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Tri-County Press March 26, 2015 Volume 157, Number 27 - $1.00
Progress
Candidate Profiles
Businesses and government agencies work to succeed in today’s economic climate. C1
Learn about candidates for Polo School Board and Polo City Council. A7
Board RIFs teachers due to fewer students By Vinde Wells Editor Declining enrollment prompted the Polo School Board to honorably dismiss four teachers Monday night. Through reduction in force (RIF) the board dismissed Janice Martin, high school business and technology; Stephanie Moring, third grade; Lindsay O’Keefe, fourth grade; and Jamie Rodriguez, Title I. “The reason for this is that Aplington Middle School will be reduced from three sections per grade level to two sections per grade level for the 2015-16 school year,” said Superintendent Chris Rademacher. The middle school will have an estimated enrollment of 120 students next year, he said, down 64 students from seven years ago. “Over this same time period, Centennial Elementary will have an enrollment of 253, which is
down from 317,” he said. Rademacher supplied a graph which showed a loss of 214 students in the district over the last 15 years. The district’s official enrollment last fall was 603, a loss of 47 students from the previous year. Rademacher said last fall that the loss of jobs plays a significant part in the enrollment decline, along with larger farms. “We have been affected by the closing of the printing plants in Mt. Morris,” he said then. “In the rural areas, farming has gotten bigger over the last 20 years. We do not pick up as many students in the country. The farmhouses on 160-acre plots have disappeared.” The district is also facing reduced revenues from property taxes and General Sate Aid. The Oregon School Board riffed three teachers March 16 due to declining enrollment and decreasing
revenues. Superintendent Tom Mahoney said the district will also eliminate five positions in the high school for the next school year. The Polo School Board also voted to re-employ eight probationary teachers on Monday. Fourth-year high school teachers Andrew Hofer, language arts, and Rachel Leffelman, mathematics, were granted tenure, as was Centennial speech teacher Angela Bowlin. Third-year teachers Janet Folk, Bright Futures and Early Childhood Education, and Emily Joines, high Linda Meyer has already made an array of Christmas gifts for her family. Crocheting school physical education the items is part of her therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Photo by Vinde Wells and drivers education were rehired for 2015-16. Also rehired were Scott Swartz, high school English; Carrie Grobe, high school By Vinde Wells shuffling gait — but blamed and most recently designing home economics; and Editor them on getting older. T-shirts. Patrick Anderson, high “I thought old age was The artfully-fashioned school band and choir. All An Adeline woman is sneaking up on me,” she said. crocheted items include a three are first-year teachers. using her creative abilities to Her orthopedist thought colorful array of slippers, raise public awareness about differently — he immediately scarves, hats, boot cuffs, and the debilitating disease she suspected Parkinson’s, and more. suffers from. further tests confirmed it. She also crochets small Linda Meyer, 67, has Her medications are gray ribbons, the symbol of designed T-shirts in a working well to keep the Parkinson’s, and attaches rainbow of colors to get the symptoms in check, Meyer information about the word out about Parkinson’s said, but they also have a disease to them. The ribbons disease. downside. can be worn as pins. Dixon City, Rochelle, The design she made for “With Parkinson’s, one of Her projects help her keep Franklin Grove, and Monroe the front says, “Fight Club” the medicines you take gives the disease under control. Township Fire Departments. in large letters with a logo you compulsions,” Meyer Meyer explained that Dixon Rural firefighters and smaller letters that read said. “Some people gamble. planning the projects is stood by at the Mt. Morris “Parkinson’s Disease - For a Mine is that I’ve got to make therapy for her brain, while Fire Station. Cure.” something.” the work is therapy for her The second fire severely All the money she makes She decided to make hands. damaged the one-story from selling the shirts — the most of that and began “If you don’t use it, you home of Christopher Plum around $600 — will go to painting barn quilts, lose it,” she said with a grin. at 715 Franklin St. on Parkinson’s research. crocheting Christmas gifts Turn to A2 Sunday morning. “It affects every aspect of for her family and friends, Heller said a candle your life,” she said. “I don’t ignited the blaze. think there will be a cure in Plum was treated at the my lifetime, but maybe there scene for cuts on his feet by will.” the ATS Ambulance staff. Meyer will also have He was not transported to a table with information the hospital. about Parkinson’s disease Plum’s next door neighbor next month at the Forreston Verva Thomas said she saw Public Library and the a puff of smoke outside Bertolet Memorial Library, around 10:20 a.m. Leaf River. “When I looked outside The timing is perfect I saw his front door was on because April is National fire,” she said. Parkinson’s Awareness Thomas immediately Month. called 911, as did other Meyer, the mother of three neighbors. and grandmother of six, was Heller said the fire started diagnosed in November of in the living room of the 2012 with Parkinson’s, a home, which is owned by degenerative disease of the John Andrew. central nervous system. Firefighters from Mt. She had several classic Morris, Byron, and Stillman symptoms — hand tremors, Linda Meyer and her grandson Cody Snyder pose for a Valley Fire Departments back problems, and a photo wearing the T-shirts she made to raise funds for Parkinson’s research. Photo supplied assisted at the scene.
Creating some awareness
Polo responded to house fire in Oregon March 21 Family escaped from the home By Vinde Wells Editor
Oregon firefighters were called to two house fires in as many days over the weekend. Firefighters from nine area departments turned out to help battle a fire at the home of Harold and Miranda Best at 506 W. Madison St., on the northeast corner of Madison and Sixth Streets in Oregon on Saturday morning. Oregon Fire Chaplain Michael Hoffman said the couple and their dog were safely out of the house when firefighters arrived around 8:30 a.m. Oregon Fire Chief Don Heller said Monday afternoon that the cause of the fire is undetermined, according to a representative from the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s office who assisted with the investigation. Assistant Fire Chief Al
Greene said the preliminary investigation indicated the fire started in an addition at the rear of the century-andhalf-old two-story frame house. Firefighters arrived on the scene to find the fire already well advanced. “When we got there the fire was burning in the attics of both the house and the addition, and it was under the first floor of the addition,” Greene said. “The second floor collapsed within the first 20 minutes.” Firefighters on two aerial ladders battled the flames in the attic and upstairs throughout the morning. Greene said that one advantage was that many volunteer firefighters responded to the call. “A lot of firemen were available because it was a Saturday morning,” he said. “It would have been different on a work day.” Most area departments are staffed by volunteers who hold other full-time jobs. Oregon was assisted at the scene by the Mt. Morris, Polo, Byron, Stillman Valley,
Existence of storage tanks was fully disclosed By Vinde Wells Editor Both the seller and the buyer agree that information about the existence of underground storage tanks was fully disclosed when the Ogle County Board purchased a piece of property almost two years ago. John Spoor, Oregon, said
last week that he made it clear to county officials that gas tanks were still in the ground at 501 W. Washington St. before he sold them the property in June of 2013. “It was fully disclosed at the time of the sale,” Spoor said. County board chairman Kim Gouker affirmed that. “They disclosed everything,” Gouker said. “John
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was very upfront. He told us the tanks were there.” The question of disclosure came up at the March 17 county board meeting when architect Guy Gehlhausen told the board that the property may not be complaint state regulations. He said the property, which was once a gas station, may still have underground storage
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tanks and contaminated soil. The underground tanks have never been registered, Gehlhausen said, which is required by the Illinois Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM). He recommended that the county hire an environmental engineer to determine what needs to be done to be sure Illinois Environmental Pro-
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tection Agency (IEPA) and OSFM standards are being met. County board member Lee Meyer, Byron, then questioned if county officials had been made aware of that prior to the sale. Gouker said they were. Gehlhausen attended the county board meeting last week to present the board
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with estimates of what it would cost to demolish the building and pave the property for parking. If no tank issues exist, he said project will cost an estimated $186,153. If the building contains asbestos, removing it would cost another $10,000 to $15,000, he said. Turn to B2
Deaths, B4 Charles H. Formby, Elisabeth S. Mann, Doris Michael, Reah A. Travis, Patricia A. Unger, Ethel M. Woodin
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com