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Family Degrees of public access launches ‘Hobbit’ campaign Wants dying father to be able to watch upcoming movie By AL LAGATTOLLA alagattolla@shawmedia.com MAPLE PARK – A social media campaign launched by a Maple Park family will attempt to provide a “last request” for the father, Scott Stouffer. His youngest daughter, Jessy Stouffer, has launched an effort to somehow allow the family to view the upcoming hobbit-series movie – “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” – before its Dec. 17 scheduled release date. She said her father is suffering from a type of cancer, neuroendocrine, and he might not survive to see the movie’s release. Jessy Stouffer, 21, a student at Northern Illinois University and a 2011 graduate of Kaneland High School, said she has been surprised at the response to her Twitter hashtag – #HobbitMovieLastRequest, and a YouTube video. “I’ve been told we’re in three or four different countries, with articles in different languages,” she said. “I didn’t think it would make it past the United States. That, to me, is big.” Jessy Stouffer said her father is a fan of the movies, and it is a family tradition to watch “The Hobbit” or “The Lord of the Rings” movies during the holidays. Her brother, David, 28, and
See MOVIE, page A6
Photo provided
Members of the Stouffer family of Maple Park are trying to find a way that their father, Scott (left) can watch the third movie in “The Hobbit” series. Also pictured are Linda Stouffer (to the right of Scott) and their children, Jessy, Katie and David Stouffer.
Photos by Monica Synett – mmaschak@shawmedia.com
Village of Kingston Treasurer Taunya Fischer is the only full-time employee that works in the village office. The building is shared with the Kingston Police Department.
City hall security varies throughout DeKalb County Voice your opinion
By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Getting to the second floor of DeKalb City Hall is not as simple as it seems. The stairwell is locked, and the elevator won’t come when called. The restrictions are the newest features city officials have added to the 47-year-old building at 200 S. Fourth St. to bolster security. “We can now allow them controlled access,” Public Works Director T.J. Moore said. “This is really a standard in any modern facility.” Security upgrades that DeKalb leaders found necessary aren’t universal across DeKalb County, however. Depending on the municipality, speaking to a city employee could entail waiting in a public lobby or walking down a hallway to find the one full-time employee. DeKalb city officials revealed some glaring security issues after the police department moved from city hall to
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The Village of Kingston building is shared with the Kingston Police Department. a new facility at 700 Lincoln Highway late last year, police Chief Gene Lowery said. “When I look at city hall, it’s a design issue and a public safety issue,” Lowery said. “Modern facilities limit access.” It cost about $36,000 for the city to move the finance department downstairs and add
the new security features. By the end of the year, the employees will move from the annex building across the street into city hall. The moves could be temporary, however, as aldermen continue to explore options for renovating city hall or building a new one. For now, residents have to tell someone at the finance
counter who they are looking for upstairs. The finance employee then checks with the particular staff member upstairs, who could be someone in planning, the mayor or the city manager’s office, before calling the elevator. Moore said stopping unfettered access to city hall does more than address safety concerns. “It gives us an opportunity to make sure people aren’t walking down these long hallways when they could be walking the wrong way,” Moore said.
STAFFING LEVELS VARY It would be very difficult to get lost in Kingston Village Hall by Treasurer Taunya
See SECURITY, page A6
U.S. responds; military planes arrive at epicenter of Ebola By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH and ALAN CLENDENNING The Associated Press MONROVIA, Liberia – Six U.S. military planes arrived in the Ebola hot zone Thursday with more Marines, as West Africa’s leaders pleaded for the world’s help in dealing with a crisis that one called “a tragedy unforeseen in mod-
ern times.” “Our people are dying,” Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma lamented by videoconference at a World Bank meeting in Washington. He said other countries are not responding fast enough while children are orphaned and infected doctors and nurses are lost to the disease. Alpha Conde of Guinea
said the region’s countries are in “a very fragile situation.” Ebola is “an international threat and deserves an international response,” he said, speaking through a translator as he sought money, medicine, equipment and training for health care workers. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said
he was reminded of the start of the AIDS epidemic. “We have to work now so this is not the next AIDS,” Frieden said. The fleet of planes that landed outside the Liberian capital of Monrovia consisted of four MV-22 Ospreys and two KC-130s. The 100 additional Marines bring to just more than 300 the total number of
American troops in the country, said Maj. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, the commander leading the U.S. response. Williams joined the American ambassador to Liberia, Deborah Malac, at the airport to greet the aircraft. As vehicles unloaded boxes of equipment wrapped in green-and-black cloth, the Marines formed a line on the
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tarmac and had their temperatures checked by Liberian health workers. Meanwhile, British authorities said they would introduce “enhanced” screening of travelers for Ebola at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Eurostar rail terminals.
See EBOLA, page A6
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DeKalb County Farm Bureau
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with farmers and their equipment this harvest season.