Fire damages home in Utica

A cold Winter’s night and another family is homeless – this time  in Utica. Utica Fire Chief Gary Gbur said a kitchen fire in a two story house on Johnson Street Thursday afternoon required firemen from Utica, LaSalle and Naplate. Gbur told AM 1220 WLPO news men arrived about 5:27pm and brought a hose through the front door to attack flames in the kitchen and front living room. Gbur said the fire was knocked down in a short time and damage was limited to the first floor. The owners, Gregory and Susan Jacobson escaped and no one was hurt at the scene. Firemen were at the scene until just after 9. Gbur says it looks like 30-thousand dollars damage each to the contents and structure. The family has another place to stay.

Operation Prom-ise to operate outside of Peru

The program that teaches area teens not to drink and drive will continue but probably won’t be filming in Peru again.  Peru Alderman and Firefighter Rodney Perez says Operation Promise, the program that includes an anti-teen drinking short film, will likely be moved to another town since the Peru City Council doesn’t want to handle the books for it.  He also plans to establish it as a non-profit organization.

The debate came to a head Wednesday night.  After arguing that the city should continue accepting donations and writing the checks for Operation Promise, Perez told the council he knew that they were trying to snowball him and that it wasn’t about the accounting, it was about him.

Mayor Scott Harl, Alderman Dave Potthoff, and others disagreed, saying in the past there hasn’t been a committee to oversee the spending, just Perez.  They also said that the city supports the program because they close down city streets for it and use City of Peru police officers and fire fighters.

Perez had a group of supporters in the audience.  Nancy Burress of Granville made an emotional plea to the council to continue supporting the program.  Burress lost her daughter in alcohol related crash.

Perez says the program has been funded through donations that have either been handled by the Peru Fire Department or the city clerk’s office.

Man accused of crumbling and tossing ticket during traffic stop

The best way to argue a ticket is to bring it to court, not toss it out the car window.

A man from Chicago was taken to the La Salle County Jail after sheriff’s deputies say he crumpled and threw out a ticket for a seat belt violation.

It happened early Thursday morning after a traffic stop in Streator.  Neko Forbes was riding with a man that was pulled over for not signaling.  Police say after Forbes threw the ticket, he was arrested for littering and was brought to Ottawa.

Another person from Chicago was also ticketed for not wearing a seat belt.

“Souper Bowl” food drive planned for Hall Township

Temperatures are freezing and the flu is spreading- good reasons to stock up on soup.  You can help the Hall Township Food Pantry put more cans of soup on their shelves during a food drive they’re calling the Souper Bowl Challenge.

Schools, clubs and businesses are collecting cans of soup leading up to the big game a week from Sunday.  The donated items will have either a “B” for the Baltimore Ravens or “SF” for the San Francisco 49ers.

Director of the food pantry, Jan Martin, says your donation doesn’t have to be soup.   Martin says the need is greater than what is being donated.

The donations for the soup drive will be collected and counted the Monday after the game.

Martin says they got the idea from a food drive at JFK Elementary last year.  You can learn more about it by listening to an interview on the AM 1220 WLPO news page.