While on Parole for a Drug Charge, Streator Man Accused of Trying to Deal

A man who was paroled less than a year ago for messing around with drugs is in trouble again.

Ottawa Police arrested 40-year old Ronald Bennett Jr. of Streator after being stopped near Arch and Hickory Streets Monday. According to police, they searched him and found more than 50 grams of cocaine during the stop. He was arrested for unlawful possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver, a Class X felony.

Bennett had just been released on parole in November. He had served five of a possible ten years for a drug conviction in LaSalle County.

He has been taken to the county jail in Ottawa where his bond will be set.

Oglesby Scramble to Kick Off Harvest Festival Activities Saturday

Have you ever seen “The Amazing Race” and thought you and your significant other would do great at it? Well you can put that belief to the test in a much smaller way this weekend.

The sixth annual “Oglesby Scramble” gets underway Saturday at 11:30. Pairs will start at City Hall and have to make their way through the city, solving a number of clues and other challenges. In addition to the scramble, new this year is a mobile “Escape Room” that will offer a mental challenge for participants.

The events are only a part of Oglesby’s Harvest Fest which is being combined with the city’s Halloween festivities this year. There will be a farmer’s market, craft sale, kids costume parade, and a pub crawl for the adults later in the night.

If you’d like to be one of the twelve teams put to the test, you can register here. It’s $30 per team to register, but the winning team will take home $300. There will also be a number of other side prizes given out.

Furnace Sparks Sunday Fire Northeast of Hennepin

It turns out a furnace, not an explosion, was behind a small fire at Washington Mills over the weekend.

Hennepin Fire was first called to the scene a little before 10:00 Sunday night. According to the NewsTribune, Hennepin Fire Chief Daryel Petersen said the fire came after “A furnace failed, and when that happened it lit some scrap material on fire.”

Petersen went on to say they had to put a few spot fires out, but nobody was injured. Granville and Standard crews along with Putnam County EMS helped Hennepin out with the fire.

A dozen hikers busted while police escort Governor Rauner through Starved Rock

Despite a busy holiday weekend, there were no falls to report at Starved Rock State Park.

Conservation Police Sgt. Phil Wire says they did hand out 27 tickets counting Saturday and Sunday at the park. Four of them were for having small amounts of pot while the rest of the tickets were either for alcohol or being caught off the trails.

Governor Bruce Rauner and his wife hiked about five miles at Starved Rock Saturday according to Wire. While walking with the governor, police nabbed a dozen other hikers for being off the trails.

Dunlap woman wins the Burgoo 50/50

The big winner of the Burgoo Festival 50-50 is from Dunlap.

Christy Frampton took home half the pot which was $13,100. The other half goes to the La Salle County Historical Society which organizes Burgoo.

The festival is their single biggest fundraiser of the year.

Political signage becomes big part of state’s attorneys’ race

It wouldn’t be an election season without accusations of people tampering with campaign signs.

A message was posted Friday on the Facebook page “Karen Donnelly for La Salle County State’s Attorney” saying “some criminal element and unscrupulous characters are out removing my signs near Wedron.” The campaign is asking for folks to get a plate number of a white sedan.

Meanwhile the “Dump Towne” trailer had people chattering over the weekend again. The trailer was seen parked in Utica next to a Karen Donnelly election sign.

Cookie sales will help cancer fighters

Here’s an annual fundraiser that won’t help you lose weight, but it will help two great charities in the Illinois Valley.

Cookie Kingdom’s 2016 Cookie Sale is kicking off at the store starting Monday. It’s a week-long sale, during which 100% of the proceeds are donated to the Oglesby Police “Shop with a Cop” program as well as “Cops4Cancer.”

If you’d like to get some cookies while helping out a worthy cause you can stop by Cookie Kingdom between 8:00 and 6:00 Monday through Friday.

Tonica man in rough shape after weekend rollover

If you’ve been following the story of a rollover Saturday night in Tonica, the driver involved is still hospitalized.

Twenty-five-year-old Timothy Wheeler of Tonica is in critical condition at OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria. He was flown there Saturday night after rolling his pickup truck along East 8th Road east of Tonica.

Wheeler had to be physically pulled from his mangled truck.

Crowds cause at least one temporary parking lot closure at Starved Rock

Did you check out Utica this past weekend? If you did, how were the crowds in both downtown and at Starved Rock State Park?

The main parking lot was closed at least once Sunday afternoon at Starved Rock for a few hours because of the crowds. Amanda Carter with the La Salle County Historical Society says the crowds for Burgoo looked big but they won’t know a good estimate of the crowds until they talk with folks who handled traffic control.

Burgoo organizers had prepared for upwards of 50,000 to visit the festival this year.

Benson calling out Senator Rezin over canceled debate

Depending on whom you believe, the reason there won’t be a debate this week between Republican Sue Rezin and Democrat Chris Benson is either because Rezin doesn’t want to do it or she just has a busy schedule.

Benson’s camp put out a release over the weekend saying “Rezin breaks pledge to debate, doesn’t want to answer questions on record.” The two state senate candidates were supposed to debate Wednesday in Spring Valley during a debate organized by the Illinois Valley Democratic Women and Bureau County Republican Women. Benson’s group claims Rezin attended the first agreed debate but has backed out of the remaining three without accepting attempts to reschedule,

The campaign manager for Rezin says Rezin ended up being double booked this Wednesday. She says they tried finding a new date but “as you know there are a lot of moving parts on a campaign and we were unable to come up with a date that would work.”

Rezin has said she will take part in the Joliet Chamber of Commerce and Grundy County Farm Bureau forum’s October 18th and the Kendall County Farm Bureau’s forum October 27th.