Serving Ogle County since 1851
OREGON Republican Reporter
September 15, 2016 Volume 166, Number 40 - $1.00
Golfers Win
RRC BBQ
Flu Clinics
The Oregon Hawks had a dominating performance Monday over Forreston B1
The annual fundraiser for the RRC will be held Sept. 17 in Oregon. A7
The Ogle County Health Department will host several flu clinics around Ogle County. A7
Historic school needs new roof
Statue will be wrapped again By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Apparently Ogle County’s most well-known landmark will spend another winter under wraps. IDNR spokesman Chris Young said Monday that the Black Hawk statue near Oregon will likely be enclosed for the winter, but did not specify how or with what. “We anticipate wrapping (winterizing) the statue in mid-November,” Young said in an email. Until last June, the statue had spent the previous year and a half encased in green protective mesh wrapped around a scaffold. The scaffold and mesh was put up in December of 2014 by then
project conservator Dr. Andrzej Dajnowski from Conservation of Sculpture & Objects Studio, Forest Park, in an effort to protect the 105-year-old concrete monument from the elements. Because the statue is located at Lowden State Park, it falls under the jurisdiction of the IDNR. Information from the IDNR has been sparse about the fate of repair work on the statue designed by sculptor Lorado Taft as a tribute to Native Americans. All Young would say was that Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc., Chicago, is the architectural/engineering firm handling the project to repair damage to the statue caused by weather and time. Turn to A10
By Earleen Hinton ehinton@oglecounty news.com
The Black Hawk Statue at Lowden State Park will be wrapped for the winter. Photo by Earleen Hinton
Crowds flock back to restaurant By Andy Colbert acolbert@oglecounty news.com Like hundreds of other customers, Candy Trudell eagerly walked into Grubsteakers Restaurant upon it’s reopening last week. All were hungry for the home-style food and sense of community that had been
missing since an April 9, 2015 tornado destroyed the restaurant. “This corner means so much to this generation and those before them,” Trudell said. Traveling with her father from the family farm in rural Polo to deliver cattle to the Chicago stockyards over 50 years ago, Trudell
remembers many a stop at the corner of highways 251 and 64. “Originally, it was Sipes Corner. Grandma Sipes started the food business,” Trudell said. “I’m not sure how many different owners have been here, but it’s always good food.” Owner Ava Mirtoska was hard at work on Thursday
morning trying to rectify a problem with the credit card machine, as she welcomed Trudell and a friend to the brand new building. “So far, things have gone well. It’s good to have all the regulars back,” Mirtoska said. Trudell is more than a regular. Living in a house a Turn to A10
When the grassroots effort to save the Chana School was at full speed 18 years ago, restoration proponents knew that a new roof was one of the key elements crucial to restoring the unique tworoom schoolhouse. The dilapidated two-room school, built in 1883, had sat neglected for years in Chana, nine miles of east of Oregon, with rain and snow wreaking havoc on the unique wooden structure. “We knew we had to have a new roof,” said Connie Stauffer, an Oregon teacher who spearheaded the save the Chana School effort. “At that time, in 1999, a wooden roof was put on like one would have been in the 1880s.” In the restoration process, a new wooden roof was installed following original construction methods and guidelines to make sure the structure would qualify for the National Register of Historic Places. With the new roof in place, volunteers worked thousands of hours bringing the unique two-room school back to its original luster. Working without tax revenues, volunteers also held fundraising events to create the Chana School Foundation to make sure the historic structure could be
used as a working classroom to teach modern-day students what learning in a country school was like. It was placed on the National Register in 2005. But Stauffer knew something was amiss three years ago when a leak was detected in the big classroom school. “We thought it was just natural wear and tear until the leak appeared,” said Stauffer. “Sadly, due to environment conditions and ‘second growth wood’ the wooden roof is failing. We never guessed we’d have to do construction again. But you meet the challenges of life and go ahead. Hopefully, people will help us again.” Stauffer is asking area residents to help cover the costs for a new all-steel roof, estimated between $30,000 to $35,000. “That cost would be barring no other problems with 133-year-old materials in the structure,” noted Stauffer. “Many such roofs in the area face the same problem. The wooden roof was to last 50 years. To the Chana School Foundation, which maintains and runs the schoolhouse, it is a great disappointment that the roof needs to be replaced. The roof has already been patched once, but the shingles continue to degrade.” Stauffer said the National Turn to A2
Rain fails to deter Rock River Sweep volunteers By Earleen Hinton ehinton@oglecounty news.com A little rain didn’t deter 50 volunteers from doing their part to clean up the Rock River during the eighth annual Rock River Sweep Sept. 10. “It wasn’t our sunniest day, but we still had a decent turnout,” said Rock River Sweep.Org President Mark Nehrkorn. “We still had 50 people come out to pick up trash in the rain.” Volunteers started at 7:30 a.m. picking up trash and debris along and in a sevenmile stretch of the Rock River from the boat launch on Ill. 2, south to the boat launch at Castle Rock State Park. Some walked the shores while others used boats and canoes to fish garbage from the water. “We had the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ boat along with canoes and flat-bottom boats and kayaks out collecting,” said Angela Mahoney, volunteer coordinator. “White Pelican Canoe & Kayak Rental, Inc., donated 10 canoes for us to use along with their shuttle service.” Collected bags and debris were brought back to “Sweep
Rock River Sweep President Mark Nehrkorn unloads the tub of a washing machine that was collected by volunteers who picked up trash and debris along and in the Rock River on Sept. 10. Also pictured are volunteers Jessie and Brandon Hafer and coordinator Angela Mahoney. Photo by Earleen Hinton
HQ” a pop up tent at Kiwanis Park by small dump trucks provided by the Oregon Park District and Ogle County Highway Department where volunteers then sorted the trash for recyclables. In addition to the usual debris and trash —tires and
In This Week’s Edition...
beer cans— this year’s event brought in the tub of an old washing machine. “We also had your typical dock items and of course several tires,” Nehrkorn said. “Someone found a Mallord duck decoy which we gave to DNR.”
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B6-B10 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B5 Library News, A3
Oregon Mayor Ken Williams, who volunteered at the event, said he found a Trump for President sign. “It came in very handy. I used it to cover my head when it rained,” he chuckled. “One of the volunteers wanted it.” Frank Masterman started
Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Police, B5 Public Voice, A7 Property Transfers, B5 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3
Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B4 Zoning, B4
the Rock River Sweep in Oregon in 2009. The longtime Oregon resident was helping at Saturday’s event. “I am very pleased it is continuing,” he said. “I knew it would continue because it was a worthwhile project.” The Rock River Sweep
is an effort by many groups to clean the Rock River, from its origin in Horicon, Wisconsin, to where it meets the Mississippi River. Mahoney said the amount of trash collected is starting to decrease due to clean-up efforts upstream. “We have less each year because they start upstream,” she said. Saturday’s event was sponsored by RockRiverSweep.org, a grass roots, non-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving the health and ecosystem of the Rock River and its tributaries. Other sponsors included the Rock River Trail Initiative and the Rock River Times. Locally, the Oregon Area Rock River Sweep was also sponsored by the Ogle County Solid Waste Management, the Ogle County Highway and Sheriff’s Departments, the Oregon Park District, Oregon Together, White Pelican Canoe & Kayak Rental, and American Rivers National River Cleanup. For more information: visit Facebook: “Rock River Sweep.org”; or www. rockriversweep.org; email srypkema@oglecounty.org; or call 815-732-4020.
Deaths, B4 Darlene E. Bocker, John A. DeVries, Sandra L. Janssen, Betty R. White
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com