815 Life Taste Of Home Show Just Hours Away

One of the biggest shows in the Illinois Valley returns to L-P’s Matthiessen Auditorium.

The 815 Life Taste of Home Cooking Show gets going Saturday with a vendor show at 10:30 and cooking demonstrations by Culinary Specialist Guy Klinzing from Taste of Home at 2. Klinzing says the Illinois Valley show is a top destination for him.

Local vendors will pack the halls of LP High School and seats for the actual show are always hard to come by.  A limited number of tickets will be available at the door Saturday.

Project Santa Comes Through For The Troops Yet Again

A round of applause is well deserved for all the volunteers who helped make Project Santa a continued success.

According to the charities Facebook page, they filled just under 7,500 stockings this week.  The stockings are filled with goodies that will be sent to deployed U.S. troops.

Since 2005, Project Santa has sent well over 70,000 stockings stuffed with goodies for deployed troops.

They could always used monetary donations since postage to send out this year’s stockings will top $16,000.

Parade Planned For Lady Cav Volleyball Team

Let your L-P pride shine this weekend!

Regardless of what place the Lady Cavs volleyball team gets at state, you’re invited to salute the team by standing along a parade route Saturday night.  The parade is expected to start around 9 on Route 251 south of Tonica.  The route heads north through Tonica before turning onto Route 71 into Oglesby.

The Cavs and the rest of the parade will go east through Oglesby and head north on Route 178 through Utica.  The parade will take the Utica shortcut and head into La Salle on Route 6.  The team will head through downtown La Salle before getting back on Route 6 into Peru.  The route eventually heads north on Peoria and then east on Shooting Park Road to Creve Coeur Street before ending up at the high school.

A welcome home celebration will then start around 10 inside the West Gym.  You’ll be able to hear that celebration live on WLPO AM and FM.

Pension Vote Looming In Springfield?

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Your state leaders should be ready for a special session in Springfield in December.

An email was sent yesterday saying that a “possible” session could begin Dec. 3. The note from Mike Madigan’s office told lawmakers to “keep other days that week available.”

The email was sent around the time Madigan and other legislative leaders were meeting in Chicago to discuss a deal to solve the state’s $100 billion pension crisis.
Dec. 3 is the day after the deadline for candidates to file paperwork in the 2014 campaign.

Peru City Council agrees to buy software and technology for the city engineer

          Only since August has Peru had an in-house engineer.  Three months into the job, Sean Mikos is asking for computer software and equipment that would allow him to make maps and more efficiently keep track of the city’s utilities.

          The technology includes geographic infrastructure system software, an autocad program, and an $18,000 rover and data collector.

          Before giving him approval for the purchase that would total close to $35,000 Wednesday night, Alderman Dave Potthoff wanted to know how all that would save the city money.

          Mikos says it would save time because instead of searching through a stack of hand-drawn maps he could look up a specific area on the computer and have the information. 

          Mikos says he talked with city engineers in Streator and Ottawa, towns that have also starting using similar programs.

          The city council agrees the software would make the job more efficient and allow them to do things in-house that they couldn’t do before.

          It will be at least a month before he would have the software.