WEDNESDAY September 4, 2013
Volleyball Page B1 Barons sweep Prairie Heights
Pianos on the Square Page A2 Musical set to take stage this weekend
Weather Mostly sunny today. High 80. Low 56. Winds 5-10 mph. Sunny skies continue Thursday. Page A6
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Boehner supports strike on Syria
GOOD MORNING Festival video online at kpcnews.com AUBURN — Video from Saturday’s Parade of Classics at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival is online at kpcnews.com. Highlights include clips of grand marshal Wayne Carini, Miss Indiana Terrin Thomas, and a number of the unique cars featured in the parade. DVDs of the complete parade are available at KPC Media Group newspaper offices for $14.95 plus tax and shipping, if desired. Scan the QR code to watch the video on your tablet or smartphone.
Suicide awareness meeting is Tuesday AUBURN — A suicide awareness gathering will take place Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Auburn Presbyterian Church, 111 W. Twelfth St., organizers said. The program is titled “Gathering of Hearts and Minds for Suicide Awareness.” “In honor of National Suicide Prevention Week and World Suicide Prevention Day, we are having a gathering of hearts and minds to grow awareness of suicide in DeKalb County,” the Rev. Jess L. Jessup, patrol chaplain for the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, said in a news release. “We will be having a guest speaker as well as numerous dignitaries from our own community. To end the evening, we will be having a candlelight vigil for victims gone too soon,” Jessup said. For more information or to join an email list for future meetings, send an email to Jessup at pastorjess@ lakeviewhamilton.com.
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Index
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Classifieds........................................B7 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 101 No. 243
JEFF JONES
Habitat for Humanity executive director Duane Gundy, right, presents the keys to Butler residents Nathan and Summer Kaiser and
their children, Lilly, Autum and Leary, Sunday afternoon.
Family gets keys to new home BY JEFF JONES jjones@kpcmedia.com
BUTLER — Young Autum Kaiser didn’t let a sore throat curb her enthusiasm for her new home. “This is the most awesomemous house ever,” she chirped as she, her sister Lilly and brother Leary ran from room to room and tried out the doorbell Sunday afternoon. When asked why their new home — at 401 W. Depot St. — deserved such accolades, she said, “Because it has all the stuff we like.” The highlight of the intimate dedication ceremony occurred when Habitat for Humanity executive director Duane Gundy presented the keys to Autum’s parents, Nathan and Summer Kaiser. “Oh gosh, I’d like to move everything ahead a month so I don’t have to move everything,” Summer Kaiser said with a laugh. “It’s nice that it’s finally over. It’s been very stressful.”
During the ceremony, she admitted to having a couple of sleepless nights in anticipation of receiving the keys. “Absolutely not,” she said when asked if she had an idea where things would go in the new home. “I have no clue. I don’t even know if everything will fit.” The Kaiser home is the 54th to be constructed by Habitat for Humanity in northeast Indiana. At least two more homes are planned later this year or early in 2014 — another in Butler and one in Kendallville area, Gundy said. “We have one more lot in Butler,” he explained. “We want to try to do two at once.” Two qualified families have completed their classes and are working on their sweat equity hours. “This is the essence of Habitat right here, to get to this point,” Gundy said, gesturing to the Kaisers and their children. “They always say thank-you, and that’s
“It’s nice that it’s finally over. It’s been very stressful.” Summer Kaiser Habitat homeowner
• always nice to hear.” Gundy and Habitat family support volunteer Marianne Stanley presented the Kaisers with Bibles “because the home was built with love,” Gundy explained. “You have gone that extra step to make sure you have better for your family,” Stanley said. “That shows you’re great parents and great community members. I couldn’t be more proud to say I know you and helped you through this.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama won critical support from House Speaker John Boehner for a punitive strike against Syria on Tuesday, and senior Cabinet officials labored to convince Congress that Bashar Assad’s government must be punished for a suspected chemical weapons attack the administration blames for more than 1,000 dead. The leader of House Republicans, Boehner emerged from a meeting at the White House and said the United States has “enemies around the world that need to understand that we’re not going to tolerate this type of behavior. We also have allies around the world and allies in the region who also need to know that America will be there and stand up when it’s necessary.” Boehner spoke as lawmakers in both parties readied changes in the president’s requested legislation, rewriting it to restrict the type and duration of any military action that would be authorized, possibly including a ban on U.S. combat forces on the ground. Secretary of State John Kerry, lead-off witness at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, said, “President Obama is not asking America to go to war.” And yet, he added, “this is not the time for armchair isolationism. This is not the time to be spectators to slaughter.” Obama said he was open to revisions in the relatively broad request the White House made over the weekend. He expressed confidence Congress would respond to his call for support in a military action against Assad, whose government the president said used chemical weapons indiscriminately and “killed thousands of people, SEE SYRIA, PAGE A6
Grant could pay to raze Shelter Ministries building Auburn Common Council honors city engineer BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN – Shelter Ministries, through the city and the Maumee River Basin Commission, will apply for federal grant money to demolish its Seventh Street building that has been flooded several times. Bill Spohn, the city’s director of building, planning and development, told the Auburn Common Council on Tuesday that he’s been alerted that funds soon would be available to buy out properties in floodplains through the federal floodway buyout program. Backed with that information, Spohn told the council that he spoke with several homeowners along Eleventh Street in the city’s floodplain, as well as officials at Shelter Ministries, about
their interest in applying for the buyouts. The Shelter Ministries building at 315 E. Seventh St. hugs Cedar Creek and is prone to flooding, Spohn said. Spohn said Shelter Ministries has indicated it would like to explore the option. The Eleventh Street homeowners were not interested in the program, Spohn said. The Maumee River Basin Commission would prepare the applications, which would be sent in October, Spohn said. If a property is approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the property would be appraised and a buyout figure awarded. The local match is 25 percent, which would be shared by the Maumee River Basin Commission and the city, Spohn explained, The buyout program requires properties to be razed and the land to be returned to green space, Spohn added. Spohn said if Shelter Ministries is successful in its application, it would begin looking for a new location for its operations.
AARON ORGAN
Auburn Mayor Norm Yoder, left, presents city engineer Steve Bruns with a plaque recognizing his 20 years of service to the city during an Auburn Common Council meeting Tuesday evening.
In other business Tuesday, Mayor Norm Yoder presented city engineer Steve Bruns with a plaque recognizing his 20 years of service to the city. Yoder said Bruns has spearheaded countless projects that have moved the city forward, and his vision likely has saved the
city hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. Yoder joked that the recognition comes on a year when Bruns was under fire from residents as a result of numerous road construction projects around the city that snarled traffic most of the summer.
Celebrating 150 Years.
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Community & Customer Appreciation Day
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Free Porkburgers and Hotdogs 10:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
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