppers only wants your information, not your name.

The following is a letter from Hillsboro Schools Superintendent David Powell. "First of all, I want to thank each and every student and family for all you are doing under these difficult circumstances to keep our school year running as well as it has. I am so very proud of our students, teachers, and support staff. I hope you all have a peaceful, safe, and fun Thanksgiving break. As one additional precautionary step to keep our students and staff safe in light of the increasing number of COVID cases in our area and the serious concern about potential outbreaks resulting from what may transpire over the Thanksgiving holiday, I have arranged for ALL school district employees to have the opportunity to be tested using a rapid test on Monday, November 30. The student break will be extended by one day. So, instead of returning on Monday as planned, students will return on Tuesday, December 1. Montgomery County Health Department personnel will be on site Monday, November 30 to provide COVID testing to all employees (except those with qualifying exceptions). In this way, we can be as sure as possible (although still not 100%) that we wont have any COVID-positive staff members present when students return on Tuesday. We will continue to provide 5 days per week in-person instruction as long as possible. The two situations that might trigger a move to all-remote would be local public health officials and local physicians recommending full-remote due to the number of COVID cases in the community, or our inability to fully staff one or more of our schools due to the number of staff that are COVID-positive or under quarantine. PLEASE take masking and social distancing steps to reduce your risk of contracting COVID and/or infecting others. Together we CAN work our way through this difficult time. Sincerely, David E. Powell"

A substitute bus driver tested positive for COVID this week, no other quarantines resulted from contact tracing. This brings our total number of known COVID-positive students to date to 16 and staff to 12.

Also Given the recent decision by the IHSA to join the Governor and IDPH in delaying the high school basketball season, the special board meeting of the HCUSD3 Board of Education planned for November 24 to discuss the basketball issue has been cancelled.

Montgomery County continues to have better COVID metrics than ALL of the surrounding counties. Many school districts in our area have been forced to go to full remote instruction due to the number of positive cases in their communities. The current 7-day positivity rate in Montgomery County is 7.6%, which ranks among the lowest in the State. We are committed to providing our students and staff with a safe and healthy environment. Thank you for your understanding and ongoing cooperation with our COVID prevention policies and procedures as we work to help protect our students, staff, and families. For any questions or concerns, please contact us at (217) 532-2942.

Jubelts Bakery located at 303 N Old Rte 66 S, Litchfield, Taco Bell located at 1201 W. Weir St, Litchfield, Nancys Pizza located at 13 Thunderbird Cr, Litchfield & Long John Silvers located 1 Ohren Dr, Litchfield
All four of these businesses have an employee who has tested positive for COVID. Upon notification of the positive case within the facility, they were in direct contact with the Local Health Department. Additional contact tracing has been completed by the Montgomery County Health Department. After a COVID positive case in an exposed business, an additional facility deep cleaning is completed as a precaution to ensure customer and employee continued safety. These businesses have currently reopened. All four businesses would like to thank everyone for their continued support as they navigate through COVID-19. If you were recently a customer at any of these four businesses, your exposure time and distance, especially if you were following IDPH guidelines of mask-wearing, hand washing/sanitizing and social distancing would not meet the exposure guidelines of less than six feet for more than fifteen minutes. As always, however, you should monitor your health because COVID is a virus that is active throughout our communities. If you should begin to feel ill or have a concern, contact your physician for further guidance. Positive cases involving an employee at a business requires a detailed case-by-case review by local public health. Every scenario involving a positive COVID virus case in a business has many variables that affect the outcome of each location individually such as building layout, ventilation, people being traced answering their phone or quickly calling the health department back when a message is left and COVID protocols being followed by employees to name a few. Chris-Mont EMA and Montgomery County Public Health encourage social distancing, wearing of masks to protect others when social distancing is not possible or around others who are not part of your household (even at family/friend) functions, frequent hand washing/sanitizing, the cleaning of common touch areas regularly and staying home if you are ill. We have the ability to slow the spread of COVID-19 by following these simple steps.

A substitute bus driver tested positive for COVID this week, no other quarantines resulted from contact tracing. This brings our total number of known COVID-positive students to date to 16 and staff to 12.

Also Given the recent decision by the IHSA to join the Governor and IDPH in delaying the high school basketball season, the special board meeting of the HCUSD3 Board of Education planned for November 24 to discuss the basketball issue has been cancelled.

Montgomery County continues to have better COVID metrics than ALL of the surrounding counties. Many school districts in our area have been forced to go to full remote instruction due to the number of positive cases in their communities. The current 7-day positivity rate in Montgomery County is 7.6%, which ranks among the lowest in the State. We are committed to providing our students and staff with a safe and healthy environment. Thank you for your understanding and ongoing cooperation with our COVID prevention policies and procedures as we work to help protect our students, staff, and families. For any questions or concerns, please contact us at (217) 532-2942.

-A Community of Faith Church in Raymond is canceling worship services for Sunday, November 22nd. All services will be online on the church website.

-The Litchfield Moose Lodge is suspending Friday night dinners through the end of November.

-The Zion Lutheran Church ELCA in Farmersville is holding all Services via Zoom until further notice.

-All in person services at Calvary Baptist in Hillsboro are cancelled through Sunday, November 29th.

-St. Louis Catholic School in Nokomis has cancelled their Winter Wonderland for Saturday, December 5th.

Contact tracing goes hand in hand with testing and is critical to supporting patients with suspected or confirmed infection. For COVID-19, the ability to scale our contact tracing capacity is crucial to slow community spread. Your help is the key to stopping the spread of COVID-19 and protecting your loved ones. If you test positive, you may spread the virus to others without knowing it. Those individuals could then get infected and put their loved ones or co-workers at risk. Please help slow the spread! Christian County has five trained and dedicated contact tracers and just brought two additional tracers on staff that are in training, totaling seven. Positive cases are expanding so quickly in Christian County, they are overwhelming our contact tracing efforts. Additional staffing is currently being brought on board to handle the exploding level of cases. We need the public to take individual responsibility to help mitigate this virus. Patience and cooperation are needed by everyone during this very difficult time. Keep in mind, as a positive case, you will be notified before the local health department is aware of your positive test. The health department receives your test results through an electronic data system. It can take two or more days after you are notified directly before your results are posted in that system. If you are tested and given a positive case diagnosis from a testing site, do not wait for a call from a tracer, you need to immediately take self-responsibility and self-isolate.

Self-isolate (as a positive case) for ten days and be free of fever and your symptoms have improved to be released . Self-isolation means staying at home in a specific room away from other people and pets and using a separate bathroom, if possible. For many, this self-isolation period has been longer than ten days and for those hospitalized, many times it is much longer. If you experience shortness of breath or other medical concerns, immediately seek medical direction from your doctor or report to your local emergency room should you need immediate assistance.When you test positive, we ask you to share with your close contacts anyone you spent 15 minutes cumulative time with or more with over a 24-hour period and were within 6 feet of while you were infectious (2 days before onset) solely for the purpose of allowing them to quarantine to prevent them
from unknowingly infecting others, especially the high-risk populations. Quarantine (as someone who has been exposed to a positive case) requires a fourteen-day quarantine from the last date of exposure. The reason, it may take two to fourteen days for someone to present with the virus after being exposed. If you do not quarantine as needed, you could asymptomatically spread the virus amongst anyone you come in contact with. In most cases, anyone who lives in a home with a positive case will typically be quarantined because of the direct exposure of living in the same home. Again, if you meet the requirement of 15 minutes cumulative time with or more over a 24-hour period and were within 6 feet, you need to take self-responsibility and self-quarantine for fourteen days. Again, do not wait on a call if you meet these requirements noted. Contact tracers will get to you as soon as possible. If you are called by a contact tracer, please answer or immediately call them back.

Trusted Sources and Contact Information:
Chris-Mont EMA PIO: Kevin Schott, Deputy EMA Director, (217)-971-8196 or
kevins@montgomeryco.com

Christian County Public Health:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christian-County-Health-Department-IL-1897847710292284
Website: http://www.christiancountyhealth.net
P: 217-824-4113, Ext 111

Montgomery County Public Health:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MontgomeryCountyHD/
Web Site: https://montgomeryco.com/health/
P: 217-532-2001

Chris-Mont EMA:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisMontEMA/
Website: https://christiancountyil.com/emergency-management/
P: 217-532-9560

Additional trusted sources for facts and information:
State of Illinois Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response: https://coronavirus.illinois.gov/s/
Illinois Department of Public Health: http://dph.illinois.gov/covid19
Centers for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
P: State of Illinois 24/7 COVID Hotline: 1-800-889-3931

A Community of Faith Church in Raymond is canceling worship services for Sunday, November 15 and Sunday November 22nd. All services will be online on the church website.
Zion Lutheran church ELCA in farmersville will be closed this Sunday November 15 until further notice. Services will be on Zoom for the time being

COVID Outbreak at Hillsboro & Nokomis Long Term Care Facilities

Chris-Mont EMA is confirming that there is an outbreak of COVID-19 at two separate local long term care facilities. Nokomis Rehabilitation and Health Care Center located at 505 Stevens St, Nokomis and Montgomery Nursing and Rehabilitation located at 9086 IL-127, Hillsboro are both currently experiencing outbreaks. Nokomis Rehabilitation and Health Care Center currently has six residents and two staff members who have tested positive. Montgomery Nursing and Rehabilitation currently has six residents and one staff members who have tested positive. Upon notification of the positives within the facilities, they were in direct contact with the Local Health Department. The facilities, public health and EMA are working together to mitigate COVID within the facilities. The administration and staff of both facilities would like to thank everyone for their kind words, prayers, and the outpouring of community support as they navigate COVID-19. Please follow the simple recommendations of wearing a mask while in public and unable to social distance, hand washing and routinely cleaning common touch areas. These simple steps help to protect the vulnerable among us. It can also help slow the spread of the virus to LTCF caretakers/workers, public safety employees and medical workers. These workers are around high-risk community members daily because of the nature of their business. These simple preventative steps mentioned can help to slow the unknowing spread of the virus to these workers, which in turn, protects the high-risk population they work with daily.

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The Shoal Creek Fire Protection District was dispatched at 6:46 am on Sunday, Novmeber 8th to a Norfolk and Southern train loaded with coal derailed in Panama at the southern end of Depot St. There were 24 cars total derailed with no injures reported or hazardous materials involved. Shoal Creek Fire Protection District will remain on scene as Incident Command Assisted by Chris-Mont EMA as the cleanup continues under the direction of Norfolk Southern/Hulcher Services, Inc. The area is very congested with heavy equipment and limited roadway access to the scene. The public is asked to avoid the area to prevent traffic congestion.

Another hit in the Hillsboro School District due to COVID-19. The following statement was issued by district Superintendent David Powell on the matter. "An employee that works both as a district bus aide and a food service worker at Hillsboro Jr. High tested positive over the weekend. All of the kitchen staff at HJHS have been quarantined, the kitchen has gotten extra sanitizing, and substitutes and other food service staff have been assigned there to continue to provide food service to students. Contact tracing on the a.m. and p.m. bus routes ridden by the aide has resulted in 3 students being identified as close contacts and quarantined.

This brings our total number of known COVID-positive students to date to 15 and staff to 9." The statement went on to say "We are committed to providing our students and staff with a safe and healthy environment. Thank you for your understanding and ongoing cooperation with our COVID prevention policies and procedures as we work to help protect our students, staff, and families. For any questions or concerns, please contact us at (217) 532-2942."

Chris-Mont EMA is confirming that there is an outbreak of COVID-19 at the Heritage Health Therapy and
Senior Care facility of Pana located at 1000 E Sixth St . They currently have 56 residents and 26 staff
members who have tested positive recently. Upon notification of the positives within the facility, they
were in direct contact with the Local Health Department and Chris-Mont EMA.
The facility, public health and EMA are working together to ensure the safety of the residents and staff.
The Pana Heritage Health facility administration and staff would like to thank everyone for their kind
words, prayers, and the outpouring of community support as they navigate COVID-19.
Chris-Mont EMA encourages social distancing, wearing of masks to protect others when social distancing
is not possible or if you are around others who are not part of your household (even at family/friend)
functions, frequent hand washing/sanitizing, the cleaning of common touch areas regularly and staying
home if you are ill. We have the ability to slow the spread of COVID-19 by following these simple steps.

Trusted Sources and Contact Information:
Christian County Public Health:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christian-County-Health-Department-IL-1897847710292284
Website: http://www.christiancountyhealth.net
P: 217-824-4113
Montgomery County Public Health:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MontgomeryCountyHD/
Web Site: https://montgomeryco.com/health/
P: 217-532-2001
Chris-Mont EMA:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisMontEMA/
Website: https://christiancountyil.com/emergency-management/
P: 217-532-9560
Additional trusted sources for facts and information:
State of Illinois Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response: https://coronavirus.illinois.gov/s/
Illinois Department of Public Health: http://dph.illinois.gov/covid19
Centers for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
P: State of Illinois 24/7 COVID Hotline: 1-800-889-3931

All services and activities at Calvary Baptist Church in Hillsboro, through Sunday, November 8th, are also canceled.