Just as you strive to improve yourself through New Year’s resolutions, the library is making a few changes in the new year to improve their services.  Beginning this month, the library will send out a reminder notice to patrons’ e-mail accounts to remind them they have items due in a few days. If you would like to benefit from this service, the library will need your current e-mail address. Those who have an e-mail on file with the library will also receive notices for items they have on hold and on overdue materials.

The end of one year and the beginning of a new one is a great time for all to reflect — not only for us personally — but also professionally. It is a time for city and community leaders to reflect as well.

A new year is perched to dawn. With the new year comes the decision to be pessimistic or optimistic in the new year.

There is some apprehension about getting the H1N1 flu vaccination; however, this shot is a must for those in certain age categories.

Cold weather is approaching, and that means the familiar red kettles and clanging bells of the Salvation Army are not far off.

Those bells and kettles remind us of how good many of us have it, and should act as a beaon to help those who are not so well off. This year, there are many more people who fall into the not- doing-so-well category. 

One pillar of a close-knit small town is community spirit. Without support and cheers among residents, much of the appeal of a small town is lost.

I do not have a desire to be a police officer.

It seems like an intense, stressful, sometimes frightening job that I am just not sure I could handle every day.

Talking to police on the sidelines of crime scenes and traffic collisions — from the safer side of the yellow caution tape — is much more comfortable, in my opinion.

Since the city’s zoning board of appeals approved an in-home tattoo and body piercing studio at 209 Wilshire Drive, heated arguments have arisen on both sides of the street.

“Just say no,” had no meaning during recent weekends for suspected DUI drivers in Peoria County. Peoria County implemented some “No Refusal” weekends.

The process works like this: When a suspected DUI driver is stopped, they will, as always, be offered the opportunity to take a breath test.

If the driver refuses, he or she remains in police custody, while a police officer and an assistant state’s attorney seek a court order from a judge to draw blood to check the person’s blood alcohol content.

The American educational system, flawed as it is, is still operating.

The meltdown anticipated by so many conservative parents when President Obama addressed American school children last week did not occur.

Students are back in school, catching up after summer and making weekend plans.

Often those plans include parties, and often those parties include alcohol.

Many parents try compromising with their teens by providing alcohol at semi-supervised house parties. We all know who they are. They’re known as the “cool parents.”

But hosting underage drinking parties is not the safe — or cool — solution some parents may think it is.

Bob Bireline’s trip from one Washington to another is long overdue.

The 91-year-old World War II veteran left on a flight this morning to the nation’s capital to visit war memorials, specifically the one honoring the war he fought in more than 60 years ago. His one-day trip is thanks to Honor Flight, a nonprofit organization that rewards deserving World War II veterans by paying for their trips to Washington, D.C.

Hours before the public open house about the Eastern Bypass began Thursday, cars began to fill the parking lot at Countryside Banquet Facility.

Staff members said that around lunch time, eager Central Illinois residents began to knock on the doors, and at about 2 p.m. — an hour before the open house was scheduled to begin — organizers let the public inside and started the program early.

It is not uncommon to see domestic violence and sexual abuse in police reports, even in Washington.

We may not all experience it or witness it ourselves, but the arrest sheet is just one indication of what happens behind some closed doors in this mostly peaceful small town.

It happens in other towns and cities, too. A woman is struck by her husband. A child is sexually abused by an uncle. An elderly couple is financially exploited by a granddaughter, and so on.

While these are not situations we want to think about, the reality is they happen. The Center for Prevention of Abuse sees about 15 new victims of these types of crimes every day, in fact.

But the center, which is the only agency in the State of Illinois to provide combined services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault/abuse and elder abuse, cannot function without financial support from the community.

The United States Constitution has long defended the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. However, anyone researching gun laws in the United States can easily see this is not a clear-cut issue, with each state having its own version of “gun control.”

Since a bill permitting concealed-carry was proposed in Illinois earlier this year, the Internet has been ablaze with heated arguments spewing from both sides.

Aside from the strong emotional responses gun control commonly elicits, both sides have many well-versed arguments.