Orr 2018 01 04

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Serving Ogle County since 1851

OREGON Republican Reporter

January 4, 2018 Volume 168, Number 4- $1.00

Split in Dixon

Bird Count

Store Closing

Oregon girls basketball team wins two, loses two at the Dixon Holiday Tournament. B1

The results of JoDaviess annual Christmas Bird Count are in. B3

Charley’s Pharmacy & True Value Hardware is closing in Polo on Jan. 13. A2

Judge denies motions in fatal boat crash case IDNR reports will not be excluded By Kathleen Schultz kschultz@sauk valley.com An Ogle County judge has rejected the defense’s request to exclude Illinois Department of Natural Resources reports from evidence in the reckless homicide trial of an Oregon boater. The prejudice the reports may engender “does not rise to a level which warrants the extreme measure of exclusion,” Judge John Redington said in his twosentence ruling, filed Thursday in Ogle County Circuit Court. Rochelle attorney David Tess, who is representing Marc Mongan, 47, asked Redington to exclude the 149-page report and videos from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which investigated the crash that took the life of Megan Wells, 31, of Rockford. Wells was killed June 24, 2016, on the Rock River, about three miles north of Oregon when a johnboat Mongan was operating struck her as it went over the back of the pontoon boat she was riding in, throwing her overboard. Mongan is charged with one count of aggravated driving under the influence of

Brr... winter arrives Winter arrived in Ogle County with a vengeance at the New Year. Above, ice forms on the west wall of the Oregon dam. At right a woodpecker samples a suet cake at a feeder Tuesday morning as temperatures dipped to -13 in some parts of Ogle County. Photos by Earleen Hinton

alcohol, which carries 3 to 7 years in prison; three counts of reckless homicide, each of which carries 2 to 5 years; and three counts of reckless conduct, all punishable by 1 to 3 years. His trial is set to begin Feb. 14. At a motion hearing on Dec. 19, Tess argued that the IDNR report and videos should be excluded because they have been disseminated to the public, which could taint the jury pool and make cross-examining witnesses more difficult. By law, he said, such investigative records are not to be released when making them public could interfere with the case, and noted that prosecutors and defense attorneys are prohibited from doing so. The IDNR released the reports and videos to Wells’ family members after they filed a Freedom of Information Act request; they subsequently were posted on the internet and sent to various media outlets. The IDNR should have denied the FOIA request, Tess said. Special prosecutor David Neal, from the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Appellate Prosecutor’s office, agreed that the internet postings might make it harder for the court to select a jury. The IDNR, though, simply released the records to the victim’s family, and so “acted appropriately under the law,” Neal said.

City officials agree to purchase old drive-thru facility By Zach Arbogast zarbogast@oglecounty news.com Aided by funds from a public private partnership, the Oregon City Council voted last week to purchase a former piece of bank property. During a special meeting called for Dec. 28, the council voted 3-1 in favor of purchasing the former Harvard State Bank drive-up facility, 418 W. Washington St., for an amount not to exceed $25,000. Commissioner Jim Barnes was the only no vote, and Commissioner Kurt Wilson was absent. Altogether, the cost for acquiring the property is set at $23,850: $7,000 goes to the owner, $12,450 pays the due taxes, $3,000 covers closing, title, and sales, and $1,400 for the contingency. The funding for the acquisition comes from a public private partnership between Harvard State Bank, Stillman Bank, and Central bank, who together have

donated or committed the entire $23,850. Williams could not specific how much came from each individual entity. The property, valued at $40,000 and owned by Eagle Ocean Properties, LLC, has three underground storage tanks sitting underneath it, preventing building options. EOP has not been paying the property taxes, and the lot remains stagnant. Mayor Ken Williams approached EOP about purchasing the property to be used as public restrooms, a possible tourism office, and possibly other public uses to be decided in the future. “This could be a benefit to shoppers and tourists alike,” said Williams. Finance Commissioner Terry Schuster asked whether or not the city was liable for removing the underground tanks. “The city would not be liable for that unless we decided to dig,” said Williams. If the city disturbs the surface, they will become liable for handling the tanks.

In This Week’s Edition...

Barnes expressed concern that the city would need to disturb the surface anyway in order to put more bathrooms in. “The [property] has a basement, so the sewer lines can run right under the floor and hook up to the main,” said Williams. Barnes had further concerns with upkeep

and maintenance of the bathrooms. “Wouldn’t it be a better deal to let the park district do this? They have all this extra help — they can come over and open it up, close it up, clean it up,” said Barnes. Williams said the park district has shown interest, and would be an effective long-term caretaker of it, but

he cannot speak for them and was focused on acquiring the property itself. Street Commissioner Tom Izer said he thought obtaining the property for use as restrooms and tourism was a good idea. “It’d be nice for people coming through town to have a nice restroom, and pick up literature of the things going

on in town,” said Izer. “We have a lot of things going on in this town — I mean a lot — and so, a lot of people don’t know about it. I’m really in favor of it.” The city council meets again on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 5:30 p.m. at Oregon City Hall, 115 N. Third St. The meeting is open to the public.

The City of Oregon is purchasing what used to be a drive thru bank on the corner of Fifth and Washington Street (Ill. 64). Photo by Earleen Hinton

Church News, A5 Classifieds, B6-B8 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B4

Library News, A3 Marriage Licenses, A4 Property Transfers, B4 Reading Matters, A6

Sheriff’s Arrests, B3 Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2

Deaths, B5

Maurice J. Bronkema, Shirley A. Coffman, Dean Johnson, Ruth Kramer Richards, Joyce A. Stauffer, Vicki L. Young, Richard A. Zilly

Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com


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