Area Career Center opens its doors to Ottawa building trades students

While it may not cool down the controversy, LP and Ottawa High School have worked out a deal involving building trades students.

Area Career Center Director Mary Stouffer says they have openings for up to 15 Ottawa students who want to take building courses. The career center openings are specifically for residential construction.

Ottawa building trades students will be able to start in the fall at LP. They’ll pay the same tuition rate as students do from other schools like Hall, Mendota and St. Bede. A semester of tuition at the ACC is just over $1,000 per student.

Other building trades’ students from Ottawa are expected to go to the Indian Valley Area Vocational Center in Sandwich. They’re being shuffled around since the Ottawa High School board cut building trades’ teacher Dave Keely.

Part-time dispatcher in Streator facing child porn charge

A part-time 911 dispatcher in Streator faces two felony sex crime charges.

Jeffrey Clayton was arrested for the Class X Felony of child pornography and Class 2 Felony of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Streator Police Chief Kurt Pastirik says Clayton has been on administrative leave since May 29th, a couple days after the department learned of allegations against Clayton.

Clayton is in the La Salle County Jail with his bond at $500,000. The La Salle County Sheriff’s Office is handling the investigation.

Scheduled power outage to affect some Oglesby homes

You may need to get an early start to your day Thursday if you live in Oglesby. Part of the city will be without power from 8am until 12pm while workers upgrade a power line.

Areas affected include the 200 block of Church Street, Oak Street, East Porter from Woodland Avenue and east to the wastewater treatment plant, the east side of North Woodland to Alice, Holy Family School and Alice from Holy Family School and south.

Seneca’s Shipyard Days Festival returns for another year

One of the longest running festivals in the Illinois Valley kicks off  Wednesday night.

The annual Seneca Shipyard Days starts with a “Welcomeburger” picnic, live music, bike raffle and a carnival. Thursday the beer garden and “Taste of Seneca” open along with replica displays of landing ship tanks that were once built in Seneca. Shipyard Days will come to a close Sunday night with fireworks.

For a complete rundown of events, click a link posted on the wlpoamandfm.com news page.

Ottawa to apply for another Brownfield grant

A few days after they received a large environmental cleanup grant, the city of Ottawa is going after more grant money.

The Ottawa City Council is planning to apply for $1 million Brownfield grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. Mayor Bob Eschbach says this grant would be used to cleanup old industrial sites as potential redevelopment comes up.

Just last week the EPA awarded Ottawa a $200,000 Brownfield grant to clean up parts of the old Central School property.

Investigation continues into sand pit crash that killed LP grad

A makeshift memorial with flowers sits near the site of a crash that killed 17-year-old Zachary Behrens.

The investigation continues into the death of the recent LP grad. Besides flowers, temporary fencing and roped off barricades sit in the area where police say Behrens left Boyce Memorial Drive in Ottawa, crashed through a fence and fell down several feet into a sand pit. He was pronounced dead at the scene and an autopsy was done Tuesday.

A statement released from LP says “the La Salle-Peru Township High School family is deeply saddened by the news of Zachary Behrens’ tragic death Monday night”.

Counseling services are being made available at the high school for students.