MONDAY
Ja n u a r y 2 6 , 2 015 • $1 . 0 0
NIU CAN’T HOLD LEAD
Men’s team falls to Miami, which has the worst record in the Mid-American Conference / B1 HIGH
LOW
28 26 Complete forecast on page A10
daily-chronicle.com
SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
ANNUAL SKI FOR SIGHT
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DeKalb may buy Protano property Contaminated 2-acre site would cost less than $1,500 By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Stephannie Baccay, 18, of Sycamore skis with the help of Lions Club member Clay Hansen during Ski for Sight – an event put on by the DeKalb County Lions Clubs for the visually impaired – Saturday at Shabbona Lake State Park. Ski for Sight brought in 85 participants from Chicago, Rockford and Wisconsin this year to cross-country ski, ice fish and hike.
A ‘refreshing’ weekend Lions Club hosts skiing, bowling events for visually impaired, blind By AIMEE BARROWS news@daily-chronicle.com For Allie Futty, feeling the mud beneath her boots, breathing in the fresh air and smelling the trees are the best parts of the Lions Club Ski for Sight weekend. “It’s really hard to get out and do things in nature when you have a visual impairment,” said Futty, a graduate student at Northern Illinois University. “It takes a lot of planning, people need to be patient with you, and they have to trust your limits. It’s nice to have a structured event that welcomes visually impaired people to do a variety of things outside.” Fourteen area Lions Clubs, including clubs from DeKalb, Sycamore, Genoa and Cortland, held their annual Ski for Sight this weekend. Dave Stryker, Ski for Sight chairman and Waterman Lions member, said about 85 visually impaired and blind people from northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin enjoyed ice fishing, hiking, cross-country skiing and hayrides at Shabbona Lake State Park on Saturday. Other weekend events included a pizza party Friday night, a banquet with a DJ and dancing Saturday night at the Red Roof Inn DeKalb, and bowling Sunday morning at Four Seasons Sports in Sycamore. Stryker said the Lions Club’s main purpose is working with blind or visually impaired people, and this weekend is very important for participants. “A lot of them only get together once a year, and they enjoy being with each other,” Stryker said. “It’s important
for them to get out of their usual surroundings, and this is a good event to get them out. “ Chris Halsey, governor of Lions Club District I-J, said this weekend reflects the Lions motto, which is “we serve.” He said Ski for Sight has been an annual event since 1982, and is a “good service project that’s
really worked out well.” “Some people’s world is completely dark,” Halsey said. “If we can bring them out here, that’s a good thing. It shows them that someone cares.” Futty said it’s “refreshing” to be around people who see the world as she does. She said sometimes she feels left out
DeKALB – City officials Monday could decide to obtain the former Protano Auto Parts site, making it possible for the city to earn grant money to clean the contaminated former junkyard. The abandoned auto parts store at 1151 S. Fourth St. has been in city leaders’ sights for years, 5th Ward Alderman Ron Naylor said. Naylor, whose ward includes the two-acre Protano site and the west side of Fourth Street, said he would vote in favor of obtaining the land at today’s City Council meeting. “It’s been a long time coming,” Naylor said. “I think it will be an asset. Maybe it will be a catalyst for some revitalization in the area.” City Attorney Dean Frieders said the city could obtain the land through a deed transfer with the DeKalb County Treasurer’s Office, which would cost less than $1,500. A DeKalb County sheriff’s sale last year found no buyers for the property, making the county the trust-
If you go n What: DeKalb City Council
meeting
n When: 6 p.m. today n Where: DeKalb City Hall, 200
S. Fourth St., DeKalb
n Why: Aldermen will vote on
obtaining the former Protano Auto Parts site.
ee for the property. With the property owned by the city, officials would be able to apply for state and federal grants to clean and clear it. The site must undergo environmental remediation before it can be redeveloped because the Environmental Protection Agency has designated the area as a Brownfield site. The agency conducted a brief investigation in 2004 that uncovered a large pile of discarded auto parts and indicated the site had been used to burn cars in the 1960s and ’70s. The EPA’s report concluded soil on the site also was contaminated with lead. Fourth Ward Alderman Bob Snow, who represents
See PROPERTY, page A3
ABOVE: Mark Male, with the Malta Lions Club, helps Loren Lopez, 47, of Chicago off the frozen lake as they return from ice fishing Saturday during Ski for Sight at Shabbona Lake State Park.
‘Fracking’ starts slow amid oil-price slump
LEFT: Andrew Fabino (left) and Theopolis Mitchell, both from Chicago, help each other off the frozen lake Saturday after ice fishing.
ST. LOUIS – The oil and gas drilling technique known as “fracking,” once trumpeted as a job-creating boon for southern Illinois, is off to a feeble start in the state as slumping oil prices and the rigors of Illinois’ new regulations have energy interests cautiously waiting on the sidelines. Two months after a legislative panel approved long-awaited rules for high-volume hydraulic fracturing, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources says only Denver-based Strata-X has registered with the state to pursue such drilling. No one has applied for a permit yet. The lack of immediate movement contrasts sharply with a land rush in recent years in southern Illinois, where energy interests spent
when she’s around people who aren’t visually impaired. “I’m a 4.0 student, in grad school, a Fulbright scholar, but it doesn’t matter how much I achieve. The first thing people see is my disability,” she said.
See SKI, page A4
“Some people’s world is completely dark. If we can bring them out here, that’s a good thing. It shows them that someone cares.” – Chris Halsey, governor of Lions Club District I-J
By JIM SUHR The Associated Press
LOCAL
LOCAL
SPORTS
WHERE IT’S AT
Radio play
Finding fixes
Cogs fall
Youth listen to ‘War of Worlds’ at Sycamore Library / A3
County Board plans to form committee to study jail’s future / A3
G-K boys basketball team outshot by Burlington Central / B1
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millions snapping up oil and mineral leases spanning hundreds of thousands of acres in anticipation of a shot at the area’s oil and natural gas deposits. Fracking proponents were banking on the industry producing tens of thousands of jobs in a region that long has had some of the state’s highest jobless rates. But a downdraft on oil prices has left investors fidgety. Compounding matters is the need to sort through the state’s new regulations– which the industry and environmental groups helped negotiate – as well as threats of lawsuits by Illinois fracking foes hoping to block or at least modify the drilling practice, which they consider risky to humans and the environment. While winter conditions complicate any actual drilling, it wouldn’t normally
See FRACKING, page A4
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