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Compiled by Roger Matile and John Etheredge from articles published in the Oswego Ledger, Ledger-Sentinel, Fox Valley Sentinel, Oswego Ledger and Kendall County Record.
March 2002
Oswego Fire Protection District voters approved a property tax hike referendum to help the district maintain its current level of fire protection and paramedic service amidst an unprecedented population boom. A total 4,048 fire district voters cast “yes” ballots compared to 3,395 “no” ballots.
March 1997
Letters critical of Oswego’s unprecedented home building boom published in the Ledger-Sentinel sparked the ire of Village President Budd Bieber. Bieber defended the village’s handling of new development proposals and noted that the village had increased its builder transition fees to $5,268 per residence two years earlier.
It was a bad month for Kendall County’s old courthouse in Yorkville. First, the vacant 19th century-era building was the target for burglars. Then, County State’s Attorney Tim McCann determined that an agreement between Yorkville and the county which would have transferred ownership of the building to the city was invalid. McCann’s determination cast new doubts on the building’s future.
March 1992
Assistant Kendall County State’s Attorney Tom Cross and Oswego Paramedic Ken Toftoy were the big winners in the Republican Party primary election. Cross defeated Steve Hindi, a Plano animal rights activist, for the GOP nomination for the 84th District State House seat, while Toftoy edged out incumbent William Dunn in the primary race for county coroner.
A Montgomery Village Board committee was formalizing plans for the village’s first recycling program.
The Illinois Department of Transportation hired a consulting firm to prepare engineering plans for the proposed construction of a new Route 30 bridge spanning the Fox River in Montgomery.
March 1987
Construction of the first single family homes in Montgomery’s Seasons Ridge Subdivision started. The village board had approved final plans for the 207 acre development the previous December.
The Oswego School Board approved a new contract with the district’s teachers’ union that granted the teachers a 26.7% increase in salaries, stipends and benefits over the three year life of the contract.
Kendall County Highway Commissioner Joseph Gaesser met with state highway officials to discuss potential locations for a new bridge spanning the Fox River west of Oswego that would link Route 71 and Route 34. Gaesser said the bridge would be built as part of a plan to extend Orchard Road into Kendall County from Route 30 in Montgomery. Gaesser predicted it would be 10 years before the road would be extended from Route 30 to Route 34.
March 1982
Two days after Oswego voters overwhelmingly rejected a plan to annex and develop the 211 acre Fox Hollow Subdivision in an advisory referendum, the village board voted 6-1 to approve a pre-annexation agreement for the subdivision (now the site of the Mill Race Creek Subdivision). Fox Hollow opponents were concerned the subdivision would change the village’s small town character while placing a further burden on local governmental agencies, especially the Oswego School District.
The Oswego Village Board approved an annexation agreement for the village’s first industrial park, Stonehill, proposed east of Oswego High School.
March 1977
The Kendall County Sheriff’s Department and Montgomery Police were investigating an incident in Boulder Hill in which shots were fired at an 18 year-old resident of the unincorporated subdivision on Bereman Road.
March 1972
Work on additions to Oswego High School and Oswego Junior High School (now the Oswego 308 Center) was progressing. The school board learned that the high school addition was 75% complete and scheduled for completion by June 1. In other business, the school board learned that five students had been suspended from class at the high school in February. Four students were suspended for truancy, while the other suspension was for smoking.
March 1967
“The Unique War” was the name of a film on the increasingly controversial Vietnam War shown to members of the Kendall County Republican Women’s Club.
Gromer’s Supermarket at the Boulder Hill Market was celebrating its anniversary. To mark the occasion, the store held a raffle with the top prize of a 1967 Ford Fairlane Squire station wagon.
Patricia Anne Dillion of Batavia and Susan Miller of Aurora were the co-winners of a contest to name the newly formed community college. Both winners proposed naming the college after Waubonsee, a Pottowatomie Indian chief. The Ledger noted, “Waubonsee Community College in the heartland of America has become a reality.”
March 1957
Illinois Bell Telephone held a “Telephone Community Night” in Oswego that featured a recording machine called the “Voice Mirror.” W.N. Hollister, telephone manager for this area said, “Telephone Community Night is really a telephone company Open House…We’re going to take all our visitors ‘behind the scenes’ and show them how their telephone system works. There will be displays, exhibits, and demonstrations of all kinds.”
March 1952
Oswego Village President Andrew M. Pierce signed a proclamation declaring Good Friday as a religious holiday in the village and asked all business in the village to close between 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. to allow their employees to attend religious services in local churches.
The Record’s Oswego correspondent reported that Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Panikis had purchased the Copper Kettle Restaurant at Main and Washington streets in the village’s downtown and were open for business. The correspondent noted that the restaurant was the former site of the Oswego State Bank, which had closed. “Yes, we did have a bank (in Oswego) and still could have ‘if,’” the correspondent added.
March 1942
The Record reported: “Experiences of one year ‘Behind the Scenes in Nazi Germany,’ including time spent in a Nazi concentration camp, will be presented with lecture, sound motion pictures, and uncensored still pictures by Ralph E. Baney, world traveler, missionary, and author at the Yorkville Methodist church March 8. The speaker, who has been in Germany five times, was able, with the aid of press credentials, to witness the beginnings of Hitler’s attempt for world-wide conquest.”
March 1932
Amidst the depths of The Great Depression, many Kendall County residents sought assistance from local government and charitable organizations. The Record reported: “A survey of the winter’s work in providing for the poor and unemployed in Kendall county shows that a large number of official and volunteer relief organizations have been continuously busy trying to cope with this problem. Up to the present time there has been no let-up in the calls for aid, and it is expected that more help will have to be given through the summer this year than ever before. At least a hundred families are being helped in the county, many of them unofficially.”
March 1917
The Record reported: “The adoption of a reasonable military training in the public schools as a part of the curriculum is justly meeting with approval.”
March 1877
A spirited spring baseball game, mostly devoid of defense, was reported in the March 8, 1877 Record: “The match game of baseball played between the Oswego nine and the NaAuSay nine in Mrs. Collins’ pasture was considered by all to be a success. The Oswego boys were slightly embarrassed by the lobs of one of their number, James Poage, who was rendered unfit for action by receiving a ball in his eye. Among the appreciative spectators were young ladies from Oswego and Aurora.”