La Salle Canal Boat undergoes inspection

On a warm and sunny June day in 2008, a large crane lowered the canal boat into the Illinois and Michigan Canal in La Salle. Nearly six years later, large cranes raised the boat out of the water for an inspection.

It happened Thursday morning. Ana Koval is the President of the Canal Corridor Association. She says the Coast Guard inspection is required every five or six years. Officials with the Coast Guard looked over the ship’s hull. Koval says a part needed to be straightened at a nearby wielding shop before the boat was returned to the water.

Broken cable affecting phone service in Peru

Are you having a hard time reaching a phone number in Peru? An unknown number of AT&T customers on the east side of Peru are without landline phone service after city employees hit a phone cable.

Crews were working on a water main leak at Seventh and Walnut Streets Thursday morning when they hit an unmarked phone cable.

AT&T knows about it. It’s unclear when it will be repaired.

Suburban driver hurt in crash near Utica

Repairs are needed along Interstate 80 near Utica after an electric car left the road.

Amber Egan of Evergreen Park was eastbound on I-80 Wednesday afternoon when troopers say she drove into the median for an unknown reason. Egan eventually hit and damaged several feet of median cable and supports before finally coming to a stop.

She was taken to Illinois Valley Community Hospital. Egan wasn’t ticketed.

Local investors save Mendota company and its employees

A struggling Mendota construction company has a new owner. Illinois Valley Millworks of Mendota has been bought by Starved

Rock Wood Products, a newly formed subsidiary of CL Enterprises LLC, a private equity and holdings company.
CL Enterprises announced the deal Wednesday. Illinois Valley Millworks had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last summer. The company says IVM’s 18 employees and founder, Keith Miller, will continue as employees of Starved Rock Wood Products.

CL Enterprises is owned by Inga Carus and Peter Limberger. They say they want to grow and expand the business.

Budget on the agenda for Illinois lawmakers

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – The Illinois Senate is expected to advance a 2015 budget as the Legislature moves closer to adjourning its spring session.

Lawmakers return to the Capitol Thursday with the $37.5 billion budget and several other issues on their agenda. But the biggest issue remains the 2015 budget, which passed the House on Tuesday.

It keeps spending flat for schools and most agencies next year, but could lead to layoffs, facility closures and a postelection extension of Illinois’ temporary income tax increase.

Fire damages a Deer Park house

Flames were showing through the roof of a Deer Park Township home before anyone realized it was burning.  Firefighters from Utica and surrounding departments went to the fire around 5pm Wednesday.

Utica Fire Chief Ben Brown says the fire heavily damaged the rear of the home.  The two people that live there were not home when it started.  Brown says they were able to stay with family.

Brown says the cause has not been determined and the State Fire Marshall would be investigating.