Serving Ogle County since 1851
oregon Republican Reporter
October 3, 2013 Volume 163, Number 42 - $1.00
Lady Hawks Win
Ready to Run
Health Spotlight
The OHS varsity volleyball team adds two wins to their season record. B1
Ogle County Sheriff Michael Harn seeks a second term. A7
The Mt. Morris Senior Center offers flu shots and health information Oct. 11. A13
Festival feature
$4 million wrongful death suit
crafts and parade
Stop sign was missing at intersection
By Vinde Wells Editor
By Vinde Wells Editor
A larger and more diverse Farmers Market and Craft Show will be one of the highlights for visitors at the 43rd Autumn on Parade festival this weekend. Farmers Market coordinator Laury Edlund said 181 vendors, at least 25 more than at previous festivals, will display their wares in booths on the Ogle County Courthouse lawn and the surrounding area in downtown Oregon on Saturday, Oct. 5 and Sunday, Oct.6. “It’s definitely up this year,” Edlund said. “I think some are looking for a different venue or maybe one closer to home.” She said several of the new vendors told her they were referred by the festival’s veteran crafters. “I’ve had a lot of them tell me ‘I’ve heard you have a good festival and I should be part of it,’” she said. Several new crafters will add variety to the items offered for sale, Edlund said. “We have maple products this year, a woman who makes bras into aprons, and items made from sea shells,” she said. “Lloyd Bellows will do blacksmith demonstrations as well as offer his items for sale.” The AOP festival will serve up its traditional fare of fun with some added attractions for 2013. Haunted Harvest is the theme for this year’s event. “Following this year’s theme
Autumn on Parade “corn crew” volunteers Linda Edler, Timmy and Lindsey Breeden, and Marge Immel, were busy decorating Oregon’s downtown with cornstalks Sunday for the upcoming Autumn on Parade festival this weekend.
‘Haunted Harvest,’ entertainers on Saturday on the courthouse square will include Fred the Vampire and Horrible Harry just to name a few,” said festival president Marseyne Snow. “Frankenstein will also stroll the courthouse lawn on stilts. After all it is a Haunted Harvest.” One of the new events for this year is a post parade show by the South Shore Drill Team on Sunday. “Because South Shore is always a such a crowd favorite during the Harvest Time Parade we decided to have them stay a bit longer and do a show after the parade is over,” said Snow. “The post parade show will be held on Jefferson Street in front of the Oregon library.” Snow said this year’s parade, held on Sunday at 1 p.m., is shaping up to be one of the largest in recent years. “In addition to the South Shore Drill Team and the Jesse White Tumblers we have booked the New
Generation Drill Team and a Circus Wagon Train,” Snow said. Antique tractors and vintage vehicles, youth groups and marching bands, and other commercial entries will also be on hand. Also new to this year’s festival is a 93 foot long zipline operated by Kid Again Inflatable Fun Shows, located in the AOP Fun Zone. “We wanted to try something new and the zip-line looks like a lot of fun,” Snow said. A Volcano Adventureland inflatable and a ‘Lil Builders Toddler Zone will also be offered in the Fun Zone along with face painting, balloon artistry, and cotton candy. Activities will be offered on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wristbands are needed for entry to Fun Zone activities and cost $5 prior to the festival weekend and $8 during the festival. Advance sales are available at the Nash Recreation
Center in Oregon. The Oregon Park District will be providing volunteers for the Fun Zone ticket booth this year and has also created a special Autumn on Parade photo backdrop where kids, and adults, can pose for a photo to remember their visit to the festival for years to come. The Illinois Patriot Guard Fallen Heroes Traveling Memorial Wall will also be on display both days during the festival. The wall, initiated by Gold Star families and the Riders, pays tribute to Illinois military members who gave their lives in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn. It bears the names, portraits, hometowns, ranks and dates of death of each service member. The wall will be located on the lawn Turn to A2
Friends reminisce during country tour By Vinde Wells Editor Two longtime friends made the most of a beautiful fall day to learn more about local history and reminisce Sept. 29 at the Mt. Morris Country Living Tour. Ginny Hough, 83, and LaVonne Anderson, 91, who have grandchildren in common, were among the more than 100 people who took the tour on a pictureperfect autumn afternoon. The event was sponsored by the Mt. Morris Tourism Committee. The first stop on the tour was Weller’s Woods for a Tennessee Picnic under the spreading oak trees. Hough spied an antique auto displayed there. “My brother had one just like this,” she said, as she headed over for a closer look. She and Anderson shared memories of local happenings and people as they waited their turn to take a hayride through the scenic pasture and woods. Anderson said she was enjoying the tour as well as the blue sky and temperature in the mid-70s. “I’ve lived here 68 years, and this is a real adventure for me,” she said. “It’s fun.”
Weller’s Woods, located at 6669 W. Oregon Trail Rd., was a well-known place to camp, picnic, and fish along the Pine Creek as far back as 1927, when the first Tennessee Picnic was held there. The Weller family has owned the area since 1846 and over the years allowed neighboring families and Scout groups to utilize their property for recreation. Tennessee immigrants to the area often used the woods for their annual picnics which were discontinued sometime in the 1950s, as near as anyone remembers, said tour guide Molly Baker. The Country Living Tour included four stops, all with a story to tell. Participants could ride a bus for a guided tour to each stop or take a self-guided tour. Tourism Committee member Jan Hough said the event was well-received. “It was a beautiful day, and we heard lots of good comments,” she said. “Everyone seemed to have a good time, workers as well as attendees.” The second stop on the tour was the Barnacopia, owned by Gary and Judy Bocker at 2744 West Branch Rd. The newly-completed old
In This Week’s Edition...
style, timber-frame barn is a bed and breakfast and banquet facility, as well as a farm museum. Its three floors feature antique tractors, farm memorabilia, and cars; a view of Polo’s downtown in the 1950s; a game room; 50s and 60s diner complete with a juke box; and an ice cream parlor. The silo offers two bedrooms and library areas.
Just up the road, tour participants took a look at West Branch Church of the Brethren, which was built of native limestone in 1862 for $2,300. The church has an active congregation and weekly Sunday services. The final stop was the McNett Family Farm, 4141 N. Town Hall Rd., where visitors could take a hayride and tour a century-old barn
that is still part of the cow and calf beef operation there. Owned by Mike and Judy McNett, the farm has been in the family for five generations. The Country Living Tour was the third annual historical tour of Mt. Morris sites sponsored by the Tourism Committee. Hough said attendance has grown each year that the tours have been held.
Oregon FFA members Michael Ruter, Mt. Morris, and Ashley Throw, Oregon, were ready Sept. 29 to take visitors on a tour of the McNett Family Farm. The farm was one of the stops on the Country Living Tour sponsored by the Mt. Morris Tourism Committee. Photo by Vinde Wells
Birth, A4 Church Bells, A5 Classifieds, B7-B14 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B6
Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Police, B2 Pine Creek News, A3 Public Voice, A8 Property Transfers, B4
Sheriff’s Arrests, B4 Social News, A4 Sports, A12, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B5 Weather, A3
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com
The husband of a Polo High School teacher who died of the injuries she suffered in a vehicle crash in May is suing the Stephenson County Sheriff’s Department. Jason Kamp, Byron, filed a lawsuit Sept. 13 in Stephenson County claiming a dispatcher’s oversight contributed to the death of his wife Sarah, 32, who was pregnant with the couple’s second child when she died. Kamp, represented by Rockford attorney Timothy S. Mahoney, is seeking $4 million in damages for wrongful death. Sarah Kamp died at OSF St. Anthony Medical Center, Rockford, where she was airlifted after a two-vehicle crash at the intersection Turn to A2
Dispose of all old medicine Area residents will have an opportunity to dispose of expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs on Saturday, Oct. 26. Medications can be disposed of at the Ogle County Jail Parking Lot at 107 S. 5 St., Oregon, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. The Oregon Police Department, Ogle County Sheriff’s Office, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public its seventh opportunity in three years to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted, prescription drugs. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked. In its six previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners, took in over 2.8 million pounds—more than 1,400 tons of pills. This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Improper disposal of prescription drugs, and over‐ the‐counter medications, are both a health and environmental hazard. DEA officials provided information to explain why medication should be disposed of properly. According to the recent Monitoring the Future study, the Nation’s largest survey Turn to A2
Deaths, B3 Sharon Bittinger David H. Martin Scott D. Rudolf