Serving the Mt. Morris area since 1967
MT.Times MORRIS April 30, 2015 Volume 48, Number 9 - $1.00
New Coach
Landscaping
Open House
An Oregon grad has been hired at NIU to be the university’s cross country coach. B1
Tips and help are available to keep lawns and gardens healthy. A10
An informational open house will be held at the Byron Generating Station on Sunday. A6
New sewer fee set to cover loan By Vinde Wells Editor
Kiana, Elias, and Betty Sotelo smile as they help Maya get a shovel full of dirt at the groundbreaking for the new Habitat for Humanity home in Mt. Morris on April 26. At right, Bob Van Stedum reacts as Habitat board members Gail Tuttle and Tom Hughes help. Photo by Earleen Hinton
Ground broken for Habitat home By Earleen Hinton General Manager Eight-year-old Maya Sotelo didn’t mind that she needed a little bit of help to get her shovel full of dirt on Sunday during the groundbreaking for her family’s new Habitat home in Mt. Morris. Maya was all smiles as her dad, Elias, sister Kiana, and mom Betty stepped in to step on her shovel to break the
sod in a short ceremony on Sunday at the home’s site, 408 W. Front Street. “We want to thank everybody for coming out today. We’re very excited that the day is finally here,” said Betty. “This will be really nice.” The Sotelos were selected in March as the next family to receive a home Habitat for Humanity home in Ogle County. Mary Francis, a member of
the Mt. Morris Village Board who filled in for village president Dan Elsasser, welcomed the Sotelos to the neighborhood. “We welcome you as a Village Board and because I live just three blocks away, I also welcome you as a neighbor,” she said. “We are so glad to see young families move in.” Members of Habitat’s Family Selection Committee and Board of Directors
were also present at the groundbreaking event. Pastor Dwight Stewart gave the blessing. Habitat’s family selection committee spent hours talking with families before selecting the Sotelos for this year’s build. “This family is very deserving,” said Sue Benesh, a member of the Family Selection Committee. “They Turn to A2
Tornado response praised April 21 By Vinde Wells Editor Ogle County officials voiced their approval last week of how relief and recovery operations have gone in the wake of the April 9 tornado. “We’re in a very good place with recovery efforts,” Ogle County Emergency Management Agency (OCEMA) Director Tom Richter told the county board April 21. An EF4 tornado with winds of 200 mph cut a path of destruction through the eastern half of the county between 6:30 and 7 p.m. The tornado, which first touched down in Lee County west of Ashton, destroyed an estimated 30 homes countywide, most of them in two subdivisions west of Flagg Center. In all, nearly 180 structures were damaged or destroyed. The twister then took a Ogle County Emergency Management Agency (OCEMA) northeasterly path through Director Tom Richter discusses the tornado response Ogle County, demolishing during the April 21 Ogle County Board meeting. Photo farm building, homes, and by Chris Johnson
In This Week’s Edition...
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B7-B12 College News, A4 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B5
Grubsteakers Restaurant at the intersection of Ill. 251 and 64. It moved on to the small DeKalb County village of Fairdale where two women were killed and most homes were devastated. Richter said the Red Cross would be doing a needs assessment of all the Ogle County residents affected by the tornado. He said the Red Cross has been working with the Rochelle Area Community Foundation to coordinate relief efforts and donations. He praised the cooperation between agencies throughout the recovery operations. “I can’t say enough about the seamless effort we had,” Richter said. A review of the operations will be held May 4, he said. Sheriff Brian Van Vickle told the county board that his department returned to normal operations on March 17. “We were able to help DeKalb County and will Turn to A2
Library News, A3 Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Police, B6 Public Voice, A8 Property Transfers, B5
Sewer bills will be going up as of Friday for Mt. Morris residents. The village board voted unanimously Tuesday to increase the debt service charge, formerly called a surcharge, on sewer bills from 126 percent to 154 percent effective May 1. The action was taken so that the village can continue to make payments for its new wastewater treatment plant that went into operation late in 2013. “As it stand right now, we’re probably going to be $100,000 short for our September payment,” said village trustee Tim Harvey, who is chairman of the Water and Sewer Committee. “I’m not crazy about raising this but we have a commitment to the State of Illinois to pay for our $12 million sewer plant.” The hike means the monthly sewer fee for a household that uses 1,000 cubic feet per month will increase $11.57 per month from $93.40 to $104.97. A household that uses 350 cubic feet will see a $4.05 monthly increase from $32.70 to $36.75. Harvey explained that beginning in 2009, the village started collecting a graduated surcharge on sewer bills. The charge increased every three
months over a three-year period. The money was calculated to be adequate to make the loan payments of $277,000 each March and September. The village qualified for a low-interest 20year loan from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). At one point the fund to pay the loan contained almost $1 million, Harvey said. Some of the money in it was used to pay costs related to the new sewer plant, such as purchasing the land for $211,000, he said. Harvey said problems making the payments arose when sewer receipts declined due to the closing of the Quad Graphics plant, the drastic down-sizing of Kable News, and the lower fees paid by Mt. Morris Estates. The village has lost approximately $130,000 since the 2009-10 fiscal year from Quad Graphics and at least $8,000 in the same timeframe from Kable News. After a flow meter was installed in 2014 to measure the actual sewer usage from Mt. Morris Estates the monthly bill went from $6,917 per month to $4,342, a loss of $30,900 per year. Resident Jeff Pennington asked the board to consider charging a flat rate per user to make up the difference Turn to A3
LFR may change 2016 festival date By Vinde Wells Editor Securing a carnival may mean changing the traditional dates of Mt. Morris’ annual 4th of July festival. Let Freedom Ring will held over the 4th this year — on July 3, 4, and 5 — but it may be the last time that happens. “To make it more standardized and to secure a carnival, we’re probably going to change to the 4th weekend in June,” said LFR Committee Chairman Mark Lewis. Residents have let the committee know that they want the annual festival to include a carnival, he said. The problem is that for scheduling ease, carnival owners want to commit to a specific weekend rather than dates. Having the festival dates based on the 4th of July means the days of the week change, and carnivals tend to do their best business on weekends. Lewis said the committee had considered moving the carnival to the fourth weekend in June this year, but decided instead to delay
Sheriff’s Arrests, B3 Social News, A4 Sports, B1-B2 State’s Attorney, B5 Weather A2
the change until 2016 in the hope of securing a carnival on a more long-term basis. The last carnival declined to come back, he said, because the beer garden at Maggie’s Pub put it too far away from electrical hookups. “They would have needed special cabling, and they didn’t want to do that,” he said. Lewis the LFR Committee is looking for more volunteers to help with planning and putting on the festival. “Right now there’s about 10 of us who put the festival on,” he said. “It’s fun or we wouldn’t do it but it would be great to have more ideas and more help.” More donations would also be appreciated, Lewis said. The festival is funded totally through donations from individuals, organizations, and businesses, he said. It receives no money from the village. “With the loss of businesses in recent years, we’ve lost donations,” Lewis said. Last year’s donations totaled about $12,000, and Turn to A2
Deaths, B5 Audrey D. Burkholder, Michael C. Hawn, Anita L. Martin
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com