FEMA grant providing $10.5 million for new Ottawa school

FEMA is coming through with a grant to build a replacement grade school in Ottawa.

The agency is giving the Ottawa Elementary District about $10.5 million to build a school to replace Central School which was damaged during a flood.

The project is estimated to total $23 million.

Vissering Construction of Streator was hired last week for the construction.  There’s still another round of bidding for another phase of the work.

A groundbreaking ceremony is Tuesday at 1pm.

Truck overturns near Flying J in La Salle

An accident near Flying J in La Salle has been cleared.  A truck apparently overturned while going through the intersection of Route 351 and Civic Road at about 10:45am Thursday.

At least one person was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Area doctor injured, mother killed during boating accident

An apparent boating accident has left an area radiologist injured and his mother dead.

60 year old Dr. Merle Piacenti of Peru was flown to a hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota after the accident Wednesday morning on Long Lake in northwestern Wisconsin.

Bill Yearman with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says they received a 911 call from a neighbor.  Investigators say Merle was noticeably injured and appeared confused.  His mother, 82 year old Betty Piacenti of Ladd was pronounced dead at the scene.

The accident is under investigation.

Phone service restored in Bureau and Putnam Counties

Phones are ringing again.  A phone service outage that affected parts of Bureau and Putnam Counties and the Mendota area for most of today seems to be over.

It’s believed to have been caused by a fiber optic line near Mendota getting cut late Thursday morning.

While phone systems were down, most 911 systems were working.

Cities Want Route 6 Fixed

Sometimes writing to your legislators isn’t enough to get the job done.

La Salle and Peru officials have sent letters to IDOT and state lawmakers requesting something be done about the deteriorating Route 6 surface.

Peru Mayor Scott Harl says it looks like they’ll be waiting at least a couple of more years.  He says IDOT has included Route 6 in their 2010-2016 project lists.

National Guard Unit Moving From Streator

A National Guard unit based in Streator is relocating.

Soon after a successful year long deployment in Iraq, the 1744^th Transportation Company in Streator along with a unit in North Riverside were eliminated to reflect a changing mission overseas.  Now the 1744^th is coming back but will be stationed in Crestwood.

170 members of the 1744^th returned to Streator in September of 2007 after completing 200 missions in Iraq.  They suffered no casualties.