Beard Brothers to open a car lot in Peru

A grassy lot in downtown Peru will soon be used for selling newer and vintage cars.  Jim and Justin Beard have an auto body shop in Fourth Street and want to use the lot to the east of their shop as a car lot.  The lot is where the old Peru Hotel stood.  The brothers want to put in a concrete parking lot and lights.

Downtown zoning doesn’t allow car lots so they needed to ask city officials for a text amendment and a special use.  They also asked for a variance to put up a new sign.

The city council Monday night approved the requests.

Peru hires a new city engineer

From street repairs to sewer replacements, your city engineer oversees many of your town’s infrastructure projects.  A new en engineer was hired in Peru.

Eric Carls was raised in Spring Valley and graduated from St. Bede Academy, Illinois Valley Community College, and The University of Illinois.  He worked for the Illinois Department of Transportation before working for a private firm. 

The city council Monday approved him for the job.  Carls will start after Memorial Day.  He will earn $80,000 annually and receive a $3,000 transfer bonus and a $3,000 continuing employment bonus.

Cherry church to offer a Filipino style mass

Every now and then Catholic parishes will do something different like a polka mass or a Latin mass. Holy Trinity Church in Cherry is planning a Filipino-style mass.

Father Anthony Bernas of St. Joseph’s Parish in Rock Island will deliver the mass and a choir of singers of Filipino decent will perform.

The mass will be at 3:30pm Sunday, May 18 followed by a pot-luck. If you can’t be there, you can watch an online broadcast at WWW.CHERRYHOLYTRINITY.ORG.

Veteran pilot to speak about the mission over Laos in Princeton

Imagine flying over an unfamiliar country in the night during the Vietnam War. Bullets with red tracers are being fired from the ground while you carefully avoid getting hit and hitting high terrain.

That situation played out night after night for Dick Diller, a former U.S. Air Force Pilot who was raised in Princeton. Diller returns to Princeton Tuesday to talk about his book, Firefly: A Skyradiers’s story about America’s Secret War Over Laos.

Diller says he wrote the book because the story needed to be told.  He used his old reel-to-reel recordings he made for his parents while writing the book. You can hear him talk about his book and buy a copy when he visits the Princeton Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

You can learn more about Diller by listening to an interview that’s up at the WLPO AM and FM news page.

Peoria man accused of having a gun in La Salle

Concealed carry is allowed in Illinois but not everyone can participate, like convicted felons.

Jacob Maske of Peoria is accused of having a gun on him Saturday afternoon in La Salle. He was in a car that was stopped near the I and M Canal. Maske was arrested for possession of a weapon by a felon and was taken to the La Salle County Jail.

Oglesby women denies responsibility for injured dog

In a follow up to a story you heard last week on Classic Hits 103.9 WLPO, a brindle pitbull injured after being hit by a car continues to recover. The male dog was found near Interstate 39 and Route 6 Thursday.

Steven and Tiffany Bottoms of Oglesby were ticketed for allegedly allowing the dog to run loose and cruel treatment to an animal, but Tiffany Bottoms says the dog was no longer theirs.

She told Classic Hits 103.9 WLPO that the dog was given to a new owner about two weeks ago but was returned to their home last Wednesday by the Oglesby Police after it was apparently spotted running loose.

Bottoms says they tried returning the dog to the new owner by leaving it with a man off of Route 6 in La Salle near the Speedway. The following day the dog was found injured. The police have accused the Bottoms of leaving the dog.

Bottoms says she doesn’t know the name of the man who took the dog.

Dirt bike crash sends Ottawa man to hospital

If you were following the story of the man injured in a dirt bike accident, he’s in good condition. Nathan Elias of rural Ottawa was flown to St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria after crashing Sunday in Naplate.  Police say he was riding with his friends.

 

Crash near Earlville allegedly involved driver dozing off

Sometimes the hardest part of driving is staying awake. Police think Trisha Johnson of Earlville crash her car after falling asleep Saturday morning south of Earlville. She left the road and hit a tree and was flown to Rockford Memorial Hospital. Johnson was treated and released.

 

Major construction project for busy Peru road

A potential major traffic headache is starting up in Peru.

Repaving of Shooting Park Road in Peru starts on Pulaski Street. The first part of the project starts at Pulaski and will be repaved to Peoria Street.

Shooting Park Road will be down to only two-lanes of traffic at times during the construction work.

St. Bede remembering life of a former abbot

A man who was the seventh abbot at St. Bede will be remembered.

Visitation for Father Claude Peifer starts at 4 Monday in the St. Bede Abbey Church. The 86-year-old Peifer died Thursday.

He was the abbot for eight years before resigning in June 2011. Peifer was also a well respected scholar in scripture, having served on the editorial board for the New American Bible and contributor to The Bible Today.