Your source for community news and sports 7 days a week.
SVM ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Comets shoot for tourney title
SPORTS, B3
BOYS HOOPS, B1
TELEGRAPH
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
SERVING DIXON AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1851
ILLINOIS | INCOME TAX
Taxpayers’ checks to get bigger At least for a while, with measure set to expire Thursday BY JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois taxpayers will have a little more spending money next year. With a temporary income-tax increase expiring Thursday, a typi-
cal family of four with an income of $50,000 will pay $930 less in 2015, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue. That is, if the reduction sticks. The drop in the tax rate means a steep decline in revenue for the
state. The state faces a $2 billion deficit through the end of the fiscal year in June. The individual rate drops from 5 percent to 3.75 percent, while the corporate income tax rate declines from 7 percent to 5.25.
Incoming Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who vanquished Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn in November, has a stiff challenge, if he’s to allow the surcharge to be reduced, as he favors.
ELECTION 2015 | SCHOOL BOARDS
ADDING TO WEIGHT FOR WINTER IN DIXON
STERLING | PARK DISTRICT
Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner
EXPIRE CONTINUED ON A10
Grant eyed for dredging of pond
Not many races in the books
City working to amend Mud to Parks award
BY JERMAINE PIGEE jpigee@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5525
4 contested; 5 districts have more open seats than candidates
BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5570
STERLING – The city is working to amend its state Mud to Parks grant to include the dredging work that needs to be done at the Thomas Park pond. Sterling received $900,000 from Gov. Pat Quinn’s Mud to Parks program to help move 60,000 cubic yards of dredged material from Fox Lake in Lake County to be used to cover the former Northwestern Steel & Wire Co. brownfield site. The news of that grant came in September 2013, when Quinn was in town to announce that the city had been awarded a $1.3 million EPA Green Infrastructure Grant to help with its $2.18 million ecotourism riverfront project. Plans for the project include a wetland and pond complex to improve water quality, 9 acres of natural landscape restoration, 3,000 square feet of publicly accessible green roofs, and more than 4,500 square feet of grass or bio swale. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Mud to Parks program supports innovative topsoil uses for sediment that is clogging state waterways. The Thomas Park pond, built in 1975 over about 1.33 acres, once had 6 feet of water. Runoff from land to the north, mainly farmland, has created a silt deposit problem. That and drought have left the pond with less than 1 foot of water in most places, spurring algae growth.
Photos by Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
ABOVE: Excited about feeding a flock of ducks and gaggle of geese, Breanna Tegeler, 5, runs around Page Park on Monday afternoon in Dixon. Two of Tegeler’s sisters joined her in the waterfowl-fattening outing. BELOW: Bailey Tegeler, 8, hurls a delicious repast to the ducks and geese.
So ... where’s the snow? Not in the 5-day forecast, at least. But chilly temperatures are. Today’s high is predicted to be 17, and the low 2. Find out more about the forecast into 2015 on A3.
DREDGING CONTINUED ON A5
Mud to Parks For more information about the state’s Mud to Parks program, visit the Illinois Department of Natural Resources website at dnr.illinois.gov/conservation/m2p.
$1.00
TODAY’S EDITION: 24 PAGES 2 SECTIONS VOL. 163 ISSUE 169
INDEX
ABBY ................... A7 BUSINESS ......... A11 COMICS ............... A9
CROSSWORD......B9 LIFESTYLE ........... A7 LOTTERY ............. A2
NATION/WORLD .. A8 OBITUARIES ........ A4 OPINION .............. A6
Although many school districts in the Sauk Valley will have uncontested school board elections April 7, voters in both Dixon and the Rock Falls High School districts have races. In both elections, two incumbents will have four challengers for the three seats on the ballot. Erie and Ashton-Franklin Center also have contests, but a more common occurrence is that local school districts don’t have enough candidates to fill all of the seats on the ballot. That’s the case in five districts: Amboy, Montmorency, Morrison, River Bend, ProphetstownLyndon-Tampico, and River Bend. Deadline to file a candidacy was Dec. 22. A school board left with a vacancy after the election may fill that seat with an appointment within 45 days, said Bob Sondgeroth, Whiteside County regional superintendent. “After 45 days, it falls to me, and I have to select someone,” he said. “The school boards will always find someone.” RACES CONTINUED ON A3
‘‘’’ The boards will always find someone.
Bob Sondgeroth, Whiteside County regional superintendent, on course of action for districts in which the number of open seats is greater than that of candidates.
Emotional times in Rockford • Four killed in shooting mourned at funeral, A3 • Rockford International marks milestone anniversary, A5
Today’s weather High 17. Low 2. More on A3.
Need work? Check out your classifieds, B6.
TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE PAPER, CALL 815-284-2224 OR 800-798-4085