NEWS IN BRIEF

Route 66 bike ride set for June 2

PONTIAC - Bicyclists riding between Chicago and St. Louis on historic Route 66 will gather at 11:45 a.m. June 2 at the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum.

Pontiac will be one of six locations along the route celebrating Route 66 and welcoming bicyclists.

Other towns participating are Joliet, Bloomington, Springfield, Staunton and Edwardsville.

For information, visit www.bikelib.org/route66.

Sponsors are the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the League of Illinois Bicyclists and the Route 66 Trail Executive Committee.

Eastside highway meetings to move

BLOOMINGTON - The next set of meetings for the eastside highway study will be rescheduled to late June or early July as the project team continues to compile community comments.

McLean County contracted with the Champaign-based engineering firm Clark-Dietz to conduct the $1.1 million study of whether a highway east of Bloomington and Normal is needed and where it should be constructed.

Jerry Payonk of Clark-Dietz said the project team has been compiling the comments gathered from the context audit forms and acquiring data to create a model of growth in the Bloomington-Normal area. Payonk added data needed to complete the 2035 traffic forecasts is still being collected.

Pontiac eco club wins state award

PONTIAC - The Illinois Recycling Association awarded the Pontiac Township High School's ecology club with the Outstanding High School Environmental Club Award.

The $500 stipend must be used to improve or expand club activities. The award is sponsored by member businesses of the Illinois Recycling Association: U'S Again LLC; Eagle Enterprises Recycling Inc.; Intercon Solutions Inc.; and Solarcone Inc.

The recycling association recognized the club for its ecology efforts, including storm sewer stenciling, crayon recycling for the local grade schools, billboard project and cell phone recycling.