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FORMER COMET GOES People invited to share FROM COURT TO COACHING musical memories SAUK SKYHAWKS, B1
FIRST FRIDAYS, A10
dailyGAZETTE Thursday, February 2, 2017 n SERVING ROCK FALLS, STERLING AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1854
LEE COUNTY
Decisions in tow Agency takes command of new emergency trailer BY RACHEL RODGERS rrodgers@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5529 @rj_rodgers
DIXON – Lee County is on its way to establishing a mobile command center to better coordinate responders and equipment in times of emergency, and it plans to share the resource with other communities. Kevin Lalley, director of the Lee County Emergency
Management Agency, recognized the need for a trailer to centralize operations at the scene of critical incidents following the EF-2 tornado that tore through Woodhaven Lakes campground in 2015. Emergency responders were faced with damaged properties and people to attend to and account for amid hundreds of downed trees, scattered across the area. COMMAND continued on A54
Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
Kevin Lalley, director of Lee County Emergency Management Agency, talks about the organization’s new trailer that he said can be used “for any [emergency] incident in Lee or adjoining counties.”
TWIN CITIES | NATIONAL CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK
STERLING POLICE
Partner’s retirement was all too brief
RIGHT: His cups falleth over ... A couple of cups take a tumble Wednesday as kindergartner Jackson Verhulst stacks plastic cups at St. Mary’s School in Sterling. Various interactive learning stations from Rockford’s Discovery Center Museum were set up in the gym as part of the school’s activities for National Catholic Schools Week, a celebration of Catholic education that starts the last Sunday in January and runs through the week. BELOW: A leap of faith ... Sixthgrader Daniel Jackleg jumps out of the way of a ball during a game of dodgeball Wednesday at St. Andrew Catholic Grade School in Rock Falls. Students took some time off from the classroom to have fun and get a workout as part of the school’s activities for National Catholic Schools Week.
Police K-9 dies less than a month after final day on the force BY ASHLEY CADY acady@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5521 @ashleycady_svm
Inside
Turn to P a for more ge A3 photos from Nati Catholic S onal chools Week
Photos by Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com
STERLING – Like a lot of old men, Marco was not enjoying retirement. When his partner and now owner, Officer Pat Bartel, would leave for work, the Belgian Malinois did not like the fact that he could not go with. After all, he’d been with the Sterling Police Department, working side-byside with Bartel, for a decade, searching for drugs and cadavers, tracking and protecting. “They’re geared to work, and sometimes when you take that work away, they kind of stop,” Bartel said. Saturday, he found his K-9 partner dead in his kennel, just shy of a month after retiring from the force. He was 12. When Bartel went to check on him Friday night, he thought Marco showed signs of having had a stroke, he said. He planned to have him euthanized the next day. That morning, he found that Marco had crawled into the corner of his kennel and died. Before the stroke, he hadn’t shown any sign of illness. In fact, Marco was playing outside with his daughter just 2 days before, Bartel said. K-9 continued on A44
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Her life’s sweet rewards
Keeley Knie, 25, of Sterling takes a selfie with children in an Indian village, including Senea (alongside Knie), who held her hand everywhere she went while Knie was doing mission work. Knie and her sevenmember World Race team are in the first of 11 countries they’ll visit over 11 months.
Sterling woman’s journey helps her shed bitterness of life’s emotional baggage BY CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN cheimerman@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5523 CHeimerman_SVM
Submitted
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TODAY’S EDITION: 24 PAGES 2 SECTIONS VOL. 163 ISSUE 38
INDEX
ABBY.................... A8 BUSINESS............ A7 COMICS................B6
STERLING – Keeley Knie is in a very different place. Literally, she’s a couple of hours east
CROSSWORD.....B10 LIFESTYLE............ A8 LOTTERY.............. A2
OBITUARIES......... A4 OPINION............... A6 POLICE................. A2
of Hyderabad, India, in the first foreign country of an 11-nation, 11-month mission trip called World Race. Figuratively, she’s reached a different level of consciousness. The 25-year-old Sterling resident was anxious about India – its food, smells, and Christian persecution among her chief concerns. Few of her worries were validated, and the beauty she found more than offset the fears confirmed. MISSION continued on A54
Today’s weather High 28. Low 13. More on A3.
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