Auburn Reporter, December 26, 2014

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Sports | A preview of the Trojans, Lions and Ravens wrestling teams [15-16]

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2014

Big mistake: Owner gets a $6, 281 bill for license renewal BY ROBERT WHALE rwhale@auburn-reporter.com

Katelyn Cooper points her viewfinder at a Galapagos Fur Seal during her week long trip to the Galapagos Islands. Cooper, a 14-yearold freshman at Auburn Mountainview High School, is already an established nature photographer. COURTESY PHOTO, Cooper Family

PHOTOGRAPHY COMES NATURALLY Auburn teen captures award-winning images BY SHAWN SKAGER sskager@auburn-reporter.com

Katelyn Cooper

It didn’t take Katelyn Cooper long to find her passion. When she was only 3, Katelyn’s

parents put a Fisher Price camera in her hands. The camera would capture her imagination. “I started lining up and taking perspective shots,” said Katelyn, an Auburn Mountainview High School freshman.

[ more COOPER page 6 ]

David Comstock opened the envelope from the City of Auburn on Thursday morning at his bookstore on East Main Street. What he found inside was enough to give him a heart attack. While the notice didn’t induce myocardial infarction, it did speed him, furious, down the block to Auburn City Hall, hot for an answer. Exactly why, he asked a City permit technician, did he owe the City of Auburn $6,281 to renew his Auburn Business License – a figure based on square footage – 10 times what he should have paid? Several years ago, the City tied the business license to the Auburn Downtown Association assessment, but this with the cap set at $1,500 a year? Turns out it was all a big mistake. “This was the explanation I finally got,” a much re-

Physical therapist retires after long career, copes with Alzheimer’s BY MARK KLAAS mklaas@auburn-reporter.com

For 30 years, Physical Therapist Nancy Johnson’s cheerful disposition and big heart have brought comfort and relief to her patients. Easing the pain, rehabilitating

the body and strengthening the souls of others is a rewarding job, a wonderful profession, said the 53-year-old Auburn woman. “I love what I do, I absolutely love it,” a smiling Johnson said, fidgeting in her tidy, tiny office at Lakeland Sports & Spine Physical Therapy. But Johnson was dealt a severe

blow on July 17, 2013, the day doctors told her she had earlyonset Alzheimer’s. The devastating disease is rarely diagnosed in people younger than age 65, but as Johnson quickly realized, Alzheimer’s is not just a disease of old age. More than five million people

DON’T SITGET FIT

City of Auburn Parks, Arts & Recreation Classes & Leagues

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in the U.S. live with Alzheimer’s, a brain disease that robs them of their ability to think and remember. Only 5 percent of those with Alzheimer’s develop it in their early-to-mid 50s, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. [ more JOHNSON page 6 ]

INSIDE: Auburn Valley Creative Arts group searches for a bigger place to grow, page 2

lieved Comstock said upon returning to his business, offending letter in hand, and a revised figure in ink thereon – $686. “They had written a new program – I don’t know if they changed computers or what the reason was – but the guy had made an error, and the computer took the total for the last 10 years. So the downtown business owners got a 10-year total as the amount that they owe now,” Comstock said. The City told Comstock it hoped to send out the corrected forms Thursday afternoon. A quick check of downtown businesses revealed that most owners had not yet received the errant notices in the mail, and because of that their hearts and [ more MISTAKE page 2 ]

Nancy Johnson is prepared to take on early-onset Alzheimer’s and stay active in the community. MARK KLAAS,

Auburn Reporter

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