Bridge and road work will close off east side access to Oglesby

There are only a handful of ways to get in and out of Oglesby. One of the ways will be closed for a year or longer because of construction.

Plans are to build a brand new bridge on Ed Hand Highway over the Vermilion River starting next year. The bridge will be widened to include bike paths. The construction will also include widening and resurfacing the road from the bridge north to the Route 71 intersection.

La Salle County Engineer Larry Kinzer says work should start early next year and it’ll take at least a year to finish. While the bridge is replaced and road is resurfaced, you won’t be able to use Ed Hand Highway at all.

The new bridge alone will cost around $4 million.

Union and non-union La Salle County employees get raises

Some county workers will get bigger paychecks than their used to in the coming weeks.

The La Salle County Board has agreed to new, one-year contracts with union workers in the highway department, nursing home and elected officials. The AFSCME employees are getting .45 cent an hour raises. Since the contract is backdated to last December, the workers will get back pay to reflect their raises.

The board also will give non-union, county workers .45 cent an hour raises.

Bureau County deputies crash underage drinking party

School is back in session but it’s not too late for an underage drinking party, at least not in Tiskilwa.

Eighteen boys and girls were busted for alleged underage drinking Sunday morning at a home northeast of Tiskilwa. Eighteen-year-olds in the group that were arrested include: Spencer Skyler, Matthew Schlindwein, Brenton Schmidt, Luke Gleason, and Keyenna Altizer all of Princeton; Taylor McCauley and Alec Warren of Tiskilwa; and 19-year-old Abigail Jaques of Princeton.

The youngest child arrested at the party was a 13-year-old boy.

La Salle driver flown to Peoria after leading police on a chase

A police chase that started in Peru ended in La Salle when the man police were after crashed into a tree.

According to the Peru Police Department, they tried pulling over Jonathan Sluder of La Salle late Saturday night on Shooting Park Road. He’s accused of speeding away, going sometimes 70 in a 30 mile-per-hour zone. The chase eventually went into La Salle where Sluder crashed into a tree along Creve Couer Street.

He was flown to St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria where he’s listed in fair condition. Sluder was arrested for DUI, reckless driving, fleeing and eluding police, speeding and driving uninsured.

Wild scene in Ottawa allegedly included a rifle being pointed at deputies

Jeremy Weber of Ottawa was arrested but he’s lucky he didn’t get shot.

While arresting David Scott of Ottawa on a warrant Sunday night, deputies say they noticed a green laser light move from an apartment to a squad car. The deputies say they next saw a man and woman behind a fence with the man holding a rifle with a green laser scope, pointing it in their direction.

When told to drop the weapon, deputies say both the man and woman behind the fence ran. Jeremy and Jenna Weber of Ottawa were both eventually caught and arrested for obstructing a peace officer. Jeremy was also picked up for aggravated assault for point the rifle at police.

The initial man being arrested on a warrant was David Scott. He allegedly skipped out on a court hearing for having open alcohol in public.

Both Weber’s and Scott were taken to jail.

Heroes honored for their response to Mother’s Day fire in downtown Utica

Saturday night, Utica Fire Department had truck rides, cake and ice cream for everybody and awards for their own.

Retired Fire Chief Dave Edgcomb gave “medals of valor” to, as he put it, “his kids”. Lt. Robbyn Travis and Fireman Andy Brown rescued an unresponsive man in a “Mother’s Day” downtown fire. Edgcomb talked about the growth of the two from “Junior Firemen”.

EMT’s Debby Bierbom and Bonnie Lucas were given “life saving” awards for helping to revive Roy Lance, the May fire victim. Lance is in Colorado recovering.

For a fee, La Salle County could start housing inmates from out of the area

While it may seem like a lot of people are getting arrested, there’s plenty of room for more inmates at the La Salle County Jail.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart recently toured the jail in Ottawa. He’s seeing if the jail is good enough to house Chicago-area inmates.

La Salle County Sheriff Tom Templeton says there are days when the 306-bed jail is only half full. It was built for a population increase that so far hasn’t happened in the Illinois Valley.

Livingston County already has an agreement with Cook County where they get $50 a day for housing an outside inmate.

County line collision kills Plano man

A teenager’s life is over after he was hit by an alleged drunken driver near the La Salle and Kendall County line.

Just before 11:30 Saturday night, deputies say 19-year-old Luis Rodriguez of Plano was hit at a rural intersection southeast of Somonauk by 24-year-old Mary Childress of Millington. Childress was arrested for DUI and failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident and taken to jail. Rodriguez was pronounced dead at the scene.

The fatal crash is still being investigated by the La Salle County Sheriff’s Office and Kendall County Coroner’s Office.