It Pays To Work For IVCC

Higher tuition rates are helping Illinois Valley Community College pay their workers more.

The IVCC trustees Tuesday night agreed to a new 3-year contract with the faculty, custodians and maintenance workers.  86 instructors are getting three percent salary increases the next three years while 10 custodians and five maintenance workers are getting 2.5 percent raises each of the next three years.  Contracts for President Jerry Corcoran and three vice presidents will be voted on next month.

Corcoran says he’s pleased with the new contracts, calling it fair compensation for hard working employees.

Bureau County Fair Is Here

The 156^th year of the Bureau County Fair officially begins today.

Activities at the fairgrounds in Princeton include a horse speed show starting at 4:30, beer garden starting at 5 and Garden Tractor Pull at 7.  There are also unlimited ride armbands on sale tonight for 18 dollars.

AM 1220 WLPO’s Rod Thorson will broadcast from the fair starting at 4:30.

Future Of Ottawa Mansion Is Up In The Air

What do you think could be done with Ottawa’s Reddick Mansion to increase exposure and revenues?

After studying similar mansions including Hegeler Carus in La Salle, architect Keddy Hudson says three options to look at are keeping Reddick as a historic house and museum, turn it into an events center with banquet and conference rooms or make it a restaurant and bed and breakfast.  The cost of adding a gift shop to make it a museum would be 1.3 million.  Hudson says an event center price tag is 2.3 million while it would cost 2.9 million for a restaurant and bed and breakfast. Ottawa Mayor Bob Eschbach says the ideas are a little steep for his taste.

With each option Hudson says they’ll have to build an addition behind the mansion for handicap accessibility and a fire escape.  The event center and bed and breakfast idea would also take up some of the existing greenspace for outdoor bar and dining areas.

Help wanted for Relay for Life of Upper Illinois River Valley 2012

If you’ve ever put together a fundraiser, you’d know that you need all of the help you can get.  That’s why the people responsible for the Relay for Life of Upper Illinois Valley are looking for volunteers for next year’s relay.

They’re putting together a committee.  Jobs you could do include public relations, event staging, and registration.

If you’re interested, they’re meeting at El Zarape in Mendota Monday at 5pm.  For more information call (815) 538-6525 by the end of the day Sunday.

Evacuation drill gives hospital staff disaster-responce experience

When disaster strikes at a hospital, every second counts in getting the patients to safety.  The staff at St. Margaret’s Hospital in Spring Valley and Illinois Valley Community Hospital in Peru are ready for the worst.   Hospital staff, the Peru Police Department and the Peru Ambulance Service used a drill Tuesday to test new evacuation equipment.

Gean Vogelgesang of IVCH says a paraslide will allow employees to lower someone out of bed, onto a slide and then slid down a staircase.  A stair chair is another mechanism to help patients down the stairs.

He says the drill was beneficial.

Quake rattles Washington area, felt on East Coast

MINERAL, Va. (AP) – The most powerful earthquake to strike the East Coast in decades has been felt from South Carolina to Maine. It was centered 40 miles northwest of Richmond, Va. and measured 5.8. Two nuclear reactors in the same county as the epicenter were automatically taken off line. Federal authorities say there has been no major damage to the nation’s infrastructure.

Semi overturns on I-80 west of Ottawa

A crash on Interstate 80 left a semi truck overturned but apparently didn’t keep you from getting where you needed to be.

It happened shortly before 12pm Tuesday west of the Ottawa- Route 23 exit.  Firefighters had to free a person that was stuck inside.  No word on if they needed medical treatment.

It didn’t cause major traffic problems.

National Recognition For Area Companies

Three local companies are on a list of America’s fastest growing private businesses.

Inc. Magazine ranked the 5,000 fastest growing companies and on the list is Town & Country Services in Tonica, Carus Corporation in Peru and Clover Technologies in Ottawa.  Clover is ranked 2,164^th on the list with 503 million in revenues and a 3-year growth rate of 115 percent.

Carus is ranked 3,224^th on the list with 129 million in revenues and a 3-year growth of 60 percent.  Town & Country Services is ranked 3,836^th with over two million dollars in revenue and a 3-year growth rate of 37 percent.

Prosecution Says Blago Got Fair Shake

CHICAGO (AP) – Prosecutors say Rod Blagojevich received a fair trial and his convictions should stand.

They made that argument in a 133-page filing Tuesday morning in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The filing is a point-by-point retort to a 158-page defense motion last month that alleges a litany of errors at Blagojevich’s retrial and asks for another trial.

In the prosecutors’ filing, they say there was “no bias, manipulation or unfairness” by the government attorneys or the
judge.

Blagojevich is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 6.