Non-Witness Narrative by ccw on 2006-06-03 (okay to publish): http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/14691354.htm Posted on Sun, May. 28, 2006 Three men drown near Fox River dam Associated Press YORKVILLE, Ill. – A kayaker and two brothers all drowned after getting caught by a powerful current near a dam in the Fox River, authorities said. Bruce Sperling, 32, and Mark Sperling, 27, saw Craig Fliege row his kayak over the Glen D. Palmer Dam near Yorkville and get caught in the swirling water around 1 p.m. on Saturday, according to the Yorkville Police Department. The brothers ran into the river to try and rescue Fliege, 38, and also got sucked into the current, the department said in a statement. The men were taken to Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora where they were pronounced dead. The state had been preparing for two years to make safety renovations to the dam, located about 50 miles west of Chicago, said Gary Clark, director of the Office of Water Resources at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Plans included a chute for canoes that would allow crafts to avoid the dam while traveling downstream, Clark told the Chicago Tribune. “We were hoping to get it fixed before we had another accident there,” Clark said. “This was selected as our No. 1 project.” Buoys near the dam warn people in the water of upcoming danger, and signs posted along the dam’s bank list the dates of deaths by drowning there since the late 1960s.