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Talk-Line: Shaw Local News on Sterling road work · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: It's time for a look at local news. Shaw Local News.
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  Speaker 1: It's our update between eight thirty and nine on Wednesday,
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  Speaker 1: and here representing Shaw Local News is the managing editor
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  Speaker 1: of the Dixon Telegraph and Stirling Gazette. She's with us, alive,
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  Speaker 1: with us at the microphones once again this morning. Our
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  Speaker 1: good friend Charlie Beatle. How are you man?
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  Speaker 2: Good?
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  Speaker 1: Thanks, good to see your Brandon Clark is also along
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  Speaker 1: representing Shaw Local News.
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  Speaker 3: How are you, sir? Wonderful.
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  Speaker 1: We just got done with the Whiteside County Fair.
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  Speaker 4: We did, we did, and it was great weather and
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  Speaker 4: it was and it was really hot. It was really
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  Speaker 4: hot like Friday Saturday. But great turnout.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, well I just wanted to gain get Yeah
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  Speaker 1: you're inside, because you're right there.
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  Speaker 4: I am right there, and it's now fall in my book,
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  Speaker 4: officially when the fair leaves, I say it's fall. School started.
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  Speaker 4: So I'm glad to see it's going to be nice
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  Speaker 4: weather going forward to be great for Amboy Depot days.
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  Speaker 4: Hearing your earlier presentation there.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, and a great lineup of entertainment for the
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  Speaker 1: next four days. So we kind of rolled from event
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  Speaker 1: to events. Yeah, especially during August you know, Whiteside County
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  Speaker 1: Fair and end of the amboidepo Days celebration.
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  Speaker 3: Now between now and the end of.
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  Speaker 1: The weekend, and so again, lots of happenings across our area,
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  Speaker 1: lots of happenings in Sterling.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, the streets are alive with the sounds of construction.
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  Speaker 3: Break out in songs. Yes, oh, you should hear me
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  Speaker 3: in the shower. Oh no, yeah.
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  Speaker 5: So we'll start in downtown on Light Street, and you know,
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  Speaker 5: for for a smaller project there, they've hit a pretty
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  Speaker 5: interesting curve ball cruise dug in and found a broken
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  Speaker 5: sanitary sewer line under the road, and it was unexpected this.
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  Speaker 3: The sewer line was not on the city's maps.
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  Speaker 5: Now, that's because you know a lot of these sewer
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  Speaker 5: lines are at least one hundred years or more old,
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  Speaker 5: and so those you know.
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  Speaker 3: Records are aren't always what they should be.
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  Speaker 5: The city now uses a geographical information system to update that.
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  Speaker 5: But you know, they just kind of had hit these
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  Speaker 5: things as they snag. So see, the council voted to
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  Speaker 5: go ahead and fix it right now rather than wait,
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  Speaker 5: and so that means Helm's Construction is going to be
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  Speaker 5: doing another one hundred and forty three thousand dollars worth
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  Speaker 5: of work on top of the four hundred thousand dollars
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  Speaker 5: project they were already doing. So we're looking at just
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  Speaker 5: over half a million dollars all coming out of the
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  Speaker 5: city sewer fund. So I know a lot of people
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  Speaker 5: are concerned like where that's coming. They've got a separate
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  Speaker 5: fund for that, and it's covered. City Manager Scott Schumer said, it's,
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  Speaker 5: you know, kind of better to take care of that
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  Speaker 5: now rather than hope that everything's okay, wait a few
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  Speaker 5: years and then have to dig up all that work
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  Speaker 5: that we've already done. So the downside of that is
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  Speaker 5: it's going to extend the project. I'll probably about close
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  Speaker 5: to six weeks so instead of finishing up the beginning
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  Speaker 5: of October, so looking like mid November.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 5: The good news is the city's putting in some new connections.
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  Speaker 5: So the downtown businesses tied to that line. Because there's
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  Speaker 5: several of those buildings that are tied in, they won't
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  Speaker 5: have to worry when their service eventually fails. They'll just
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  Speaker 5: be able to connect into those new connections. And in
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  Speaker 5: the meantime, Sterling Main Street in the city have been
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  Speaker 5: trying to you know, put up some extra advertisements and
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  Speaker 5: signs for those businesses that are affected by that lengthy construction.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so again kind of like you mentioned,
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  Speaker 1: unexpected happening, but obviously you know, with the repairs much needed.
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  Speaker 5: It sounds like yeah Sterling, Yeah, And speaking of much
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  Speaker 5: needed repairs, we're just going to keep on the construction,
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  Speaker 5: keep on Sterling Streets. I've been following the six point
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  Speaker 5: two million dollars rebuild of Second Street and Sterling. Now,
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  Speaker 5: anybody's not familiar with the story, that's a ten block
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  Speaker 5: stretch from First Avenue.
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  Speaker 3: Out to Route two.
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  Speaker 5: And the big issue right now isn't so much the
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  Speaker 5: road work itself, it's the utilities. So I've been told
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  Speaker 5: that comment still has to move close to forty power
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  Speaker 5: poles and if that doesn't happen.
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  Speaker 3: Soon, progress could be stalled.
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  Speaker 5: Project manager Mike Garland told me that as big as
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  Speaker 5: hold up is something that really can't be controlled because
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  Speaker 5: of those utilities. It's federally regulated. Now, crews are still
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  Speaker 5: pushing forward with what progress that they can. They've reconfigured
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  Speaker 5: that from a five phase project to three phases. The
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  Speaker 5: first phase, which is Broadway to Fourth Avenue, is basically
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  Speaker 5: done except for sidewalks and driveways. The next stretch is
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  Speaker 5: going to be fourth Toro Route forty, and then eventually
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  Speaker 5: they're going to have this massive pedestrian bridge crossing Route
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  Speaker 5: forty that's going to connect to that multi use bike
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  Speaker 5: pathway that they've been working on, and so that's another
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  Speaker 5: really cool thing. They've been connecting all these bike systems
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  Speaker 5: and it's going to be something that's just you can.
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  Speaker 3: Go through all off the city on your bike.
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  Speaker 5: So I'm really excited to see how that shapes out
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  Speaker 5: next year. Now, the project's still on track for June
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  Speaker 5: twenty for June twenty twenty six finish, that was the
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  Speaker 5: original date that hasn't been derailed, and they're shooting to
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  Speaker 5: have portions of the road paved and usable before Thanksgiving,
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  Speaker 5: even if the sidewalks are going to take a little long. Okay,
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  Speaker 5: so don't for it yet, you know, fingers crossed, because
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  Speaker 5: I know everybody groans.
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  Speaker 3: I was already reading the comments, you know. So it's
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  Speaker 3: still on track.
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  Speaker 1: With these things happen, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, but yeah
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  Speaker 1: you have to have patients in order to get the
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  Speaker 1: good stuff afterwards. You know, that's going to be it's
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  Speaker 1: gonna be great after it's all completed. This is going
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  Speaker 1: to be new and improved, and that stretch of road
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  Speaker 1: again is going to look nice in the Sterling area.
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  Speaker 1: Continuing on with continuing Sterling.
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  Speaker 5: I was really excited for this update. So JCB Investments
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  Speaker 5: came back to the City Council on Monday with updates
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  Speaker 5: on their plan to turn the old man Wow Naniel
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  Speaker 5: Manu National Manufacturers building.
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  Speaker 3: Say that six times just once.
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  Speaker 5: That's on Locas Street and they want to turn it
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  Speaker 5: into what they say could be Northwest Illinois's largest indoor
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  Speaker 5: entertainment complex. Now, for anyone who hasn't read that story yet,
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  Speaker 5: please do. This is going to be a one stop
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  Speaker 5: shop for year round fund. There's food courts, a brewery,
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  Speaker 5: a winery, twenty thousand square feet of games, botchy ball,
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  Speaker 5: pickleball courts, virtual reality, and indoor electric go cart. Just
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  Speaker 5: a massive project. So since laying out that vision two
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  Speaker 5: weeks ago, they've already hired engineers to do site measurements
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  Speaker 5: and feasibility studies. They say came back with a ninety
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  Speaker 5: six percent probability of success. They've also been working with
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  Speaker 5: the Fire Department code officials on safety needs because they
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  Speaker 5: say some of the sprinkler systems in that building are
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  Speaker 5: from the seventies are going to need some updates, and
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  Speaker 5: competitive bids are already out to bring everything up to
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  Speaker 5: control or up to coat excuse me. Contractors have already
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  Speaker 5: started walkthroughs for Phase one, which will cover the immedial
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  Speaker 5: structural work, so that's concrete, roofing and stabilization. And they've
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  Speaker 5: already got financing set so that's the nice thing. This
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  Speaker 5: isn't going to cost the city anything to get this going, So,
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  Speaker 5: I mean, these guys are they have the money, it
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  Speaker 5: seems to back up their plan. And even though they
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  Speaker 5: haven't yet got the green light because this was just
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  Speaker 5: a presentation, no action was taken. A resolutional have to
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  Speaker 5: be put which is what they asked for. You know,
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  Speaker 5: they seems like they're pretty serious.
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  Speaker 1: Is that really, well the needed thing as far as
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  Speaker 1: the city is considered branded or I mean you obviously
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  Speaker 1: you have to follow steps in order to make this happen,
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  Speaker 1: you know, through the community.
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  Speaker 3: Yep.
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  Speaker 5: So they're hoping during the next city council meeting that
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  Speaker 5: they'll have a resolution put in place that they'll be
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  Speaker 5: able to vote on. So they've always got to follow procedures.
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  Speaker 5: So the city has been considering their presentation and so
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  Speaker 5: we're just waiting on them to you know, put a
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  Speaker 5: resolution in place to.
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  Speaker 3: Vote on for them to get the green light.
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  Speaker 5: If they do, they're hoping that the first phase will
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  Speaker 5: open and fall of twenty six, with the second phase
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  Speaker 5: to come in twenty twenty seven, which would bring the
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  Speaker 5: Bowling Alley, the Mini Gulf, the VR zone and into
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  Speaker 5: or Go cards.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: So this could bring you know, close to one hundred
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  Speaker 5: new jobs, they say, two hundred thousand visitors.
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  Speaker 3: A year, and a lot of annual tax revenue for
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  Speaker 3: the city if everything goes well.
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, if every hopefully, let's cross the fingers.
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  Speaker 3: And obviously there's.
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  Speaker 1: The activity down in that area already with all of
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  Speaker 1: that improvement going.
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  Speaker 5: On on r Yeah, Sterling has just been on a
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  Speaker 5: tear literally on the roads, but to improve everything and
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  Speaker 5: just yeah, bring more reasons for more people.
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  Speaker 1: To come activity in Sterling. Brandon reports on it this
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  Speaker 1: morning courtesy of Shaw Local News. We had along the
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  Speaker 1: websites you wanted to talk about the local sites.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, about I say two weeks ago, we can half
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  Speaker 4: ago two weeks ago. Shaw Local revamped their website. We
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  Speaker 4: unveiled a website that is what looks to be easier
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  Speaker 4: to navigate, and it's got a really nice presentation of
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  Speaker 4: all of like Shaw Local, kind of a Northern Illinois glance,
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  Speaker 4: and then you can actually go to the menu bar
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  Speaker 4: and pick out kind of what county, So if you're
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  Speaker 4: talking Lee County, Sauk Valley, you would call it Cut Valley,
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  Speaker 4: Illinois Valley. And then our other newspapers that are listed
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  Speaker 4: in there. And as part of that, every day we
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  Speaker 4: have a centerpiece story that's done has a Northern Illinois
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  Speaker 4: regional flavor to it, because really we're connected in more
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  Speaker 4: ways than we know. Think about a state story or
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  Speaker 4: the impact of that, think about something that's an educational
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  Speaker 4: issue that affects everybody.
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  Speaker 3: And so we got to.
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  Speaker 4: Brainstorm and decide what in our area is a bigger
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  Speaker 4: story that we'd like to tackle. And in the last
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  Speaker 4: week we've had two stories that have come out of
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  Speaker 4: our newsroom that are are very big. Brandon did one
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  Speaker 4: that ran online on Sunday and in print on Tuesday.
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  Speaker 4: It's called home Buying one oh one, and it's an
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  Speaker 4: in depth look if this is kind of what Our
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  Speaker 4: brain storm was is if you are buying a home
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  Speaker 4: right now and it was your first time, what would
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  Speaker 4: you need, Or if you haven't for a long time,
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  Speaker 4: like we've been in our house thirty years, what does
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  Speaker 4: that take sure? And so you know, things change, what
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  Speaker 4: what do you need? Not only from a banking perspective,
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  Speaker 4: but what's the market look like? And we know what
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  Speaker 4: the market is here would be different than say, will County,
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  Speaker 4: Joliet or other newspaper areas. And so Brandon did a
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  Speaker 4: really good job taking an in depth look at that,
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  Speaker 4: and I think it's one of those stories. It's not
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  Speaker 4: just a kind of like that story that you read
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  Speaker 4: and put it away. It's something that you can come
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  Speaker 4: back to. It's almost kind of like like reference.
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  Speaker 3: Material you know years ago exactly.
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  Speaker 4: It's like I still look at newspapers somewhat not only
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  Speaker 4: for the entertainment value because they're that and the what's
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  Speaker 4: coming up and a recipe, but also about almost like
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  Speaker 4: a textbook and looking back at the history of your community.
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  Speaker 4: One other story that we did was done by Peyton
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  Speaker 4: Felix that ran last week, and it was about steer tailing,
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  Speaker 4: which was something I'd never heard of, but We were
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  Speaker 4: getting a ton of emails about it because people were
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  Speaker 4: upset with the Ogo County. There's a location up there
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  Speaker 4: in which there's Mexican style rodeos that take place, and
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  Speaker 4: it has to do specifically with a specific activity with
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  Speaker 4: a steer and what they do with its tail and
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  Speaker 4: how it could possibly and most likely would hurt animals.
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  Speaker 4: So you have what are the laws on that, how
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  Speaker 4: are those laws being enforced? Okay, how do you get
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  Speaker 4: a permit to do that? And so Peyton took a
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  Speaker 4: very close look at that. Not only limited to us,
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  Speaker 4: this was also happening up in McHenry County and also
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  Speaker 4: into Cab County. They're having ongoing discussions and there's a
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  Speaker 4: state legislator who'd like to actually take a look at
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  Speaker 4: that law or law as anything that would affect that
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  Speaker 4: and see how that can be shaped to protect agriculture,
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  Speaker 4: but at the same time to make sure that we
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  Speaker 4: don't have what some would call animal cruelty.
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  Speaker 1: All right, all on the all on the new revamped.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and in print also yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Also all right, guys, the time is just fleeted by.
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  Speaker 1: We had a lot of sterling information from Landing today.
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  Speaker 1: But again check out those. Check out the Shaw Local
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  Speaker 1: revamped websites as well and take advantage of all of
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  Speaker 1: the great areas that you can go to just by
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: a click of the mouse on those websites, and visit
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  Speaker 1: Shaw Local News Daily for all of your coverage. Guys,
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  Speaker 1: we thank you so very much for the update today.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see you next week.
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  Speaker 3: Right here on wix sounds good.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Charlie Bilam Brandon Clark are representatives today. Sports first is next.
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  Speaker 2: All state knows your home means everything to you and
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  Speaker 2: you'll do anything to protect it. But not just with
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: any protection, you want insurance that will be there for
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: you and your family when you meet it most and
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  Speaker 2: that's what all states been doing for over sixty years.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: So check all state first.