Yard waste bag pickup begins next Monday in Peru

It’s time to pickup the leftover leaves from last fall and the scattered twigs and branches. Yard waste pickup in Peru begins Monday. You’ll need to have your leaves and other yard waste in a City of Peru bag. You can buy bags for $1.50 at the city clerk’s office and local stores. Yard waste bags will be picked up on Mondays. Please don’t dump bags at the city garage or compost site.

If you have tree limbs to be chipped, call the Public Works Department to schedule an appointment.   Peru Cemetery spring cleanup also begins Monday.

Missing teens return home

Two teens that were missing for a day are home. 15-year-old Devin Green of Marseilles and 16-year-old Sonya Mason of Earlville returned home Monday afternoon. Family members and La Salle County Sheriff’s Deputies were trying to find the teens since early Sunday morning.

They were considered runaways and were not thought to have been in danger.

 

Heroin related charges for an Ottawa pair

Approximately 10 grams of heroin is what police say they found after searching a house in Ottawa. Officers with TRIDENT Friday arrested Daniel and Tiffany Abbott of Ottawa for unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. They were taken to the La Salle County Jail.
Another man that lives with them, Shane Putnam, was arrested for a lesser drug paraphernalia charge. He was given a notice to appear.

Peru man wins big at home, garden and lifestyle show

The annual Illinois Valley Home, Garden and Lifestyle show proved to be a big hit. Especially is your name is William Seremak of Peru.

Seremak won $4,000 to spend at the dozens of vendors who were at Sunday’s show in La Salle. Over 40 businesses had displays.

They included everything from landscaping services to painters.

Brush fire near Utica was about a mile long

It was a long hike for Utica Firefighters called to a brush fire. The fire burned about 50 acres of brush Sunday evening east of the village on the north side of the I and M Canal.

Fire Chief Ben Brown says someone living nearby smelled smoke and reported the fire just before 7pm.  Brown says they couldn’t get a tanker to the fire so they had to carry water in backpacks. The fire was out by 8:40pm.  It’s not clear what started the fire.

 

Sign-up deadline arrives for new health insurance law

CHICAGO (AP) – State officials are making a final push to enroll people in the state’s Health Insurance Marketplace.

If you don’t already have health insurance you must sign up by midnight Monday or face federal tax penalties under the Affordable Care Act. After tonight only people with limited special circumstances will be able to get coverage that meets the federal law’s requirements. Those without insurance can be fined either 1 percent of their income or $95, whichever is greater, when filing 2014 federal taxes.

The new health care law prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions or from dropping those who develop expensive health problems.

LPHS to present “Bye Bye Birdie”

Take a trip back to 1957 with a performance of the musical “Bye Bye Birdie”.

It’s being performed this week at LP High School. The cast includes Josh Rinehart as Conrad Birdie, T.R. Miller as Albert Peterson, and Brittney Marx as Rosie Alvarez.

The performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 7pm. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students and senior citizens.

Attempt underway to tweak “Conceal and Carry”

     Illinois lawmakers have already introduced more than a dozen bills to tweak the state’s new concealed carry law, which is less than nine months old. That’s according to a report  by the (Springfield) State Journal-Register.
 
     The bills alternately make the state’s law stricter or more lenient.  Illinois became the final state in the country to allow concealed carry and its law is the strictest in the nation.
 
     But legislators who were the main architects of the law say they’d like to delay making changes – for now. And they don’t expect the bills to gain much traction in the capitol.
 
     The first concealed carry permits were mailed out to Illinois residents about a month ago.
 
     Officials expect about 300,000 concealed carry applications to be filed this year.

Local city to receive gypsy moth treatment

It may be unpleasant, but another sign of Spring is the State’s plan for treating the gypsy moth.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture will hold a series of public information meetings beginning next week to explain its treatment program. Locally, a meeting will be held in Oglesby Public Library April 10 starting at 3pm.  The IDOA intends to treat 38,000 trees for the destructive pest at 10 sites including La Salle. A pheromone which prevents the male gypsy moth from locating the female will be applied by airplane.

The gypsy moth is non-native and feasts on as many as 250 species of trees and shrubs, though it prefers oak leaves. Large populations can strip plants bare making them vulnerable to disease and other insects. Maps of the treatment sites are on the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s home page.

Antique Roadshow coming to Chicago

 

You’ve seen antiques appraised on Public Television.

PBS has an “Antique Roadshow” taping planned for Chicago’s McCormick Place on July 26. Approximately 6000 guests – by way of a ticket – will receive free valuations of their antique or collectible by specialists from leading auction houses. WTTW will record three 60 minutes episodes from this one day event. Each guest may bring two items for appraisal.

Guests are chosen by random from ticket applications. You can register at PBS.org. Look for Antique Roadshow on the home page. Deadline for ticket applications is April 7