GAZ_08122014

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NOW IT’S ON: PRACTICES GET UNDERWAY

Council considering e-meetings MORRISON, A3

PREP FOOTBALL, B1

dailyGAZETTE Tuesday, August 12, 2014

SERVING ROCK FALLS, STERLING AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1854

STERLING SCHOOLS WHITESIDE COUNTY | SHELEY SENTENCING

Board to get look at budget

FOUR MORE LIFE TERMS

Extradition to Missouri in the works

Proposed education fund balanced for first time in 10 years

BY CHRISTI WARREN cwarren@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5521

BY JERMAINE PIGEE jpigee@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5525

MORRISON – The courtroom was silent, almost unnervingly so. It was a hot day outside Monday, but inside it was hot, too, and the air was sticky. Courtroom B, on the top level of the Whiteside County Courthouse, was packed, each person breathing anxiously, waiting for the punishment that has been 6 long years in coming for Nicholas Sheley. What would be his punishment for taking the lives of four people, without apparent provocation, in a Rock Falls apartment in June 2008? After the court listened to emotional statements from the victims’ families, they heard the longawaited sentence for those four brutal murders: Four life terms, to be served one after the other, and after two earlier life terms imposed for murdering a Sterling man and Galesburg man during a weeklong drug-andalcohol-fueled killing spree. Sheley was convicted May 29 for the killings in that Rock Falls apartment of Brock Branson, 29, Kilynna Blake, 20, Dayan Blake, 2, and Kenneth Ulve, 25. Sheley previously received life terms for the deaths of Russell Reed, 93, at his rural Sterling home, and Ronald Randall, 65, in Galesburg. Next for Sheley will be a trial for the murders of Arkansas couple Tom and Jill Estes. They were killed in Festus, Missouri, while in town for a graduation. Just after 11 a.m. Monday, State’s Attorney Trish Joyce read two victimimpact statements from members of Kilynna Blake’s family. Then Brock Branson’s sister, Jodi Fitzgerald, took the stand to read hers.

STERLING – School officials will present a preliminary 201415 fiscal year budget to the Sterling School Board at its meeting Wednesday. The school board will also set a public hearing on the budget, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at the Sterling High School library. “We are required to have a preliminary budget, and we will put it on display for 30 days in the district office,” said Tad Everett, superintendent of the school district. “We will have a finalized budget later this fall.” The preliminary spending plan of $38.7 Tad million includes Everett an education Sterling fund of $29.5 superintendent million, or 76 says education percent of the fund reduction plan was finalized budget. June 30 The district expects to receive $9.3 million in state aid. For the first time in 10 years, the proposed education fund is balanced. It pays for teacher salaries, books and supplies. Everett said the school district spent the past 3 years cutting $2.8 million from the education fund.

FOUR CONTINUED ON A8

Photos by Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com

Three-time convicted murderer Nicholas Sheley speaks with defense attorney Jeremy Karlin on Monday morning at the Whiteside County Courthouse after being sentenced in the June 2008 killings of Brock Branson, Kilynna Blake, Dayan Blake and Kenneth Ulve. Sheley was sentenced to four consecutive life terms.

BUDGET CONTINUED ON A4

To attend Family members of Sheley’s victims listen to the convicted murderer’s sentencing in the Whiteside County courtroom in Morrison.

School officials will present their tentative budget for the 2014-15 school year at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Sterling High School library, 1608 Fourth Ave.

DIXON | GARDENSTOCK DOCUMENTARY

‘Cool factor’ put on screen Film will raise money for youth gardening program BY MATT MENCARINI mmencarini@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5529

DIXON – What started out as a pipe dream for the organizers of Gardenstock is now reality. It started in 2011, a few months after that year’s Gar-

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denstock art and music festival. Bud LeFevre and Lisa Higby-LeFevre were on vacation and talking about how cool it would be to do a documentary about the festival and its impact on the community and local artists. Then, in February of last year,

TODAY’S EDITION: XX PAGES X SECTIONS VOL. 160 ISSUE XXX

INDEX

they were talking with some people about how to prepare for the 2013 festival when HigbyLeFevre just happened to mention the idea of a documentary. In that group was Gary Smoot, of Smoot Productions Inc.

ABBY ................... A7 BUSINESS ......... A10 COMICS ............... A9

COOL CONTINUED ON A3

CROSSWORD......B9 LIFESTYLE ........... A7 LOTTERY ............. A2

Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com

OBITUARIES ........ A4 OPINION .............. A6 POLICE ................ A2

Today’s weather High 76. Low 50. More on A3.

Distinctive Gardens owners Lisa HigbyLefevre and Bud Lefevre talk about a documentary that’s been made about their music and art festival, Gardenstock. The sixth annual festival is Saturday.

Need work? Check out your classifieds, B5.

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