1 Front Volume 141 No. 9
Friday, April 25, 2014
The Tonica News
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Water pressure in Tonica Village looks at county’s potential to regulate flooding By Ken Schroeder news@tonicanews.com
TONICA — Resident Art Foltynewicz brought a report to the Tonica Village Board regarding the latest meeting of LaSalle County officials; the meeting concerned the alleviation of flooding in the county. The intent of the county meetings is to establish a uniform approach in each community to help prevent or diminish flood damage.
That idea does not sit well with several members of the board. “My concern is letting them come in with all of these rules and regulations and putting the finger down on us saying you have to do this,” board President Kevin Sluder said. “That’s my biggest concern.” “Once they get their toe in the door, they’re going to be telling you what to do,” board member Dennis Ford said.
Foltynewicz told the board members of the Army Corps of Engineers came to Tonica after the meeting and offered suggestions on how the village should tackle the flooding problem and open up the waterway on Bailey Creek, adding the Corps is looking into assisting all of the towns in the area. “That’s why I’m really concerned, and I don’t want them coming to town,” Sluder said. “To me, they’re going to say, ‘You have to do this; you have to do that.’ All that’s going to do is end up costing us money.”
Tonica is currently enrolled in the National Flood Insurance Program which allows village residents to purchase flood insurance. According to Foltynewicz, failure of the village to adopt the ordinances that may come from the county meetings would result in the village not being able to enroll, a claim Sluder disputes. “How can the county tell us what to enforce?” Sluder said. “They can’t do that. I’m curious how they can kick you out and discriminate against you.”
In other action, the board: • Established public hearings before the May 21 general meeting to discuss the applications for loan and grant money to assist in water and sewer repair work. The hearings will start at 6 p.m. • Agreed to discuss and perhaps take action on an ordinance allowing golf carts or similar vehicles to operate in the village limits. Several residents attended the meeting to encourage the board to allow the vehicles to be used. A meeting to discuss the issue is tentatively scheduled for May 14. A
representative from Pontiac, which has had an ordinance in place for a few years, will bring a copy of its ordinance and discuss how the city has fared with it. • Agreed to the sale of the old water tower site to Don Sweitzer for $9,000. • Approved the application from Steven Ebener to join the Tonica Volunteer Fire Department. • Approved a 4 percent pillow tax in anticipation of any future hotel/motel construction. • Approved the inter-fund transfer of $15,000 from TIF funds to general funds.
Wiesbrock continues a tradition ‘Everybody should take their turn serving the community’ By Ken Schroeder news@tonicanews.com
LEONORE — Community service often runs in the family, with each generation teaching the next to give back to the community. That’s definitely true for Tonica School Board member Marty Wiesbrock. “People look at volunteering in different ways, and I think at some point everybody should take their turn in serving the community in one facet or another,” Wiesbrock said. “My grandfather helped found the fire department out here. My father has been involved in it; my brother has been involved in it. I’ve been on the fire department for almost 20 years. Community service has been a part of our life, and it should be. I served on the LaSalle County Farm Service Agency Board for nine years and the Leonore Telephone Board for a couple years. I’m not opposed to helping and being a part of what’s going on.”
See Wiesbrock Page 2
Tonica News photo/Dixie Schroeder
VMC Management Representative Nicolas Rippel addresses the crowd of more than 300 people who attended the Illinois Department of Agriculture hearing on the proposed Sandy Creek Lane hog confinement facility.
Locals not hog-wild about pig farm By Ken Schroeder news@tonicanews.com
WENONA — A crowd of more than 300 people filled the Wenona Fieldcrest School April 17 to express their views on a proposed corporate hog farm planned for Marshall County; many residents from neighboring Putnam and LaSalle counties were in attendance. The Illinois Department of Agricul-
ture hearing — which lasted six hours — drew supporters and opponents of the Sandy Creek Lane farm in an often heated discussion of the merits and flaws of building the farm outside Wenona. The birth-to-ween farm has been proposed by Veterinary Medical Center Management Corporation from Williamsburg, Iowa. VMC spokesperson Nicolas Rippel is original-
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ly from Toluca and explained the animals would be housed in three large buildings that would be constructed to store up to one year’s waste of the estimated 20,000 pigs in the project, approximately 10 million gallons. Waste would then be spread over 1,200 acres of farmland as fertilizer. Rippel said the environmental and odor impact would be minimal.
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Meats judging team wins state contest See Page 3
“The facility will have deep-pitted barns with no open lagoons,” Rippel said. “The birthing barn will be cleaned between each birthing unit. We’ll have tree buffers, and the nutrients we use for feed eliminate a lot of the smell. This is really more about misunderstanding and misinformation, and we’re trying to get the true information out there.”
See Hog farm Page 2