Car cruise planned for Marseilles

          It will be a beautiful night for a car show. See all different makes and models at the Marseilles Cruise Night Saturday night.  The cars will be on Main Street from 5-9pm.  It’s presented by the Marseilles Firefighter Association.

Former LPHS basketball coach named to ISU coaching staff

          A former Cavalier basketball player and coach has joined the coaching staff at Illinois State University in Normal.  Luke Yaklich has been hired as an assistant coach for the Redbird men’s basketball team according to GoRedBirds.com.

          Yaklich played basketball for LP during the 90’s and later returned to coach first the girls and later the boys basketball teams before leaving for a job at Joliet Township High School in 2007.

Railroad Construction Done In Ottawa

If there’s one positive of this hot and dry week it’s that construction projects are moving ahead.

As of this morning, Route 23 north of Norris Drive in Ottawa is back open to traffic.  The stretch of road had been closed since Monday so that Illinois Railway workers could reconstruct a crossing on Fremont Street.

The construction was originally supposed to have the road closed for a full week.

Thousands Expected To Run Marseilles Obstacle Course

Want to challenge yourself physically?  Sign up for the Reebok Spartan Race this weekend in Marseilles.

Thousands of people are expected to take on the obstacle course that boasts having “fire, mud, water, barbed wire and occasionally Hell on Earth”.  There are four levels of difficulty for the Spartan Race with the toughest called “The Spartan Death Race”.

You can race either Saturday or Sunday.  It’s at The Cliff’s Off-Road Park on 2625^th Road in Marseilles.

For more information go to http://www.spartanrace.com/index.html

Interstate Work Still To Come This Summer

The latest state bids for construction work includes several projects in La Salle County.

Over 6 million dollars of work will be done on Interstate 39 throughout the county later this summer.  The work will include shoulder repairs, rumble strip installation, and pavement patching.

Construction crews will also repair bridge approaches carrying Route 6 over Route 251 in Peru.  Bridge pier repairs will also be done on township roads over Interstate 80.

In Bureau County, 530 thousand dollars’ worth of center line improvements will be done on Interstate 180 just south of I-80.

Semi Fire Snarls I-80 Traffic Near Princeton

Driving Interstate 80 in parts of Bureau County is tough enough with construction.  Adding to the headache yesterday was a fire.

Fire crews from Princeton, Manlius and Buda all were called to a semi fire on the eastbound lanes of I-80 early Thursday afternoon.  When crews arrived the semi’s cab was fully engulfed.

No one was hurt.  The fire did shut down traffic for several minutes on eastbound I-80 west of Princeton.

Another Day Of Extreme Heat

Just one more day to go before the blistering heat eases off in the Illinois Valley.

A Heat Advisory continues thru this evening.  The heat index today will be around 100 degrees yet again with the regular high temperature hitting the low to mid-90s.

Relief should come tomorrow with a high temperature in the mid-80s and low-80s on Sunday.