Serving the Mt. Morris area since 1967
MT.Times MORRIS December 31, 2015 Volume 48, Number 44 - $1.00
Hawks Win
Happy 2016
The Hawks open up the Newman Christmas Classic with a pair of wins Dec. 26. B1
Tree Recycling
Be smart during holiday celebrations while ringing in the New Year.
With the new year approaching, it is time to think about recycling the Christmas tree. A6
Village will oppose tax appeal of old printing plant By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Mt. Morris village officials agreed last week to join with other local taxing bodies in opposing a property tax appeal filed by the owners of a former printing plant. The village board voted unanimously Dec. 22 to
spend up to $1,000 over the next six years for its share of legal fees to fight the tax appeal filed by Mt. Morris Business Park LLC, Downey, California, for the former Quad Graphics plant. Village trustee Phil Labash told the board that several affected taxing bodies, including the Oregon School District,
have filed documents in opposition to the tax appeal. Labash said the sprawling plant, now used only as a warehouse, is assessed at $2.8 million, but the owners’ appeal sets the value at $375,000. Mt. Morris Business Park LLC, which has no connection to the Village of Mt. Morris, has the property listed for sale for $3.1
million, Labash said. If the appeal is successful, he said, the village would lose approximately $11,000 per year in real estate tax revenues. Besides the village and school district, other affected taxing bodies include Mt. Morris Township, Ogle County, Mt. Morris Fire Protection District, Mt. Morris
Public Library District, and Highland Community College District. According to Ogle County records, Mt. Morris Business Park LLC purchased the plant in February of 2015 for $375,000. Former owners Quad Graphics, headquartered in Sussex, Wisconsin, shuttered the plant in 2011, ending 113 years of printing
Fire destroyed landmark barn By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Weather conditions hampered firefighters Monday afternoon as they battled a fire that destroyed a Leaf River landmark. Leaf River Fire Chief Steve Shelton said the Stukenberg family’s century and a half-old barn on the southeast corner of Ill. 72 and Main Street is a total loss, but praised firefighters for saving other nearby buildings, including two houses. “The firemen worked hard to save the houses. They did an outstanding job,” he said. “The wind made things very challenging.” A strong east wind drove the flames from the barn toward all the buildings, but especially threatened the closest house. In fact, Shelton said the flames were blowing so far over the roof of that house when he arrived on the scene just before 3 p.m. that he thought it was already on fire. “When we pulled up I thought the house was on fire, too,” he said. “The barn was fully engulfed when we got there. I thought we would lose that house, too. I’m very
happy with the save.” Besides the winds, firefighters from 10 area departments battled slippery conditions and deep slush from a winter storm that delivered sleet, snow, and freezing rain across the county all day Monday. Because one of the two village wells was out of service for maintenance, tanker trucks were sent to Forreston to fill up with water and bring it back to the fire, Shelton said. “We didn’t want to run the well out of water,” he said. No cause for the fire had yet been determined Tuesday but Shelton expected to meet with the state fire marshal that afternoon. Nancy Stukenberg, who lives at the farm, watched in the steady cold rain as flames engulfed the large barn that had been owned by her family for generations. “It was built in 1844,” she said. “We just put a new roof on it last summer.” She was relieved that her three horses, usually stabled in the barn, had been outside in a nearby feedlot when the fire started. “The horses are fine. Everything else can be replaced,” she said. Stukenberg said hay and Turn to A2
Zoning change started By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com
Plans for a new Casey’s General Store in Mt. Morris moved ahead last week with a rezoning request. The Mt. Morris Village Board authorized attorney Rob LeSage Dec. 22 to draw up an ordinance to rezone the area where the new store will be located from C-1 (commercial use) and Flames engulf the Stukenberg family’s century and a half-old barn in Leaf River Dec. R-1 (residential use) to C-2 (highway business district). 28. Photo by Vinde Wells Economic Development Committee member Rob Urish told the board in mid-October that Casey’s, headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa, had plans to build a new store on the southeast corner of Ill. 64 (Hitt Street) and McKendrie Avenue. At that time, architect Ryan Turn to A2
The Mt. Morris Fire Department brought its aerial ladder to help extinguish the barn fire in Leaf River Monday afternoon. Photo courtesy of the Mt. Morris Fire Department
No accelerant found on 1948 murder victim By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Lab tests done earlier this year on the remains of a 1948 murder victim show no signs of an accelerant. Winnebago County Deputy Coroner Bill Hintz said Monday that results of testing done on scrapings taken from the skull of Stanley Skridla came back negative. “Scrapings from the skull were sent to the Joliet crime lab to test for accelerant and came back negative,” he said. Skridla was exhumed May 28 from his grave at Calvary Cemetery, west of Rockford. Winnebago County officials ordered the exhumation, requested by Skridla’s nephew, Stephan Skridla,Rockford, in an effort to solve the murders of
Stanley Skridla, then 28, and his date, Mary Jane Reed, then 17, on a lover’s lane just outside of Oregon. Stephan Skridla was assisted in his efforts by former Oregon Mayor Michael Arians. Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said after the exhumation that because of the Skridla family’s concern that his body had been burned with acid, scrapings were taken from the skull. She said the scrapings would be analyzed to determine the presence of acid or an accelerant, such as gasoline. The test results recently became available. Two .32 bullets were also removed from Skridla’s casket during the exhumation and sent to the crime lab for testing, along with a .32 gun turned over to Arians,
In This Week’s Edition...
at that location. They currently lease the property as a warehouse. The business, originally called Kable Brothers Printing, was founded in 1898 by twin brothers Harvey and Harry Kable. For decades the printing plant was the village’s largest employer, at one time providing jobs for more than 2,000 people.
“Scrapings from the skull were sent to the Joliet crime lab to test for accelerant and came back negative,” — Winnebago County Deputy Coroner Bill Hintz who gave it to Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle. VanVickle reported last week that test results showed one bullet was too corroded to be tested and the other was not fired from the gun that was also tested. In a press conference the day after Skridla’s exhumation, Arians said he had uncovered new evidence in the case, including the two guns he believes were used to kill Reed and Skridla. One of those guns was submitted for testing along with the bullets from Skridla’s casket. Arians said the guns had
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B6-B10 College News, A4 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B4
been passed down to new owners over the generations from the killers. He declined to reveal who the current gun owners are, but said he gave that information to investigators. Arians said last week that he spent $14,000 of his own money on Skridla’s exhumation. The long-unsolved case began on June 24, 1948 when Reed, who lived in Oregon, failed to return home after a date. She and Skridla, her companion on the night she disappeared, were subsequently found shot to
Library News, A3 Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Police, A7 Public Voice, A6 Property Transfers, B4
death. Skridla’s body was discovered the next morning on County Farm Road south of Oregon. He had been shot five times, according to police reports at the time. Reed’s badly decomposed body was found four days later in a ditch along Devil’s Backbone Road west of Oregon. She had been shot once in the head. In 2005 the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office reinvestigated the homicides. Arians and Reed’s brother, Warren Reed, Rock Falls, obtained a court order for her body to be exhumed from Daysville Cemetery southeast of Oregon. The findings from the 2005 investigation indicated that any of the possible culprits in the murders were likely dead.
Sheriff’s Arrests, B3 Social News, A4 Sports, B1 State’s Attorney, B3 Weather, A3
Winter storm hit area By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com After a mostly mild December with recordsetting high temperatures, Old Man Winter showed his true colors Monday with a post-Christmas punch. A major winter storm swept into northern Illinois late Sunday night bringing high winds and a wintry mix of slushy precipitation that lasted into late Monday night. Although Christmas was green with temperatures in the high 40s, area residents woke up Monday morning to a layer of sleet and snow covering the ground. Lt. Greg Kunce of the Ogle County Sheriff’s Department said slushy road conditions led numerous accidents, while the ice and wind caused power outages. “We had a multitude of vehicles in ditches, several wrecks, agency assists, power poles snapped, wires down, and trees down,” he Turn to A2
Deaths, B4 Kraig H. Avey, I. Deborah Barnhart, Laura N. Behan, Mary Ellen Ridenour
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com