Coal City Courant

Pritzker: Employment security department processing claims ‘in timely manner’

Published by admin on Thu, 05/07/2020 - 6:04pm

Gov. JB Pritzker said Thursday the Illinois Department of Employment Security is paying benefits to unemployed Illinoisans “in a timely manner” after a number of improvements were made to the oft-maligned process.
Three quarters of people filing claims received their first benefits within two weeks of applying, he added.
Personnel worked daily to “expand our systems and capacity” in order to address concerns from residents who could not access the online forms or reach a call center representative, the governor said.

No Memorial Day observance in 2020

Published by admin on Tue, 05/05/2020 - 5:32pm

The community will not be coming together this Memorial Day to salute the men and women who served in defense our nation and paid the ultimate sacrifice for the country’s freedoms.
Charles Brown, commander of St. Juvin Post 1336 Veterans of Foreign Wars, said that due to Gov. JB Pritzker’s executive order, Memorial Day services will not be held in its traditional format.

Additional Grundy residents tested for COVID-19

Published by admin on Tue, 05/05/2020 - 5:29pm

The Grundy County Health Department has announced an increase in the number of individuals testing positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number cases in the county to 52.
As of Tuesday the health department had reported 19 new cases since April 28. The new cases involve two males and one female under age 20, one male and one female in their 20s, two males and four females in their 30s, two males and two females in their 40s, one male in his 50s and one male and two females in their 60s.

Spring cleanup a go in Diamond

Published by admin on Tue, 05/05/2020 - 5:28pm

The village of Diamond will hold its annual spring cleanup day as scheduled for this Thursday, May 7.
Residents may place as many large items and items that need to be disposed of at the curb for pickup, with the exception of electronics. No electronics will be accepted.
Items should be placed at the curb by 6 a.m. for collection by Environmental Disposal and Recycling.
Although Diamond is moving forward with its cleanup day, the village of Coal City has issued a notice to its residents that the annual spring event has been canceled.

Villages deploy alert systems to keep residents informed

Published by admin on Tue, 05/05/2020 - 5:27pm

To effectively communicate with residents and business owners, the village of Diamond implemented a community alert system and the village of Coal City recently did the same.
Although the neighboring towns utilize the systems in different ways, both say the programs were put in place to keep residents informed and up-to-date on what’s happening in their community.
Since implementing Smart Message in 2016, over 1,000 individuals have signed up to receive alerts from the village of Diamond.

Coal City spending $232,448 to fix streets, alleys

Published by admin on Tue, 05/05/2020 - 5:26pm

The Coal City Village Board is moving forward with the annual street maintenance program, agreeing to spend over $232,000 to fix some of the bumpiest streets and alleys in town
Streets identified for improvement are included on a list drafted by the village engineer based on input from the Streets and Alleys Committee. The list includes 17 areas.
Funds for the project have been included in the town budget, a large portion coming from the village’s allotment of state Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) dollars.

Pritzker reports modest hospitalization progress

Published by admin on Mon, 05/04/2020 - 6:41pm

Gov. JB Pritzker said the state is making modest progress in terms of COVID-19 hospitalizations and that his stay-at-home order will continue to be enforced at a local, not statewide, level.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Monday reported 2,341 new cases, bringing the state’s total to 63,840. IDPH also reported 46 additional deaths – the lowest daily number since April 19 – related to novel coronavirus, bringing that total to 2,662.

State reports 63 more COVID-19 deaths, nearly 3K new cases among nearly 20K test results

Published by admin on Sun, 05/03/2020 - 3:23pm

The state reported another 2,994 new cases of novel coronavirus Sunday as nearly 20,000 test results were reported in the past 24 hours – the most in a single day by far.
Gov. JB Pritzker also announced 63 more deaths related to the virus during his briefing in Chicago Sunday.
The state has now reported 2,618 deaths and 61,499 confirmed cases of the 319,313 people who have been tested.

Increased testing continues to push COVID-19 count higher

Published by admin on Sat, 05/02/2020 - 5:08pm

Illinois’ COVID-19 confirmed case count grew by nearly 2,500 again Saturday as a sustained increase in testing continues to drive the number upward.
“It really is a function of doing more testing,” Gov. JB Pritzker said of the increased positive case count at his daily briefing on the virus Saturday.
There are now 58,505 confirmed cases in Illinois in 97 counties, including 2,559 deaths.

Illinois preparing for massive contact-tracing project

Published by admin on Fri, 05/01/2020 - 5:59pm

The state of Illinois is about to hire hundreds of people to embark on a massive contact-tracing project to identify people who might have been exposed to COVID-19.
That effort, Gov. JB Pritzker said, will help Illinois move away from a stay-at-home order that was being protested Friday by rally-goers outside the Capitol in Springfield. Meanwhile, the state also announced the highest daily total of new COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.