Serving the Polo Area Since 1857
POLO
Tri-County Press September 7, 2017 Volume 159, Number 39 - $1.00
Volleyball Action
Prepare for Fall
Railroad Denied
The Lady Marcos took on East Dubuque and Milledgeville over the past week. B1
With the weather starting to cool, make plans for Autumn on Parade. A6
Plans for a railroad project in eastern Ogle County were denied by a federal panel . B1
Schools wait for funding By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com Two area school superintendents are taking a reserved approach to the state lawmakers’ long-awaited approval to a bill for school funding. Oregon Superintendent Tom Mahoney and Forrestville Valley’s Sheri Smith both said they are reserving comment until they have definite numbers on how much their districts will receive as a result of the compromise bill approved by the General Assembly early last week and signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner on Aug. 31. “I have not seen the final numbers on how the funding bill will impact the district,” Mahoney said. “If it is the same as Senate Bill 1 we will received approximately an additional $80,000 in General State Aid. But I want to wait until I have seen the final dollar amounts before I make a comment.” Smith said she, too, is awaiting information from the ISBE on the final allocation for the current school year. “For now, I can tell you that Forrestville Valley should start to receive state aid payments in 10-12 days,”
she said. “These payments will mirror our payments from last year, so there will be no loss to the district. We are still owed one categorical payment from FY [fiscal year] 17, and we do believe we will receive this final payment in this fiscal year. However, there has been no date verified by the state board of education.” Polo Superintendent Chris Rademacher did not return phone calls. Due to the legislature’s failure to pass a school funding bill earlier, the districts did not receive two promised state aid payments in August. The fiscal year for the state and school districts begins July 1. According to a press release on the ISBE website, districts should start receiving their state aid checks late this week, but final calculations on the amounts each district will receive will not be available for a few months. Initial payments will be based partly on last year’s allocations. “Districts will receive payments on the 10th and 20th of each month from September through June in FY 2018,” the statement Turn to A3
Labor Day Fun Labor Day means a day off working for most, but for Kristin DuBois, Cher Weegens, Miranda Blankebehler, and other volunteers, there is always work to do. Above, the Polo Area Community Theatre held a “set building party” with seven volunteers to help knock out much-needed work on the set for their upcoming fall show “The Mokai,” opening Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. At right, Labor Day was a chance to break out the bikes, scooters, and roller blades. Polo Community High School freshmen Gavin Alvarado and Shawn Warczak, both 14, spend their afternoon riding around the Crossroads Community Church parking lot. Photos by Zach Arbogast
Black Hawk funds weren’t in state budget By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com The Black Hawk statue appears to be doomed to spend another year shrouded in black plastic. State Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) said Friday that a $350,000 grant earmarked for repairs to the Black Hawk statue may not be funded by the state legislature until the 2018-19 budget. Hopes were high that the grant, from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, would be part of the recently passed 2017-18 budget. However both Demmer and an IDNR official said that didn’t happen. “Grant funding was not included in the budget that was just passed,” Demmer said. “That’s basically unresolved. It wasn’t appropriated this year.” IDNR Director of Communications Ed Cross said Friday that the new budget did not include capital projects, which is where repairs to the statue falls. “What was passed was an operational budget, not a capital budget,” Cross said.
“That’s why we haven’t been able to resume anything. Once we get a capital budget passed by the General Assembly then we can begin looking at that [the statue repairs].” Demmer said he backed an earlier budget bill that included capital projects, but it failed to gain approval. He said a bill for capital projects could still be brought up, but it may be next year until it gets another look from state legislators. In the meantime, he said he is working with the IDNR and the Illinois Historical Preservation Association, which is now under the IDNR, to find other resources, hopefully from outside the state, to fund the statue repairs. Demmer said he is frustrated by the delay in getting the repairs started on the 106-year-old landmark created by sculptor Lorado Taft as a tribute to Native Americans. It was unveiled and dedicated in 1911. “I don’t want to give up because this got caught up in the budget mess,” Demmer said. “I think we’ve got to look fro everything and anything we can. Time is of the essence here.” The 50-foot statue, which sits on a 125-foot bluff A woman sits on the stone railing below the Black Hawk Statue that remains covered in black plastic as it continues to await repairs from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Officials say the budget Turn to A3
impasse continues to delay funds needed to repair the historic tourist attraction. Photo by Earleen Hinton
In This Week’s Edition...
Church Bells, A5 Classifieds, B4-B8 Entertainment, A6 Marriage Licenses, A4
Oregon Police, B3 Public Voice, A7 Property Transfers, B4 Sheriff’s Arrests, B3
Social News, A4 Sports, B1, B2 Weather, A3
Deaths, B4 Margaret C. Ashurst, Wiley J. Lynch, Darlene Nelson
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com