Your source for community news and sports 7 days a week.
Exhibit is a real feather in museum’s cap
POLO REACHES FOR A WIN, AND GETS IT BASKETBALL, B1
dailyGAZETTE Thursday, December 10, 2015
A9-11
SERVING ROCK FALLS, STERLING AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1854
BUSINESS
IFH’s red-letter day
A Rock Falls company announced that it will acquire Bowman Manufacturing Co. in Arlington, Washington. One of the company’s products is the Redbox movie rental kiosks.
Rock Falls company expands into Washington with acquisition BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5570 @pam_eggemeier
Submitted photo
ROCK FALLS – The next time you plunk a few bucks into a Redbox for a movie rental, you just might have local company to thank. That’s because a Rock Falls business is expanding its reach, all the way to the Pacific Northwest.
The IFH Group announced Monday that it will buy Bowman Manufacturing Co. in Arlington, Washington, about 35 miles north of Seattle. The 88,000-square-foot manufacturing facility will become a new division, IFH Group West LLC. You might not have heard of Bowman before today, but you’ve no doubt seen at least one of the
company’s products: the Redbox movie rental kiosks that have become almost ubiquitous with retail store vestibules across America. Tens of thousands of the kiosks have popped up inside and outside of stores since the first automated movie rental stations were placed in 2002. ACQUISITION CONTINUED ON A5
OPPOLD MARINA
EAST COLOMA-NELSON SCHOOL
New dock on its way
Ladies and gentlemen ...
Reintroducing the band
Age piled up on the old one; replacement coming by spring BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5570 @pam_eggemeier
Photos by Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com
Julie McCord gestures toward the East Coloma-Nelson Concert Band as the crowd applauds during the Rhythm of the Season Christmas Concert on Monday at the school. It was the band’s first public performance – the first of many. “We’re just getting started,” McCord said.
The halls are alive with the sound of music for the first time in decades – and the early reviews? ‘Fantastic’
Online extra
Click on this story at saukvalley.com to see more photos, and hear the band play “London Bridge” during Wednesday morning’s class.
BY CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN cheimerman@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5523 @CHeimerman_SVM
DOCK CONTINUED ON A5
ROCK FALLS – A cacophony of sound swells in the cramped music room at East Coloma-Nelson School. It builds to the point that there’s no sense even shouting to the person next to you. Clarinets and trumpets play different sections of “Jingle Bells,” with drum fills behind them, out of step with the 40 or so other instruments warming up. That messy cloud of noise is music to Julie McCord’s ears. “Just to hear them getting the sound ... remember, at the beginning of the year, they’d blow and nothing would come out,” the longtime band teacher said of the first day’s class. “It was … interesting,” sixth-grader Lydea King, 11, said after class. “We were just playing random sounds; we didn’t know what we were doing,” classmate Maya Sands, 11, added. How could they? McCord said 98 percent of her students never played an instrument before taking fifth-grade or mid- Students carry their instruments back to McCord’s classdle school band this year. room after the first band concert for the new program at East Coloma-Nelson School. BAND CONTINUED ON A12
Inside
Elsewhere in education .... Having something in common is helping Rock Falls students enjoy the art of language. Page A3
$1.00
TODAY’S EDITION: 24 PAGES 2 SECTIONS VOL. 162 ISSUE 2
INDEX
STERLING – The Oppold Marina will look a little bare until spring. The aging dock system was demolished about a month ago, and it will be replaced before the marina opens again for boating. “The pilings were rotting because they have been in there for more than 40 years,” Sterling Parks Director Larry Schuldt said. “The whole structure was removed so we can put in a new pier and docks in the spring.” Dixon-based Wendler Engineering Services inspected the old system and determined that 13 of the 16 pilings were badly deteriorated. The park district leases the marina from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, so a fair amount of paperwork was created along the way.
ABBY ................... A8 BUSINESS ......... A12 COMICS ...............B7
CROSSWORD....B12 LIFESTYLE ........... A8 LOTTERY ............. A2
PLANIT ............A9-11 OBITUARIES ........ A4 OPINION .............. A6
Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com
Paul (left) and Mickie Rieger of Dixon paddle their canoe into the boat ramp at Oppold Marina on Nov. 9 in Sterling. Boaters will have a new dock system to look forward to, come spring.
Today’s weather High 57. Low 34. More on A3.
TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE PAPER, CALL 815-625-3600
Need work? Check out your classifieds, B8.