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POLO
Tri-County Press February 27, 2014 Volume 156, Number 23 - $1.00
State Wrestling
Penny Carnival
911 Recognized
Ethan Cain represented the Polo-Forreston wrestling team at the state tournament. B1
The annual Ogle County 4-H Penny Carnival is March 8. B5
The Ogle County 911 was recognized by NCMEC recently. A10
Council will not charge residents for extra water By Vinde Wells Editor Although Polo residents and business owners aren’t getting much relief from the water woes caused by the unrelenting frigid weather, at least they won’t feel the pinch in their pocketbooks. The city council took action Feb. 18 to make sure running the water to keep pipes from freezing won’t
be reflected on upcoming water bills. After a rash of frozen pipes, residents and business owners were notified Feb. 17 to keep a cold water faucet running until further notice as a precaution to keep pipes from freezing in the bitter cold. City officials are advising citizens to continue with running faucet until further notice.
The stream of water should be the size of a pencil and should be sufficient to fill a gallon jug in 4 to 5 minutes. The city council decided that water customers will not be charged for the extra water used. Charges will be based on a three-month average of each customer’s water use before the crisis occurred. A press release issued
by the city Feb. 17 said the reason for the frozen water lines is that the frost line is so deep the mains are freezing under the streets where there is no snow cover to provide insulation. Water and Sewer Superintendent Mike Gauthier said that in 36 years of working for the city, he had never seen the mains freeze as they have this year.
At that point at least a dozen homes were without water due to the city’s frozen mains. This week several more have been reported, mostly residents whose own pipes have frozen due to the cold. Gauthier and his crew have also been dealing with broken water mains. With more sub-zero temperatures predicted for this week, the problem may
be far from over. Gauthier said last week that more mains may break as the ground thaws, and that may take a month or more. Polo Alderman Randy Schoon commended Water and Sewer Department and Street Department employees at the Feb. 18 meeting for their hard work and long hours during an unusually cold and snowy winter.
Two spellers put on confident show Polo student finished second By Kathleen Schultz Sauk Valley Media
Ogle County eighthgraders were like two brainiac bookends up on the stage, politely battling it out for the title of queen bee. Brunette and bespectacled Lena Baumann, Polo, bold and confident was on one side of the stage. Tall, blond Anna Snider, Forreston, reserved and intense, was on the other. It was Round 22, and 24 other spellers from grades three through eight had been eliminated. It was down to the two slim 14-year-olds. Heifer, Lena spelled. Wainscot, Anna lobbed back. Guillotine. Troika. Taupe. Glasnost. Beleaguer. Perennial. Banzai. Eiderdown. Neither gave an inch. The audience waited in the darkened auditorium, silent and still. Then the inevitable. Hippopotamus. H-i-p-p-o-
t-a-m-u-s. Immediately, Lena knew her mistake. Anna’s turn. She spelled forsythia, to finish round 28, then camphor, to take Round 29. With that, and a sweet, subdued smile, Anna Snider, the Forreston Junior High School spelling champ, became the winner of the 2014 Lee-Ogle Regional Spelling Bee, held Feb. 20 in the Dixon High School auditorium. She won an all-expensespaid trip for two to National Harbor, Md., just south of Washington, D.C., to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the end of May. She will take her mom, Stephanie; father Matt will hold down the fort at home. Anna also won a $100 U.S. savings bond, a Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, and an online subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica. This was Anna’s third time at the regional bee. In a manner reminiscent of Helen Turn to A3
Polo’s Aplington Middle School student Lena Baumann reacts to misspelling “hippopotamus� with just her and eventual winner Anna Snider left to compete. Photo by Alex Paschal
Farm Toy Show will be Saturday Toys tractors, farm equipment, and more will be featured at the 29th annual Polo Farm Toy Show on Saturday, March 1 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Polo High School,
100 Union Ave., Polo. A 50-50 drawing will be The Polo Lions Club is the held. sponsor of the event. The Polo Boosters will Approximately 100 dealers serve lunch in the school will attending with a wide cafeteria. variety of items. Admission is $2 for adults
and children under 12 are admitted free. The school is handicapped accessible. For information call Dave and Irene Short at 815-9463730.
Buses sidelined on icy roads By Vinde Wells Editor School started a little later than expected Feb. 20 for students on four buses in western Ogle County. Icy gravel roads put a Forrestville Valley bus in a snow-filled ditch, while further south three Polo buses found themselves going nowhere due to the lack of traction. The Forrestville Valley bus was carrying 45 elementary, junior high, and high school students when it slipped off the ice-coated gravel surface around 7:30 a.m. in the 6000 block of West Lightsville Road approximately six miles northeast of Forreston. Ogle County Sheriff Michael Harn, who was first to arrive on the scene, said the students were shaken up but unharmed. Interim Superintendent Jane Eichman said the students Oregon Elementary School student McAuley Humphrey were transferred to another traces a word on the back of her number card while bus that transported them on competing in the Lee/Ogle Regional Spelling Bee to school. Thursday morning. Photo by Alex Paschal Harn said Leaf
In This Week’s Edition...
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B6-B12 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B4 Marriage Licenses, A4
Maryland Township Road Commissioner Stu Meyers prepares to hook a chain from the road grader to a Forrestville Valley school bus that slid into the ditch Feb. 20 on ice-covered Lightsville Road northeast of Adeline. Photo courtesy of the Ogle County Sheriff’s Department
River Township Road Commissioner Anthony Peterson spread a truckload of gravel at the scene, and Maryland Township Road Commissioner Stu Meyers used a road grader to pull the bus back onto the roadway. Meanwhile, Polo buses were having their own problems getting around after an icy mix of precipitation coated roads
Oregon Police, B5 Public Voice, A7-A9 Polo Police, A2 Property Transfers, B5 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3
in the early morning hours. Police Chief Dennis Christen said that while none of the buses slipped off the roadways, the roads were so slick that travel became impossible, especially as the drivers attempted to negotiate hills and intersections. One bus became immobilized on Valentine Road between Canada
Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B3 Weather, A2
and Oregon Trail Roads approximately five miles northeast of Polo. A few miles away, another lost traction trying to make a turn at Summerhill and Canada Roads, and the third couldn’t climb a hill on West Branch Road north of Ill. 64. Christen said the township road commissioners assisted by spreading gravel.
Deaths, B4 Joyce M. Birk, Robert J. Brooks, Dorothy Moore, Janice L. Point, David E. Unger
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