Sweet Corn Pageant Moved Indoors, Queen Crowned Friday

The 2016 Mendota Sweet Corn Queen was chosen Friday night.

The threat of severe weather forced the pageant indoors, to Mendota High School. There, Whitney Lewis would eventually be crowned this year’s Sweet Corn Queen.

Lewis is a 2016 Mendota High School graduate. She’s planning to attend St. Mary’s College in the fall.

The 69^th Annual Mendota Sweet Corn Festival will have events through the weekend, and a grand parade will be stepping off tomorrow at 1:00.

County Board Votes to Keep Compensatory Storage and Their Exemption in Place

If a government passes a law, should they be allowed to decide the law doesn’t apply to them? The LaSalle County Board reconsidered that question again Thursday with regards to so-called “compensatory storage.”

That means in unincorporated LaSalle County, if you want to build on the floodplain you basically must also make a hole one-and-a-half times bigger than the floodplain you developed. Last month the board decided that could have vastly increased the costs of road and bridge projects, so they voted for a provision that made them exempt.

Since then, several board members showed concern that the county was making rules that didn’t apply to it. Thursday they held a vote on whether or not to do away with compensatory storage altogether.

The board ultimately voted 15-11 to leave the compensatory storage rules in place and also continue the county’s exemption for road and bridge projects.

State Representative Candidate Confident at New Office Opening

A candidate for State Representative in the Illinois Valley spoke to a group of about 20 at an open house for his new campaign office.

Jerry Long explained what he calls his “clear, concise message” and said he plans on stepping up campaign efforts in the 3 months leading up to the election. Long told Classic Hits 103.9 WLPO that he recently left his job as a union truck driver in order to focus on his candidacy.

The Republican faces current State Representative Andy Skoog in November. Skoog is also looking for his first full term in office, as he was nominated to replace Frank Mautino who left to become the state’s Auditor General.

Long had previously run against Mautino also but was unsuccessful. He said he believes the difference this election is “more people are taking me seriously.”

Rainfall Across Illinois Valley Strongest in Western Bureau County

How much rain did you get yesterday? According to the latest data from the National Weather Service, the heaviest rainfall was in western Bureau County.

In the last 24 hours, Princeton led the way in wet weather with more than 2.5 inches of rainfall. Spring Valley saw around 2 inches as well.

The rain was a little lighter in LaSalle County throughout the day. Mendota and Peru each had about an inch and a half of rain, while Ottawa and La Salle each had a little more than an inch. On the low end were Oglesby, Mendota, and Streator, all with an inch or less.