Friday, August 4, 2017
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The countdown to school Lostant still in the process of much repair/maintenance work By Zachary J. Pratt news@tonicanews.com
LOSTANT — As work continues at Lostant Grade School, the clock keeps ticking down the days before the building needs to be ready for use. With summer school beginning on July 31, and the coming school year following soon after on Aug. 24, Superintendent Sandra Malahy is pushing for repair and maintenance work to be completed before it can interfere with school proceedings. Several areas of the school remain without lighting,
and building supplies are stored throughout. One major location of these are stored in the gym, which Malahy described as completely unusable at this time and with a floor still in need of stripping and waxing. “The whole upstairs is yet to be attended to, and there’s extensive water damage there,” Malahy said. However, she noted the plasterwork on the lower floor has progressed well. “They have finished the plasterwork down here in every room but the computer lab,” she said. Other maintenance continues to progress. As the kitchen is being cleaned and reassembled, var-
ious board members noted it already looks much better than it had previously, even in its currently incomplete state. With the countertop newly arrived, the room is soon to be further improved. With the work yet to be done, the school’s employees have stepped up and offered their assistance. “We have several employees sitting in the wings, teachers and aides who said to just call and they’ll come to help clean,” Malahy said.
Lostant Page 3
IVCC and Extension partner on ag research plot OGLESBY — The University of Illinois Extension and Illinois Valley Community College announced the opening of a new chapter in its expanding soil and crop research partnership with the development of a standalone research plot at IVCC, just south of campus. The eight-acre plot has been planted with soybeans and is being used to conduct a replicated soybean population study. The study has three planting populations: 100,000, 140,000 and 180,000 plants per acre. The populations will be recorded by Extension staff Russ Higgins and Daryle Wragge. Higgins is an Extension educator with a commercial agriculture emphasis, while Wragge is a coordinator of ag and natural resources programs. Test plot data will be obtained from the yield monitor on the combine during harvesting this fall. Research is being conducted in close cooperation with Chris Kolodziej, who has contracted with IVCC to farm its land. The Extension will offer a late season scouting workshop at the site Aug. 15.
Ag research Page 2
IVCC Foundation elects new president O.J. Stoutner will remain on the board By Dave Cook
news@tonicanews.com
Tonica News photo/Dave Cook
The beauty of bats It was standing room only at the LaSalle Public Library during the Incredible Bats program on July 27. Here, educator and naturalist Sharon Peterson shows patrons the wing and bone structure of an Egyptian Fruit bat. Those in attendance learned the difference between the myths and facts concerning bats and learned about their biology, eating habits, environmental threats and how they’re being helped by conservationists. Vol. 143 No. 35 One Section - 8 Pages
Summer fun in the sun. Does the AC still run.
OGLESBY —The Illinois Valley Community College (IVCC) Foundation, an independent, non-profit created to improve the college’s ability to provide local educational opportunities and public service, has recently elected a new president. According to a press release, Dr. Susan Schmitt of Streator was elected president of the IVCC Foundation, succeeding O.J. Stoutner, president since 2004. Stoutner, a member since 1999, will remain on the board. Schmitt, a Streator veterinarian and IVCC alumnus was elected vice president in 2016 and has been a member of the foundation since 2006. Dr. Kim Novak, also a veterinarian in Streator and Ottawa, as well as an alumnus, was elected vice president. She’s been a member of the foundation since 2014. Schmitt thanked Stoutner for his 13 years of leader-
President Page 2
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