WGFA NEWS for Thursday, November 19, 2009 >
WX > Periods of rain today, high near 46. Se wind at 5-10. Rainfall amounts could range from .10 to .25 of an inch. Patchy fog tonite, low near 35. Sunny Friday and a high near 52.
> Today is that day when non-smokers seem to have a legal right/obligation to hound people who do smoke to ‘give it up.’ The Great American Smokeout, is promoted by the American Cancer Society and designed to nag people into doing the right thing — give up smoking for at least today. This annual event finds health organizations setting up local programs to assist people in the attempt to quit. The ACS offers tips. www.cancer.org.
> In Watseka–the public is invited to stop by the IMH main lobby for information on quitting smoking. The 34th Annual Great American Smokeout finds info available at IMH from 9 am ’til 3 pm, according to IMH Respiratory Therapy Director, Peggy Jaskula. Information about upcoming Smoking Cessation Classes is also available.
A national survey by the Center for Disease Control found that smoking actually ticked upward for the first time in 15 years. The overall figure still shows that about one out of every five Americans smokes.
> The Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences department at University of Illinois has opened its sequence of four introductory agricultural science foundation courses to Illinois community college students, including those at Kankakee Community College. In all, 36 students from eight community colleges-including five from KCC-are enrolled in the first class, Introduction to Animal Sciences.
Distance education technology is enabling the five Kankakee Community College students to take advantage of University of Illinois resources through a new agriculture partnership. “We are excited about the opportunity to work with the University of Illinois to deliver online transfer courses which will enhance baccalaureate degree obtainment for student transferring from community colleges,” said Dennis Sorensen, KCC dean of instruction, who assisted the University of Illinois with the program’s development. “Agriculture continues to play an important part of the Illinois economy. The relationship with the University of Illinois will enhance the ability of KCC and other colleges to meet Illinois workforce needs.”
> Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas L. Kilbride will meet students and members of the community at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, in the Kankakee Community College Workforce Development Center Conference Hall. He will be speaking about the judicial system, the role of government in peoples’ everyday lives, and civic obligations. The event is free and open to the public.
Kilbride was born in LaSalle and raised in Kankakee. A graduate of Bishop McNamara Catholic High School, he received a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s College in Winona, Minn. and a law degree from Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C.
> WGFA has learned it’s Eco Manufacturing of Cambridge, Mass. Thats’ the name of the company helping the Ford County town of Gibson City enhance its “green” atmosphere. The “green” business that has picked Gibson City as one of two finalists for a factory site. Eco Manufacturing has been looking at various sites for about two years and at Gibson City for one year. A Tennessee site is also “still in the running.” Garrett Gates, V-P of business development, said the potential site of a plant would be on Gibson City’s west side, along Illinois 9 and just south of Jordan Industrial Park.
The company plans to build a plasma gasification recycling facility, adapting technology originally developed by Westinghouse to test the heat shields of re-entry vehicles for NASA, Gates said. Gates said the extremely high heat will safely process containerized industrial waste into materials to be reused in construction, water that mostly will be reused by the plant itself, and a synthetic gas the company hopes to sell to neighboring industries at a cheaper price than natural gas.
“This technology has the capability to transform the waste industry,” Gates said.
A news release from Mayor Dan Dickey said the business would offer “30 to 50 green jobs,” and “the average salary will be approximately $50,000 plus benefits.”
Gates said plants using similar technology are operating successfully in various locations worldwide, including Japan and Canada. He also said a similar process is being used near Detroit to “melt down” car engines.
The “green” jobs would fit in well with other existing industries in Ford County, according to Diane Johnson, executive director of Ford County’s Community and Economic Development Foundation. “This is exactly the type of industry we were looking for,” she said, “because it fits well into our vision of Ford County being on the leading edge of the ‘green’ industry.
“If you look at Ford County, we have nine wind farms in various stages of development. We have the ethanol plant (in Gibson City). We have the only solar-powered drive-in movie theater in the country. We have solar streetscape lamps in Paxton which I don’t know of any town in the area that has that. And then we have Stelle, in northern Ford County, that has been running sustainability programs for well over 30 years and now has become a regional resource for sustainability programs.”
The mayor said initial contact with Eco Manufacturing came about after he participated in training at Decatur led by Ameren and then entered local information into an economic database of communities. Dickey felt the company’s ideas exhibited present and future potential, and he decided to put together a special task force of community members and economic development officials to explore its potential.
“The mayor and some of those other people really work hard on making contacts,” Johnson said. Meanwhile, the county economic development foundation was able to provide some funding to have officials from the company fly in to talk to local officials, Johnson added.
“Your Illiana News Source” — 94.1 FM, WGFA
