Anyone with a brain knows the board and administration of School District 150 is dysfunctional. Too many of their decisions are so ridiculous one has to laugh. I’m still laughing after listening to a jingle produced for the school district by Baker & Associates of Germantown, Tennessee, at a cost to taxpayers of $2,500. Don’t look for the musical ditty to be on the Top 40 charts. Maybe school board members who foolishly approved the expenditure could open their meetings by singing the district’s new loyalty song. Just a tip. Local music producers, and there are several, could’ve done it better and cheaper.

KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS

   We join in wishing out-going Bradley president Joanne Glasser the best. She did the best she could during her tenure on the Hilltop. As a fan of Clint Eastwood movies, remember one of his famous lines … “A man’s got to know his limitations.” That’s true of university presidents, especially when they start hiring and firing coaches. Glasser failed in that category with the termination/loss of Jim Les and the hiring of Geno Ford, allowing Athletic Director Ken Kavanagh to get away, and selection of her friend from Eastern

Kentucky, Elvis Dominquez, to replace retiring baseball coach Dewey Kalmer. Kavanagh had urged Glasser to consider Northern Iowa’s Rick Heller. The Cedar Falls school had dropped baseball so Heller was job hunting. He had won 270 games for Northern and was interested in Bradley. Glasser ignored the recommendation, but Indiana State didn’t. Under Heller, the Sycamore’s won their first Missouri Valley (outright) title and went to the NCAA. The University of Iowa took notice and hired him. The baseball Hawkeyes have won 30 games in each of the last two years and have a chance for the first time in 25 years to go to the NCAA. I guess Heller just wasn’t good enough for Glasser.

BIG MISTAKE

The Illinois legislature made a big mistake when they passed a bill allowing semi-truck drivers to go as fast as cars on our interstate highways. I said it when the bill passed and I say it again. While the vast majority of those drivers are responsible, too many of them are not. Giving them permission to drive 70 mph plus is like giving a child a loaded gun to play with. The death of a state trooper last year by a truck driver going too fast may be anecdotal evidence to support my argument, but we just had one closer to home. A Minnesota driver of a big rig slammed into cars virtually stopped in a construction zone five miles west of Galesburg on I-74. He killed two drivers who were obeying the law he ignored for whatever reason. I drive I-74 all the time and see truck driver after truck driver doing at least 65 in a 45 mph zone. They know when state troopers are gone so it becomes easy to “put the pedal to the metal.” It’s time to repeal that law and slow the trucks to prevent additional highway deaths.

SPECIAL EVENTS

   Royce Elliott will be remembered on Saturday, June 6, at Glen Oak Park where he played as a baseball player with Woodruff High School and later in the Sunday Morning League. Peoria Park District officials will be joined by Mayor Jim Ardis and others in a ceremony starting at 10 a.m. at Diamond #2, the only remaining baseball field in the park. The field will be officially named Royce Elliott Field at Glen Oak Park in honor of the late comedian. A large rock with a plaque describing Royce’s contributions will be unveiled by the Elliott family at the end of the program. A tree has also been planted in his name. It’s all being paid by private contributions. The public is invited to the event.

BRADLEY LUNCHEON

   Chris Reynolds, the new Bradley athletic director, and new basketball coach Brian Wardle along with his staff, will be officially welcomed during a noon luncheon, Tuesday, June 2, at the Peoria Civic Center. Ken Goldin, who was business manager for Bradley for 50 years, came out of retirement to produce this magnificent luncheon reception. Originally scheduled to be held on campus, the response was so great it’s been moved to the Civic Center. As we went to press, over 1,000 tickets had been sold.

STRAIGHT NOTES

   Congratulations to former Caterpillar executive Bob Sulaski who was named the Distinguished Alumni Award winner at this year’s Woodruff High School Alumni Association’s annual banquet.

Best wishes to Tom McIntyre as he retires as the long-time anchor on WEEK-TV.

An interesting development with the hiring of former ICC president John Erwin as interim president of an Ohio two year technical school. The hiring comes after Erwin announced his retirement from Illinois Central College. Nice to see the beautiful mural go up on Western Avenue painted by artist Rasheed Reed. It spotlights the accomplishments of such south side residents as Sean Livingston and former NAACP leader, the late John Gwynn. Somehow the dignitaries who attended and praised Reed’s work have been unable to help Melvin Murry reopen the oldest barber school in the nation not far away on Garden Street. It has probably graduated more minority students per capita than any other educational school in the area in the last 20 years.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time,

and your government when it deserves it.”

Mark Twain