Peru City Council Split Over Need For Credit Cards

Do credit cards every create disagreement in your household? They have Peru City Council members at odds.

Mayor Scott Harl had to break a tie vote by saying yes to having city credit cards that only he, the city clerk and department heads can use. Harl says they won’t spend any more money than they are now and all credit card use will have receipts and an excuse. He thinks it’ll cut down on paperwork for the city clerk.

Alderman Dave Potthoff, Rodney Perez and Dave Waldorf along with Alderwoman Sherry Mayszak voted against the idea. Potthoff calls the idea dangerous saying it’s not in best interest to offer city credit cards to elected officials.

Westclox Fire Still Going In Spots

“Right now our guys are pretty well shot”. Those are the words of Peru Fire Chief Jeff King talking about the exhaustive Westclox fire.

King says there continues to be a lot of hot spots and there probably will be for three or four more days. He says they’ve been called out to the fire scene eight times since the initial call New Year’s Eve night.

King says everything from carpeting to plastic furniture has been burning. He says before the fire, he was urged E & R International Plastics to reduce their fire-prone materials.

To date, 2.1 million gallons of water has been used on the fire by 160 different firefighters representing 34 departments. King called it a “textbook campaign” in how they’ve handled the situation.

He was on vacation in Tennessee when the fire broke out. King praised Assistant Fire Chief Jim Duncan for taking the lead and especially for protecting three nearby homes from being burnt down.

Fencing was put up overnight to secure Westclox. Power is expected to start coming back on today.

Bomb threat in Princeton 11:30 update

A bomb squad from Springfield arrived in Princeton just after 11pm Wednesday to search three restaurants evacuated by a bomb scare. Meanwhile, A suspect taken in for questioning has now been arrested. News Tribune Princeton editor, Lindsay Vaughn says the name of the suspect hasn’t been released. Earlier tweets stated Culver’s restaurant received a call about 6:20pm. The caller said there was a bomb in Burger King set to go off in six minutes. Nothing happened. Later, Princeton police picked up a suspect in Burger King who is now under arrest. The restaurants affected are adjacent to I-80: McDonalds, Burger King and Roma’s Italian restaurant.

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Oglesby looks ahead to Summer Fun Fest

Preparations are already being made the 2^nd Annual Oglesby Summer Fun Fest.

Mayor Don Finley says new additions this year will include the inaugural Art Sarver Memorial Run/Walk.  Sarver was a long time Oglesby commissioner who died in 2010.  The Fun Fest will also add a salute to veteran’s day.

This year’s festival runs June 28^th-July 1^st.   In an effort to raise money for Fun Fest, the city is hosting a dueling pianos show February 18^th at the Elks Lodge.  Tickets for the show are available at city hall.

State Fire Marshall visits Westclox building

The Westclox building remains a crime scene.  Someone from the State Fire Marshall’s office and Peru Fire Chief Jeff King are at the building Wednesday.

Police Chief Doug Bernabei says investigators are looking for the origin of the fire and the cause.  A 15 year old boy from Peru and 17 year old Steven Gallacher of La Salle are suspected of starting the fire late Saturday night.  They were arrested only a few hours after the first 911 call.

Bernabei says they aren’t looking for a third person and he won’t say if the boys have confessed.

Tonica Woman Hurt In Rollover

An elderly woman was hurt after rolling her car near Oglesby.

Violet Vogel of Tonica was heading north on Route 251 near North 24th Road when for whatever reason she drove onto the shoulder. She ended up driving into a ditch, rolling over twice before landing back on her wheels.

Vogel was taken to Illinois Valley Community Hospital. State Police say her injuries weren’t serious.

No one else was involved in the crash that happened yesterday afternoon at two o’clock.

Homeless Man Accused Of Peru Break-In and Beating

Breaking into someone’s home is bad enough, let alone then beating them up.

That’s what Theodore Piano is accused of doing to a man in Peru. Piano was indicted yesterday for home invasion and aggravated battery.

He’s accused of forcing his way into a house on 7th Street late December 23rd and attacking the homeowner. The homeowner was taken to the hospital.

Piano is listed as homeless but used to have a Walnut Street address in Peru. He’s in the county jail on 100 thousand dollars bond.

Local Ambulance Smashes Into A Deer

The bad news is an area ambulance crashed into a deer. The good news is no one was hurt…at least not inside the ambulance.

Deputies say Matthew Platt of Sheridan was driving a Sheridan ambulance just before 10 o’clock last night when he couldn’t avoid hitting a deer on Route 71 outside Ottawa. Platt and his two passengers were okay.

No tickets were issued.

Late night flare up has firefighters back at Westclox

It was another late night for firefighters in Peru.  Crews returned to the Westclox building Tuesday night to put down some flare ups.  Fire trucks were set up off of Route 6 so traffic wasn’t disrupted.

The area that remains on fire is the rear of the middle building.  Area fire departments spent most of Monday trying to get the fire under control and were back late Tuesday morning for another flare up.

Peru Fire Chief Jeff King says they want to get the businesses in the other building up and running by the end of the week but first they need to collect physical evidence for the arson investigation.  Utilities also need to be reconnected to the front building.