Arson Investigation In Ottawa

Ottawa Fire Chief Jim Duback says a two-story house on the old Harper’s Farm property off Canal Road was intentionally set. The house burned downed early Monday morning after an initial 911 call came in at one in the morning.

Duback says the house had no gas or electricity hooked up to it and investigators found evidence of how the fire was set. The chief says there are leads but didn’t mention any suspects. If you have any information, call the Ottawa Police Department.

La Salle Public School District meets No Child Left Behind standards

The extra time spent preparing students for state testing looks to be paying off for public school students in La Salle. Reading and math scores were high enough to make the district reach No Child Left Behind standards.
The district has once again made Adequate Yearly Progress. The benchmark is based on test scores from last spring.
Broken down by school, Lincoln Junior High made AYP, but not Northwest Elementary.
Karen Steindorf is the principal at Northwest. She says the students with disabilities subgroup didn’t meet AYP in reading, meaning the school doesn’t meet AYP. She says special education teachers will be meeting monthly to see what can be done to bring up test scores.

Work closes stretch of East 7th Road

A stretch of county road in southern La Salle County is closed for the next few days starting Wednesday.
Crews are replacing a drainage structure on East 7th Road between Rutland and Wenona. The work is going to last at least four days.
There are no detours posted.

Painting continues on Rt 251 bridge

Traffic on Route 351 remains steady between La Salle and Oglesby as a crew continues repainting the Route 251 bridge south of Peru.
Don Ernat with IDOT says the last portion of the bridge trestle needs to be blasted and painted. After that, workers will move to the girders.
They’re removing the old paint, which contained lead, and applying a fresh coat of green paint that’s lead free.
The bridge over the Illinois River has been closed to traffic since late April. Ernat says they’re still expecting the work to be completed at the end of October.