IVCC Professor receives a scholorship

          Take a course in anatomy or physiology at Illinois Valley Community College and your professor would likely be Sue Caley Opsal.  As Opsal works toward a Ph.D. she’ll be receiving some financial help.  The professor is receiving a $25,000 Presidential scholarship from Walden University.

            Opsal is enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Education, focusing on community college leadership and centering on social change.

            Opsal says the Ph.D. will expand her opportunities to help address the shortage of women in careers like physics, engineering and technology. 

DePue Man Hurt In Rollover

You have to be careful around merging traffic.

Jose Mejia of DePue says he overturned into the median on Interstate 80 trying to avoid a merging driver coming from Interstate 39.  Mejia was heading eastbound just past the I-80/I-39 intersection when he crashed this morning.

Mejia was taken to Illinois Valley Community Hospital in Peru.  He was ticketed for improper lane usage.

La Salle County Spelling Bee Returns

Over 30 students will compete in the 53^rd annual La Salle County Spelling Bee.

The bee is tomorrow morning at 9 inside the Ottawa High School Auditorium.  Last year’s winner, Grant Innis of Lincoln Junior High in La Salle ending up advancing all the way to the national spelling bee in Washington, D.C.

Tomorrow’s winner gets a $250 cash prize, a plaque and hundred dollar gift certificate to the Book Mouse in Ottawa.  The runner-up gets a hundred dollars, a hundred dollar Book Mouse gift card and a plaque.

Pack The Place Purple At L-P

While the colors for L-P and Ottawa High School’s have a lot of red and green in them, expect the crowd at tonight’s boys’ basketball game to be wearing purple.

It’s Lily Rosploch Night at the game in L-P, honoring the young girl from La Salle who is battling cancer.  Players from both teams plan to wear purple shirts and fans are urged to do the same.  Players have been selling special shirts for tonight’s game with proceeds going to the Rosploch family.

Rosploch continues to get treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Business Brisk At La Salle County Detention Home

2012 was a busy year for the La Salle County Detention Home.

The home spent most of the year at capacity with 182 admissions, a 10 percent jump from the year before.  Over 70 percent of the kids spending time in the detention home last year were boys.  Whites made up 75 percent of the detention home population in 2012.

Breaking it down by city, Streator had 51 kids spend time in the detention home last year, by far the most.  Ottawa was next highest with 36 followed by Marseilles with 25.  La Salle and Peru combined had 20 kids sent to the detention home.

Education Office Merger Moving Forward

The Regional Office of Education serving Marshall and Putnam Counties needs a home.  La Salle County is willing to provide one.

Last year, Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill cutting the number of ROE’s in the state from 44 to 35.  Each ROE has to cover at least 61 thousand students or else consolidate.

The Marshall-Woodford-Putnam County ROE has under 61 thousand people so La Salle County is looking to take over representation for the Putnam County School District, Midland Schools and Henry-Senachwine Schools.  La Salle County Superintendent Chris Dvorak says while they would take on more training and responsibilities, the merger won’t cost the county more money.  He says the main office will stay in Ottawa.

Dvorak plans to meet with ROE reps of Marshall and Putnam Counties next week and have an official merger vote at the March county board meeting.