This is how the Elwood House will look for its annual Holiday Traditions tours, slated to be held Dec. 1-Dec. 3. All guided tours will start in the Visitor Center of the museum, 509 N. First St., DeKalb. For more information, call (815) 756-4609 or go to ellwoodhouse.org.

DeKALB

Family Service Agency has new acting director

Family Service Agency, which offers multi-generational services, has a new leader. Tynisha Clegg has replaced David Miller, who had served as executive director since 2010. Clegg has been appointed acting director.

FSA is forming a transition team that will pinpoint what requirements, the permanent replacement will fulfill. He said there’s no specific timetable for when the agency hopes to fill the position.

FSA is made up by four departments – Big Brothers Big Sisters, Center for Counseling, Children’s Advocacy Center and Senior Services Center.

Museum getting decked out for holiday tours

The Ellwood House Museum is partnering with area businesses, community sponsors and volunteers to decorate the 1879 mansion room-by-room on all four floors in preparation for the museum’s Holiday Traditions. Visitors will be entertained with live music as they tour the mansion, and tour guides will be stationed on each level to share the history of the home and information about three generations of the Ellwood family who lived there. Other event highlights included a visit from Santa and refreshments in the Visitor Center.

Holiday Traditions hours are 6-8:30 p.m. Dec. 1, and 1-4:30 p.m. Dec. 2 and Dec. 3. Tickets $10 for adults and $5 for children (age 6-17). All guided tours start in the Visitor Center of the museum, 509 N. First St., DeKalb.

For those who cannot attend the three-day event, guided tours of the decorated mansion will be given at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. from Nov. 15-Nov. 30. Call (815) 756-4609 to schedule a tour. The museum is closed on Mondays and Thanksgiving day. 

SYCAMORE

Bank donation pushes park fundraising closer to goal

First National Bank has donated $35,000 to the Sycamore Park District’s Leaf a Legacy fundraising campaign, bringing the campaign within $15,000 of its $1 million goal. Leaf a Legacy helps support the district’s long-range plan, Action 2020. 

The bank’s donation is being recognized in naming the outdoor amphitheater at the Legacy Campus after the bank. The First National Bank Amphitheater is formed by a C-shaped slope that extends from the top of the sled hill toward the parking area. It surrounds a concrete patio with a warming area between the sled hill and the community center. An April 14, 2018, opening is being planned for the Legacy Campus.

Donations are still being accepted for the project, and will be recognized. Those who donate will be memorialized on a wall inside the new 40,000-square-foot community center currently under construction on Airport Road just south of Route 64. In addition, those who donate $5,000 or more will have a tree planted in their honor on the campus grounds.

Exhibit raises a glass to beer

Beer lovers have three more days to get an up-close look into the history of beer brewing, in a special exhibit at the Midwest Museum of Natural History in Sycamore. The history and work goes into beer before it makes it into a drink in your hand is part of, “Cheers! A Brief History of Beer!”, an exhibit at the museum through Nov. 18.

The exhibit includes a step-by-step walk-through on how beer is made, beginning with the grain, through fermentation, carbonating, packaging and distribution. Visitors to the exhibit will see and smell barley and hops.

The exhibit includes a collection of beer steins from around the world, on loan to the museum from private collector George Hoffman of Sycamore.

The museum and the local brewery Forge Brewhouse have partnered to create a beer for the museum. The Armchair Anthropologist, a blonde ale, will be available through the end of November. A quarter of the proceeds will go back to help fund the museum, 425 W. State St. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 or senior citizens and children under 11.

CORTLAND

Chicago trash company buys local firm

Owners say it will be business as usual for Cortland-based DC Trash of Illinois, now that the company has been acquired by a Chicago recycling and waste company.

Lakeshore Recycling Systems has purchased DC Trash, 14438 E. North Ave., which was founded in 2002 by Dan Christensen. DC Trash has 35 full-time employees and serves about 15,000 residential and business customers in the DeKalb County area.

Lakeshore is adding DC Trash’s employees and its 30 vehicles to its fleet. It has acquired independent waste collection companies, expanding its reach into Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota and southwest Michigan.

No jobs are expected to be in jeopardy.

–DeKalb County News Briefs–