FRIDAY July 26, 2013
Funny Kids Page A5 Daughter not ready to jump to mother’s aid
Baseball Page B1 ChiSox take down Tigers 7-4
Weather Cloudy today, with a chance of rain. High 82. Low 60. Partly cloudy skies Saturday. High 77. Page A10
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Waterloo eyes raising utility rates
GOOD MORNING
BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com
WATERLOO — The Waterloo Town Council voted unanimously Thursday night in a special meeting to consider an ordinance that would raise sewer rates 30 percent and water rates 28.8 percent for town residents. The proposed hikes translate to the average 5,000-gallon user paying an additional $8.41 per month for water and just under $20 more in sewage. An ordinance detailing the
Artists’ walk set for downtown tonight AUBURN — An artists’ walk for downtown Auburn’s “Gather at the Gate” exhibit will take place tonight. The tour will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Busy Brush Cafe at Sixth and Jackson streets. Artists who created the exhibit’s 20 decorated garden gates will explain the inspiration and techniques they used to create their gates. The walk is open to the public and all ages. The Downtown Auburn Business Association is sponsoring the walk and the exhibit.
proposed hikes will be drafted and read at the council’s Aug. 13 meeting. A state-mandated public hearing is likely to be held in September for the council to field feedback from residents, before passing new rates. Alongside that rate ordinance will be another that the council voted Thursday to consider. It would set up 3 percent hikes in water and sewage rates annually for 10 years beginning in 2015. The measure is designed to prevent such significant
rate increases in the future. “That way, no other council has to sit here and go through what we’ve gone through — even though it’s our own fault,” said council President Candi Surber. The council has not raised water and sewage rates in nearly a decade. A financial consultant told the council in November it would need to hike water rates, then in April added sewer rates to the recommendation. He said the higher rates
would cover fast-depleting reserves at both utilities and make them self-sustaining again. Since then, the council has met several times in regular and special meetings to discuss the necessary rate adjustments. The council had to consider efforts to repay debt balances while prioritizing a heap of projects to fund with the revenue. The council discussed numerous ways to ease the level of rate SEE WATERLOO, PAGE A10
‘Slum pope’
Walkerton library director accused of misusing funds
Francis cheered for time among poor on trip to Rio
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.
Cruise-in crowd overflows Auburn’s monthly downtown cruise-in attracted one of its largest turnouts Thursday evening, with cars overflowing from the courthouse square onto West
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 DAVE KURTZ violent shantytowns and demanded the world’s wealthy end the injustices that have left the poor on the margins of society. He received Ninth Street. Spectators enjoyed a giant, stuffed an even more frenzied welcome monkey riding in the backseat of a 1966 Chevy as he opened a rain-soaked World Malibu owned by Rick Rice of Montpelier, Ohio. 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, Islamists also plan pro-Morsi rallies on Friday, raising shake things up in their dioceses the possibility of street clashes, as has happened and make a “mess” by going out repeatedly in recent weeks. into the streets to spread the faith. Islamists on Thursday lashed out at the military, “We knew that in Rio there saying el-Sissi’s call signals a plan to crush what they would be great disorder, but I want insist are their peaceful protests. The spiritual leader trouble in the dioceses!” he said, of the Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, hiked up his speaking off the cuff in his native rhetoric against el-Sissi, saying ousting Morsi was Spanish. “I want to see the church a worse crime than if the general had destroyed the get closer to the people. I want to Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site — an attempt to fire up get rid of clericalism, the mundane, the religious fervor in the pro-Morsi camp ahead of this closing ourselves off within Friday’s rallies. ourselves, in our parishes, schools On the other side, state TV and pro-military or structures. Because these need private networks were doing their part to back to get out!” el-Sissi: They announced that the wildly popular He put that into practice on mini-series shown during the current holy month of Thursday. Amid the stench of Ramadan will not be aired Friday to ensure that large raw sewage and the shrieks of numbers go out onto the streets. Some of them were residents, Francis made his way airing patriotic songs. through the Varginha shantytown, Still unclear is what exactly el-Sissi meant by part of a region so violent it’s
Egypt braces for rival rallies CAIRO (AP) — Political allies of Egypt’s military lined up behind its call for huge rallies Friday to show support for the country’s top general, pushing toward a collision with Islamist opponents demanding the return of the nation’s ousted president. But there was widespread uncertainty over the army’s intentions — and worry that the military is whipping up a dangerous populist fervor. Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who ousted Egypt’s elected president on July 3, took many by surprise when he announced this week that he wanted people to take to the streets in large numbers on Friday to give him a popular mandate to take the necessary measures against “violence and terrorism.” El-Sissi’s call was widely interpreted as a prelude to a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which the ousted Mohammed Morsi hails, and other Islamists who have been camped out for about a month at sit-ins in Cairo and elsewhere calling for Morsi’s reinstatement. That has hiked fears of a violent confrontation.
ONLINE CALENDAR Find out what’s going on this weekend kpcnews.com
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SEE EGYPT, PAGE A11
SEE POPE, PAGE A11
Garage fire south of Garrett
The Star 118 W. Ninth St. Auburn, IN 46706
Firefighters from four area departments responded to a garage fire in the 6900 block of S.R. 327 south of Garrett Thursday afternoon. Here, Garrett firefighters spray water on the blaze. Neighbor Mike Miller discovered smoke coming from the building just west of his home. Miller said the homeowners, who were not present at the time of the fire, had been burning trash in a pit near the home earlier in the day. A nearby home did not appear to be damaged.
Auburn: (260) 925-2611 Fax: (260) 925-2625 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (toll free) (800) 717-4679
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Classifieds.................................B5-B7 Life..................................................... A8 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion ............................................. A5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather..........................................A10 TV/Comics .......................................B4 Vol. 101 No. 204
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