Letter to Editor

2 MT. MORRIS TIMES MT. MORRIS TIMES MO RRIS BE AT oglecountynews.com ShawLocal.com OFFICE 113-115 Peoria Ave. By ALEXA ZOELLNER azoellner@shawmedia.com MT. Dixon, IL 61021 SUBSCRIPTIONS Two people were arrested and charged with residential burglary and theft in relaMt. Morris Times / oglecountynews.com • Friday, Mar 11, 2022 $39 in Ogle County, and $52 outside Ogle County. Singlecopy price is $1 To subscribe, make a payment or discuss your delivery, call 1-866-979-1053 Monday-Friday or send an e-mail to subscriptions@ oglecountynews.com. You also can subscribe online by going to oglecountynews.com and clicking on Subscribe. CLASSIFIED SALES 815-220-6942 apicco@shawmedia.com OBITUARIES 815-632-2534 phartman@shawmedia.com Deadline for obituaries is 2 p.m. Tuesday for Friday’s edition tion to an incident at the Mt. Morris Estates Mobile Home Park. On March 3, Ogle County deputies arrested Nancylee Limond, 36, and Kenneth R. Adams, 61, both of Mt. Morris, according to a sheriff’s report. The initial report came in on March 2, Sheriff Brian VanVickle said. “The report [of a residential burglary]

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Jennifer Heintzelman

815-632-2502 jheintzelman@shawmedia.com General Manager

Earleen Hinton

815-632-2591 ehinton@shawmedia.com was after the fact,” he said. “It wasn’t a burglary in progress. The rest was the result of an investigative follow up.

“They were charged and transported to t h e j a i l , ” V a n V i ck l e a d d e d . “ S o t h e y appeared before a judge.”

Limond and Adams both are charged with residential burglary, a Class 1 felony, and theft between $500 and $10,000, a Class 3 felony, according to Judici.

Theft is intentionally depriving someone of their property, while burglary is entering a residence without permission, VanVickle said. A person could be charged with bur-

LOCAL NEWS

Two charged w ith theft, burglar y in break-in glary for illegally entering a residence, even if they don’t take anything, he said. VanVickle said the stolen property was household items and that the items were recovered. He declined to comment on Limond and Adams’ connection to the mobile home park. Limond was given a $5,000/10% bond and Adams a $25,000/10% bond, VanVickle said. Both posted bond on March 4 after appearing before a judge, he said. Preliminary hearing statuses for Limond and Adams were set for March 9 at 10 a.m.

BY ROB HOUGH IV

Mt. Morris Fire Chief

This weekend we will turn our clocks forward one hour for daylight savings time. The Mt. Morris Fire Protection District would like to remind everyone to change the batteries in their smoke and CO detectors at the same time.

Having an operating smoke detector more than doubles a person’s chances of surviving a home fire. Changing batteries is a small investment to insure your family will be alerted in the case of a fire or a carbon dioxide emergency.

Here are some tips for the care and maintenance of smoke and CO detectors that should be followed: • I n s t a l l s m o k e a n d C O a l a r m s o n every level of the home and outside all sleeping areas. For added safety, install smoke alarms in every room where people sleep. • To increase safety, have a qualified electrician install hard-wired, interconnected smoke alarms so that when one sounds, they all sound. • Install a new battery in all smoke and CO alarms at least twice a year. Install a n e w b a t t e r y i m m e d i a t e l y i f a n a l a r m “chirps” to indicate a low battery. • R e p l a c e s m o k e a l a r m s t h a t u s e extended-life, lithium batteries when the alarm “chirps” or fails to respond to periodic testing. Many of these batteries are good for 10 years, but it is still a great time to check their operation. The batteries in these units cannot be replaced.

FIRE SAFET Y

• Replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old. The mechanism that senses smoke and activates the alarm looses sensitivity over time. • Replace all CO alarms when they are 7 y e a r s o l d . T h e m a n u f a c t u r e d a t e i s listed on the bottom of the detectors. • Test alarms every month. Use the test button, or an approved smoke substitute, and clean the units, according to manufacturer’s instructions. Do not use an open-flame device to test the alarm. • Special smoke alarms are made for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. These alarms use strobe lights. Vibrating devices may also help in some cases.

If you have questions, please call the firehouse at 815-734-4322.

News Alexa Zoellner 815-632-2590 azoellner@shawmedia.com

Advertising Sales Patty Bridgeman 815-632-2555 pbridgeman@ shawmedia.com

Mt. Morris Times, Ogle County News and oglecountynews.com are a division of Shaw Media. Ogle County Newspapers also prints the Mt. MorrisTimes , OregonRepublicanReporter, and Polo’s Tri-CountyPress .

The MT. MORRIS TIMES (USPS No. 365-440) is published weekly by B.F. Shaw Printing Co., Shaw Media. Periodical postage paid at Mt. Morris, Illinois. POSTMASTER Send address changes to MT. MORRIS TIMES, P.O. Box 8, Oregon, IL 61061. Phone 815-732-6166, ext. 2516.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2022

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Stauffer comments on school board’s decision

To the Editor,

I’m so at a loss to understand true reality of this poor decision made last night (Feb. 22) on the part of four board members.

What is the driving force behind the scenes to make totally illogical decisions considering the overwhelming factual information that the advisory board has dug up proving beyond all doubt that Mahoney’s reasons and financial numbers were in total error on the financial ground of the school district.

The huge report, which was published after months of digging into the schools financial records, real estate tax data from the county courthouse, is very factual and can’t be disputed.

So the original reason for closing was proved to be totally false and also proved that the district is in a very good financial position and should remain so well into the future.

It was also found that the building in Mt. Morris is in much much better shape than portrayed by Mahoney and the district has the money to have done the needed repairs.

The district has over the past recent years spent considerable major funds to heating upgrades, major electrical upgrades, gym ceiling and LED lighting, total locker replacement to name a few.

Please understand ALL of these upgrades and projects are and should be LONG TERM major investments to any building, not things you do if you were planing to dispose of a building in the next 5 to 10 years.

So if they dispose of the building it will be a gross waste of taxpayers money in the end. The pros and cons of mixing the middle school students into the high school environment can be a double-sided sword but after listening to all the many arguments from many people it seems to me that it is a bad choice. Time will tell.

The citizens advisory board was made of well chosen educated and professional people that several times proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that closing DLR will be totally the wrong decision made by the board.

Two of the board members, both highly educated individuals, from the beginning voted correctly to save the building and both had prepared statements backing their decisions.

They both made complete logical and financial sense and yet the rest of the board members turned a def ear and ignored their peers recommendations. How could that be?

Decisions are usually and rightfully to be made from truthful facts and information, yet it appears that ALL logic was thrown out the window and ignored both times they voted on this critical issue.

So I wonder about the credibility of all board members that supported the vote to close the DLR for the second time last night.

The board could have become true heroes last night if they had said look, because of the volume of real data that we weren’t aware of, we will keep DLR as a feasible part of the overall district property, but they chose not to do the right thing.

Many thanks to the advisory committee for their hard work, shame on Mahoney and the board members that made an illogical vote. They should resign, and thanks to the two board members that did vote based on true facts and data!

IN THE SCHOOLS

Students working again w ith health care professionals

Oregon High School students will again be working hands-on with health care professionals in collaboration with the University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford through the Rural Healthcare Explorers Program.

The program started last year and has now expanded to allow a total of 28 students.

The Rural Healthcare Explorers Program is made possible by a $17,103 grant from the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois’ Dr. Louis and Violet Rubin Fund.

This program is a six-week introduction to the field of health care and prepares students wishing to pursue a degree in the health sciences.

Students learn about fields such as medicine, pharmacy and nursing through hands-on activities, discussions with local health care professionals,and a health topic exploration project.

Students at OHS received a link from the Dean of Students, Shannon Cremeens, to apply. The program will begin in April. “I enjoyed being part of the program last year because it helped me learn more about the medical field in rural areas,” said Allyssa Leary, an OHS sophomore. “I learned the importance of having health care professionals work locally.

“ I also appreciated having various guests come in and talk to us about their jobs in medicine and the pros and cons. It was a very eye-opening experience, and I am thrilled to get the opportunity to join the program again!”

OREGON NEWS

Cit y council tables decision on v ideo gaming increase

By ALEXA ZOELLNER azollener@shawmedia.com

O r e g o n C i t y C o u n c i l m e m b e r s again put off deciding whether to raise the annual video gaming terminal fee.

At their March 8 meeting, commissioners unanimously voted to table the matter until May 24. The annual fee is charged on June 1, City Administrator Darin DeHaan said.

“It gives us time to go back and look at pre-COVID and COVID revenue [from the gaming terminals] and see how much of an impact that made,” Finance Commissioner Terry Schuster said.

The matter originally was considered at the council’s Feb. 23 meeting, but council members postponed making a decision after hearing protests from local business owners who rent video gaming terminals.

At the March 8 meeting, Mayor Ken Williams proposed tabling the matter for a year to give businesses a chance to use profits from the terminals to assist in recovering revenue lost from COVID-19 impacts.

“We could wait a year without any harm to the city and then when we do it, we do it as a tiered basis,” Williams suggested.

According to the Illinois Gaming Board’s video gaming monthly revenue reports, Oregon made $173,685.95 from video gaming terminal taxes and fees in 2021.

In a separate interview, DeHaan said $40,000 of that money goes into the city’s General Fund to support general operational expenses, $50,000 goes into the City Hall Capital Improvement Fund to help pay for the upkeep of the building and the remainder is allocated to the Economic Development Fund.

“[The Economic Development Fund supports] things that spur economic growth, like downtown flowers, landscaping and watering, to our contract with an economic development consultant, website design and maintenance, brochures, newsletters, some facade grants, etc.,” DaHaan said. “We also used it to help get the farmers market started last year.”

Alexa Zoellner/Shaw Media Mike Arians stands by the six video gaming terminals located in The Road House, a bar in Oregon owned by his daughter, Amy Marquis. Arians runs the establishment day-to-day.

• VIGIL

Continued from Page 3

he [her grandfather] brought with him close to heart.”

Andrews held the sunflowers – the national flower for Ukraine – as she joined others to pray and listen to songs during the hourlong vigil organized by three Oregon residents Lisa S c h u l t z , G a r y S c h r i m p s h e r a n d Veronica Mathews.

Schrimpsher, the founder of the What’s Up Ogle County? Facebook page, said Saturday’s event was meant as a show of support for the people of Ukraine.

“We just thought it would be real nice if they could be able to see that Americans supported them,” he said.

Mathews said about 75 candles were handed out for the event. “We did get a good turnout. I think it went really well. I am really happy for everybody who came out. I really do think that God or the universe will hear our prayers and hopefully Russia will stop and Ukraine will be victorious.”

Rick Elerd, pastor of the East Oregon Chapel Church of God, also helped organize the event and asked everyone to pray for the people of Ukraine. “You don’t have to be here to pray for their strength and peace,” he said.

When asked what they would do to end the conflict, Schultz said she would try to get the two presidents together to see if “there was something that possibly could be worked out.”

“Right now they need our prayers and support,” Schultz said.

Schrimpsher said by buying Russian oil, the U.S. was actually “financing their war.”

Rosemarie and Jim Farmer of Oregon also attended the vigil. “I think this was good to gather people together and show we are all united,” said Rosemarie.

“I’m a Vietnam veteran and I know what war is like,” Jim said. “It’s unnecessary. We need tougher sanctions [on Russia]. I’m willing to bite the bullet as far as gas goes to help them [Ukranians] out.”

Andrews, a retired social worker, traveled to Ukraine in 2005 to explore more of her heritage. “I had the opportunity to teach a class on social issues for 18- to 20-year-olds. They wanted to know how they could have independence like we have here in the United States and I told them they had to speak up to change the world,” she said. “We have privileges here in the U.S. I pray for humanity to win out.”

Earleen Hinton/Shaw Media Veronica Mathews, Rick Elerd (pastor of East Oregon Chapel Church of God), Gary Schrimpsher and Lisa Schultz organized a candlelight prayer vigil for the Ukrainian people on the east lawn of the Ogle County Courthouse on March 5.