River city watching and remembering

   Marseilles officials remember the 2013 floods and are, again, watching the Illinois River. According to the Police’s Facebook page, city officials have been watching river levels and weather conditions as early as this past Sunday. Communication is ongoing with the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Weather Service. City officials, local and county Emergency Management personnel also met.

    With the river level at 19 feet and projected to reach 21, Mayor James Traeger signed an emergency declaration for a voluntary evacuation. This is only for the 2013 flood affected areas of the city. Additional information will be released by about 8am Wednesday. The city does not anticipate a mandatory evacuation. It also urges citizens to remain ready, alert and informed.

Lawmaker backs anti-tax resolution

There are state lawmakers of both parties opposing an effort to tax retirement income. One of them is first year state representative Andy Skoog of LaSalle. Skoog is supporting House Resolution 890 that rejects attempts to tax Social Security payments, pensions, and 401-K plans-income currently exempt from the state income tax. Taxing retirement income has surfaced in recent media reports. Skoog said there is no denying the state is in an unprecedented fiscal crisis, but attempting to fix decades of financial mismanagement on the backs of seniors with a fixed income is shameful.

House Resolution 890 currently has 42 bi-partisan sponsors.

Utility works to fix storm damage

    Corn Belt Energy reporting much damage in the wake of Monday’s storm. According to spokesperson Hillary Cherry, the high winds, ice and sleet Monday morning damaged several substations, over 130 utility and 6 transmission poles, downed lines, broken cross arms and downed trees. Over half of the affected customers have had their power restored, but, about 2200 remain in the dark since early Monday. Crews were working to have transmission poles up by late Tuesday. The Electrical Coop did not have an estimated time for remaining outages to be corrected. The majority of the damage occurred in the north and west portions of the Corn Belt Energy service territory.

Van Dyke pleads not guilty Tuesday

A white Chicago police officer charged with murder in the shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald has pleaded not guilty. Jason Van Dyke appeared in court Tuesday and his lawyer entered the plea for him. McDonald’s great-uncle says having gavel-to-gavel televised coverage of the officer’s trial would be “in the best interest of fairness and justice.” Another hearing is planned in late January.

St. Louis levees threatened by flooding

The rising Mississippi River and its tributaries are endangering about 20 federal levees around the St. Louis area. The Corps of Engineers says threatened areas include Randolph County in Illinois and Perry and Ste. Genevieve counties in Missouri. Governor Bruce Rauner has issued a state disaster proclamation for seven Illinois counties impacted by heavy rain and flooding since the weekend.

Rivers will rise more; then fall

    Many rivers across the state are in flood or near-flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. The Illinois River was at 26.5 feet late Tuesday morning at LaSalle. That’s 6 ½ feet over flood stage. The river is expected to top 30.9 feet by Wednesday evening before receding. At Ottawa, the river is 2 ½ feet over flood stage. It’s expected to reach almost 6 feet over flood stage Wednesday afternoon and fall below flood stage by Sunday evening. The Vermillion River at Leonore was almost 8 feet over flood stage at mid-morning Tuesday. The Weather Service expects the Vermillion to rise to 25. 4 feet – 9 ½ feet over flood stage on Wednesday morning then drop below flood stage by Friday morning. At Dayton, The Fox River, mid-morning Tuesday was 1.2 feet over flood stage. The Fox will remain steady for awhile and then fall below flood stage by Thursday evening.

Rep. Skoog Starts Advisory Committees on Several Issues

The newest Illinois State Representative is creating a number of advisory committees to get feedback direct from you.

76^th District Representative Andy Skoog is looking for feedback on everything ranging from Second Amendment rights and small business to agriculture and education. Skoog plans to hear your thoughts via a number of advisory committees he is setting up relating to the various issues. He says he plans to meet with these advisory committees throughout the year to talk about laws being discussed in Springfield.

In addition to the advisory committees, Skoog plans to host a number of public meetings to learn about your priorities for the state. If you’d like to join one of the advisory committees you can email RepSkoog@gmail.com.

Illinois State Police Urging Caution on the Roads All Week

Illinois State Police are reminding people to use extra caution on the roads as they’ve issued a Winter Travel Advisory throughout the week.

Even though the storms may have ceased, as temperatures get colder this week the possibilities of icing on bridges and flooding in lower areas remain.

State police also remind you that Scott’s Law requires you to slow down and changes lanes when around emergency and snow removal vehicles.

They say speed tends to be the main contributing factor for accidents when roads are slick.

Water is on in Peru; repairs continue

   Peru Public Works Department is still working on repairing a water main break at Putnam and Water streets. The break occurred shortly before 1:30pm. Kiera Starkey is Department receptionist. She told “Classic Hit 103-9 WLPO” news that repairs might be done by 6:30pm, however, water is back on. Affected residents will experience low water pressure or brown water. Anyone affected by the boil order should receive a notice on their door.

Ameren Works to Restore Power while Weather won’t Cooperate

Ameren is continuing their efforts to restore power to Illinois customers following Monday’s storm that, at its peak, left more than 76,000 without power.

The company says they had restored power to more than 83,000 as of yesterday evening. The rain and ice damaged more than 200 poles and downed more than 800 power lines.

The increased rainfall has led to some problems Tuesday as well. As of Tuesday morning more than 450 outages were reported in Bureau County, and dozens reported outages in La Salle and Peru. Statewide Ameren is reporting nearly 42,000 are without power.