WEDNESDAY September 4, 2013
Fall Tradition
Take Good Care
Tough Battle
Kelly knows what Michigan game means
Parkview Health planning health fair
East Noble edges rival Barons, 1-0
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Weather Sunshine today with high in mid-80s. Tonight’s low will drop to mid-50s. Page AX Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
Kendallville, Indiana
GOOD MORNING Festival video can be viewed on line AUBURN — Video from Saturday’s Parade of Classics at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival is online at kpcnews.com. Highlights include clips of grand marshal Wayne Carini, Miss Indiana Terrin Thomas, and a number of the unique cars featured in the parade. DVDs of the complete parade are available at KPC Media Group newspaper offices for $14.95 plus tax and shipping, if desired. Scan the QR code to watch the video on your tablet or smartphone.
kpcnews.com
Brimfield bridge changes possible BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
ALBION — The state is considering rerouting U.S. 6 to address traffic accidents on the Brimfield overpass, the Noble County Commissioners learned Tuesday. The proposal calls for shortening the overpass and removing a curve sweeping south, making more of a direct line between two sections of the highway that don’t quite line up in town, Noble County highway engineer Michael Fitch explained. The state has not confirmed
plans for the change, nor has it set a timeline for any such work to be done on U.S. 6, Fitch said. The idea is only being studied at present. U.S. 6 enters Brimfield from the east slightly north of where it enters from the south. An S-curve bridge over the Norfolk Southern railroad connects the two sections. The proposal would make for a shorter, straighter overpass that still would be at an angle to each section of road. A high number of accidents on the overpass prompted the consideration, Fitch said.
Noble County was contacted because the Indiana Department of Transportation would plan to close three access points to U.S. 6 in Brimfield. One is from C.R. 100E, another from the town’s Albion Street and the third from its Railroad Street Extended. Fitch asked the state to consider a T-road that would connect C.R. 100E to U.S. 6 west of town in order to keep additional traffic from flowing onto C.R. 150E. The state said it would consider the request. Also Tuesday, the commis-
Indy traffic snarls about as expected INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Officials say they didn’t see problems any worse than anticipated Tuesday when commuters for the first time dealt with the closure of a key section of interstates 65 and 70 that feed downtown Indianapolis, but the afternoon rush hour could be another story. The Indiana Department of Transportation and Indianapolis media outlets have spent weeks warning motorists that their way to and from work will be complicated by work to lower pavement along the heavily traveled route to keep trucks from ripping their roofs and cargo under bridges that are posted for use by lower trucks.
Info • The News Sun P.O. Box 39, 102 N. Main St. Kendallville, IN 46755 Telephone: (260) 347-0400 Fax: (260) 347-2693 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (260) 347-0400 or (800) 717-4679
Index
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Classifieds.................................B7-B8 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 104 No. 243
sioners: • unanimously approved a lower speed limit for Jones Lake Road between C.R. 1050N and its end near Rome City. The speed limit will be 20 mph once signs are posted. • unanimously approved two stop signs. One stop sign will be placed on Lincoln Street at its intersection with Oak Street in Kimmell. The other will go in the right-turn-only lane, which is separate from the main road, at C.R. 900N and C.R. 1200E northeast of Kendallville.
On the same page
Butler mascot Blue II dies of heart failure INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Blue II, the English bulldog who gained national fame as the Butler mascot during its run to NCAA championship games in 2010 and 2011, has died. The university announced Tuesday that the 9-year-old dog died Saturday from complications from congestive heart failure. He was 9 years old. Blue appeared on the floor of every Butler men’s basketball home game, select away games, and at the 2010 and 2011 Final Four games. Michael Kaltenmark, the mascot’s caretaker, says, “Blue really galvanized the pride and tradition of having a live mascot at Butler.” Butler retired Blue II from mascot duties on May 20. He’s been succeeded by Blue III, also known as Trip.
75 cents
Boehner joins Obama in supporting strike
said he welcomed the information, because it shows the city’s police chief and fire chief rank low on the pay comparison list. “Our goals in this budget are public safety, a better street improvement program, economic development and the airport,” Handshoe said in a prepared statement while announcing the proposed budget. She pointed out the police and fire departments have the most significant budget increases, because grants the city has received are required by the state to be included in their budgets. The police department will use approximately $45,000 in 2014 from a COPS grant, and the fire department will have approximately $59,000 from a Safer Act grant. Because the state has changed its formula for allocating funds to local streets and alleys, the city will have more money in 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama won critical support from House Speaker John Boehner for a punitive strike against Syria on Tuesday, and senior Cabinet officials labored to convince Congress that Bashar Assad’s government must be punished for a suspected chemical weapons attack the administration blames for more than 1,000 dead. The leader of House Republicans, Boehner emerged from a meeting at the White House and said the United States has “enemies around the world that need to understand that we’re not going to tolerate this type of behavior. We also have allies around the world and allies in the region who also need to know that America will be there and stand up when it’s necessary.” Boehner spoke as lawmakers in both parties readied changes in the president’s requested legislation, rewriting it to restrict the type and duration of any military action that would be authorized, possibly including a ban on U.S. combat forces on the ground. Secretary of State John Kerry, lead-off witness at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, said, “President Obama is not asking America to go to war.” And yet, he added, “this is not the time for armchair isolationism. This is not the time to be spectators to slaughter.” Obama said he was open to revisions in the relatively broad request the White House
SEE BUDGET, PAGE A6
SEE SYRIA, PAGE A6
DENNIS NARTKER
Senior drum majors East Noble Marching Knights senior drum majors Andrew Hurst and Tayla Skidgel will lead the band
in competition Saturday at the Bluffton Invitational at Bluffton High School.
Slight budget hike proposed BY DENNIS NARTKER dnartker@kpcmedia.com
KENDALLVILLE — Mayor Suzanne Handshoe and the City Council’s finance committee are proposing a 2014 city budget of approximately $9.6 million, a 2.18 percent increase over this year’s budget. Tuesday night, the City Council approved on first reading the proposed 2014 budget and scheduled a public hearing on it for the Sept. 17 council meeting. No tax rate was announced at this stage in the budget approval process. The proposed budget includes a general fund of about $4.9 million, a proposed 2.5 percent pay raise for city employees and additional $5,000 pay raises for the police chief and fire chief, plus projected revenue from CEDIT, the Eastside TIF and the Downtown TIF of about $1.27 million. The major line items in the
budget’s general fund are: approximately $1 million for the Board of Public Works and Safety; approximately $2.04 million for the police department; and approximately $1.05 million for the fire department. Other taxable funds not in the General Fund include: $568,580 for park and recreation; $187,642 for police pension; and $140,700 for aviation. Projected County Economic Development Income Tax (CEDIT) revenue of $450,000 is transferred to the Kendallville Local Development Corp. for economic development. Projected Tax Increment Finance revenue of $700,625 from the Eastside TIF and $120,000 from the Downtown TIF is controlled by the Redevelopment Commission. Handshoe provided council members with a list of salaries of police and fire chiefs from area cities comparable to Kendallville’s size. Councilman Max Franklin
Healthy Indiana gets extension in bargain INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The test run of an Indiana program aimed at providing affordable health care to otherwise uninsured adults will be extended by a year as officials continue negotiating with the federal government about using it to expand Medicaid, Gov. Mike Pence announced Tuesday. As part of a deal with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Pence administration will lower the amount residents can earn before they qualify for the state-run Healthy Indiana Plan while pushing more residents into the federal health insurance exchange. State leaders are trying to persuade CMS that the program should be used for the Medicaid expansion called for under the new federal health care law, and the deal buys them more time. Pence re-submitted former
Gov. Mitch Daniels’ request earlier this year that HIP be used for an expansion of Medicaid and has spent the past month touting the program. “I believe that securing the waiver to continue the Healthy Indiana Plan is a victory for Hoosiers enrolled in this innovative program,” Pence said. As part of the federal approval, the state will cut in half the income cap for eligibility from 200 percent of the federal poverty level to 100 percent. For a single adult, that means the new limit is earning $11,500 a year. Residents earning up to $22,300 already enrolled in the program will have to seek private insurance. The move will allow the state to add a few thousand more residents to the program but is not expected to put a significant dent in the Indiana Gov. Mike Pence announces that the state has negotiroughly 50,000 residents on the ated with the federal government for an extension of the SEE HEALTH, PAGE A6
Healthy Indiana Plan through 2014, to cover uninsured Hoosiers.
AP