Serving the Mt. Morris area since 1967
MT.Times MORRIS May 18, 2017 Volume 50, Number 31 - $1.00
Regional Win
Summer Music
Tractor Jamboree
The Lady Hawks softball team will play for a regional championship on Saturday. B1
The Friday music series in Mt. Morris returns June 2. A6
The eighth annual AJ’s Garden Tractor Jamboree will be held on Saturday. A6
Bike to Lowden path proposed By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com The Ogle County Board agreed Tuesday evening to cooperate with two other governmental bodies to take a step toward getting a bike path that connects Oregon to Lowden State Park. The board voted to pay a portion of the cost of a Phase 1 engineering study that would make getting a state grant for the project more likely. Board chairman Kim Gouker, Byron, said the Oregon Park District officials asked the county to contribute $19,000 toward the $59,000 study for the Rock River Heritage Trail. The park district will pay
Working the Field Dust was flying Monday evening as this farmer works to get a crop planted before the predicted rain. Field work in much of Ogle County has been slowed by wet conditions. Monday night’s storms passed to the north. Photo by Vinde Wells
History will come alive at Stronghold for re-enactment By Earleen Hinton ehinton@oglecounty news.com The German soldier climbed on the 1944 DKW NZ 350-1 motorcycle, kick started it, put an unfiltered Camel cigarette in his mouth, and casually drove on to the sidewalk on the north side of the Ogle County Courthouse?!?! Yep. That was just part of the scene on the courthouse square in Oregon last Saturday as the World War Two Historical Reenacting Society began an Armed Forces Weekend Commemoration that culminates this weekend with a WWII Battle Reenactment at Stronghold Camp and Retreat Center, north of Oregon. “We were just out on a day trip and we saw all this and had to stop,” said Sandy Russell, Rock Falls. In addition to the motorcycle “all this” included a WWII Jeep, tents, and gear along with living history re-enactors in uniforms from a couple of wars including Vietnam. “We are with C Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division,” said re-enactor Todd Lamb, from Crystal Lake as he showed passersby his gear. World War II tanks, jeeps, and motorcycles along with re-created battles with troops in uniforms are all
World War Two Historical Re-enactment Society member Richard Russo, dressed as a German soldier, speaks to Karl, Max, Gunnar, and Liz Smith of Chicago, about the 1944 DKW NZ 350-1 German motorcycle that was on display on the Ogle County Courthouse Square on Saturday as pre-event publicity for the World War II encampment and re-enactment at Stronghold Camp and Retreat Center May 20-21. Photo by Earleen Hinton
Video Online
Watch Re-enactors and Oregon Mayor Ken Williams talk about the event online. Visit youtu.be/XKYaZGfsYjo to watch the video. planned at Stronghold on May 20-21. Approximately 360 living history re-enactors from various states will be at this fundraising event for Stronghold, held in conjunction with the World War Two Historical Reenacting Society. “There will be World War II re-enactors in World War II-type encampments along with vehicles from that era on display,” said Rich Russo, a member of the society’s event development
In This Week’s Edition...
team (and the German soldier on Saturday). “We try to make everything look as historically realistic as possible.” The event will include uniform and weapon demonstrations with reenactors portraying troops from Germany, Poland, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and, of course, the United States. “We plan on having a German Red Cross Field Hospital and a European cafe that will be open to
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B6-B10 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B3
the public,” Russo said. “We will have flyovers and pyro-technics, weather permitting.” A USO show complete with period music is also being planned for Saturday night. “The USO show will be held in our Brubaker Center’s dining hall with a cash bar being run by the Oregon VFW,” said Danny Pierce, executive director at Stronghold. “Period piece music will be played.” “The music will be WWII era with swing, and we are encouraging the public to dress in 1940-era costumes to get in the mood,” said Russo. Turn to A8
Oregon Police, B3 Public Voice, A7 Property Transfers, B5 Sheriff’s Arrests, B4
Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B5 Zoning Permits, B5
$21,000, and the City of Oregon has agreed to pay $19,000. The park district has applied for an Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program grant for the $1 million project. Gouker said having the study will enhance the chances that the grant application will be successful. He said the grant would cover 80 percent of the cost and the park district and city will pay the remaining 20 percent. “They will not be asking us for anything more,” Gouker said. Before the meeting, park district executive director Turn to A8
Village supports summer festival By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com The village board agreed last week to give its financial support to this year’s Fourth of July festival in Mt. Morris. The board voted May 9 to pay $500 toward the estimated $1,000 cost of the portable toilets needed for the Let Freedom Ring Festival, which is scheduled for July 1, 2 and 4. The LFR Committee had asked the board for 25 to 50 percent of the cost. Committee member Sarah Morris told the board about a new fundraiser the committee is planning. For a fee, Morris said, a resident can have a flock of plastic pink flamingos placed in someone else’s yard. The flamingos will be wearing Uncle Sam-style hats, she said, in keeping with the festival’s patriotic theme. If the recipient of the
flamingos is upset by them, Morris said a committee member will come and get them. “We will have someone on stand-by to remove them immediately,” she said. A resident can also buy “anti-flock” insurance to prevent himself or herself from becoming a recipient of the flamingos. In another matter, the board approved two requests from Sharky’s Sports Bar & Grill, 3 N. Wesley Ave., to close the street for beer gardens. The first will be held on Friday, June 30 from 5 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. and on Sunday, July 2 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Steve Rossi, one of the bar’s owners, asked the village to block Wesley Avenue from Ill. 64 to Main Street. He agreed that he will not play music outside until after 9 p.m. on June 30 because of Turn to A3
Mt. Morris will be featured on radio Mt. Morris will be featured on Dave Hoekstra’s Nocturnal Journal radio show on WGN AM 720, airing Saturday, May 20 during the last hour of the 9 to 11 p.m. broadcast. Hoekstra is a journalist and author who recently came to Mt. Morris to interview McKendrie Street Café owner, Ken Foss about his Declaration of Independence findings and interviewed Jerry Stauffer about the general history of the village as well. Hoekstra invited Foss to Chicago to be on his live radio show and decided to
include a musical guest from Mt. Morris because music has played an important role in village history. Stauffer suggested that Larry Ubben should join Hoekstra and Foss to discuss all of the great music happening in town and perform with his band as well. Tune in this Saturday night as Foss, Ubben, Kevin Remrey, and other local musicians will be live on air in the Tribune Tower’s Allstate Showcase Studio overlooking Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago.
Deaths, B4 Kenneth R. Miller, Morris R. Pieper, William A. Sweet
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com