Serving the Steuben County 101 lakes area since 1857
Teenager credited with saving his buddy from residential fire Page A3
Weather Sunny today. High 72. Low 48. Sunshine again Thursday. High 73. Page A6 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2013
Angola, Indiana
GOOD MORNING Angola’s Fall Fest gets new name ANGOLA — The Go Angola Downtown Alliance announced Tuesday that Fall Fest — that will be held next month — has a new name: Autumn in Angola Festival. More food, craft and art vendors are needed for the three-day festival, Sept. 27-29. Volunteers and sponsor ships are needed. For details, contact Lee Anny Snyder at 668-0402 or Kim Bordner at 665-9920 or visit goangolain.com.
Prosecutor loads up for trials Council balks at designating money to new full-time positions BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcmedia.com
ANGOLA — Steuben County Prosecutor Mike Hess received funding from the Steuben County Council for additional staffing
needs on Tuesday. Hess told the council he needed an additional deputy and two more full-time support staff members because of mandated work from the state and a caseload that
includes five murder cases this year. Approved was $50,000 for Hess to use at his discretion for staffing. The money will come from the county’s riverboat casino fund. Hess had requested $50,000 for an additional full-time deputy prosecutor and $23,133 apiece for support staff. Had that request been granted, it would have amounted to an
FORT WAYNE — U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Howe, will sponsor a job fair Friday from 1-4 p.m. at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. More than 50 employers with nearly 1,000 jobs to fill are scheduled to attend the job fair in the Classic Ballroom of the Walb Student Union, 2010 E. Coliseum Boulevard, a news release said.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Members of the United Steelworkers union have voted to reject a proposed three-year contract that covers 2,400 workers at BF Goodrich facilities in Woodburn and Tuscaloosa, Ala. The USW said negotiations will resume today in Knoxville, Tenn. The union and the tire company had been working since June on a new collective bargaining agreement. The previous contract expired July 27. The BF Goodrich plant in Woodburn employs 1,580 workers.
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Index • Classified.............................................. B7-B8 Life.................................................................A5 Obituaries.....................................................A4 Opinion ........................................................B4 Sports.................................................... B1-B3 Weather........................................................A6 TV/Comics ..................................................B6 Vol. 156 No. 223
SEE COUNCIL, PAGE A6
BY JENNIFER DECKER jdecker@kpcmedia.com
Fort Wayne Community Schools pan grading system
Steelworkers reject Goodrich contract
additional 1 1/2 persons because a part-time position was going to be eliminated. Councilman Dan Caruso said it was critical that money be found to provide the additional staff for the prosecutor’s office. Were Hess to lose staff, much time would be spent training new personnel when major criminal cases are coming to the fore.
Angola budget guided by team
Stutzman sponsoring Fort Wayne job fair
FORT WAYNE (AP) — Leaders of Indiana’s largest school district have backed a resolution criticizing the state’s A-F grading system for schools and calling for a new means of recognizing performance and improvement. The Fort Wayne Community Schools board voted 6-1 Monday night in favor of the resolution expressing concerns about how the grades are calculated. The Fort Wayne resolution cites concerns that the A-F system tallied a school’s grade based on student scores on the standardized ISTEP exam without considering factors such as how many students are living in poverty, learning the English language or have special needs.
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PHOTOS BY MIKE MARTURELLO
Getting ready for school Volunteers fill up backpacks for less privileged students from Steuben County at Fairview Missionary Church on Tuesday. At the right, Project Help volunteer Nick LaRose fills a backpack for distribution. During this year’s back-to-school supply distribution, it was expected that more than the 800 students who received supplies last year would do so this year. A line snaked through the Fairview parking lot. Each student received a new backpack filled with supplies needed for their grade level and specific school, said Project Help Executive Director Sheri Frank. “They’re getting startups of everything,” said Jean Bienz, Angola, who helps coordinate the effort. The project, coordinated by Project Help, is funded by many organizations in the community. They included the Women’s Fund at the Steuben Community Foundation, Ashley-Hudson Fund, Fremont Fund, Beacon Financial Credit Union and the Steuben County Community Foundation. Panache Salon and Spa provided students vouchers for back to school haircuts.
ANGOLA — As he often does, Angola Mayor Dick Hickman again stressed the reason for the city’s sound financial shape is long-range planning and teamwork. Hickman presented the city’s proposed 2014 budget at a special meeting Monday. In doing so, he lauded advance planning by the city, Clerk-Treasurer Deb Twitchell, city department heads and members of the Common Council. “Businesses and our citizens cannot just survive in Angola, but have an opportunity to prosper. It all begins with our annual budgets and it ends with every department staying within those budgets,” he wrote in the budget’s introduction. Hickman acknowledged the proposed budget for total city, utility and pension funds is $15.4 million — 1 percent more than the 2013 budget of $15.3 million. Some public works projects the city would like to tackle next year include: adding a traffic signal for public safety vehicles, trail way emergency phones, a City Hall Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant front entry, Wendell Jacob Avenue SEE ANGOLA, PAGE A6
Orland annexes property BY AMY OBERLIN aoberlin@kpcmedia.com
26 Palestinians released before talks JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel released 26 Palestinian inmates, including many convicted in grisly killings, on the eve of long-stalled Mideast peace talks, angering families of those slain by the prisoners, who were welcomed as heroes in the West Bank and Gaza. Buses carrying the inmates departed the Ayalon prison in central Israel late Tuesday, a nighttime release that was aimed at preventing the spectacle of prisoners flashing victory signs as has happened in the past. Relatives of the victims, many with their hands painted red to symbolize what they say is the blood on the hands of the inmates, held protests throughout the day, and some protesters tried briefly to block the buses from leaving. The decision to release the men stirred anguish in Israel, where many Israelis view them as terrorists. Most of the prisoners were convicted of killings, including
Israeli civilians, soldiers and suspected Palestinian collaborators, while others were involved in attempted murder or kidnapping. Celebrations erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where thousands of Palestinian well-wishers awaited the buses’ arrival. Palestinians generally view the prisoners as heroes regardless of their acts, arguing they made personal sacrifices in the struggle for independence. Fireworks lit the sky in Gaza, where rival Hamas and Fatah supporters, including several masked gunmen, celebrated to the beat of drums. Some danced while others flashed victory signs and waved flags of the Palestinian factions. Cars with loudspeakers blasted nationalistic songs. “Today is a day of joy and happiness. I can’t wait until I hug my beloved son,” said Aicha Abu Setta, the 68-year-old mother of freed prisoner Alla Abu Setta.
“I am so excited that he will be free and he will spend his first night among us after more than 20 years,” she said, clutching a picture of her 43-year-old son, who was arrested in 1994, charged, along with his cousin, of killing a soldier. Palestinians hurled rocks at the Israeli military vehicles escorting the bus convoy as it reached the crossing to the West Bank after 1 a.m. In Ramallah, the released prisoners laid a wreath at the grave of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and were greeted by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas personally at the presidential compound. Tuesday’s release was part of an agreement brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to get Israel and the Palestinians back to the table for peace talks that had been paralyzed since 2008. In all, 104 convicts are to SEE TALKS, PAGE A6
ORLAND — The Orland Town Council annexed the southern portion of its industrial park into town jurisdiction at Monday night’s meeting. The 12 1/2-acre addition encompasses all of the Lord’s Seed property. The company, which has been in the location for the past several years, is in the process of expanding. There are a half dozen companies in the industrial complex, including Kain Tool, which announced its plans to expand earlier this year, garnering a tax abatement from the town for an estimated investment of $250,000 for a 10,000 square-foot-expansion and $170,000 in new machinery and equipment. In other recent industrial news, CTA Acoustics leased a 95,000-square-foot facility in 2012 to manufacture fiber insulation components for the automotive industry. The town has been working with the county to create a bypass for the park, hoping it will encourage more businesses to locate there.