Purge Continues
With the March 15 election, voters continued to make changes on the District 150 school board. Dan Walther will be seated as District 3 representative. He replaces one timer Rick Cloyd. Cloyd will be remembered for trying to order a woman to sit down while addressing the board. She wanted to stand. So Cloyd is gone and so is Debbie Wolfmeyer. Wolfmeyer wisely chose not to run for re-election. Her seat was won by Robert Aviles who was unopposed. Both Cloyd and Wolfmeyer were strong supporters of former superintendent Grenita Lathan. Another Lathan supporter, attorney Chris Crawford, elected not to run for re-election last year. So this year, he decided to run for a seat on the Peoria County Board from District 11. Voters there apparently did not forget his school board record. Crawford lost by an almost 2-1 margin to orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Greg Adamson. So the purge continues. Next up are the final three supporters of Dr. Lathan: Linda Butler, Martha Ross and Lynne Costic. Look for voters to elect at least two more new faces.
Other Political Notes
The race for the Democrat nomination for Peoria County Resident Circuit Judge was a barn-burner. Judge Jodi Hoos narrowly defeated city attorney Sonni Williams by a scant 890 votes. She’ll face another tight race in November against Associate Judge Tim Cusack, who was unopposed on the Republican ballot.
Donald Trump was the Republican winner in Illinois, but certainly not in our part of the state. Sen. Ted Cruz easily garnered more votes than Trump in Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties. And Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in Tazewell and Woodford counties while losing by just 996 votes in Peoria County. Those numbers are significant, especially after the visit by husband Bill Clinton. Apparently, the former president doesn’t have the charm he once did drawing a small crowd of an estimated 450 to 500, about the same number for a neighborhood garage sale. I thought the Peoria newspaper had a journalistic orgasm in its coverage of the Clinton appearance despite the light turnout. Meanwhile, Cruz drew more than 2,000 in the Peoria Civic Center Theater and Trump another 3,000 plus in Bloomington.
Serving Fun
Let’s close on a happy note and that’s what we do mornings on WAZU-FM, 90.7, from 6 to 9 a.m. It’s called “Breakfast with Roger and Friends,” and we sure do have that . . . lots of friends, smiles and happy interviews with people like state’s attorney Jerry Brady, Dr. Gene Sidler (Bradley sports), Chicago artist, Catherine Jones, historian Norm Kelly and many others. One of our regular highlights is the dynamic duo of Nick and Kathy Visione. They come every other Friday morning after the 8 a.m. news and sports with a feature we call, “Off the Beaten Path with Nick and Kath.”
After Alicia Butler, Steve Young and Roger fail to guess accurately, Nick and Kathy introduce us to a Peoria area business that includes the owner(s) and the product(s). What fun that has been. They’re doing it in alphabetical order. The two started with Abe’s in the Metro Center. We enjoyed carmelcorn and other treats. We’ve had pizza, and I mean pizza, as in large, from Bacci’s, Cookies from Cookies by Design, stickers and signs from C.J.’s Signs, dip sand fish from Dixon’s, garlic cheese and sausage from Echo Valley Meats. The latter included talking with owner Dave Alwan who’s only the second business owner to be invited back to the hit TV show “Shark Tank.” His appearance, he said, has resulted in friendships with notables from all over the world, including Dallas Maverick owner, Mark Cubban.
The morning fun is an adventure with Alicia doing the news, Brian Hulin, Mike Olson,
Phil Salzer and Steve Young doing sports. The radio veteran Steve Young serves up unique music and comedy bits that are a riot. Norm Kelly comes in Thursdays and takes us down Peoria’s memory lane with authentic accounts of murder and mayhem. We have no scripts, no commercials (to speak of) and no idea what we’re doing. However, we are committed to Peoria and the area. That’s why we’re the only radio station that interviews candidates for public office and we’ve been doing that since 2002 (with a few unceremonious interruptions). Join the fun!
Feedback
I appreciate the email from a reader who believes, apparently, we should never forgive
the Bradley All American Squeaky Melchiorre for shaving points. He was charged with a misdemeanor over 60 years ago. He didn’t bet on a game and didn’t deliberately lose a game, but he sure won a lot of them for the university and Peoria fans like me.
Thought of the Month
“To err is human, to forgive, divine.”
Alexander Pope