Serving the Forreston area since 1865
FORRESTON Journal September 21, 2017 Volume 155, Number 22 - $1.00
Cardinals Win
AOP Festival
Homecoming
The Cardinals earned a 30-18 victory over EPC on the road Friday night. B1
Read all about Oregon’s upcoming Autumn on Parade festival. Insert
The annual Homecoming football game is Friday and the dance is Saturday night. A3
Innovative gun shop and range targets enthusiasts By Zach Arbogast zarbogast@oglecounty news.com Right on the northern edge of Forreston, a dentist and gun enthusiast runs a top-notch facility for shooters and collectors of all experience levels. The Smokin’ Gun Worx, 8785 N. Baileyville Rd., is much more than just a gun shop, it’s a firing range, training ground, and party venue, all in one place. The Worx opened in March under Dr. Keith Ruter, Forreston’s dentist for 32 years, along with his wife, Karen. “People kept saying ‘you should open a gun shop, you should open a gun shop,’ and
we were able to make it a reality,” said Karen. The first thing a visitor sees when entering the front door is the main sales floor, with handguns, rifles, shotguns, and knives adorning the walls and cases, and the center floor area has an enormous variety of gear, including concealed carry purses. Aside from the models on the floor, the Worx provides consignment services, trades, and features a full-time, in-shop gunsmith, Jarrett Wehunt, of Prophetstown. From there, each direction has something different — an indoor shooting simulator room, a pair of stacked indoor live firing ranges, and a party room.
Keith Ruter, owner of the Smokin’ Gun Worx, demonstrates the target range retriever on one of the shooting stalls. Shooters can send targets out up to 25 yards, and bring them back in. Photo by Zach Arbogast
Two 25-yard indoor ranges, lined with ballistic steel, sit atop one another on the southwestern part of the building, and each include
six stalls separated by steel plating and a slew of sounddampening baffles to reduce noise. Stalls also have consoles
and range retrievers from Action Target, allowing a shooter to send their own targets out up to 25 yards, and call them back in to see how they’re shooting. The lower-level targets have settings to rotate for extra challenge to the shooter, and is the site for the “zombies” shooting scenario. They also have lights the user can brighten or dim to their preference, and have settings to simulate flashing police lights. Instead of firing into rubber backstops like other ranges, the Worx ranges feature low-angled ramps that funnel projectiles into a deceleration chamber that revolves the projectile until it
loses speed and energy, until being collected into buckets at the back of the range. Safety is king for Ruter’s ranges. Before even entering the range, shooters enter a safe room between the main floor and the range, where shooters get prepared, put on eye and hearing protection, and are briefed about safety practices. The doors and windows between the range and safe room are bullet-proof, and alarms will sound, alerting the front desk and calling a ceasefire if the door is opened for more than a few seconds. An RSO is always present during shootings, and has Turn to A2
Business district approved Monday By Zach Arbogast zarbogast@oglecounty news.com
Mary Salstrom, an Oregon native, was busy painting a portion of the prairie at the Nachusa Grasslands during Autumn on the Prairie on Saturday. Photo by Earleen Hinton
The Forreston Village Board passed an ordinance establishing the Business Development District in the downtown area. In a unanimous vote Monday evening, the board voted in an ordinance designating boundaries around Ill. 26, Ill. 72, and the downtown business area. In the business development district, an additional one percent sales tax is established, providing the village with revenue that President Mark Metzger says will be used for infrastructure
improvements. The sales tax goes into effect Jan. 1, 2018. “We had our public hearing on Sept. 6, and the businesses made it clear that they were in support of the BDD, so long as the funds went towards infrastructure improvements to the downtown area,” said Metzger. “That’s been our plan in the first place, so we’re on the same page.” During public comment, Jane Koeller, co-owner of Koeller’s Forreston Hardware, asked if businesses that generate revenue into the BDD will have funding precedence Turn to A3
Red ink prompts Bison big draw at prairie event a hiring freeze Weather was perfect at the Grasslands
By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com
By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com The weather was perfect and the prairie was in full fall dress, but the bison stole the show again on Saturday at the annual Autumn on the Prairie at Nachusa Grasslands southeast of Oregon on South Lowden Road. Of the nearly 1,000 people who attended the event, 870 took advantage of the wagon rides that took them into the prairie to see the bison herd, under bright blue skies with the temperature in the high 80s. “Lots of people went on the tours,” Bill Kleiman, restoration project director at the Grasslands said. “We had five wagons going.” Turn to A7
Visitors to Autumn on the Prairie could ride on hayracks out on the prairie to see the bison herd. Photo by Earleen Hinton
In This Week’s Edition...
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B5-B10 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B3
Marriage Licenses, A4 Public Voice, A4 Property Transfers, B3 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3
A looming deficit has prompted the Ogle County Board to unanimously adopt a hiring freeze. Finance Committee Chairman Greg Sparrow, of Rochelle, told the board Tuesday evening that the county is facing a projected shortfall of $750,000 to $1 million in the General Fund unless it takes steps to reduce expenses and bolster revenues. He also recommended freezing wages, and said that will be part of upcoming contract negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police and other unions that represent some county employees. He said the Finance Committee has already rejected salary increases requests for the new fiscal year that begins Dec. 1 from departments with non-union employees.
Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B3
Sparrow said that treasurer John Coffman had to borrow from other solvent county funds to pay the bills coming from the General Fund before property tax revenue payments came in. Once the tax payments were received the interfund loans were repaid. The hiring freeze will go into effect immediately, he said, and comes at a good time because several county employees will become eligible for retirement over the next four years. The alternative would have been eliminating the jobs of an estimated 25-30 employees, Sparrow said. “It made sense to do it through attrition,” he said. The county employs more than 200 people. According to the new hiring freeze policy, when an employee leaves, that position must remain open and unfilled for three months while the department head evaluates the need for it.
Deaths, B4 Margaret J. Bauling, Harold E. Brooks, Frances K. Duro, John G. Griffin, Jerry L. Witmer
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com