Serving the Mt. Morris area since 1967
MT.Times MORRIS March 5, 2015 Volume 48, Number 1 - $1.00
Regional Champs
Spring Ahead
Family Selected
The Forreston Cardinals defeated Polo to advance to the Eastland Sectional. B1
Set your clocks one hour ahead at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 8.
A Mt. Morris family has been chosen for the 2015 Habitat for Humanity build. A2
Medical marijuana facility approved in Ogle County By Vinde Wells Editor
Ogle County 4-H club members sharpen their skills at handling poultry by working with the chickens they made from inflated balloons Feb. 28 at Day of Dabbling. Photo by Vinde Wells
4-Hers chase away winter blahs By Vinde Wells Editor Ogle County 4-H club members beat the winter blahs Feb. 28 by learning about topics ranging from poultry to aerospace. The annual Day of Dabbling, held at the Oregon Church of God, offered 18 hands-on workshops. Classes included visual arts, cooking, natural resources, woodworking, aerospace, intercultural, scrapbooking, poultry, and science. In one classroom, youth polished up their poultry handling skills by first making a chicken from a white inflated balloon and then adding paper wings, feet, and beaks, along with drawing on eyes. Then they practiced how to pick up their chicken for showing it off to its best advantage at fair-time. “Pin, hold, go with the grain, and out,” repeated instructor Sarah Carter as she demonstrated the correct way to remove a chicken — or duck or goose — from its cage for a show judge. Down the hall, a group was stapling fabric to wood to create a memory board while in another classroom youngsters drew designs on
a block of wood to create faux metal tiles. Wesley Immel, a member of Blackhawk Crossings 4-H Club, was happy with his finished memory board with its camouflage fabric and green ribbon grid. Although he was not yet sure what he would display on it, he said he learned a lot from the project. “It was fun to make,” he said. “It was fun to use the staple gun on something besides my greenhouse at home.” Hannah Seaworth, a member of Ogle Jolly 4-H Club, was busy rubbing a piece of aluminum foil onto the design she had made on a wooden block that was the base for her faux metal tile. The designs were given depth by applying diecut pieces of card stock or outlining drawn designs with hot glue. Foil was then applied, and the design was brought out by carefully and thoroughly rubbing the foil over and around it. The final touch was a light coat of black spray paint. Each session was an hour long, and youngsters could choose to attend their three favorites during the threehour event. At the intercultural
session, exchange student Rachel Fang, who hails from China, wrote participants’ names on pieces of paper using Chinese characters and then pronounced their names in Chinese. “See, it’s not much different,” she told Annaliese Koziol, a member of Ogle County Clovers.
Extension 4-H Coordinator Jodi Baumgartner said 74 youngsters ages 5 to 15 participated in Day of Dabbling. “It went really well. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun,” she said. “We had some new classes this year that went over really well.”
Wesley Immel, a member of Blackhawk Crossings 4-H Club holds his finished memory board Feb. 28 at Day of Dabbling. Photo by Vinde Wells
New building to get letters, not sign By Vinde Wells Editor Ogle County’s newest building will be identified with lettering rather than a sign. County board chairman Kim Gouker said the nearly completed Ogle County Public Safety Complex, 103 Jefferson St., Oregon, will be identified with letters on the building instead of a sign in front of it. The county’s Long
Range Planning Committee discussed the lettering at a special meeting Feb. 25, a day after the Oregon City Council rejected its request to locate a large brick sign in the city right-of-way in front of the building, which faces First Street. The city council turned down the committee’s request by a vote of 4-0 with commissioners Ken Williams, Bob Rees, and Kurt Wilson and mayor Tom Stone voting. Tom Izer did
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not attend the meeting. The Plan Commission considered the request on Feb. 17 and recommended its denial to the council. “The Plan Commission didn’t want to set a precedent,” said Oregon Street Superintendent Mike Bowers, who is also a member of the Plan Commission. Bowers said he had granted a previous request from the committee to locate a parking area in front of the
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B8-B12 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B7
building on the city right-ofway. The new $4.1 million public safety building, which is scheduled to be completed in the next few weeks, will house the sheriff’s department, coroner’s office and county morgue, and the 911 telecommunications center. The current sheriff’s building, which is more than a century old, will be demolished to make way for additional parking.
Marriage License, A4 Library News, A2 Oregon Police, B7 Property Transfers, B6
A Hillcrest official was ecstatic Tuesday with the news that a medical marijuana cultivation center will be coming to the village of 1,000. “It’s an incredible opportunity,” said village president Kim Whalen. “We’re trying to do a sewer project and this will help. The news about PharmaCann was the icing on the cake.” The medical marijuana cultivation center in this area was supposed to open in Dixon – and with a different company. However, state officials announced Monday that the permit will instead go to Oak Park-based PharmaCann. According to the Associated Press, PharmaCann CEO Teddy Scott said the company will open the cultivation center in Hillcrest, which touches the north edge of Rochelle. The license had been awarded in February to GTI Clinic Holding LLC, parent company of Green Thumb Industries, but last week the company gave it up by failing to pay the state fees required. The Dixon license, for a lot in the Lee County Industrial Park, was one of three the company had been awarded. The purchase agreement between GTI and the Lee County Industrial Development Association for the lot in the industrial park was contingent on GTI being awarded a license. PharmaCann was the second-highest scoring application for Illinois State Police District 1, which includes Lee, Whiteside, Ogle and Carroll counties. PharmaCann has 15 days to provide the required $200,000 license fee and a $2 million surety bond or escrow account.
The distribution center for District 1 will be in Fulton. The Hillcrest Village Board gave its unanimous approval last August to a resolution supporting PharmaCann’s application for a license for the cultivation of medicinal marijuana under the Illinois Compassionate Care Act. A PharmaCann representative told the board in August that the facility will create an estimated 20 jobs. Whalen said PharmaCann broke ground for the facility last fall on land at the intersection of Twombly and Dement Roads, with the idea that the approval would likely come in winter when the ground was frozen. The company has a longterm lease for the property, she said. Having the facility within the village limits means officials there can go ahead with and complete a sewer project that’s been in the works for 40 years, Whalen said. The project calls for installing sewer mains which will connect to the City of Rochelle’s sewer system. Hillcrest does not have its own municipal wastewater treatment plant. Whalen said the village has already secured a grant for $500,000 and a low interest loan for $2.5 million from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, which will allow about a quarter of the project to be done. The revenue from PharmaCann will ensure the project can be completed in a timely way. The first stage of the project will include the business district and 60-80 homes, she said. Hillcrest has approximately 20 businesses and 425 homes. Matt Mencarini of Sauk Valley Media contributed to this story.
Ice blamed for shut down of reactor Byron Unit 1 goes offline after wintry mix Exelon officials reported that Byron Generating Station Unit 1 automatically shut down Tuesday at 11:01 a.m., probably due to ice. “Initial indications are that ice intrusion interrupted power on one of the unit’s transformers,” communications manager Paul Dempsey said in a press release issued Tuesday afternoon. “Station experts will make the repairs to
Sheriff’s Arrests, B6 Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B6
the transformer and return the unit to service. The unit responded as designed during the shutdown.” The press release did not indicate when the repairs would be completed. Byron Unit 2 continued to operate at full power. A late winter storm moved through Ogle County Tuesday morning bringing snow, freezing rain, and sleet to the area. Byron Station is on North German Church Road approximately five miles southwest of Byron and seven miles northeast of Oregon.
Deaths, B5 Duane A. Garkey, Angela K. Haak, Helen V. Naden, Nancy L. Peltz, Oren E. Stengel
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com