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Friday, May 31, 2013
PREP BASEBALL • SPORTS, B1
SANDWICH • FAITH, C1
Sycamore wins, earns shot at first sectional title
Local church rises out of the ashes
Sycamore’s Alex Keller
Permits could hold up expansion Months of planning ahead for Waste Management on landfill By DAVID THOMAS dthomas@shawmedia.com CORTLAND – Waste Management might spend months obtaining permits to expand its landfill in Cortland Township, after one legal battle against it ended and a smaller one continues. Both Waste Management officials and those who oppose the proposal are planning their next moves after
the Illinois Supreme Court decided Tuesday against hearing an appeal from the group Stop the Mega-Dump. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has to approve a construction permit for the landfill expansion, as well as a permit for the landfill to receive garbage, said Waste Management spokesman William Plunkett. “It’s a very rigorous process in which the agency examines the engi-
neering, so the design itself ensures the protection of the environment,” Plunkett said. The approval of the expansion plan was upheld on appeal both by the Illinois Pollution Control Board and the state’s 2nd District Appellate Court. Opponents to the expansion said the approval process was unfair, and the DeKalb County Board’s approval was not based upon the available evidence. Waste Management is planning
to add 594 acres to its landfill located in the southwest corner of Cortland Township. The expansion would allow the landfill to accept up to 2,000 tons of trash a day. With the Illinois Supreme Court declining to hear the case, Waste Management and DeKalb County officials believe the last legal hurdle has been cleared. But they did not know when the permits could be approved by the state.
“At this point, we do not know. It could take longer than a year,” Plunkett said. “It depends on the resources of the agency.” Frankie Benson, who lives one mile away from the landfill, has formed the Cortland Township Electors’ Association, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to fighting the landfill expansion.
See LANDFILL, page A3
PROMOTING CHILD HEALTH
State Senate denies House Genoa-Kingston Middle School to start up CATCH program pension plan The ASSOCIATED PRESS
vegetables for children to choose from at lunch. Sycamore’s after-school program promotes healthy lifestyles through group lessons and exercise. Both districts use CATCH as a model in their physical education curriculum as well. “While all the districts are implementing it in different ways, the message is the same,” Sycamore Superintendent Kathy Countryman said. Cumings said the G-K program would use the DeKalb schools as a model in that it will mostly be classroom-based with possible fruit and vegetable bars and family fun nights.
SPRINGFIELD – A pension reform plan pushed by the Illinois House speaker failed miserably in the Senate on Thursday night, hours after a group of public-employee unions tried to swing support behind a labor-endorsed proposal that has Senate support. The Senate overwhelmingly rejected the House measure on a 42- On the Net 16 vote. Senate President John The bills are C u l l e r t o n t o l d SB2404 and The Associated SB1. Press he believed www.ilga.gov the legislation supported by Speaker Michael Madigan deserved a vote and, “I wish he’d do the same for me.” Madigan has not called a vote on Cullerton’s Senate-approved fix for the $97 billion pension crisis, a bill Cullerton believes would survive a court challenge while his fellow Chicago Democrat’s would not. Gov. Pat Quinn, who supports the Madigan bill, said in a statement, “The people of Illinois were let down tonight.” The vote came on the eve of the Legislature’s scheduled adjournment and on the day a study was released that finds the Cullerton bill would save the state far more money than originally thought. The study by the We Are One Illinois coalition estimates that if half of employees and retirees forgo post-career health insurance as part of Cullerton’s legislation, the state’s $52 billion debt in two health insurance programs would be cut in half. Cullerton’s plan essentially offers each beneficiary a choice: give up annual compounded cost-of-living increases to their retirement pay or access to state-subsidized health care. Unions believe it’s fairer, and Cullerton argues it has a better chance of survival than a more-restrictive one in the House that offers no such choice.
See HEALTH, page A3
See PENSION, page A4
Monica Maschak – mmaschak@shawmedia.com
Ana Pruteanu, a dietetic intern and nutrition graduate student at Northern Illinois University, teaches third-grade students about eating healthy and being active during a Coordinated Approach to Child Health training day recently at Jefferson Elementary School in DeKalb. Genoa-Kingston Middle School is also hosting CATCH. By STEPHANIE HICKMAN
Voice your opinion
shickman@shawmedia.com GENOA – For Lisa Cumings, the best part about her job is seeing children “catch on.” Cumings, community liaison with Kishwaukee Community Hospital and coordinator of CATCH, Coordinated Approach to Child Health, said she is often approached by students who have learned about CATCH and are excited to talk about it. The number of students “catching on” to healthier choices is about to grow. Genoa-Kingston Middle School is the latest DeKalb County school to implement the national
What do you think is the best way to address childhood obesity? Vote at Daily-Chronicle.com.
CATCH program to promote healthier food options and active lifestyles. “I would love to see this countywide,” Cumings said. “We’re in our second year, and we’re in three school districts right now.” After receiving about $3,000 in grants from Genoa-Kingston’s education foundation and the DeKalb County Community Foundation, the middle school is the first school in
District 424 to host CATCH. It also is the first middle school in the county to implement CATCH. The program will focus on sixth-graders, Cumings said. “I’m excited to see what all it involves,” District 424 Superintendent Joe Burgess said. “It opens a lot of doors for resources for our staff.” Both the DeKalb and Sycamore school districts already have incorporated CATCH into their elementary schools. DeKalb hosts CATCH days in which Northern Illinois University students go into the classrooms and teach the children about healthy food choices. The DeKalb schools also have a bar of fresh fruits and
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