The Woodford County Sheriff’s office’s newest K9 handler, Jesse Polston, and his partner, Nala, are ready to get to work after graduating from an extensive, eight-week program that prepared them to patrol the county.

STATE

Four presidents honored in new exhibit

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield has a new exhibit that looks at what four U.S. presidents with ties to Illinois had in common and how their time in the state affected their lives.

The exhibit, “From Illinois to the White House: Lincoln, Grant, Reagan, Obama,” is being done as part of Illinois’ bicentennial celebration. Located inside the museum, it runs through the end of the year and includes historic artifacts that show the achievements of the presidents as politicians and communicators. Also included are items from the presidents’ wives.

For museum times and admission prices, go to Illinois.gov.

CENTRAL ILLINOIS

Abuse prevention center seeks high school leaders

High school students who are dedicated to building safe schools and communities will be honored for their work when the Center for Prevention of Abuse presents its Outstanding Youth Leader in Violence Prevention Award.

The award honors area high school students dedicated to building safe schools and communities. The center is accepting nominations, and the deadline for them is March 31.

Center staff provides violence-prevention education on topics such as bullying, harassment, abuse and positive relationships to almost 30,000 students a year.

The award is open to high school students in Tazewell, Peoria and Woodford counties who have participated in the center’s violence-prevention programs at some point during their education.

Nomination forms are available at the center’s website, centerforpreventionofabuse.org. Click under the Prevention Education tab. Submit the completed form and a video or written essay to PreventEd@centerforpreventionofabuse.org.

For more information, call (309) 691-0551.

COUNTY

K9 dog joins sheriff’s staff

The Woodford County Sheriff’s office’s newest K9 handler, Jesse Polston, and his partner, Nala, have graduated from their training at the Macon County Public Safety Training Foundation for K9 Training. The team wrapped up an extensive, eight-week program that prepared them to patrol the county.

K9 Nala will continue to be trained in five disciplines. The first of these disciplines is obedience. Key to any K-9 Unit is the mutual respect between dog and handler and the importance of the handler in being able to maintain control of the team in any situation, whether on leash or off. The second discipline the K-9 Team is bi annually certified in is controlled aggression. The K-9 is trained to apprehend subjects at the handler, and only at the handler’s discretion. The third discipline is known as article searches. The K-9 has the ability to seek out hidden items by the presence of human odor and alert the handler to its location. The fourth discipline is narcotics detection. The fifth discipline is tracking. K-9 Nala has the ability to track a person who has left a scene on foot. This skill is useful in many ways, from tracking down fleeing suspects to finding Alzheimer’s patients.

PEKIN

Workshop to explain how to get a job with the state

A program to explain how to get a job with the state will be held 1:30-4:30 p.m. April 3, at the Pekin Public Library, 301 S. Fourth St.

Illinois is looking for candidates to fill multiple positions in multiple agencies. This workshop will provide an overview of employment opportunities, application criteria and hiring procedures. The workshop will include information on:

• Successful search strategies for commonly hired state positions,
• A better understanding of the state application process,
• Translating your life experience in an effective CMS100 application,
• Tips for preparing for state testing and interviewing, and
• A question-and-answer session.

To get the most out of this workshop, create an account and register in IllinoisJobLink.com. 

–Woodford County News Briefs–