NewsTribune_Saturday_092119

Page 1

Shop local for dining, car care, clothes and more

Like sausage? Sample all kinds today at a Spring Valley festival. A3

INSIDE

SERVING READERS OF THE ILLINOIS VALLEY

www.newstrib.com | Weekend, September 21-22, 2019 | $1.50

Cannabis firm putting $10.5 million into Oglesby, not $1.5M

Mad Hatter Ball

Mayor says he missed a digit, doesn’t mind being wrong By Tom Collins NEWSTRIBUNE SENIOR REPORTER

NEWSTRIBUNE PHOTO/ALI BRABOY

Above: Emma Anderson, a pianist and a La Salle-Peru Township High School senior, takes the stage Friday night at Celebrations 150 in La Salle to play “Scotch Poem” by American composer Edward MacDowell during North Central Illinois ARTworks’ Mad Hatter Ball.

Oglesby’s mayor said he missed a digit when he announced Green Thumb Industries is investing $1.5 million into Oglesby’s growing facility. They’re actually investing $10.5 million. Dom Rivara told the NewsTribune his math was off — happily, in this case — and the cannabis grower issued a statement Thursday confirming the corrected figure. GTI said the expansion project likely will start in the spring of 2020 after engineering design and permitting stages. “GTI looks forward to bringing additional jobs to Oglesby as we invest in expansion and increase capacity in Illinois to meet increased demand from the medical program and adult use sales beginning Jan. 1, 2020,” the company said in a statement, confirming the eight-figure (not seven-figure) investment. Rivara made the announcement at Monday’s city council meeting and a call to GTI was not quickly returned, which precluded immediately verifying the dollar figure of the investment. Thursday, the company confirmed the corrected value as well as Rivara’s report of 40-50 new jobs. The timing is good for Oglesby because GTI’s investment should offset money slated to come off Oglesby’s tax rolls in 2020. Oglesby is scheduled to lose tax dollars stemming from Buzzi Unicem’s sale of more than 2,600 acres to the state for an expan-

Left: Mia Mautino poses with some of her drawings at the ball in La Salle. Mautino enjoys multiple techniques in the field of art, but mostly practices in drawing and acrylic painting. Seven students presented their talents at the ball. Upper left: A former LaMoille resident, artist and teacher Brock Sondgeroth of Ottawa smiles as he wears his “super hero art hat” at the Mad Hatter Ball. The superheroes on his hat were prints of his hand drawn artwork. The mission of NCI ARTworks is to inspire growth among artists through artistic collaboration, educational outreach and art space development. NEWSTRIBUNE PHOTOS/ SCOTT ANDERSON

See CANNABIS Page A3

Thunderstorms and 70. Weather A8

More Unytite to drive: Road extension gets contractor, price tag

INDEX

By Brett Herrmann

TONIGHT

Astrology B4 Religion A7 Classified B6 Comics B4 Dining A8

Entertainment A8 Lifestyle A8 Local A3 Lottery A2 Obituaries B5

COMING TOMORROW Established 1851 No. 185 © 2019 est. 1851

PROGRESS: Iron workers make big progress on the river bridge at Utica

NEWSTRIBUNE REPORTER

The road to expansion on Peru’s north side has a price tag — at least for the road portion. Friday, the Illinois Department of Transportation bid out the Unytite Drive extension project, which is part of a larger multi-million-dollar plan to improve the flow industrial road and rail traffic on the north side of town. Advanced Asphalt of Princeton was the low bidder among four other companies for the work, submitting a bid of $1,487,055.65. And if things start moving

quickly with the paperwork, some construction may start this year. “It’s all dependent on the contracts,” said Peru city engineer Eric Carls. “If that process moves along fairly quickly, we’ll see some work this fall. But we’ll see a majority of the work in the spring.”

A truck stops at Unytite Drive and Donlar Avenue. The city of Peru will pay a relatively small portion of the cost of extending Unytite Drive west, making land more attractive to industry.

WHAT DO THE PLANS CALL FOR? NT PHOTO/ About ¾ of a mile of roadway SCOTT ANDERSON will be built between Donlar Avenue (East 1st Road) and Plank where Unytite Drive currently shoulders to accommodate semiRoad. The road will jog up and ends. trailer traffic. around the Dohrn Transfer Co. The 24-foot-wide road will be See EXTENSION Page A3 building that sits directly east of made of concrete with asphalt

Illinois Valley Counseling Services depression • anxiety • PTSD • addictions • family issues • ADHD

Change is Possible. 747 E. Etna Rd. • Ottawa • 901 Main St. • Mendota 815-993-29628 • illinoisvalleycounseling.com


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.