Pageant Planned Page A6 Miss Northeast contest slated for Sunday
THURSDAY August 1, 2013
Racing Page B1 Sprint cars invade Angola speedway
Weather A mix of sun and clouds today with a slight chance of rain. High 78. Low 60. Cloudy Friday. Page A10
The Auburn, Indiana
75 cents
kpcnews.com
Three caught up in meth sting
GOOD MORNING
BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcmedia.com
ANGOLA — Three northeast Indiana residents were arraigned Wednesday on a variety of charges related to a methamphetamine sting that occurred late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Facing Steuben Circuit Court Judge Allen Wheat were Stacy L. Hicks, 44, Corunna; Sharon K.
Ashley, Hudson plan weekend festival The annual AshleyHudson Festival opens Friday night and continues with a full day of activities Saturday. The complete schedule of events:
Schimpf, 35, Butler; and Loeta L. Dickerson, 55, Hudson. During the day Tuesday, Hicks allegedly sold meth to an confidential informant in exchange for $275 and over-the-counter cold medicine used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, court documents said. After receiving a search warrant early Wednesday, police from
multiple agencies went to the home of Dickerson in Hudson, where they found meth being made in the garage and other items associated with meth, court documents said. Because the residence is within 1,000 feet of a town park, many of the charges were enhanced. Hicks, was charged with manufacturing meth within 1,000
MAKING HER POINTE
FRIDAY
• Dusk — Blue light parade. SATURDAY
• 7-10 a.m. — Pancakeand-sausage breakfast at Hudson fire station; • 9:15 a.m. — Parade lines up in Hudson; • 11 a.m. — Parade begins on Main Street in Hudson and continues through State Street in Ashley; • Noon — Chicken barbecue at Ashley fire station; • Noon to 5 p.m. in Firemen’s Park — Penny pageant, games, water ball, kids water ball, craft vendors, beer tent and music at Beers Pub & Grub; • 1-4 p.m. at Firemen’s Park — Live music by Party Boat band; • 6:30-9:30 p.m. at Sunset Park — Live music by Wrecken; cornhole games, marshmallow golf. • Dusk at Sunset Park — fireworks.
BY KATHRYN BASSETT kbassett@kpcmedeia.com
AUBURN —For as long as she can remember, 18-year-old Jordan Miller of Auburn has wanted to dance. As she grew up, she slowly refined that dream to dancing with the New York City Ballet, she said. That dream will be realized when she begins an apprenticeship with the New York City Ballet for the 2013-14 ballet season. “This really is the cliche dream come true,” Miller said. Miller, who is the daughter of Mike and Heather Miller, has been dancing since she was a toddler. She chose to dedicate herself to ballet at age 12 after enrolling at the Fort Wayne-based conservatory, New American Youth Ballet. She trained with Beth McLeish and was offered a scholarship to the School of American Ballet’s summer course when she was 16. Subsequently, she was invited to become a year-round student at the school in New York City. She also is one of three students living and studying at the School of American Ballet to receive this year’s Mae L. Wien Award, which recognizes a dancer’s outstanding promise. The School of American Ballet is the official academy of the New York City Ballet. For the past two years, Miller has been training in the advanced division. She participated as a dancer in the the school’s Student Choreography Workshop in 2011 and 2012 and in the recent spring session of the New York Choreographic Institute. She also worked as a teaching assistant in the Children’s Division Girls I class.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has approved a new area code for southern Indiana to address its dwindling number of available telephone numbers. The IURC said Wednesday the new 903 area code will be an overlay inside the existing 812 area code. Customers seeking new land lines or wireless numbers in that area will get the new 903 area code. IURC spokeswoman Danielle McGrath says telecommunications companies must submit plans within 45 days for how they’ll implement the change, which should be in place by late next summer. The change will mean that residents in the existing 812 area code will need 10-digit dialing for all calls, regardless of whether they are local or long distance.
Info • The Star 118 W. Ninth St. Auburn, IN 46706
feet of a public park, a Class A felony, and possession of two or more chemicals or reagents with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a public park, a Class C felony. Hicks is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail and is facing up to 58 years in prison. Benjamin Nordmann was appointed counsel SEE METH, PAGE A10
Pence backs school grades
Auburn dancer earns coveted apprenticeship
Southern Indiana gets new area code
Governor says ‘A-F’ system is ‘extremely important’ for state
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Jordan Miller of Auburn has received an apprenticeship with the New York City Ballet for the 2013-14 ballet season. Here she performs a featured role in the Balanchine masterwork “Divertimento No. 15 ” at the School of American Ballet’s Workshop Performances in early June.
Miller completed her high school studies a year early, graduating with honors from Professional Children’s School in 2012. Currently Miller is dancing in Seattle, as she participates in the Pacific Northwest Ballet summer program on a full scholarship. She will return to New York at the end of August, when she will begin rehearsal with the New York City Ballet. Each year, Peter Martins, who is ballet master in chief of New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet’s artistic director, selects up to 10 advanced School of American Ballet students to become apprentices with New York City Ballet. Those who are selected rehearse and perform with the company for up to one year. At the end of the year, Martins notifies apprentices whether or
“To dance with the New York City Ballet … is so unreal.” Jordan Miller Ballet apprentice
• not they will be offered a corps contract. “My reaction to the apprenticeship was just tears,” Miller said. “In late February of this year, I was told that I was being considered for an apprenticeship with New York City Ballet, but they could not make any official offers until after the School of SEE POINTE, PAGE A10
FORT WAYNE (AP) — Gov. Mike Pence said Wednesday he is standing by Indiana’s system of assigning “A-F” grades to schools based on their performance despite reports that the state’s former schools chief worked to change the grading formula to ensure a top GOP donor’s school received an “A.” Pence said Wednesday that the system is “an essential part” of accountability measures designed to improve education in Indiana. But he said the public must have confidence that the system is “fair and impartial.” “I think the A-to-F system is extremely important,” Pence said after participating in a mile-long walk to promote health with his wife, Karen. “Parents have a right to know how their schools are performing overall. But that system needs to really reflect the performance of those schools in an accurate and fair and impartial way.” Emails obtained by The Associated Press show Bennett and his staff scrambled last fall to change the grading formula so Christel House Academy, a charter school founded by Christel DeHaan, received an “A.” DeHaan has donated $2.8 million to Republicans since 1998, including $130,000 to Bennett. SEE PENCE PAGE A10
Central dispatching seeks big budget boost
Auburn: (260) 925-2611 Fax: (260) 925-2625 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (toll free) (800) 717-4679
BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — The DeKalb County Council completed its review of the proposed 2014 budgets of county departments Wednesday. With most departments submitting budgets in line with last year’s streamlined budgets, others were cut hard by the council to cover a looming $1.5 million shortfall for the coming year. The county’s central dispatch department submitted a budget of $583,933, up 20.17 percent from 2013, while the E–911 department’s $563,800 budget is 16.22 percent higher than last year’s version. Director Paul Brewer’s budgets come stocked with
Index
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Classifieds.................................B6-B8 Life..................................................... A6 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion ............................................. A5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather..........................................A10 TV/Comics .......................................B5 Vol. 101 No. 210
The 2013
Serving DeKalb County since 1871
increases for overtime, additional staff and telecommunications for a central communications center coming off its first full year of operation and stretched thin, he told the council. “I hope the council can help us out somehow,” Brewer told the council. He said E-911’s budget is more than $41,000 above what the state appropriates for the department. Brewer also budgeted for two additional employees for the department, which he said is hemorrhaging largely due to overtime costs, but he did not budget insurance costs for those would-be workers. The county highway department submitted a $1.11 million
proposed budget to the council for 2014 for highway maintenance that is up by $240,000. Highway superintendent Eric Patton said the figure will be adjusted depending what the state awards in funding. Patton’s $901,000 budget for highway general operations is up $10,000. The highway department’s local roads and street and highway administration budgets are flat-lined, with Patton submitting $257,501 and $122,574 plans for 2014, respectively. The county’s election board submitted a proposed budget that is 272 percent higher than its 2013 version, at $102,601. That is because 2013 saw no elections and required only a bare-bones budget,
while campaigns are back on in 2014. The county’s information systems department submitted a 2014 proposed budget Wednesday of $645,206, 10 percent higher than its 2013 budget. Director Jack Smith identified on the spot seven line items worth more than $213,000 that could be paid with Cumulative Capital Fund dollars and removed from the county’s strained general fund. County Treasurer Holly Albright submitted a $150,059 budget for 2014 that is unchanged from 2013. County Assessor Sheila Stonebraker submitted a budget even with 2013, at $134,050.
BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NORTHEAST INDIANA
builders Parade
AUGUST
1-4
AND
8-11
NOON TO 6 PM
Tickets available at all Parade homes. Details available at ba-ni.com
355 Lane 270 Crystal Bay, Hamilton Lake, Hamilton, IN
6755 W. North Lake Gage Dr., Angola, IN
75 Lane 150 Crooked Lake, Angola, IN