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TOUGH STRETCH Hinckley-Big Rock girls fall short against nonconference opponent Lisle / B1 HIGH
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10 -8 Complete forecast on page A8
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New policy for child exchanges County’s Neutral Exchange Program aims to decrease distress By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com DeKALB – A new service beginning Tuesday will provide DeKalb County parents with a middleman to keep their children out of potential squabbling during visitation exchanges. The Neutral Exchange Program, a new division of the DeKalb County-based Family Service Agency, is a court-ordered service that provides divorced or separated parents a way to transfer custody of their child with almost no interaction, making the situation less uncomfortable for everyone involved. “The main reason for doing this is so it’s not so stressful for the kids,” said Holly Peifer, director of the Children’s Advocacy Center, a Family Service Agency program. “There’ve been situations where parents exchange visitations in a parking lot, and it turns into an argument.” The service is available Wednesdays from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m., and Fridays and Sundays from 7 to 9 p.m. After the service is mandated by a family court judge, the parents go through separate interviews and review the Neutral Exchange Program’s basic information and procedures. The program will take place at Family Service Agency, 14 Health Services Drive. Parents will occupy separate waiting rooms and a program representative will shuttle the child between the two. “Oftentimes an exchange happens at a Jewel [Osco] or McDonald’s parking lot,” said David Miller, Family Service Agency executive director. “If the parents choose to get in an argument, there’s nothing to do about it.”
“There’ve been situations where parents exchange visitations in a parking lot, and it turns into an arguement.” Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Holly Peifer
DeKalb Public Works employee Andy Raih uses a steel pike to dislodge frozen salt from his snowplow’s belt before refilling it Monday in the city’s lot.
Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center
On storm alert
The program is similar to services in DuPage and Winnebago counties. It is being funded by the DeKalb County Community Foundation and an $8 filing fee, which County Board members added in April for those filing lawsuits and responses to them. People file about 3,000 civil cases each year in DeKalb County, officials have said. Judges Marcy Buick and Ron Matekaitis will be responsible for ordering the program in family court. In addition to being court-ordered, the program can also be requested by one or both parents. Matekaitis praised the new program Monday and said the facility will be a much healthier place to do the visitation exchange, rather than popular exchange spots such as a house, a parking lot or a police station. The program will be used often in DeKalb County, Matekaitis said. “I imagine there are a dozen or more cases on my call alone that would lend themselves to the Neutral Exchange Program,” he said. “As new cases come up, I would definitely steer them and court-order them to the program.”
DeKalb County braces for snowy blast By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com
Warming centers
DeKALB – After the least snowy • DeKalb Public Library, 309 Oak December on record, meteorologists St., DeKalb, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday warn that DeKalb County residents through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. should prepare for days of frigid payFriday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; 1 to 5 back. p.m. Sunday. The rest of the week will include • DeKalb Senior Center, 330 Grove dangerously low temperatures, St., DeKalb, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday strong wind gusts and inches of snow. through Friday. “Winter is definitely back with a • DeKalb Park District Haish Gymvengeance,” NIU Meteorologist Gilnasium, 303 S. Ninth St., DeKalb, 9 a.m. bert Sebenste said. “December was to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 1 the grace period. Now we pay for it.” to 5 p.m. Sunday. The first round came this week• DeKalb Oasis, 2700 N. Crego Road, end. Between Thursday and Monday, DeKalb, 24 hours. the area received 2.7 inches of snow, • Sycamore Public Library, 103 E. only 25 percent of the 10.6 inches the State St., Sycamore, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. area received during the same periMonday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. od last year and a fraction of the 30 Friday and Saturday; 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. inches that fell through last January, • Sycamore Police Department, 535 Sebenste said. DeKalb Ave., Sycamore, 24 hours. Snow started falling as a storm • Department of Healthcare and moved in Monday night. It was exFamily Services, 1629 Afton Road, pected to produce up to 5 inches and Sycamore, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday could push this year’s snowfall total through Friday. closer to last year’s total amount. Also, snow falling today likely will create problems into Wednesday, The temperature won’t be the when Sebenste predicts temperatures will be as low as minus-35 degrees only problem. Between 6 and 9 a.m. with the wind chill. Wednesday, temperatures will hov-
er around minus 10 degrees. Add a mix of northwest wind gusts of up to 40 mph and the freshly fallen snow could create ground blizzard conditions that cause dramatically diminished visibility, Sebenste said. Mark Espy, DeKalb’s assistant director of Public Works, said what happens once inches of snow are on the ground worries him more than the snowfall itself. “I can clean that off [the road] and in a matter of minutes it can be back on,” Espy said. “It’s going to be a vicious cycle over the next couple days.” County Engineer Nathan Schwartz said his crews are prepping their plows and salt, too. “We anticipate a lot of drifting and blowing,” Schwartz said. “So we will be out constantly.” The county has a substantial amount of salt on hand, Schwartz said, which is mixed with liquid calcium chloride salt to boost its effectiveness against sub-zero temperatures. When the solid salt is mixed with the liquid, it works more quickly and is less likely to bounce off the roadway, Schwartz said.
See SNOW, page A3
Can Illinois’ new GOP governor deliver on the hype? By SARA BURNETT The Associated Press
AP file photo
Illinois Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner and his wife, Diana, celebrate his victory Nov. 4 in Chicago. Rauner became a Republican rock star when he unseated a Democratic governor in left-leaning Illinois.
CHICAGO – Bruce Rauner became a Republican rock star when he unseated a Democratic governor in left-leaning Illinois, pledging to run Barack Obama’s home state in the mold of GOP darlings Scott Walker and Mitch Daniels. But as he takes office this month, many are wondering: Can he deliver on the hype? There are reasons to believe the answer is no, and that Rauner’s victories may have ended on Election Day. Unlike Walker in Wisconsin and Daniels in Indiana – governors Rauner has called his role models – he inherits a state with deep financial problems and a Leg-
islature that’s overwhelmingly Democratic. That could make achieving his top priorities, such as closing the state’s multibillion-dollar budget hole and switching public employees to a 401k-style retirement system, far more difficult. But Rauner and others insist Illinois’ first divided government in more than a decade won’t mean four years of gridlock, but rather produce the chemistry needed to end years of legislative near-paralysis. If so, Illinois could be a notable outlier in an increasingly polarized nation of red and blue states. “People have cherry picked [businesses] from us and laughed at us for many years,” said Republican state Sen. Bill
Brady. “I think now people are looking at us with a cautious, but also optimistic, eye.” Heightening Rauner’s predicament is Illinois’ history of putting off major issues that other states tackled during the recession. Thus, the state now has the nation’s worst-funded public pension system, slower-than-average job growth, billions in unpaid bills and the worst credit rating. The political dynamic is now changed. With a Republican in the governor’s office, GOP lawmakers will at least have an incentive to put “yes” votes on major initiatives rather than just opposing, and Democrats may have to compromise more. “I think they’ll be very pro-
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ductive,” said former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady. First, Rauner has fences to mend. The multimillionaire private equity investor spent the year-long campaign ripping Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and powerful leaders of the Illinois House and Senate, calling them “career politicians” who drove the state into a “death spiral.” Rauner, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton made nice during a two-hour meeting shortly after Election Day. Rauner also has been calling every member of the Legislature, saying he wants to get to know each one personally.
See RAUNER, page A5
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