It looks like the Republic-Times will be adding more state hardware to its office shelves.

The Illinois Press Association announced that the newspaper covering Monroe County and surrounding communities since 1890 will receive several awards in editorial and advertising.

Winner placement and general excellence and sweepstakes selections will be announced during the IPA’s annual awards luncheon taking place June 8-9 in Bloomington. 

Last year, the Republic-Times won the top prize in its division of large non-dailies for editorial general excellence in all of Illinois.

The newspaper also received the IPA’s general excellence award in 2018.

In editorial, the R-T is up for awards in community service (media literacy series), Freedom of Information Act (Columbia Middle School assistant principal resigns, Prairie du Pont fire chief, teen stabbing case), feature writing/personality profile (retiring Gibault teacher), original column (Bill Ott), spot news photo (fire on Park Street), general news photo (goat show winner, Columbia High School cheerleaders), feature photo (Bergheger tribute), portrait photo (Diane Corzine), sports photo (two Waterloo High School football photos), informational graphic (media literacy) and best website (republictimes.net).

In advertising, the R-T is up for automotive ad (Ed Morse), health care ad (McAuliffe Chiropractic), service/institutional ad (Barking Boutique), miscellaneous ad (Clean Car auto wash), political ad (Kevin Dawson), best newspaper promotion (R-T graduation section) and best holiday ad (Clean Car auto wash).