Obituaries

Steven Schenewerk, who is best known for his stunning portrayal as Macbeth in the Shakespearean classic of the same name, tragically died on September 28 in a terrible auto accident. He died at age 20.

Steven was college student who was still working on his general classes when his life was cut short. While his focus was still undecided at the time of his death it was largely though that he would have attempted to get make a career in sales. Steven’s accomplishments were rather limited to his relaxed attitude regarding his future. He was known to just relax and live day to day with little regrets.

Steven was described as clever, witty and always having a remark on any topic.

Steven has survived by his parents, Jeana and Brain Callis, and his brother, Joshua. While the date for the wake has not been set yet his family asks that you do not send flowers as Steven has stated in the past that he did not want a “grand funeral” and his family wants to respect his wishes.

Story #2

               Recent budget concerns have led to a dispute at a Wright county meeting, on Thursday afternoon, between Sheriff Gus DiCesari who feels that the police department is being “shortchanged” by the county commissioners and not providing them with the funds they need for new cars and personal and Commission President Anne Chen who feels that DiCesari is wrong.
 
             
                A 5-2 vote has left the police department without the funds that Sheriff DiCesari claims they desperately need for eight new police cruisers and five new police deputies. The new cruisers are to replace older cruisers that have more than 150,000 miles on them and require constant upkeep and repairs to stay functional.  DiCesari went as far as saying “You’re putting the lives of the people of this county in jeopardy”.  The sheriff claims that this the first time in 27 years that the county has not given money to the police department to allow they buy new equipment. DiCesari’s views are supported by Commissioners Anita Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne who want the money that is spent on the county’s migrate workers to be shifted to the police department.

                On the other side of the debate is Commission President Anne Chen along with Commission members Valerie Dawkins, Faith Ellis, Jose Gardoz and Roland Grauman. They’re arguments have largely been defending migrate workers who DiCesari’s supporters say are a burden to law enforcement, school and healthcare.  Chen said that the workers are “decent, hardworking people being employed at jobs that local residents won’t do”, that they contribute greatly to the local economy and many stay and live productive lives in the county.  The commissioners estimate that there around 5,000 migrate families working in agricultural, construction and service jobs around the county.

                The $127 million budget is largely being spent on rising health and gas prices which has left less and less for the county to spend on other services. The country also recently built a new $30 million prison to handle overflow. Chenn has told DiCesari that there is just not enough left to give an additional $580,000 to the police. Chen suggested some ways for the police to save money such as officers not driving police vehicles home to them available and to keep mileage down to which DiCesari argued that officers driving home in their cars was a determent to crime.

News Story 1

A crash between two tractor-trailers, at 6:45 a.m. this morning, led to a massive chain of car wrecks on the northbound lanes of Interstate 790 that has left two dead and 20 injured.

The survivors of the massive wreck, some of which had to be removed from their cars wrecked cars by the fire department, were taken to the hospital including two people who were in serious condition. The two most serious injured people were transported by “Life Flight” from the local Memorial Hospital helicopters from the to Statesvillie’s trauma center.

Sgt. Albert Wei of the local police department stated that wreck involved a total of four different tractor-trailers, including one carrying diesel fuel that, luckily, did not explode, and fourteen different cars. The police are still looking into the matter on what drivers were involved in the initial truck crash that started the chain due to difficulty in figuring out which drivers were in which vehicle.

Fire Chief Tony Sullivan says that this is the worst crash he has ever seen in his 18 and half years with the department. He said the wreck site looked like a “warzone” with bodies lying on the road and people covered in blood sitting next to the wreckage of their former vehicles. Sullivan also said that the four seriously hurt drivers had life-threatening level injuries.

The accident at the northbound lanes has led to further problems as the highway was still completely closed at 10 a.m. with no sign of reopening. This has caused problems as most of its usual traffic has shifted to Interstate 690 which, due to massive amount of new traffic, has been backed up for three hours.