FRIDAY
Ja nu ar y 16 , 2015 • $1 .0 0
TO THE MAT DeKalb wrestling rallies to defeat Sycamore / B1 HIGH
LOW
29 22 Complete forecast on page A8
daily-chronicle.com
SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
Facebook.com/dailychronicle
@dailychronicle
Kish faculty votes to strike Wednesday What’s next
By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com MALTA – Kishwaukee College faculty plan to strike beginning Wednesday, when they say they will walk off campus and picket outside the college hours before their next scheduled bargaining session with administrators. The 80-plus members of the faculty union voted in favor of a work stoppage during a closed meeting Thursday. They have been working without a contract since their last deal expired in August, and they have been in negotiations for about 10 months. Faculty timed the walkout for Tom Choice 12:15 p.m., so they Kishwaukee will not interrupt College any classes, said president Matt Read, president of the Kishwaukee College Education Association, which represents 81 college faculty members. “How much we need to give led us to the actions that we’re going to have to take,” Read said. The strike vote raises the stakes in a prolonged negotiation that has seemed close to being resolved a couple of times. The two sides nearly reached an agreement in August, but union leaders complained that the contract they were presented differed from a tentative agreement reached in negotiations, an assertion the administration says is untrue. After a five-hour negotiating session Monday, both sides said the situation seemed optimistic, and they were said to be very close to a deal. Kishwaukee College President Tom Choice said the strike vote was mind-boggling. “I couldn’t understand why they were so close on Monday, why they would walk away. Today I had my answer,” Choice said. “I don’t think they want an agreement; they want to strike
Kishwaukee College faculty have voted to strike beginning Wednesday at 12:15 p.m. They plan to return later that day with picket signs and protest just off campus. All classes will be postponed if teachers go on strike. A negotiation session also is scheduled for Wednesday.
and disrupt the education of our students.” During closed negotiations Monday with a mediator, the college’s Board of Trustees rejected a union proposal for a contract that union officials say included more than $1.6 million in savings over the life of the proposal. The college’s last best offer, proposed last month, included an average 4.1 percent annual increase for four years, coupled with increasing employee contributions to single health coverage by $430 a year, although single-plus-one and family health coverage rates would decrease. The college also has proposed reducing the number of years for which it provides health benefits for retirees, from 10 years to between five and seven. Union representatives say the givebacks the college is asking for negate the raises it is offering. The average full-time faculty member at Kishwaukee College earned $57,354 last year, about $14,000 less than the average community college faculty salary of $71,753, according to a report issued this year by the Illinois Community College Board. Of the community colleges with a comparable number of students, Kishwaukee teachers earn about $5,000 less than the average. On Thursday, the union declined to provide specific figures for raises and other benefits proposed by both sides in recent closed-door negotiations.
See STRIKE, page A6
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Evelyn Marquez, 7, a second-grader at West Elementary School, makes a house out of spaghetti noodles and marshmallows Monday with her “big sister,” Lauren Brazeau, a junior at Sycamore High School, during an after-school event for Big Brothers Big Sisters of DeKalb County. The organization currently has 15 little brothers and sisters from West Elementary paired with big brothers and sisters from Sycamore High School.
Always in need Big Brothers Big Sisters struggling to find mentors By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com Ryan Burns has spent most of his life in Big Brothers Big Sisters of DeKalb County. The 17-year-old Sycamore High School senior joined the program when he was in elementary school. He didn’t have an older male role model in his life, so his mom set him up with Big Brothers Big Sisters. Burns was paired with a married couple who became his “big brother” and “big sister.” “It was pretty fun,” Burns said. “It made me feel better that someone was actually there for me.” Now, Burns is on the opposite side of things. On Monday, he was at West Elementary School in Sycamore as one of the high school mentors, or “bigs.” High school volunteers meet every Monday at West Elementary with their “littles.” Youngsters giggled and screamed in happiness as they built houses out of spaghetti and marshmallows with their mentors, the local high schoolers.
Albert Phan, 7, a second-grader at West Elementary School, connects walls of a house using spaghetti noodles and marshmallows with his “big sister,” Bailey Fank, during an after-school event Monday. Big Brothers Big Sisters of DeKalb County needs mentors, particularly men, to meet the demand of county youngsters who need role models, especially in rural areas, such as Kirkland and Cortland. Currently, during National Men-
‘Big John’ fire truck ready to retire By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – After working longer and responding to more fires than most DeKalb firefighters, Big John is ready to retire. He won’t receive a pension or hit the beach, however. In fact, he might hit a junkyard or move on to another city. That’s because Big John is the city of DeKalb’s aerial ladder truck. After almost 26 years, the city plans to retire the truck and to buy a used one from a department in Florida with financial assistance from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb Fire Chief Eric Hicks said. “A vehicle that’s 26 years old, you almost think of it as a member of the department,”
was named after captain John Isom, who died of cancer the year the truck was delivered. The city’s new truck will cost $420,000, with $275,000 coming from NIU, and the remainder from city funds. Hicks said the city explored several options, including buying a new truck, which would have cost about $1 million. The city also discussed refurbishing Big John for about $650,000, or buying a used truck, which emerged as the most cost-effective option. Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com Hicks flew to Weston, FlorThe DeKalb fire department responds Jan. 9 to the blaze that gutted ida, last year to examine the the Wendy’s in Sycamore with their 26-year-old aerial ladder truck, potential new member of the department. He said the Flor“Big John.” Big John will be retired later this year. ida department used the truck for eight years and is now Hicks said. “It’s a high-pro- thing else.” The truck, which was cusfile vehicle. People know it, whether by name or as some- tom built for the city in 1989, See BIG JOHN, page A6
toring Month, there are 35 children on a waiting list for Big Brothers Big Sisters of DeKalb County, which operates out of the Family Services Agency and provides mentors to
See MENTORS, page A6
Belgian police kill 2 suspects in anti-terror shootout raid By RAF CASERT and LORNE COOK gunpowder,” said neighbor AlThe Associated Press VERVIERS, Belgium – With Europe dreading more terror, Belgian authorities moved swiftly to pre-empt what they called a major attack by as little as hours Thursday, killing two suspects in a firefight and arresting a third in a vast anti-terrorism sweep that stretched into the night. The police raid on a former bakery in this provincial rustbelt town was another palpable sign that terror had seeped deep into Europe’s heartland as security forces struck against returnees from Islamic holy war in Syria. “As soon as I opened the window, you could smell the
NEIGHBORS
LOCAL
LOCAL
WHERE IT’S AT
World wisdom
Bouncing back
Let it snow
Eighth-grader wins Clinton Rosette geography bee / B10
Kingston looks to rebound in 2015 after former president’s arrest / A3
Fake snow activities draw children to DeKalb library / A3
Advice ................................ B4 Classified....................... B6-9 Comics ............................... B5 Local News.................... A2-4 Lottery................................ A2 Nation&World...........A2, 5-6
exandre Massaux following a minutes-long firefight with automatic weapons and Kalashnikovs that was also punctuated by explosions. Two suspects were killed and a third arrested and charged with belonging to a terrorist organization. “As soon as they thought special forces were there, they opened fire,” federal magistrate Eric Van der Sypt said. After the gun smoke lifted, police continued with searches in Verviers and the greater Brussels area, seeking more clues in a weekslong investigation that started well before the terrorism spree last week that
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion...............................A7 Puzzles ............................... B4 Sports..............................B1-3 State ...................................A4 Weather .............................A8
See RAID, page A6