Updated draft comprehensive plan to be discussed Monday

The waterfront is an important area for development in Ottawa.  Plans for the waterfront and downtown are included in an updated comprehensive plan.  Learn more about the plan when the planning commission meets at 6:30pm Monday.

A draft of the plan will be presented.  The city last year hired a consultant team update the plan.  They’re paying for it with a $100,000 IKE grant.

And if you’re interested in the old Peltier Glass factory, a follow up visioning and planning meeting is at 6:30pm Tuesday.  Both meetings are at City Hall.

Peru City Council to hold another meeting of the whole

Peoria Street in Peru isn’t smooth ride. The road from 13^th Street to Shooting Park Road is scheduled for improvements.  The city council Monday could give engineers the approval to move forward with the plans.

The city council will meet at 6:30pm for a committee of the whole meeting where they plan to go into closed session.  The regular meeting will follow at 7:30pm.

Lawmaker proposes phone “kill switch”

  An Illinois lawmaker wants to make it harder for stolen cell phones to be sold on the black market.

   State Senator Toi Hutchinson has filed legislation that would require cell phones sold or purchased in Illinois to have a so-called “kill switch” that would make the phone inoperable if it is lost or stolen.

Oldest Holocaust survivor dies

  A woman believed to be the oldest known survivor of the Holocaust has died in London at age 110.

   Alice Herz-Sommer’s devotion to the piano and to her son sustained her through two years in a Nazi prison camp.

   A film about her has been nominated for best short documentary at next week’s Academy Awards.

I-55 stretch will be renamed

State lawmakers are expected to name part of an Illinois highway after a police officer killed last fall.
 
     The Illinois Senate will vote on the resolution Wednesday. It names a five-mile portion of Interstate 55 near Pontiac after Officer Casey Kohlmeier.
 
     He was killed when a car driven by a suspected drunk driver struck his vehicle along Interstate 55.
 
     Kohlmeier was a member of the Pontiac police department’s K-9 unit. His K-9 patrol partner, Draco, was also killed in the accident last October.
 
     Kohlmeier graduated from Pontiac Township High School. He was a member of the U.S. Air Force prior to joining the police department.
 
     State Sen. Jason Barickman is sponsoring the resolution. The Republican from Bloomington says he’s humbled to honor an officer “who made the ultimate sacrifice.”

The Olympics have ended

 

  A giant bear has extinguished the Olympic flame during the closing ceremony of the Sochi Games.

   The bittersweet gesture was quickly followed by fireworks exploding over the Olympic stadium and athletes pouring onto the arena floor to dance in celebration.

  Host nation Russia leaves with the most medals, 33. The U.S. is next with 28.

 

 

Trump puts ID on his building

Donald Trump wants to make sure everyone knows the second-tallest skyscraper in Chicago is his.
 
     Crain’s Chicago Business reports the celebrity real estate developer will stamp his name in 20-foot letters on the side of the 92-story Trump International Hotel & Tower that faces the Chicago River. The sign permit approved by the city indicates the letters will be back-lit with white LED lighting.
 
     Workers will install the Trump name just below the 16th-floor terrace of the tower. Trump says it was decided recently to put the sign on the building on the realization “people love the building.”
 
     Some are concerned the branding will be garish and detract from Chicago’s architecturally significant buildings.
 
     Preservation Chicago executive director Ward Miller says the sign “has the potential to be quite ugly.”

Big prize won in drug war

The drug kingpin who was named Chicago’s first “Public Enemy Number One” since Al Capone has been captured.

The Associated Press has learned Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was taken alive Saturday by U.S. and Mexican authorities at a hotel in Mazatlan, Mexico. Jack Riley is head of the Chicago office of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

He tells the Chicago Sun-Times he’ll push for Guzman to be brought to Chicago to stand trial.

Oglesby truck stop delayed further

Oglesby Mayor Don Finley sounded a bit disappointed, but acknowledged the city’s new truckstop won’t be opening till April.

Finley talked with “Classic Hits 103-9 WLPO” news Saturday. Finley says the outside work is pretty well done, but there’s plenty of work inside yet. Floor tile is being put in place as well as freezers and bathroom sinks. Finley did not specify a particular date for the finishing of the Love’s Travel Stop.

Regarding the “County Market” project, that says Finley is in the design stage. It will go in just west of Eureka Savings and hopefully will open in early next year.

River flooding considered minor at LaSalle

Depending on where you are, the Illinois River is about to leave its banks or already has.

At Ottawa, the National Weather Service expects the river to rise this afternoon to a foot shy of flood stage, which is 463 ft. It will also be very close to threatening the entrance to Allen Park. Saturday night’s reading was 461.7.

A Flood Warning is in effect at LaSalle, where Saturday night’s reading was 22.2 feet. Flood stage is 20. Minor flooding is now expected. The river, says the Weather Service, should now fall below flood stage by Wednesday morning.