City of Ottawa buys private park space

The west side of Ottawa has a new public park.

The city Tuesday officially closed on the purchase of the formerly-private Thornton Park. The city is getting eight acres with Edmund Thornton donating the four acres the park is on and the city paying $400,000 for roughly four acres covering the park’s office building and parking lot along with empty land west of Boyce Memorial Drive.

The city is using money from an Enterprise Zone fund to buy the land. Mayor Bob Eschbach says the city could decide to make it all park space or look to develop some of it.

As part of the agreement the city will keep the Thornton Park name.

Area group to offer screenings for theraputic tricycles

Going for a bike ride is a great way to get exercise, especially for people who have disabilities. Personalized, therapeutic tricycles make a real difference to people with disabilities.

Robert Swon is the president of the I-80 Chapter of AMBUCS, a group that helps people with disabilities get specialized, therapeutic AM Trykes. Swon learned how beneficial the trikes were when his son, a car crash victim, received a tryke.

Swon says the trykes are different from something you would buy at a store because the are designed by a therapist and included features to accommodate the rider.

If you know a child or young adult that would benefit from a therapeutic tryke, they should visit a fitting session Thursday, February 26 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Peru. If they show a need, the local AMBUCS chapter will collect donations to have a specialize tryke made at no cost to the family.

The I-80 chapter helps serves Grundy, La Salle, Putnam and Bureau Counties. Learn more about them by listening to an interview that’s available at the Classic Hits 103.9 WLPO news page.

Social media helps nab an alleged burglar in Marseilles

Not long after posting pictures on their Facebook page, the Marseilles Police Department arrested a man accused of stealing money from a Casey’s General Store.

Police say Louis Babcock of Ottawa stole money from a cash register while the worker was waiting on a customer and then left. It happened early Monday morning.

The police department posted the photos Monday afternoon.  Babcock was arrested Monday by the Ottawa Police Department and was taken to the La Salle County Jail. He faces a charge of burglary.

L-P, Ottawa and Streator fans vying for state honor

Who has the best student section in the Illinois Valley? A statewide contest is going on to name the state’s best student sections. Forty schools were divided into Class 1A/2A and Class 3A/4A based on enrollment.

Vying for the best student section in Class 3A/4A is L-P, Streator and Ottawa. Finalists will be announced starting February 25 with the overall winner announced during the boy’s basketball state championship game Saturday, March 21. You can check out submitted videos of the “L-P Super Fans”, “Ottawa Pirate Nation” and “Streator Red Surge” by clicking http://www.ihsa.org/default.aspx

Weather service schedules annual severe weather spotter classes

Maybe this will have you thinking of warmer weather. The National Weather Service has planned another round of severe weather spotter classes.

In La Salle County, there will be a storm spotter class Tuesday, March 3rd at Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby. It starts at 6. In Putnam County there’s a weather spotter class Monday, March 23 at the Putnam County Emergency Management building in Hennepin starting at 6:30pm.

The severe weather classes train you to identify storms and tornadoes and then report them to the National Weather Service. They are free and usually last a couple of hours.

Mendota City Council doing its best to accommodate new video gambling establishment

Make room for another bar and more video gaming machines in the Illinois Valley.

According to the NewsTribune, the Mendota City Council is reserving it’s remaining liquor license for a new bar and video gaming establishment called Sassy’s. The developer is still working out a lease and Alderman Bill Hunt says it could be several weeks.

Recently in Ottawa the popularity of video gaming had their city council increasing the number of available liquor licenses.