GAZ_11192014

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GO NUTS WITH A HOLIDAY DESSERT

SAUK GETS READY FOR NATIONAL TOURNAMENT

FOOD, A9

COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL, B1

dailyGAZETTE

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

SERVING ROCK FALLS, STERLING AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1854

STERLING SCHOOLS | FACILITIES SALES TAX

New revenue? Wait ’til next year Money will not be available to district until next fall BY JERMAINE PIGEE jpigee@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5525

STERLING – Sterling Schools Superintendent Tad Everett said Tuesday the district did not plan to receive any money from the newly approved

penny sales tax until October 2015. Ever since Whiteside County voters approved the 1 percent sales tax during the Nov. 4 election, Everett said, he has constantly been asked the same questions. “People keep asking what’s next,” Everett said during Tuesday’s school board meeting. “People want to know when we are going to start acting and spending.”

The tax will be effect on July 1, 2015, which is the start of the next school calendar year. “We always have to wait 90 days Supt. Tad Everett until after the tax has been implemented,” Everett said. Historically, the schools rely on the annual property tax levy and occasional bond issues for facility upkeep and maintenance.

Next meeting The next Sterling School Board meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Dec. 17 in the Sterling High School library, 1608 Fourth Ave. For more information, go to www.sterlingpublicschools.org or call the school district’s central office at 815-626-5050. Supporters of the facility sales tax point out that it takes some of the burden off property owners and even brings revenue from people who don’t live in the county but who make purchases here.

BOOKS ADD UP TO FUN AT STERLING SCHOOL

Everett said school officials will spend the next few months updating the district’s facility and financial plan. REVENUE CONTINUED ON A4

DIXON PRISON

Warden’s request wouldn’t get OK IDOC source: State wouldn’t allow Chandler to live with ex-offender BY CHRISTI WARREN cwarren@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5521

Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com

Rowan Workman, a third-grader at Washington Elementary School in Sterling, looks over the book selection for the book walk Tuesday evening during the school’s Family Reading and Math Night.

ROCK FALLS

PREVIEW PAGES INSIDE

City abandons rental inspection program BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5570

ROCK FALLS – A rental inspection program that was conceived as a joint program for the Twin Cities will not be executed in both towns. After more than 18 months of work on the ordinance that would govern the program, Mayor Bill Wescott on Tuesday pushed the council to take action on the city’s involvement. The issue has bounced around several committees on the Rock Falls side, failing to gain much support. “The Finance Committee didn’t feel it was sustainable financially at this time,” Wescott said. “We had very candid discussion about the program at our last Committee of the Whole meeting, where I got the distinct feeling that the council didn’t want to do it.”

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TODAY’S EDITION: 28 PAGES 2 SECTIONS VOL. 160 ISSUE 244

The mayor then asked the council to make a motion to either continue working with Sterling on the program, or abandon Mayor Bill the ordinance at Wescott this time. Said “there “Mr. [Mark] Searstill seems to be too many ing has done a lot of work on this and problems” with program so has Sterling, but proposal there still seems to be too many problems,” Wescott said. Wescott said that pricing, financial viability, and consistency with inspectors were the most pressing issues. Rock Falls has fewer people than Sterling available to do the inspections, so the extra work would have forced the city to add a part-time inspector. INSPECTION CONTINUED ON A3

INDEX

ABBY ................... A8 BUSINESS ......... A12 COMICS ...............B4

Phillip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com

Nalleli and Arleth Diaz (left) look at a Christmas tree decoration placed in memory of Debra Bushaw, the grandmother of Abigail Gordon (right), Nov. 22, 2013, during the Rock Falls Hometown Holidays Uptown Christmas Walk.

A look ahead to Hometown Holidays

Hometown Holidays, an annual holiday event in Rock Falls, gets underway Thursday and continues through Sunday. The Christmas Walk and Love Light Tree have welcomed people to the Uptown area for many years, while the Holiday Bingo and Light Up the Uptown Christmas Tree display are relatively new events. This year, a new twist is a joint Twin Cities Holiday Parade, which starts in Sterling and ends in Rock Falls. Pages A13-14 CROSSWORD....B13 FOOD ................... A9 LIFESTYLE ........... A8

LOTTERY ............. A2 OBITUARIES ........ A4 OPINION .............. A6

DIXON – It doesn’t matter that former Dixon prison warden Nedra Chandler didn’t complete the process of notifying her bosses that a convicted sex offender would be living with her – the Department of Corrections never would Nedra have allowed it, an Chandler IDOC source said. IDOC released a report Monday that indicated Chandler had filled out, but never submitted, a memo to notify officials that her former foster son, who had been in prison for possession of child pornography, would be living with her in Robert L. her Sterling home. Swon The department requires such notification when an employee will be in regular contact with an exoffender. “If we had received that notice, it is virtually impossible that we would’ve allowed that,” said the confidential source, who didn’t have authorization to speak on the matter. He declined to speculate specifically about why IDOC would not have allowed it, but did say that “residing in a home presents greater challenges than merely providing support outside the home.” Chandler, 53, retired Sept. 30, 11 days after Robert L. Swon, 27, was arrested at her Sterling home on new charges involving child pornography. She has not been available for comment since she left the job. WARDEN CONTINUED ON A4

Today’s weather High 31. Low 20. More on A3.

Need work? Check out your classifieds, B7.

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