New Sound System For IVCC Not Cheap

The next time you attend a concert or perhaps bridal show inside the Illinois Valley Community College Cultural Centre, there should be a nice, new sound system.

The IVCC trustees last night agreed to buy a new sound system for 691 thousand dollars.  Parts that could fix the aging sound system aren’t even made anymore according to the trustees.  The new sound system will come with an assisted listening system for the hearing impaired.

The IVCC Cultural Centre will host the 34^th Annual Illinois Valley Bridal Show January 26^th.

Ottawa Powder Making Plant Looking To Expand

Business is apparently good at a plant making titanium powder in Ottawa.

Cristal Metals, formerly International Titanium Powder is paying the city 15 thousand dollars for the option of buying 32.5 acres of land in the Ottawa industrial park.  If they go ahead and buy the land, the purchase price is 667 thousand dollars.

For the city’s part, they’re upgrading part of the industrial park by extending water and sewer lines, railroad spurs and roads.  The city council is going after a one million dollar state grant to help pay for the industrial park expansion.

Cristal Metals has two years to buy the land.  If they don’t develop it, the city has the right to buy it back at the same sale price.

As part of a grant agreement, Cristal Metals has agreed to hire at least 24 new full-time employees by the end of 2016.

Household waste collection scheduled for Saturday

          Finally you have the chance to throw away the collection of old cleaners and bug and weed killers that have been piling up in your basement.  Carus Corporation is holding a hazardous household materials drop-off Saturday at their headquarters in Peru.

They’ll be taking florescent light bulbs, hobby chemicals, batteries, and used motor oils.  You can also leave old oil-based paints and drain cleaners.  All you have to do is drive up to their parking lot off of Route 6. 

The drop-off is from 8a.m. and 3p.m.  They will not be accepting commercial or agricultural waste or tires.

City Cracks Down On Spring Valley Smoke Shop

It’s hard to operate as a smoke shop if you don’t have a tobacco license.  The NewsTribune reports that the Spring Valley City Council Monday night took away the tobacco license from the Spring Valley Smoke Shop.

Police Chief Kevin Sangston says the stores owner is a “threat to the community” by selling illegal drugs.

Ibrahim Romi was arrested for unlawful delivery of a controlled substance after the store was raided last week.

Sangston says they found over 17 hundred packages of synthetic marijuana.   A man from Missouri was also arrested for allegedly have bags of the drug in his car.

Semi Crash In Bureau County Involves Hazmat Crews

A crash between two semis shut down a stretch of Interstate 80 overnight in Bureau County.

According to the state police, Shuhrat Mirzayev of California was parked on the eastbound shoulder of I-80 near the Sheffield exit when he was rear-ended by a semi driven by Raul Venegas of Texas just before six Monday evening.  About 38 hundred gallons of flammable liquid spilled out of the parked semi onto the interstate.

Cleanup crews got the stretch of 80 opened back up just before two this morning.  Mirzayev was taken to a Geneseo hospital while Venegas wasn’t hurt.  Venegas by the way was hauling about 42 thousand pounds of tomatoes.

The crash is still under investigation.