Serving the Polo Area Since 1857
POLO
Tri-County Press April 7, 2016 Volume 158, Number 29 - $1.00
Coach Leaving
100 Mile Walk
Services Cut
Polo’s head football coach Andrew Hofer accepts a job in Mercer County. B1
A Polo man will walk a difficult trail to benefit Serenity Home. B2
A lack of state funding has caused Sinnissippi Centers to cut some of their services. B3
Council votes to give Bergstrom a second chance By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecountynews.com The Polo City Council decided Monday night to give one of its own a second chance. Aldermen voted 5 to 1 to hire Kayla Bergstrom, a lifelong Polo resident, as manager of the city pool for the summer despite her recent guilty plea to embezzling nearly $60,000 from First State Bank Shannon-Polo, where she was a vice president. Phil Peterson, who cast the only no vote, declined to give his reasons.
“I have my own personal reasons, but I prefer not to discuss it,” he said during a phone interview Tuesday. Voting yes were aldermen Troy Boothe, Cheryl Galor, Randy Schoon, David Ackeberg, and Jim Busser. Galor, who is the chairman of the Park Board Committee which oversees the pool, said Tuesday that she voted in favor of hiring Bergstrom for a second year because she has tried to make things right. “Personally, I believe in second chances,” Galor said. “What Kayla did was wrong, but she did
everything that the courts required. She paid the bank back, and she’s been helpful to the court system.” Besides that, Galor said, Bergstrom did a good job managing the pool last year, her first season in the post. “She did a wonderful job at the pool,” Galor said. “Aldermen approached her to take the job last year. She didn’t come to us; we went to her and asked her to work for us even though we knew [about the pending charges]. Kayla is a good person. I truly believe this is going to work. It’s not going to happen again.”
Bergstrom, 46, was indicted in federal court in Rockford Oct. 20, on charges she embezzled $59,560.88 from the bank over a four-year period. She initially pleaded not guilty but changed her plea to guilty March 22. Sentencing is set for June 28. Bergstrom faces a maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment, a term of supervised release of up to five years following imprisonment, and a fine of up to $1 million. The city council hired Bergstrom last year to replace longtime pool manager Terry Jenkins who stepped
down. The job lasts about four months – from late May, getting the outdoor pool ready for the season, until around Labor Day, when school starts and it closes for the year. Last year Bergstrom was paid $14 an hour and earned $7,687.75 for the summer. The council’s vote Monday was to approve the Park Board’s recommendation for the entire pool staff, including Bergstrom, assistant pool manager Sherri Wakenight, and 12 lifeguards. The Park Board approved the Turn to A3
Gamblers spend $176 million in Ogle locations By Andy Colbert acolbert@oglecounty news.com
Spring Sale Above, an auctioneer at the Hazelhurst Sale takes bids on one of the many agricultural items for sale on Saturday while auctioneer Lenny Bryson spots bidders. The annual sale is held west of Polo, near Hazelhurst. At right, Polo High School students Lucas Hammon, right, and Mack Llanas, center, worked in a steady steam mist on a cold and windy day at the Polo Lions Club’s food stand at the sale. Photos by Earleen Hinton
Cook retires after 24 years on the job By Chris Johnson cxjohnson@oglecounty news.com The local ride is over for Ogle County Engineer Curtis Cook when he steps down after 24 years on the job. He is stepping away at the end of the month to work at the Rockford office of Chastain and Associates, Decatur. “It has been a good ride. The time was right to step away from the post. It has been a blast,” he said. “I look back at the projects we completed and we went from a period of high economic development to a recession. Economically I saw one extreme to another.”
Despite economic challenges which impact the county highway department’s budget, Cook has been proud of the accomplishments the department has made. “There were several major projects I was tickled with,” said Cook. The highway department worked with the City of Rochelle, the BNSF Railroad, IDOT, and other agencies to build the Steward Road overpass. “It took coordination of all these agencies and the road benefits the companies along the road,” said Cook. This project started in 2005 with the concept and was completed in 2010 after a two-year construction.
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“Coordinated projects were fun because it shows we play well in the same sandbox,” he said. Another project he was proud of was the county Geographic Information Systems (GIS) project. The highway department, county board, zoning department, and assessor worked together to assemble the data for Ogle County. “The GIS system required coordination and 15 years later we have 38 agencies that participate,” Cook said. “GIS has the cooperation and is a product with information that the public wants.” Looking forward, Cook sees the need to address township bridges.
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B6-B10 Entertainment, A6 Marriage Licenses, A4
Curtis Cook
“The county bridges are in good condition but the issue is looming for township bridges,” Cook said. Currently the funding model for bridges has the costs to replace one bridge Turn to A3
Polo Police, A2 Property Transfers, B4 Public Voice, A7 Sheriff’s Arrests, B4
The figures are staggering. In 2015, gamblers played $176 millions in slot machines. No, those weren’t numbers for Illinois. That was for Ogle County alone. Statewide, $11 billion was fed into the slots. Since video gaming was approved by the state legislature in 2012, Ogle County went from $54 millions played two years ago to the $176 million last year, a growth of 220 percent. Of that amount, gamblers lost $14 million in 2015. Officially known as video gaming terminals (VGTs) by the Illinois Gaming Board and one-armed bandits in slang, these machines have pumped loads of money into businesses that house them, the machines operators themselves and state and local tax coffers. The same is true in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world. It is slot machines, not table games or sports betting that bring in the most revenue to a casino. Reviewing the amounts gambled in February statewide, there was more than a billion dollars pumped into machines. The February amount among Ogle county licensees with number of gaming terminals in parenthesis was: Rochelle (49) $2,790,259 Oregon (45) $1,854,061 Mt. Morris (25) $708,130 Byron (24) $867,318 Davis Junction (15) $600,479 Stillman Valley (15) $513,766 Polo (15) $348,527 Forreston (5) $225,636 Grand Detour (5) $133,897 Chana (5) $122,629 Leaf River (4) $67,135 Ten Pennies ($735,000 for February) and Father and Sons ($524,000) dominate the VGT scene in Oregon with 10 terminals each. “Being a tourist community, we have more bars and restaurants,”
Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B3 Weather, A10
said Oregon mayor Ken Williams, explaining why the community has nearly twice as many slots as Byron and Mt. Morris. “I think there has to be a balance. Economically, there is a point of diminishing returns. Each community will only support so many (VGT) businesses.” The biggest winners in the county are those near I-39. Road Ranger, on Ill. 38 next to Rochelle, had nearly a million dollars pumped into five machines in February and the neighboring Mac Convenience had $646,873. The Monroe Center Oasis at Rt. 72 took in over a half million dollars. “It’s the interstate draw,” Road Ranger corporate rep Steve Brooks said. “We get the over-the-road trucker and more foot traffic than traditional business. Plus, that location is Rochelle has always been good for us before (video gaming).” Truck stops are unique in that they are not required to have alcohol or on-premise consumption licenses. It is an exemption granted to them by the state gaming board. The win percentage nationwide on slot machines for the player is from 82 percent to 98 percent. In Oregon, there was $1,692,920 won in February, a 91 percent win rate. Of the $161,140 lost by gamblers in Oregon in February, the city got $8,057 (5 percent) and the state $40,285 (30 percent). The rest goes to the businesses and machine operators. There is a limit of five machines per establishment, which is why the building that houses Ten Pennies is subdivided in half. Father and Sons operate two sites at Franklin St. Pub and the pizza parlor. Countywide, the impact of 215 slot machines is felt both by the businesses and government. “There are two things that stand out,” said longtime Polo City Clerk Susie Turn to A3
Deaths, B4 Mary Ann Greenawalt, F. Imogene Fridley Rothermel
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com