Utica responds swiftly to storm damage

Utica Mayor David Stewart and trustees heaped praise on the village police, firefighters and maintenance personnel for the swift response to last week's derecho.

Disruptions were minimized, and a prompt alert enabled authorities to evacuate Starved Rock State Park.

Most clean up was expected to be completed by Friday around the community.

Even before the derecho, Police Chief Rod Damron said his force has had an unprecedented volume of work.

“We definitely broke a record as far as calls handled and traffic crashes handled,” he said. “We’ve been very busy.”