Serving the Steuben County 101 lakes area since 1857
Area YMCAs team up to provide emergency shelter throughout northeast Indiana
Weather Partly sunny and cooler, high in the mid-60s. Tonight’s low dips to 42. Page A6
Page A2 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2013
Angola, Indiana
GOOD MORNING
GED courses being offered at two sites ANGOLA — There will be two sites offering General Education Development courses in Steuben County if there’s an interest. IMPACT and Steuben County Literacy Coalition are trying to begin classes at Fremont and Hamilton. The Fremont class would be offered at the Fremont Public Library on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4-8 p.m., said Stephanie Ross, adult education coordinator with IMPACT, the vocational cooperative based in Kendallville. The Hamilton class would run at the Hamilton Town Hall on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4:15-8:15 p.m. Interested students should call Angi at IMPACT 343-2163 or Amber at the Literacy Coalition at 665-1414. The classes will be offered if there are enough students who sign up, officials from the two organizations said.
Contact Us • The Herald Republican 45 S. Public Square Angola, IN 46703 Phone: (260) 665-3117 Fax: (260) 665-2322 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (800) 717-4679
Index • Classified.............................................. B5-B8 Life.................................................................A3 Obituaries.....................................................A4 Opinion .........................................................A5 Sports.................................................... B1-B3 Weather........................................................A8 TV/Comics ..................................................B4 Vol. 156 No. 252
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IEDC director proud of NE Indiana BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcmedia.com
Wyss announces retirement from Indiana Senate INDIANAPOLIS — After serving 28 years in the Indiana Senate, state Sen. Tom Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, announced Thursday he will not seek re-election to Senate District 15 in 2014. “Over the years, Hoosiers in northeast Indiana have humbled and honored me with their unwavering support, but it’s time for me to step aside,” Wyss said. “With 36 years in elected office and 31 years serving in the military, it’s been a wonderfully rewarding career.” Wyss started his political career on the Allen County Council in 1978 and has held public office ever since. He began serving in the Indiana Senate in 1985. Wyss authored several measures to assist Hoosier veterans including a new law to make it easier for service members to apply their military skills to an emergency medical license. In 2007, he authored Indiana’s most comprehensive military veterans’ benefits legislation. In 2001, after an 11-year battle, he helped pass the state’s drunk driving law establishing .08 as the legal limit.
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MIKE MARTURELLO
Eric Doden, director of the Indiana Economic Development Corp., talks with Denny Springer of PolyFusion, Angola, after giving a presentation to the Steuben County Industrial Guild Thursday at Trine University.
Storm lashes area Trailer catches fire BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcmedia.com
GOLDEN LAKE — Martha Shipe rode out Wednesday night’s storm in a planned visit in Ashley. But when she arrived to her home on Meeks Drive at Golden Lake, she found quite the mess. “We came home after dark and drove through this to get in. There was quite a bit of wind,” Shipe said Thursday morning as she raked her yard of storm debris. Downed trees, high wind and lightning strikes contributed to more than 200 customers losing power in mainly central and southwestern portions of Steuben County. In DeKalb County, just south of Ashley, an unoccupied trailer caught fire after trees took down power lines. Shipe was surprised an older tree on her property survived the wind in an area that saw trees uprooted along Golden Lake Road. Steuben County REMC had 160 customers lose power for about two hours, mainly in the Bower Lake-Golden Lake-Lake Arrowhead area, said Jaime Walker, REMC director of member services. Northern Indiana Public Service Co. had about 68 customers lose power for more than three hours, said spokesman Nick Meyer. “It was fairly scattered,” Meyer said. The storm entered Steuben County from the northwest, splitting over the northern part of the county. The bulk of the storm, a cell the coursed from west to east, left a number of trees downed.
ANGOLA — As the state’s new director of the Indiana Economic Development Corp., Eric Doden is proud of his home region of northeast Indiana, but in his new role, he has to serve all of Indiana. “I couldn’t be more proud of this region,” Doden said in a meeting of the Steuben County Industrial Guild held at Witmer Clubhouse at Trine University’s Zollner Golf Course. Doden grew up in Butler in DeKalb County, lived in Auburn and currently calls Allen County his home, though he commutes to work in Indianapolis. The region is a model for the state when it comes to working as a 10-county unit for economic development, Doden said. “That’s just a nice compliment to have for this region,” Doden said.
In his role as the state’s top economic development leader, he works with business and more importantly, local economic development leaders in selling Indiana as a place to do business. “We have a state government that really does care about everyone,” Doden said. The IEDC doesn’t cherry pick sites or have favorite locales when it comes to working with businesses wanting to start, grow or relocate and consolidate in Indiana. “The reality is, businesses tell us where they want to go,” Doden said. The key, Doden said, is providing job opportunities for Indiana residents and growth opportunities for the state’s communities. “That is our fundamental objective, that we employ more Hoosiers. Our goal is to have the SEE SCEDC, PAGE A8
Kerry staying strong GENEVA (AP) — Striking a tough tone, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opened swiftly convened talks with Russia on Syria’s chemical weapons Thursday by bluntly rejecting a Syrian pledge to begin a “standard process” by turning over information rather than weapons — and nothing immediately. That won’t do, Kerry declared at an opening news conference, a stone-faced Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at his side. “The words of the Syrian regime in our judgment are simply not MIKE MARTURELLO enough.” Martha Shipe stacks twigs and branches she cleans from the yard “This is not a game,” Kerry of her Golden Lake home Thursday morning. A storm that blew said of the latest developments in through Steuben County Wednesday night caused the bulk of its a series that has rapidly gone from damage in the Golden Lake area, officials said. deadly chemical attacks to threats of retaliatory U.S. air strikes to Syrian agreement with a Russian At Story Lake, south of plan to turn over the weapons and, Ashley, falling limbs were finally, to the crucial matter of blamed for a fire that broke out in working out the difficult details. a trailer park. “We believe there is nothing “The storm went through and standard about this process at took a bunch of trees down, which this moment because of the way pulled the power lines down on the regime has behaved,” Kerry one of the trailers and ignited it,” declared. And he kept alive the said Ashley Fire Chief Junior threat of U.S. military action, Shaffer. The flames scorched the saying the turnover of weapons exterior of an occupied mobile must be complete, verifiable and home next door, he said. timely — “and finally, there ought Mobile homes are separated by to consequences if it doesn’t take only 10-15 feet in a mobile home place.” park at the lake, Shaffer said. Adding to the drama, Russian “They made a quick stop in President Vladimir Putin weighed between them, and we were able in from afar, raising eyebrows to save all but the one where the with an opinion piece in The power lines were lying on top New York Times that chided of it,” Shaffer said, praising the Americans for seeing themselves work of firefighters from Ashley, as “exceptional.” That was an Corunna, Hudson and Steuben apparent reference to a comment Township, who fought the blaze. President Barack Obama made in “We could see flames and his Syria speech Tuesday night, smoke from S.R. 4 when we were explaining why he felt the U.S. KAREN HOMAN needed to take action. Congress responding,” Shaffer said. The fire was reported around 7:20 p.m. has shown little inclination to The sky turned black at the Shaffer estimated damage from youth league complex in Angola authorize military action, and a the fire at $5,000 to $10,000, prior to the start of a storm that vote on that has been put off. adding, “It was really an old Putin also warned that a U.S. blew through northeast Indiana trailer.” Wednesday night. SEE KERRY, PAGE A8
More questions are raised over Bennett INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Former Indiana schools chief Tony Bennett kept multiple campaign databases on Department of Education servers and ordered his staff to dissect a speech by his Democratic opponent for inaccuracies last fall in apparent violations of Indiana election and ethics laws, documents obtained by The Associated Press show. Bennett on Wednesday denied instructing his staff to do campaign work and told The Associated Press one of the lists
was used to make “thank you calls” on his own time after the election. Indiana law prohibits state employees from engaging in political activity, including seeking contributions, while on duty or acting in an official capacity. It also bars state employees from working on anything outside their official job duties while on the clock, or ordering others to do so, and from using state resources for political purposes. Violating the official duties law,
known as the “ghost employment” statute, can be a felony punishable by up to three years in prison. It’s rare to have officials prosecuted because finding proof of violations can be difficult. Complaints typically go to the state inspector general, then to prosecutors. But prosecutors also can launch investigations on their own. Though Bennett has been out of Indiana office since January, election lawyers say the findings on the education department servers could still warrant prosecu-
tion. U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett and Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry, both Democrats, declined comment on the Bennett documents Wednesday. Inspector General David Thomas, a Republican, said his office is investigating Bennett but would not discuss the nature of that probe. Democratic elections attorney Bill Groth said he believes an Aug. 28, 2012, email Bennett sent chief of staff Heather Neal and SEE BENNETT, PAGE A8