Retired special agent and Sugar Grove resident pens spy novels

If it's a difficult, international espionage case, security special service agent Dick Avery will most likely be called upon to crack it.

Most recently, Avery took on Vlad the Impaler, a vicious Russian spy manipulating the oil trade in the Middle East.

But Avery has been on plenty of other adventures, at least any that can come out of the mind of novelist George Larson of Sugar Grove, himself a longtime security special agent in the U.S. State Department.

The 73-year-old Larson has 50 years of experience in investigations, law enforcement and security, with 20 of those at the State Department. And the retired agent now has about 12 years of experience in writing novels - all of them under his pen name of Richard Avery and all about Dick Avery and his tasks to keep the U.S. safe.

"They are all a bit tongue-in-cheek and based loosely on my career abroad with the State Department," Larson said of his series.

Approached in the same manner as the old Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew mysteries, Dick Avery is the central character and just happens to be a retired agent who comes back for the most difficult cases.

"That's sort of the shtick," Larson said of a theme that runs through all of his short novels. "It's not high literature, by any means, but they are just enjoyable reads."

Enjoyable enough for Tell-Tale Publishing out of Arizona to take Larson on as part of its author group, after Larson had tried to publish his first five novels on his own.

"Those first five didn't do much, but since Tell-Tale has been publishing, it has been much better for the past three," said Larson, who has lived in Sugar Grove for the past six years with his partner Janet. He had dated Janet when they were students at NIU, had no contact with her for 45 years, then decided to call her after his divorce. They got back together when Larson learned she was a widow.

"She's been a happy woman ever since, or at least I claim so," Larson said.

Because he has so many special agent stories floating in his mind, it generally takes only two or three months for him to put together a draft for the publisher.

Then he just waits to see if there is an interest and what the timetable might be on a publication. Under that system, Larson said he has "about five more books in the cue to be published over time."

More information about the books is available at dickavery.net.

The novel published last week regarding the Soviet agent has the title of "Dick Rousts the Russkie."

"All of the titles are kind of funny," Larson said. "But they do apply to the plot and characters."

Chase the geese:

Having an actual island sitting just off the Fox River has been a plus for the Geneva Park District for decades. Island Park has offered a nice setting for various events from concerts to picnics to walks and runs or nationally known programs like the Fox Valley Folk Festival.

Not unlike any other park district or county forest preserve site, Island Park has had its issues. The most common has been flooding. Being an island means there's a fair amount of water nearby, and when the Fox River has a lot of it roaring along, Island Park has suffered the consequences.

Because of that, the park district has moved its Wednesday evening summer concert series to RiverPark on North River Lane this season, starting July 11 and running through Aug. 1.

The other obstacle has been one in which you have to watch where you are stepping. The geese like this park, too, and they deposit significant amounts of poop along the river trail and near the park shelter.

The work of an outfit called Wild Goose Chase has made a big difference the past two years after being hired by the park district to chase the geese away from the park areas most often occupied by people.

While you can't expect all of the geese droppings to be gone, it's noticeably cleaner. It made me think it would be nice for the summer concert series - but that was before I found out the concerts are moving. Still, it is much nicer in the park when there aren't a million poop mines to avoid.

"The safest and most effective way to control geese in the park is using trained border collies," said Andy Murray, general manager for Wild Goose Chase.

"The dogs chase them consistently seven days a week and change their environment so that the geese move onto another location, preferably a location where they are not disturbing people or the landscape," Murray said.

It's a safe way to make the geese "simply fly away" without any harm, Murray added.

The old engine:

The Batavia Fire Department may soon take a step back in history.

And it will end up with a 1927 Pirsch Pumper fire engine it had previously sold to the Batavia Shriners for $300 back in 1951.

The Shriners are offering to donate it back to the department, which will use it as a community relations tool and a historic display.

"We haven't done it yet, because we have to get the certification from the state of Illinois," Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke said.

That original paperwork wasn't available, and it was not clear if it ever existed in the first place, because the Shriners involved in buying the fire engine as a piece for its parades and other events are no longer with us.

"It's a very nice, generous thing going on here, as that truck is 91 years old, making it one of the oldest around," Schielke said.

The pump on the engine hasn't worked since it was damaged during a Civil Defense drill in 1951, which likely led to selling it to the Shriners for a parade showpiece.

"It has the Shriners name on it, but we already have volunteers who have said they will paint the Batavia name on it again," Schielke said.

Mostly, it's like "a Batavia multigenerational thing" because some relatives of the Shriners who originally bought the vehicle are involved in giving it back to the city, Schielke added.

But don't expect to see it moving around the city too often.

"No one wants to drive it," Schielke said. "It's an old stick-shift vehicle."

Some new tenants:

A couple of new businesses should be up and running soon along State Street in downtown Geneva, as vacancies on both sides of the Proud Fox Gallery and Frame Shop at 213 W. State St. will be filled.

McCann Window and Door, a commercial and residential material supplier and installer for contractors, building owners, construction managers, homeowners and architects, will open in one spot.

The business on the other side of the gallery will provide some nice fragrances, when Scentcerely Yours opens under the slogan of "Create your signature scent."

The name and the slogan sum it up well, as this is a business that helps customers create a custom-scented candle and a home fragrance.

Oddly enough, if you were looking this up online, you might see businesses under the same name that operate as a pet-sitting franchise. The one in Geneva is all about scented candles.

dheun@sbcglobal.net