Here s your guide to this year s Prairie Chicken Festival in Kewanee
SUSAN DEVILDER
The Star Courier
After a minimal-contact, whittled-down event last year, the Prairie Chicken Arts Festival is back, with more events than ever, said event Co-Coordinator Dianne Packee.
The art and music festival is a family-friendly event with many of the activities either free or minimal cost, Packee said. The PCAF is funded by Quarter Madness, an event co-sponsored by the PCAF committee and the Kewanee Rotary Club.
The PCAF is scheduled for Fri. July 9 and Sat. July 10, and many of the events for children will take place on Saturday between 10 am. and 2 p.m.
Local animal groups vie for control of city pound
Susan DeVilder
The Star Courier
KEWANEE Which organization will receive the contract to operate the city pound could be decided at the next Kewanee City Council meeting scheduled for May 24.
Both Friends of the Animals and the Henry County Humane Society/Kewanee have submitted bids for a three-year contract, with the option for two additional one-year extensions. The request for bids was announced by Kewanee Police Chief Nicholas Welgat in April with a deadline for responses due May 5.
The decision was expected to be decided at the city council meeting on May 10, but City Councilman Chris Colomer experienced a medical issue and left the meeting, which postponed the vote. At the time, Mayor Gary Moore called the decision to award the pound “too important to make without participation from the full council.”
Hog Days Committee set to make their move
Susan DeVilder
Star Courier
KEWANEE The Hog Days Committee took time to “move the furniture around” at their monthly meeting Tuesday.
“Moving the Hog Days furniture” is what Co-Chair Larry Flannery jokingly calling the reconfiguration of several event placements in the downtown area. The move is required because the annual festival lost valuable real estate in front of Coco’s Cookies and Coffee on West Third Street and the adjacent parking lot, where several of the larger carnival rides have been located.
For the last several meetings, the committee has been pondering the issue and considered moving the carnival rides to the go-kart track on the west end of Third Street. But a meeting with Don and Debbie Pusey of CDAC Inc., Amusements last month threw a monkey wrench into the whole process.
Welgat: 2nd St. fire investigation was thorough
Star Courier
Kewanee Police Chief Nicholas Welgat says the nearly year-long investigation into the Second Street fire was painstakingly thorough and he is confident in its results and the accompanying arson charges.
The investigation indicated that someone likely intentionally set the fire to the new pool hall, which caused extensive damage in the building, threatened other downtown buildings and injured two firefighters.
Prosecutors started laying out their case against the owner of the burned building, Mark W. VerVynck, of Kewanee, in a preliminary hearing Monday. Kewanee investigators say VerVynck s story that the fire started from a heated vehicle exhaust system bolt in the back garage is contradicted by evidence in the fire report, which says it started in a different location than VerVynck described to investigators.