Serving the Mt. Morris area since 1967
MT.Times MORRIS December 24, 2015 Volume 48, Number 43 - $1.00
Hawks Second The Hawks take second at the Forreston Holiday Tournament. B1
Area school children wrote letters to Santa. Inside
Toys for Kids
Community support funds annual program By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com The generosity of residents made it possible Tuesday night for some Mt. Morris youngsters to get a visit from St. Nick, or at least his local helpers. Mt. Morris firefighters, EMTs, and policemen put on their dress uniforms and loaded bags full of toys into firetrucks and ambulances to deliver them to more than 100 kids in the community. “For some kids this is the only Christmas they get,” said Fire Chief Rob Hough. “We are fortunate to live in a small community where people donate every year for this. We couldn’t do it without them.” The fire department has been delivering Christmas toys to needy kids for more than 50 years. Each November, the Toys for Kids program, sponsored by fire department and police department, kicks into high gear with donations of new toys and money actively sought from the public. The community is also asked to suggest the names of families who could use a helping hand.
Chicago Ride
Dear Santa
The Ogle County Drill Team rode in the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade. A6
Telepharmacy to start renovations in early January By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com TelePharm officials announced last week that remodeling work on their new Mt. Morris location will begin in January. Mt. Morris Economic Development Committee member Rob Urish Mt. Morris Firefighter Ben Taylor and Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Warren check over the announced Sept. 22 that the list of youngsters Tuesday as they prepare to take packages to homes for the Toys for telepharmacy is planning to Kids program. Photo courtesy of the Mt. Morris Fire Department open inside the Main Street Firefighters and police Bistro, 12 W. Main St. officers volunteer their time, A press release from and often their own money, TelePharm issued Dec. 15 to buy gifts for kids from said company officials hope infants through age 18 for the to open in early 2016. program. “The location was carefully Fundraisers also contribute to the program which takes somewhere around $5,000 every year. As the gifts are donated or purchased, firefighters and police officers sort them into By Vinde Wells categories for gender and age. vwells@oglecountynews. Several residents of com the Countryside Village Apartments, across the Two tie votes earlier this street from the fire station, month prevented an Ogle volunteer hours to wrap the County committee from gifts and label them. making a recommendation Once wrapped and back at to the county board about the fire station, the gifts are a special use permit for a marked with the addresses handgun caliber range at where they need to go and the Byron Sportsman’s & placed in bags organized for Conservation Club. delivery. The Supervisor of Donations for Toys for Kids Assessments and Planning are accepted throughout the Zoning Committee Joe Brinker and Pat Rosenbaum wrap gifts for the Toys & year at the Mt. Morris Police ended up in a 4-4 tie Dec. for Kids program. Photo courtesy of the Mt. Morris Fire Station, 105 W. Lincoln St., 8 after motions, first to Department Mt. Morris, IL 61054 approve and then to deny,
selected based on proximity to the local health clinic and overall accessibility to the town,” read the press release. “Mt. Morris Telepharmacy will soon be a great place to pick up your medications, receive immunizations, and visit with your local certified pharmacy technician and pharmacist.” The Iowa City, Iowa-based company, which launched in 2012, offers both online and on site services. In a telepharmacy, a pharmacist online and offsite inspects and verifies prescriptions, which Turn to A2
Gun range decision delayed by tie votes the controversial special use permit. Zoning Administrator Mike Reibel said Monday that the county’s Executive Committee directed the Supervisor of Assessments and Planning & Zoning Committee to reconsider the matter and present a recommendation for the county board to vote on at its Jan. 19 meeting. Sportsman’s club president O.K. Welty filed the special use request on behalf on the club earlier this year, Turn to A2
Local men offer prints of U.S. Constitution By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecountynews.com A Byron man and his business partner are working to put two important American documents into the hands of as many citizens as possible. Ken Foss, Byron, and Jeff Johnson, Genoa, will launch the Million Constitution Challenge on Jan. 1 in an effort to get copies of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence to schools and military veterans, as well as other Americans. For each print that they sell from their website WeThePeoplePrints. com, the men plan to donate a print to a veteran, a veteran’s family “or anyone who risked their life defending these documents,” Johnson said. The price for one set of both documents is $99, either full size or three-quarters size of the originals. Anyone who buys a set during the Million Constitution Challenge gets a second set free. Foss explained that their hope is that purchasers will give the second set to a veteran, a veterans’ organization, a police station, or a school. “We want to see to it that men and women who have served our country have the opportunity to own this document,” he said. Foss and Johnson began their association with the documents by chance.
Back in 2011, the two began tearing into old, wooden crates left behind by former tenants at a warehouse they owned in Kingston. They knew that the crates held fragile printing materials, but they had no idea what kind of connection to U.S. history they were about to uncover. They began pulling out metal press plates, giant lithographic prints, and glass photo negatives and positives that revealed images of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Foss contacted an expert and learned that the prints and the plates that made them were the work of Czech-born lithographer Theodore Ohman. Ohman learned the lithographic printing process from his grandfather as a boy, and became fascinated with capturing and preserving the original look of both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence after coming to the U.S., according to literature written by Walter Mahan, which accompanied the collection. Ohman employed a complicated and painstaking process to create what was considered to be the truest replica of the Constitution. In 1953, he printed thousands of copies on his four-step printing press in Memphis, Tenn. Some of his prints have been
Ken Foss, who operates the McKendrie Street Cafe in Mt. Morris, shows the two sizes available of
Turn to A3 sets of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Photo by Vinde Wells
In This Week’s Edition...
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B7-B12 College News, A4 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B6
Library News, A3 Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Police, B6 Pine Creek News, A3 Public Voice, A8
Property Transfers, B4 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3 Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B4
Deaths, B5 Shirley A. Babb, Edward G. Brattrud, Christ J. Fillip Jr., David P. Short Sr.
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com