Illinois
Illinois community recovers after factory closure
DEPUE, Ill. (KWQC) – A small community in Bureau County is recovering after the closure of a Monterey mushroom factory in January that previously employed hundreds of residents.
Back in November, one of Bureau County’s largest employers for decades announced to workers that they would be closing in January, sending the small community of DePue scrambling for solutions.
“Truthfully, I think we came out a lot better than we were probably thinking back in November when this news broke,” said Sheila Harmon, a second grade teacher in DePue.
Nearly half of the households enrolled in the DePue school district had someone employed at the mushroom factory located just a few miles outside of town.
And with the closure coming near the holidays, teachers wanted to make sure the children could enjoy Christmas without realizing the stress being dealt to their family.
Harmon said they were able to get donations from local areas, and raised a significant amount of money to purchase gifts for students. They wrapped the gifts and had them ready to go for parents to pick them up before winter break.
And upon the closure of the factory in January, school staff and local residents rallied to help those out of work by bringing in area companies for a job fair.
“The community came together, everybody came together, families came together, and we worked to find work for other people,” said Jacob Hoffert, the school board president for the DePue School District.
Hoffert said Sunday, it appears the community’s rapid response to the news of the factory’s closure may have ultimately saved the district and village.
“What I’ve seen is a lot of people are still working, so that’s good,” Hoffert said. “Nothing’s going down here, you’re not seeing the houses for sale. You’re not seeing the kids leave the school. So I think we’ve got to that point where we’re good.”
Both Harmon and Hoffert said the company was one of the largest donors in the holiday toy drive. As for the factory, the future of the property remains unclear.
The Princeton facility was one of two factories shut down in January by Monterey Mushrooms. The other was in Florida.
According to the company website, Monterey has seven factories currently running in the United States.
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CENTRALIA, Ill. – An investigation is underway after multiple people were shot Sunday in Centralia, Illinois, according to a report from WFCN News in southern Illinois.
FOX 2 has confirmed the Illinois State Police is investigating a shooting and taking over the investigation, but ISP could not confirm many further details as of 9 p.m. Sunday.
“The investigation is in its infancy and to protect the integrity of the investigation, no additional details will be released at this time,” ISP said in a statement to FOX 2.
According to WFCN News, the shooting happened around 5 p.m. near the 900 block of East Kell Street in Centralia. Multiple law enforcement agencies have since responded to scene and multiple victims are hospitalized, according to the report.
It’s unclear how many people may have been injured and what led up to the shooting.
Centralia, Illinois is about 70 miles, or just over an hour, east of St. Louis.
This is a developing story. FOX 2 will update as more information becomes available.
The National Weather Service has teams of storm surveryors in the field April 18 investigating several reports of severe storms and tornado touch downs across eastern Iowa, northwest Illinois and northeast Missouri.
According to the weather service’s website, windgusts of up to 60 to 70 mph along with teacup-sized hail and several tornadoes were reported April 17.
Many homes and outbuildings were damaged, trees were uprooted and power lines were downed in Lena, Illinois, where the most significant damage occurred, the site pointed out.
Very strong winds also were reported near Washington, Iowa, and Colmar, Illinois, where several outbuildings and grain bins were destroyed.
The weather service received reports of confirmed and possible tornadoes in the areas of Lena, Pecatonica, Shirland, Rockton, Roscoe and Capron.
The teams will be assessing damage this weekend into next week along with county emergency management teams to determine what types of storms occurred and their paths.
Dozens of power outages were reported, as well.
As of the afternoon of April 18, ComEd was reporting 85 active power outages across northern Illinois, down from 241 on April 17, and 6,751 customers affected, down from more than 18,000.
The bulk of those outages and the most customers impacted are concentrated in Jo Daviess and Stephenson counties.
Freeze Watch
from MON 12:00 AM CDT until MON 9:00 AM CDT, Lake County, Kankakee County, La Salle County, DuPage County, Northern Will County, DeKalb County, Southern Will County, Kendall County, Southern Cook County, Northern Cook County, Grundy County, Eastern Will County, Kane County, McHenry County, Lake County, Newton County, Jasper County, Porter County
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