MT. MORRIS TIMES MT. MORRIS VILLAGE BOARD T. MORRIS TIMES
Mt. Morris Times / oglecountynews.com • Friday, December 25, 2020
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oglecountynews.com OFFICE 113-115 Peoria Ave. Dixon, IL 61021 (815) 732-6166 ext. 2592 Fax: (815) 284-2078 SUBSCRIPTIONS $39 in Ogle County, and $52 outside Ogle County. Single-copy price is $1 To subscribe, make a payment or discuss your delivery, call 815-732-6166, ext. 2518 Monday-Friday or send an e-mail to subscriptions@ oglecountynews.com. You also can subscribe online by going to oglecountynews.com and clicking on Subscribe. CLASSIFIED SALES 815-284-2222 OBITUARIES 815-7632-2534 ehinton@oglecountynews.com Deadline for obituaries is 2 p.m. Tuesday for Friday’s edition SEND NEWS news@oglecountynews.com General Manager Earleen Hinton 815-632-2591 ehinton@shawmedia.com Editor Jeff Helfrich 815-632-2590 jhelfrich@shawmedia.com Advertising Sales Patty Bridgeman 815-632-2555 pbridgeman@ shawmedia.com Mt. Morris Times, Ogle County News and oglecountynews.com are a division of Shaw Media. Ogle County Newspapers also prints the Mt. Morris Times, Oregon Republican Reporter, and Polo’s Tri-County Press. The MT. MORRIS TIMES (USPS No. 365-440) is published weekly by B.F. Shaw Printing Co., Shaw Media. Periodical postage paid at Mt. Morris, Illinois. POSTMASTER Send address changes to MT. MORRIS TIMES, P.O. Box 8, Oregon, IL 61061. Phone 815-732-6166, ext. 2516. All rights reserved. Copyright 2020
Mt. Morris is facilitating new land deal Farm to table restaurant, deli and butcher shop planned BY JEFF HELFRICH
jhelfrich@shawmedia.com The Mt. Morris Village Board unanimously approved the facilitation of a property development deal involving the former site of the Penner building and a nearby property that are slated to become a farm to table restaurant and a deli and butcher shop at its Tuesday meeting. Since the Penner building was demolished last year, the village has been working with purchase developers at 13 S. Wesley Ave. adjacent to the property for development, Village Attorney Rob LeSage said. The village will purchase the adjacent property, which is owned by Tom Felker, for $40,000 cash. Immediately following that acquisition, the village will acquire the Penner property, after paying for half the cost of demolition, for $1. Closing is set for Dec. 31 at 11:30 a.m., LeSage said. The village will then immediately turn around and sell those properties to a developer, Wesley 1895 Property LLC, for the purchase price it just paid, a total of $40,001. Following the purchase, Wesley 1895
Earleen Hinton/Shaw Media
Mt. Morris residents watch as workers from Maddrell Excavating, Monroe, Wisconsin, demolish the Penner building in downtown Mt. Morris on Oct. 16, 2019. Property LLC will be developing the real estate into the restaurant and deli and butcher shop. The city will be giving the developers TIF money to assist in the transaction. “Under the TIF deal, it will be a total of $200,000 of TIF reimbursement for a project of $1.1 million,” LeSage said. “There will be significant investment by the developer. The first $110,000 will be paid out during construction on a draw down basis. They will submit bills to the village. Upon completion and opening, the village will pay $50,000. Finally, six
months into operation, the village will pay $40,000 for a TIF reimbursement total of $200,000.” LeSage said the city is involved with the transaction so the developer will have to follow terms of a redevelopment deal. Work on the properties is expected to begin after the first of the year. “I think they’re going to be moving pretty quickly and residents will see real action,” LeSage said. “Their hope is to be open by July or August.”
once again check out materials. “It is our hope that patrons will realize that we are not wanting to punish anyone, but want to have items available to be used. We want the library to be welcoming to all and serve our community well,” the release said.
Mt. Morris library receives grant
BRIEFS Library going fine free in 2021 The Mt. Morris Library is going Fine Free starting Jan. 2. “We will no longer place fines on any overdue materials. If an item is not returned, or is damaged, charges will still occur but there will no longer be late fees,” library officials said in a press release. The library’s Board of Trustees chose to take this action at their December meeting, the release said. “We do not want fines to stand in the way of patrons checking out materials. Patrons will receive reminders about overdue materials, and will be encouraged to return or renew items. If books are 14 days overdue, or DVDs are 7 days overdue, you will not be able to check out items until they are returned,” the release said. If an item is 21 days overdue, the patron will receive a bill for the replacement cost of the item. Once the item is returned, the charges are removed and the patron may
The Mt. Morris Library has been awarded a Digital Access Grant for Public Libraries. This grant will allow us to extend the Wi-Fi capabilities to allow better access to stable internet service in the community. The new service will allow people in the community to easily access free Wi-Fi network even when the library is closed. The equipment purchased with this grant will boost the Wi-Fi signal to make it more readily accessible to anyone parked outside of the library. More information is forthcoming as we get the equipment installed and tested. The funding for this grant was awarded by the Illinois State Library, a Department of the Office of the Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
