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y, September 17, 2013 * Tuesday,
PREP FOOTBALL • SPORTS, B1
BUSINESS • MARKETPLACE, A6
Division I prospect plays everywhere for Spartans
Tattoo shop opens up near university
Sycamore’s Ben Niemann
Park districts on different paths Sycamore, DeKalb continue search for pool solutions By CHRIS BURROWS cburrows@shawmedia.com DeKALB – DeKalb and Sycamore park districts won’t be partnering on a public pool, but leaders at both entities are pursuing other solutions for their aging pools. Sycamore Park District leaders plan to send surveys to residents by the end of the year, so that residents can weigh in on what should be done with the town’s 31-year-old pool, Sycamore board President Ted Strack said Monday. In DeKalb, park district officials are turning their focus to finding an execu-
tive director so that they can get going in earnest on updating or replacing their 39-year-old pool facility, DeKalb board President Phil Young said. Young said the DeKalb park board has narrowed its list of search firms to three and that the board hopes to select the firm that will find the park district’s next executive director at its next meeting, with the goal of filling the position within six months. Until it brings on a full-time parks leader, the board is focused on listening to pool staff and has put decision-making on hold, Young said. “These big projects are where he or
she would stand out,” Young said. “One of the first things I’m going to ask is, ‘How are you going to handle our pool situation?’ ” Former Executive Director Cindy Capek worked her last day May 24. The DeKalb Park District has until 2015 to submit to the state a plan to make Hopkins Pool, especially its locker rooms and entrances, comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In Sycamore, the park district wants to hear what its constituents think about plans to update its pool and will send out surveys by the end of the year. “We’re going to be doing a commu-
nitywide survey ... to make sure that the community is supportive of our vision,” Strack said. Young and Strack both signed a letter announcing a breakdown in joint talks about the two boards collaborating on a public pool. The Daily Chronicle received the letter last week. Meanwhile, both Young and Strack took issue with comments that DeKalb Park District Board Vice President Per Faivre made about the breakdown of the talks.
Ted Strack
Phil Young
See POOLS, page A5
At least 13 killed in Navy Yard shooting
226TH SIGNING ANNIVERSARY
NARRATIVE PRESERVED Historic U.S. Constitution prints found in Kingston
The ASSOCIATED PRESS
contract at its regular board meeting at 7 p.m. today at the district’s Education Center, 901 S. Fourth St. Matya declined to give any details about the compensation terms of Moeller’s contract in a phone interview Monday, but said that his swift hiring would give the board plenty of time to find his replacement.
WASHINGTON – A former Navy reservist went on a shooting rampage Monday inside a building at the heavily secured Washington Navy Yard, firing from a balcony onto office workers in the cafeteria below, authorities and witnesses said. Thirteen people were killed, including the gunman. For much of the day, authorities said they were looking for a possible second attacker who may have been disguised in an olive-drab military-style uniform. But by late Monday night, they said they were convinced the attack was the work of a lone gunman, and the security lockdown around the Aaron Alexis area was eased. Investigators said they had not established a motive for the attack, which unfolded about 8:20 a.m. in the heart of the nation’s capital, less than four miles from the White House and two miles from the Capitol. As for whether it may have been a terrorist attack, Mayor Vincent Gray said: “We don’t have any reason to think that at this stage.” But he said the possibility had not been ruled out. It was the deadliest shooting rampage at a U.S.-based military installation since Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas. He was convicted last month and sentenced to death. President Barack Obama lamented yet another mass shooting in the U.S. that he said took the lives of American patriots. He promised to make sure “whoever carried out this cowardly act is held responsible.” The FBI took charge of the investigation and identified the gunman killed in the attack as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis of Texas. He died after a running gunbattle with police, investigators said. The FBI said the gunman used a valid pass to get on to the Navy Yard.
See CANDIDATE, page A5
See SHOOTING, page A5
Photos by Monica Maschak – mmaschak@shawmedia.com
A year and a half ago, Ken Foss (not pictured) and Jeff Johnson discovered the original lithograph plates used to reproduce the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence made and once used by Theodore Ohman. The items were found in crates in a warehouse owned by Johnson, Foss and two others. Among the plates were also 11 thousand copies of the Constitution and 100 copies of the Declaration. This year marks the 226th year of the Constitution. By CHRIS BURROWS cburrows@shawmedia.com KINGSTON – About a year and a half ago, Ken Foss and some business associates began tearing into old, wooden crates left behind long ago by former tenants at their warehouse in Kingston. Foss, of Byron, and his associates were driven by curiosity. The men knew that the crates held fragile printing materials, but they had no idea what kind of connection to U.S. history they were about to uncover.
“Once we got into the crates and started opening them, we didn’t understand or really know the extent of what we had,” Foss said. They began pulling out metal press plates, giant lithographic prints and glass photo negatives and positives that revealed images of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Foss contacted a forensic authenticator only to be turned away because the proof – the prints and the plates that made them as well as stacks of Czech-born lithographer Theodore Ohman’s
other work – was evident in piles all around him. Now the men are trying to find a home for the historic collection of Ohman’s handicraft. They believe Ohman’s humble and painstaking appreciation for this nation’s founding documents should be on display for all to see and appreciate, especially on the 226th anniversary of the Constitution’s signing, which is today. “So many people today don’t even know what the Constitution is anymore, or when [Constitution Day]
even is,” said Jeff Johnson, one of the collection’s co-owners. “I’m not a history buff, but it’s just a relevant item.” Foss and Johnson are among four co-owners of the collection, which dates to the 1940s and ’50s. The collection first was purchased along with some DeKalb real estate more than a decade ago, but has since been moved by Foss, Johnson and the original owners, who also knew little of the collection’s exact contents.
See CONSTITUTION, page A5
District 428 to vote on superintendent candidate By CHRIS BURROWS cburrows@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Former DeKalb High School principal Doug Moeller will become DeKalb School District 428’s next superintendent if school board members approve his proposed contract at tonight’s board meeting. Superintendent Jim Briscoe is set to retire at the end of the school year.
The search for his replacement began in early September and ended after Moeller, the district’s current assistant superintendent for curriculum and student services, interviewed for the job last week, school board President Tom Matya said Monday. “The board identified a number of things,” Matya said. “Moeller is a very well-qualified candidate, and he’s been in the district in a couple
different positions. ... He’s done a great job in that regard, and the board sought the continuity of what Dr. Briscoe has put together and thought Doug Moeller it was the right move to make.” The board will vote on whether or not to approve Moeller’s four-year
Inside today’s Daily Chronicle Lottery Local news Obituaries
A2 A3-4 A4
National and world news Opinions Sports
Weather A2, A4 A7 B1-4
Advice Comics Classified
B5 B6 B7-10
High:
72
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55