Serving the Polo Area Since 1857
POLO
Tri-County Press November 24, 2016 Volume 159, Number 10 - $1.00
Season Preview
Sculpture Moved
The Polo Marcos are ready to begin the 2016-2017 basketball season. B1
SoyPod by Pamela Lee has been moved to a new location by the Oregon Library. A6
Council hires two police officers, street employee By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecountynews.com Two new officers were added to the Polo Police Department Monday evening. The city council voted to hire Street Department employee Tim Rockwood, Polo, as a full-time officer, and Christian Ponall, Sheridan, as a part-time officer. Ponall is currently a full-time police officer for the Sheridan
Police Department and works as a part-time officer in Mt. Morris. Following a closed session, the council agreed that Rockwood’s employment as a police officer will begin Dec. 5, and he will be paid $18 per hour. Rockwood will attend the State Police Academy, Springfield, beginning Jan. 8. In a related matter, the council hired Scott VanKirk, Polo, to replace Rockwood in the Street
Department. VanKirk will also begin Dec. 5 and will be paid $16.50 an hour. The council also agreed to pay former Police Chief Dennis Christen, who is now the Polo department’s sergeant, $5,000 in back pay for overtime he worked during the time he was chief. Mayor Doug Knapp said Christen had asked for more, but did not disclose that amount. In other business Police Chief
Kurt Cavanaugh reported that the owners of several apparently abandoned vehicles have been contacted, and progress is being made on bringing them into compliance with city ordinances. Cavanaugh said he is also working with Richard Jeter, 901 S. Division Ave., in response to complaints about an ongoing yard sale and possible ordinance violations as his residence. “That will be taken care of,” he
The firm donates the furniture to law enforcement agencies.
Black Hawk has been wrapped for the winter
New chief is ready to serve
By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com
By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com
Ogle County’s best-known landmark has his winter coat on once again. For the third consecutive winter, the Black Hawk statue at Lowden State Park near Oregon, has been wrapped to protect it from the elements. A team from Quality Restorations, Inc., Wood Dale, spent three days last week wrapping the 50foot concrete monument in 12 millimeter thick duallayered polyethylene, padded underneath with blankets, and tied on tight with a halfmile of elastic rope. The rope wrapped around the padded protective plastic covering gives the illusion that the 105-year-old icon is wearing a quilted down snowsuit. Louise D. Quick Park will be Crew supervisor Keith held at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Niles said Friday that the Nov. 26. durable black plastic used to Santa will arrive on the cover the statue is designed to fire truck. keep out moisture, protecting Kids can line up to see the “jolly old elf ” and share their Christmas gift dreams.
A desire to serve his hometown motivated Polo’s new police chief to come out of retirement. Retired Illinois State Trooper Kurt Cavanaugh took over as chief Nov. 8, succeeding Dennis Christen, who requested reassignment as the department’s sergeant. “I want to give back to this community,” Cavanaugh, 53, said Nov. 16. “This is a great town.” Cavanaugh grew up in Polo, and his family can trace its roots in the community back to the 1850s. Cavanaugh’s roots in law enforcement are also deep. Polo native Kurt Cavanaugh took over at Chief of Police on Nov. 8. Photo Turn to A3 by Vinde Wells
Santa will visit Polo on Saturday Polo will officially usher in the Christmas season on Saturday, Nov. 26 with several activities. Santa’s Breakfast to be held from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Polo Area Senior Center. The breakfast is free for
said. Cavanaugh also told the council that he and Christen have obtained good used furniture at no cost to replace the desks and chairs at the police station that date back to the 1950s. He said the equipment came from a firm that assists businesses that are down-sizing or closing.
local children. The senior center will hold a giveaway for new boys and girls bicycles. Children may also go shopping for their families with the seniors helping wrap the gifts.
The annual lighting at the senior center’s Festival of Trees is set for 6:30 p.m. along with entertainment, cookies, and coffee, hot chocolate and spiced Chai tea. The tree lighting in the
the surface from further damage from the cold and freezing and thawing. The blankets underneath are wrapped around the shoulders and arms to further protect them and to keep their sharp edges from cutting the plastic. Niles said the crew dealt with strong, gusty winds while they worked Thursday and Friday. “We didn’t want to do it in these conditions, but the contract was settled fairly late, and we had to get it done because winter is threatening to come in this weekend,” he said. Quality Restorations, Inc. was hired by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), which has jurisdiction over the statue, to provide and install the protective wrap at a cost of $19,800. IDNR spokesman Tim Schweizer said Monday that restoration work on the statue is expected to begin next Turn to A3
Lawmaker was impacted by heroin Editor’s note: This is the last of a 4-part series on the growing use of heroin in Ogle County and how it is affecting governmental agencies, addicts, family members and the political process. By Andy Colbert acolbert@oglecounty news.com In 2006, Illinois Senator Kyle McCarter’s daughter Amber was found dead alongside train tracks near East St. Louis, the result of a heroin overdose. Surprisingly, McCarter was one of 11 senators that voted against $60-million in state funding for heroin addicts last year. “In my eight years in the senate, I have enjoyed seeing human services help people, but have a hard time seeing results,” McCarter said.
Despite the myriad of rehab programs, social service agencies and enacted laws for the addict, recovery rates are abysmally low. Some estimates are that 90 percent of drug addicts go back to their old ways, including Amber McCarter. Treatment centers become revolving doors and other methods employed by government seem to be limited in their scope. “Government is not good at transforming lives,” McCarter said. “About the only thing we can do to get addicts to stop is keep them in prison.” McCarter doesn’t advocate that approach, but believes government is not the answer to combating drug addiction nor is throwing money at what he sees as an improperly diagnosed problem. It is rare for a government official to admit that society’s
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woes are beyond the realm of public policy and expertise. The problem as McCarter sees it is that government, be it federal, state or local, is only capable of changing external factors in the life of an addict. However, to be fully transformed, a word he stresses over and over again, that change must come from within a person. Threats like jail time, court sanctions and drug testing may be deterrents, but will not aid in one’s treatment. Group therapy or counseling with trained professionals is helpful, especially for the newcomers to the recovery process. But, behavior modification does not properly address what is truly wrong with an addict. “I talked to a mother of a son in a methadone clinic and she said how thankful she is that her son could mow
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B5-B14 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B4
the yard again,” McCarter said. “If that is the result of this, we’ve got problems.” Changing ‘playmates and playgrounds’, as treatment centers advise, sounds good in theory, but does not fully shield an addict from using again. Nor does the admonition that you are hurting family members. Certainly, Amber McCarter loved her brothers and parents, but the power of heroin was stronger than any human bond. “I look at my own daughter and how difficult it was for her,” McCarter said. McCarter proposes a solution to drug addiction radically different than his colleagues in the state legislature, but one that may be the only hope for a heroin addict. “When it came to the
Library News, A11 Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Police, B3 Property Transfers, B4
Keith Niles of Quality Restoration secures a portion of Turn to A3 the wrap on Lorado Taft’s Black Hawk Statue. Photo by Earleen Hinton
Sheriff’s Arrests, B3 Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 State’s Attorney, B3
Deaths, B4 Sally A. Baumgardner, Linda Burr, Terry L. Colcord, Lucille R. Lovell, Michael W. Schwartz
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com