FAIRFIELD, Ill. — Halfway through October, the local board has one case on it that matters more than the rest, and five threads underneath it that govern how the month’s money and decisions actually moved. This is the board as it stands, through Oct. 15, with what is on the record and what we have not pulled yet.

1. The county’s own case

On the record: Steven K. Manning, 45, of Wayne City, a Wayne County Board member representing District 4, was booked into the Wayne County Jail on the night of Saturday, Oct. 10, after an Illinois Conservation Police investigation, on preliminary charges described as unlawful use of a weapon and a wildlife-prohibited act, with felony wildlife charges and a count of unlawful possession of a suppressor being sought. WFIW Radio reported the jailing on Oct. 13, the same day a first court appearance was expected.

Where the reporting stands: Our lead story, 400 Acres, a Free Permit, and a Silencer, published Oct. 15, sets out the statutes, the land records and the structural problem — a case arising in a county whose prosecutor is the county board’s own legal adviser. Charges are allegations. No charging instrument has surfaced, and this newsroom has not reported that one has.

Still pinned: the charging instrument and docket number; whether the Wayne County state’s attorney handles the matter or the court appoints a special prosecutor under 55 ILCS 5/3–9008; and the forfeiture action reported in the days after the arrest, for which we have located no caption or docket number. Nobody has yet asked the state’s attorney’s office, on the record, which way it is going. That is the first call this newsroom intends to make.

2. Carmi has a mayor again — and he kept his other seat

On the record: Carmi Mayor Bill Stendeback, elected in April 2025, submitted his resignation on Oct. 5. At a specially called City Council meeting on Oct. 13, Ward 2 Alderman Doug Hays was selected as interim mayor, to serve until the April 2027 municipal election. Hays has picked up petitions to run for mayor in that election, which will fill the remaining two years of the current term. City Attorney Greg Stewart advised the council that Hays may continue serving as Ward 2 alderman while holding the interim mayor’s office — keeping his council seat and continuing to vote on council matters. Hays has said he does not plan to resign the aldermanic seat. Reported by WFIW Radio.

Why it is on the board: Not because anything improper happened at that meeting — the council followed its attorney’s advice — but because one person now holds two seats at one table, and a city of Carmi’s size has few places to notice that. The structural questions are the ones worth asking early: which votes does the mayor cast, how are they recorded in the minutes, who signs off on the finances he approves, and what happens if the interim mayor’s campaign for the full term intersects with a vote the council takes between now and April. Nothing about that requires a controversy. It requires minutes that say which seat the man was sitting in when he voted.

3. Fairfield’s money night

The Fairfield City Council met in regular session on the evening of Oct. 13 — a crowded agenda, reported by WFIW Radio, and one of the more complete records of a Wayne County city’s spending we have seen this year.

The fire truck: The council approved a 2027 Ram 3500 Crew Cab from Lemond’s Chevrolet-Chrysler for the fire department at $49,858.63, with a $4,500 trade-in allowance and a $10,000 contribution from the Foreign Fire Insurance Tax Board, bringing the city’s net cost to $35,358.63. An alternative bid of $42,303 for a used 2023 Ford F-350 with roughly 14,000 miles was presented and not taken, the new truck being described as the more economical option.

The insurance: A unanimous vote to pay the city’s risk-management insurance renewal in full, $222,922.07, rather than in two installments, to capture a discount.

The tax levy: Action on the city’s property tax levy request was postponed to the next meeting. The proposed increase was reported at 4.99 percent. In the discussion, Mayor Gary Moore noted that more than 70 percent of the city’s property tax revenue goes to police and fire protection, including related pension obligations. Anyone who wants a say in that number has a stated date to look for.

The small money: $4,920 in business-district funding for a digital sign at Trackside Auto Repair was approved; a proposed business-district agreement involving Carnaby Square was removed from the agenda without action; the renewal of the maintenance agreement with Albion Radio Communications passed; and the city authorized seeking bids for water-filtration plant chemicals, to come back for approval.

The requests that did not get a vote: The Fairfield Elks Club reported roughly $100,000 spent on roof repairs and kitchen improvements to restore operations and asked for assistance or reimbursement. Animal services produced two threads — during public comment, a resident asked whether the city had approved a contract with the Wayne County Humane Society, and city officials said no agreement had been approved while work on a contract continued; and a $20,000 contribution request from Southern Illinois Critter Fixers, which proposes feeding cats at seven sites for 30 minutes daily plus trapping, drew no action pending legal review of the agreement and contract revisions. Those are records we intend to request: the two draft agreements and whatever the legal review says about them.

The current picture: The mayor reported positive monthly income of roughly $523,000, ahead of the city’s position at the same point last year — a year whose figures, he noted, were affected by an issue involving the city’s power plant. The city also presented documentation from the Illinois Department of Transportation confirming compliance with the Motor Fuel Tax Act. No executive session was held, which means the whole discussion above is in a record we can all read.

4. Two sentencings in Wayne County Circuit Court

On the record: Two felony matters were disposed of in Wayne County Circuit Court on Oct. 13, per WFIW Radio. Dennis L. Galbraith of Cisne pleaded guilty to driving while his license was revoked and received 24 months’ probation with a stayed jail term. James Fenton of Johnsonville received conditional discharge and 180 days in jail on a methamphetamine-possession conviction. We are pulling the docket entries and will carry them as they come.

5. The clinic is open

Hamilton Memorial Hospital District’s Carmi Family Clinic opened at 1690 Falcon Avenue on Oct. 1, completing the move announced Sept. 18. White County readers who used the old location now drive to the new one. That is the whole note, and it is the kind of note a local board should carry: government and institutions change where people go for care, and somebody should write it down.

Still pinned from September

The Wayne County Housing Authority’s resident seat — filled in September with a non-resident, by voice vote, with no name attached. We are still pulling the appointment file and the authority’s minutes.

Four notices, zero hearings — the Fairfield Hi-Rise grievance file. We are requesting the authority’s grievance log and hearing calendar.

White County Housing Authority, Sept. 15 meeting — the authority runs 115 units in Crossville, Grayville and Norris City and posts agendas and minutes; we have the agenda listed and its contents unread. It remains first in line on our own reading list.

White County Board and Carmi City Council records — September and October agendas and minutes, still not worked through.

A jail inspection — WFIW listed a Wayne County Jail inspection among its Oct. 14 local items. We have not read that report yet. Given that the county board member facing charges sits on the committee that oversees the jail, it is a thread worth pulling rather than skipping.

What comes next

Three things move this board before the end of the month: the state’s attorney’s answer on the Manning case, one way or the other; White County’s September and October records, once we can read them; and the next Fairfield council meeting, where the tax levy returns.

Everything on this board came out of a public record. If you have one that belongs here — a notice, an agenda, a contract, a letter — send it to the newsroom, and it will be read.

FAIRFIELD, Ill. — The cork board is where the threads live before they become stories, and after. Some of them are pins we put up ourselves; some are records we have pulled and not yet read. This is the September board, kept as it stood, so that what we promised to check can be checked against what we actually published.

Three threads carried September. One of them was the county’s own.

1. The seat federal law reserves for a tenant

On the record: At the Wayne County Board’s meeting of Sept. 10, the board filled a seat on the Wayne County Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners with the owner of a local realty company — not a resident of the authority. Federal regulation 24 C.F.R. § 964.415(a) requires an authority’s governing board to include at least one eligible resident, unless a narrow small-agency exception applies. The appointment was taken by voice, without a roll call, and no member’s name is attached to it in the minutes. The chair asked whether there were objections; hearing none, it moved.

Why it matters structurally: The resident seat is not decorative. It is the one position on a housing authority board that federal law requires to be occupied by someone who lives under the authority’s rules — a tenant who sees the inspections, the notices and the grievance calendar from the inside.

What we published: The Silence Was the Vote, Sept. 14.

What we are still pulling: the county’s appointment file; the authority’s own board minutes for the same period; any correspondence with HUD’s Chicago regional office; and the current composition of the authority’s board as filed with the county clerk.

Background our readers should have: In March, the outlet Illinois Leaks reported that a resident commissioner of the same authority, Ron Baker, had raised complaints about board action and his own status, and that the board addressed them. That is another outlet’s reporting, dated months before this board; we have not yet verified its underlying documents, and we are listing it here as a lead to pull, not as a finding.

2. Four notices. Zero hearings.

On the record: Since April 16, a tenant at the Fairfield Hi-Rise has received four separate lease-termination notices from the Wayne County Housing Authority, whose executive director is Kim Musgrave. Each notice was answered with a timely, written demand for an administrative grievance hearing — the procedure federal public-housing rules provide a tenant who disputes the charges. Four demands. No hearing, no written disposition, and the eviction proceeding advancing anyway.

Why it matters structurally: A grievance procedure is not a courtesy. It is the mechanism that produces a written record of disputed facts before a person loses housing. When the hearing does not happen, the record does not happen either — and the tenant’s version of events has no official home.

What we published: The Hearing That Never Comes, Sept. 14.

What we are still pulling: the authority’s grievance log and hearing calendar for the year; the lease language it cites as its procedure; its HUD-approved admissions and continued-occupancy policies; and any disposition letters issued in these four cases.

3. The federal money nobody counts

On the record: The people who run Wayne County and its housing authority also appear in the federal farm-payment database. The Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database attributes payments to names and addresses in Wayne, Hamilton and Jefferson counties, and the same names appear in county government. We reported the figure the database carries and the years it covers.

The honesty requirement: EWG matches names and addresses, not tax identification numbers. These are not audited FSA figures, they do not establish title to anything, and they are not evidence of wrongdoing. What they are is a ledger big enough to be worth a records request, and that is exactly how we are treating them.

What we published: The Real Welfare Queens, Sept. 13.

What we are still pulling: FSA payment records requested directly rather than by name-match; the county’s economic-interest statements, which Illinois law requires officeholders to file with the county clerk by May 1 each year; and the housing authority’s own procurement and contract file.

4. What actually changed for residents in September

Not every thread is a controversy, and the board should carry the ones that change a Tuesday.

Carmi (White County): Hamilton Memorial Hospital District announced on Sept. 18 that its Carmi Family Clinic was relocating to 1690 Falcon Avenue. The old location saw patients through Sept. 28, the clinic transitioned Sept. 29–30, and the new site opened Oct. 1. Reported by WFIW Radio. For a county where a clinic move means a different drive, that is the month’s real news.

Wayne County: The county board held its regular monthly meeting on Sept. 10 — the second Thursday, as posted. The housing authority appointment above is what came out of it.

5. On the board, not yet pulled

These are records we have identified and not yet read. They are listed so that the gap is visible rather than implied.

White County Housing Authority, meeting of Sept. 15. The authority posts its agendas and minutes online; it operates 115 public-housing units in Crossville, Grayville and Norris City. We have the agenda listed and the contents unread. First item on our own list.

White County Board, September meeting. The county’s posted agenda and notice pages have not yielded readable records yet, which is itself a thread: a public body’s notice page should be readable by the public it serves.

Carmi City Council, Sept. 1 and Sept. 15. Agendas and minutes listed; we have not worked through them, including the council’s legal-representation business. Carmi’s local outlet, The Villagers Voice, follows the council closely, and its pages have been intermittently unavailable to us.

Fairfield City Council, Sept. 8. Minutes listed by the city; not yet read.

Wayne County Board, September minutes. We have the meeting and the appointment. We want the full minutes, including the parts of the evening nobody wrote to us about.

What we do with a cork board

A cork board is not an accusation. It is a list of questions with a date on each one. Some of the pins come out because the record answers them. Some stay up for months, which is how four notices survived four hearings’ worth of silence. Some become the story we lead the month with.

If you have a document that belongs on this board — a notice, an agenda, a receipt, a contract, a letter from an agency — send it to the newsroom. Records are what this page is made of, and the ones that arrive from readers are usually the ones nobody else thought to request.