The Town Well restaurant in Stanford closed its doors on October 1st, due to their lease not being renewed, but with hopes of finding a new location someday soon. The small-town bar and grill was well-known for its top-notch food and service, recently receiving multiple recognitions in The Pantagraph’s Reader’s Choice Awards including 2nd in “Best Cheeseburger,” 3rd in “Best Horseshoe,” and in the top 5 for “Best Steak.”

The Olympia Pacesetters 4-H Club members have recently installed Emergency Mini Food Pantries [EMFP] in the Olympia School District in Stanford, Danvers, Minier, OHMS, Hopedale, and Waynesville. They have also added one just outside the district in Carlock. 4-H members involved in this project are known as the Hunger Ambassadors; youth that are passionate about fighting rural hunger. This group built their first ever EMFP in 2018 in Stanford, and have been working ever since then to build a network of these pantries in the greater McLean County area. 

HOOAH Deer Hunt for Heroes is a local 501c non-profit with the mission to give back to wounded soldiers. Four out of the five board members are Olympia graduates. To complete their mission HOOAH provides outdoor activities to these wounded soldiers. This includes events such as turkey hunts, fishing trips, deer hunts, and pheasant hunts. These activities are supervised by volunteers and every aspect is formatted to fit the needs of each soldier.

The Olympia High School agriculture department has recently added a chicken coop outside of the school where they will raise hens and have hands-on learning opportunities. Richard “Dick” Johnson of Atlanta passed away last year, and his family chose Olympia FFA to be one of the organizations to donate some memorial money to. Johnson was a local farmer who had an egg delivery business, so the Olympia agriculture department found it fitting to buy a chicken coop for the school. The high school agricultural science class already raises chickens every year as part of their class experience. The class does a feed trial to learn about animal nutrition and the basics of taking care of animals. In the past, the hens would be sent to a local farm, but the new chicken coop offers the opportunity to keep the hens on campus for a year-round experience with the animals.

This week’s edition of “Meet the Chief” features the Chief of Police for the Stanford Police Department, Chief Dustin Carter. Chief Carter grew up around Hoopeston and Leroy and has been around law enforcement his whole life. His father was also a Chief of Police and being in a household that focused on public safety made it feel very natural for Chief Carter to pursue a career in law enforcement. Chief Carter obtained his bachelor’s degree from Lincoln College with a major in Business Management and a minor in Criminal Justice. Although Chief Carter understood that law enforcement was not for everyone, he saw it as his calling.