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STERLING BOYS, GIRLS TAKE TITLES CROSS COUNTRY, B1
Try a taste of Bosnia FOOD, A9-10
dailyGAZETTE Wednesday, September 14, 2016 n SERVING ROCK FALLS, STERLING AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1854
STERLING | NEW BUSINESS
Planet Fitness coming to mall Chain plans on moving in by year’s end BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5570 @pam_eggemeier
STERLING – Construction will begin this week for Northland Mall’s newest tenant. Planet Fitness will move into the mall at 2900 E. Lincolnway before the end of the year, diversifying
the shopping center’s offerings that currently include sporting goods, clothing, food and more. Mall management said the national fitness chain will be in the spaces last inhabited by Pet Supplies Plus and Kunes Country Auto Group of Sterling. The pet store left the mall in June 2014 for its current location near Shopko
and County Market in Dixon. Planet Fitness will have 13,200 square feet on the east side of the mall. The gym will have its own exterior entrance from the parking lot. Fitness center memberships start at $10 a month. The fitness chain was founded in 1992, in Dover, New Hampshire, and is one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers in the United States. The franchise has
more than 8.6 million members, and more than 1,200 sites in 47 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, and the Dominican Republic. The company is known for its trademarked JudgmentFree Zone, which is marketed as a workout environment without intimidation. The company also works with local Boys & Girls Club chapters on anti-bullying initiatives.
STERLING
ROCK FALLS
City: The beat should go on Officials say native son, premier percussionist could attract tourists
Where the sidewalk ends, a new one begins ABOVE: Vernon Smoot (left) and Amy Scott throw bricks into a tractor bucket Tuesday afternoon at First Church of the Nazarene in Sterling. Smoot and Scott were among a group of church volunteers who removed the overgrown brick sidewalk along 13th Avenue near East Fourth Street to make way for a new concrete sidewalk. The church will use the bricks in its community garden. LEFT: Bob Wilcox picks away at edge bricks along the sidewalk. Read this story at saukvalley.com to see more photos on Tuesday’s work Photos by Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com
BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5570 @pam_eggemeier
ROCK FALLS – The city’s tourism department is banging the drum for Louie Bellson. The pioneering big band and jazz drummer, composer and teacher is perhaps the city’s most famous native son. Bellson’s musical legacy was celebrated at a Heritage Days festival held sporadically from 2003 until his death in 2009, at age 84. The city has a Bellson drum kit, stored in cases, and wants to pay homage to the musician by bringing the tools of his art back to life. The Rock Falls Tourism Committee approved a request by Director Janell Loos for the department to pay for half the $3,000 cost of drawing up plans for a traveling display. The other half would be picked up by IFH Group. BELLSON continued on A44
The Black Hawk statue will wear a protective wrap again, as it awaits muchneeded repairs.
OGLE COUNTY
Statue going under cover again Iconic Black Hawk still awaits repairs BY VINDE WELLS Shaw Media vwells@shawmedia.com
OREGON – The Black Hawk statue, Ogle County’s most wellknown landmark, likely will spend another winter under wraps. “We anticipate wrapping
(winterizing) the statue in midNovember,” Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris Young said. The statue spent a year and a half encased in a green protective mesh wrapped around scaffolding erected in December 2014 by then-project conservator Andrzej Dajnowski, of Conservation of Sculpture & Objects Studio in Forest Park. That came down in June.
Because the 105-year-old Lorado Taft statue is in Lowden State Park, it falls under the jurisdiction of the IDNR, which has kept information on the fate of future repairs under wraps as well. All Young would say in his email Monday was that Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. of Chicago still is the architectural/engineering firm handling repairs to the weather-damaged statue. STATUE continued on A54
Earleen Hinton/Shaw Media
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TODAY’S EDITION: 24 PAGES 2 SECTIONS VOL. 162 ISSUE 196
INDEX
ABBY.................... A8 BUSINESS.......... A12 COMICS................B6
CROSSWORD.....B12 LIFESTYLE............ A8 LOTTERY.............. A2
OBITUARIES......... A4 OPINION............... A6 POLICE................. A2
Today’s weather High 75. Low 55. More on A3.
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