Untitled Document Sister Beth Murphy winces when she hears the word “nun.” Nuns are contemplative women who live in enclosures, she says, whereas she and other Dominican sisters try to live like the Apostles. “We’re out in the world teaching and preaching,” Murphy says. From the moment she entered the Springfield congregation 25 years ago, […]
Amanda Robert
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No-beg zone
Untitled Document Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman says that although downtown panhandling doesn’t faze him, he’s willing to step up on behalf of those for whom it’s an issue. “People have expressed it to me as a problem,” Cahnman says. “Some people are bothered by it — Downtown Springfield [Inc.] with all of its business […]
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Sisters to the rescue
In a small city in the Andes Mountains, a father takes his 3-year-old daughter to the doctor. She’s sluggish and behaving strangely. “Something’s not right,” he thinks. He’s shocked, but not surprised, when he hears the news: His child has a blood lead level of 58 micrograms per deciliter, more than five times the recommended […]
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Ties that bind
Untitled Document JoAnn Lemaster gasps when she learns how high children’s blood-lead levels are in La Oroya, Peru. As a member of the Illinois Childhood Lead Poisoning Advisory Council, Lemaster is accustomed to dealing with problems caused by lead, but she wasn’t aware of the current crisis in the foreign city. “That’s heartbreaking,” Lemaster says. […]
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Hope’s garden
Untitled Document Leafy bean vines snake through an arched trellis and the plants below bear tomatoes on their way to maturity in the little patch of green on the south side of Hope Presbyterian Church. This special garden — also boasting cucumbers, potatoes, and green peppers — fulfills the congregation’s most recent call to serve. […]
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“Mind-boggling”
Untitled Document Aldermen were mostly silent Monday as landlords, presidents of neighborhood associations, and concerned residents took the podium to offer solutions to Springfield’s garbage problem during the city’s second of two waste-subcommittee hearings. The new panel, chaired by Ward 6 Ald. Mark Mahoney, first met in June to discuss the trash issue and heard […]
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Volume control
Untitled Document When Kris Theilen was campaigning for a seat on the City Council, he polled Ward 8 residents about their biggest concerns and kept track of their answers. After hearing about everything from the flouting of school-zone speed limits to the lack of police presence in area neighborhoods, Theilen says it soon became obvious […]
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Stepping up
Untitled Document After a year during which funds and services were sought for a proposed community center on Springfield’s east side, two more partners have signed on to the cause, says Kristen Allen, Boys & Girls Club executive director. Senior Services of Central Illinois and Springfield School District 186 each voted earlier this year to […]
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Piling up
Untitled Document On a recent July afternoon, piles of tree branches towered high above streets and street corners in the Sherwood subdivision — in one case, the limbs had nearly conquered an intersection’s stop sign. Ward 7 Ald. Debbie Cimarossa says that this isn’t going to cut it. “It looked like there had been another […]
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Able and ready
Untitled Document Beverly Beard says that it wasn’t easy growing up with a disability in Springfield. Polio robbed Beard at an early age of the ability to walk, forcing her to scoot up and down the stairs of her family’s two-story home. More than 50 years later, she says, housing options for the disabled continue […]
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Circus act
Untitled Document Dozens of workers hustled this week to give shape to the city-block-long Carson & Barnes Circus big top, staking ropes, raising poles and installing cables — but even at this point in the proceedings the elephant was the star of the show. Carson & Barnes booking agent Gene Hembree says that these big […]
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Beat the clock
Untitled Document Steven Kren’s passion for the past goes well beyond his stint as a tour guide with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and his possession of such antiques as his circa-1850s wood-burning stove. Last week it carried Kren as far as City Hall, where he pleaded with local officials to give him more time […]
