Serving the Mt. Morris area since 1967
MT.Times MORRIS July 27, 2017 Volume 50, Number 41 - $1.00
Gouda Girls
2017 Fair Tab
At the Band Shell
Storms couldn’t stop these Wisconsin cheese chefs from coming to Mt. Morris. A2
Read all about the upcoming Ogle County Fair! Insert
Imperial Flames perform Friday and Baldwin and Martin will solo Aug. 2. A8
Free speech or bad taste? Choice of T-shirt raised questions at city meeting By Zach Arbogast zarbogast@oglecounty news.com A Mt. Morris citizen claimed “freedom of speech” after being rebuked for showing up to the Oregon City Council meeting wearing what some thought was disrespectful clothing. This photo was taken at White Pines State Park looking west from the triangle intersection just past the bridge on the main entrance road. Pine Chris Corcoran, Mt. Morris, Creek is to the far left. Photo by Jerry Stauffer came to the city council meeting wearing a custom yellow T-shirt, depicting commissioners Jim Barnes and Tom Izer as clowns. The shirt is in reference By Vinde Wells to a comment Corcoran vwells@oglecountynews.com made at the July 11 council meeting, where Corcoran Torrential overnight rain forced the emergency said commissioners Izer and evacuation early Saturday morning of the nearly Barnes “acted like clowns” 60 residents of Oregon Living & Rehabilitation during the June 27 meeting, Center. where commissioners voted Storms that began around 6:30 p.m. Friday and on whether or not to close one continued all night dumped 6 to 8 inches of rain block of South Sixth Street on Ogle County. in Oregon for the purpose of By 6 a.m. the floodwaters were edging ever building a sally port for the closer to the healthcare facility at 811 S. 10th new Ogle County Jail. Street, Oregon. “The shirt is inappropriate “With the floodwater rising we realized we attire for this meeting, and I needed to evacuate,” said Jen Stark, Director of think he should be asked to Communications for Momentum Healthcare, leave, or change his shirt,” said which owns the facility. Barnes. With the help of the Oregon Fire Department After some discussion and other local agencies, the residents were taken between Oregon Police Chief first to the fire station and then to three other Darin DeHaan and Mayor Ken area healthcare facilities. Williams, it was determined “They were taken to the fire station for triage, Corcoran could not be forced some by ambulance, some by our own vehicles, to leave the meeting, but that and some by Village of Progress vans, and some doesn’t mean the council by school buses,” she said. approved of his decision. From there they were transported to healthcare “I’m not going to ask him to Residents of the Oregon Living & Rehabilitation Center were evacuated early Saturday morning Turn to A3 due to floodwaters. They were taken to area nursing homes. Photo by Earleen Hinton Turn to A8
Nursing home evacuated due to flood
Residents, businesses assess damages, start clean up By Earleen Hinton and Vinde Wells news@oglecounty news.com Oregon residents and businesses were busy Sunday and Monday cleaning up after a flash flood raged through the west side of town. As the floodwaters receded on Sunday, employees of the Village of Progress were cleaning the floor in one building while a commercial cleaner, Servpro Disaster Recovery specialists, out of Kenosha, Wisconsin, was in the main building pumping water and cleaning up mud. “We need to get this cleaned up because what we do is so very important,” said Karen Kereven, VOP production manager for contract work, as she and Denny Arjes, VOP janitorial manager, took turns running
the floor cleaner. “I’ve never seen the water come up so high,” said Arjes. The Village of Progress, located on Pines Road on the western edge of Oregon, is a private not-forprofit corporation that was founded in 1969 to meet the training needs of adults with disabilities who reside in Ogle County. The purpose of the Village is to provide training services to persons with disabilities age 16 or older so that they may live a fulfilling life as contributing members of their home and community. On Monday, Executive Director Brion Brooks said Village employees first became aware of the flooding early Saturday morning when they were contacted to supply buses with wheelchair lifts to help evacuate residents of the Oregon Living & Rehabilitation Center a few
In This Week’s Edition...
blocks away. “When we went and checked our buses, we found we were in the middle of a lake,” he said. The only way to reach their buildings was in fourwheel drive vehicles. Brooks said once they got the buses on their way to the rehab center, they looked inside the building and found 80 percent of it flooded. “The water was about a foot deep throughout the building,” he said. “It’s a helpless feeling when you have a foot of water in your building and there’s nothing you can do about it.” When the water finally receded Saturday afternoon, it left behind mud and ruined drywall, furniture, and products Village clients make for contractors. The extent of the damage is still being assessed and no estimate of the cost is
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B6-B10 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B4 Library News, A2
available. “I don’t know how long it’s going to be until we can get back in operation,” Brooks said.
Temporary offices are being set up in the Duane Herrmann Building. Floodwaters also covered the Oregon Park District’s
Lions Park, located just north of the Oregon Living & Rehabilitation Center. The softball field was completely Turn to A3
Myron Fason of Servi Pro, cleans up mud and water in a bathroom at the Village of Progress on Sunday morning. Photo by Earleen Hinton
Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Police, B3 Public Voice, A7 Property Transfers, B4 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3
Social News, A4 Sports, B2 State’s Attorney, B3 Weather, A3
Deaths, B5 Donna J. Pearson, Neil K. Minnis, Glenn Rowe, Ed Spratt
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com