A look back at some of the top Rochelle News-Leader stories from the past year.

January

Small Business Bingo raises $3,540

Small Business Bingo raised $3,540 to be split between nonprofits Habitat for Humanity of Ogle County and the Hub City Senior Center at its final event of this season on Thursday, Jan. 2 at the Chicagoland Skydiving Center hangar in Rochelle, Event Organizer and AP Massage Therapy Owner Ashley Patrick said.

“Despite the snow, we still had a really good turnout,” Patrick said. “We had over 200 people, which has been typical for us. It was helpful that the senior center provided its shuttle bus to help people get from their cars to the front door. It meant a lot to me to see the turnout. I was honestly nervous about how many people we’d see. People have had the holidays going on and have their kids home and some went back to work on Thursday. It shows how much people want to support this. It makes my heart so full.”

Small Business Bingo was started in 2023 by Patrick, who came up with the idea of bingo nights in the community with prizes donated by local businesses to raise money for area nonprofits. The fundraiser raised $18,853 for area nonprofits in 2023 with its inaugural four events. Its other events this year on April 4, Nov. 7 and Dec. 5 raised $4,105, $5,555, and $3,820 respectively.

No Prep Tacos opens restaurant

Local food truck vendor No Prep Tacos opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant in March just outside Rochelle at 7034 S. Klondike Road, the former site of The Kitchen Table.

No Prep Tacos is owned by longtime Rochelle residents and brothers Marco and Jesus Penaran. The business got started in 2023 by selling tacos at car race meets in the region and No Prep Tacos has been regularly serving Mexican food locally for the past year.

“We’re car enthusiasts and we’d go out to Chicago or the suburbs and go racing,” Jesus Penaran said. “We met a lot of people. We would always want a late night snack and nothing was open. We would always say we should bring tacos and sell them out the back of the truck. In 2023 a friend asked us if we wanted to sell tacos at an event at a racetrack in Indiana. We’d never done anything like that before. We’d just cooked for ourselves. There weren’t going to be any concession stands. We decided to do it. We sold out within the first three hours and we just saw something we could do. It ended up being so much more than just a side job. It ended up being our full-time job and we ended up here.”

Upon buying their food trailer, the Penarans were looking for a commissary kitchen and found The Kitchen Table, the donation and volunteer-based eatery/community pay-what-you-can café. They came to an agreement with the organization’s founder, Carolyn Brown, to cook there and served one meal a month at the location for The Kitchen Table.

Late last year, Brown and the organization opted to sell the building due to a shortage of resources and volunteers, and overwhelming need. The Kitchen Table will continue as a nonprofit in a reimagined form. The building was purchased by the Penarans for a No Prep Tacos restaurant location.

RFD holds promotion event

On Thursday, Jan. 23, the Rochelle Fire Department held a promotion and oath of office ceremony at Luna to commemorate a recent department expansion and establishment of the rank of captain.

Promotions on Jan. 23 included Jason Underwood, Zach Prewett and Jeremy Good being named captains after previously serving as lieutenants, and Ben Johnson, Josh Lewis and Tyler Carls being named new lieutenants. New firefighter hires sworn in were Jacob Kass and Bailey Flemming.

“Tonight marks a magnificent change in our fire department,” Mayor John Bearrows said at the event. “I know how dedicated each and every one of you are. You’ve seen many tough ambulance and rescue calls that take a long time to get over. You do it for the love of helping people in your community. The increase in shift size and the addition of the role of captain to each shift is a major safety factor. I want to thank our city council and city manager for their support of these changes.”

Due to rising call numbers in recent years, RFD recently underwent an expansion that saw six total new firefighters hired. The newest three firefighters will be funded by a $919,368 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant RFD recently received. Amid the expansion, RFD also established a new model that added the rank of captain, with the department seeking to have more safety during fire incidents and leadership during busier EMS operations. Each shift will now include a captain, a lieutenant and four firefighters.

Gonzales joins RCH

The Family Healthcare Clinic at Rochelle Community Hospital welcomed Kristi Gonzales, MSPAS, PA-C, to its list of providers as a physician assistant.

Gonzales, a Rochelle native, brings 10 years of family medicine practice experience. She will focus on patient-centered care with patient-driven decision making, offering care to patients from birth to senior stages of life. Gonzales started at RCH on Jan. 27.

“So far it’s gone well,” Gonzales said. “The staff here is amazing. The team here is great and everyone seems to love their jobs. I’ve met with most of the managers and I have nothing but great things to say. The culture here seems great. Being here in it, it’s been good. I see a lot of good patient care things and we can speak highly of a community hospital.”

After graduating from Rochelle Township High School, Gonzales graduated from the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor of science in kinesiology and later graduated with a master of science in physician assistant studies from Southern Illinois University. She’s been board certified by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants since 2014.

For the past 10 years, Gonzales has worked as a physician assistant at OSF HealthCare in Mendota. She lives in Rochelle with her husband and children.

February

Final From the Heart gala held

With a record crowd of 330 people on hand, the 17th Annual From the Heart Gala was held on Saturday, Feb. 1 at the hangar at Flight Deck Bar & Grill in Rochelle and raised $90,000 for nine area nonprofits, From the Heart Founder and President Dave Eckhardt said. That number tied a record amount raised in 2024.

From the Heart raises money for nine area nonprofits: the Rochelle Area Community Foundation, HOPE of Ogle County, Rochelle Christian Food Pantry, Pegasus Special Riders, Hub City Senior Center, Shining Star Children’s Advocacy Center, CASA, Community Action Network (CAN) and FOCUS House. Each of those organizations will receive a check for $10,000.

This year’s event included dinner supplied by Headons Fine Meats and prepared by Flight Deck Bar & Grill, games, prizes and silent and live auction items.

“It was another great night for us,” Eckhardt said. “It’s tremendous how our community keeps stepping up and helping out From the Heart every year. We’ve been doing this for so long and the hope is that it gets better every year and it always does. More and more people are getting involved and wanting to come. Hopefully those people want to come back next year and that seems to be the case. The Flight Deck Bar & Grill does a great job with the food and we have to thank Headons as well for supplying the prime rib.”

From the Heart ceases operations

In a letter to the community on Feb. 24, From the Heart President and Founder Dave Eckhardt said the organization would be ceasing operations after 18 years.

“With sad but grateful hearts, we announce that after 18 very successful years, From The Heart is ending our fabulous run,” Eckhardt’s letter said. “We could not have done it without all of our generous donors. I’d also like to thank all the groups and their directors who helped make our fundraiser the success it was. I’d like to send a very special thank you out to Chuck Watkins, Sarah Flanagan, and Tonja Greenfield for all their hard work behind the scenes, they work tireless hours volunteering their time every year to raise money for these nonprofits. Thank you, Rochelle, for 18 very successful years of From The Heart.”

Hays wins Queen of Hearts at VFW

On Friday, Feb. 28, Rochelle VFW Post 3878 presented a $458,464.50 check to the winner of its Queen of Hearts contest, Lauri Hays. The contest ran for 49 weeks and reached a $705,330 total jackpot.

The Queen of Hearts drawing involves 54 cards hidden under a covering to be revealed one card per week until the Queen of Hearts is drawn. There are 52 playing deck cards with the two jokers hidden. Players at the local post can purchase tickets in increments of six for $5 and write a number corresponding to a hidden card on the board and their information on them before placing them in a tumbling drum. One ticket is drawn each Tuesday night and the card with the number on the ticket is revealed.

“I never expected in all those tickets that mine would ever be the one picked,” Hays said. “You can’t win unless you throw some tickets in there. I cried happy tears when I found out. I feel so thankful and blessed.”

March

May School reopens

At its monthly meeting March 11, the Rochelle Elementary School District Board of Education unanimously approved a Stepping Stones Preschool fiscal year 2026 transition plan that will see it expand the district’s preschool offerings and utilize the May Elementary School building for that purpose.

Stepping Stones Preschool, located inside Lincoln Elementary School, currently serves 180 students and has a waiting list of about 40 kids. The district has a desire to serve students on the waiting list and recently received a preschool-for-all grant for two years (fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026) that made it consider expanding its offerings.

May School at 1033 N. Second St. was closed by the school board before the 2021-2022 school year as the district shifted to an attendance center model due to declining enrollment and an increase in the district’s dual language program, which was previously only offered at Lincoln and Central Elementary Schools. The district was facing a half-full May School before the decision was made.

The district has held meetings with stakeholders to determine what would be feasible and what would be required for preschool operations at May School.

HitHub opens in downtown Rochelle

On Thursday, March 27, a ribboncutting was held at 506 Lincoln Ave. in Rochelle for HitHub By Bennie Baseball. The training facility offers batting cage, plyo wall and pitching machine rentals along with baseball/softball instruction and facility rentals for team practices and parties.

Bennie Baseball is a South Beloit, Wisconsin-based baseball academy for youths and high school players and has a travel program as well. More information including membership details can be found online at benniebaseball.com or by calling (815) 561-6567 or emailing hithub@benniebaseball.com.

“We just wanted to give kids an affordable and accessible option to train,” Owner Joe Bennie said. “There are so many expenses with travel baseball. We run a business with travel baseball and we understand that. We just wanted a place that kids can go to and train year round every day. There are also benefits in camps that are offered here. They have a place they can actually afford and get a lot of work in at any time. Hopefully everyone loves it.”

April

RACF marks 20 years

The first meeting of the Board of Directors of the Rochelle Area Community Foundation took place Nov. 14, 2005, with Leonard Carmichael, Ray Schwartz, Therese Almquist, Paul Chadwick, Phil Hasz, Fred Rivera and Karen Simmons in attendance.

In the 20 years since, RACF has granted over $1.3 million back to the local community. It has established 33 endowed funds with one acorn fund. Major projects have included the RACF Disaster Preparedness Fund to help those impacted by the 2015 EF4 tornado that hit the rural Rochelle area, and a COVID-19 Relief Fund to help locals impacted by the 2020 pandemic.

RACF offers an opportunity for individuals, families and businesses to leave a legacy for future generations and is a public, charitable organization designed to attract gifts that will be shared with Rochelle-area nonprofit organizations for the benefit of the community. It supports the areas of Chana, Creston, Esmond, Kings, Lindenwood, Rochelle and Steward.

RACF Executive Director Emily Anaya said the foundation’s donors are investing in long-term solutions, brighter futures, and in the heart of the community they call home.

“For 20 years, the Rochelle Area Community Foundation has been a beacon of hope, lighting the path toward a stronger, more vibrant community,” Anaya said. “Our donors’ generosity — combined with the power of endowment — continues to create ripples of impact that last for generations. Two decades of philanthropy. Thousands of lives touched. One mission: to make lasting change in the place we love most. At RACF, we’re here to help donors turn their passion into permanent progress.”

City sees impact of wind storm

A March 14 wind storm that hit the area caused $516,236 worth of damage and expense to the Rochelle Municipal Utilities electric department through infrastructure and personnel costs, RMU Superintendent of Electric Operations Blake Toliver said April 22.

Around 11 p.m. March 14, the storm knocked out power to 6,000 RMU customers out of its total of 7,500.

“I still swear it was one big gust of wind,” Toliver said. “Because everything was quiet and then everything fell apart all at once. We lost 26 poles total in that storm throughout our territory. Most of those were on our trunk line, our main feeds to all of the different areas of our territory, which is why it took out so many customers. It’s one of the worst outages I’ve worked since I’ve been here. I’ve been here almost 12 years and this is the most significant damage that I’ve seen other than the tornado in 2015.”

Within the first 24 hours after the initial response from the March 14 storm, RMU restored power to every home in its territory with the exception of less than 25. Toliver called that feat “pretty significant” considering all the damage that happened. He thanked RMU line crews for their work in the first two days of the outage before mutual aid and contractor crews could be brought in to help them finish repairs.

May

Longtime coach Romes retires

When Don Romes was 6 years old, he would go down into his basement at night, cut the bottom out of a coffee can, tack it onto the wall and shoot a tennis ball into it.

“I would play imaginary games and even write down the names of the players,” Romes said. “The game would always come down to the end and I’d shoot the free throw for the win.”

That was where Romes’ competitive spirit began. Romes is now 87, and on May 3 the community gathered at The REC Center to celebrate the longtime Rochelle resident’s 65+ year career in coaching sports, including stops at Rochelle Township High School, Steward Elementary School, Freeport Aquin and Sterling Newman. This past year, Romes coached his great-granddaughter in basketball at Steward, which may be the final stop in his decades-long coaching tenure.

Romes grew up in Keokuk, Iowa. He started his coaching and teaching career in Belle Plaine, Iowa in 1960 after college as a basketball head coach and assistant in football and track. After three years there, he moved on to Fort Dodge, Iowa to the same position for four years. After working in Nekoma in central Illinois for a short time, he came to Rochelle Township High School in 1968 as a business teacher and coach.

Over his 26 years at RTHS, Romes served as head boys basketball coach for 16 years, head football coach for two years and 10 years as the football team’s defensive coach, head tennis coach for 14 years and a few years as the sophomore baseball head coach. After his time at RTHS, Romes went on to teach and coach at Freeport Aquin and Sterling Newman for a total of 11 years.

Mindful Matters opens downtown

On May 8, a ribboncutting ceremony was held for Mindful Matters Therapy at 516 Fourth Ave. in Rochelle.

The business is owned by Loni Nolte, who is a licensed clinical social worker. Mindful Matters Therapy offers compassionate support and evidence-based treatments to help individuals navigate life’s challenges. In-person and/or telehealth appointments are available for both privacy and ease or practicality in a busy life.

Nolte grew up in Paw Paw and received her master’s degree in social work from Aurora University. Both of her parents own their own businesses in Paw Paw, and she never saw her career transpiring that way, until she changed course.

“I wanted to help people,” Nolte said. “I really hope to make a difference with people. I hope to have more conversations with people here and in the community. I try to make everyone feel like they’re a friend when they come through my door. I think life is hard and if you live it, you get bumps and bruises. In the mental health game, that can look like anxiety and depression. When those things go untreated, they become worse and can be really hard. When you find tools, support and a safe place to work through them, they become part of your story and what makes you tough and what makes you survive.”

New library opens in Creston

On Saturday, May 10, a grand opening event was held for the recently-constructed Creston-Dement Public Library. The festivities included a ribbon cutting, food, music and tours of the new building at 201 N. Main St. in Creston.

The building opened to the public for operations in March after a yearlong construction project to build it. A referendum passed in June 2022 that allowed the Creston-Dement Public Library District to issue $2.2 million in bonds to build a new library building on the land that was donated years ago for just that purpose. The main reason for the desire for a new building was the library outgrowing its previous space at 107 S. Main St.

Library Board President Doug Kroupa said about 300 people attended the grand opening, including local officials and community members.

“It was an absolutely amazing day,” Kroupa said. “People that started the process of a library in Creston back in the 1980s attended. Our architect and building manager came. Everyone who put the work in to make it happen came to celebrate. There were so many people from the area who have helped to continue the growth process.”

Jinkins retires from RTHS

Ann Marie Jinkins began her career at Rochelle Township High School in 1992 after graduating from the University of Illinois, when the school was in need of an English teacher that could teach one section of Spanish for a year.

Jinkins taught courses including Spanish, English I, Modern Readings, American Literature after 1900, Poetry in Prose, Honors English I, Intro to Language Arts, and Journalism. Then-RTHS Librarian Debby Van Dyke announced her impending retirement, and Jinkins received her master’s degree in library science and became RTHS librarian in 2003. She retired from the school this May after 33 years at RTHS and 22 as its librarian.

Jinkins was librarian at the old RTHS location on 7th Street for one year before the school moved to its Flagg Road location and new library in 2004. She’s seen the needs of students and a library change, with computers improving in technology and demand for them increasing, before the COVID-19 brought about RTHS’s one-to-one model with Google Chromebooks for every student, and library desktop computers became needed only for research and specific programs.

The RTHS library acts as a resource to help students research and sift through information, especially when there’s more information out there now than ever. Students search databases with hundreds of thousands of sources to find a handful for the topic they’re working on.

“Being able to help kids find what they need to be successful is why I’m here,” Jinkins said. “That satisfaction makes me happy. It’s very frustrating when a student comes in and doesn’t find what they want and then leaves without asking for help. Sometimes I feel like teenagers today are averse to risk taking and asking for help or just speaking to somebody is taking a risk. It’s wonderful when we can find something and sometimes it can be funny when someone asks for a book and I can go get it without even looking it up, because I’ve memorized where everything is over the years.”

June

Crystal retires from RMS

When her own children were in grade school, Theresa Crystal helped out in their classrooms. That was when she decided to go back to school and get a degree in teaching.

While working on her degree, Crystal taught preschool at St. Paul Lutheran School for two years before substitute teaching at Rochelle Middle School. It was then that she realized that was where she belonged. She retired in May after 22 years at RMS, teaching math, writing and social studies.

“I realized that teaching is a creative endeavor,” Crystal said. “You need a lot of energy, which I have. I like the creativity that goes into it and the intellectual side of it. All of those things drew me in. I knew I didn’t want to teach little kids. I wanted to be able to delve into a topic and field of study. I remembered what the classroom was like and saw what my children experienced and wanted to do it.”

Crystal started out teaching writing and social studies for her first 10 years at RMS. She was then asked to teach seventh grade math, which she did for the final 12 years of her tenure. Math had never been Crystal’s favorite subject, and the thought of teaching it initially made her nervous. She later on found the challenge and working with students on the subject to be enjoyable.

“I realize math is intimidating, and I tried my best to make it approachable and let them know that I struggled with math, so If I can teach it, they can learn it,” Crystal said. “I get letters from kids at the end of the year and that’s what they say. ‘If I didn’t get it, you didn’t make me feel bad about it. You just told me we could do it.’ That was really fun. I love to learn myself. Learning how to teach takes a lot of time and effort. People can give you a curriculum, but you have to bring it to the kids and make it approachable.”

O’Rorke Construction says goodbye

Longstanding Rochelle and Ogle County-area business O’Rorke Construction ceased operations around the end of June as its owners and brothers John, Dominic and PJ O’Rorke will be retiring. The family business, incorporated in 1996, has been in operation for the past 29 years.

Raised on a farm, the O’Rorke brothers learned how to use carpentry tools and how to repair buildings and work on machinery. After high school, all three of them worked for construction companies and made the decision to go into business as partners. O’Rorke Construction grew and hires were made and later on they built their Hillcrest location.

“We’re all getting older,” Dominic O’Rorke said. “You’re more limited on things you can do as you get older. I want to spend more time with my family and enjoy the rest of my life and not be under a lot of stress all the time. We have a couple projects that are started that we’re wrapping up and then we’ll be done. Working with family has been great. It’s been great to have family to rely on and back you up on everything. It’s been great to have the support of family here and everybody at home.”

PJ O’Rorke said the business worked on jobs scaling from bathroom remodels in homes to construction work on large hotels. One of the most complicated jobs it ever did was building a large log home for Ron and Marianne Tilton when working with logs was a new experience for them.

The O’Rorkes thanked their customers for their business over the years.

“We had a lot of great customers over the years,” Dominic O’Rorke said. “We’re proud of all the projects that we worked on and all the customers that we got to work for. We thought we had a really good customer base and we’re really happy that we got to work with so many great people. The community support we had in the area was awesome. Rochelle and the surrounding area really supported us. It meant a lot to us. It meant our livelihood to us.”

City completes water tower project

After the painting was recently completed, the City of Rochelle’s $1.2 million renovation project of its large water tower near Illinois Route 251 is complete.

The tower was offline for nearly a year and was refilled with water and put back into service on June 17. The project consisted of structural repairs, welding, interior cleaning and an inspection, sandblasting and painting inside and out, and safety upgrades. Antennas that are utilized by cell service companies and public safety organizations were moved to a nearby temporary tower while the work took place.

The water tower, built in 1953, is 150 feet tall and holds 500,000 gallons of water. It was last painted around 2000.

Mural completed at VFW

On Wednesday, June 25, a ribboncutting was held for Rochelle VFW Post 3878’s new mural on the back of its building at 318 Fourth Ave.

Work on the mural started on May 27 and was completed recently. The mural was painted by local artist Mat Steder of Steder Tattoo and depicts a bald eagle, an American flag, service members and the post’s name. Steder was approached by VFW Commander Dennis Orlikowski during a tattoo session, who asked him if he’d be interested in painting a mural. Steder previously painted a mural in the downtown Rochelle area in recent years on the back of the former Hub City Furniture building. He was interested in the new project and soon brought a design that was approved by the VFW’s board.

The ribboncutting was hosted by the Rochelle Chamber of Commerce and City of Rochelle. Speakers included Chamber Executive Director Tricia Herrera, Mayor John Bearrows, Orlikowski and Steder. In attendance were VFW members and staff, city officials and members of the community.

Herrera called the mural “a great addition” to downtown Rochelle and said she enjoyed watching the progression of the painting over the weeks it was being worked on.

“What a great tribute this is to our veterans,” Herrera said. “I want to thank all of our veterans for their service. We’ve had people who have said they’ve traveled down here to see it and take pictures. That’s amazing and it brings people to our city so they can see all of the wonderful things we have and the respect we have for our veterans. Thank you to Mat for your work. I’ve been fortunate to know Mat and his artistic abilities for many years and we’re very happy it was not only this great mural, but also someone local that did it.”

The July-December Rochelle News-Leader Year in Review will run in the Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026 edition.