MONDAY August 26, 2013
Garage Cruise Page A2 Museum helps kick off ACD events
PGA Page B1 Scott holds on in The Barclays
Weather Partly cloudly skies. High of 90. Low of 71.
The
Serving DeKalb County since 1871
Page A6 Auburn, Indiana
75 cents
kpcnews.com
U.N. headed to Syria
GOOD MORNING Steuben deputy airlifted after crash FROM STAFF REPORTS
HELMER — A Steuben County Sheriff’s Department reserve deputy was life-flighted from the scene of a crash just before midnight Saturday, Sheriff Tim Troyer said in a news release. Reserve deputy Adam Meeks, 34, of Fremont, sustained head, ankle and wrist injuries in the crash, which occurred on S.R. 327S, just north of C.R. 400S while he was traveling south to assist with Meeks an incident being handled by DeKalb County police at about 11:40 p.m. Deputies and the Indiana State Police were responding to the Story Lake area to assist DeKalb County police with a 911 call reporting a man with a gun threatening to shoot people at a large gathering, Troyer said. When Meeks, in his patrol car, crested a hill and encountered another southbound vehicle entering the road, the deputy tried to avoid a collision with the passenger vehicle. Meeks went partially off of the east side of the road and began to lose control. The deputy then drove back across S.R. 327 and off the west side of the road, striking a tree. Meeks was pinned in his car for more than an hour, requiring extrication by responding fire rescue crews. Once extricated, the deputy was flown from the crash site to Parkview Trauma Center in Fort Wayne by Samaritan Helicopter for treatment of a head injury, along with injuries to his ankle and wrist. He is in the intensive care unit, Troyer said. Alcohol was not a factor, seat belts were in use and the airbag deployed, Troyer said. The crash remains under investigation by the Indiana State Police. The officer was traveling in a marked 2010 Ford Crown Victoria police cruiser with lights and siren activated.
Info •
Some doubt inspection will be credible DAVE KURTZ
Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile museum staff members and volunteers admire the
museum’s new Collection Conservation Center, which opened Sunday.
Pit Crew gets new home BY DAVE KURTZ dkurtz@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — The new Collection Conservation Center made its debut Sunday at part of the annual Garage Tour. The building on the south side of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum will serve as a maintenance shop for the museum’s vehicles. The center’s tan brick exterior complements the 1930 museum. Its shiny interior provides three garage bays, two of which are equipped with lifts capable of holding 12,000 pounds. A fourth car can be serviced in the center’s clean room. The new structure provides a home for the museum’s Pit Crew — nine volunteers who work on the museum’s vehicles each Monday. “We’re hoping to increase that and get more people involved,” said Laura Brinkman, executive director of the museum. “They’ve been uprooted for three years without a proper place to maintain cars,” she added. The crew worked in a former service station across the street from the museum until it was removed in an environmental cleanup project. “It’s perfectly placed so the cars don’t have to go out in the street,” Brinkman said about the new center. Thanks to the lifts, “It’ll be nice to not be on a creeper under the cars,” said Robert Probst of Kendallville, a member of the Pit Crew. “This has been a dream,” he said about the building. “Suddenly, we have room where we can really work on the cars,” said Chuck Schmidt of Auburn, a Pit Crew member since 1997. Among the major projects awaiting the Pit Crew are
Museum plans festival events AUBURN — The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum is planning several activities this week during the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival. Thursday, the museum will host its eighth annual Benefit Extravaganza. It will celebrate the export department of the former Auburn Automobile Co. and will feature a gourmet dinner, silent auction and live auction, including six automobiles. None of the automobiles available for auction are from the museum collection. “The Great Gatsby Gala” will be held Saturday night, featuring live music, DJ music, libations and hors d’oeuvres. “This is a new twist on a classic event,” said Kendra Klink, chief operating officer of the museum. “This year, we will have the opportunity for guests to dance the night away to live music and recordings of the greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Guests can tour the museum and meet Auburn’s own Terrin Thomas, Miss Indiana, who will be leaving a assembling a donated Duesenberg chassis and restoring a 1934 Auburn given by the late Robert Sbarge, former president of the museum. The Pit Crew’s routine tasks inlude checking newly donated cars and performing upkeep on the existing vehicles. The new building also will serve as an education center. Its glass-enclosed front room will
few days later to compete in the Miss America competition in Atlantic City.” The museum will have a presence at Auburn Auction Park with its Labor Day Art Show and Sale. The event features automotive artists from around the country who will display and sell their works, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the museum. A remote location of the official Museum Store also will be at the auction park. Information sessions about museum’s The Road Ahead capital campaign will be held Friday and Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m. at the museum. The museum will have extended hours until 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For tickets or more information, call 925-1444. display the museum’s education cars — a 1931 Auburn and 1936 Auburn. Visitors, especially students, can look under the hoods and sit inside the two cars. “We have found that the cars are a great draw for the students,” lending themselves to lessons in science and mathematics, Brinkman said. The building’s education room can hold at least 25 guests.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria agreed Sunday to a U.N. investigation into last week’s alleged chemical weapons attack outside Damascus — a deal a senior White House official dismissed as “too late to be credible,” saying the United States has “very little doubt” President Bashar Assad’s forces used such weapons. The hardening of the U.S. position came as calls for military action grow. In a sign the U.S. may be a step closer to an armed response, naval forces have already been dispatched toward Syria’s coastal waters, although President Barack Obama has cautioned against a hasty decision. With France, Britain, Israel and some U.S. congressmen urging swift military action against Assad’s regime if the use of chemical agents is confirmed, the U.N. team’s conclusions could have a dramatic impact on the trajectory of the country’s civil war. The agreement struck in Damascus calls for U.N. experts already in the country to begin an investigation Monday into the suspected chemical attack on rebel-held areas in the capital’s eastern suburbs. Anti-government activists and Doctors Without Borders say that more than 300 people were killed in an artillery barrage by regime forces Wednesday that included the use of toxic gas. The government calls the allegations “absolutely baseless.” The suburbs hit in the suspected chemical strike, collectively known as eastern Ghouta, are under the control of rebel fighters, and regime artillery and warplanes have pounded the area for days. The U.N. inspectors will have to traverse through both government-held and opposition-controlled turf to conduct their probe. Rebels have said they will help facilitate the visit. Under Sunday’s agreement with the U.N., the Syrian government “affirmed that it will provide the necessary cooperation, including the observance of the cessation of hostilities at the locations related to the incident,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.
The Star 118 W. Ninth St. Auburn, IN 46706 Auburn: (260) 925-2611 Fax: (260) 925-2625 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (toll free) (800) 717-4679
Index
•
Classifieds.................................B7-B8 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 101 No. 235
Leader of the pack Arnett directs Orland Legion Riders BY AMY OBERLIN aoberlin@kpcmedia.com
ORLAND — Deb Arnett was born to be wild. The motorcycle mama from the little town of Orland rides her Harley-Davidson in to work at the Steuben County Courthouse in Angola. Then, she changes into her riding gear and heads back north and east to Orland, where she is the director of the Legion Riders at the Orland American Legion. Arnett took the volunteer position because she was encouraged to do so by other members. “I said with their help, I would do it,” said Arnett. She said she’s received all the help she needed, and more.
NEIGHBORS STEUBEN
COUNTY
“We do this as a team,” said Arnett. “I am nothing without the members.” Arnett is the only woman serving as a Legion Riders director in District 4 and one of the few in the state. But she’s been on motorcycles for as long as she can remember. “We’ve always had riding in my family,” Arnett said. The daughter of Juanita Denham and the late SEE RIDERS, PAGE A6
BRIAN GLICK
Deb Arnett rides in Orland last Monday evening during Bike Night at the Orland American Legion, where American Legion Riders grill for the public in the parking lot.