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IT WAS QUITE A STRETCH FOR WARRIORS
Cubs win! Cubs win!
GIRLS BASKETBALL, B1
ILLINOIS’ TOP STORIES, A3
dailyGAZETTE Thursday, December 29, 2016 n SERVING ROCK FALLS, STERLING AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1854
SAUK VALLEY | TRI-COUNTY OPPORTUNITIES COUNCIL
Off the streets and on their feet Grant will help program provide life skills to the homeless and help them get homes BY ASHLEY CADY acady@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5521 @ashleycady_svm
ROCK FALLS – A new program that will help provide permanent homes and life skills for area homeless people who struggle with issues such as mental ill-
ness or substance abuse is launching in May. With a $77,300 federal Housing and Urban Development grant, Tri-County Opportunities Council is establishing the Permanent Supportive Housing Program. The 1-year grant is enough to help
15 households, or 25 people, in the nine-county area the agency serves: Whiteside, Lee, Ogle, Carroll, Bureau, LaSalle, Marshall, Putnam and Stark counties. To be eligible, a person or family must be chronically homeless, battling substance abuse, have a mental illness or
HIV/AIDS, or be a veteran. The program aims to get its participants into permanent homes, for which they will pay 30 percent of their net income, while also providing them with counseling and support until they can succeed on their own. PROGRAM continued on A54
STERLING
DIXON
Workin’ on the rails, all the live-long day With the warmer weather giving workers a break from snow and ice, work continued this week on reinstalling refurbished railings on the Galena Avenue Bridge. On Wednesday, crews from St. Louis-based Coatings Unlimited Inc. were working on the east side of the bridge. The $450,000 project has had its share of hitches during the past several months, including increased costs for repairing corrosion that began to rot the railings from the inside out. Work was recently halted while the city waited for environmental testing results on lead levels in the railings, which Mayor Li Arellano said was “one more delay in a series of delays.” Coatings Unlimited has been removing the railings, transporting them to St. Louis to be sandblasted and repainted, and bringing them back to be reinstalled. Dixon-based Bellini’s Welding and Auto Repair was hired to repair the railings. Arellano said work had also been delayed because of weather, and the project’s completion date is yet to be determined.
Department almost at full force Recent hirings put police just 2 shy of being fully staffed BY ASHLEY CADY acady@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5521 @ashleycady_svm
STERLING – With the hiring of five officers, the Sterling Police Department soon will be close to full force. Three officers – Travis Nease, 24, Mark Mendoza, 36, and Andrew Connor, 25 – are now on the job, while two others begin training at the police academy in Springfield on Jan. 8. That will bring the department’s ranks to 27, said Chief Tim Morgan, who hopes to hire two more officers before April, to reach the full complement of 29. It takes 8 months to a year before new officers are trained to the point that they are ready to be on their own, Morgan said. In the more than 20 years he has been on the force, the department was fully staffed only once, and then only for 2 weeks, he said. Understaffing is happening not only locally, but nationwide, he said, adding that low pay and the increased dangers today’s officers face are major factors. POLICE continued on A54
INSIDE Photos by Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
ROCK FALLS VETERANS PARK
Park planners await their marching orders Organizers waiting on paperwork; hope to see item on January council agenda BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5570 @pam_eggemeier
ROCK FALLS – Organizers of a planned veterans park project along the riverfront still are waiting for paperwork from the city that will allow them to shift the project into high gear. One memorial area would be for veterans, police, fire and emergency medical service professionals; the other
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would be devoted to prisoners of war and veterans missing in action. Mayor Bill Wescott announced plans to plug the parks into the city’s East Second Street green space project area at the Aug. 16 council meeting. The council unanimously approved the inclusion of the memorial parks in the city’s plans at the same meeting. Rock Falls veterans Rod Brooks and Keith Adams have led the push for the parks. Brooks served with the Army during the Vietnam War, while Adams, an
INDEX
ABBY.................... A8 BUSINESS............ A7 COMICS................B6
Air Force veteran, was in the Gulf War. Brooks said he expects to see the project on the next council agenda. “In conversations with the mayor, I believe the final paperwork should be taken care of at the first council meeting in January,” Brooks said. “Hopefully, they’ll give us the go-ahead, and we can get started.” The city said everything should be in place for the Tuesday meeting. VETERANS PARK continued on A54
CROSSWORD.....B10 LIFESTYLE............ A8 LOTTERY.............. A2
OBITUARIES......... A4 OPINION............... A6 POLICE................. A2
the
BEST
16 of twenty
A year that was music to their ears Our tune-loving trio of editors at Sauk Valley Media – Christopher Heimerman, Lucas Pauley and Jeff Rogers – pick their favorite albums of 2016.
Pages A9-A12
Today’s weather High 35. Low 24. More on A3.
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