Thursday & Friday,
Tasty Treats
Inside Comment
Homemakers to host annual festival
Five Straight
Recovering addict finds way to help others
Page A8
Watson leads Pacers to victory
Page A5
Page B1
Nov. 28 & 29, 2013
HOLIDAY EDITION Weather Cloudy, high 31. Tonight’s low 20. Page A11
GOOD MORNING Luckey Museum holiday celebration to begin Saturday WOLF LAKE — The Luckey Hospital Museum will offer its Musical Christmas in the Country starting Saturday. The hospital did not have music boxes when it operated, but will have a special exhibit for the holiday season. Among items on display will be a rare and unique radio and musical automatons playing and moving to Christmas music. The hospital’s original surgery room has been restored to its 1930s look. The delivery room is set up as it was from 1930 to 1957. The iron lung is set up to care for polio patients in the style of the 1950s. Musical Christmas in the Country will be open Saturdays, Nov. 30 and Dec. 7, and Sundays, Dec. 1 and 8, from 1-4 p.m. Admission costs $5. Group tours are available by appointment by calling 635-2490 or 693-3788. The museum is at the corner of S.R. 109 and U.S. 33 in Wolf Lake.
kkpcnews.com
Kendallville, Indiana
$1.25
Small businesses to have their day BY LINDA LIPP llipp@kpcmedia.com
They won’t be open on Thanksgiving, and they can’t afford to offer the kind of door-buster holiday bargains the chain stores do, but small, independent merchants are luring customers by offering joint promotions, niche products and a level of service the majors can’t match. “With us, the building of the relationship is first and foremost,” said Kristi Moeller, owner of Moe’s Bikes & More in Auburn. Moe’s is one of a number of northeast Indiana businesses participating in Small Business Saturday this weekend. This is the fourth year for the American
Express Co. promotion nationwide, and the second year for Moeller. “It was not as good as we hoped it would be last year, but then it’s still fairly new. This year, it seems like people are talking more about it,” she said. Morris Barker of Barker’s Jewelry in Kendallville agreed with Moeller that small businesses can offer customers relationships that the bigger box stores can’t. “In my business, the relationship is more personal,” Barker said. “Because we get to know our customers, we may end up serving generations of the same family.” When customers come into his store, Barker said, he usually
“Because we get to know our customers, we may end up serving generations of the same family.” Morris Barker Barker’s Jewelry, Kendallville
• greets them by their name, and they talk about what’s going on in their lives. “It’s a friendly relationship. I don’t pressure people to buy
Small business use put on hold for year due to site problems
CHAD KLINE
From left, Nolan Rhoades, Lily Meyer and Aaronessa Vanderpool paint the giant Christmas card they and two other fourth-graders at Avilla
Elementary School are making for the Bixler Lake Park Community Greetings drive-through. The event starts Saturday.
Christmas drive-through to get community into spirit of season BY DENNIS NARTKER AND BOB BRALEY dnartker@kpcmedia.com bbraley@kpcmedia.com
KENDALLVILLE — The fourth annual Community Christmas Greetings drive-through in the Bixler Lake Park campground opens Saturday night with the lighting of a community Christmas Wish tree. The popular free activity, sponsored by the Kendallville Park and Recreation Department, showcases 66 plywood board Christmas greeting cards, including 46 new ones, designed and decorated by students in
Kendallville, Avilla, Rome City and Albion; children from area day cares; and organizations. “It captures the spirit of Kendallville’s hometown holiday appeal,” said organizer Dawn McGahen, the park department’s recreation director. While driving through the campground displays, visitors can listen through their vehicle radios to local young people singing Christmas carols. Saturday at 6 p.m., everyone is invited to the campground for the community lighting of the tree and the spotlights on the cards.
ONLINE CALENDAR Find out what’s going on in the area this weekend kpcnews.com
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..................................C5-C6 Life..................................................... A8 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion ............................................. A5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather..........................................A11 TV/Comics .......................................C4 Vol. 104 No. 328
SEE SMALL BUSINESS, PAGE A11
Another health delay
Gunthorp Farms takes turkeys to Chicago mayor MONGO — Two turkeys raised at Gunthorp Farms have been hand-delivered to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for Thanksgiving. The 17-pound birds were dressed out Monday and delivered fresh to the mayor’s fifth-floor office in Chicago’s City Hall Tuesday afternoon. “We took them right into his office,” said Greg Gunthorp, owner of Gunthorp Farms, 435 N. 850 E, LaGrange. Gunthorp said he became acquainted with Emanuel this fall while working at a downtown Germanfest. Along with the turkeys, Gunthorp sent the mayor a boneless, skin-on turkey breast and several pounds of Gunthorp’s farm sausage. Gunthorp Farms locally produces pork, turkey, chicken and ducks, as well as smoked products such as bacon. Gunthorp Farms is a major supplier of those products to many chefs at high-end restaurants in Chicago.
something,” he said. At Christianson Jewelers in Kendallville, David Christianson said this time of the year, customers are looking for unique items for gifts that small businesses can offer. “We have a lot of single items, but not a lot of the same thing like the bigger stores,” Christianson said. His store doesn’t have the crowds of shoppers, but his customers will know they are being served by store employees who are very knowledgeable about the jewelry business and what’s available, he said. Small businesses also support
Home market stronger
Park staff and volunteers have decorated the campground with Christmas lights. “We will light the tree and the cards and then walk through the display singing Christmas carols led by East Noble senior show choir member Josh Ogle, one of the leading stars of East Noble Theatre’s production of the musical ‘Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat’ that opens next week,” said McGahen. An added feature this year will be red bows with messages. Red bows may be purchased for SEE DRIVE-THROUGH, PAGE A11
CHICAGO (AP) — The Obama administration is delaying yet another aspect of the health care law, putting off until next November the launch of an online portal to the health insurance marketplace for small businesses. The move, announced Wednesday, was needed because repairs are still under way to the troubled HealthCare.gov website, which is the primary way for individuals to apply for insurance, and that has priority, federal officials said. In a conference call with reporters, administration officials said employers who want to buy marketplace plans for their workers now will need to go through an agent, broker or insurance company this year, instead of using the government website. The administration said the plan will still allow small businesses to buy coverage but avoid slowing technical repairs to the hobbled federal online site. Under the law, most small businesses do not have to provide coverage. But firms with 50 or more employees face a mandate to offer insurance or risk fines from the government in 2015. The HealthCare.gov site, where individuals without employer-sponsored health care can shop for insurance, is now smoothly handling 25,000 users at the same time and is on track to meet its SEE DELAY, PAGE A11
Travelers slowed, not stopped
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A wet and blustery storm along the East Coast made driving hazardous and tangled up hundreds of flights Wednesday in the middle of the Thanksgiving travel frenzy but didn’t cause the all-out gridlock many had feared. INDIANAPOLIS — The Many travelers marveled at existing home market in Indiana is how orderly and anxiety-free showing strong signs of recovery, the airports were during what is said the president of the Indiana typically one of the busiest days of Association of Realtors. the year. The number of existing, singleOne big question lingered family homes sold statewide last in New York: Will high winds month increased 3.7 percent when ground Snoopy and the other giant compared with October 2012. The cartoon-character balloons at the median sale price of those 6,318 Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving homes is $121,000 — a 3 percent Day? increase from the same month last The storm for the most part year, said the monthly Indiana Real unleashed wind-driven rain Estate Markets Report released by along the Northeast’s heavily the association Tuesday. populated Interstate 95 corridor “With just two months left in from Richmond, Va., to the tip of the year, it’s safe to say 2013 has Maine. been remarkable for residential real Emerging from the weather estate,” said Kevin Kirkpatrick, gantlet was Katie Fleisher, who 2013 president of the state associmade it by car from Portsmouth, ation. “Significant gains in both N.H., through rain and fog to SEE STRONGER, PAGE A11 Boston’s Logan Airport with
AP
William Witters of Valparaiso waits for a ride in a wheelchair after passing through security at Chicago Midway International Airport Tuesday. Thanksgiving travelers scrambled to book earlier flights Tuesday to avoid a sprawling storm bearing down on the East Coast with a messy mix of snow, rain and wind.
little trouble and discovered to her amazement that the panicked, cranky crowds she expected were
nonexistent. “We thought it would be busier SEE TRAVELERS, PAGE A11