Dr. Atul Mallik turned a family outing on the Massive Confusion Monday into a moment of history by catching the next Illinois-record lake trout; plus notes and the Stray Cast.
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The Kankakee Valley Park District might field an offer in the next month from a renewable energy company that wants to set up solar farms on district property.
The district owns five separate parcels of land near River Road Park, Splash Valley Aquatic Center and at the intersection of River Road and U.S. Route 45-52. The property is all farmland and is approximately 197 acres total.
The district already advertised for bids for the land to be farmed â which are due by Dec. 22 â through one- to three-year leases.
âWeâve had bids picked up, but I donât know what is being returned,â said Dayna Heitz, executive director of KVPD at Mondayâs board meeting. âThe farm bid is only for farmland, agricultural land only, and thatâs exactly what our land is zoned for â agricultural, recreation.â
On the warm Thursday afternoon of Sept. 10, 1959, the earth shuddered as a giant toppled to the ground on Kankakeeâs southwest side.
The giant â an 80-foot-tall tree believed to be the largest American elm in Illinois â was located at Eighth Avenue and Water Street, in Gov. Small Memorial Park, just southeast of the Dr. A.L. Small Historic Home. It had been growing there for several decades by the time the pioneer physician began building his home in 1855.
âThe tree is believed to be about 135 years old,â noted an article in the Kankakee Daily Journal on Sept. 11, 1959. âIt reached nearly 80 feet into the sky. It measured 22 feet, 9 inches in circumference at a point 3 feet off the ground where it was cut. Its circumference at ground level was nearly 36 feet. Diameter of the tree was 6 feet.â