Serving Ogle County since 1851
OREGON Republican Reporter
March 3, 2016 Volume 166, Number 12- $1.00
State Champs!
Coloring Time!
Hawks Fall
Byron’s Lady Tigers win the Class 2A state championship in Normal. B1
Kids can color an Easter basket in our 2016 Coloring Contest. A8
The Hawks basketball ends its season with a loss to Newman in the regional title game. B1
Revitalization, unity goals of Oregon Together By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com
Megan Ackland was one of the 4-H Teen Teachers at the annual Day of Dabbling held at the Oregon Church of God on Feb. 27. Photo by Chris Johnson
Kids dabble, create crafts 4-H’ers take part in Day of Dabbling By Chris Johnson cxjohnson@oglecounty news.com Unique crafts were created with only minor setbacks Saturday morning. The Ogle County 4-H members were participating in the Day of Dabbling at the Oregon Church of God. This is an event where the older 4-H members create projects that can be taught and completed in less than an hour. One of these projects was being co-run by Jacob Ebens, a Carefee 4-H Club member from Oregon. “I learned a lot about organization today,” he said. “I also learned how to run an event.” At his station, 4-H members were creating a stained glass design using melted crayon shavings and a stencil. “The iron station slowed the project down,” said Ebens. “One iron stopped This piece of melted crayon art was made by Natalie Carlson, Byron. She was working.” running a class Feb. 27 during Day of Dabbling to demonstrate how this was made. Turn to A2 Photo by Chris Johnson
Unity and revitalization are two of the goals of the newly formed organization, Oregon Together. Steering committee members Rick Ryland and Angela Larson spoke to the Oregon City Council Feb. 23 about the organization and five planning sessions set to begin in April. “Oregon Together is an organization to bring people together to revitalize Oregon,” said Larson, who works for Blount International, Inc., Oregon, (formerly Woods Brothers Manufacturing). She said her firm sometimes has to struggle to recruit qualified employees for its Oregon location. “While this is a beautiful town, its doesn’t have all the amenities people expect,” she said. Oregon Together is asking Oregon residents to participate in the five planning sessions to learn what they truly want for their community, she said. Community planning sessions are scheduled for
5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Monday, April 11, 18 and 25 and May 2 and 9 at the Rock River Center, 810 S. 10th St., Oregon. Oregon Together has hired the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs (IIRA), based at Western Illinois University, to help through its MAPPING the Future of Your Community program. Experts from WIU will attend the planning, or mapping, sessions to facilitate the process. Their role is to help get the ideas for projects out there, prioritize them, and then determine what is needed to make them happen. After the planning sessions the facilitators will continue to work with community members to assist with implementation. The money for hiring IIRA is coming from donations from local businesses, rather than government agencies. Ryland said Oregon Together will not compete with other community organizations also working toward bettering the community. “We want to bring everyone together,” he said.
Commissioner balks at borrowing money By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com One Oregon city commissioner balked last week at a motion to purchase property with borrowed money. “I’m not in favor of going into debt like this,” Commissioner Jim Barnes said Feb. 23 during a discussion of taking out a 15-year loan to purchase property between the sewer plant and South Second Street.
The measure was, however, approved 4 to 1 with Barnes casting the only no vote. The council unanimously agreed Feb. 9 to offer $129,900 to owner Richard Hahn for the property for future growth. Barnes said Feb. 23 that he is concerned because the city has already borrowed $107,000 to install utilities at the Settlers Ridge Subdivision on the east side of town. Mayor Ken Williams said the money for the land will Turn to A2
Polo fifth grader wins regional spelling bee..again By Chris Heimerman Sauk Valley Media cheimerman@saukvalley.com For nearly three hours and 37 rounds, Rebekah Zeigler did all she could to keep the blood from rushing to her head. When Tom Wadsworth, emcee of the first combined Lee-Ogle-Whiteside Regional Spelling Bee, turned and announced to the Centennial Elementary School fifth-grader, “You’re going to Washington!”, she put her hands on her cheeks and dragged her fingers down to reveal bright red streaks – streaks of relief, no doubt. In spelling scullion correctly Feb. 25, the defending Lee-Ogle champ from Polo again punched her ticket to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be held May 22 to 27 in
National Harbor, Maryland. She also survived a showdown with three other spellers – eventual runnerup Mariam Elahmady of River Bend Middle School in Fulton, Aaliyah Gaffey of Challand Middle School in Sterling, and Rebekah Starwalt of Byron Middle School – that began in Round 14 and lasted the subsequent 13 rounds. Typically, Wadsworth waits for the final three spellers to bring them to the front of the stage, but after the quartet, along with Taylor Miller, Forreston, duked it out for five rounds, until Miller bowed out on the word quisling – she went with the double-z – he brought the foursome to the front after Round 15. He obviously knew the talent that was on hand. So did the defending champion. “They were really, really good
In This Week’s Edition...
Church Bells, A5 Classifieds, B5-B10 Entertainment, A6 Marriage Licenses, A4
spellers,” she said. “I started sweating and got really nervous that I would spend one wrong.” But she relied on two tried-and-true techniques to prevail. First, she clasped her hands together and told herself she was “cool, calm, and in control,” a trick she learned at Gymnastics Divine in Dixon. “Only I couldn’t bite my nails this time, because I painted them,” she said. Understandable, given the packed auditorium at Dixon High. Second, every time she stoically approached the microphone and heard her word, she “wrote” the word on the back of her number card as she spelled it. Gaffey, an eighth-grader, used a similar technique, only she “scribbled” on her hand. Rebekah Zeigler of Centennial Elementary School in Polo At one point, she showed incredible reacts to winning the Lee-Ogle-Whiteside Regional Spelling Turn to A2 Bee in Dixon. Photo by Alex T. Paschal
Oregon Library, A10 Public Voice, A7 Property Transfers, B4 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3
Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B3
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com
Death, B3 Jacqualin F. Bowers