Paramedics planning a food drive in Marseilles

Paramedics will be rushing around Marseilles Saturday but don’t worry, it’s all for charity.

The Marseilles Ambulance Service is having their annual food drive  from 9:30 until 1:30. Ambulance workers ask that you put donated food in a bag on your porch so they can swing by and pick it up. You can also bring food or monetary donations down to the Marseilles Ambulance building on Lincoln Street.

The food drive benefits the Marseilles Food Pantry.

Voters in Midland School District will be asked if they want to borrow for a new school

They have the land, now its up to voters to agree on building a new Midland Elementary School.

The Midland School Board this week approved a contract to buy nearly 36 acres of land on the northern edge of Lacon for $12,500 an acre. The purchase won’t be official until voters approve issuing bonds to pay for a new school. The bond question will likely be on the April ballot.

The Midland Elementary School has been closed a few times this year because of water issues. They’ve also closed classrooms because of mold.

Libraries willing to take donated food in exchange for overdue fines

Whether you owe a fine to the library in Peru, La Salle or Spring Valley, you can pay your debt with a can of corn.

Once again area public libraries will be accepting food donations to pay off library fines. The special collection called “Food for Fines” is from November 10 through the 25 at the libraries in Peru, La Salle, Spring Valley, Putnam County, Illinois Valley Community College and Mendota.

Each food item you donate counts as one dollar towards your debt though it won’t count towards lost or damaged books and interlibrary loan fees. The donations will be given to area food pantries.

You can donate food even if you don’t owe money.

Streator Police cracking down on non-reporting sex offenders

Becoming a registered sex offender means you have to keep police up to date on your whereabouts.

Streator Police recently did a city-wide check of sex offenders, calling it “Operation Clean Sweep”. Police Chief Kurt Pastirik says the sweep turned up several cases of sex offenders in Streator failing to register a change of address or tell police about a new job. Pastirik says the sex offenders not reporting their updated information will likely face new charges.

The chief says his department increased their address checks of sex offenders to twice a year even though the state only requires on address check a year.