Serving the Mt. Morris area since 1967
MT.Times MORRIS May 12, 2016 Volume 49, Number 11 - $1.00
Tourney Time
Eden Honored
Spring sports will begin their postseasons next week. B2
Stan Eden gets Illinois’ Lifetime Volunteer Award for his work with Ogle 4-H clubs. A4
Special Insert!
Resident concerned over appearance of village By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Concerns over the appearance of the village were discussed by residents and village officials Tuesday evening at the Mt. Morris Village Board meeting. Resident David Warkins told the board that some of the posts that prevent vehicles from driving into Dillehay
Park aren’t properly in place. Besides looking unkempt, he said, without the barrier the safety of youngsters or adults in the park is compromised. Warkins said he noticed the problem after a man attending the Encore event in April alerted him to the village’s untidy appearance. “He told me the town looked hideous so I began driving around and looking,” Warkins said.
Village trustee Shane Pope said the posts were removed recently to allow equipment and materials to be brought in to build a new shelter house at the park. He said they will be replaced once the work is done. Warkins’ wife Mary Jane advised the board that the Beautification Committee, formed at the Encore event, plans to landscape around the welcome signs on Ill. 64 at the
edge of the village. She is a member of the committee. The Encore event was a three-day seminar held April 7-9 to explore ways to promote growth and economic development in the village. In a related issue, trustee Don Sorenson said the police are sending to notices to residents whose grass is longer than eight inches and in violation of village ordinances.
Police chief Jason White said determining who owns the property can be difficult for some that are in foreclosure. In some cases the village has cut the grass and then put a lien on the property in an effort to recover the cost, he said. Village president Dan Elsasser also had a warning for negligent pet owners. He said the village has received numerous complaints
recently about owners not cleaning up after pets that have defecated in neighbors’ yards or while being walked on a leash. Ordinances stipulate that owners have a responsibility to clean up after any defecation that happens off their property. Elsasser said fines can be levied against violators. Repeat offenders can be charged progressively larger fines.
Works stops on Black Hawk By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com
Margie Linscott shows her the badges and patches her husband Duane collected over his years as a reserve policeman and ambulance crew member. Photo by Vinde Wells
Linscott devoted life to police work By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com A Mt. Morris man who really never intended to become a police officer ended up working for five area departments and devoting 42 years of his life to public service. Margie Linscott said her late husband Duane came from a family devoted to law enforcement but didn’t want that for himself. “He said he never wanted
National Police Week is May 15-21 to be a cop because his dad was a cop,” Margie said. “He knew the demands of the job.” Duane’s father was a Lee County deputy, and his mother was a police matron. By the time of his death from a blood disorder last December, Duane had worked part-time as an Ogle County deputy and as a reserve officer for the Oregon, Mt. Morris, Polo, and Byron Police
Departments. Besides that, he had worked on ambulance crews and was the Ogle County Chief Deputy Coroner for 18 years. “He loved people ,” Margie said. “Everyone kept asking him ‘will you help us out here, will you help us out there.’ He never said no. He was just glad to help.” After graduating from Ashton High School in 1970, Duane went to work for the
DeKalb Ogle Telephone Company as a lineman. He worked for the same company for 30 years, through changes of ownership and name, retiring from Verizon in 2000. Duane and Margie were married in 1973, and not long after he and a friend applied for deputy positions with the Ogle County Sheriff’s Department. Both were hired. That started Duane’s career Turn to A4
County courthouse gets new steps By Chris Johnson cxjohnson@oglecountynews.com Visitors to the Ogle County Courthouse will quickly notice a large hole on the side of the building. The steps leading into the west side of the building have been removed and on Tuesday afternoon a gaping hole and construction equipment was at the site. Sjostrom & Sons, Rockford is replacing the deteriorating steps that lead to the first floor of the 125-year-old courthouse. “The work will cost $286,300 for both the east and west steps,” said Ogle County Board Long Range Workers from Sjostrom and Sons, Planning Chairman Don Griffin. Rockford, are replacing the steps on the “The steps will be made of granite east side of the Ogle County Courthouse. and will have a rough surface to Photo by Chris Johnson prevent slipping.”
In This Week’s Edition...
Church Bells, A5 Classifieds, B6-B10 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B6
Efforts to preserve Ogle County’s most well-known landmark are indefinitely on hold due to a conflict over artistic integrity. Repair work on the Black Hawk Statue has been halted while the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) looks for a new general contractor for the project to replace Dr. Andrzej Dajnowski from Conservation of Sculpture & Objects Studio, Forest Park. “The contract with the project’s general contractor has not been renewed, so repairs have halted temporarily while the Illinois Department of Natural Resources seeks a new general contractor. No timeline has been established yet for when work might be restarted,” IDNR Communications Director Chris Young said in an email sent May 4. The IDNR has jurisdiction over the statue because it’s situated in Lowden State Park near Oregon. Dajnowski, who was under contract last year with the IDNR to work on the 105-year-old statue, said he declined to sign the contract the IDNR sent him for this year because it stipulated that the repairs be done in a way he could not agree to.
Plans also call for spending $22,000 to heat the steps. Griffin said that will make the steps safer during the winter months by keeping snow and ice from building up. “Work began on the west side a couple weeks ago,” he said. “The east side work will be done as soon as the west steps are finished.” Each set of steps is estimated to take six weeks to complete. Funds to pay for the project will come from the Long Range Planning Fund. The revenues in the fund come from host fees paid by garbage companies to dump in landfills in the county. Work will also be done on the ADA entrance into the basement of the building. Renovations to the courthouse were completed in 2010.
Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Library, A6 Oregon Police, A8 Public Voice, A7
Property Transfers, B3 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, A7
“They hired an engineer who wanted to remove more of the surface of the statue than necessary,” he said. “Ethically that’s not acceptable. I’m a conservator, she’s an engineer.” He confirmed that the engineer is Amy Lamb Woods from Simpson Gumperta & Heger, a Chicago-based engineering firm that designs, investigates, and rehabilitates structures and building enclosures. Lamb Woods referred questions about the project to Young. “It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever walked away from a contract,” Dajnowski said. “It took seven years to get to this point.” Dajnowski said the new contract also gave him no compensation for the scaffolding which surrounds and protects the statue. “I could not work for one more year with no additional money for the scaffolding,” he said. Most of the scaffolding, which completely surrounds Black Hawk, belongs to Dajnowski, but he rents some portions of it. Green plastic mesh is wrapped around it to protect the statue from the elements, particularly winter weather, and prevent further damage. The scaffolding has been in place since December of Turn to A3
Art Show First grader Caleigh Rybicki, Mt. Morris, stands beside the tower she helped create for the Oregon Elementary School Art Show held May 6. Photo by Vinde Wells
Deaths, B4 Steven G. Benesh, Jan L. Feary, Dorothy Henry, Carol A. Mackey, Harold “Andy” Martin, Mark E. Moring, Walter G. Price, Marian L. Ratmeyer, Jenny Sikula, Patty A. White
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com