Basketball Coach dismissed

After a two and one half hour closed session, the LP Board of Education voted 4 – 2 Wednesday night to dismiss Basketball coach, Chad Hesterberg. Dr. Craig Carter could not comment since it was a personnel matter. Hesterberg will finish out the year teaching. A few players and their parents were in attendance to show support for Hesterberg.

Security Could Be Beefed Up At IVCC

You could start seeing armed security officers patrolling Illinois Valley Community College.

President Jerry Corcoran says recent personnel changes within the security department have provided the college a chance to look at an outside security agency.  Corcoran says they’ll look at adding at least one armed security officer.  He hopes to have the new security team in place by July.

Right now IVCC has four full-time, and six part-time officers who are all unarmed.

Blagojevich Compares His Case To A Tsunami

CHICAGO (AP) – Rod Blagojevich sees his legal tribulations as his personal “tsunami” and regards state legislators as “scoundrels” for increasing taxes.

That’s what Chicago-area listeners learned from their former governor today as he guest hosted WLS-AM’s “Don Wade
and Roma” show. Blagojevich kept returning to a theme of how lawmakers are supposedly sticking it to the average Joe.  He described them and Gov. Pat Quinn as “scoundrels.” He called one legislator a “rapscallion.”

He added detractors wanted him gone well before, in his words, “I had my tsunami happen to me.”
His wife, Patti, sat in briefly, complaining her husband’s subject to “selective prosecution.”

Major Pot Bust In La Salle

If you’re driving around with over 400 pounds of marijuana, probably best to drive the speed limit.

A state trooper says he pulled over Oris Hunter and Leonard Thompson of Massachusetts Tuesday morning for speeding.  The Peru K-9 was called to the scene on Interstate 80 in La Salle and allegedly led police to find 17 packages of marijuana.  The total weight of the marijuana is 437 pounds.

Both Hunter and Thompson were taken to the county jail.

IVCC plans to stop offering courses at Sheridan prison

Money reasons are why Illinois Valley Community College will likely stop offering classes at the Sheridan Correctional Center.  Prisoners at Sheridan have been able to take select course through IVCC since the early 1970s.

IVCC President Jerry Corcoran says it no longer makes good business sense to continue their deal with the Illinois Department of Corrections.  The college is offering six programs at the prison this semester, requiring six instructors and one administrator.

Corcoran says IVCC’s employees at the prison have received two pay raises in seven years and the department of corrections hasn’t allowed the college to fill several open positions.

The board of trustees talked about the issue Tuesday night.  They plan to take action on the request next month.

26 people at the Peru Mall treated for carbon monoxide poisoning

A correction to the story about the Peru Mall closing for a couple of hours Tuesday due to high carbon monoxide levels.  26 people, not 13, were taken to Illinois Valley Community Hospital after complaining of headaches.  They were treated and released, the last leaving the hospital around 5:30pm Tuesday.

The mall was closed for a couple of hours while the building was aired out and stores checked for CO.  The heating system inside of J.C. Penny was the source of the CO.

La Salle Schools looking for state construction money

Saying they’re running out of classroom space, La Salle Elementary officials are pursuing money for a new building.

The school board Tuesday night gave architects the green light to apply for A State School Construction Grant.

Superintendent Dan Marenda thinks the district has a good chance of being promised the money, though he stresses they’re in the early planning stages.

The building would be pre K through first grade, freeing up space at Northwest and Lincoln Schools.  It would allow them too close Jackson which Marenda says needs $1 million worth of work.

The building is estimated to cost $9.7 million with the school district responsible for $2.5 million.  That money would likely come from bonds.  Eventually, a referendum would have to be on the ballot.

A location has yet to be chosen.