THURSDAY September 12, 2013
Promoting Awareness Page A3 Local group gathers to combat suicide
Reds’ Revenge Page B1 Cincinnati bounces back, blanks Cubs
Weather Chance of rain and storms today. High 80. Low tonight 50. High Friday 65. Page A8
GOOD MORNING DeKalb FFA sponsors Tailgate for Troops WATERLOO — DeKalb FFA will sponsor Tailgate for Troops Friday from 5-7 p.m. in the tennis parking lot at DeKalb High School before the DeKalb versus East Noble varsity football game. All proceeds will be used to purchase items for care packages to send to local soldiers who are overseas. Food including pork tenderloins, hamburgers and hot dogs will be served for freewill donations. A cornhole tournament will begin at 5:30 p.m. Registration for cornhole is from 5-5:30 p.m. for $4 per team.
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Tearful council raises utility rates Sewer charges to increase by 30% BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com
WATERLOO — The Waterloo Town Council Tuesday night approved heavy increases to both water and sewer rates for the town. Council President Candi Surber broke down in tears as she explained to one resident why hikes of 30 percent to the town’s sewer rates and 28.8 percent to water rates are necessary. That resident told the council that she and many others would not be
able to afford the increases, which translate to the average water customer paying an additional $8.40 per month and the average sewer customer being billed $19.16 more monthly. Town financial consultant Jeff Rowe of the Umbaugh firm explained the hikes are necessary to rebuild both utilities’ cash balances and reserves, repay outstanding bonds and perform and capital improvement projects at the water and sewer plants.
Rowe said the town has not raised rates in eight years, while costs to run the utilities climbed steadily and the cash balances have slowly eroded to well below where they should be. Town Manager DeWayne Nodine said one reserve account should have $65,000, but Surber it’s currently more than $30,000 overdrawn. The recipe has left the utilities broke and getting broker, and
Rowe said a rate adjustment is needed immediately. “As to the question whether it’s prudent to move forward at this time (with the rate increases), absolutely,” Rowe told the council. “It’s very important, in my opinion, that the town move forward as quickly as possible in order to start replenishing those cash balances.” With the increases, the cash balances figure to be recovered within the next two years. Capital improvements that would be funded through the rate increases SEE UTILITY RATES, PAGE A8
Peace up to Russia
Small kitchen fire evacuates students WATERLOO — DeKalb High School students were evacuated from the building Wednesday at lunchtime when a small, contained fire in the kitchen food warmer was reported, Superintendent Sherry Grate said. Grate said the Waterloo Fire Department responded in a timely manner, and classes resumed as normal for the afternoon. Grate said parents were notified of the fire and evacuation through the district’s Alert messaging system. “We are appreciative of the prompt response of staff, students and the fire department to the incident today,” Grate said Wednesday.
Sign specifies plant is ‘not pot’ WARREN (AP) — A northeastern Indiana woman put a sign that says, “Hibiscus, Not Pot,” in her front yard at a police officer’s suggestion. Kim Miller said the plant outside her house in the Huntington County town of Warren is a flowering hibiscus plant has sentimental value, since it was gift from a former neighbor. “It’s hurtful that people in town would think that I would be so bold as to plant marijuana in my front yard,” Miller told WANE-TV.
GASOLINE PRICES Find the area’s lowest pump prices online kpcnews.com More > Gas Prices
Info • The Star 118 W. Ninth St. Auburn, IN 46706
White House shifts the burden
Bloomberg watched the ceremony for his final time in office. Carol Eckna recalled the contagious laugh of her son, Paul Robert Eckna, who was killed in the north tower. “Just yesterday, you were 28,” she said. “Today, you are 40. You are forever young. Dad and I are proud to be your parents.” The anniversary arrived amid changes at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, where construction started Tuesday on a new visitor center. On Wednesday, the families of the passengers and
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House tried Wednesday to pin the success or failure of a diplomatic option to secure Syria’s chemical weapons on Russia rather than the United States as Secretary of State John Kerry headed for Geneva to work on a Russian proposal for international inspectors to seize and destroy the deadly stockpile. On a different diplomatic front aimed at taking control of the stockpile away from the Assad government, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council met Wednesday at Russia’s U.N. mission to consider goals for a new resolution requiring Syria’s chemical weapons to be dismantled. They left without commenting, but whether a U.N. resolution should be militarily enforceable was already emerging as a point of contention. Rebels who had hoped U.S.-led strikes against the Syrian government would aid their effort expressed disappointment, if not condemnation of the U.S., over President Barack Obama’s decision to pursue diplomacy in the wake of a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs last month that the U.S. says killed more than 1,400 people. “We’re on our own,” Mohammad Joud, an opposition fighter in the war-shattered northern city of Aleppo, said via Skype. “I always knew that, but thanks to Obama’s shameful conduct, others are waking up to this reality as well.” With the American public focus on diplomacy rather than military might, Vice President Joe Biden
SEE REMEMBERS, PAGE A8
SEE RUSSIA, PAGE A8
AP
President Barack Obama lowers his head during a moment of silence at the Pentagon
Wednesday, during a ceremony to mark the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Nation remembers 9/11 NEW YORK (AP) — Life in lower Manhattan resembled any ordinary day on Wednesday as workers rushed to their jobs in the muggy heat, but time stood still at the World Trade Center site while families wept for loved ones who perished in the terror attacks 12 years ago. For the families, the memories of that day are still vivid, the pain still acute. Some who read the names of a beloved big brother or a cherished daughter could hardly speak through their tears. “Has it really been 12 years? Or 12 days? Sometimes it feels the same,” said Michael Fox, speaking aloud to his brother, Jeffrey, who perished in the south tower. “Sometimes I reach for the phone so I can call you, and we can talk about our kids like we used to do every day.” On the memorial plaza overlooking two reflecting pools in the imprint of the twin towers, relatives recited the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died when hijacked jets crashed into the towers, the Pentagon and in a field
near Shanksville, Pa. They also recognized the victims of the 1993 trade center bombing. Bells tolled to mark the planes hitting the towers and the moments when the skyscrapers fell. In Washington, President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden walked out to the White House’s South Lawn for a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. — the time the first plane struck the south tower in New York. Another jetliner struck the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. “Our hearts still ache for the futures snatched away, the lives that might have been,” Obama said. A moment of silence was also held at the U.S. Capitol. In New York, loved ones milled around the memorial site, making rubbings of names, putting flowers by the names of victims and weeping, arm-in-arm. Former Gov. George Pataki, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and others were in attendance. As with last year, no politicians spoke. Mayor Michael
“Our hearts still ache for the futures snatched away, the lives that might have been.” Barack Obama U.S. President
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Two days of music wrap up Pianos on the Square BY KATHRYN BASSETT kbassett@kpcmedia.com
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.................................B6-B8 Life..................................................... A6 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion ............................................. A5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A8 TV/Comics .......................................B5 Vol. 101 No. 251 KPC FILE PHOTO
Colleen McNabb-Everage will sing Sunday from 4-6 p.m. in a free concert at Auburn’s Eckhart Public Library Park.
AUBURN — The Auburn Arts Commission’s Pianos on the Square event concludes this weekend with a full lineup of free entertainment. All performances will take place in Eckhart Public Library Park. The weekend will kick off with music from the Auburn Community Band Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. Auburn couple Tim and Sharon McEntee will perform Saturday from 3-5 p.m. They moved to Auburn seven years ago from Cincinnati, Ohio, to be closer to family. Tim McEntee was born and raised in northern Allen County and attended Carroll High School. He started taking piano lessons when he turned 8. The lessons were a birthday present from
his musical parents. He quickly added organ and recalls playing at church events on the pipe organ at such an early age, he barely could reach the pedals. In his teens and beyond, he was a keyboardist for various musical groups. Sharon McEntee, from Dayton, Ohio, sang in church at an early age. She was in several high school and college plays and musicals and sang backup and lead vocals with a Christian contemporary band. In her mid-20s, she purchased her first guitar and taught herself to play by learning the chords of traditional folk music. The couple were married in 1987 but did not start performing music together until after they moved to Cincinnati in 1990. They were asked to join the worship team of their church, which had a large contemporary Christian
Pianos on the Square SATURDAY • Auburn Community Band, noon-2 p.m. • Tim and Sharon McEntee, 3-5 p.m. • Reggie Berg, 7-9 p.m. SUNDAY • Reggie Berg, 2-4 p.m. • Colleen McNabb-Everage, 4-6 p.m. All performances in Eckhart Library Park.
band. Since then, they have participated in worship music together and currently are members of the worship band at Dayspring Community Church in Auburn. As a duo outside church, SEE PIANOS, PAGE A8