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Firefighter group aims to restore fire engine Pancake event held in DeKalb to raise funds By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Payton Chesser might have come to the DeKalb Fire Department for the pancakes, but it was sliding down an old fire pole that kept him going back for seconds. Scores of other kids did the same as Payton, a 10-year-old DeKalb resident, at the DeKalb Fire Department and the DeKalb Firefighters Historical Foundation’s annual pancake breakfast and open house Sunday. “I think firefighters are pretty cool,” Payton said. “They save peoples’ lives and they risk their own.” About 800 people had their fill of firefighter-made pancakes. They also wandered through DeKalb Fire Station No. 1 looking at old and new equipment and historic artifacts, pictures and personal effects. Part of the mission for the event was to raise money to restore a 1951 Mack Fire Engine that firefighters used as front-line engines at the former firehouse on Fourth Street. Malta resident Bob Kyler donated the fire engine in 2012 and the group has been planning to restore it since. Foundation chairman and DeKalb firefighter Tim Morey thinks it will cost about $50,000 to restore. The group also wants to establish a museum to display historical items such as photos, badges and helmets, rather than keeping them tucked in the station’s basement. Morey said there’s value in displaying a Gamewell
See RESTORATION, page A8
Katie Dahlstrom – kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com
Ethan Johnson, 5, of Yorkville examines the equipment on a DeKalb fire truck Sunday during the DeKalb Fire Department’s annual open house and pancake breakfast.
Photos by Monica Synett – mmaschak@shawmedia.com
Refelyn Gratace, 7, helps her mom, Marie Gratace of Romeoville, carry a pumpkin Saturday from the field at Jonamac Orchard in Malta.
Orange gold Pumpkin harvest helps many local farms By ANDREA AZZO aazzo@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Dean Johnson has more than 50 varieties of pumpkins growing on about three acres of his Sycamore farm, ranging from orange ones with white speckles to ones that weigh 50 pounds. Johnson, who owns and manages the farm with his wife, Charlene, began planting pumpkin seeds at the end of May and started harvesting them in mid-September. Customers who visit the farm can find the popular round to oblong jack-o-lantern variety, as well as specialty pumpkins like knuckleheads, which feature trademark warts or bumps over their round shapes. During weekends, visitors to The Johnson Farm, 1765 W. State St., Sycamore, also can navigate an eight-acre corn maze, which features one two-acre maze for the elderly and small children
Abbie McCarthy, 10, of Lockport carries her pumpkin Saturday out of the pumpkin patch. “It gets busy in the second we can do part time. It helps with and a larger maze called the “Tree of Life,” packed with na- week of October, when people re- our annual income. Pumpkins ture-themed objects, such as a alize Halloween is coming,” he said. “Pumpkins are something tree line, Johnson said. See PUMPKINS, page A8
Texas Ebola case gives Perry real-time leadership test By WILL WEISSERT The Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas – The first diagnosed case of Ebola in the United States, and the revelation that dozens of others in Texas are now being monitored, is a potential health crisis that gives Republican Gov. Rick Perry another real-time
leadership test and a chance to look presidential – or ineffective – on a national stage. The once and Rick Perry possibly future White House candidate has seized on similar opportunities before.
He deployed 1,000 National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border this summer after assailing what he called the Obama administration’s inaction amid a surge of unaccompanied immigrant children pouring into U.S. territory. Perry also helped lead emergency response efforts during a series of hurricanes
that have hit Texas since he took office in December 2000, and he threw open Texas’ doors to refugees in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “There have been many times in his 14 years, given floods, wildfires, hurricanes and now with this health crisis, where he’s had a chance to learn what works,” said
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Exchange program Bears’ woes
Participants of Fantasy Fest get free book, promote local literacy / A3
DeKalb students exercise language skills with exchange students from Spain / A3
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Hub Arkush takes on recent loss in Bears analysis / B1
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televised presidential debate. Wearing professorial spectacles, he’s been studying with policy experts and traveling extensively, trying to show would-be Republican primary voters that he’s wiser, humbler and more seasoned. The governor nailed the
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