Area Mayor Wants Trolley

San Francisco or Spring Valley? Spring Valley mayor Cliff Banks wants to run a vintage trolley between Spring Valley and surrounding towns. He explained his idea to the city council last night.

He says he got the idea from Beverly Caroll-Owens, a woman that was running for mayor before supporting Banks instead. Banks says you would be able to ride it to towns like Oglesby and Cherry, with possible stops in Dalzell and other towns.

The trolley would run every day, year-round, and would be paid for through a state transportation program and fare, though state funding hasn’t been secured.

Thanks to the Newstribune for information in this story.

Major Resurfacing For Oglesby

The main drag into Oglesby is going be torn up in a couple weeks.
Bids have been awarded to UC Paving in Peru to resurface Walnut Avenue, or the Oglesby Spur west of downtown.

UC will be paid 154 thousand dollars to resurface the spur from Orlando Smith Road east to the Advantage Logistics stop light. 110 thousand dollars for this stretch comes from stimulus money with the city covering the rest with TIF money. They’ll also dip into TIF money to the tune of about 199 thousand dollars to have UC Paving resurface Walnut from Lewis Avenue or near Burger King eastward to Columbia Avenue.

Boy On Motorcycle Still In Hospital

A 14 year old boy remains in the hospital after a crash near Troy Grove.

According to the La Salle County Sheriff’s Office, Frederick Reutner of Mendota was at the intersection of East 3rd and North 37th Road just west of Troy Grove when Dakota Hoelzer ran a stop sign on a motorcycle, crashing into Reutner.

Hoelzer was taken to Mendota Hospital before he was life flighted to Rockford Memorial Hospital. He was listed in critical condition yesterday. Reutner wasn’t hurt.

No one was ticketed.

Fines Come Down On Nursing Home

Allegations that a former resident sexually abused others at the La Salle County Nursing Home is going to be costly.

The Illinois Department of Public Health has joined with the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in fining the La Salle County Nursing Home 20 thousand dollars. The federal commission is also fining the home 100 dollars a day for health and life safety deficiencies.

The state says there was no intervention and inconsistent documentation by county nursing home officials after over a dozen reports of sexual abuse towards dementia patients were made. One male resident at the home allegedly was touching women’s breasts and others kiss him between January and May of this year.