The Kinmundy City Council Thursday night passed ordinances finalizing two businesses locating in the city owned building on Madison Street. Both businesses already are in operation. Under the ordinance, the flower shop Sparkling Blooms and Blessings will pay $800 a month while John and Andy Diss operating Downtown Deals Resale will pay $550 a month. The board also agreed to pick up $2,000 of the total $2,800 cost to install new flooring in the flower shop that has located in the former muse...

Centralia Police say they are seeking to arrest two suspects involved with a one-year-old girl getting a fentanyl pill she put into her mouth. The girl is still recovering at Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis. Centralia Police in an update on the case say the girl and her mother were visiting a home in the 600 block of South Locust last Friday afternoon when her mother discovered her daughter chewing on something that she originally said was Tylenol. Centralia City Firemen say the pill w...

Centralia Police were led on a low-speed chase by a car leaving the Centralia Walmart store after the store had filed a retail theft complaint. The driver of the car was eventually apprehended and a passenger successfully fled into a home on Selmaville Road at the conclusion of the chase. 31-year-old Jubal Dulaney of North Marion in Salem was arrested for aggravated fleeing and eluding police, driving on a suspended license, operating an uninsured vehicle, disobeying a peace officer, obstruct...

Centralia Police have arrested a 48-year-old Centralia woman in a Wednesday evening hit and run traffic crash. Mandy Mercer of Sycamore Street in Centralia reportedly hit a car driven by 53-year-old Scott McCullough of Park Forest in Centralia while it was stopped at the red light on Pleasant at McCord. Both drivers initially pulled over, but Mercer allegedly left the scene after McCullough had called police. McCullough followed Mercer and relayed her location until police stopped the fleei...

The Marion CFB Young Leaders Committee hosted its first-ever Trivia Night on January 16, 2026, bringing together seven (7) teams for an evening of friendly competition, laughter, and community spirit. Teams competed through 10 rounds of trivia covering a wide range of topics, including agriculture, music, celebrities, sports, and general knowledge. The event concluded with awards for First Place, Last Place, and the highly anticipated Team Spirit Award, keeping energy levels high throughout t...

The Salem Fire Protection District has put a new fire truck into service, a 95-foot-tall aerial platform. The 2014 unit was purchased used from the Monarch Fire Protection District in Chesterfield, MO which was purchasing a new truck for their use. Fire Chief Jim Cerny says the unit has several advantages over the 40-year-old aerial truck they will now retire. "They're both very similar," Cerny said. "They've got the same length and everything. This truck has more pump capacity...

A renovation has been approved by the Marion County Board for the former law library area on the third floor of the courthouse. Marion County Resident Circuit Court Judge Mark Stedelin and County Clerk Tiffany Schicker made the proposal. Schicker says Shores Construction in Centralia will be doing the work in the near future that is only expected to take a day or two to complete. "Currently there are four offices. Two of them are permanent offices, and two of them were built as temporar...

A workshop addition to a barn on the Eric Terlizzi property on Hoots Chapel Road near the Tonti Road intersection northeast of Salem was extensively damaged in a Thursday morning fire. Salem Assistant Fire Chief Bill Fulton says the fire started in the wall next to where there were a number of lithium batteries for toy cars stored. He believes the batteries could be the source of the fire. The fire was mostly confined to the 12 by 20 foot workshop addition, with only some of the paint scorch...