Ghoul Spectacular Page A2 Special events set for Saturday in Garrett
FRIDAY October 11, 2013
Girls Soccer Page B1 DeKalb girls advance to finals
Weather Partly cloudy today. High 74. Low tonight 49. Partly cloudy again Saturday. High 75.
The
Page A10
Auburn, Indiana
Average home bill rising $8-$14
Zombie events set for downtown Auburn AUBURN — Downtown Auburn will come alive with “zombified” events today from 5-10 p.m. DeKalb New Tech students have planned the second annual Zombie Invasion 5K in conjunction with the DeKalb Chamber Partnership and Downtown Auburn Business Association. The Zombie Invasion 5K race starts at 5:30 p.m. The entry fee is $10 per person and $25 per family. Walkers are welcome. The race already has 30 pre-registered participants. Along with the race, activities in downtown will include horsedrawn carriage rides, a special-effects booth, a creepy car cruise-in and archery tag. Librarians from the Third Place: A Teen Library will provide a “zombify your Barbie” booth and a “zombified” station, where participants can be made to look like zombies. All proceeds from the event will benefit the DeKalb Chamber Partnership’s College Scholarship Program. Students in the ninth-grade New Tech Visual and Verbal Communication program at DeKalb High School will showcase their work in “The Power of Words” from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Auburn Hotel on the southwest corner of the courthouse square.
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BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — The Auburn Board of Public Works and Safety on Thursday passed a resolution authorizing the first increases in city electricity rates since 1989. The rate adjustments must be approved by the Auburn City Council, which is expected to consider them at its Nov. 5 meeting.
The resolution would increase electricity rates for city utility customers by 8.92 percent on average, Mayor Norm Yoder explained. Depending on the class of service and numerous characteristics figured in, rates would increase from 1.39 percent to 20.08 percent, Yoder said. The new rates would translate to an increase of $8-$14 per month for the average residential
user, Yoder said. A resident who uses 500 kilowatt hours would see roughly an $8 increase, while a 1,000-kwh user would see around a $14 increase. Yoder said even with the proposed increases, Auburn rates still would be lower than customers pay in neighboring Indiana Michigan Power or NIPSCO territories. An adjustment is necessary after the city had its first cost-of-service study since 1973. It showed that when the economy dipped, electricity sales followed
Pillar of Success Award
suit, while the utility’s fixed costs continued to grow — a recipe for a rate increase. The resolution had been tabled by the Board of Works, which doubles as the city utilities board, since April as the city worked to determine the exact rate adjustment for each class of service so each pays its fair share. Yoder initially told the city council in April that rates would be increased 12.95 percent on average. A public hearing will be SEE AUBURN, PAGE A10
Senate balks at deal Reid dismisses debt-limit plan
WASHINGTON (AP) — Urgent efforts to prevent an economy-tanking national default rose and then retreated with astonishing swiftness on Thursday, as House Republicans softened their long-standing demands and the White House appeared agreeable to a compromise, only for Senate Democrats to declare it unacceptable. “Not going to happen,” declared Majority Leader Harry Reid, standing outside the White House after he and fellow Democrats met with President Barack Obama. Reid referred to a Republican plan to leave the 10-day partial TRINE UNIVERSITY PHOTO government shutdown in place As his wife, Patti, watches at left, Lynn Brooks Success Award at a ceremony Oct. 3. while raising the nation’s $16.7 of Auburn receives Trine University’s Pillar of trillion debt limit and triggering negotiations between the GOP and Obama over spending cuts and other issues. Heartened by any hint of progress, Wall Street chose to accentuate the positive. After ANGOLA — Trine University “Some might say he is a man Packaging Systems in Auburn, a days of decline, the Dow Jones presented its Pillar of Success of few words, but that those position he has held since 1996. industrial average soared 323 Award to an alumnus and trustee words can lead to transforHe is also president for Rieke’s points on hopes that the divided in a ceremony Oct. 3. mational change and positive parent company, TriMas Corp., government was taking steps to Lynn A. Brooks of Auburn, impact to those around him. He in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and avoid a default. Reid’s dismissive a 1975 graduate, learned he was is always one of sound judgment, managing director of TriMas comments at the White House the recipient of the Pillar of keen insight and instrumental Corp.’s Asian sourcing office. came at the end of the trading day. Success Award, one of Trine’s decision-making,” Earl D. Brooks and his wife, Patti, And despite Reid’s comments, highest honors, while watching Brooks II, Trine president, said along with Rieke Packaging some Republicans said they might a photo montage video that of Lynn Brooks. Systems, support the university look to him to add a provision highlighted pictures of him from The pillar award is given to through the Trine Fund, scholarreopening the government to any early childhood to the present. He people who provide vital support ship gala, scholarship golf outings, debt-limit increase the House received a standing ovation from to the university through their Trine’s Engineering publication passed. more than 200 guests when he commitment, loyalty and dedicaand the new Jim and Joan Bock The up-and-down day coincided came forward to accept his award tion. Center for Innovation and Biomed- with a dour warning from Treasury during the 18th annual Touchstone Lynn Brooks is president and ical Engineering. Secretary Jack Lew, who told SEE BROOKS, PAGE A10 SEE SENATE, PAGE A10 Donor Recognition Dinner. chief executive officer of Rieke
Trine University honors Brooks
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WATERLOO — “I still call him dad.” That’s what DeKalb County Prosecutor ClaraMary Winebrenner hears from some young girls who are molested by their fathers or stepfathers, she told a DeKalb County gathering Thursday. Winebrenner spoke at the 10th annual DeKalb County Domestic Violence Task Force Conference, held at New Hope Christian Church in Waterloo. This year’s event was attended by more than 100 people — a record number for the conference. Winebrenner shared details of several different child molesting cases she has investigated in
DeKalb County. “These girls are real. They exist,” Winebrenner said. “Kids often continue to love their offenders. That poses a perpetual problem for us and how we handle those cases.” Winebrenner described the case of a girl who was molested by her biological father. Winebrenner said the father was prosecuted regularly for marijuana use and later for other drugs. “Nobody suspected him of child molesting,” Winebrenner added. Winebrenner said the girl’s mother was not nurturing, and the father took care of the children in the family. Winebrenner said the man
would make his daughter watch pornography with him, and the molestation took place on a regular basis. The offenses came to light when a prayer note was found in a box at a youth center. It read, “Pray for a sad girl who got sexually abused by her father. That girl is me.” Authorities figured out who had written the note. The father confessed and cried, Winebrenner said. During depositions, the girl told Winebrenner she did not want to be there and that she missed her father, Winebrenner said. She told Winebrenner her father only molested her because he was high. She said he was a good father
“Pray for a sad girl who got sexually abused by her father. That girl is me.” Note from molesting victim
• and that she wanted him home, Winebrenner added. “Sometimes he is otherwise a good dad,” Winebrenner said. By revealing the molestation, the girl lost her family and her home and was moved to another school. SEE MOLESTING, PAGE A10
ANNUAL SENIOR BASH 6 $
Six $50 Cash Prizes Courtesy of MTI Foundation
Sponsored by: The Laurels Of DeKalb & DeKalb County Council on Aging
Thursday, October 24 • 5:30 PM (Doors Open 4:45 PM) National Military History Center • 5634 CR 11A, Auburn
Junk Yard Band Buy your
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1800 E. 7th St., Auburn
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MC: WOWO’s Charly Butcher