Serving the Forreston area since 1865
FORRESTON Journal July 6, 2018 Volume 156, Number 11 - $1.00
Ag Rescue & Safety
Butterflies Fly
Supplies Drive
Ogle County 4-H held an Agriculture Rescue & Safety Day at the Ogle County Fairgrounds. A7
Monarch released at dedications for Serenity Home & Hospice B1
S.S.E.T. 4 School conducts its annual school supplies collection for the 15th year. A2
Village board frustrated over road damage A year-long maintenance agreement will not be honored By Zach Arbogast zarbogast@oglecounty news.com
Ready For The Fourth Pete and Linda Meyer’s front lawn in Adeline was all ready for the 4th of July, thanks to Linda’s creative talents. Photo by Linda Meyer.
Even with grant, $300,000 still needed for Black Hawk repairs By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Even with a state grant on the way, the Black Hawk Restoration Team has to raise the better part of $300,000 for repairs to the area’s best known landmark. The $350,000 state grant approved recently by the Illinois General Assembly, is a matching grant, which means private donors must come up with an equal amount, or in this case slightly more than that, to fix the Black Hawk statue at Lowden State Park. The grant is a 51-49 match, and the 51 percent must come from private sources. At a meeting Monday morning that included State Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon), Restoration Team Chairman Jan Stilson said the estimated cost of the repairs currently sits at $600,000. The fund for the statue’s repair has $59,000 in it. Demmer was on hand to answer questions and to present official copies of the resolution that released the grant money to Stilson and Oregon Mayor Ken Williams. The grant was approved in 2009, but remained tied up by state budget woes until last month. Demmer said that the money previously spent on the preparation work for the repairs to the 107-year-old concrete statue will not be considered as part of the private matching funds.
“Past contracts don’t count,” he said. The preparation work was done under a contract with thenproject conservator Andrzej Dajnowski, from Conservation of Sculpture & Objects Studio, Forest Park. Quality Restorations Inc., of Wood Dale, has been chosen by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to finish the job, although a contract has not yet been signed, Demmer said. The money to pay for the preparation work, which included repair specifications, laser scans, and chemical and structural analyses of the concrete, came from the approximately $500,000 raised by the Friends of the Black Hawk Statue, headed by Sterling resident Frank Rausa. The $31,000 left from those funds is part of the $59,000, mostly of which is in a fund held by the Illinois Conservation Foundation in Springfield. Demmer said that while spending the grant money has no time limit, anything remaining in the fund when the state’s fiscal year ends June 30, 2019 could be delayed by another budget impasse. He also pointed out that the grant will match only its share of what the repairs cost. For example, if the repair work comes to only $500,000, the state will pay 49 percent of that or just less than $250,000. However, he said the grant will cover work needed around the base of the statue, as well as
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the repairs to its surface. Restoration Team Member Karly Spell asked Demmer is QRI is knowledgable about how to repair the concrete mixture the statue was made of back in December of 1910. Demmer assured her that the firm has the necessary expertise. Spell also asked if Dajnowski might be hired back to finish the job he began back in 2014. “No,” Demmer replied. After a dispute between Dajnowski and then-project engineer Amy Lamb Woods in 2015, the IDNR and Dajnowski did not renew their contract. Stilson said the committee would like assurances that QRI will follow Dajnowski’s
recommendations. Restoration Team member Bill Hefty said the work will not take long once the contracts are in place. “Quality Restorations can do the restoration fairly quickly - in 60 days,” he said. The Restoration Team also discussed several fundraisers that are planned in upcoming weeks. An account for donations has been set up at the Stillman Bank, and checks should be made out to Oregon Together: Black Hawk Restoration. For more information contact Stilson at 815-668-1339 or jstilson21@comcast.net.
The Forreston Village Board found themselves in a uncertain situation after a disappointing revelation that a construction company is not actually responsible to fix damages incurred on a road resurfaced only years ago. During Monday evening’s village board meeting, Village President Mark Meztger said that officials from Freeportbased Civil Constructors, Inc., claim they are not responsible for repairing the cracks on Avon Street. The street was resurfaced last year, but damage has already began to show. Metzger said when the board tried to enact a oneyear maintenance agreement through Fehr-Graham, the engineering consultants used for the project, it was rejected due to not using fiberreinforced concrete, which Civil would normally use to ward off cracking. “Fehr-Graham responded ‘well, we never put in the original bid to put in the [fiberreinforced concrete] to help with the cracking,’ and Civil is basically saying ‘Hey, you guys didn’t do what you were supposed to do, so now we’re not responsible for something like this,’” said Metzger. Several trustees were upset with the revelation. “We’d have never went through with it if we knew it was just going to crack again,” said Public Works Superintendent Al Cruthis.
Trustee Jeff Freeze said the point of hiring consultants is that you trust them to take care of all the details. “You don’t look over a doc’s shoulder to make sure he cut you open right — you trust him to do it,” said Freeze. Trustee Gary Buss expressed frustration over the maintenance agreement amounting to nothing. “This is the second or third time we had this guarantee, and it seems like it means nothing,” said Buss. “In most cases, they try to keep the costs as low as possible for the municipality,” Metzger said. “However, it would have been nice to have known that information.” Outside of action, Metzger said he wanted to get a full survey done of Fifth Avenue, including plats, parcel numbers, and boundaries, because multiple properties are out of compliance, having structures built over their boundary lines. Property owner Betty Wubbena brought concern to Metzger asking how many structures extend onto her farmland, and what complications it could bring if she tried to sell it. “It’s just getting to a point where I think we need something that, if we’re going to enforce ordinances and require compliance, we need to have actual documentation that states all the information we need,” said Metzger. Metzger clarified that this does not mean homeowners will be receiving plats of their homes for free, just that the village will have the information for its records. The village board meets again on Monday, July 16 at 7 p.m. at village hall, 102 S. Walnut Ave. The meeting is open to the public.
State Rep. Tom Demmer updates the Oregon Together Black Hawk Restoration Team Monday morning about the progress on funding for the statue’s repairs. At left is Beth George, president of White Pines Resort, and at right is Debbie Dickson, executive dsirector of the Oregon Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Vinde Wells
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B5-B8 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B4
Library News, A2 Marriage Licenses, A4 Property Transfers, B4 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3
Social News, A4 Sports, B2
Published every Friday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com
Deaths, B4 Dorothy F. Foy, Beverly J. Groenewold