Ogle County Newspapers / oglecountynews.com • Friday, October 23, 2020
OGLE COUNTY NEWS
6
LOCAL HISTORY
Blue Star Memorial sign missing from Illinois 2 Editor’s note: Otto Dick, Oregon has researched the people, places and events important in the Oregon area’s history for the Ogle County Historical Society. The following is one of a series of the articles he has written.
BY OTTO DICK On Nov. 4, 1970, Illinois Route 2 was designated a Blue Star Memorial Highway. The Blue Star Memorial Program honors servicemen and women. This program started with the planting of 8,000 Dogwood trees by the New Jersey Council of Garden Clubs in 1944 as a living memorial to veterans of World War II. In 1945, the National Council of State Garden Clubs adopted the program. A large metal Blue Star Memorial Highway Marker was placed at appropriate locations across the United States. This program was expanded to include all men and women who had served our country. Later this program was expanded to locations such as national cemeteries, parks, veteran’s facilities and gardens. A Blue Star Historical Marker was placed in a picnic area along Illinois 2 in Ogle County just west of Meridian Road (Winnebago County Line). A sign on Rt. 2 indicates a historic marker is located at this roadside picnic area. The web shows this wonderful memorial sign with Rock River in the background. This sign is missing. I was informed that this sign and the Banditti Sign located in another picnic area were missing. These road signs were probably melted down and sold as brass metal. It’s obviously a shame that these are destroyed by someone who wants to make a few dollars. If you drop by this site you will notice the
• MORE MITIGATIONS? Continued from Page 5 each day,” Auman said. “It’s been this way going on 2-3 weeks. This is the worst it’s been.” Many bars and restaurants in Ogle County chose to defy the latest round of mitigations and stay open for indoor dining and drinking. As a result, Auman said the OCHD has issued 37 notices of noncompliance to Ogle County businesses.
ABOVE: On May 17, 2014 the Rock River Garden Club and the Dixon Veteran Memorial Commission erected a Blue Star Historical Marker at the Veterans Memorial Park, 668 Veterans Parkway, in Dixon. BELOW: The post is all that remains where the Blue Star Memorial Highway sign used to be on Illinois 2 north of Byron in a picnic area in Ogle County just west of Meridian Road (Winnebago County Line). Photos by Otto Dick post that this plaque was mounted on remains. On May 17, 2014 the Rock River Garden Club and the Dixon Veteran Memorial Commission erected a Blue Star Historical Marker at the Veterans Memorial Park, 668 Veterans Parkway, in Dixon. This Veterans Parkway is a wonderful memorial to the men and women who served. I encourage you to visit the Dixon Memorial Park and view the Blue Star Memorial Plaque. Another Blue Star memorial sign was stolen just months after it was installed in Harbor City on the Pacific Coast Highway.
“It took 14 years for the San Pedro Garden Club to get approval to install a Blue Star Memorial Highway sign on Pacific Coast Highway in Harbor City. Now in less than three months, its gone. One of the people who helped install the plaque drove by on Sunday and as he always did looked for the sign, he said. ‘No more sign’, only the pole was left.” I intend to talk to Representative Demmer and hopefully he can convince the State Highway Department to reinstall our Rt. 2 Blue Star plaque. The price of a new plaque is $1,465.
No closure orders have been issued yet. Auman is unsure if any will be, and said that depends on how businesses respond and what his inspector returns to those businesses. Complaints of noncompliance haven’t leveled off, either, he said. “Complaints have been pretty consistent,” Auman said. “We receive quite a few every day.” Auman said last week that hospitals could be apart of additional mitigations.
They could go back to only allowing essential procedures. The recent increase in cases has him concerned for the state of area medical facilities. As of Oct. 15, area hospitals were 34 percent availability for med surge beds and 40 percent for ICU beds. “Rockford helps support several surrounding counties,” Auman said, “Even outside of our region, we’ll lose those hospital resources as things get worse. We’ll have to find where we’ll send patients. It’s
a drain on resources and we’re not even into flu season yet.” Auman also said it’s been a strain on his department to work on COVID-19 responsibilities while trying to tackle usual responsibilities, such as flu season. “It’s a huge burden,” Auman said. “It’s been eight months. And now we’re seeing less and less compliance and people don’t want to work with us. We can’t do this on our own. We need the public’s help.”
