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Tracking all the day’s events in Charleston GIRLS STATE TRACK, B1
No paper on Memorial Day Just a reminder that there will be no paper Monday because of the holiday, and Sauk Valley Media offices will be closed. We will resume our normal publication schedule Tuesday.
MEET THE MEN BEHIND SAUK VALLEY WEATHER LOCAL, A5
LOCAL SCHOOLS | TEACHER RETIREMENTS
Class dismissed End of school year brings careers to a close for some teachers
VIDEO GAMBLING
Cities learn their share of the pot BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5570 @pam_eggemeier
The fiscal year-end numbers are out, and the state’s municipalities know what their online gambling share Inside will be for the A look at recently closed the yearlong fiscal year. While some numbers for c i t i e s u s e d Sauk Valley the previous communities, year’s revenue A8 for very specific purposes, uncertainty surrounding the state budget has local officials in a more conservative mindset. Rock Falls will receive slightly more than $107,000 from the fiscal year ended April 30. That money was generated from 63 machines at 14 establishments. The city used last year’s gambling revenue for police cars. Some of this year’s money is also headed to the police department, but the prospect of huge cuts to the state’s Local Government Distributive Fund loom large. SHARE CONTINUED ON A8
Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
Washington Elementary School teacher Lori Whitson is hugged by a student as she returns to the Dixon school Wednesday after having suffered a concussion at home and missing about 2 weeks. Whitson, who has been a teacher for 26 years, will retire at the end of the school year.
christopher HEIMERMAN
Lori Whitson: Dixon elementary teacher will be missed by students BY JERMAINE PIGEE jpigee@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5525 @JPigee84
DIXON – Though only 7 years old, Presley Lappin had no trouble putting into words what teacher Lori Whitson has meant to her. “She is a beautiful teacher, and she teaches us really good things like how to be respectful to people,” said Lappin, a first-grader at Washington Elementary School. “She teaches us how to do math and double digits.”
After being a Inside teacher for 26 A list years, includof retiring ing 21 years at Washing- teachers ton School in from Sauk Dixon, Whit- Valley school son will retire districts, A3 at the end of the school year. “My body is telling me I’m Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com getting older,” said Whitson, 59. “I also want to spend more Bob Ptak has been teaching at Sterling High School for so time with my grandsons and long that he has had grandchildren of former students in his classroom. Ptak is retiring after 43 years as a teacher and watch them grow up.” coach at the school. His retirement plans are as follows: WHITSON CONTINUED ON A9 “Beach, beach and beach.” Read his story on Page A3.
WEEKEND FEATURE | TED FREDENHAGEN
His band of brothers Music was a lifesaver for Amboy veteran BY CHRISTI WARREN cwarren@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5521 @SeaWarren
AMBOY – It was the trumpet that saved his life. Ted Fredenhagen was just a kid – a Marine in California who had joined up fresh out of high school, age 18, in August 1943. He had been recruited, in a way, pulled from the general populace of young kids away from their parents for the first time: singled out by the
Partly cloudy
VOLUME 7 ISSUE 38 54 Pages
Today: 75/57 For the forecast, see Page A15
base band for his fluid ability when it came to playing “the horn,” as he calls it while sitting across from a reporter some 70 years later in a newsroom in Northern Illinois. Ted grew up in Naperville; his father was one half of the iconic Prince Castle fast-food chain, a facade of which can still be seen on the riverfront in Dixon, now home to a chicken restaurant. The Fredenhagens lived on a farm, where they raised strawberries. BAND CONTINUED ON A9
Business
Music fan prepares to open video gambling parlor in Rock Falls. See Page C1
THE PEOPLE’S VOICE
Michael Krabbenhoeft/mkrabbenhoeft@saukvalley.com
Ted Fredenhagen was bound for Iwo Jima as a Marine in 1945 when he was called back because he had been made a permanent member of the base band. “I got right up to the gangplank, and a staff guard came down this long, long, long pier and called my name,” Fredenhagen said.
Community Thirty minutes of running laps earned some Dixon students a squirt in the face. More photos of St. Mary’s Spring Sprint fundraiser appear inside. See Page C12
Heimerman is the Night News Editor at Sauk Valley Media. He can be reached at cheimerman@ saukvalley.com or 800-798-4085, ext. 5523.
Not just a workout for Workman
H
ow many more can you give me?” Shelley McCarty asks Matt Workman. Matty pops out his thumb, looks at it for a moment, then shifts his eyes back to his personal trainer. Out shoots his index finger. His middle finger unfolds, and then the ring and pinkie digits join the party. “Five?!” Shelley says, doing all she can to not squeal with delight. Matty holds the 6-pound ball to his chest and sits down. He stands up and gives Shelley a high five. After four more such sequences, Shelley puts both hands up to give him all 10 this time. “That’s what I want!” she shrieks. WORKMAN CONTINUED ON A10
Index Business........... C1
Lottery .............. A2
Classified .......... D1
Markets .......... A15
College honors... C5
Obituaries ......... A4
Comics ... B13-B14
Opinion............. A6
Community ..... C12
Scoreboard .... B15
Crossword Saturday ........... D8
Scrapbook ....... C3
Crossword Sunday ............. C8
Support groups .. C5
Dave Ramsey ... C1
Weather.......... A15
Dear Abby ........ C6
Wheels ........... D10
Sports .............. B1 Travel .............. C10