Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Shaw Local reporter Payton Felix shares the latest in news

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Talk Line: Shaw Local reporter Payton Felix shares the latest in news · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Sock Valley. You've joined the Waking crew here
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  Speaker 1: on FM ninety five to one and AM fourteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: w I XN. It's eight thirty six on your Thursday morning,
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  Speaker 1: and that means it's time for talk line and I'm
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  Speaker 1: joined again in the booth. But for far too long
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  Speaker 1: we got a we're gonna make these a regular thing.
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  Speaker 1: Peyton and I Shaw local news reporter Peyton Felix Peyton,
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  Speaker 1: how you been.
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  Speaker 2: I've been good. How about you?
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  Speaker 1: Good? Busy, but uh, busy's always good. So yeah, and
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  Speaker 1: speaking of busy, of course, anybody who picks up a
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  Speaker 1: Shallocle newspaper sees your name and on always some of
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  Speaker 1: the coolest stories. But we want to do some some updates.
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  Speaker 1: We do have some some rather interesting ones on our
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  Speaker 1: agenda today. We do, but let's let's start right here.
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  Speaker 1: We're in Dixon, so let's start with Dixon and everybody knows,
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  Speaker 1: well they should and you can update them. Is the
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  Speaker 1: Gateway project, give us a little recap if for those
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  Speaker 1: at home who who aren't familiar with it, and then
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  Speaker 1: give us the latest and greatest Peyton.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so a lot of exciting things going on down there.
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  Speaker 3: Gateway is that major economic development along South Galina Avenue
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  Speaker 3: near the Interstate. The latest business to be announced it's
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  Speaker 3: coming there is a seven brew coffee shop, so I
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  Speaker 3: know some people.
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  Speaker 2: Are gonna be excited about that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's gonna go right next to that new multi
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  Speaker 3: tenant that's being built. The Tropical Smoothie Cafe just open there.
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  Speaker 3: I still have yet to check that out, but I'm
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  Speaker 3: excited about that one. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: There's also a OSF on Call.
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  Speaker 3: Urgent care that's opening this summer and a McDonald's where
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  Speaker 3: construction is expected to start next year. So there's only
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  Speaker 3: about three to four lots left to be developed, which
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  Speaker 3: is crazy when you think about that. That used to
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  Speaker 3: all be empty land, right right.
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  Speaker 2: So that's exciting.
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  Speaker 3: They also just won the city just won a two
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  Speaker 3: million dollar federal grant for retention ponds and those ponds
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  Speaker 3: for like to mitigate flooding in the southwest side of.
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  Speaker 2: Town, those floods or those floods.
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  Speaker 3: Those ponds will go in what's planned to be a
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  Speaker 3: Bloody Gulch Park, which is that kind of empty space
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  Speaker 3: next to the Fairfield Inn on Bloody Gulch Road. Ponds
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  Speaker 3: are gonna go there. There's also planned to be a
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  Speaker 3: walking path that'll connect out to the pedestrian bridge that's
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  Speaker 3: under construction, and once those ponds are in, that'll open
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  Speaker 3: up two more lots in the Gateway development for development.
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  Speaker 3: Right now, they're being used for that kind of water retention,
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  Speaker 3: but that won't be needed once the ponds are there.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so we've still got room for for two more businesses.
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  Speaker 1: I really like that they had pulled in, you know,
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  Speaker 1: more than just the usual stuff to these places. You're right,
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  Speaker 1: seven Brew. Isn't that the one where they have in
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  Speaker 1: Stirling across from the Walmart? Am I thinking of the
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  Speaker 1: right one?
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  Speaker 2: I believe so?
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  Speaker 1: By the Minards? Probably yeah, because the one with the
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  Speaker 1: smiley face in Ruffle. I only say that because every
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  Speaker 1: time I see those guys, they are like, their line
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  Speaker 1: is busier than Starbucks. I have not yet went over
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  Speaker 1: to get their coffee, but yeah, you're right, people are
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  Speaker 1: going to be excited for that. I mean, you know me,
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  Speaker 1: I like coffee. You guys never seen me without it.
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  Speaker 1: But wow, I've not seen lines like that, so that's cool.
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  Speaker 1: Any word on what those two businesses or is it
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  Speaker 1: just we got two spaces left and no word on
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  Speaker 1: what could possibly be going in there.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know yet.
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  Speaker 3: I have seen I just saw yesterday as signed for
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  Speaker 3: a great clips in that multi tenant. Don't know anything
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  Speaker 3: about it. I just saw the sign, so could possibly
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  Speaker 3: be another one. But no official announcements have been made
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  Speaker 3: on anymore yet.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, well, when they are made, Peyton will be the
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  Speaker 1: one who breaks the story. I'm willing to bet. So.
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  Speaker 1: To move on to our next topic, this is one
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  Speaker 1: that anybody who's from the area probably knows. And I
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  Speaker 1: hope you're you're watching because things are happening. And that's
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  Speaker 1: the Magnuson Hotel.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, definitely kind of a notorious property around here, maybe
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  Speaker 3: not for the best reasons. Back in so back in
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  Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, there was that major police standoff and
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  Speaker 3: then a judge actually ordered the business to close in
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  Speaker 3: twenty twenty four due to like several safety code violations.
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  Speaker 3: But moving on from that, the property was purchased by
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  Speaker 3: two developers from Chicago. They're planning to turn it into
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  Speaker 3: a seventy unit apartment building. They're going to cut the
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  Speaker 3: bill building. They showed kind of mockups of it. It
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  Speaker 3: looks pretty nice, but their first step in doing that
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  Speaker 3: was a zoning change. So they went to the county
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  Speaker 3: and there was a hearing where they requested this and
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  Speaker 3: the residents of the neighborhood that's directly behind the Magnuson
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  Speaker 3: they were again sit and I think part of well,
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  Speaker 3: the County of County officials have said that part of
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  Speaker 3: the reason they believe is because they're scarred from all
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  Speaker 3: the things that happened with the Magnuson. But some of
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  Speaker 3: their worries were that it would wear down the infrastructure
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  Speaker 3: out there, that it would have a negative impact on
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  Speaker 3: their resale value of their homes, be a lot of noise, traffic.
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  Speaker 3: The county things said, it's a good thing. They've said
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  Speaker 3: that we need more housing in this area. They also
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  Speaker 3: adopted some new building codes which they didn't have previously,
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  Speaker 3: so those will be a part of any of the
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  Speaker 3: construction that they do out there. And it just kind
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  Speaker 3: of like sets a standard like if they have contractors
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  Speaker 3: that come out, they have to register, bring their contact information,
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  Speaker 3: just so the county can kind of keep tabs on,
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  Speaker 3: like make sure everything's on the up and up. Sure.
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  Speaker 3: They don't believe it would have any negative impact on
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  Speaker 3: the infrastructure out there, and that it would increase the
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  Speaker 3: value of the Magnuson property. So it seems like it's
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  Speaker 3: kind of on its way there. The board voted on
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  Speaker 3: April twenty ninth to rezone the property. A big thing
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  Speaker 3: with that is that it was business and with that
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  Speaker 3: business zoning that it was in, it could have like
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  Speaker 3: one hundred possible different uses. But in multi family residential
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  Speaker 3: there's only fifteen oh wow limit what can be done there,
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  Speaker 3: and the county thinks that that will kind of prevent
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  Speaker 3: any more bad things happening.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's it's got such the history, right,
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  Speaker 1: I mean it started off as this really kind of
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  Speaker 1: grand hotel from for the area. I remember, I think
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  Speaker 1: we went there for like freshman prom when I was
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  Speaker 1: a kid. Yeah, they had they had dinner up there
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  Speaker 1: back when the brandy Wine. But yeah, and then like
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  Speaker 1: you said, after you know some things and but it's
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  Speaker 1: good to see that somebody wants to give life to
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  Speaker 1: the hotel. You know you, I'm sure you had write
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  Speaker 1: in the comments anytime you're writing about this that there
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  Speaker 1: would be people who would even suggest, why don't we
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  Speaker 1: use this for you know, X, Y and Z. That
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  Speaker 1: being it you know, I kind of get, you know,
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  Speaker 1: some concerns, like you were saying, God, and it's like,
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  Speaker 1: how do you how do you weigh that? Right, we
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  Speaker 1: do need housing, pbe you know, it doesn't mean that
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  Speaker 1: everybody who lives there is going to be a bad
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  Speaker 1: person and that it's terrible.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, in the so, they had a zoning hearing,
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  Speaker 3: which is like they changed how they do it, so
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  Speaker 3: it's almost like a judge writes a recommendation to the board.
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  Speaker 3: So that's what happened here, and in the hearing officers
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  Speaker 3: recommendation to the board. He touched on that where the
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  Speaker 3: immediate like smaller community surrounding this place doesn't need housing,
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  Speaker 3: and they have valid concerns, but it doesn't outweigh the
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  Speaker 3: needs of the county as a whole.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the people who do need somewhere to live just
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  Speaker 1: because you don't want people near you. And I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I guess, I guess it's easy to say when it's
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  Speaker 1: not your backyard. But I you know, I hope we
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  Speaker 1: all live and let live. Yes, going on from that,
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  Speaker 1: off any soapbox that could have possibly tripped over. You've
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  Speaker 1: got a court update on a on a case been following.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Jody Whittaker.
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  Speaker 3: This is in Ogo County, and Whittaker is a representative
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  Speaker 3: of the animal rights group that has been urging county
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  Speaker 3: officials to shut down a rodeo just outside Rochelle that
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  Speaker 3: been that has been holding steertailing events. We've talked about
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  Speaker 3: steertailing on this before, but I will recap quickly. So
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  Speaker 3: steertailing is a rodeo event where there's a rider on
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  Speaker 3: horseback who chases a running steer, tries to grab onto
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  Speaker 3: the steer's tail, wrap it around their leg, and shove
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  Speaker 3: their leg down to try to knock over the steer.
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  Speaker 3: It's part of Mexican rodeo events, and things are very
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  Speaker 3: murky there. There's definitely cultural concerns, but there's also on
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  Speaker 3: the other side that it's banned in Colombia and the
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure how to say it, so I'm not
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  Speaker 3: gonna try, but the Mexican like Rodeo Association, they don't
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  Speaker 3: recognize it as an official one of their events, and
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  Speaker 3: official events within that association have like several safety protocols
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  Speaker 3: that these events are not following because they're not involved
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  Speaker 3: with that association. So they're essentially just like backyard rodeo events,
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  Speaker 3: and that's where the concern for the animal rights group
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  Speaker 3: comes in, and there's been legislation proposed surrounding this event
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  Speaker 3: and all that. But with the case, so, Whitaker was
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  Speaker 3: charged with two counts of making a false police report,
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  Speaker 3: which are felonies, and also harassment, which is a misdemeanor.
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  Speaker 3: And within her court case, this whole rodeo controversy has
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  Speaker 3: been a key talking point. Her defense attorneys argue that
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  Speaker 3: that context is important because the day where the charges
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  Speaker 3: are alleged to have occurred, she allegedly called police and
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  Speaker 3: told them that she saw somebody get shot. But she's
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  Speaker 3: saying that I was calling police over and over again
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  Speaker 3: because I was reporting animal abuse trying to get them
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  Speaker 3: to do something about it.
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  Speaker 2: So there's the background there.
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  Speaker 3: But the motions at stake on Wednesday were the defense's
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  Speaker 3: requests to dismiss the charges based on vindictive prosecution, and
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  Speaker 3: they had made several arguments that Ogle County States Attorney
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  Speaker 3: Mike Rock had filed them in retaliation for Whittaker's activism
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  Speaker 3: and kind of a public critique of each other back
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  Speaker 3: and forth is what the attorneys called it, and the
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  Speaker 3: judge on Wednesday rejected that claim that they were filed vindictively.
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  Speaker 3: He said that the big argument that had stood out
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  Speaker 3: to me was that the defense was substituting Whittaker for
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  Speaker 3: the organization as a whole, which where Rock has addressed
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  Speaker 3: the organization and not directly called out Whitacer by name
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  Speaker 3: in anything. And so the judge said that the defense
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  Speaker 3: made this much more personal than he believes it was.
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  Speaker 2: So that was a lot.
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  Speaker 1: This one deserves an episode on Court TV. This is
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  Speaker 1: this is wild. Oh my god, you are so lucky
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  Speaker 1: to get to you know, you made that may sound
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  Speaker 1: strange to all of you, but as a former reporter,
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  Speaker 1: I absolutely like, oh my god, you're so lucky getting
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  Speaker 1: to follow this because this is this is wild. And
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  Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, folks, I'm not I don't support
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  Speaker 1: animal abuse. Nobody does. I get that. There's well, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the possibility of you know, cultural differences with things, but
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  Speaker 1: then also you know, concern that anything being done in
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  Speaker 1: any kind of event, especially if you're gonna involve animals,
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  Speaker 1: probably should have some kind of an oversight. So, you know,
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  Speaker 1: any any kind of backyard operations that come in and
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  Speaker 1: when people are concerned with safety whether it's animals, the people,
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  Speaker 1: the workers themselves, anything. Uh, you know, I can definitely
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  Speaker 1: see the you know, the want for that this kind
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  Speaker 1: of personal then vendetta war seeming between these two public
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  Speaker 1: well you know, one public figure now public figure. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and then at all of it, like you said, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: this is really breaking down, this becoming news in the
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  Speaker 1: first place, you know, was you know, the accusation of
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  Speaker 1: these nine to one one calls and you know, the
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  Speaker 1: false one and what happened, I mean, because that's where
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  Speaker 1: she's you know, that's really the charges, right. The rodeo
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  Speaker 1: is not currently on trial, Yeah, but it's center stage
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  Speaker 1: in it.
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  Speaker 3: Nonetheless, well, I think it's for the defense. It's where
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  Speaker 3: their whole argument kind of stems from. From what they've
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  Speaker 3: presented so far, the state has argued that the charges
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  Speaker 3: stem from this one day where these calls were made
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  Speaker 3: and it should stay within that parameter, and so far
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  Speaker 3: the judge seems to be agreeing with that and has
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  Speaker 3: sided with the state on that fact.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we will just have to wait and see what
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  Speaker 1: shake out of this. Peyton will of course have all
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  Speaker 1: the updates and again, you know, I just remember those days.
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  Speaker 1: You guys are also very busy, so I appreciate you
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  Speaker 1: making time and I do hope we can.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: Me and Peyton are going to find time to make
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  Speaker 1: this a weekly thing because I miss these updates, getting
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  Speaker 1: to talk about these stories. I know you guys enjoy
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  Speaker 1: hearing about them, so Peyton or unfortunately, out of time,
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  Speaker 1: we'll have to save one of these stories. You'll just
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  Speaker 1: have to check back in next week. But thank you
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  Speaker 1: for coming in for reporting on the on the Sauk Valley,
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  Speaker 1: and I can't wait till the next of
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  Speaker 2: Course, thank you for having me