Serving the Polo Area Since 1857
POLO Season Ends
Tri-County Press March 3, 2016 Volume 158, Number 24 - $1.00
Toy Show
The Polo Marcos season ended early with a loss to Princeville Feb. 24. B1
What’s Cookin’
The annual Polo Farm Toy Show will be held March 5. A2
An annual cooking showcase and competition returns to Barnacopia March 12. A6
Residents turn out for tax referenda meeting By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Approximately 30 Polo Fire District residents turned out Monday evening to ask questions about the two referenda that will be on the March 15 ballot. Fire district officials are asking residents for more money to operate both the
fire and ambulance services. One referenda asks for a property tax increase from 30 to 40 cents per $100 equalized assessed valuation (EAV) for fire department, and the other asks for the same amount for the ambulance service. That means for a house valued at $150,000, the real estate taxes could increase a maximum of approximately
$100, excluding exemptions, if both measures get the nod from voters. However, district board vice president Mark Bergstrom said the increase will be less than that because the board does not plan to levy the full amount for either service. For fire protection, not more than the 30 cents that is now on tax bills will be
levied, at least for now. “The fire side is sitting in pretty good shape so it won’t go up at all,” he said. “We just want to have the ability to go up if we need to.” The district missed out on getting a grant for the purchase of new radios about three years ago because it wasn’t taxing at 30 cents, the maximum allowed by the state at that time.
“We were the only department in the county that didn’t get a grant for the radios because we weren’t at the maximum,” Bergstrom said. The district had to borrow more than $80,000 to pay for the radios, he said. The board does need more income for the ambulance service, Bergstrom said, but has no plans of levying the
full 40 cents at this time. The district contracts with ATS to provide emergency medical technicians around the clock, and their fees are going up, he said. When the contract with ATS began in 2009, the annual cost to the district was $288,267. The cost for 2016 will be $327,000 with Turn to A3
Zeigler claims her second win By Chris Heimerman Sauk Valley Media cheimerman@sauk valley.com For nearly three hours and 37 rounds, Rebekah Zeigler did all she could to keep the blood from rushing to her head. When Tom Wadsworth, emcee of the first combined Lee-Ogle-Whiteside Regional Spelling Bee, turned and announced to the Centennial Elementary School fifth-grader, “You’re going to Washington!”, she put her hands on her cheeks and dragged her fingers down to reveal bright red streaks – streaks of relief, no doubt. In spelling scullion correctly Feb. 25, the defending Lee-Ogle champ from Polo again punched her ticket to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be held May 22 to 27 in National Harbor, Maryland. She also survived a showdown with three other spellers – eventual runnerup Mariam Elahmady of River Bend Middle School in Fulton, Aaliyah Gaffey of Challand Middle School in Sterling, and Rebekah Starwalt of Byron Middle School – that began in Round 14 and lasted the
subsequent 13 rounds. Typically, Wadsworth waits for the final three spellers to bring them to the front of the stage, but after the quartet, along with Taylor Miller, Forreston, duked it out for five rounds, until Miller bowed out on the word quisling – she went with the double-z – he brought the foursome to the front after Round 15. He obviously knew the talent that was on hand. So did the defending champion. “They were really, really good spellers,” she said. “I started sweating and got really nervous that I would spend one wrong.” But she relied on two tried-and-true techniques to prevail. First, she clasped her hands together and told herself she was “cool, calm, and in control,” a trick she learned at Gymnastics Divine in Dixon. “Only I couldn’t bite my nails this time, because I painted them,” she said. Understandable, given the packed auditorium at Dixon High. Second, every time she stoically approached the microphone and heard her word, she “wrote” the word on the back of her number card as she spelled it. Gaffey, an eighth-grader,
Rebekah Zeigler of Centennial Elementary School in Polo reacts to winning the Lee-Ogle-Whiteside Regional Spelling Bee in Dixon. Photo by Alex T. Paschal
used a similar technique, only she “scribbled” on her hand. At one point, she showed incredible resolve by getting halfway through phenomenon, getting stuck, then starting over. Spellers can do that, as long as they don’t change the letters they’ve already spoken. But she spelled her 26th word of the day, vivaci, with an “e” on the end. “You did extremely well today,” Wadsworth said. Two rounds later, fatigue set in for the sixth-grader
from Byron. Starwalt, smooth until that point, swapped the “i” and the “u” in prosciutto. “I don’t know how to spell it, either,” Wadsworth said as he comforted her. When he later presented her with her prizes – a $50 Amazon gift card and a Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary – he joked, “as if she’ll ever need it.” When Elahmady rattled off nenuphar, and Zeigler followed by nailing bobbejaan in the next round, Wadsworth wiped his
forehead, looked over and smiled with disbelief. Dr. Ahmed Elahmady wasn’t surprised. His daughter spends two hours a day studying her words, and even has her words on her phone, so she can study on the go. “She’s a very smart kid,” he said. “She takes after her mother.” But having gone through all the words Wadsworth could have imagined the students would need, he was forced to move on to a list they hadn’t been privy to. They’re given a list
of about 1,500 words to agonize over in advance, and he had to go off that list. “I’m not exaggerating when I say the words were harder this year, and the students were better this year, than I’ve seen in 34 years,” he said. “This bee had better spellers who advanced farther than anyone had ever done in this contest. There was a percentage of kids who were more prepared than we’d ever seen.” “I would’ve been lost after Round 1,” Turn to A9
Day of Dabbling allowed kids to create unique crafts By Chris Johnson cxjohnson@oglecounty news.com Unique crafts were created with only minor setbacks Saturday morning. The Ogle County 4-H members were participating in the Day of Dabbling at the Oregon Church of God.
This piece of melted crayon art was made by Natalie Carlson, Byron.
This is an event where the older 4-H members create projects that can be taught and completed in less than an hour. One of these projects was being co-run by Jacob Ebens, Oregon. “I learned a lot about organization today,” he said. “I also learned how to run an event.” At his station, 4-H members were creating a stained glass design using melted crayon shavings and a stencil. “The iron station slowed the project down,” said Ebens. “One iron stopped working.” Fortunately for Ebens the 4-H members were patient and everyone was able to complete most of the project. “Some stencils still needed to be glued and cut,” said Ebens. Another project involving
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crayons also had a meltdown during the event. “One of our heat guns failed,” said Natalie Carlson, Byron. “It made it hard to get everything done.” Her workshop was melted crayon art. Crayons are placed around a blank canvas and melted by a heat source, like a hair dryer or heat gun. “4-H teaches you how to go with the flow and adapt so we adapted,” she said. Originally there were four people per station and this station, but because of the broken heat gun, six had to share the remaining two hair dryers. “It worked out in the end,” said Carlson. The idea for this project was from a Pinterest post Carlson viewed. “I learned how to make the crayon art and made the
Business Briefs, A4 Church News, A5 Classifieds, B5-B10 Entertainment, A6
samples,” she said. These classes would not have been held if it were not for the participants that signed up to take the workshops. Wesley Immel, Blackhawk Crossings 4-H, signed up for the stained glass crayons and a sewing workshop. For sewing, the 4-H members made felt notebook covers that required a simple top stitch to complete. “I tried to get it done but made the stitches too big,” said Immel. “I will take them out and finish it when I get home.” He was proud of what he made and was looking forward to completing more crafts. “I signed up for all the crafts today,” he said. The Day of Dabbling is an annual event hosted by the Ogle County 4-H clubs.
Marriage Licenses, A4 Public Voice, A7 Property Transfers, B4 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3
Blackhawk Crossings 4-H member Wesley Immel tests his sewing skills while making a felt notebook cover during Day of Dabbling Feb. 27 at the Oregon Church of God. Photo by Chris Johnson
Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B3 Weather Forecast, A2
Deaths, B4 Jacqualin F. Bowers
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com