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POLO
Tri-County Press May 10, 2018 Volume 160, Number 2 - $1.00
Track Team on a Roll
American Life
Fun in the Mud
The Forreston - Polo boys track team runs away with the Ogle County Meet. B1
Ronald Reagan is this week’s Bicentennial feature A7
Mud was flying at the Rock River Motorcycle Riders Club’s spring bog event. B3
Downtown skate park celebrates opening May 5 By Zach Arbogast zarbogast@oglecounty news.com Despite construction complications, a new downtown Polo skate park kept its promise to the public to open by May 5. Birdland Skate Park, 112 E. Mason St., held an opening celebration Saturday, gathering skateboarders, scooter-riders, or even just passerbys wanting to show support for developer Jim O’Conner’s addition to the downtown area. Skaters can enjoy a bowl with both four-foot and threefoot deep ends, along with a seven-foot-high extension, a small quarter pipe, an A-frame rail, and a bank. The bowl itself had traffic all day, but the venue was also filled with volunteers conducting T-shirt and sticker sales, safety and conduct briefings, and board displays in Pinecricker Cafe’s outdoor area, right next to the park. Skaters ranged from 10 to 21 years old, intermingling into a culture that Alan Martoccia, Birdland co-manager of Mt. Moris, said embodies the park’s ideals. “We are all about being a safe, fun, no bullying, good
vibe environment,” said Martoccia. “We want kids to have fun and learn to fly the Birdland way.” Construction is still ongoing inside the building itself. When finished, it will include full skate shop that offers boards and other skating gear, apparel, and repairs, as well as a small cafe where someone can grab a coffee and a sandwich. “As you can see, it’s still got some work to be done inside,” said other co-manager Adrian Juarez, of Sterling. “However, we talked about it as work was happening, and we decided that we told people we’d be open by May 5, and so we stuck to that.” Birdland’s hours will echo the Oregon Park District – dawn-to-dusk, seven days a week. At some point, O’Connor may install lights to keep it open until 10:30 p.m., although, to make curfew, kids younger than 18 would have to leave the park at 10. O’Connor also has assured city leaders that he will have liability insurance and an onsite monitor to enforce the rules. Gavin Jensen contributed to this story.
Above, Birdland co-manager Adrian Juarez, of Sterling, enjoys some skateboarding as Alex Sterenberg, Birdland’s social media coordinator, of Polo, middle, while Kadin Marks watches. Birdland hosted an opening celebration Saturday, where skaters and onlookers alike came to show support for Polo’s new skate park. Below, left: Birdland Skate Park Co-manager Alan Martoccia, of Mt. Morris, right, briefs Kameron Grobe, of Polo, left, on safety and conduct rules of the skate park, before he heads out on his scooter. Below, right: Jim O’Connor holds up a Birdland Skate Park shirt during the May 5 opening celebration. O’Connor brought the idea of opening a skate park to light at the end of November, and while the building is still under construction for the store and cafe portions, it is open for skating now. Photos by Zach Arbogast
City Council gets tough on delinquent water bills By Vinde Wells vwells@oglecounty news.com It’s official — Polo residents with past due water bills will no longer get a hand-delivered shut off notice prior to disconnection. The city council voted Monday evening to tighten up the rules on how delinquent bills and shutoffs are handled. The changes eliminate having city employees drop off pink shut-off notices at the homes of
residents who are past due. “We can’t have city employees going around and dropping these off every month,” said Alderman Randy Schoon. The changes also eliminate signed payment agreements with residents for getting their bills caught up. Under the new rules, if a delinquent account is shut off and the resident pays after 3 p.m. that day, the water will not be turned back on until the following day. Under those circumstances,
In This Week’s Edition...
the resident can have the water turned back on the same day if they pay a $75 fee in addition to the amount they are in arrears. The $75 will help cover the cost of calling in an off-duty city employee to turn the water back on. Shut off penalties now eliminated, and deposits will be credited to residents’ accounts. Residents with delinquent accounts will have until the due date of the next month to pay the past due amount. The water will
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B6-B8 Entertainment, A6 Fines, B6
be shut off the following day for accounts not paid by the due date. To have turned back on in those cases, residents will be required to pay the past due balance and the most current bill to bring their accounts up to date. The “water bill” includes charges for water, sewer, and garbage services. In other business, the board approved a recommendation from the Zoning Board of Appeals to change the zoning from B-2 (business) to R-1
Marriage Licenses, A4 Library News, A3 Polo Police, A2 Public Voice, A8
Property Transfers, B5 Sheriff’s Arrests, B4 Sports, B1-B3 State’s Attorney, B3
(residential) on several addresses in the southwest part of the city. The zoning was changed on the following: 902 S. Congress Ave., 908 S. Congress Ave., 910 S. Congress Ave., 901 S. Division Ave., 903 S. Division Ave., 905 S. Division Ave., and 907 S. Division Ave., all of which are residential properties. Mayor Doug Knapp said the change was made to protect property owners because if any of the residences was to be destroyed by a fire or another
disaster, a new home could not be built on the same property under business zoning. In another matter, Schoon said a portion of Oregon Street will be milled down and resurfaced to correct a problem that stemmed from a sewer and water main project last summer. The street has been too high in the center since the project was completed. He also said landscaping along Maple Street will be done after a final coat of asphalt is applied.
Deaths, B5 Ronald G. Bader, Darrel D. Daub, Robert A . Gillick, Charles W. Hitchcock, Blanche A. Schroeder
Published every Thursday by Ogle County Newspapers, a division of Shaw Media • www.oglecountynews.com