Long Drug Investigation In Ottawa

A long drug investigation involving the FBI has apparently ended in Ottawa.

Ottawa Police along with the FBI and United States Drug Enforcement Agency yesterday arrested Robert Tanner and Ashley Arwood of Ottawa and Jose Delgado of Morris for allegedly dealing powder cocaine.  Detectives think Delgado has ties with the Almighty Latin King Nation in Aurora.

Delgado, also known as “Z” is charged with three counts of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance.  Tanner and Arwood are both charged with two counts of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance.  All are Class X felonies.

Clearinghouse Scam In Princeton

Another scam is hitting the Illinois Valley with the latest happening in Princeton.

Princeton Police are warning people that a scammer will call or e-mail claiming you won money from “Publishers Clearinghouse”.  The scammer then allegedly tells you to send anywhere from a thousand to four thousand dollars for taxes.  You’re requested to send your cash by Western Union to Jamaica.

Call police if you hear from the alleged scammer.

Latest On Ice Jamming Dayton

Things appear to be improving on the Fox River in Dayton.

The latest river stage in the area is 22.8 feet and it’s expected to fall nearly another foot over the next 24 hours.  Also crews have cleared roads in the area and power is back so some families have moved back into their homes.

La Salle County Emergency Management Director Mike Jobst says most ice is still around and the worst case scenario would be a for the ice jam to break all at once, flooding the river downstream.

A flood warning remains in effect.

Area Doctor Charged

A Peru doctor is due back in court January 28^th after being charged with biting a police officer.

Dr. Mario Cote appeared in La Salle County Court Friday after a warrant was issued for his arrest on a charge of aggravated battery.  During a traffic stop November 14^th, Cote’s accused of biting a La Salle police officer in the leg after a scuffle.

Cote is out of jail on 10 thousand dollars bond.

La Salle rejects bids, reawards wastewater work bid

Whoops.  A misunderstanding of which company is which had La Salle officials tossing out bids a job they already awarded.

In December they chose Machinery Maintenence as the company to do work at the existing wastewater treatment plant, only problem was it wasn’t actually Machinery Maintenence, it was Valley Fabrication.
Mayor Jeff Grove explained the situation during Monday night’s city council meeting.  He says the companies are closely related and they meant to give the bid to Valley Fabrication.

The council eventually did at the amount accepted last time, $104,000.
The decision was complicated further because they chose to only offer the job to a La Salle based contractor, drawing criticism from Laborers Local Union 393 official David Rakes.  He thought they should have opened the bidding to any interested contractor.

The work is one of three being paid for using Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds.