The Star - August 8, 2013

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THURSDAY August 8, 2013

The Outdoor Page Page A5 New ACRES Land Trust guide released

Baseball Page B1 Cubs come through in ninth

Weather Cloudy today, with a small possibility of rain. High 77. Low 62. Rain likely Friday. High 75. Page A6

GOOD MORNING Grease buildup blamed for fire AUBURN — A grease buildup caused a fire that damaged a small Auburn restaurant one week ago, Auburn Fire Chief Mike VanZile said Wednesday. The blaze at The Tasty, 1400 N. Main St., ignited just before 9 p.m. Aug. 2. VanZile said the fire began in grease that accumulated in a duct system in the building’s ceiling. The heaviest damage occurred toward the front of the building. An estimate of the value of the damage is not complete, VanZile said.

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More charges for alleged burglar Police say they caught suspect twice BY MATT GETTS mgetts@kpcmedia.com

AUBURN — An area man already in the DeKalb County Jail for allegedly burglarizing a home was hit with five similar charges Tuesday. Robert Lee Slone, 52, whose last address was in rural Corunna, has been charged with burglary, a Class B felony; two counts of burglary, a Class C felony; attempted burglary, a Class C felony and receiving stolen property, a Class D felony. Slone has been in the DeKalb

County Jail since DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Dave Cserep allegedly caught him stealing items from a garage in the 100 block of Michigan Street, Corunna, on May 4. The other crimes are alleged to have been committed Slone between Dec. 17, 2012 and April 28 in five DeKalb County locations. Slone also has been charged with being a habitual offender.

According to court papers, Slone was sentenced five times between 1985-2010 in Noble County. Two of the convictions were for burglary and two others were for receiving stolen property and residential entry. Slone told police in December he was homeless, but had recently lived in Butler, St. Joe, Spencerville and Albion. He claimed his wife was in a nursing home and he had a child in foster care. Slone was allegedly caught in the act of burglarizing a rural Butler home on Dec. 17, 2012, by DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Lee Stoy, Butler Police Chief Jim Nichols and

Retiring Principal Recognized

BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcnews.net

Info •

SEE CHARGES, PAGE A6

Probe finds grade issues

Cable cut disrupts Internet services ANGOLA — Upward of 30,000 Mediacom Internet and phone service customers across northern Indiana lost service for 10 hours due to a fiber optic cable cut Tuesday. “When a fiber cut like this occurs, it has a very negative effect on our customers, and we are very sorry for that,” said Mediacom spokeswoman Phyllis Peters. The cut occurred at about 12:37 p.m. EDT near the Illinois-Indiana border when a private contractor not working for Mediacom was doing soil boring work and cut a major Mediacom fiber cable in multiple places, Peters said. Service was restored at 10:40 p.m. Between 20,000 and 30,000 customers lost phone and Internet service. Complicating the issue was the fact that boring rods used by the contractor became stuck in the soil, Peters said. Once Mediacom crews determined the extent of the damage, they set about replacing the damaged fiber with 800 feet of new fiber. The repair was difficult, because the contractor’s equipment was difficult to remove so repairs could be made. Typically a cut of this magnitude takes 5-7 hours to repair, Peters said. Peters said the fiber that was cut was the main line that services all of northern Indiana. Mediacom television was interrupted for about 20 minutes, Peters said. Television service was rerouted through other lines. Mediacom has not determined whether customers will receive credits for time lost due to Tuesday’s outage. Typically that is reserved for outages caused by acts of God.

Butler Patrolman Jon Bonifer. Slone was originally booked on a parole violation warrant on sentencings relating to 2009 convictions in Noble County, and he was transferred to the Indiana Department of Correction to serve the remainder of his sentence. Stoy said while Slone was in custody, officers attempted to tie him to other burglaries that had been committed in the area. Stoy also was working with the prosecutor’s office in DeKalb County to determine the proper charge to file in the case. Without letting local authorities

Evidence of ‘manipulation’ found in school ratings KATHRYN BASSETT

The DeKalb Central school board recognized Tom Sanborn for his service as DeKalb Middle School principal during Tuesday night’s board

meeting. He retired at the end of the 2012-2013 school year. Sanborn, left, receives his retirement gift from superintendent Sherry Grate, right.

DeKalb Central board hires former Eastside band director Graham takes middle school post BY KATHRYN BASSETT kbassett@kpcmedia.com

WATERLOO — He led Eastside’s Marching Blazer Pride band to its first-ever appearance at the state finals. Now, Jim Graham will become the new band director at DeKalb Middle School. The DeKalb Central school board voted to hire Graham at Tuesday night’s regular board meeting. He will replace Clayton Henady, who has resigned to take a position outside the district, said middle school Principal Kimberly Fifer. The board also accepted Henady’s resignation Tuesday night. “Jim comes to us with 12 years experience and an outstanding track record,” Fifer said in a memo to the board. “He most recently led Eastside Junior-Senior High School to state last year.”

Under Graham’s direction, the Marching Blazer Pride tackled some of its most difficult music ever, with last year’s contest show featuring selections from Igor Stravinsky’s “The Firebird.” With Graham as director, Eastside’s band made its first appearance at semi-state in 2008 and went on to compete in the semi-state contest in 2009, 2011 and 2012. In other DeKalb Central school board business Tuesday: • James Elizondo of City Securities Corp. presented financing options for the McKenney-Harrison Elementary School renovation project. The board appears to have narrowed its options to two plans. One would involve demolishing the Harrison building and using new construction to consol-

idate school areas. The plan would save the newer, existing McKenney structure. It carries a price tag of $16.8 million, with $1 million in demolition and site work, $7 million in additions, $893,000 in heavy renovations, $4.4 million in other renovations and $3.3 million in soft costs. The other plan under consideration involves saving the Harrison building, as well as using new construction to create a closed loop of classrooms on the McKenney site, while removing much of the 1950s portion of the McKenney building. That option has an estimated price of $20.5 million, with $1 million in demolition, $8 million in additions, $4.8 million in heavy renovations, $2.5 million in other renovations and $4.1 million in soft costs. Elizondo presented information that showed the estimated tax rate impact with repayment over 20 SEE DIRECTOR, PAGE A6

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s top education official on Wednesday acknowledged “manipulation” in the way the state’s schools are graded, the latest fallout from an Associated Press report that found her predecessor worked behind the scenes to improve the score of a charter school founded by an influential Republican donor. Superintendent Glenda Ritz told state school board members that this year’s school ratings would be held up, at least temporarily, as a result of the independent review into the A-F grading system and left open the possibility some of last year’s grades could be changed. The system was established by Tony Bennett, a rising star in the education reform movement, who last week resigned from his new job as Florida’s schools chief amid the scandal in Indiana. “Upon our preliminary examination, the department has verified that there was manipulation of calculation categories and the department has also determined that there are broader issues that need to be examined,” Ritz said. Ritz, a Democrat, brought up the scandal at Wednesday’s school board meeting, but Bennett’s allies on the Republican-dominated board had little to say. She met privately Wednesday afternoon with Indiana’s Republican legislaSEE GRADE, PAGE A6

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Index

Classifieds.................................B7-B8 Life.....................................................B4 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 101 No. 217

St. Joe Pickle Festival returns for 17th year BY JEFF JONES jjones@kpcmedia.com

ST. JOE — The St. Joe Pickle Festival returns for its 17th year this week. There will be a craft tent and food vendors today, Friday and Saturday. The annual art and photo show exhibit opens to the public at 4 p.m. today at the St. Joe Church of Christ. St. Mark Lutheran Church will have a display of kids artwork and a rummage and bake sale all three days. The opening parade is at 5 p.m. today. Children can start decorating their cucumbers for the pickle derby at 5:30 p.m.,

with racing to begin at 7 p.m. The gospel group Stead Fast, performs at 8 p.m. The annual firefighter blue light parade will be at 9:30 tonight. The Mark’s Ark animal show will be featured in the entertainment tent at 4 p.m. Friday, with the Creative Comedy show at 5 p.m. The Concord Township Fire Department will host a fish dinner at 5 p.m. The inaugural pickle festival talent show begins at 7:30 p.m., with categories for children and adults. Cash prizes will be awarded. The pickle pepper poker walk, a sanctioned Volkswalk event,

opens Saturday activities. Participants can start anytime between 6:30-10 a.m. All participants will finish by 1 p.m. The fire department will host its pancake and sausage breakfast from 7-11 a.m. Saturday. Sechler’s Pickles will be open for factory tours from 9-11:45 a.m. Saturday. Mark’s Ark returns for an 11 a.m. show Saturday. Children can decorate cucumbers for the pickle people contest at noon, with judging to follow. The festival parade begins at 1 p.m. A horseshoe pitching contest begins at 2 p.m. Weigh-in for the kids tractor pull is at 2 p.m.,

with the contest starting at 3 p.m. The fourth annual pickle festival cruise-in car show is at 3 p.m. Throughout the festival, members of the St. Joe-Spencerville Lions Club will be selling homemade ice cream, including their own special pickle recipe, to coincide with the event. Terry Lee and the Rockaboogie Band will perform Saturday at 8 p.m. The festival will go out with a bang with a fireworks show by Jack Stemen of S&J’s Fireworks of Butler. A complete schedule of events is available at stjoepicklefestival. com.


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