WGFA NEWS for Tuesday, June 30, 2009 >
AMEREN customers without power in Iroquois County…. IDOT stresses safety during 4th Weekend….
WX > 73 degrees today’s expected high in Illiana. There’s a 20% chance of afternoon showers. WGFA recorded 5.60 inches of rain in June. Chance of rain tonight and Wednesday too.
* The Illinois Attorney General has unsealed a 19-count indictment alleging a Kankakee insurance agent bilked 13 suburban and downstate businesses. Larry Chouinard was arrested last week by Bradley Police. Chouinard is alleged to have been involved in a five-year scheme in which he collected and personally used tens of thousands of dollars intended for insurance premiums. Included were payments from Bourbonnais Township and 13 area businesses. The Illinois Department of Insurance reports Chouinard operated out of the Bradley location known as Chouinard Agency.
* AmerenCIPS customers in Iroquois County were left without service Monday afternoon. But a company spokesman said the outage was short-lived. Repair crews had electricity restored within an hour, according to Ameren customer service representative Leigh Morris.
A utility pole caught fire in Watseka causing a cross arm to break and twist. That caused a breaker to trip and eliminate power to 3,096 customers in Iroquois County. Communities effected included Watseka, Beaverville, Donovan, Iroquois, Martinton, Papineau and Sheldon. Service was out from 5:14 pm until 6:06 pm.
* Police say a 69-year-old man is dead after a boating accident on Senachwine Lake in Putnam County. Authorities say Kenneth W. Rickey of Henry died after falling overboard from a sailboat on the lake. Illinois Conservation Police Sgt. Robert Frazier says police received a call around 2:45 p.m. Sunday that someone had fallen overboard. Rickey’s body was recovered from the lake and he was pronounced dead at Perry Memorial Hospital in Princeton just after 4 p.m. Sunday.
* The coroner in McLean County says Saturday night’s storm is partially to blame for a deadly accident in a rural part of that county. Coroner Beth Kimmerling says a pick-up tried to avoid a massive plastic tarp that had been blown on to the road Saturday night, when the driver smashed head-on into a van carrying 91-year-old Doris Kaufman. She says Kaufman died on the road outside the tiny town of Covell. Meteorologists say high winds battered central Illinois as a strong line of thunderstorms made their way across the state. The storms also brought heavy rains and lightning. Kimmerling says the tarp was being used by a local business, but was picked-up by the high winds. The other driver and passengers in both the pick-up and the van were treated for their injuries at local hospitals. Kimmering isn’t saying if she expects charges in the case.
* A house fire in Manteno Monday morning killed several pets. Two people escaped unharmed from the 2-story frame home on Oak Street. Manteno Fire Chief Scott O’Brien said the cause was under investigation. Firemen from Bradley, Grant Park and Momence answered the call.
* The Illinois Department of Transportation and Conservation Police are stressing safety this holiday weekend. Safety on the waterways is pushed after a deadly weekend in Illinois. There were two drownings and still a missing person in the Chicago area. A drowning was reported in Putnam County; a man fell overboard in a lake. And a boating accident on the Kankakee River last weekend. Fortuneatly, no serious injury reported. IDOT plans to suspend lane closures at construction sites to give motorists a break this weekend.
* The Donovan/Iroquois Summer League is offering a reward for info leading to the person responsible for a break-in at the community’s summer league concession stand last Friday night. There was over $300 in damage and other items stolen. Then Monday, the summer league’s 4-wheeler was stolen from a home along Route 52 in Donovan. Anyone with info can call CRIME STOPPERS at 43-CRIME (815-432-7463).
“Your Illiana News Source” — 94.1 FM, WGFA
