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Innovation Center dedicated, Trine honors top supporters of university
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Angola, Indiana
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Angola Fire gets $4,000 grant ANGOLA — The Angola Fire Department has received a $4,000 Homeland Security Grant. T.R. Hagerty, the department’s public information officer, said the money will be used to buy a third medical tool to judge the amount of carbon monoxide in a person’s system. The department has two, but needs a third. “It would be used for a smoke inhalation victim,” Hagerty said. The city is not required to match the funding.
Daniels says speech for conservative think tank a mistake WEST LAFAYETTE (AP) — Purdue University President Mitch Daniels says he made a judgment error delivering a paid speech at a conservative Minnesota think tank’s fundraiser. In a public letter published online Thursday by the Journal & Courier, Daniels says he has turned down many appearances because the potential downsides outweighed the opportunity to promote Purdue. He says he should have done the same when The Center of the American Experiment approached him. Some Purdue faculty members have questioned the speech Monday because Daniels has said repeatedly he would avoid partisan political activities as Purdue president. Daniels says his remarks were “scrupulously nonpartisan.”
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Tourists spend $149M in 2012 BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcmedia.com
LAKE JAMES — Steuben County realized more than $149 million in spending by visitors in 2012, says the most recent data available to the Steuben County Tourism Bureau. The report compiled by industry expert Certec Inc., Lexington, Ky., showed the county experienced gains in many key numbers during 2012. The county’s economic impact report and travel characteristics survey is conducted on a bi-annual basis. The data presented publicly for the first time Wednesday by Steuben County Tourism Bureau Executive Director June Julien said direct expenditures in 2012 increased by 5.1 percent from 2010. “This number,” Julien said, “represents dollars that are directly spent in our area.” Tourism generates an estimated $43 million in direct wages and salaries, the report said. Tourism employment totals 2,642 jobs.
There was a 9 percent increase in taxes generated by tourist spending. Tourists generated $9.7 million in local taxes and $18 million in state taxes. These taxes came from sales, lodging, food and beverage, gasoline and other taxes. There were approximately 1.9 million visitors to the county in 2012, which was an increase of 2.6 percent over 2010. There were 432,093 pass-through visitors, people who might stop on their way through the county, for example, to shop or eat, then continue their travel elsewhere. Most people visiting Steuben County are not staying long. The average stay is two days. The typical travel party size is 3.1 persons. “We always sort of knew we were a short-trip destination,” Julien said. Steuben County’s tourism industry is on a par with Brown County in southern Indiana. In past years — no current data is available — Steuben and Brown counties were among the top five in Indiana for tourism.
FILE PHOTO BY JUDY OXENGER JOHNSTON
A couple young men enjoy a little watersport activity on Clear Lake in this Sept. 14 file photo. Lake activities attract tourists to Steuben County. Tourists spent some $149 million in the community in 2012, a new report said.
Talks getting serious
Head Start closings possible
Both sides look for way to avert country’s default
FROM STAFF REPORTS
A fortunate circumstance is keeping local Head Start programs open in spite of the federal government shutdown, local directors said this week. Fiscal years for Head Start programs begin on different dates, and programs across the nation with Oct. 1 starts are running out of money and closing their doors. Head Start programs with other fiscal year starting dates remain open. Two programs in northeast Indiana start their budget years Nov. 1 — Vistula Head Start for Steuben and LaGrange counties and Community Action of Northeast Indiana Head Start, serving Noble County. GarrettKeyser-Butler Head Start in DeKalb County starts its fiscal year Jan. 1. While CANI Head Start has avoided the shutdown so far, “The same thing will happen to us … come Nov. 1,” said its director, Mary Lee Freeze. “If the government hasn’t gone back to work, we could very likely have to shut our doors until they do go back to work.” When the shutdown began, Freeze said, “At first, I thought, ‘Oh, this won’t last long.’ The
JENNIFER DECKER
Thursday’s scene of children eating lunch at Vistula Head Start in Angola may disappear at the end of this month. The federal government’s shutdown threatens future Head Start funding of operations. Eating lunch are, from left, Baily Palmer, Gracelynn Gunter, Aavry Dunn and Kayden Entenman. The students are in Patty Floehr’s class.
longer it goes, the more concerned I get.” CANI Head Start serves 787 children in Noble, Allen and Whitley counties. The total includes Head Start programs for ages 3-5 in Kendallville with 44 children and in Ligonier with 34 children, plus 11 Noble County children in Early Head Start, which serves expectant mothers and children up to age 3. Vistula Head Start serves 167 children in Angola, Fremont and LaGrange. “We’re good so far until Jan. 1,” said Sharon Molargik, director of Garrett-Keyser-Butler Head Start. Its sites in Garrett, Auburn, Waterloo and Butler serve a total
of 130 preschoolers in Head Start and 59 infants and toddlers in Early Head Start. The shutdown has affected money for Head Start meals, but, “We’re still feeding children. We’re able to pay for those,” Molargik said. “I never dreamed the federal government wouldn’t come to an agreement and the government would shut down,” said Susan Swager, director of Vistula Head Start. “I keep praying each day they come to an agreement.” Meanwhile, Swager and other Head Start directors are working on contingency plans. SEE HEAD START, PAGE A10
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s economy on the line, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans groped inconclusively Thursday for a compromise to avert an unprecedented U.S. default as early as next week and end the 10-day-old partial government shutdown. “We expect further conversations tonight,” Boehner House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said cryptically at nightfall, after he, Speaker John Boehner and a delegation of other Republicans met for more than an hour with Obama at the White House. The White House issued a statement describing the session as a good one, but adding, “no specific determination was made.” Yet it seemed the endgame was at hand in the crises that have bedeviled the divided government for weeks, rattled markets in the U.S. and overseas and locked 350,000 furloughed federal SEE TALKS, PAGE A10
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Index • Classified.............................................. B5-B8 Life.................................................................A8 Obituaries.....................................................A4 Opinion .........................................................A5 Sports.................................................... B1-B3 Weather.....................................................A10 TV/Comics ..................................................B4 Vol. 156 No. 280
Angola streetscape work continues in ’14 BY JENNIFER DECKER jdecker@kpcmedia.com
ANGOLA — Bidding on the second phase of the city’s streetscape project will be held soon and construction is expected to start this spring. That was information Bill Boyer, Angola’s engineer, shared with the Angola Common Council at Monday’s meeting. The project’s second phase will focus on revitalization along West Maumee Street. “It’s something the city has been working on,” said Boyer. “From City Hall to West Street construction will be similar to around the Public Square.” The streetscape’s first phase included the redesign of Public Square with medians, brick-paved sidewalks and landscaping. Boyer said from City Hall to West Street, the second phase will include installation of planters and Americans With
Disabilities Act-compliant sidewalks. Continuing from West Street to the Indiana Northeastern Railroad tracks, there will be new sidewalks, ADA curb ramps and some new storm sewers, Boyer said. The construction will cause traffic detours around West Maumee Street — U.S. 20. “For the work between the Public Square and West Street only one side of the street will be allowed to be constructed at a time and the traffic on that side will be detoured,” he said. “If the construction is on the north side of West Maumee Street west-bound traffic will be detoured over S.R. 127 to West Mill Street and then McKinley Street back to U.S. 20. Eastbound traffic will be maintained. Vice versa for when the work switches to the south side of U.S. 20.” Boyer said the project will be bid in December. It’s estimated the second
phase will cost $1.1 million. “Construction should happen around April 15 and should be done by Labor Day,” he said. In 2011, the city was awarded $1 million in Federal Highway Administration funds which are administered by the Indiana Department of Transportation for the work. The city will be responsible for 20 percent, $200,000. Angola Clerk-Treasurer Deb Twitchell said that funding will come from a portion of the city’s share of the County Economic Development Income Tax fund. The city’s streetscape project has been in the works since 2008 and is part of the Angola Downtown 20/20 Plan. The project’s overall purpose is to improve pedestrian safety, beautify the downtown and foster
FILE PHOTO BY MIKE MARTURELLO
In this April 23, 2010, file photo, Dan Ward of Parrish Excavating operates an excavator to remove some existing asphalt from one of the original pavings of the Public Square. In the foreground are paving bricks that were used as the new sidewalk of the Public Square. The brick work that was done around the Public Square will be continued west of the SEE STREETSCAPE, PAGE A10 Square along West Maumee Street next year.