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Serving DeKalb County since 1879
North Shore............8 Hiawatha ............. 20
Genoa-Kingston...27 Rockford Luth. .....29
Saturday-Sunday, September 7-8, 2013
DeKalb...................34 Hampshire............35
N. Lawndale......... 20 Sycamore .............54
Im. Conception .... 14 Kaneland...............45
Complete Friday night football coverage in Sports, B1; and online at Daily-Chronicle.com/DCPreps
D-428 leader search top priority Current superintendent to leave DeKalb-based school district at end of June By CHRIS BURROWS cburrows@shawmedia.com DeKALB – With a new teachers’ contract now complete, DeKalb School District 428 board members are turning their focus to finding a replacement for Superintendent Jim Briscoe, who will retire at the end of the school year.
“With teaching negotiations going on, that was on the back burner, but now it’s a No. 1 priority,” school board President Tom Matya said Friday. Briscoe filed retirement paperwork with the district in June and the board accepted his resignation, effective when his contract expires at the end of next June. Matya said the board had
shelved the search process as it focused on contract negotiations with teachers, but could get going on the matter as soon as next week. “What we’ve done over the past couple weeks, we’ve taken a look at the job description,” Matya said. “We’re doing that, and making decisions at the next board meeting ... on the process
that we’re going to have going forward [with the search].” Briscoe’s resignation came as a surprise for both parties. Briscoe, the district’s superintendent for the past six years, said he got caught up in the state’s pension reform discussions that were happening in the spring and made a decision to quit. According to the district,
Briscoe earns a base salary of $199,210 annually. “It was definitely a difficult decision, but all the discussions that were going on about pension reform caught me off guard,” Briscoe said. “I was concerned.” The board had the same reaction.
Jim Briscoe D-428 superintendent
See D-428, page A6
LANDMARKS FOR SALE
Syria speech set for Tuesday Global support low for possible strike By JULIE PACE and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV The Associated Press
Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
On Tuesday afternoon, homeowner Jim Hovis describes how the wallpaper in the front parlor room of his house was restored using stencils from the original 1884 wallpaper. The home is located at 329 N. Third St. in DeKalb.
Two historic DeKalb homes hit the real estate market Voice your opinion
By CHRIS BURROWS cburrows@shawmedia.com
Would you want to live in a Victorian home? Vote online at Daily-Chronicle. com.
D
eKALB – Jim and Catherine Hovis can’t say how much money and time they’ve invested redesigning the interior of the former home of DeKalb barbed-wire barons Hiram and Sarah Ellwood. “Much more than we’re selling it for,” Jim Hovis said with a big laugh. “We’ve never measured it. I don’t want to know.” The 6,366-square-foot Victorian home boasts ornately detailed walls and ceilings, six bedrooms, four levels and deep ties to DeKalb’s history. But the $1.29 million price tag doesn’t account for the love the Hovises poured into 329 N. Third St. Now, the couple is selling the Hovis-Ellwood House along with another historical DeKalb mansion at Lincoln Highway and First Street so they can move their business. They want to ensure the heritage and hard work that they’ve put into the North Third Street property is left in capable hands.
The Hovis family is selling their home at 329 N. Third St. in DeKalb. About 25 years ago, they bought the house from the family of Bob Heimerdinger, a former athletic director and football coach at DeKalb High School. “We want to find a family that appreciates the house,” Jim Hovis said. “Maybe it will be a good office for somebody. It could be a good bed and breakfast, but we need to find a next set of owners to protect it.” The Victorian home, on a half-
acre lot, was designed by George O. Garnsey in 1884 for Hiram Ellwood, older brother of Isaac Ellwood, and his wife, Sarah. Garnsey also designed Isaac Ellwood’s home, which is now known as the Ellwood House Museum, about five years earlier. Hiram Ellwood
helped found and managed the Superior Barbed Wire Company. Catherine Hovis took the central role in restoring the home’s interior using extensive period wallpaper from Bradbury & Bradbury, a company that specializes in custom vintage wall coverings. She drew extensively from a light color palette, especially in the home’s south parlor, which would have been reserved for special events in its heyday. Yellows popular in the Victorian era have since faded into browns and golds, she said. “I had a person here who was an expert in period wall coverings and color and window treatments, and I was showing him the house, and he said [the south parlor] is the best one,” Catherine Hovis said.
See LANDMARKS, page A6
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Beset by divisions at home and abroad, President Barack Obama candidly acknowledged deep challenges Friday in pursuing support for a military strike against Syria from international allies and the U.S. Congress. He refused to say whether he might act on his own, a step that could have major implications for the U.S. as well as for the remainder of his presidency. The White House laid out an intense week of lobbying, with Obama to address the nat i o n T u e s d a y President night from the Barack White House. Obama “I did not put this before Congress just as a political ploy or as symbolism,” Obama said, adding that it would be a mistake to talk about any backup strategy before lawmakers vote on a useof-force resolution. The president spoke to reporters at the end of a two-day international summit, where he sought backing for a strike against Syria in retaliation for a deadly chemical weapons attack against civilians. But Obama appeared to leave the summit with no more backing than he had when he arrived. In fact, Russian President Vladimir Putin, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, said he was the one with support from the majority of countries at the Group of 20 meeting. Putin insisted that Obama seek approval from the United Nations before taking military action, despite the fact that Russia has blocked previous Security Council efforts to punish Assad throughout Syria’s 2½-year civil war. The White House tried to counter Putin’s assessment by releasing a joint statement from the U.S. and 10 other
See SYRIA, page A6
Inside today’s Daily Chronicle Lottery Local news Obituaries
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