Funny Kids
FRIDAY
Pageant Planned
Families, friends share silly stories
July 26, 2013
Baseball
Miss Limberlost contest begins tonight
Page A5
White Sox beat Tigers 7-4
Page A2
Page B1
Weather Cloudy today, with rain possible. High 82. Low 60. Clouds Saturday. Page A11 Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
Kendallville, Indiana
75 cents
Ex-festival officer sentenced
GOOD MORNING
Goodyear gets jail time for fraud charge BY BOB BUTTGEN bbuttgen@kpcmedia.com
Plane crashes into house in Columbus
ALBION — The former vice-chairman of the Ligonier Marshmallow Festival was sentenced Thursday to one year in jail for his role in pilfering money from the festival’s treasury. Bret Goodyear, 31, of Ligonier appeared before Noble County Circuit Court Judge David Laur and was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty earlier this year to a charge of fraud on a financial institution. Laur suspended two years of the
COLUMBUS (AP) — A small plane crashed into a house and ignited a fire in central Indiana early Thursday, injuring two men on board the aircraft but leaving a woman inside the home unscathed, authorities said. Both men were able to walk to ambulances unaided after the crash in Columbus, neighbors said. Their conditions and names weren’t immediately released. The crash occurred around 9:30 a.m. in a well-manicured neighborhood about a mile from the city’s airport, Indiana State Police Sgt. Noel Houze said. Witnesses said they saw the plane flying extremely low and that its engine didn’t sound normal just before the crash.
sentence and told Goodyear he was eligible for a work-release program. Charges of theft and receiving stolen property were dropped as part of the plea agreement with the Noble County Prosecutor’s office. Goodyear Goodyear is the second former festival official to be sentenced for stealing funds from the Labor Day-weekend festival.
Earlier this year, Tamara Deel of Ligonier also was sentenced to three years, with two years suspended, for taking money from the festival, and also for stealing more than $100,000 from her former employer. Ligonier police investigated the thefts from the festival and estimated that in 2011 and 2012, Goodyear received at least $2,300 in festival funds to which he was not entitled. Goodyear and his lawyer, Robert E. Love of Fort Wayne, asked Laur for leniency, saying Goodyear did not have any past criminal history or convictions. Goodyear and his ex-wife, Melissa
Tasty win Jenell Burger, director of nursing at Life Care of LaGrange, takes a quick breather between bites of cherry pie on her way to winning a pie eating contest that benefited the Alzheimer’s Association. Life Care hosted a classic car show, a dunk tank, a free hot dog and hamburger cookout and the pie eating contest all to raise more than $750 dollars to donate to the fight against Alzheimer’s Disease.
Walkerton library director accused of misusing funds WALKERTON — The former director of a public library allegedly mishandled tens of thousands of dollars, according to news reports. In a report obtained by The South Bend Tribune, state auditors said Scott Klingerman, a former board member of the Walkerton-Lincoln Township Public Library who served as interim director between Feb. 18, 2010, and May 2 of this year, owed the library nearly $96,000. The State Board of Accounts report comes about two months after the library abruptly closed for several weeks amid an investigation by the FBI and state police. The library is in Walkerton, a small town in southwest St. Joseph County. According to the report, Klingerman paid himself more than $15,000 in unauthorized paychecks, withdrew thousands of dollars in library funds from ATMs and used public money to pay for dinners at Red Lobster and the Tilted Kilt.
Goodyear, both told the judge that going to jail would be a hardship, especially on the couple’s child, for whom they have joint custody. Goodyear said he recently secured a new job that pays him more money in order to start making restitution to the Marshmallow Festival. Laur asked Goodyear how much money he had put aside to start paying back the money he took, and Goodyear said he has been unable to save any money for that purpose. Noble County Prosecutor Steve Clouse said his office is still trying to determine how much Goodyear needs to repay the festival. Clouse SEE OFFICER, PAGE A11
‘Slum pope’ cheered in Rio
Francis: Wealthy must end injustices that marginalize poor
community involvement have been hallmarks of the dealership over the years. Max Platt Ford Lincoln has a bevy of loyal customers, Platt said, and his business is selling cars and trucks to children and grandchildren of his first customers. The business has grown over the years. Platt purchased adjoining property along Iddings
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Pope Francis, dubbed the “slum pope” for his work with the poor, received a rapturous welcome Thursday from one of Rio’s most violent shantytowns and demanded the world’s wealthy end the injustices that have left the poor on the margins of society. He received an even more frenzied welcome as he opened a rain-soaked World Youth Day in a far different setting: Rio’s upscale Copacabana Beach. In between, he showed off some of his offbeat — almost rebellious — personality, telling pilgrims from his native Argentina that he wanted them to make trouble, shake things up in their dioceses and make a “mess” by going out into the streets to spread the faith. “We knew that in Rio there would be great disorder, but I want trouble in the dioceses!” he said, speaking off the cuff in his native Spanish. “I want to see the church get closer to the people. I want to get rid of clericalism, the mundane, this closing ourselves off within ourselves, in our parishes, schools or structures. Because these need to get out!” He put that into practice on Thursday. Amid the stench of raw sewage and the shrieks of residents, Francis made his way through the Varginha shantytown, part of a region so violent it’s known as the Gaza Strip. The 76-year-old Argentine seemed entirely at home, wading into the cheering crowds, kissing residents young and old and telling them the Roman Catholic Church was on their side. It was a message aimed at reversing the decline in the numbers of Catholics in most of Latin America, with many poor worshippers leaving the church for Pentecostal and evangelical congregations. Those churches have taken up a huge presence in favelas, or shantytowns such as Varginha, attracting souls with nuts-and-bolts advice on how to improve their lives. “No one can remain insensitive to the inequalities that persist in the world!” Francis told a crowd of thousands who braved a cold rain
SEE PLATT, PAGE A11
SEE POPE, PAGE A11
PATRICK REDMOND
Max Platt Ford Lincoln marks 40 years BY DENNIS NARTKER dnartker@kpcmedia.com
KENDALLVILLE — Max Platt Ford Lincoln dealership is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year — its final year at its original location. Max Platt, president of the business, purchased the former Johnny Roman dealership at 521 S. Main St. on July 23, 1973. The dealership will move into a new building at 1002 W. North St. (U.S. 6 West) by the end of this year. Four decades is a long time in one location, but the new dealership site will have a bigger lot and showroom office building and more visibility along U.S. 6 near the S.R. 3 South intersection and the west entrance to the city. Platt was born and raised on a farm between Butler and Hamilton, and loved cars when he was a teen. “My grandfather and father worked the farm, and things were slim for three of us, so I decided to venture out and try something else,” he said. He went to work for a Ford dealership in Waterloo, where he was a salesman then general manager. Platt left Waterloo when he heard the Johnny Roman Ford franchise was available. Kendallville was close to where he was born and raised, and he didn’t want to leave the area. He
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Index
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Classifieds.................................B5-B7 Life..................................................... A8 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion ............................................. A5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather..........................................A11 TV/Comics .......................................B4 Vol. 104 No. 204
The 2013
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DENNIS NARTKER
Richard Bluder, Ford Credit business development manager for the Detroit area, second from left, congratulates Max Platt, president of Max Platt Ford Lincoln in Kendallville, for 40 years in business. From left are Max Platt, Bluder, Lisa (Platt) Bender and Jeff Platt.
also had an opportunity to obtain the Lincoln franchise, as well as the Mercury franchise in 1976. Mercury was dropped in 2011 when Ford stopped making the brand. Stability of the family owned and operated business, customer service, certified, well-trained employees who keep up with ever-changing vehicle styles, mechanics and technology and
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