Deer Park Country Club will soon have new owners

The Illinois Valley’s oldest 18-hole golf course is changing hands.

The Deer Park Country Club board of directors Thursday night overwhelmingly voted in support of selling the club to the owners of Senica’s Oak Ridge. Official closing of the sale is expected before the month ends.

Deer Park was founded in 1904. Just this year the course was opened to the public to golf three days a week.

BB gun causes stir in La Salle

There were some anxious moments around La Salle Friday morning.

Just before 8 o’clock, police were called about a “gun exchange” that happened not far from Lincoln Junior High. Police Chief Rob Uranich says a teen was returning a BB gun to its owner, another boy. The gun was never pointed at anyone or brought inside a school. Uranich says the boys simply made a “poor decision” in exchanging the gun in such a public spot right before school.

Neither of the boys was taken into custody although a report will be handed over to the state’s attorney’s office. Uranich says the decision was made not to put schools on lockdown.

Illinois Valley salutes piece of the World Trade Center

A piece of the fallen World Trade Center passed thru the Illinois Valley this morning.

Members of the Fort Collins Fire Department are transporting the five-foot long, 35-hundred pound piece of steel from New York City to Colorado. They’re using Interstate 80 and came across the Illinois Valley in the 8 o’clock hour. Many fire departments from La Salle and Bureau County filled interstate overpasses saluting as the beam drove by pulled by a pickup truck and escorted by the Patriot Guard Riders.

You can follow the beam’s travels by clicking WTC beam

Oglesby athlete getting state recognition at Special Olympics Gala

If you’re in need of some inspiration, check out this story.

Oglesby Special Olympian Kelli Ewbank is the featured athlete at this year’s Special Olympics of Illinois “Inspire Greatness Gala” in Chicago. The 25-year-old will tell her story to the crowd gathered at Four Seasons in Chicago.

Ewbank has been an athlete since 2006, competing at the state level in aquatics, bocce, bowling and basketball. She also finds time to help with swim lessons at the Illinois Valley YMCA.  This past summer, Ewbank won the Special Olympics gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle swim.

For more information about Ewbank and this weekend’s gala, click Ewbank Gala

Fall means its time for another Chester Weger parole hearing

So which camp are you in? The free Chester Weger side or the side who thinks he should spend the rest of his life in prison?

The state parole board is now taking testimony as part of Weger’s 20th parole hearing. Last year the parole board voted 9 to 3 to keep Weger in prison for the infamous “Starved Rock Murders” in 1960.

La Salle County States Attorney Brian Towne will once again plead his case that Weger should spend his life in prison. He says after talking to people directly involved in the case, reading transcripts and sifting through DNA, there’s no doubt Weger should stay in prison. Towne will talk to the parole board in Springfield next week.

Weger was convicted of killing Lillian Oetting at Starved Rock. Two other women were murdered but Weger wasn’t charged in their deaths.

The Oglesby man is now 76 years old and is the longest serving inmate in Illinois. He’s serving time at the Pinckneyville Correctional Center in southern Illinois.

Rare collection of Westclox memories up for bid in Ottawa

Rare Westclox artifacts and memorabilia will be sold at auction this weekend in Ottawa.

Matthew Bullock Auctioneers of Ottawa will offer up a collection of Westclox clocks, pictures, bomb fuses, and catalogs starting Saturday at 9:30 on East Stevenson Road east of Walmart. You can preview the goods up for auction Friday from 11 until 6.

Michael Wollack runs the Westclox Museum in Peru. He wouldn’t mind if you bid on the Westclox items and then donated them to the museum.