Serving the Forreston area since 1865
FORRESTON Journal November 24, 2016 Volume 154, Number 31 - $1.00
State Bound!!!
Sculpture Moved
The Forreston Cardinals are returning to Champaign to play for the IHSA 1A title. B1
SoyPod by Pamela Lee has been moved to a new location by the Oregon Library. A6
Black Hawk wrapped up
Go Cardinals!!!
By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com
The Forreston fans traveled to Ottawa Marquette to cheer on the Cardinals during their semifinal win Saturday afternoon. Above, Geneva Duitsman, grandma to Forreston junior Sam Barkalow cheers during the game. Below, Forreston fans cheer on the Cardinals. Photos by Robin Kerchner
Ogle County’s best-known landmark has his winter coat on once again. For the third consecutive winter, the Black Hawk statue at Lowden State Park near Oregon, has been wrapped to protect it from the elements. A team from Quality Restorations, Inc., Wood Dale, spent three days last week wrapping the 50foot concrete monument in 12 millimeter thick duallayered polyethylene, padded underneath with blankets, and tied on tight with a halfmile of elastic rope. The rope wrapped around the padded protective plastic covering gives the illusion that the 105-year-old icon is wearing a quilted down snowsuit. Crew supervisor Keith Niles said Friday that the durable black plastic used to cover the statue is designed to keep out moisture, protecting the surface from further damage from the cold and freezing and thawing. The blankets underneath are wrapped around the shoulders and arms to further protect them and to keep their
sharp edges from cutting the plastic. Niles said the crew dealt with strong, gusty winds while they worked Thursday and Friday. “We didn’t want to do it in these conditions, but the contract was settled fairly late, and we had to get it done because winter is threatening to come in this weekend,” he said. Quality Restorations, Inc. was hired by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), which has jurisdiction over the statue, to provide and install the protective wrap at a cost of $19,800. IDNR spokesman Tim Schweizer said Monday that restoration work on the statue is expected to begin next spring. No cost estimate is yet available. “IDNR is pursuing an updated estimate from the architect/engineer,” Schweizer said in an email. The money is still expected to come from a Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) grant and private donations, he said. Created by sculptor Lorado Turn to A3
Painting donated to county board By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com
Lawmaker voted against heroin funding after daughter overdosed Editor’s note: This is the last of a 4-part series on the growing use of heroin in Ogle County and how it is affecting governmental agencies, addicts, family members and the political process. By Andy Colbert acolbert@oglecounty news.com In 2006, Illinois Senator Kyle McCarter’s daughter Amber was found dead alongside train tracks near East St. Louis, the result of a heroin overdose. Surprisingly, McCarter was one of 11 senators that voted against $60-million in state funding for heroin addicts last year. “In my eight years in the senate, I have enjoyed seeing
human services help people, but have a hard time seeing results,” McCarter said. Despite the myriad of rehab programs, social service agencies and enacted laws for the addict, recovery rates are abysmally low. Some estimates are that 90 percent of drug addicts go back to their old ways, including Amber McCarter. Treatment centers become revolving doors and other methods employed by government seem to be limited in their scope. “Government is not good at transforming lives,” McCarter said. “About the only thing we can do to get addicts to stop is keep them in prison.” McCarter doesn’t advocate that approach, but believes government is not the
In This Week’s Edition...
answer to combating drug addiction nor is throwing money at what he sees as an improperly diagnosed problem. It is rare for a government official to admit that society’s woes are beyond the realm of public policy and expertise. The problem as McCarter sees it is that government, be it federal, state or local, is only capable of changing external factors in the life of an addict. However, to be fully transformed, a word he stresses over and over again, that change must come from within a person. Threats like jail time, court sanctions and drug testing may be deterrents, but will not aid in one’s treatment. Group therapy or
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B5-B14 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B4
The son of a former Ogle County Sheriff presented a painting of the old jail, done by a renowned artist, to the Ogle County Board last week. Mike Lang, 73, Oregon, gave the art work, painted by local artist Harry Nurmet, to the board at its Nov. 15 meeting. “My feeling is because of the history…it needs to stay with the county,” Lang said. County board chairman Kim Gouker thanked Lang
and his family and said the painting will be displayed in the courthouse. “We will display it here for posterity,” he said. Lang said Nurmet gave the painting to his father Ed Lang in 1969 just before the current jail was completed. Made of red bricks in Italianate style and built in 1874, the jail also served as the residence of the sheriff and his family for decades. It was torn down when the current jail was built. Lang said he remembers growing up in the house when his father was sheriff Turn to A3
counseling with trained professionals is helpful, especially for the newcomers to the recovery process. But, behavior modification does not properly address what is truly wrong with an addict. “I talked to a mother of a son in a methadone clinic and she said how thankful she is that her son could mow the yard again,” McCarter said. “If that is the result of this, we’ve got problems.” Changing ‘playmates and playgrounds’, as treatment centers advise, sounds good in theory, but does not fully shield an addict from using again. Nor does the admonition that you are hurting family members. Certainly, Amber McCarter loved her brothers and parents, but the power of Ogle County Board Chairman Kim Gouker, left and Mike Turn to A3 Lang, Oregon, hold Harry Nurmet’s painting of the old jail
Library News, A3 Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Police, B3 Property Transfers, B4
that Lang donated to the county. Photo by Vinde Wells
Sheriff’s Arrests, B3 Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B3
Deaths, B4 Sally A. Baumgardner, Linda Burr, Terry L. Colcord, Lucille R. Lovell, Michael W. Schwartz
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com