St. Elmo News

Announcements
Thursday, September 21
• Threads of Friendship Quilt Club, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library.
Saturday, September 23
• Royal Neighbors of America #5784, 2 p.m., American Legion Home.
Sunday, September 24
• Junior and senior high youth, 6-7:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church.
Monday, September 25
• Fayette County Home and Community Education Board, 10 a.m., Vandalia Extension Office.
• St. Elmo Lions Club, 6 p.m., Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
Tuesday, September 26
• St. Elmo Home and Community Education, 1:30 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library.
• St. Elmo Board of Education Budget Hearing, 6:45 p.m.; regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. in the nit office.
• Free suicide awareness program, 7 p.m. Vandalia Holy Cross Lutheran Church.
The free program is open to the public and is sponsored by Fayette County Home and Community Education. Free refreshments and awareness ribbons will be provided.
Speakers will be Ken Polky, certified mental health first aid, youth MHFS course instructor and more, and Carla Engelbrektson, mother of a suicide victim.  
Wednesday, September 27
• Grades 5-8, 6-7:30 p.m.; high school youth 7-8:30 p.m.-St. Elmo Christian Church.
Thursday, September 28
• Exxon/Mobil Annuitants, noon, Litchfield Maverick Restaurant.
Fayette County Extension Foundation
Present at the Sept. 10 meeting of the Fayette County Extension Foundation were President Brian Willenborg of Vandalia, Joan Schaal of St. Peter, Marsha Wright of Beecher City, Joi Sieben of Ramsey, Anna Jean Rhodes of St. Elmo and County Extension Director Carl Baker.
Final plans were completed for the chili/soup fundraiser that will be held from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 5, in the Brownstown Elementary cafeteria. The menu will include chili, beef vegetable soup, hot dogs, relishes, crackers, lemonade, tea and desserts made by Fayette County Home and Community Education members. The charge is a free-will offering.
Tickets are being sold for a “Shopping Spree at County Market” at $10 each for prizes of $300, $200 and $100.
Names will be drawn at the Fayette County 4-H Achievement on Nov. 4 and the winner does not have to be present. The County Market is in Vandalia.
Dana Homann of Charleston now is the Extension educator-youth and is replacing Tabitha Welch.
The next Extension Foundation meeting has been set for Monday, Nov. 27, at 7 p.m., at the Vandalia Extension Office.
Lions Club
The St. Elmo Lions Club recognized the following for their contributions to the Labor Day parade and cake walk: St. Elmo Business Association, Mary Ann’s Restaurant, Andra Carson, City of St. Elmo, all the folks who donated cakes, judges, Henrietta Heaton and Susie Hollinshead for their cake watch duties, Church of God and St. Elmo Junior-Senior High School.
The club’s annual Heath Bar candy sales will be from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21, and 5-7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 23.
The overall parade and cake walk were discussed in length at the Sept. 11 meeting of the St. Elmo Lions Club held at Mary Ann’s Restaurant. President Dave Maxey opened the meeting leading in the Pledge of Allegiance, and Dan Laack led in prayer.
Will Williams was recognized for his third anniversary year being a club member.
Josh Ledbetter attended the meeting to present to the club a check from the St. Elmo Cruise-In for the St. Elmo Caring and Sharing Program.
The 17 members present were Dave Cox, Don Crawford, Pee Wee Denton, Skip Heaton, Max Hollinshead, Holly Huffer, Dan Laack, Mark Lash, Bob Lowe, Le Mar Marchman, Dave Maxey, Al Nevergall, Dee Newberry, Lloyd Stanley, Will Williams, Bob Wells and Randy Wolf.
American Legion
The recent American Legion Post #420 golf ball fundraiser is helping update the Legion Home: more ceiling soundproofing has helped the acoustics; the purchase of six new folding tables and 25 new chairs has increased the seating to 75.
For the Labor Day fish fry, the Legion quickly sold out the 40 pounds of fish.
The Legion gun raffle will be held in the spring.
At the Sept. 12 meeting in the Legion Home, the Legion donated $300 to the Trees for the Troop. This project is for service men and women to have family Christmas trees.
$500 was donated to the St. Elmo Food Pantry.
Discussed was recognizing the Blue and Gold service mothers. This used to be done by the Legion Auxiliary that folded several years ago.
The annual soup and chili supper will be on Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11. In addition to chili, the soups will be vegetable and potato.
Those present at the meeting were Charles Bosomworth, Dave Cox, Bob Heckert, Bud Himes, Wayne Lovett, Ernie Myers, Al Nevergall, R. W. Smith, Will Williams and Laverne Wright.
St. Elmo Community Park Board
The Avena Township St. Elmo Community Park Board met the evening of Sept. 12 in the Centennial Building, with the following present: board members Kim Baron. Daryl Calvert, Rick Gillespie and Danny Tish, and a visitor, Jennifer Barker who represented Barker Excavating and Trucking of Brownstown, which installed the safety fall zones in the park.
Barker had delivered the most recent bill for the work completed, questioned the board regarding the satisfaction of the work done and reiterated the availability of her business for future projects.
The board has been working on the 2018 budget. Each member has contributed a list of items they would like to see implemented. Income has been speculated on and a group meeting with Attorney Richard Day is planned to make sure some of their considerations fit the standards for a public entity.
Secretary/Treasurer Calvert presented the park’s current financial status, presented new bills for payment, communicated that new checks were needed, presented the AFR filed with the state and presented her findings regarding acquiring a 501c3, a necessary IRS document for non-profit organizations to process when applying for grants.
A conversation with Vicky Conder, Fayette County clerk and recorder, revealed that a $400 fee has to be sent with the application to the state to defray the cost of reviewing the form. Tish made the motion to invest $400 for this classification; it was seconded by Baron and passed.
It was noted that a mission statement is necessary for filling out the 501c3 application. Gillespie wrote a brief mission statement for the Board based on his research of such and presented it for the Board’s approval. A motion by Tish to accept the presentation was seconded by Baron and passed 3-1.
A motion to pay the current bills was made by Baron, seconded by Gillespie and carried.
The National Grandparents Day, Sept. 10, was celebrated 2-5 p.m. in the park with a variety of games setup by Baron along with rock painting spearheaded by Christy Kilzer, Mica and Jordan Noll and Emily Bone and Slime making provided by Stacey Vonderheide.
Refreshments included canned sodas provided by Mary Duffy of Duffy Concessions and cookies.
Tish measured and hung more swings interacting with the kids and parents who went to the Park to see what has been done. The event was deemed a good “meet-and-greet” session for the public and board members, and it is hoped that this will be an annual event.
Having the park included in the 2018 Labor Day festivities and what the park could do to enhance the public’s interest and fun with this event was discussed.
A Halloween event was discussed for 2017.
Signage for the Centennial Building, along with signs designating the park’s hours and rules, was discussed. Calvert relayed Kirk Feller of Feller Oilfield Service Inc. has offered to buy a sign for the Centennial Building.
The meeting started at 7:30 p.m. and adjourned at 10 p.m.
Lunch Bunch
The Lunch Bunch met at noon on Sept. 14 at Mary Ann’s Restaurant, with the following present: Wayne and Sandra Lovett of Brownstown, Pat Porter of Farina and Karen Denning, Loretta Heischmidt and Anna Jean Rhodes of St. Elmo.
Library Board
At the St. Elmo Public Library District Board meeting held the evening of Sept. 14 at the Brownstown Branch Library, bills were approved and paid.
Wayne Moran received the hotspot and will activate it at the Beecher City Branch Library. This will improve the Internet issues at the librarian’s desk. He also reported that he had talked to Wabash about the fiber optic cable being installed through Beecher City. They are waiting on grant monies to finish the project.
JoAnn Evans said they are having fax issues at the Beecher City Branch; they can send faxes, but can’t receive them.
The board approved the Beecher City Branch lawn for the senior class to hold a Holiday Fall Festival Oct. 13-14.
Evans said she is ordering wooden book spines and plaques to honor donors of the library.
She also is ordering a new library sign for the building. These will be paid for from the Eagle Scout account. She also will be replacing the old metal shelving with wooden shelves.
At the St. Elmo Public Library, the after-school program had 45 children attend.
The Head Start Fair is Sept. 28 at the First United Methodist Church and Director Karnes will have a booth there.
Director Karnes is ordering a set of 20 children’s books from the Picken Children Series.
Wayne Moran is replacing a children’s desktop computer that no longer works with a tablet in a stand for the children’s section.