THURSDAY September 5, 2013
Burglary Charge Page A2 Suspect arrested inside Garrett church
Going Deep Page B1 Four home runs help Cubs win
Weather Pleasant and partly cloudy today. High 77. Low tonight 53. Sunny Friday. Page A8
The
Serving DeKalb County since 1871
Auburn, Indiana
GOOD MORNING Campground battery leaves woman critical PIERCETON — A 24-year-old woman from Columbia City was taken to a hospital in Fort Wayne in critical condition after she was battered at a Pierceton campground over the weekend, news reports said. The Post and Mail reports the woman got in a dispute with Patrick Zimny, 54, of Glenwood, Ill., about use of a clothes dryer unit at Jellystone Campground. Police said the woman was injured in the front temple area of her skull, and eventually fell unconscious.
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Panel supports Syria strike 10-7 vote in Senate backs Obama WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s request for speedy congressional backing of a military strike in Syria advanced Wednesday toward a showdown Senate vote, while the commander in chief left open the possibility he would order retaliation for a deadly chemical weapons attack even if Congress withheld its approval. Legislation backing the use of force against President Bashar Assad’s government cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on a 10-7 vote after it was stiffened at the last minute to include a pledge of support for “decisive changes to the present military balance of power” in
Syria’s civil war. It also would rule out U.S. combat operations on the ground. The measure is expected to reach the Senate floor next week, although the timing for a vote is uncertain. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky conservative with strong tea party ties, has threatened a filibuster. The House also is reviewing Obama’s request, but its timetable is even less certain and the measure could face a rockier time there. The administration blames Assad for a chemical weapons attack that took place on Aug. 21 and says more than 1,400 civilians
Stutzman wary of strike BY MATT GETTS mgetts@kpcmedia.com
U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Howe, has a pair of distinct questions he needs answered before he even thinks about voting in favor of military action against Syria. Saturday, President Barack Obama announced that he would be seeking congressional approval before launching any kind of military strike in retaliation for what he said was the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Captor hangs himself
EVANSVILLE (AP) — The Indiana attorney general’s office and several industry groups are launching a statewide campaign to raise public awareness of criminals who purchase cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine to sell to methamphetamine cooks. The practice is called “smurfing.” The Indiana Pharmacists Alliance, the Indiana Retailers Council, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association and other groups announced the anti-smurfing campaign Tuesday in Evansville. BOB BRALEY
An item in Wednesday’s edition about DVDs from the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival Parade of Classics should have said DVDs may be ordered at any KPC Media Group newspaper office. All DVD orders will be filled within several days. The DVDs include video of the complete parade.
PHOTO GALLERY Area high school volleyball matches kpcnews.com Multimedia > Photo Galleries
Info •
SEE STUTZMAN, PAGE A8
SEE SYRIA, PAGE A8
Anti-‘smurfing’ campaign launched
ACD parade videos available for order
The administration says 1,429 people died from the attack Aug. 21 in a Damascus suburb. Casualty estimates by other groups are far lower, according to The Associated Press, and Stutzman Assad’s government blames the episode on rebels who have been seeking to overthrow his government
Second fire levels lake house This was all that remained Wednesday of a house destroyed by flames overnight on the shores of Big Lake in southern Noble County. Firefighters were called at 6:43 p.m. Tuesday and thought they
had extinguished the blaze. A second fire call to the scene, this time for a fully engulfed house, was made about 12:45 a.m. Wednesday. The second blaze destroyed the house.
Schools’ IREAD3 scores shine All DeKalb County public school districts and both private schools exceeded the state average performance on this spring’s and summer’s IREAD3 tests, according to scores released Wednesday. Only one individual school, Riverdale Elementary, fell slightly below the state average of 91.1 percent of students passing the reading test for third-graders. The state average improved from 90.6 percent in 2012, the Indiana
Department of Education said. DeKalb Central’s four elementary schools combined for an overall passing rate of 97.4 percent, with no school below 96.2 Students achieved 100 percent proficiency at both private schools in the county, Lakewood Park Christian School and St. Joseph School in Garrett. The list of passing rates: PUBLIC SCHOOLS DeKalb Eastern
92.9
Butler Riverdale DeKalb Central Waterloo James R. Watson McKenney-Harrison Country Meadow Garrett-Keyser Butler J.E. Ober Hamilton PRIVATE SCHOOLS Lakewood Park St. Joseph Garrett
93.8 90.9 97.4 97.1 96.2 98.9 97.4 92.6 96.8 100 100
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Cleveland man serving a life sentence for holding three women captive in his home for a decade hanged himself in his prison cell with a bedsheet, officials said Wednesday in another shocking twist in the case that transfixed and appalled the city. Ariel Castro, 53, was found hanging Tuesday night at the state prison in Orient, said JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the corrections system. Prison medical staff performed CPR before Castro was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. “He took the coward’s way out,” said Elsie Cintron, a neighbor who lived up the street from the former school bus driver. “We’re sad to hear that he’s dead, but at the same time, we’re happy he’s gone, and now we know he can’t ask for an appeal or try for one if he’s acting like he’s crazy.” Through a spokeswoman, his three victims declined to comment. Castro was sentenced Aug. 1 to life in prison plus 1,000 years after pleading guilty to 937 counts, including kidnapping and rape, in a deal to avoid the death penalty. At his sentencing, he told the judge: “I’m not a monster. I’m sick.” SEE CAPTOR, PAGE A8
Butler to raise water rates 27 percent
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Index
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Classifieds.................................B6-B8 Life..................................................... A7 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion ............................................. A3 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A8 TV/Comics .......................................B5 Vol. 101 No. 244
Aging water main to be replaced BY JEFF JONES jjones@kpcmedia.com
BUTLER — Next year, Butler’s downtown water mains will receive much-needed replacement. Tuesday, the Butler City Council adopted an ordinance to raise water rates by 27 percent and authorized city attorney Gerald McNerney to prepare a bond ordinance. The average household water bill will increase by about $7 per month, city officials said. The rate increase won’t take effect until the ordinance is adopted on its third reading. Council members approved the first reading at Tuesday’s meeting. The increase was recommended in an August rate survey by consultant Crowe Horwath. The bond ordinance could be
in the $1 million to $1.4 million range, McNerney said. “The water line on South Broadway is in desperate need of repair,” Mayor Ron Walter said. “In the 200 block, there are many places where it’s been repaired on the east side of the street. With the state indicating they are going to pave S.R. 1 sometime in the summer of 2015, if we’re going to do this, we need to do this in 2014.” The existing South Broadway water mains are believed to be at least 100 years old. Another component of the project will replace a leaky water main along U.S. 6 to businesses east of the Norfolk Southern tracks. “It’s something that’s been talked about for a few years,” Walter said of the project. “Those
things don’t fix themselves, and yet it’s easy to ignore, because you don’t see them. The time for ignoring this water line has run its course, and it’s time to deal with it.” A rate increase would have been necessary even without the water main project, Walter said. That’s because Butler’s water utility lost just over $81,000 in 2012. State law prohibits utilities from operating in the red. That shortfall is partly the result of rising chemical costs, replacing a water pit in front of Eastside Junior-Senior High School and several smaller projects. “So many other communities are dealing with the same issue,” Walter said. “We’re actually in a good position that we don’t need to have an increase in our sewer rate, which is a much bigger part of the consumer’s bill.” City officials originally hoped to be able to reduce the wastewater
“The time for ignoring this water line has run its course, and it’s time to deal with it.” Ron Walter Mayor of Butler
• rate to offset the water rate increase. That won’t be possible, Walter said, because Butler plans to extend its force main from the steel complex to the wastewater treatment plant, also before S.R. 1 is paved. Wessler Engineering Inc. of Fort Wayne was retained for $44,000 to do the engineering work for the water main replacement.
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Sept. 6
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Free Porkburgers and Hotdogs 10:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
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