The Star - November 19, 2013

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TUESDAY November 19, 2013

Basketball Outlook Page B2 Barons, Blazers looking for success

Stepping Down Page A2 DeKalb public defender takes new job

Weather Sunny skies today. High 43. Low 27. Partly cloudy Wednesday. High 47. Low 32 Page A6

The Auburn, Indiana

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Alerts saved lives

GOOD MORNING

Storm outbreak leaves eight dead

DeKalb C.R. 4 and the DeKalbSteuben county line, Dreibelbis said. Crews from LaGrange REMC and Northeastern REMC of Columbia City helped repair the poles, and by late morning Monday, only 73 customers remained without electricity, Dreibelbis said. “They did a tremendous job last night,” Newton said about the utility repair crews. In LaGrange County, the Indian Lakes substation went down during the storm, leaving 1,700 customers of LaGrange REMC without power, Dreibelbis said.

WASHINGTON, Ill. (AP) — When a cluster of violent thunderstorms began marching across the Midwest, forecasters were able to draw a bright line across a map showing where the worst of the weather would go. Their uncannily accurate predictions, combined with television and radio warnings, text-message alerts and storm sirens, almost certainly saved lives when rare late-season tornadoes dropped out of a dark autumn sky. Although the storms howled across 12 states and flattened entire neighborhoods within a matter of minutes, the death toll stood at just eight. By Monday, another more prosaic reason for the relatively low death toll came to light: In the hardest-hit town, most families were in church. “I don’t think we had one church damaged,” said Gary Manier, mayor of Washington, Ill., a town of 16,000 about 140 miles southwest of Chicago. The tornado cut a path about an eighth of a mile wide from one side of Washington to the other and damaged or destroyed as many as 500 homes. Daniel Bennett was officiating Sunday service before 600 to 700

SEE DAMAGE, PAGE A6

SEE ALERTS, PAGE A6

Gift Guide inside Northeast Indiana becomes a magical, festive place during the holiday season, and we at KPC Media Group hope to help readers enjoy everything our area has to offer by providing this special guide.

PATRICK REDMOND

High winds Sunday blew a portion of the roof off the Dollar General Store on LaGrange’s south side.

Area man allegedly held captive, beaten FORT WAYNE — An arrest warrant was issued Monday in the case of a man who allegedly was held captive and beaten for three hours, our news partner, NewsChannel 15, reports. Police said Justin Dawson, 18, along with five other suspects went to Coventry Court Town Homes to confront James “JJ” Oldham Jr. on Nov. 8. Dawson allgedly stood as a lookout while four suspects chased Oldham and began kicking and punching him. Oldham then was taken to an unknown location and held captive for three hours. He was beaten by the six suspects over the three-hour period, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

Church sends food to Philippines FORT WAYNE (AP) — While churches around the world prayed for the typhoon-torn Philippines on Sunday morning, volunteers at Trinity English Lutheran Church in downtown Fort Wayne got a timely opportunity to offer hands-on help. Trinity English partnered with a local chapter of a hunger relief program called Kids Against Hunger to pack and send three skids of food — more than 21,000 meals.

PHOTO GALLERIES See photo highlights from area girls basketball games kpcnews.com Multimedia > Photo Galleries

Info • The Star 118 W. Ninth St. Auburn, IN 46706 Auburn: (260) 925-2611 Fax: (260) 925-2625 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (toll free) (800) 717-4679

Index

Classifieds.................................B6-B8 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B5 Vol. 101 No. 319

Area escapes major damage Storm hits Fairfield Township hard FROM STAFF REPORTS

Northeast Indiana escaped with relatively little damage from Sunday’s storms that devastated many areas of the state, officials said. Power outages caused by high winds affected thousands of customers in the region, however. Only one home in Noble County sustained serious damage, when high winds took the roof off a house on C.R. 1000N northeast of Kendallville, said Mick Newton, Noble County emergency management

director. Wind also blew the roof off a barn on C.R. 1100N, a mile northeast of the damaged house, Newton said. Immediately to the east, winds snapped off 26 power transmission poles in Fairfield Township of northwestern DeKalb County, said Kevin Dreibelbis, spokesman for Noble REMC. Damage to the poles caused power outages for nearly 2,000 customers on both sides of the Noble-DeKalb county line. Most of the broken poles were near

Photo exhibit opens at Garrett Museum of Art FROM STAFF REPORTS

GARRETT — The Garrett Museum of Art opened its latest exhibit, “Beauty,” with a reception Friday. More than 35 area photographers submitted entries for the juried show that will continue through Dec. 22. Forrest VanGundy of Golden Lake near Angola won first place with his entry, “Abstract Weeds.” VanGundy said his interest in photography began some 40 years ago, but he quit about 10 years later. He recently retired and returned to his hobby about four years ago. VanGundy’s winning entry was shot with a Nikon D70 camera. He said he did not use much manipulation to create his award-winning photo. He frames all of his own works. He was surprised by which photo was selected as the winner from his three entries. VanGundy has shown his photos at other shows, and he is proud to have three entries entered in the recent Clark Gallery Photography Show at the Honeywell Center in Wabash. “I got in!” he said. Jim Gabbard, from the Visual

Communication and Design department and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, and Garrett High School art instructor Mark Ober served as judges for the exhibit. Gabbard said they judged entries for color harmony, technical excellence and story each photo portrayed. Craig Vespe of Fort Wayne captured second place with his photo, “Rainbow Eucalyptus.” The third-place winner was Rich Manalis, also of Fort Wayne, for “To Life,” an abstract image of Goat’s Beard seeds. He also won an honorable mention for his “Still Life” entry. Both use macro-photography to delve inside an image that a normal viewer might not observe with the naked eye. Other honorable mention awards were presented to Lauren M. Davis for “Water Series,” Camille Kruse for “Morning Portrait,” Rachel Vonn for “Freedom,” and Megan Bauermeister for “The Eye of the Beholder.” The museum is at the corner of King and Randolph streets in downtown Garrett. For more information, visit garrettmuseumofart.org.

SUE CARPENTER

Forrest VanGundy of Golden Lake won first place in a photography exhibit at the Garrett Museum of Art with his entry, “Abstract Weeds,” above, left.

Commissioners hear update on airport status BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com

AUBURN — DeKalb County Airport officials met with the county commissioners Monday, as requested, to discuss the airport’s future plans. The meeting came as the term of Airport Authority president Brad Stump is set to expire at year’s end. Airport manager Russ Couchman has asked the commissioners to reappoint Stump, but the commissioners – who have not hesitated to voice displeasure with decisions of the airport and its board — asked to meet with both men before deciding on an

appointment to learn the airport’s plan for the future. The meeting ended without a decision. Couchman spoke for nearly an hour with a PowerPoint presentation, detailing the airport’s growth since 1990. Couchman then moved to a 20-year Airport Layout Plan, which is in the hands of the Federal Aviation Administration for review. The plan includes potential hangars built on the south grounds of the airport with an entrance from C.R. 427. It also includes a 2,000-foot runway extension project, which is in motion now.

A proposed cross-wind runway has been stricken from the plan, and land that had been eyed for that could be leased, Couchman detailed. “Really, if you want to know where we’re going, it’s the same place we’ve been,” Couchman told the commissioners. “There’s really no surprises.” Commissioner Randy Deetz, saying he was thankful for the presentation, said he wanted to discuss board appointments and the hotly contested relocation of American Electric Power lines near the airport. With a full agenda, there was not enough time

“We’ve been wanting this, the direction of where the airport’s going.” Randy Deetz County Commissioner

• to touch on those topics, Deetz said. Deetz added that with regard SEE AIRPORT, PAGE A6


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