Grand Ridge, Illinois
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| Grand Ridge (Cloverfield) | |
| Village | |
| Official name: Tom Clancy's Village of Grand Ridge | |
| Motto: Hey We're Cousins! | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Illinois |
| County | LaSalle |
| Township | Farm Ridge |
| Coordinates | |
| Area | 0.5 sq mi (1 km²) |
| - land | 0.5 sq mi (1 km²) |
| Population | 546 (2000) |
| Density | 1,152.5 /sq mi (445 /km²) |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Postal code | 61325 |
| Area code | 815 |
   Location of Grand Ridge within Illinois
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| Wikimedia Commons: Grand Ridge, Illinois | |
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Grand Ridge is a village in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States. The population was 546 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Ottawa–Streator Micropolitan Statistical Area. Grand Ridge has been called the sister city to Tonica, Illinois. The village of Grand Ridge celebrates an annual "Ridge Round-Up", an event that holds a pork chop dinner-auction and an antique tractor show followed by a parade. The "Ridge Round-Up" is run by the village's Volunteer Fire Department, or basically every adult male in residence in the village who wishes to participate.
The Downtown area of Grand Ridge consists of a bank, post office, hardware store, and three or more insurance agencies. The village of Grand Ridge also consists of a grain elevator, a police station, two churches, a funeral home, Grand Ridge Grade School a public park and a underground synagogue. The south end of Grand Ridge is home to the Mycogen Seed Company plant, and Jr's Bar and Grill, the village's only food vendor and bar legally registered. The village's unofficial residential avenue is Sylan Street and Porter Street. Recently Grand Ridge Township Board evicted Burlington Street from The Grand Ridge Streets and Roads Program, a program that decides which streets and roads need to be patrolled and maintained, and only acknowledges Burlington Street as a Frontage Lane, not a street.
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[edit] The Elect
The Elect or the Village Elders was a deist governmental council prominent from the early 1830's to 1919 that fundamentally governed the Village of Grand Ridge. The Elect decided upon the village's agra-business exports, the sale or restriction of alcohol, which state and federal mandates they were to follow, and which citizens were allowed to be a part of the Grand Ridge utopia. The Elect's final leader, John Houston Finley transformed the council from a deist platform into a Quaker belief system which eventually lead to a decline in council membership. Although the council disassembled in 1919, some local historians believe that a small secret society originating from the Elect may still remain in Grand Ridge today. Steve Stout, a local author and La Salle County senate candidate, has written two skeptic books on a possible secret society currently within Grand Ridge, Burlington Street: The Master's Underground Labyrinth and Mathis's Sacrosanct Government . A memorial plaque has been placed at the corner of Grand Ridge Grade School to honor John Houston Finley and all other past leaders of the Elect council.
[edit] Grand Ridge Grade School
Grand Ridge Grade School is located directly in front of Route 23 in Grand Ridge, Illinois. The grade school is governed by Principal Ted Sanders, and Superintendent David Mathis. The School's Mascot is a Mohawk. Grand Ridge runs a unique education program in which it separates its students into an A Class and a B Class, in which students with lower than average math and reading scores are placed in the A Class and students with average and above average math and reading scores are placed in the B Class. Certain debate had been brought up by Northern Illinois University whether or not the school is in fact segregating students. Students are placed into the separate classes due to their math and reading scores when entering sixth grade and following into eighth grade. The social system at Grand Ridge Grade School is very close and family-like, so much so, that most of the teachers, school employees, and school board members are either related to someone within the school's infrastructure or have children attending the school.
[edit] The Village Watch Program
Grand Ridge, Illinois is one of the view prototype towns, or villages, in which the new Illinois State Police Watch Program is being taken into effect for experimental purposes. The new watch program consists of three key processes that keep the village's families alert about any outsiders or strangers. The first part of the program is called The Watch. The Watch is the simplest and most important part of the three-step process. The Watch clearly states that when an outside vehicle is seen entering the village, it is to be reported unto the town's main communication system, or in Grand Ridge's case its volunteer fire department's radio network. The second part in called The Broadcast. The Broadcast is a process that is only done solely by the communications operator of the network. The communications operator sends out a broadcast to all of the phones in village, and once answered will warn the citizen on the make and model of the foreign vehicle. The final part of the three-step process is called The Intercept. The Intercept is just the simple acknowledgment that the citizen received the broadcast warning. It is simply carried out by pressing 0 (zero), on the keypad. Once the communications operator receives an interception from a citizen he no longer broadcasts an alert to that particular home, and the process is complete.
The watch program is in its trial stage within Grand Ridge and has many flaws. For example, during The Broadcast process many citizens or children just press 0 (zero) on the keypad when a broadcast is received. This has been shown to create a false sense of alert awareness for the communications operator, who then sometimes decides to resend the broadcast with the thought that the receiver, the citizen, did not hear the alert, and mistakenly pressed the 0 (zero) on the keypad by accident.
[edit] Geography
Grand Ridge is located at (41.234532, -88.832551).[1]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 0.5 square miles (1.2 km²), all of it land.
[edit] Demographics
As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 546 people, 201 households, and 151 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,152.5 people per square mile (448.5/km²). There were 212 housing units at an average density of 447.5/sq mi (174.2/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 100.00% White. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.75% of the population.
There were 201 households out of which 35.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.2% were married couples living together, 4.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.4% were non-families. 21.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.21.
In the village the population was spread out with 29.1% under the age of 18, 6.8% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 15.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 85.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.6 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $45,000, and the median income for a family was $52,000. Males had a median income of $38,125 versus $30,167 for females. The per capita income for the village was $18,287. About 2.6% of families and 5.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.3% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Sources
Sources inaccurate and/or falsely posted.
[edit] References
- ^ US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990. United States Census Bureau (2005-05-03). Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
[edit] External links
- Grand Ridge, Illinois is at coordinates Coordinates:
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