Serving Ogle County since 1851
OREGON Republican Reporter
April 28, 2016 Volume 166, Number 20 - $1.00
Hawk Classic
Recycle Friday
Man Charged
Competition is the operative word at this annual track meet. B1
Ogle County residents can recycle their electronic items April 29. B3
A Byron man has been charged with reckless homicide following a 2014 accident. B3
Officials await word on state’s repayment plan By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Local officials are awaiting direction about how taxing bodies will be expected to repay money they received due to a state error over the past two years. An error by the Illinois Department of Revenue
(IDOR) means hundreds of taxing districts across the state that received disbursements from a personal property tax replacement fund in 2014 and 2015 must repay an estimated $168 million to the state. Like other county officials, Oregon School Superintendent Tom
Mahoney has heard nothing from the state about how the repayments will be accomplished. “We don’t know the true impact to our finances because we don’t know how much or how long the repayment schedule will be,” he said Tuesday. Ogle County taxing bodies must repay a total
of $582,777.07. That includes the county, school districts, cities and villages, townships, fire districts, and park districts. The Oregon School District was the hardest hit in the county with $93,621.17 to pay back. Mahoney said personal property tax replacement reimbursement (PPRT)
Sewer work continues on Tenth Street A project to install new sanitary sewer mains along Tenth Street is more than halfway completed. The street is currently closed for construction from Webster Street to Pines Road, but Oregon Public Properties Commissioner Jim Barnes said Tuesday that the street will reopen once the work is done. Mayor Ken Williams said the sewer work is just the first phase of a street upgrade. The street will remain open to local traffic during the second phase, which will include resurfacing plus installing curbs, gutters, and sidewalks all the way to Pines Road. Williams said the second phase will begin in May after school is out for the summer. Hawk Drive will also be resurfaced. The Oregon City Council awarded the contract for the approximately $850,000 project to Martin and Company. Williams said a natural gas line was broken Monday afternoon when the walls collapsed in a trench city workers were digging for the sewer main near Riverstone Church. No one was injured, a crew from Nicor Gas repaired the break. Barnes said collapsing trench walls have posed a problem for workers due to Workers were busy repairing a gas line on S. 10th Street Monday afternoon. A new the sandy soil in the area. sewer main is being replaced along the west side of the street. Photo by Earleen Hinton
is a factor in determining how much general state aid school districts receive. “Higher PPRT decreases general state aid,” he said. “So in the last three years our general state aid should have been higher.” The district is already feeling the pinch, Mahoney said with a smaller than anticipated PPRT payment in April. “The last PPRT payment was short, and that will impact this year’s budget,” he said. The school district’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, the same as the state’s. The personal property tax replacement was instituted in 1976 to replace money that was lost by local governments when their powers to impose personal property taxes on corporations, partnerships, and other business entities were taken away.
The state uses the same formula it has used since 1976 to calculate the tax. Payments are to be made to the taxing bodies in January, March, April, May, July, August, October, and December. The docked April reimbursement is the start of the repayment of $168 million statewide – but no one seems to know how long the reimbursement reductions will last. The misallocation was identified when the Department of Revenue implemented its new general ledger system, it said in a statement. It began in 2014 under former Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration following an amendment to the Illinois Income Tax Act, the department said. Turn to A2
Opposes rail line By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Two women voiced vehement opposition to the Ogle County Board last week to building a railroad line through the east side of the county. Miriah Ranken, Rochelle, and Cindy Brown, Lindenwood, both urged the board April 19 to get involved and oppose the proposed Great Lakes Basin Railroad. Building the rail line would cost an estimated $8 billion. The rail system would be entirely funded by private investors led by Frank Patton, Crete, a former software developer. Ranken advised board members to attend an April 20 informational meeting held in Rochelle to become familiar with the project. “We implore you to get involved now rather than later because this is when you’ll have the most say,” she said.
The Surface Transportation Board, an agency that works independently within the U.S. Department of Transportation, organized 10 public meetings, including the one in Rochelle, to gather input on a proposed 278-mile rail line project that would extend from southern Wisconsin to northern Indiana. Ranken urged the board to pass a resolution opposing it because of what she called its adverse effect on the watershed, endangered species, and wildlife. “We will leave you with this thought,” she said. “Is this in the best interests of Ogle County citizens?” Brown said the rail line will have an adverse effect on agriculture. It could also mean some roads will dead end, making it difficult for emergency vehicles to get where they need to go, she said. “This is a private investor that wants to use eminent domain for his own gain,” Brown said.
Anti-bullying seminar impacts students, faculty Father’s heartfelt story brings tears, message to kids By Christopher Heimerman Sauk Valley Media
cheimerman@sauk valley.com Students sobbed, and the door to the gym at Oregon High School revolved, as teachers left and returned with more boxes of tissues, and even toilet paper when the tissues ran out. Before the fifth graders through freshmen absorbed the intense antibullying message from Kirk Smalley of the activist group Stand for the Silent, their administrators warned their parents.
Letters were sent with a form that could be filled out to excuse their child. Not one parent asked that their child be excused. “I was so proud of all our parents,” said Ann Tilton, principal of Oregon Elementary School. “I knew it was going to have to be powerful. He’s a dad who lost his child.” Smalley tearfully shared the story of how, after two years of being bullied, his 11-year-old son, Ty, shot himself. The phone call from his hysterical wife. The promise he made a month and seven days later to never bully again. He shared statistics, such as students being bullied every seven seconds nationwide, and that one of
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four high school graduates have made plans to commit suicide. He held up his cell phone and explained how easy it is for students to terrorize each other. About midway through the 90-minute assembly, he asked how many in the crowd had been bullied. All but a few hands went up. “I love you guys,” he said, signing that phrase with his thumb, index finger and pinkie. “You are somebody.” Then he asked how many kids in the audience were bullies. Three hands went up in the corner of the gym. Smalley strode toward them and signed again. “I love you guys,” he said. Hundreds of fifth-graders through freshmen in the Oregon School District sign “I love
Church Bells, A5 Classifieds, B6-B10 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B5
you” to speaker Kirk Smalley of Stand for the Silent on April 21 during his anti-bullying Turn to A10 presentation in the Oregon High School gym. Photo by Christopher Heimerman
Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Library, A4 Public Voice, A7 Property Transfers, B3
Sheriff’s Arrests, B3 Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B4
Deaths, B4 Charles C. Beard, John W. Camplain, Howard E. Detra Sr., Dolores Patterson
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com