Pigskin Preview: Eastside Page B2 Blazers counting on experience for 2013 football season
WEDNESDAY August 21, 2013
Weather Partly sunny today. High 87. Low 65. Rain possible on Thursday. High 87. Low 65. Page A6
GOOD MORNING Troopers give probe of church bus crash to Indianapolis police INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana State Police have turned over their findings from an investigation into the case of a fatal Indianapolis church bus crash to Indianapolis Metro Police, who could release its final report later this week, a report Tuesday said. Indiana State Police turned over the results of their inspection of the bus owned by Colonial Hills Baptist Church and its braking systems to the local police for inclusion in a completed crash and inspection report expected to be released later this week, WTHR-TV reported Tuesday. The bus crashed July 27 while bringing dozens of teenagers and chaperones home from a youth camping trip in Michigan. The crash killed youth minister Chad Phelps, his pregnant wife Courtney and Tonya Weindorf, the mother of a camper. The crash also injured 33 other passengers. Driver Dennis Maurer has told polis the brakes failed as the bus was exiting Interstate 465 on Indianapolis’ north side and hit a concrete median just over a mile from the church.
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Superintendent gets 2% raise DeKalb’s associate principal resigns BY KATHRYN BASSETT kbassett@kpcmedia.com
WATERLOO — The DeKalb Central school board Tuesday unanimously approved a new contract for superintendent Sherry Grate that includes a 2 percent increase for this year. Terms of the contact include a base annual salary of $118,267. The contract term is July 1, 2013, to June 30, 2014, with a work year of 240 days with 14 vacation
days and 12 sick leave days. Sick leave days accumulate up to a maximum of 120 total days. Sick days beyond the maximum will be compensated at $150 per day and will be paid to a 401(a) account. Grate will receive the same paid holidays as other full-year administrators. The contract also includes an annual benefit allocation of $29,700, including a $1,000 increase, which may be allocated
toward health insurance, dental insurance, annuity and transportation expenses. The school district will pay the full cost, except for $1 per year, for a term life insurance policy with a face value of twice the amount of the annual contracted salary. The school district also will pay Grate’s statutorily required retirement fund contribution, which is currently 3 percent of her base salary. Grate will receive a one-time performance stipend of $3,000.
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Index
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Classifieds.................................B7-B8 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 101 No. 230
SEE RAISE, PAGE A6
U.S. mulls aid to Egypt Administration reviews funding, relations with nation
EPA studies vapors at Muncie site MUNCIE (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will investigate whether chemical vapors are migrating from a Muncie Superfund site into as many as 50 nearby homes. EPA’s Superfund on-scene coordinator Shelly Lam tells The Star Press the year-long study is part of a $700,000 cleanup at the former Kiser Plating factory. It’s located about a block from a YMCA, a fast-food restaurant and a health clinic. The EPA has scheduled a public meeting to answer questions about the cleanup and the vapor study Wednesday evening at a library. Lam says volatile vapors can migrate with ground water and can enter homes through porous or cracked foundations. Kiser Corp. operated plating operations at the site from 1911 to 1999. A fire destroyed most buildings there in 2001.
No one from the public commented on Grate’s proposed contract. A new contract will be signed seven days from the board’s approval, and a ratification of the approved contract will be presented at the September board meeting. Earlier this month, the board approved a 2 percent base pay increase for district administrators but did not offer an extended contract to DeKalb High School Associate Principal Mike Cochran.
MIKE MARTURELLO
Old 27 tour Karen Houlton of Hamilton shares a laugh with a visitor to the Old 27 Tour in the Carnegie Public Library of Steuben County parking lot Tuesday afternoon. She and her husband, Jerry L. Houlton, visited the tour participants in their 1935 Auburn Boattail Speedster. The tour started in Auburn
before heading north to Angola Tuesday afternoon. The tour then continued on to Coldwater, Mich., for its first overnight stop before heading farther north into Michigan along the highway formerly designated as U.S. 27
City’s plan changes addresses BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — The city is on board with an effort to change the addresses of select homes on C.R. 40-A to Wesley Road addresses, the Auburn Common Council learned Tuesday evening. City zoning administrator Ken Dunn told the council that the city’s Plan Commission has worked with the county plan commission on a collective push to readdress the homes west of C.R. 35 on the city’s east end. The issue was raised by county planner Clint Knauer earlier this month at a county commissioners meeting. Knauer explained then that
sections of the road change from Wesley Road to C.R. 40-A and back again several times, and addresses have both odd and even numbers on the same side of the road. The mix up resulted from annexations to the city, he said. The commissioners tabled the request under the assumption that at some point in the future, the remaining county land would be annexed into the city, and readdressing would be handled then. Tuesday, Dunn said that in a joint city-county effort, the road would be readdressed with Wesley Road addresses without annexation. Letters will be sent
to homeowners notifying them of the planned change, Dunn said. County commissioners first must approve the plan, however. In other business Tuesday, the city council unanimously passed an ordinance that rezones certain areas around the city from an R-1 single-family rural designation to R-2 single-family residential to better fit with city zoning codes. An R-2 zone does not allow a home business or agriculture operations, as R-1 zoning permits. All the areas eyed for rezoning are newer subdivisions around the city. Bill Spohn, the city’s building, planning and developSEE ADDRESSES, PAGE A6
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration, undertaking a major review of U.S. relations with Egypt, edged closer to a decision Tuesday about curtailing some of America’s $1.5 billion in annual aid after the Egyptian military’s crackdown on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. Top administration officials met at the White House to review the possibility of cutting military or economic aid to Egypt, a longtime U.S. ally and the most populous nation in the Arab world. Some cuts are forthcoming, according to U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly about the sensitive discussions. Tensions in Egypt have soared since the army ousted Morsi, who was the nation’s first freely elected president. The July 3 coup followed days of protests by millions of Egyptians demanding that Morsi, who hails from the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, step down. Some 1,000 people have been killed in ensuing violence. The U.S. is in a bind. While it wants to continue aiding Egypt to maintain ties with the military-run government and assert its influence SEE EGYPT, PAGE A6
Merlins bring their magic to Pokagon BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcmedia.com
LAKE JAMES — It could be that 2013 will go down in history as the year of the raptor at Pokagon State Park. Just months after it was discovered that bald eagles were nesting in the park, quite possibly for the first time in more than 100 years in Steuben County, another raptor, one that’s even more rare, has been spotted at Pokagon. This time the bird is a Merlin, a pair of which apparently has nested in Pokagon. A Merlin is a small falcon found primarily in northern forests and prairies, the Cornell University Lab of
Ornithology’s website says. Its breeding range is primarily in Canada, but it is known to pass through Steuben County as it migrates south for the winter, said Fred Wooley, Pokagon’s interpretive naturalist. “To have these birds here at this time of year is significant, as there are no known nesting records of Merlin in Indiana,” Wooley said. The birds were discovered by Montgomery, Mich., nature photographer Fred Zilch on Aug. FRED ZILCH 12. At first, the avid birder thought he saw an American kestrel, but An immature Merlin tests its wings in a conifer tree in Pokagon something didn’t seem right. State Park. The bird is a raptor that apparently was born in “Having my camera with me Pokagon. It is believed that this is the first time Merlins have SEE MERLINS, PAGE A6
nested in Indiana.