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Startup competition POSTSEASON, CLIPPERS PICKING UP STEAM to get started up? GIRLS BASKETBALL, B1
DIXON BUSINESS, A3
TELEGRAPH
Friday, February 14, 2014
SERVING DIXON AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1851
DIXON ROCK FALLS
Workers hold rally as strike continues
Backup, shutdown
Bay Valley, union to negotiate for fourth time today BY MATT MENCARINI mmencarini@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 529
DIXON – The Dixon VFW hall was filled with nearly 150 union workers at noon Thursday. Some of them, just a week earlier, were at work at the Bay Valley Foods plant on the western edge of Dixon. The Teamsters Local 722 workers went on strike at 11 p.m. last Thursday, after their contract with Bay Valley Foods, a Green Bay-based company, expired Dec. 28. Since the strike began, the two sides have met with a federal mediator three Teamsters 722 president times and have a Steve Mongan fourth negotiating session set for 9:30 a.m. today. “If we can get it done [today], [to]night, we’ll vote on Sunday,” Steve Mongan, the union president, said during a rally for the workers at the Dixon VFW hall on Thursday. “And you can go back to work on Monday.” Bay Valley Foods called in nonunion workers to run the plant on Wednesday, Mongan said. The company was also using management staff from its other plants to run the plant. “The company has no comment on today’s events and looks forward to resuming negotiations [on Friday],” Bay Valley Foods said in an emailed statement.
Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com
Jerry Rodriguez shuts off the lights in the windows of La Famila restaurant Thursday afternoon after the Whiteside County Health Department told all Rock Falls businesses to close until the city’s raw sewage backup was resolved.
Sewage backup prompts Stores close; residents city to shut off all water scramble for resources BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 570
ROCK FALLS – A massive backup of raw sewage at its main lift station led the city to shut off water service to all of its customers Thursday afternoon. Service still was off Thursday night, with a best-case scenario having water turned back on this morning.
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Rock Falls Mayor Bill Wescott said the city was pumping an estimated 22,000 gallons of sewage out of two of three underground floors. Once that work was completed, Wescott said, the city would determine what caused the failure. For some reason, the sewage stopped being pumped into the city’s sewage facility. SHUTDOWN CONTINUED ON A2
BY DAVID GIULIANI dgiuliani@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 525
ROCK FALLS – What do you do when you have no running water in your home? For some Thursday in Rock Falls, where the city’s water supply was shut down about 3:40 p.m. because of a sewer system failure, the
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response was to go buy bottled water. But even that proved problematic. “Their doors are locked,” Mickey Vasquez said in front of the Save-a-Lot grocery on First Avenue. Vasquez washed his dishes at home before the water was shut off. SCRAMBLE CONTINUED ON A12
RALLY CONTINUED ON A10
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We hope it’s a simple thing to get the pump going. We’ve never had a situation like this in our city’s history.
I said that I had three kids, and they said just go out and melt snow. I know they’re frustrated, but just say ‘We’re working on it’ or something.”
Rock Falls Mayor Bill Wescott
Rock Falls resident Debbie, who declined to give her last name
VALENTINE’S DAY
Sticking point inside Get the detailed explanation of the issue at the heart of the strike on A10.
‘We have all we ever want’ For couple, 62 years later, that’s still simply each other BY KIMBERLY WATLEY Special to SVM
VAN PETTEN – Down an old back road, 90 miles west of Chicago, love is alive and well for Dave and Babe Brandon. But there will be no Hallmark cards, no jewelry or trinkets shared between them on Valentine’s Day. The two rarely exchange gifts. “We’re rich,” Dave said. “We have all we ever want,”
$1.00
Babe added. “We are happy and content … don’t need anything more than that,” he adds. “But I do, once in a while, buy her chocolates in a nice heart-shaped box.” Smiles cross their faces, as he adds, “She doesn’t like chocolate – but I do.” The couple, married for 62 years, say a long-lasting marriage isn’t so much about can-
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INDEX
dies and cards, or the give and take most people believe in. “It’s all about the adventure,” they say in unison with raised brows and broad smiles. Babe added, “We’ve been on a lot of adventures together.” Their journey began in 1936, when they were just 3 and 4. Her uncle married his aunt.
ABBY ................... A8 BUSINESS ......... A12 COMICS ...............B5
VALENTINE CONTINUED ON A4
CROSSWORD......B9 LIFESTYLE ........... A7 LOTTERY ............. A2
Kimberly Watley/Special to SVM
OBITUARIES ........ A4 OPINION .............. A6 SPORTS ...............B1
Today’s weather High 19. Low 0. More on A3.
Dave and Babe Brandon look through a family photo album. The couple met when they were 3 and 4 years old, respectively. At 82, they have been married 62 years and say after all these years, they couldn’t ask for a better valentine.
Need work? Check out your classifieds, B6.
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