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July 29, 2016 FREE
Festival arrests remain low for 8th year
By Whitney Wright wwright@kpcmedia.com
The 2016 Three Rivers Festival had five arrests this summer: two for possession of controlled substances, two for trespassing and one concerning a warrant. Five arrests are two more than the year prior but significantly less than the festival saw two decades ago. In under 10 years, arrests at the Three Rivers Festival decreased from its all-time peak of 46 arrests in 1995 to its lowest amount in 2003 with only two arrests, according to the Fort Wayne Police Department. “Years ago, arrests were a problem because it [the Three Rivers Festival] was the only thing to do in the summer and people would drink a lot,” said Jack Hammer, executive director of the Three Rivers Festival. Alcohol seems to be the main contributing factor to previous and recent problems at the festival, he added. Before the festival moved to its current location, Headwa-
Photo By Ray Steup
A peek at history ACPL offers a glance inside the room of rare and valuable materials In the lower level of the Allen County Public Library’s main building is a locked and secured room that is kept at a cool 55 degrees Fahrenheit and 55 percent humidity. It uses non-ultraviolet lighting that dilutes color. A waterless fire extinguisher is in place. Recharging the extinguisher would cost $65,000. This space, the “Fine Books Room,” holds the ACPL’s rare and expensive collections of histories, biographies, literature, poetry, documents, pictures and portfolios that the ACPL has acquired since its opening in 1895, said the senior manager of
special collections, Curt Witcher, while giving a tour July 13. The room is composed of two rooms: the anteroom and the vault. The anteroom contains cabinets with specialized locking systems and display cases, one of which holds the oldest item in the collection, a 1624 German Bible. The vault can be entered only through first entering the anteroom and is also kept locked. Presidential collection Roughly half of the vault is filled with material related to Abraham Lincoln. Much of it is original documents, pictures and letters from and to the 16th president acquired from the original Lincoln family albums as part of
the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection. With the current preservation technologies used at ACPL, the Lincoln album items in the vault will likely be preserved for roughly 750 years. The other half of the items in the vault is an eclectic grouping of materials, many of which are in the vault for reasons other than age. One of the books was actually only published in 2013, but is considered rare because of the autographs inside. The book “Genois Wilson, Firefighter: She Dared to be First,” a children’s book about the first black female firefighter in Fort Wayne — is signed by both the author, Carol Butler, and See RARE, Page A14
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By Whitney Wright
ters Park, the event was spread across town. The rides were at the Coliseum, venues were all over downtown and the festival’s beer tents were on the landing, along with multiple other beer tents run by civilians looking to make some cash. “Columbia Street used to be beer tent after beer tent. Whenever you mix alcohol with a large amount of people, it’s a cause for trouble,” said Mike Joyner, spokesman for the police department. “Security measures and resources were too spread out and ineffective.” One of the most vital factors in decreasing arrests was when the festival became centralized in Headwaters Park. Creating a destination The plans to build Headwaters Park truly began as a means to stop Fort Wayne’s rivers from flooding. The idea for the park originated in 1912, but became a serious discussion after the floods of 1982 and 1985. Eric Kuhne, of Eric R. Kuhne and Associates, was commissioned by Fort Wayne’s mayor at the
Three Rivers Festival arrest history Year 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
No. of arrests 44 46 24 8 27 20 9 4 3 2 9 10 16 13 12 9 3 6 4 2 4 3 5
Source: Fort Wayne Police Department
time, Winfield Moses, to design the park to alleviate flood damage downtown but also work as a central location for city festivals, said Councilman GeofSee ARRESTS, Page A13