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WARRIORS, DUKES READY FOR MEETING ON THE MAT
Break out the slow cooker
PREP WRESTLING, B1
FOOD, A9
dailyGAZETTE Wednesday, January 8, 2014
SERVING ROCK FALLS, STERLING AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1854
WEATHER | SNOW REMOVAL
‘One storm after another’ Frequent snowfalls tax cities, counties BY DAVID GIULIANI dgiuliani@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 525
Sterling’s snowplow drivers have already gone out 11 times this winter, and it’s only half over. Last winter, the city deployed the drivers 16 times, and only 10 times the year before that. “It’s been a terrible year, one storm after another,” said Rick Powers, Sterling’s public works superintendent. Sterling is no different from other communities: It is using much more salt than expected,
and its drivers are working a lot of overtime. In Dixon, the city has already used 85 percent of the salt that it normally orders for the year, said Jeff Jeff Kuhn, the Kuhn city’s commissioner of streets. Normally, about 50 percent remains at this time of the year. “In town, our streets are in good shape,” Kuhn said. “It would be nice to have bare pavement, but salt doesn’t work when it’s so cold. I have really been proud of our men. They were out on Christmas Day. They worked 11
On the roads Number of snowplow drivers at each agency:
Dixon: 10 Rock Falls: 7 Sterling: 13 Lee County: 9 Whiteside County: 12
Inside
Find out how many snowplows are not on Ogle County roads and why on A3. hours on New Year’s Day.” Sterling has used nearly 100 percent of the salt it normally orders for the winter, Powers said. STORM CONTINUED ON A5
Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com
A truck drives along Palmyra Road where snow drifts peaked around 6 feet along the roadside and touched the bottoms of road signs. Blowing snow and drifting have made it difficult for crews to keep rural roads clear.
STERLING
ROCK FALLS | CIVIC PLAZA II EVACUATION
Residents grateful for support
St. Mary’s closed for rest of week Firefighters dealing with frozen sprinkler systems BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 570
STERLING – This week’s weather-related vacation just got a little longer for the students at St. Mary’s School. Like other schools throughout the Sauk Valley, St. Mary’s was closed Monday and Tuesday because of the extreme cold. Then about noon Tuesday, a pipe to the sprinkler system broke in the attic, leaving water everywhere, St. Mary’s Principal Rebecca Schmitt said. CLOSED CONTINUED ON A4
DIXON Photos by Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com
Sarah Lodge, 47, spends Tuesday morning in the lobby of Days Inn in Rock Falls talking with fellow residents of Civic Plaza II. The residents have spent 3 days at the hotel and will likely have to wait until Friday to return to their apartments.
Officials say evacuees likely to return home Friday BY CHRISTI WARREN cwarren@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 521
ROCK FALLS – After a fireman came to the door early Saturday morning, Barbara Morrison had just 15 minutes to grab her medicine and as much as she could carry before she had to evacuate. Morrison is one of 63 residents of the Civic Plaza II apartment building in Rock Falls who had to evacuate this weekend after a sprinkler system pipe on the east side froze and then burst, flooding the building. The 68-year-old lives on the top floor, which, she says, along with the first floor, had the most damage.
On Monday, she returned with the building’s manager, Tatum Eckstein, to pack more of her things. When she’d left, there were boxes and suitcases and totes scattered about her floor - she’d been rearranging furniture. When she returned, it was all gone. Someone working in the building told her it had been removed to provide better access to the floor which, on Monday, was being dried by five different fans. The carpet, something she brought from her former home, was rolled up and leaning against a wall. SUPPORT CONTINUED ON A2
Audit to be presented at next meeting Report to include end of Rita Crundwell era BY MATT MENCARINI mmencarini@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 529
Tim Sulouff, 53, grabs a cup of coffee in the lobby of Days Inn in Rock Falls. Sulouff’s appartment is on the west end of the second floor of Civic Plaza II. He brought donuts to his other friends Tuesday as they gathered in the lobby of Days Inn.
DIXON – The Dixon City Council was scheduled to get an audit presentation about its previous 2 fiscal years Monday night, but that will have to wait until later this month. The city’s fiscal year goes from May 1 to April 30, Finance Director Paula Meyer said. The 2012 fiscal year ended about 2 weeks after former Comptroller Rita Crundwell was arrested for stealing nearly $54 million in city funds over two decades. AUDIT CONTINUED ON A5
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TODAY’S EDITION: 24 PAGES 2 SECTIONS VOL. 160 ISSUE 22
INDEX
BUSINESS ......... A11 COMICS ...............B6 CROSSWORD....B12
DEAR ABBY ......... A8 LIFESTYLE ........... A8 LOTTERY ............. A2
OBITUARIES ........ A4 OPINION .............. A6 SPORTS ...............B1
Today’s weather High 13. Low 0. More on A3.
Need work? Check out your classifieds, B7.
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