Enhanced 911 testing continues in La Salle County

If the La Salle County Sheriff’s Department gives you a call, it’s okay to answer.  People in rural La Salle County are being contacted by the La Salle County Emergency Telephone System while they test the Enhanced 911 system.

They’re trying to verify they have the correct names, phone numbers and addresses.  You won’t need to provide other information.  The telecommnicators will ask you to make a test call back on 911.  Calls are being made Mondays through Saturdays from 5pm to 9pm.

Route 6 resurfacing on schedule and budget

Construction on Route 6 between La Salle and Spring Valley is on schedule and budget.  Crews with Advanced Asphalt of Princeton began removing sewer covers and removing the old surface in June.  Since then, Herb Jung with IDOT says almost the entire old surface has been removed and replaced with leveling mix.

Jung says the bulk of the work that will be taking place during the next four to eight weeks involves pouring new sidewalk ramps and adjusting manholes and other drainage inlets.  Once that’s completed, they’ll lay the surface course and striping.

It’s on schedule to be done this construction season.

Sex offender indicted on new charges

Bond has been set high for a registered sex offended accused luring a child in Ottawa.  Spencer Lamont of Ottawa was indicted Tuesday by a La Salle County grand jury on several charges, including aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Lamont was arrested late last month after a child was reported missing near Fox River Park.  After an investigation, Lamont was arrested for aggravated criminal sexual abuse, unlawful presence within a school zone, and luring a minor.

He’s being held in the La Salle County Jail with his bond set at $150,000.

High school seniors can take entrepeneur class

The next great business leader could be a local high school student.  Starting in August seniors enrolled in the Area Career Center’s CEO Entrepreneur Program will learn what it takes to make an idea into a product.

LP Superintendent Steve Wrobleski thinks it’s a great opportunity for students because they’ll be given mentors.  The class is no extra cost to the school because it’s being funded by businesses.

The class is for credit and involves two semesters.

Bizarre Request From Area Inmate

A prisoner from La Salle County has filed a lawsuit  with an eye-popping demand: He wants his own country.

In an 18-page filing with U.S. District Court in Chicago, Johnathan Pinney of Norway accuses state and federal  officials of repeatedly violating his rights over the years, including by falsely arresting him. As compensation, the 26-year-old serving a 4  1/2-year sentence for aggravated battery on a Ottawa Police officer says he won’t accept just any existing country. He wants the U.S. to grant him uninhabited land to start a new nation.

The lawsuit says the territory should have enough land to sustain 5,000 people who’d join him later. It adds land in Alaska would be “acceptable.”

Pinney’s trial in La Salle County gained attention with his dark eye makeup, comments that he embraced evil and was an anarchist. He  represented himself and bit his own arm as part of his testimony.