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Officials scramble to retain GE DeKalb County, city groups organizing ‘plan of action’ to keep plant By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – DeKalb city and county officials are unsure how they could prevent General Electric from closing its DeKalb Motors Plant, but said they are open to options that would retain the manufacturer.
GE officials announced last week that they plan to close the DeKalb facility in the first quarter of 2015 unless union members can submit a proposal to make the plant cost effective for the company. Union members were given 60 days to submit a proposal to keep open the plant at 1900 Pleasant St.
Workers at the plant are represented by two unions. Most are represented by IUECWA Local 1081 and IAM Local 2068 represents the rest. Kathy Brown, IUE-CWA Local 1081 president, said last week the unions would bargain jointly with the company and hoped DeKalb County would offer help to keep the plant
from closing. GE has operated at the facility since 1946. If the plant closes, 94 employees would lose their jobs, company officials have said. GE is among the top 20 to 25 manufacturers in the county, said Paul Borek, executive
“Right now, we are putting together a plan of action to learn what we can do to assist and marshal resources.” Paul Borek, Executive director of the DeKalb County Economic Development Corp.
See GE PLANT, page A5
Police: Fleeing driver sought
EXPANSION on the HORIZON $11.6M grant check presented to DeKalb library
Left Sycamore car crash scene By ANDREA AZZO aazzo@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Two days after the crash, Debra Terpin still was having headaches. The 53-year-old Sycamore resident and driver of a Chevrolet Malibu involved in a crash on Plank Road early Saturday said she doesn’t understand how someone could flee the scene of an accident. Police still are looking to identify the driver who they say rear-ended Terpin’s car near Devine Way, which started when a semitrailer hit an icy patch and went off the road. The semi jack-knifed, its trailer blocking the road, which caused Terpin to swerve out of the way and into a snow bank. Terpin had just spoken with a 911 operator and her husband when a red Ford F-250 pickup truck slammed into the rear of her car, she said. “My phone went flying, my head went flying, so did my glasses,” she said. “The driver got out of his truck and took off running.” She said her car was totaled. Two men were in the pickup but neither spoke English, Terpin said. Someone at the scene was able to translate what the men said in Spanish, she said. A DeKalb woman was the registered owner of the truck, but witnesses told police a man was driving it at the time of the crash, said Gary Dumdie, DeKalb County Sheriff’s chief deputy. Witnesses saw the man who fled the scene running toward Sycamore, Terpin said. Terpin said she suffered a concussion in the crash and still has pain in her knees and left arm. She has to wait until police give her the full report of what happened for insurance companies to investigate who is at fault. In the meantime, she has to carpool with her husband to her job in Elgin. “It infuriates me how people [bypass] the law,” Terpin said. “Now, look who’s going to have to pay the price: Me.”
Photos by Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
ABOVE: Jefferson Elementary School fifth-grader Emily Overton gets a chuckle from the audience while speaking Monday at the DeKalb Public Library. Secretary of State Jesse White (left) presented the library an $11.6 million grant check for the library expansion. TOP: White (center) presents an $11.6 million grant check Monday for the expansion of the DeKalb Public Library to Clark Neher (left), board president, and Dee Coover, director of the library. By DEBBIE BEHRENDS dbehrends@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White visited the
DeKalb Public Library Monday morning – with a big $11.6 million check in hand. A number of local officials turned up for a ceremony to wel-
come White and accept the Public Library Construction Act Grant, which will help with the library’s $24 million remodeling and expansion project. To secure the grant,
which was used to acquire land for the expansion, the city was required to raise $12.2 million in
See GRANT, page A3
Local authorities overwhelmed by gun applications By DON BABWIN The Associated Press CHICAGO – More than 1,000 requests for concealed-carry gun permits are pouring in each day in the nation’s last state to allow the practice, sparking concerns among Illinois law enforcement officials that they
might fall behind on weeding out applicants with a history of violence. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said it already has identified about 120 applications it plans to contest since the online application process was opened to most state residents Jan. 5. Chicago Police Department officials,
locked in a battle to control high-profile gang violence, said they, too, are worried about keeping up with the flood of applications, while downstate sheriff’s departments said they might not have the capacity to meet the new law’s vetting requirement in the time allowed. Illinois State Police offi-
cials insist a full state review will assure that permits don’t land in the hands of those who shouldn’t have them. And with 90 days to do the job after the 30-day window closes for local law enforcement agencies to make their objections, the agency has far more time than its counterparts in some other states, in-
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cluding Pennsylvania, where law enforcement has 45 days to investigate, and Wisconsin, where the state has 21 days. But local law enforcement officials said they were not given the resources for a task that was supposed to
See APPLICATIONS, page A5
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