Serving the Mt. Morris area since 1967
MT.Times MORRIS September 15, 2016 Volume 49, Number 29 - $1.00
Golfers Win
RRC BBQ
Flu Clinics
The Oregon Hawks had a dominating performance Monday over Forreston. B1
The annual fundraiser for the RRC will be held Sept. 17 in Oregon. A7
The Ogle County Health Department will host several flu clinics around Ogle County. A7
Grubsteakers is back in business
Statue will be wrapped again By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Apparently Ogle County’s most well-known landmark will spend another winter under wraps. IDNR spokesman Chris Young said Monday that the Black Hawk statue near Oregon will likely be enclosed for the winter, but did not specify how or with what. “We anticipate wrapping (winterizing) the statue in mid-November,” Young said in an email. Until last June, the statue had spent the previous year and a half encased in green protective mesh wrapped around a scaffold. The scaffold and mesh was put up in December of 2014 by then
project conservator Dr. Andrzej Dajnowski from Conservation of Sculpture & Objects Studio, Forest Park, in an effort to protect the 105-year-old concrete monument from the elements. Because the statue is located at Lowden State Park, it falls under the jurisdiction of the IDNR. Information from the IDNR has been sparse about the fate of repair work on the statue designed by sculptor Lorado Taft as a tribute to Native Americans. All Young would say was that Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc., Chicago, is the architectural/engineering firm handling the project to repair damage to the statue caused by weather and time.
Restaurant was “It’s good to have destroyed in 2015 all the regulars back,” —
By Andy Colbert acolbert@oglecounty news.com
The Black Hawk Statue at Lowden State Park will be
Turn to A10 wrapped for the winter. Photo by Earleen Hinton
Like hundreds of other customers, Candy Trudell eagerly walked into Grubsteakers Restaurant upon it’s reopening last week. All were hungry for the home-style food and sense of community that had been missing since an April 9, 2015 tornado destroyed the restaurant. “This corner means so much to this generation and those before them,” Trudell said. Traveling with her father from the family farm in rural Polo to deliver cattle to the Chicago stockyards over 50 years ago, Trudell remembers many a stop at the corner of highways 251 and 64. “Originally, it was Sipes
Ava Mirtoska Grubsteakers Owner Corner. Grandma Sipes started the food business,” Trudell said. “I’m not sure how many different owners have been here, but it’s always good food.” Owner Ava Mirtoska was hard at work on Thursday morning trying to rectify a problem with the credit card machine, as she welcomed Trudell and a friend to the brand new building. “So far, things have gone well. It’s good to have all the regulars back,” Mirtoska said. Trudell is more than a regular. Living in a house a Turn to A10
Volunteers worked in the rain to clean Rock River By Earleen Hinton ehinton@oglecounty news.com A little rain didn’t deter 50 volunteers from doing their part to clean up the Rock River during the eighth annual Rock River Sweep Sept. 10. “It wasn’t our sunniest day, but we still had a decent turnout,” said Rock River Sweep.Org President Mark Nehrkorn. “We still had 50 people come out to pick up trash in the rain.” Volunteers started at 7:30 a.m. picking up trash and debris along and in a sevenmile stretch of the Rock River from the boat launch on Ill. 2, south to the boat launch at Castle Rock State Park. Some walked the shores while others used boats and canoes to fish garbage from the water. “We had the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ boat along with canoes and flat-bottom boats and kayaks out collecting,” said Angela Mahoney, volunteer coordinator. “White Pelican Canoe & Kayak Rental, Inc., donated 10 canoes for us to use along with their shuttle service.” Collected bags and debris were brought back to “Sweep HQ” a pop up tent at Kiwanis Park by small dump trucks provided by the Oregon Park District and Ogle County Highway Department where volunteers then sorted the trash for recyclables. In addition to the usual debris and trash —tires and beer cans— this year’s event brought in the tub of an old washing machine. “We also had your typical dock items and of course several tires,” Nehrkorn said. “Someone found a Mallord duck decoy which we gave to
DNR.” Oregon Mayor Ken Williams, who volunteered at the event, said he found a Trump for President sign. “It came in very handy. I used it to cover my head when it rained,” he chuckled. “One of the volunteers wanted it.” Frank Masterman started the Rock River Sweep in Oregon in 2009. The longtime Oregon resident was helping at Saturday’s event. “I am very pleased it is continuing,” he said. “I knew it would continue because it was a worthwhile project.” The Rock River Sweep is an effort by many groups to clean the Rock River, from its origin in Horicon, Wisconsin, to where it meets the Mississippi River. Mahoney said the amount of trash collected is starting to decrease due to clean-up efforts upstream. “We have less each year because they start upstream,” she said. Saturday’s event was sponsoredbyRockRiverSweep. org, a grass roots, non-forprofit organization dedicated to preserving the health and ecosystem of the Rock River and its tributaries. Other sponsors included the Rock River Trail Initiative and the Rock River Times. Locally, the Oregon Area Rock River Sweep was also sponsored by the Ogle County Solid Waste Management, the Ogle County Highway and Sheriff’s Departments, the Oregon Park District, Oregon Together, White Pelican Canoe & Kayak Rental, and American Rivers National River Cleanup. For more information: visit Facebook: “Rock River Sweep. org”; or www.rockriversweep. org; email srypkema@ oglecounty.org; or call 815732-4020.
In This Week’s Edition...
Rock River Sweep volunteers Angela Reigle, Brandon and Jessie Hafer, and Angela Mahoney sort out recyclables from debris that was collected along the banks and in the Rock River on Sept. 10. Photo by Earleen Hinton
Rock River Sweep founder Frank Masterman, Oregon, takes a garbage of trash from Dominick Marchetti, an employee of the Oregon Park District, during Saturday’s annual event at Oregon Park East. Photo by Earleen Hinton
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B6-B10 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B5 Library News, A3
Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Police, B5 Public Voice, A7 Property Transfers, B5 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3
Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B4 Weather A3 Zoning, B4
Deaths, B4 Darlene E. Bocker, John A. DeVries, Sandra L. Janssen, Betty R. White
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com