Serving the Mt. Morris area since 1967
MT.Times MORRIS December 25, 2014 Volume 47, Number 43 - $1.00
Lady Hawks Third
Holiday Display
The Lady Hawks beat Forreston, but fall to Prophetstown at the Polo tournament. B1
Take a trip through downtown Mt. Morris to view the lighted Christmas trees. A2
Festival raised $15,000-plus for Black Hawk By Vinde Wells Editor
Santa’s Helper Ashley McCormick volunteers her time Dec. 17 to wrap gifts for the annual Toys for Kids program sponsored by the Mt. Morris Fire and Police Departments. She is a member of the Builders Club at DL Rahn Junior High. Photo by Vinde Wells
Four file for village board seats By Vinde Wells Editor By late Monday afternoon, four candidates had thrown their hats in the ring for three seats on the Mt. Morris Village Board.
Incumbents Jan Hough, Mary Francis, and Phil LaBash, along with newcomer Jeff Pennington, filed petitions for the fouryear posts that will be on the ballot in the April 7 consolidated election.
Village Clerk Paula Diehl said two more residents had taken out petitions to run for the seats, but had not yet returned them with the required signatures of registered voters. The deadline for filing
was 4:30 p.m. Monday. Two candidates — Bruce McKenna and Denise Welsh — filed petitions for two open seats on the Mt. Morris Public Library Board. Those terms are six years in length.
Board to discuss school water rates Setting water rates for the Oregon School District was one of the items on the Mt. Morris Village Board’s Tuesday meeting agenda.
The board was also Coverage of the meeting expected to discuss vacation will appear in next week’s compensation for an Mt. Morris Times. employee when it met for the The village board meets the last time this year. second and fourth Tuesdays
of each month at 7 p.m. at the village hall, 105 W. Lincoln St., Mt. Morris. The meetings are open to the public.
The fund to make repairs on the Black Hawk Statue was enriched by more than $15,000 recently, thanks to a local festival. Amy Trimble, creator of the Oregon Trail Days Festival, said the festival committee sent away all their money to the Illinois Conservation Foundation last week for the restoration of the Black Hawk Statue, which stands on a high bluff overlooking the Rock River at Lowden State Park near Oregon.. “The check for $15,718.93 consisted of funds generated during the July event as well as from sales of merchandise throughout the year,” Trimble said. The Oregon Trail Days Festival was started in July of 2010 as fundraiser for the century-old landmark, and had its final event in July of 2014. Trimble said a total of more than $50,000 was raised for the project by the five festivals. The committee, who committed five years to the event, was hoping that new individuals would step forward to continue the twoday festival but so far no one has expressed interest, she said. “We fully understand people’s reluctance to get involved,” Trimble said. “It takes a lot of work and time to put on a festival of this nature and when people realize that this is strictly a volunteer situation it becomes an even larger sacrifice.” The committee, which
consisted of Beth Henderson, Donna Mann, Merlin and Cindy Hagemann, and Ken and Chris Williams, were all very happy with their final contribution and their involvement in the statue restoration, Trimble said. “We feel like we’ve made a great contribution to Oregon by helping raise funds for Black Hawk but most importantly by creating media hype about this historical structure. Over the past several years we were able to bring several newspapers, magazines and TV outlets to Oregon to share Black Hawk’s story with people all across Illinois and the Midwest,” Henderson said. “In some respects that was more important than the money that we raised. Mann urged the public to continue to make donations to the restoration project. “We strongly encourage people to continue supporting the fundraising efforts for the statue,” she said. “As we understand it, the initial estimates for the restoration were a bit low and there is still about $75,000 needed to complete the project.” Recent estimates place the cost at $900,000. Created by sculptor Lorado Taft in 1910 as a tribute to all Native Americans, the statue draws thousands of visitors each year. It was unveiled and dedicated in 1911. Testing and evaluations done in the last year and a half showed that three areas of the statue are in dire need of repairs. The critical areas are the folded arms of the statue, Turn to A3
Christmas card returned to sender 51 years later By Jermaine Pigee Sauk Valley Media Kelly Denton spent the past few days trying to figure out how a long-lost Christmas card appeared in her mailbox. “I’d really like to know where it came from,” said Denton, 52, Mt. Morris. Last Tuesday, Denton received a card postmarked Dec. 15, 1963, from Dixon. That same letter had another postmark from Seattle, Wash., dated Dec. 11 of this year. In 1963, Carolyn Hackbarth, Mt. Morris, sent the card to William and Debbie Kiddell, her former neighbors. Both WIlliam and Debbie have since passed away. Hackbarth, 76, lived in Dixon when she mailed the card. Hackbarth slowly opened the 51-year-old envelope and re-discovered the card
Saturday afternoon as a group of people looked on at Pinecrest Community. “I know there is no money in here, because I don’t remember putting any in the card,” Hackbarth said with a laugh. The front of the card has three Christmas trees – two green and one red – along with the word “Greetings”. The inside of the white card reads “Merry Christmas Happy New Year.” “The card is in great shape
In This Week’s Edition...
after all these years,” Denton said. There is no house number on the envelope. Instead, Hackbarth just addressed the card to Hannah Avenue in Mt. Morris. Denton lives on South Hannah Avenue. “In a small town like this, everyone knows everyone,” Hackbarth said. “Back then, a lot of people just put the name of the street on the card Carolyn Hackbarth laughs as she holds on to a lost Christmas card she mailed in and the mail carrier knew 1963. The card was delivered to Kelly Denton of Mount Morris last week. Photo by Turn to A2 Philip Marruffo, Sauk Valley Media
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B8-B12 College News, A4 Entertainment, A6
Fines, B3 Library News, A3 Marriage License, A4 Property Transfers, B7
Service News, A4 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3 Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2
Deaths, B5 Scott D. Beatty, Diane J. Schmidt, Leonard W. Thweatt, Carolyn K. White
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com