Jeannine Otto

Darren Bailey and running mate Aaron Del Mar stopped in Sterling this week as part of their “Take Back Illinois” bus tour through suburban Chicago and northern Illinois.

For those who are looking for an indoor event to cure their cabin fever this weekend, Rock River Disc Golf and the Dixon Park District have the solution. The two groups are sponsoring an indoor disc golf tournament to raise money for Lee County Honor Flight.

With several days of dangerously cold weather settling in across the Sauk Valley, warming centers will be open for those who need them. Please call the facility to make sure it is open before traveling in the cold.

Second Street is on track to reopen to traffic Friday from Fourth Avenue to First Avenue, the Sterling city manager told the Sterling City Council.

“Can a Republican win for governor? Can a downstate farmer win for governor?” Those were the questions that former state senator and former and current GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey had for a crowd of around 30 supporters in Sterling on Wednesday, Jan. 21.

Sauk Valley Community College’s Amboy Clippers Impact Challenge has received a challenge of its own. An anonymous donor recently pledged a $10,000 matching grant to match all donations to the Clippers Impact Challenge, up to $10,000, through April 1. 

Construction on the Love’s Travel Stop planned for Rock Falls near the interchange of Illinois Route 40 and Interstate 88 is expected to begin this month, according to the city of Rock Falls.

Mellisa McMillan’s classroom supply list is not your everyday school supply list. “We need welding gloves and welding tongs. I know we need another new saw out in the woodshop,” McMillan said. She is the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Ashton-Franklin Center High School.

The Amboy Lions Club and the Lee Center Church will host a chili luncheon and basket raffle Sunday, Jan. 18, to benefit the church and Amboy Lions Club community projects.

A Dec. 28 windstorm wasn’t strong enough to defeat the Sterling community’s giving spirit - or one family’s determination to keep the giving going.

Myles Newberry, the director of the Twin Cities Homeless Shelter, has seen the suggestions on social media from well-meaning residents proposing that empty nursing homes, rehab facilities and even storefronts be opened for temporary housing.

Poopy’s, billed as “the largest biker bar in Illinois,” is for sale.  The biker bar, restaurant and event venue in Savanna made the announcement Tuesday, Jan. 13, via its Facebook page. 

The Second Street project in Sterling is making progress and part of the street could be open by the end of January.

After 10 years of business, Kunes RV in Sterling is closed.

The top item on the wishlist for Twin Cities Homeless Shelter is available just a few minutes’ drive from the shelter. “Right now, what I’d really like, and they are on sale at Menards, are those 27-gallon storage totes,” shelter director Myles Newberry said.