Serving the Polo Area Since 1857
POLO
Tri-County Press March 2, 2017 Volume 159, Number 24 - $1.00
Carnival at Coliseum
State Champs!
First Fridays
Ogle County 4H Clubs host the Penny Carnival for kids this Saturday in Oregon. A7
Byron’s Lady Tigers repeat as Class 2A basketball champs. B1
The monthly free, open-mic stage show returns to Mt. Morris Friday night. A6
Toy show will be held Saturday
Regional Spelling Bee
Staff Report Old and new farm toys, dolls, cars, coffee cakes, and an array of collectibles will be offered at the 32nd annual Polo Farm Toy Show on Saturday, March 4 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Polo High School, 100 Union Ave., Polo. Sponsored by the Polo Lions Club, the event will feature approximately 100 dealers with a wide variety of items.
A 50-50 drawing will be held and the Polo Boosters will serve lunch in the school cafeteria. Admission is $2 for adults and children under 12 are admitted free. The school is handicapped accessible. For toy tractor enthusiasts who want even more, the Forreston FFA Alumni will hold its 28th annual Toy Show and Craft Fair on Saturday, March 11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Forreston Junior and Senior High School.
Aplington Middle School student Rebekah Zeigler (right) of Polo reacts to winning the 2017 Lee-OgleWhiteside Regional Spelling Bee on Thursday afternoon in Dixon. Zeigler beat out Lydia Cermak (left) of David L. Rahn Junior High in a spelling slugfest that lasted 43 rounds. Photo by Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@ saukvalley.com
Polo sixth grader wins again Ogle County students claim top three spots By Christopher Heimerman cheimerman@saukvalley.com If only sixth-grader Rebekah Zeigler didn’t know what she knew, earning her third straight trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Feb. 23 wouldn’t have been so grueling. The Aplington middle-schooler was all too familiar with Lydia Cermak, the eighth-grader from David L. Rahn Junior High in Mt. Morris, whom she had to outlast two years ago. Worse yet was knowing the unknown was lurking: any moment, emcee Tom Wadsworth could have
run out of the 1,500 words the competitors are privy to in advance of the Lee-Ogle Whiteside Regional Spelling Bee, held at Dixon High School. That happened last year, and he was forced to go off the list. “I was very, very close, within a few rounds of losing all the words on the spelling list,” Wadsworth said. “I didn’t think we’d trip up either of these girls. They were so good.” “It was awful wondering,” Rebekah said. “I was so nervous. I kept moving and getting water. It was just awful.” Meanwhile, Lydia confidently stepped up the mic each round
and rattled off each spelling as she scribbled it on her right thigh with her right hand. While other competitors routinely asked for words’ definitions and language origins – and rightfully so – Lydia declined virtually every round. Sure, she and Rebekah exchange nods and smiles – especially when Rebekah was given the word Borzoi, with which she won in 2015 – but Lydia’s confidence was unnerving. “That makes me nervous,” Rebekah said. Lydia was as prepared as ever. This Turn to A2
Day of Dabbling Kaedi Calloway, a member of Blackhawk Crossing 4-H, left, and her friend Kendra Ehrler, Oregon, work on a scrapbook page Saturday during Day of Dabbling. Photo by Chris Johnson
Residents raised questions about proposed jail By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecountynews.com Many of the questions centered on the proposed location of Ogle County’s new jail last Thursday evening at a meeting held in Polo. Almost 50 people attended second of seven meetings planned in various communities to inform the public about project. County board member Don Griffin, Oregon, who also chairs the Long Range Planning Committee, told the audience that his committee considered at least two other sites before recommending the new jail is built in the 100 block of South Sixth Street in Oregon, across the street from the judicial center. Besides the Sixth Street property, which the county has owned since 2006, Griffin said they also looked at putting the jail on First Street next to the public safety complex, and the former FS property on Pines Road. He said the soil is too compacted to support the multiple stories needed for a portion of the jail building on the First Street property, where the sheriff’s and coroner’s offices are situated. Putting in adequate footings would greatly increase the estimated $25 to $28 million price tags, he said.
Besides that, he said, the county would need to buy more land to relocate storage buildings currently on the First Street site if the jail was built there. County board member Lyle Hopkins, Polo, said the FS site, which the county doesn’t own, may have underground storage tanks and ground contamination that would have to be addressed. The county board voted in November to approve a concept design for the new jail located on South Sixth Street. Several neighbors have voiced opposition to having the jail so close to their homes. Other Oregon residents have said they don’t want the jail so close to the downtown. Ogle County jails have been on the courthouse square, a block away from the South Sixth Street site since 1841. The plan calls for the new jail to connect to the judicial center by a large sally port for transporting prisoners to both buildings and back and forth to court appearances. The sally port would go across South Sixth Street, making it necessary to close the street. The county board has filed a formal request asking the city council to close Polo residents listen while county officials present information about the proposed Ogle County Turn to A9
In This Week’s Edition...
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B6-B10 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B4
jail Feb. 23 at the Buffalo Township Hall in Polo. Photo by Vinde Wells
Marriage Licenses, A4 Oregon Police, B3 Public Voice, A7 Property Transfers, B4
Sheriff’s Arrests, B3 Social News, A4 Sports, B1-B2 State’s Attorney, B5
Deaths, B4 Dennis Albrecht, Dana Garman Stables, Donald A. Vaughan
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com