Hilarious memories of your first date?
This Cubs fan is a cut above the rest A3
A7
SERVING READERS OF THE ILLINOIS VALLEY
www.newstrib.com | Tuesday, September 10, 2019 | 75 cents
Food trucks: OK at private events and block parties in La Salle By Tom Collins
NEWSTRIBUNE SENIOR REPORTER
Want to hire a food truck for your kid’s birthday or for a block party? That’s going to be OK with the city of La Salle, which does not want food trucks downtown. Monday, the La Salle City Council muddled through a series of proposals on where food trucks will be allowed and where
La Salle County OKs marijuana tax on top of city taxes
they won’t. Nothing is final — ordinances will be drafted for formal voting later this month — but the city seemed to reach a consensus on where mobile food vendors can go. Based on Monday’s discussion and preliminary votes: •Food trucks are permitted at private homes and block parties, subject to city regulation. Block parties, for example, still require council-approved street closures
•Civic organizations (example: VFW) not located downtown or in the Eighth Street business district can bring in a food truck year-round •Establishments with liquor licenses — again, not downtown or in the Eighth Street district — can bring in food trucks 12 times a year •Food trucks are subject to a permit of $600 a year What the council did not do
is permit them in the business districts. Despite a proposal to let food trucks enter agreements with businesses with liquor licenses downtown or in the Eighth Street district, the council voted 5-4 against, with Mayor Jeff Grove breaking the tie. Alderman James “Diz” Demes voted against most of the measures, reluctant to usher in competition for established restaurants and taverns that he said are
struggling to compete, noting the many recent closures. “What business is going to be the sacrificial lamb we put on the chopping block?” Demes said. “Some of the restaurants are barely making it.” Alderman John “Doc” Lavieri also expressed some misgivings. “We’re trying to find a compromise between the Wild West and totally protected,” he said. See LA SALLE Page A2
‘The land and the staff are at the breaking point’
Allowing sales in unincorporated areas to be decided By Brent Bader SHAW MEDIA
Taxes on marijuana in La Salle County keep on climbing before it even hits the market. The La Salle County Board on Monday unanimously approved adding an additional 3% sales tax on marijuana sold in municipalities in La Salle County, on top of the 3% those municipalities such as Ottawa have already approved individually. This additional tax does not include unincorporated communities in the county’s limits, as the board has yet to decide whether to allow the sale of legal recreational marijuana outside city limits. Board members are expected to vote on that matter at next month’s meeting. Chairman Jim Olson advised the board the tax on sales in municipalities should be strongly considered as it’s another revenue source to help the county through its financial crisis. “It’s definitely going to be another revenue source. I don’t know what (money we’ll get) but it’s going to be something,” Olson said to media after the meeting. “I don’t think the board would be responsible if we didn’t collect the revenue from it.” Olson said he’s uncertain if it’s something other counties have also been doing but assumes they probably are following suit. The board supported the tax and some had hoped to get the percent they pull in from sales a little higher. Board Member Tom Walsh (D-Ottawa) had made an amendment to raise the tax to 3.75%, the maximum the county could approve. Olson said during the meeting he preferred to keep it at 3% as home rule communities had been locked into 3% and he wanted to remain “competitive,” but Walsh See TAX Page A3
TONIGHT Warm and humid. Weather A8
INDEX Astrology B6 Business B5 Classified B8 Comics B6 Lifestyle A7
Local A3 Lottery A2 Obituaries B7 Opinion A6
COMING TOMORROW Established 1851 No. 176 © 2019 est. 1851
SUPERHERO COOKIE A lucious treat worth sinking your teeth into
NEWSTRIBUNE PHOTOS/TRACEY MACLEOD
Tonti Canyon has been closed for quite some time due to increasing accidents and erosion. The bridge pictured is located at the foot of the canyon and to the right notice a large tree has fallen along the pathway with its roots still attached to the worn-out path above.
Starved Rock visibly crumbles after six years of record-setting visits By Tom Collins
NEWSTRIBUNE SENIOR REPORTER
You can’t hike into Tonti Canyon anymore. The trails are so badly eroded that officials at Starved Rock’s management decided they’re unsafe to tread. Pam Grivetti fears the park’s remaining major trails also are on borrowed time. She decided somebody needed to get Springfield’s attention and pump some money into the state park — and fast. Grivetti is president of the Starved Rock Foundation and she went on a letter-writing blitz to Springfield. She wants every lawmaker and state agency attached to Starved Rock and Matthiessen state parks to know: Starved Rock is headed
for a tipping point and desperately needs help. “The No. 1 goal of the Department of Natural Resources is to preserve and protect the resources of the State of Illinois,” Grivetti wrote. “The DNR has been losing the battle at the busiest park in the state and one of the busiest state parks in the nation. “Yes, all state parks are compromised, but Starved Rock is in crisis,” she added later. “Holiday weekends are nightmares of a sea of humanity and regular weekends May through October are not much better.” Statistically, Grivetti is correct. Starved Rock has, since 2013, drawn attendance figures that rival only America’s 10 biggest national parks. And while
Pam Grivetti of the Starved Rock Foundation points out the troubled trails of Tonti and La Salle canyons, where the trails are eroding from excessive use and weather and are in desperate need of repair and walks to make it a safer place for hikers to visit. not many attendance records much since a record-shattering have fallen this year (exception: 2.8 million visitors stormed the August was the park’s sixth big- park in 2017. Through Sept. 1 of this year, gest month ever) Starved Rock’s yearly totals haven’t leveled off See CRUMBLES Page A2
Trump says peace talks with Taliban are now ‘dead’ By Robert Burns, Deb Riechmann and Matthew Lee
Trump declared Monday, two days after he abruptly canceled ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS a secret meeting he had arranged with Taliban and Afghan leaders WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. aimed at ending America’s lonpeace talks with the Taliban are gest war. now “dead,” President Donald Trump’s remark to report-
ers at the White House suggested he sees no point in resuming a nearly yearlong effort to reach a political settlement with the Taliban, whose protection of al-Qaida extremists in Afghanistan prompted the U.S.
to invade after the 9/11 attacks. Asked about the peace talks, Trump said: “They’re dead. They’re dead. As far as I’m concerned, they’re dead.” It’s unclear whether Trump See TALIBAN Page A2