W eekend SV
Saukvalley.com
Your source for news and sports 7 days a week
Serving Lee, Whiteside, Carroll, Ogle and Bureau counties Saturday&Sunday, July 2-3, 2016 n $2.00
Erie senior never stops working hard MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR, B1
STATE BUDGET | HUMAN SERVICES
Prairie still for the birds Group tracking nests’ success amid bison at preserve FRANKLIN GROVE – Birds can be as fickle as their nests are fragile. So one might think a three-quarter-ton beast would be detrimental to our feathered friends. Not so. At least not yet. Heather Herakovich, in her third summer studying nests at Nachusa Grasslands, has seen a steady thriving of nests in the prairie that about 80 bison – not including new calves – call home. There’s a simple requisite for a nest to
be successful: that the eggs hatch, and the chicks leave the nest. About a third of nests make it. The other two-thirds are likely doomed by predators, or by parasitic birds laying eggs in others’ nests, at which point, many parent birds abandon their offspring. Thanks to funding from Friends of Nachusa, the DuPage Birding Club, the Illinois Association for Environmental Professionals, and Northern Illinois University, where she’s working on her doctorate, Herakovich, 26, of DeKalb, has honed in on aviary tendencies. BIRDS continued on A104
There will be no paper Monday. Have a safe and happy holiday weekend.
RAUNER OKS MEDICAL MARIJUANA EXTENSION ILLINOIS, A4
FRANKLIN GROVE
BY CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN cheimerman@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5523 CHeimerman_SVM
July 4
Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
Heather Herakovich (left) measures the vegetation around a bird’s nest with the help of a Robel pole and her one paid intern, Sarah St. Peter, of Elburn.
Inside Turn to Page A3 to read more about Heather Dauen and her dream of creating an educational prairie next to her Sterling home.
Issues began before battle Directors: Temporary funding is no solution
TURTLE POWER AT PETUNIA FESTIVAL IN DIXON
BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5570 @pam_eggemeier
STERLING – Illinois has a temporary budget, but for human services agencies, directors say very little has changed. The Legislature passed a series of bills late Thursday that will keep government operating for 6 months, and fund schools for a full year. While the new budget deal might help stop the bleeding for a while, for many Illinois residents, it’s just another instance of kicking the can down the road. “I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel,” said Jeff Stauter, executive director at Kreider Services, based in Dixon. “Even with the stopgap budget, it won’t help until the $8 billion budget deficit question is addressed. This retains the status quo, which is unacceptable.” ISSUES continued on A54
The legislation
Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com
Cooper Fox, 4, of Amboy, eats an ice cream cone Friday evening after getting a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mask painted on his face at the Petunia Festival Family Fun Night at the Old Lee County Courthouse in Dixon. Go to Page A11 to see more photos and information about the festival.
House Bill 5932 and Senate Bill 2952 have been introduced in the Illinois Legislature. If passed, the bills would increase the starting wage for direct support professionals to $15 an hour.
CONSTRUCTION
Route 30 bridge closing Tuesday IDOT: $1.7 million project will take about 4 months to finish BY KATHLEEN A. SCHULTZ kschultz@saukvalley.com 815-625-3600, ext. 5535 @KathleenSchul10
DIXON – A $1.7 million repair project will shut down the U.S. Route 30 bridge over the Rock River for about 4 months, starting Tuesday. For those who can’t avoid the work area, traffic will be rerouted to Interstate 88 for a short stretch, the Illinois Department of Transportation said in a news release. Detour signs went up Friday. Work on the bridge, which is about 2 miles west of Rock Falls, is routine maintenance that will include
repairing the concrete bridge deck, painting steel beams, replacing expansion joints, and giving the road on the structure a new surface. Because the expansion joints extend across both lanes, the entire roadway must be closed, the release said. Work is expected to be done and the bridge reopened by the end of October. Another major IDOT project already underway is a $3.7 million resurfacing job on state Route 40 from Milledgeville to Sterling. That project, which began June 13, will improve the 12-mile sec-
Mostly sunny
VOLUME 8 ISSUE 44 36 Pages
Today:77/56 For the forecast, see Page A12
tion of Route 40 from Lynn Boulevard at the north edge of Sterling to Adams Street in Milledgeville. Work is on hold for about 3 weeks until the contractor finishes another job, and should take only 2 weeks, until around the second week of August, to complete. Those last 2 weeks, drivers can expect to see lane restrictions and flaggers, IDOT said. IDOT’s Region 2, District 2, based in Dixon, oversees projects in 10 counties, including Lee, Whiteside, Ogle, and Carroll. Follow IDOT at twitter.com/IDOTDistrict2 or call 815-284-2271 for updates.
Business
The business that puts the petunias in Petunia City is still growing. See Page C1
Community It was the “Battle of Elks Page Park” last weekend as more than 200 World War II re-enactors simulated combat conditions for visitors. See Page C12
Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com
A $1.7 million repair project will shut down the U.S. Route 30 bridge over the Rock River for about 4 months, starting Tuesday. For those who can’t avoid the work area, traffic will be rerouted to Interstate 88 for a short stretch, the Illinois Department of Transportation said in a news release. Detour signs went up Friday.
Index Births................. C5
Lottery............... A2
Business............ C1
Markets........... A12
Classified........... B7
Obituaries.......... A4
Comics........ A8-A9
Opinion.............. A6
Community...... C12
Scoreboard....... B6
Crossword Saturday............ B9
Scrapbook........ C3
Crossword Sunday.............. C8
Support groups... C5
Dave Ramsey.... C1
Weather........... A12
Dear Abby......... C6
Wheels............ B12
Sports............... B1 Travel............... C10