THURSDAY January 9, 2014
Cow’s Choices
Inside Comment
Hannah predicts weekend winners
Where did all the kids go on snow days?
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Tall Order Colts set to try to slow down Brady
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Weather Cloudy, chance of snow, high 26. One inch accumulation possible. Low 24. Page A6 Kendallville, Indiana
GOOD MORNING Pence to speak to LaGrange chamber SHIPSHEWANA — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will visit Shipshewana today to speak at the LaGrange County Chamber of Commerce annual meeting and fifth annual member showcase. Doors at the Shipshewana Events Center will open at 10:30 a.m. for the event, and the luncheon is expected to begin at noon. Pence is the featured speaker. The meeting will include a look back at 2013 in the chamber’s year in review. Outgoing chamber president Rob Myers will make a few remarks, followed by presentation of the Chamber Member of the Year Award and Ambassador of the Year Award. The LaGrange County Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1956 and today serves 394 members.
Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
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County to seek FEMA aid for cleanup BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
ALBION — Noble County is working to put together information in hopes of getting federal assistance with the cost of cleaning up from the snowstorm that hit the county Sunday and Monday, the Noble County Board of Commissioners heard Wednesday. If the county can demonstrate that expenses for cleaning up from the snowstorm reach a certain threshold, it would make the area
eligible to be declared a disaster area by President Barack Obama, said Noble County Emergency Management Agency executive director Michael Newton. That declaration would make the county eligible to have up to 75 percent of its costs reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Newton said. The reimbursement would cover overtime for workers removing or plowing snow for a government agency or utility,
the application of sand or salt and Noble County EMS runs. It applies to “anything used to the snow fight,” Newton said. Agencies such as schools that hire someone to plow their snow can include that expense in the application, Newton said. Newton is gathering estimates from all county agencies and governmental units within the county. Those estimates have to be submitted by Friday, he said. The threshold for aid is approx-
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Info • The News Sun P.O. Box 39, 102 N. Main St. Kendallville, IN 46755 Telephone: (260) 347-0400 Fax: (260) 347-2693 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (260) 347-0400 or (800) 717-4679
Index
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Classifieds.................................B7-B8 Life..................................................... A3 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion ............................................. A5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 105 No. 8
imately $150,000 in expenses, Newton said. He believes the county may well be over that mark. Newton also warned commissioners there is a risk of some flooding as temperatures warm toward the weekend. The forecast includes about one-half inch of rain, he said. Newton said he doesn’t expect major flooding problems, but snow melt running over frozen ground probably will create some issues.
Christie in jam Alleged traffic scandal plagues possible GOP presidential candidate
regardless of the amount of time they were outside. East Noble School Corporation is committed to ensuring students receive appropriate and valuable instructional time; however, adding days at the end of the school year, after testing is completed, is not always time well spent.” Linson said with the early start to winter, the district anticipates many additional snow days that it will need to make up. She said the district will use Jan. 20 to make up Wednesday and Feb. 17 in place of today. East Noble announced Wednesday afternoon that its schools would not be open today. “We feel confident that there are many more snow cancellations to occur between now and spring. Not being required to make up Jan. 6 and 7 is very helpful,” Linson said. Prairie Heights superintendent Alan Middleton said his school district also will apply for the two-day waiver and probably will file for a waiver for any additional days the district is closed as
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A political furor surrounding Gov. Chris Christie intensified Wednesday with the release of emails and text messages that suggest one of his top aides deliberately created traffic jams in a New Jersey town last September to punish its mayor. “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly wrote in August to David Wildstein, a top Christie appointee on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “Got it,” Wildstein replied. A few weeks later, Wildstein closed two of three lanes connecting Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge, which runs between New Jersey and New York City. The shutdown caused major backups in Fort Lee — whose mayor had refused to endorse Christie for re-election last fall. The messages, obtained by The Associated Press and other news organizations Wednesday amid a state legislative investigation into the dirty-tricks allegations, do not directly implicate Christie in the lane closings. But they contradict Christie’s assertions that the closings were not punitive and that his staff was not involved. And Democrats seized on the material as more evidence that the potential Republican candidate for president in 2016 is a bully. The messages “indicate what we’ve come to expect from Gov. Christie — when people oppose him, he exacts retribution. When people question him, he belittles and snidely jokes. And when
SEE WAIVER, PAGE A6
SEE CHRISTIE, PAGE A6
Giffords skydives on shooting anniversary TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — In the three years since she was severely injured in a mass shooting at a political event, Gabrielle Giffords has made an impressive recovery, learned to walk again and founded a national political organization. On Wednesday, while others gathered for bell-ringing and flag-raising ceremonies, she marked the anniversary by skydiving. The former Arizona congresswoman waved and blew kisses to a crowd at a skydiving site between Phoenix and Tucson after landing without injury. She described the jump as a wonderful experience. Giffords’ husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, posted a picture of her landing on his Twitter account. “Happy she’s safe. So proud of her bravery,” he wrote. Jimmy Hatch, a former Navy SEAL who accompanied Giffords, said she was the least nervous person on the plane. Hatch said the group held hands and formed a circle shortly after exiting the aircraft and then made a line with Giffords in the middle.
75 cents
DENNIS NARTKER
North Side Elementary School custodian Ralph Helmkamp clears snow from the school’s sidewalks Wednesday. In spite of his prepara-
tion for students to return, East Noble schools remained closed today for the fourth day in a row.
Schools welcome waiver option DeKalb turning down offer, making up days BY KATHRYN BASSETT kbassett@kpcmedia.com
Area school superintendents have welcomed the news they won’t have to make up two days of school missed because of this week’s severe winter weather. But at least one northeast Indiana school district does not intend to apply for the waiver at this time, according Linson to its superintendent. Tuesday, the Indiana Department of Education said it would grant waivers to Indiana schools for snow days Monday and Tuesday. All northeast Indiana schools were closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. All Noble, DeKalb and Steuben county schools are closed today, while in LaGrange County, the Lakeland and Westview school
corporations had called a 2-hour delay as of Wednesday evening. “Each state superintendent has the flexibility to approve waivers from the 180 days. It is comforting to know that the current superintendent recognizes adverse and dangerous weather situations do exist and is willing to take a pro-active approach to help us deal with student safety,” said DeKalb Eastern superintendent Jeff Stephens. East Noble superintendent Ann Linson described the state’s offer to apply for a waiver as “a very pleasant and welcome surprise.” She said the district has applied for a waiver, but has not yet received an official approval. “Waivers have been in place for a very long time; however, most districts do not apply unless the situation is extreme and leaves the area completely helpless,” Linson said. “As for Monday and Tuesday, the low temperatures were so extreme that it was dangerous for schools to expect students to wait for buses or walk to school
Snow movers get break after nonstop work BY MATT GETTS mgetts@kpcmedia.com
ANGOLA — Finally Tuesday night, after almost four nonstop days, Robert Cook slept. Cook operates Cook’s Snow Service in Angola. When the worst of this week’s weather socked in pretty much everybody, Cook had three trucks and a skid loader working to unsock nearly 11 commercial clients in Steuben County. He called the storm, which dumped more than a foot of snow in northeastern Indiana from Sunday through Monday, the worst he’s seen in 15 years of plowing. Keeping those commercial clients clear required nonstop effort. He estimated he went 90 hours without any sleep. “I couldn’t function any more,” Cook said. “It’s horrible. It just becomes too dangerous to be out.” Brad Gehring can relate. The storm was the worst Gehring could remember, too. Gehring has owned Curb Appeal in Kendallville for the last 10 years. His company had two plow trucks, two skid loaders and a backhoe operating pretty much continuously. Putting together a string of
PATRICK REDMOND
Whether in town or in the rural areas, as on this road just outside Shipshewana, there was plenty
16-plus hour days takes a toll. “It’s not so much the body, it’s the mind,” Gehring said. “You write the date a hundred times and still can’t remember it.” Taking time off during such a stretch just isn’t possible. “They want to be open for business,” Cook said of his clients. “The liability issues come into
of snow for everyone to move or to try to get through.
play if somebody slips and falls.” Businesses that need to be open pretty much all the time need to be have their driveways and parking lots cleared. Factories need workers. Workers need places to park. Trucks need to get in to make deliveries and pick up finished products. “It gets to be very stressful,”
Gehring said. “Everybody wants you to be at the same place at the same time.” The snow removal business makes up roughly 30 percent of his company’s income, Gehring said. Curb Appeal also does excavating, hauling and construction. SEE MOVERS, PAGE A6