News Briefs for March 16, 2022

The Village of Roscoe Board of Trustees voted to "lay over" (postpone) the question of allowing multi-family housing on a parcel on Roscoe Road, adjacent to the Hawks Pointe development. Josh Petry, who wants to build the Townhomes of White Oak there, asked for the delay while he discusses his plans with Glenn Terry, the superintendent of Rockton School District. The item will be back on the agenda for the April 5 meeting.

In addition to their regular meeting Tuesday night, and after they competed in a "mind duel" with Roscoe Middle School's Quiz Bowl team, the Kinnikinnick Board of Education held a public hearing on the proposal to have up to two full-day, rather than four half day, school improvement in-service days by accumulating five hours of student attendance time for each full day. Superintendent Keli Freedlund says this modification of the Illinois School code "would allow the district to hold two full days of School Improvement utilizing time that has been banked during school attendance days. The School Improvement Days would provide valuable professional development of teachers according to our School Improvement Plans."

Macktown Living History is planning a fiber arts weekend May 7-8, Saturday 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. and Sunday 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. If you have a love of the fiber arts, save the date for this event. If you're interested in being a vendor, demonstrator or class instructor, contact Constance Gleasman at 815-218-3874.

Why don't we see wedding and engagement announcements, birth announcements, anniversaries, and other personal news in the local news anymore? Maybe we can change that. If you send your announcements to editor@roscoenews.com, we will publish them at no charge. Feel free to leave out any identifying information, such as addresses or exact dates, that you don't want to be public.

The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department wants you to know nobody from their office will ever call you to say that you can avoid arrest if you give them your credit card or bank information. That is a scam. If you do get a call like that, they want you to alert the (real) Sheriff’s Department at 815-282-2600. If you are ever scheduled to appear in court, put the date on your calendar so you don't forget to show up.

Mary Francis Fyler is the second in a series of Roscoe women honored by the Roscoe Township Historical Society in celebration of International Women's Month (March) as they post brief biographies of some of our early women settlers on their Facebook group. Fyler was the only woman in her 1889 pharmacy school graduating class. She took photos at her parties and dispensed medications at L.S. Fyler & Co. on Main Street Roscoe.