Radium Girl statue unveiled

Madeline Piller and former Radium Dial worker June Mennie unveil the statue.

A fitting tribute to kickoff Labor Day weekend.  The Radium Girl statue was unveiled during a ceremony Friday morning in Ottawa.  The statue depicts a young woman working for the Radium Dial Company.  Many of the women who worked there became seriously ill from radium poisoning.

You can visit the memorial at the northwest corner of Clinton and Jefferson Streets, across from Home Hardware.

Miller Group Charitable Trust donated $20,000 to the campaign in December.  Miller Group Media includes AM 1220 WLPO, 99.3 WAJK, 96.5 the Wolf, NewsTribune and AgriNews.

Thanks to Ottawa Delivered for the photo.

LC Board member wants to run for 38th State Senate District

A man you might recognize from the La Salle County Board wants to be your state senator.  Tom Ganiere says he’s running for the 38^th District State Senate seat as a Democrat.  That could put him against Republican State Senator Sue Rezin who was appointed to it last winter.

His county board district in includes the west side of Ottawa, where he was born and raised.  He’s an attorney part-time with the Miskell Law Center in Ottawa.

A primary election is next spring with the general election next November.

Road construction suspended and increased police patrols for Labor Day weekend

If you’re heading out of town this weekend, be smart behind the wheel.  You’ll notice more State Police Troopers patrolling than usual.  They’ll be looking for people driving drunk or not wearing seatbelts.

And while most road construction projects will be on-hold for the long weekend, there will still be lane closers, including a stretch of Interstate 80 in Bureau County where they’ve been replaces bridges.

Additional oversight added at former Mission Cemetery

Even in the heat, a group of volunteers continue to remove remains at the former Mission Cemetery in La Salle.  A portion of the land is being developed for a new AnCare Veterinary Clinic.

Numerous graves have been uncovered and remains sorted and packaged to be moved to St. Vincent’s Cemetery.  The effort Thursday attracted the attention of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

La Salle Economic Development Director Don Aleksy says state officials were overwhelmed by the amount of volunteers and thought there should be more supervision.

An extra archeologist is coming on board so there will be two plus a funeral director to oversee the volunteers.

Aleksy thinks they’re close to removing all of the remains from this lot but there are likely more graves on another lot.