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ROCKET JOINS THE 1,000-POINT CLUB
Dutch’s hometown weighs in on Trump
BASKETBALL, B1
DIXON, A3
dailyGAZETTE Monday, January 23, 2017 n SERVING ROCK FALLS, STERLING AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1854
EDUCATION | SUBSTITUTE TEACHER SHORTAGE
Substantial help
Sterling schools hope pay perks get more subs to surface
Changes should go a long way toward getting more substitute teachers behind the desk BY CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN cheimerman@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5523 CHeimerman_SVM
If serious headway isn’t made on the substitute teacher shortage in Illinois this year, something’s wrong. New legislation kicked in Jan. 6 making it easier for the general populace and, more specifically, retired teachers and teachers with out-ofstate licenses, to get sub licenses.
BY CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN cheimerman@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5523 CHeimerman_SVM
STERLING – At the same time a new bill kicked in, making it easier for folks to get their substitute teaching license or renew their lapsed teaching license, the Sterling School district gave its subs a raise, in a manner of speaking. The regular rate remains $75 per day, but if you sub 31 to 60 days in a school year, the daily rate becomes $80. For 61 to 90 days, it’s $85, and for 91-plus, $90. Better yet, if you sub more than 10 days in a row, the rate becomes $173.10. PAY PERKS continued on A54
HELP continued on A54
ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE
WEATHER
WHAT
GOES
UP, must come
down ... And that goes for temperatures, too ABOVE: Gage Burdick, 12, watches as his friend, Jorge Sandoval, goes over the hip ramp at the Sterling skate park Saturday afternoon. A group of boys took advantage of the warm and sunny day to do some tricks at the park. LEFT: Michael Sheats, 11, gets big air while taking advantage of the unseasonably warm and sunny January day. STAFF REPORT news@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5501
STERLING – It was nice while it lasted, but the weekend’s warm spell will be short-lived, with a chance of snow returning by Tuesday night and temperatures in the 30s by the week’s end Temperatures climbed into the mid-50s Saturday – about 25 degrees above normal – but they’ll be coming back down to
more seasonably cold numbers by Saturday, bringing a little bit of the white stuff back to the area. The mercury will hover in the mid-40s today and Tuesday, with rain forecast for Tuesday. Wednesday’s high will drop a few degrees, to 41, bringing with it a mixture of snow and rain. That’ll be followed by temperatures in the mid-30s and snow flurries on Thursday. By Friday, things will get colder, dropping down to a high of 31 and
low of 23, which is about where temperatures will remain through the end of the month. Beyond that, the long-range forecast doesn’t hold out much hope for a return to warm weather anytime soon – there aren’t any 50-degree days in the foreseeable future, at least through February’s forecast. It looks like we’ll just have to savor that brief taste of spring until the real thing comes along.
Photos by Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
$1.00
TODAY’S EDITION: 20 PAGES 2 SECTIONS VOL. 163 ISSUE 30
INDEX
ABBY.................... A7 COMICS................ A8 CROSSWORD.......B8
LIFESTYLE............ A7 LOTTERY.............. A2 OBITUARIES......... A4
OPINION............... A6 POLICE................. A2 POLITICS............ A10
McCombie ready to roll up her sleeves Mayor-turned-lawmaker’s game plan includes taxes, education, municipal funds BY PHILLIP HARTMAN phartman@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5525 @phartman19
SPRINGFIELD – She’s still getting her feet wet, but State Rep. Tony McCombie wants to make sure those feet hit the ground running when the General Assembly returns to work Tuesday. The freshman lawmaker is sketching out an ambitious agenda that includes expanding a senior tax freeze, committee appointments, education funding, property taxes, and municipal funds – the last item already moving up on her list of priorities. McCombie wants to keep municipalities’ money from getting locked up in a legislative stalemate again. “I’m looking at a bill with the Illinois Municipal League. It’s Tony for municipal funds, McCombie such as video gaming, to be automatically distributed without a budget,” McCombie, R-Savanna, said during a telephone interview early last week. The former Savanna mayor, who defeated two-term Democratic Rep. Mike Smiddy in the November election to win the 71st District seat, cited as an example the sales tax funds that are supposed to go to Thomson, but won’t get there until there’s a state budget in place. “I don’t want it to be held up. It’s not the state’s money,” McCombie, 43, said. McCombie also wants to address property taxes, starting with raising the senior property tax freeze threshold. Current rules require seniors to have a total household income of $55,000 or less to receive the freeze. “If I’m a senior and I’m making $55,001, I am not able to apply for the senior freeze,” McCombie said. So far, she has sought an appointment to the tourism committee, which she said would be a useful tool for the district. She also is interested in serving on banking, insurance, or real estate panels, but would accept other positions. GAME PLAN continued on A54
Today’s weather High 44. Low 32. More on A3.
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