Today's News

April is National Volunteer Month, and one of Fayette County’s favorite volunteers, for both young and old, is Bill Beard, also known as “Windy Willy,” the lovable balloon animals clown.
What began as a desire to help others as he and his family had been helped became a ministry of sorts that has spanned 20 years, and Bill is enthusiastically entering into the 21st.

With a draft in their hands, Vandalia officials were getting to work on a new budget on Tuesday afternoon.
“We must have a balanced budget,” Mayor Rick Gottman said at Monday’s council meeting, when he presented city aldermen with a draft of a budget for the fiscal year that begins on May 1.
Gottman said that he was to meet with the city’s department heads on Tuesday afternoon to begin the process of fine-tuning the new budget.

Vandalia has four new aldermen as a result of the consolidated election, with two of the winners on Tuesday unseating incumbents.
In St. Elmo, all three winners – including two incumbents – were write-in candidates.
The winners in Vandalia included brothers Neil Clark and B. John Clark.
Neil Clark received 25 votes to lead a field of four Ward I candidates. Incumbent Bret Brosman was second with 20 votes, and Jason Paslay and Kenneth W. Hubler each garnered 19 votes.

In the two contested Vandalia City Council races, the incumbents were unseated.

In St. Elmo, all three write-in candidates won aldermanic seats.

In Vandalia, Neil F. Clark won the Ward I race with 24 votes. Incumbent Bret Brosman had 20 votes, and Jason Paslay and Ken Huber each had 19.

In the other contested race, for a four-year term in Ward IV, B. John Clark defeated Larry K. Cable, 158-149.