1 Front Volume 140 No. 12
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Tonica News
Single Copy Cost 50¢
‘For God’s sake ... do something!’ By Barb Kromphardt bkromphardt@tonicanews.com
LOSTANT – About a dozen Lostant residents attended Monday’s village board meeting to discuss their losses during the 100-year-flood that swamped the village in April, and to see what the board is going to do about it in the future.
Dallas Freeman began by asking board members what they were going to do with the water problem on the east end of town. Village President Fred Hartenbower said the board talks about the problem about every five years. He said engineers have studied the problem and offered
suggestions as to what might work. However, there’s no guarantee the solutions would work, and the village doesn’t have any money to make any changes anyway. Freeman said other towns seem to find grant money, and the work is given to local contractors.
“If the people aren’t happy, what’s going to happen?” he said. Resident Jack Moore spoke next, and asked about the problem with flooding by the railroad tracks. He said the answer to the problem is to shut the water down before it gets to town. “The engineers say there is nothing we
can do,” Hartenbower replied. Then resident Tom Hoyt spoke up. He said his basement was flooded in 2007, 2008 and then again in April. He talked about the appliances he had lost, and how now his furnace and appliances are up on blocks to keep them out of the water.
Hoyt said that last month, with two sump pumps and two hoses operating, he still had 25 inches of water in his basement. “We have to set up something,” he said. “We have to think about floods because they’re coming more and more often.”
See Lostant Page 2
Workers and workplaces recovering slowly By Barb Kromphardt bkromphardt@tonicanews.com
The latest figures are out, and the numbers show LaSalle County residents and businesses are slowly recovering from the effects of the recession along with the rest of the country. On April 30, the Census Bureau released County Business Patterns: 2011, which provides the only detailed annual information on the number of establishments, employees, and first quarter and annual payroll for most of the 1,200 industries covered at the national, state and county levels. There were 7.4 million U.S. businesses with paid employees for 2011, a loss of 42,585 establishments from 2010. This is the fourth consecutive year of decline for the number of U.S. businesses. The good news came in terms of total employment. In 2011, total employment from all U.S. business sectors was 113.4 million, an increase of 1.5 million employees from 2010. This year is the first since 2008 in which U.S. businesses reported an increase in employment over the prior year. Last year saw a decline of 2.5 million workers, which came on the heels of a 6.4 million decline the previous year.
See Recovery Page 3
Tonica News photo/Barb Kromphardt
Back in the tractor again Farmers like this man northeast of Tonica were happy to get back in their fields last week as the soil finally dried out enough for them to begin planting. As of May 13, corn planting progressed to 17 percent complete across the state compared to 94 percent last year and 64 percent for the five-year average.
Celebrating those who serve Olsen: “Failure is not an option.” By Ken Schroeder news@tonicanews.com
TONICA – National Emergency Medical Services Week 2013 is May 19-25, and this year’s theme is “EMS: One Mission. One Team.” Nowhere is that more evident than the Tonica Volunteer Fire Department. With a staff of around 40 members –
10 of whom are trained as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) – the goal is simple: help those in distress. The Tonica Fire Department is one of the dwindling numbers of fire departments that is still non-tax funded. All equipment and materials come from public donations or grants. That’s a difficult thing to do for
most departments, but TVFD doesn’t seem to notice. “Everything in this building ... we’ve either had a hand in putting together or we’ve taken something and made it almost brand new,” said Woody Olsen, a TVFD member with 37 years under his belt. “Most of these pieces of equipment, you wouldn’t recognize as being as old as they are.”
Inside
Vol. 140 No. 12 One Section - 8 Pages
Legionnaire of the Year See Page 3 © The Tonica News
Olsen said the TVFD doesn’t have a bunch of leather chairs or a 200inch TV on the wall. “This building is work, and that probably more than anything, and the amount of training we do, that’s how we have a good reputation,” Olsen said. “Failure is not an option.” “We were given a department that’s been going since the 1930s. We had the first motor-
First Person See Page 5
ized pump truck back then, a 1931 model. That truck’s back in town now,” said 38-year veteran Rick Turri. “We hope to have it and our 1906 ladder wagon in the parades this year.” The price of firefighting has, like so many other things, risen substantially over the years. In the garage, the department has a fund-raising
See EMS Page 2