THURSDAY December 27, 2012
VIP Call
Commentary
Angola soldier talks to Obama
Colts
New Year’s goals, not resolutions
Page A2
Snow can’t stop Pagano
Page B4
Page B1
Weather 20 percent chance of more snow today with a high of 29 and a low of 14. Page A6 Kendallville, Indiana
GOOD MORNING Auburn man to ride Rose Parade float AUBURN — Lions Club International president Wayne Madden of Auburn,will ride in the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, Calif. Madden will ride on float 57 with his wife, Linda, their daughter and two grandsons. Each of the major service organizations, Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary will have floats in the Madden parade, Madden said. “Each international president rides on the float,” he added. Madden began his oneyear term as president of the international organization in June. Since then, he has traveled to countries such as Malaysia, Nigeria and Indonesia visiting local Lions clubs. Madden said he enjoys the opportunity to meet Lions from all over the world. “I get to see the various projects they (Lions) do all over their communities to help people,” he said. When his term as president ends, Madden will transition into a role of chairman for the Lions Club International Foundation. Lions Clubs International is a service-based organization that helps communities around the world with projects such as fighting measles and blindness, especially in children.
H.W. Bush’s fever worsens HOUSTON (AP) — A “stubborn” fever that kept former President George H.W. Bush in a hospital over Christmas has gotten worse, and doctors have put him on a liquids-only diet, his spokesman said Wednesday. Jim McGrath, Bush’s spokesman in Houston, had said earlier in the day that the fever had gone away, but he later corrected himself. “It’s an elevated fever, so it’s actually gone up in the last day or two,” McGrath told The Associated Press. “It’s a stubborn fever that won’t go away.” Doctors at Methodist Hospital in Houston have run tests and are treating the fever with Tylenol, but they still haven’t nailed down a cause, McGrath said.
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
Inside • Classified ................................B6-B8 Deaths ............................................A4 Opinion ..........................................B4 Sports ......................................B1-B3 Life ..................................................A5 TV, Comics, Dear Abby ..............B5 Vol. 103 No. 356
Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
kpcnews.com
75 cents
Visitors bureau hires new director KENDALLVILLE — The Noble County Convention and Visitors Bureau said Wednesday that it has hired Sheryl A. Prentice as executive director effective Jan. 7, 2013. Prentice has served northeast Indiana as a newspaper reporter and editor, marketing director for the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum, and as a longtime board member of the Auburn Arts Commission. The bureau said her many accomplishments and awardwinning design and writing skills will aid her as she takes the leadership role to develop relationships with and support the tourism efforts
of the major tourism attractions, festivals, lodging facilities and communities in Noble County. Prentice replaces outgoing director John Bry, who resigned the position effective at the end of 2012. As Bry leaves this post, he will begin Prentice a different role with the visitors bureau. Bry will transition into a new position created to oversee community asset development. “We are excited to see our vision becoming reality,” said Lori Gagen,
board president. “John brought his extraordinary knowledge and experience into Noble County three years ago and has helped build a forward-thinking strategy that challenges the traditional role of a tourism bureau. His new role, focusing on asset development, will allow us to put more time and energy on tourism initiatives such as the Main Street program, Farm to Fork, Green Triangle, Tombstone Trail, and others he has introduced over the past couple of years.” While Bry continues to identify and help develop the county’s tourism assets, Prentice will be focused primarily on more traditional promotional and
marketing efforts that help people discover Noble County and, ideally, put “heads in beds” at the county’s accommodations, a news release said..Funding for the traditional marketing efforts is derived from the county innkeeper’s tax, collected from people who stay in area hotels, bed-and-breakfasts and cabins. Funding for the addition of a second paid position at the visitors bureau, focusing on asset development, is initially being made possible by County Economic Development Income Tax (CEDIT) funds and a $30,000 matching grant from the Olive B. Cole Foundation. SEE PRENTICE, PAGE A6
Village at risk? Meeting set to discuss Main Street’s Apple Festival effort BY DENNIS NARTKER dennisn@kpcnews.net
CHAD KLINE
Shane Campbell of Kendallville rides his bike down Sherman Street in Kendallville during a heavy snowfall Wednesday afternoon. Snow
blanketed the area for the first major snowfall this winter.
Area blanketed by winter storm BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcnews.net
The season’s first winter storm dumped several inches of snow on the region Wednesday, creating hazardous road conditions that slowed traffic and kept tow trucks and snow plows busy morning to night. Under a National Weather Service-issued Winter Weather Advisory, the area saw snow fall totals that ranged from 4.5 inches in the southern portion and 3.5 inches more north. Frigid temperatures and gusting winds made the going difficult for motorists. The major routes through the four-county region – I-69, S.R. 3 and the Indiana Toll Road – saw very slow-moving traffic throughout the day as plow trucks scrambled to keep the roadway clear under steadily-falling snow and motorists just tried to keep their vehicles on the roadways. A KPC Media Group reporter
traveling from Angola to Fort Wayne on I-69 Wednesday afternoon reported seeing 11 slideoffs and two property damage crashes. The conditions kept law enforcement officers busy throughout the day. Noble County Sheriff’s Department reported two property damage crashes and five slide-offs associated with treacherous road conditions, as of 7 p.m. Wednesday. One of those slideoffs briefly closed southbound S.R. 3 south of Kendallville around 5:30 p.m. while a tow truck pulled an SUV out of a deep ditch. Officers in Steuben County worked 15 crashes Wednesday, according to statistics from the county’s communication center. One of those crashes was a minor personal injury crash. DeKalb County Central Communications reported roughly
25 weather-related incidences Wednesday, with the majority being slide-offs with no damage. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department reported one person was injured in a three-vehicle crash that occurred at 2:48 p.m. In that incident, a 1996 Jeep being driven southbound on C.R. 7 by Spencer Diederich, 25, of Garrett was unable to stop at a stop sign where the road intersects with S.R. 8. The Jeep struck a 2005 Chevy that was being driven westbound on S.R. 8 by Sherry L. Stacy, 60, of Rome City. The impact sent Stacy’s vehicle into the eastbound lane where it was struck by an eastbound 2000 Saturn being driven by Daniel S. Thomas, 54, of Albion. Thomas was taken to DeKalb Health by DeKalb EMS with a complaint of ankle pain. Assisting county police at the scene were the Garrett Fire and Police departments.
New Albion business’ owner linked to IRS raid BY BOB BRALEY bobb@kpcnews.net
ALBION — The owner of a new business in Albion, California Dreamin, also owns two businesses that were raided by Internal Revenue Service investigators and Indiana State Police officers in September. One of the businesses raided was another location of California Dreamin in North Webster. Also
raided during the investigation were Stimmelator’s Gentlemen’s Club in North Webster and the home of the businesses’ owner, Samuel S. Stimmel, 63, of North Webster. The one thing all three California Dreamin locations have in common is selling a brand of potpourri that Stimmel described as “completely legal.” California Dreamin’s Albion
location is at 120 W. Main St. in the former office of Dr. William Fitzkee, directly across the street from the Noble County Courthouse square and two doors to the west of the office of Northeastern Indiana CASA. “It’s a variety store,” said Stimmel. While a paper sign on the door said the business sells novelties, gifts and clothes, it will SEE RAID, PAGE A6
KENDALLVILLE — The Apple Festival of Kendallville’s Main Street Village in the downtown business district may be no more. Don Gura, president of the Downtown Business Association, announced this week the association is meeting Jan. 8 to consider discontinuing the Main Street Village. Since 1992, the village has been a fixture of the annual Apple Festival of Kendallville, held on the first weekend in October. Gura said the final decision will be made at a meeting of association members Tuesday, Jan. 8, at 8 a.m. at Joanna’s Dealicious Treats, 201 S. Main St. “The hours upon hours of planning and the weekend setup and cleanup with a handful of volunteers has really just reached its limit,” Gura said. Main Street Village was started in 1992 by former downtown store owner Sandi Fischer and a group of downtown merchants to support and promote the downtown. At the time the Redevelopment Commission, the Local Development Corp. and the Main Street Business Association were looking at ways to revitalize the downtown area through the state’s Main Street program. The first Main Street Village was held in the three blocks between Rush and Mitchell streets. More than 25 vendors set up on Main Street, and 20 downtown businesses participated with their employees in period costumes and windows decorated for the 18th-to-19th-century theme. Buses carried festivalgoers between the festival’s Noble County Fairgrounds venue and the downtown. Gura said interest in the Main Street Village has declined recently, and so has financial support. There was no coordinator this year. A committee SEE VILLAGE, PAGE A6
New Indiana congresswoman has local ties Brooks’ parents live in LaGrange County BY DAVE KURTZ dkurtz@kpcnews.net
WASHINGTON — When U.S. Rep-elect Susan Brooks takes her seat in Congress next week, the House will have two representatives with deep roots in northeast Indiana. Republican Rep. Marlin Stutzman, of course, represents the local 3rd District and lives in LaGrange County. Brooks, 51, a newly elected Republican from Carmel, claims strong family ties to Garrett and the
lakes area near Rome City and Wolcottville. “It’s a place that we love coming home to, and we feel very much a part of northern Indiana,” said Brooks, whose parents Bob and Marilyn Wiant, live on Adams Lake northeast of Wolcottville. Born in Auburn, Brooks grew up in the Fort Wayne area and graduated from Homestead High School, where her father was the head football coach at the time. “When she was selected for Girls
State back in high school, she came home and thought she would like to become a lawyer,” Brooks’ mother said. “She set high goals for herself.” “She was very committed to things Brooks even way back in high school,” her father said. Bob Wiant left Homestead to become football coach at East Noble High School in the 1980s, while
Brooks was in college at Miami University of Ohio. Brooks came home during the summer of 1982 to work at Kraft Foods in Kendallville. “It was a great experience, actually,” she said about her secondshift job at Kraft, “I had never worked in a manufacturing facility before, so I learned a bit about manufacturing, about process and teamwork.” She still remembers the company giving everyone a steak dinner as a reward for a safety achievement. SEE CONGRESSWOMAN, PAGE A6