Mt. Morris purchases downtown building destroyed in April fire

MT. MORRIS — The village of Mt. Morris plans to purchase 1 Wesley Ave., which was one of two buildings destroyed in an April 16 fire.

In a special meeting on Oct. 15, Mt. Morris Village Board trustees voted unanimously to purchase the property. The purchase price was not listed on the publicly accessible portion of the ordinance.

“Our plans would be to demo the building,” Village President Phil Labash said after the meeting. “We do not have a timeline at this point.”

Labash declined to comment further on the purchase.

The two buildings destroyed in the April fire are 1 N. Wesley Ave. and 3 N. Wesley Ave., the latter of which housed Sharky’s Sports Bar.

As of Oct. 21, Ogle County property tax records list Brock and Heather Swanlund as the owners of 1 N. Wesley Ave.

Double Duce Corp., care of Michael Rossi, is listed as the owner of 3 N. Wesley Ave.

At 1:33 p.m. April 16, the Mt. Morris Fire Protection District was alerted to flames coming from an apartment in the building at 1 N. Wesley Ave.

The fire quickly spread to Sharky’s Sports Bar because of strong winds and the absence of a firewall separating the two structures. The fire was extinguished by 5 p.m., with most mutual-aid companies released by 7 p.m.

The Mt. Morris Fire Protection District requested a Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Box 15 to the third-alarm level for additional assistance from Advanced EMS; the Byron, Dixon City, Dixon Rural, Forreston, German Valley, Lanark, Oregon, Pecatonica, Polo, Shannon and Stillman fire protection districts; and Ogle County Emergency Management.