Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Reporter Payton Felix shares the latest news from Lee County

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Talk Line: Reporter Payton Felix shares the latest news from Lee County · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back, Sock Valley. You're with the Waking crew here
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  Speaker 1: on FM ninety five one and fourteen sixty WIXN. It's
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  Speaker 1: just about eight thirty five on your Friday morning, and
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  Speaker 1: so you know what that means. It's time for talk
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  Speaker 1: line and it's been too long since the last time
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  Speaker 1: we've talked. I've got reporter Peyton Felix from Shaw Local
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  Speaker 1: News in the studio. Peyton, how are you?
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  Speaker 2: I'm good, It has been too long.
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  Speaker 1: Hopefully we can we can get back to some regular
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  Speaker 1: updates though though you all over there at Shaw Local
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  Speaker 1: have just been running around crazy capturing every story and
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  Speaker 1: we've had quite a few coming out and I think
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  Speaker 1: we're going to start right here in Dixon this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, So at Dixon High School, some big news
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  Speaker 3: there last night. The school board approved a big project
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  Speaker 3: for its track and its football field. The track is
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  Speaker 3: going to be getting resurfaced and the football field, which
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  Speaker 3: is currently.
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  Speaker 2: Grass, is going to be tough.
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  Speaker 3: So it's exciting for them, the need for it. If
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  Speaker 3: you you probably know if you've been over there, but
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  Speaker 3: the grass field gets torn up really quick. So a
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  Speaker 3: lot of it's sports like soccer now does all of
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  Speaker 3: its games at Soccer Valley College, and the track is
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  Speaker 3: just I mean there's cracks which is dangerous for runners
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  Speaker 3: on there. And so yeah, I think the other important
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  Speaker 3: thing to note with that is if you've heard of
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  Speaker 3: the Dixon Public School temporary hiring freeze because of its
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  Speaker 3: lost federal funding and rising insurance costs, that's out of
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  Speaker 3: a different fund than these will be paid for. And
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  Speaker 3: there's like some like legal issues like that money that
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  Speaker 3: they're paying for the track project, you can't pay for
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  Speaker 3: these other things that they're doing the hiring freeze for.
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  Speaker 2: So an important to note that.
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  Speaker 1: It is important to know that because you know full
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  Speaker 1: well that there's people who read the story, or maybe
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  Speaker 1: they really don't read the full story, right. We get
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  Speaker 1: that a lot and they're like, why shouldn't you know,
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  Speaker 1: why are they spending that money on this when we
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  Speaker 1: need our teachers exactly? Well, Peyton has the details for you.
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  Speaker 1: She gave you the broad strokes, but if you want
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  Speaker 1: more details, go online read the story. There's there's lots
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  Speaker 1: to do with these things, and and so that's a
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  Speaker 1: very important thing to know.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and it'll be it'll be exciting for them
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  Speaker 3: because it's not just the football team that uses it.
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  Speaker 3: It's like marching band, the soccer team and like pe
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  Speaker 3: classes and just so many things that will be on
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  Speaker 3: that field.
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  Speaker 1: Now, yeah, it's it's probably a long long overdue thing
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  Speaker 1: for that. Yeah sure, yeah, Well, so has this been
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  Speaker 1: decided then or is this something they're considering?
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  Speaker 3: So they approved it last night, so it'll it'll be
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  Speaker 3: about They have like a three year plan for funding it,
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  Speaker 3: so it'll be a far out kind of project.
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  Speaker 2: But it's all ready to go.
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  Speaker 1: Well, there you have it, new new fields on the way.
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  Speaker 1: The kiddos, I'm sure will be excited once once that's done,
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  Speaker 1: and so the rest of us. And speaking of expensive
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  Speaker 1: Dixon based projects, the Dixon Historic Theaters asking the city
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  Speaker 1: for some money.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the City of Dixon is working on their
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  Speaker 3: budget and the Dixon Historic Theater has asked for two
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  Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars in funding this year.
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  Speaker 2: Excuse me, that.
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  Speaker 3: Was kind of something we were looking at because for
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  Speaker 3: the past several years, the Dixon Historic Theater has been
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  Speaker 3: asking the city for a lot of money. Last year
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  Speaker 3: they asked for two hundred and fifty thousand. So they
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  Speaker 3: haven't decided that they're going to give them that amount
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  Speaker 3: of funding, yet they're wanting to see some more financial
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  Speaker 3: information from the theater, which they have not got yet,
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  Speaker 3: so they've kind of put a placeholder in their budget
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  Speaker 3: of like, maybe we'll prove this if you give us
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  Speaker 3: your financial information. But I talked with the feeder director
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  Speaker 3: over there. He said that in twenty twenty five they
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  Speaker 3: basically broke even on their events and they were able
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  Speaker 3: to cover their other costs with city funds and donors
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  Speaker 3: and things, and if they were awarded the money this year,
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  Speaker 3: it would be used for events.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, well, that's something that will kind of just have
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  Speaker 1: to see play out whether or not they can convince
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  Speaker 1: the city to give them the money.
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  Speaker 3: Basically, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what he had said to
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  Speaker 3: me is that they do want to start asking the
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  Speaker 3: city for less money going forward, but they're probably not
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  Speaker 3: going to stop asking for money as a whole, probably
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  Speaker 3: because like I mean, you always got to ask for one, right,
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  Speaker 3: but also with big event centers like that, that's kind
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  Speaker 3: of a little bit of their business model. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: there's a theater in the calb that was very much
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  Speaker 3: supported by city money, although the difference there is that
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  Speaker 3: that money was not used for operating costs, which historically.
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  Speaker 2: The Historic Theater has used that money for operating costs.
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  Speaker 1: So sure, no, And I mean there's there's been a
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  Speaker 1: lot of repairs to the theater over the past couple
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  Speaker 1: of years. So and again, anything historic usually kind of
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  Speaker 1: has that implied it at some point.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, best of luck to them. We'll see how
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  Speaker 1: that shakes out. I'm sure you guys will have the
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  Speaker 1: stories as those things develop. Yes, and another thing developing
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  Speaker 1: in Lee Country Surprise, surprise, another solar project.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, Lee County is going to have they're saying one
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  Speaker 3: of the largest in the US solar project coming. Construction
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  Speaker 3: on the first part of it would start in twenty
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  Speaker 3: twenty seven.
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  Speaker 2: It'll be one point.
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  Speaker 3: Five six gigawatts, which that felt big to me because
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  Speaker 3: every other solar story I've done says megawatts, so that
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  Speaker 3: gigawatts is big. So it'll be built in two parts.
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  Speaker 3: The first starts twenty twenty seven. It'll be in Alto
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  Speaker 3: and Willow Creek townships. What I thought was interesting with.
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  Speaker 2: That is.
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  Speaker 3: With the new president new administration, there's been some federal
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  Speaker 3: incentives that used to be in place for solar which
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  Speaker 3: are kind of ending now because we have a new
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  Speaker 3: administration that isn't necessarily focused on clean energy, so you
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  Speaker 3: aren't seeing as much of these projects pop up anymore
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  Speaker 3: because people don't have a reason to build it if
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  Speaker 3: they can't get certain incentives like tax incentives and stuff.
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  Speaker 2: But I talked to.
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  Speaker 3: Lee County Industrial Development Association president. He said the it's
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  Speaker 3: basically just a show of the high demand for energy
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  Speaker 3: now because more things are using it, with like those
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  Speaker 3: big data centers being built stuff like that.
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  Speaker 1: But I was first thinking, and there's a I got
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  Speaker 1: conflicted feelings on that, and I'm sure I'm not the
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  Speaker 1: only one AI helping us, but certainly as many of
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  Speaker 1: us are using it for silly things and I've been
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  Speaker 1: guilty of that, and the fact that it's contributing to
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  Speaker 1: these massive this massive need for power is now, is
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  Speaker 1: this project going to provide or supposed to provide any
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  Speaker 1: direct benefits to the communities around.
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  Speaker 2: It, So it's not clear.
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  Speaker 3: It's part it's going to be part of a power
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  Speaker 3: purchasing agreement, which is so the power goes onto the
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  Speaker 3: grid and then it's sold from the grid, which is
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  Speaker 3: so confusing to me because it's like an invisible thing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, subscriber.
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  Speaker 2: It was like Netflix.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, so I'm not sure. I'm sure once the
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  Speaker 3: project gets closer to like starting to be built and
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  Speaker 3: being done, that we'll know more about that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds on par with these things. I remember
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  Speaker 1: another smaller solar project, I think it was Sterling when
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  Speaker 1: I was still reporting with you guys, and it was
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  Speaker 1: kind of about the same thing. Was I was told that, well,
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  Speaker 1: people will have the ability to be able to subscribe here,
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  Speaker 1: but I can't guarantee that all the power that's generated
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  Speaker 1: at the thing is going to go into community homes.
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  Speaker 1: And so it was like, okay, yeah, good to know.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the Lee County itself will definitely benefit
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  Speaker 3: from the project economically because you're gonna have a lot
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  Speaker 3: of workers coming in to do to build it, so
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  Speaker 3: there'll be a lot of people staying in like the hotels,
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  Speaker 3: hopefully coming to restaurants things like that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we can only hope so Gateway continues to develop
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  Speaker 1: out of there, so maybe we keep pulling more people
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  Speaker 1: off the interstate and in here and spend and spending
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  Speaker 1: some of their money to help go to our tax space. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you can only hope, right, Yes, onto a story that
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  Speaker 1: I've I've loved the coverage on talk about a hot topic,
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  Speaker 1: steer tailing.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so I'll quickly explain.
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  Speaker 3: Steertailing is a rodeo event. It's Mexican style rodeo event.
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  Speaker 3: It's basically a rider on a horse chases down or
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  Speaker 3: running steer, grabs onto its tail, wraps it around its leg,
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  Speaker 3: and tries to throw the steer down. It's become so
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  Speaker 3: controversial because most of the majority of the time the
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  Speaker 3: animals get injured during that. There's tail can get pulled off,
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  Speaker 3: which happens a lot, horns can get broken, legs can
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  Speaker 3: get broken. The spend times like the horn will hit
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  Speaker 3: the go like into the horse, which is really sad.
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  Speaker 3: So and then on the other side, it is part
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  Speaker 3: of this Latino cultural heritage thing. It was important back
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  Speaker 3: and when you would do that to like tame a steer.
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  Speaker 3: And so there's two sides to it. I talked with
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  Speaker 3: Senator Lee Arellano last week on Friday, and he was
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  Speaker 3: talking about a bill that was in the Senate to
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  Speaker 3: ban it, and he's supportive of the bill, but he
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  Speaker 3: wants to make some amendments, and he was talking about
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  Speaker 3: why it's struggled to get support in the Senate. One
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  Speaker 3: of them, which I thought was a big one, is
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  Speaker 3: that the way that it's written, the second violation of
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  Speaker 3: it would be a felony. Felony is a big deal.
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  Speaker 3: It's a big conversation. He felt that it should not
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  Speaker 3: be a part of this conversation, and he would like
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  Speaker 3: to amend that to make it like fines and like
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  Speaker 3: revoking permits and stuff like that.
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  Speaker 2: And then the.
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  Speaker 3: Department of Agriculture also had some concerns. They don't want
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  Speaker 3: to all of a sudden have this new responsibility to
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  Speaker 3: like legal responsibility. Sure, and obviously the Latino community does
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  Speaker 3: have some concerns basically when like just looking at a
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  Speaker 3: cultural event without looking at wider rodeo activities. And he
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  Speaker 3: made the argument that it could be taken on the
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  Speaker 3: other side, like look at the number of injuries that
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  Speaker 3: happens with this event compared to other events. And I
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  Speaker 3: think the other thing that's good to note with that
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  Speaker 3: too is that there is like a it's not called this,
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  Speaker 3: but like a Mexican rodeo association. This isn't a recognized
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  Speaker 3: event under them, and it's just very unlike the way
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  Speaker 3: that it's happening and where it's causing a problem is
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  Speaker 3: that the events aren't regulated the way that like a
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  Speaker 3: county fair is.
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  Speaker 1: That's what it sounded like.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so it's just one thing he said was
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  Speaker 3: that it's just kind of built into like the culture
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  Speaker 3: of these events because it's so unregulated, it's kind of
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  Speaker 3: looser ideas of how you can treat animals.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, that's I think precisely where you know,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of the contention with this has got to
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  Speaker 1: come from. It's certainly not, at least to me, a
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  Speaker 1: point of you know, trying to hamper on someone's culture. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But one of the things I enjoy about being on
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  Speaker 1: the radio now, Peyton, because as I met, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I do miss being at the paper with you guys.
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  Speaker 1: And I can't go too strong, but I can go
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  Speaker 1: a little is sharing my opinion, and so I usually
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  Speaker 1: you know, reserve that and still will talk and to
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  Speaker 1: a little bit research. But I would have to say,
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  Speaker 1: on the surface, I can understand why people are being
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  Speaker 1: upset anything that is going to maim or hurt an animal.
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  Speaker 1: I would rather see us find a way to evolve.
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  Speaker 1: I understand custom and culture. But we've also had a
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  Speaker 1: lot of past custom and cultures that we kind of
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  Speaker 1: thought as time has went on, like maybe this just
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  Speaker 1: isn't such a good thing. We're not so so nice
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  Speaker 1: to people with these things, and unfortunately, when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to animals versus human beings, we're a little bit takes
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  Speaker 1: a second seat to that. So I don't know. I
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  Speaker 1: would hope they would find a way to keep the
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  Speaker 1: culture and be nicer to animals. Anything that involves that
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  Speaker 1: just that sounds like it's just made for injuries. But
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  Speaker 1: I get the broader implications too, So yeah.
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  Speaker 3: It's a it's a very complicated, very complicated topic. I
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  Speaker 3: would say, go watch the videos.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of videos.
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  Speaker 3: And they're really really hard to watch, and I think
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  Speaker 3: that's what's drawing up the most of people's concern is
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  Speaker 3: they watch the videos and then like, how is this?
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  Speaker 2: How is this happening?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So the last the deadline for getting bills kind
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  Speaker 3: of in front of the Senate was that last Friday,
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  Speaker 3: and there doesn't appear to be any movement on that.
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  Speaker 3: It looks like it's still stuck in that Assignments Committee,
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  Speaker 3: which it needed to get out of. So we'll keep
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  Speaker 3: an eye on that. And see see how it goes.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely definitely going to be interesting to see
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  Speaker 1: how that goes, see how it shakes out as far
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  Speaker 1: as getting anything officially put into place, But it certainly
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  Speaker 1: won't be the last we hear of it, especially from
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  Speaker 1: you guys. Yes, well, we're out of time this morning, Peyton,
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  Speaker 1: but I thank you for coming in here. We're going
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  Speaker 1: to get you back in here regularly because we want
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  Speaker 1: to know more about about the stories that we're seeing,
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  Speaker 1: the headlines that we read. And you know, again I
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  Speaker 1: encourage people, especially having been on Peyton's side of it,
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  Speaker 1: don't just read a headline. Read the story, especially before
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  Speaker 1: you comment on Facebook. I want to know. I want
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  Speaker 1: to warn you in case you weren't to. Where as
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  Speaker 1: a former reporter, I can tell by your comment if
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  Speaker 1: you read the headline and not the story. It's pretty
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  Speaker 1: obvious for those of us who read the stories.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is true. Please read the stories. We work
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  Speaker 2: hard on them.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, well, Peyton, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 3: Again.
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  Speaker 2: I appreciated thanks for having me