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Egyptian’s viability to be studied DeKalb council wants business model insight before investing more money in theater By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The Egyptian Theatre could have a new business model by next year. The city has issued a request-for-proposals for a study of DeKalb’s historic downtown theater. The purpose of the study is to explore profitability and sustainabil-
ity of the theater. Mayor John Rey said he hoped consultants could identify a long-term, sustainable operating plan for the theater. “There have been attempts by the Egyptian board in the past to provide a structure that assures that operating and capital need,” he said. “But clearly it has been lack-
ing on the capital side.” The study will evaluate key areas of the almost 1,400seat theater, including its target market and programming, operating potential and resources, financial and cultural impact and ownership possibilities. The theater has operated under a nonprofit model since 1978, but could become a city or privately
owned entity. Final recommendations will be included in the study, which will be presented to City Council members in June. Debates among City Council members during the city’s budget process launched the idea for the study. Council members want to see that the theater can sustain itself be-
fore making any commitment to fund an air-conditioning system for the theater, which currently shuts down in the summer. The Egyptian is in the city’s central tax-increment financing district and funding for the study will come out of the $330,000 in TIF funds allocated for the theater for fiscal 2016. TIF funds
are reserved for projects that will be transformational to the area. Council members stipulated in the TIF agreement that the feasibility study occur before a proposed engineering and design study that would offer insight on the air-conditioning project.
See THEATER, page A8
Bush focuses on Clinton as Rubio presses on after debate
OBSERVING VETERANS DAY
By THOMAS BEAUMONT and CATHERINE LUCE The Associated Press
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Retired Navy Capt. James Cole speaks to veterans and community members Wednesday in front of Sycamore High School during a Veterans Day ceremony.
‘Always in my heart’ Sycamore High School pays tribute to veterans Inside
By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Robert Mason’s brother has been missing since Oct. 17, 1968. Mason, of Hinckley, choked back tears as he read to students at Sycamore High School the letter informing his family that his older brother, James Mason, was missing in action in Vietnam. Sycamore students spent Wednesday morning honoring veterans with a lowering of the American flag to halfstaff, followed by a parade of veterans marching through the school’s hallways to the beat of a drum corps. First and second period were spent in the auditorium, where Robert Mason shared with the students the hardships of war. “They never found my brother,” Robert Mason said. “There’s 1,625 [veterans] that are still MIA from the Vietnam War. Over 58,000 died during that conflict.”
More coverage of Veterans Day is on pages A2 and 3. vicemen did get together. “Oct. 17, 1968, around 5:30 in the evening, Steve had just started his watch on the port lookout,” he said. “One of his friends came up and said that a helicopter was on its way out to the ship and Jim was on it.” The men caught up under the ship’s deck as the destroyer’s guns went off. Robert Mason of Hinckley shares the story of his brother, still missing Steve Mason was one of the in action in Vietnam, with Sycamore High School students Wednesday last people to see his brother. during a Veterans Day event. “The last time I saw you [you] waved at me [as] your “Steve asked the commandJames Mason was only 17 helicopter lifted off my ship, ing officer of his ship if there when he signed up for the and then you were gone when U.S. Army, and he needed his was anyway the two brothers your helicopter crashed in could get together since they father’s permission to enlist. the South China Sea,” Steve While James Mason was in hadn’t seen each other in a Mason wrote on his brother’s long time,” Robert Mason Vietnam, his older brother, online memorial. “It was said. “The [commanding offiSteve Mason, was on board a great seeing you, but I feel if U.S. destroyer headed toward cer] said ‘absolutely not.’ ” See VETERANS, page A6 James’ station in Hue. But eventually the two ser-
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ATLANTIC, Iowa – A steady debate performance may have helped keep Jeb Bush’s campaign afloat. But if Bush was good in Tuesday night’s prime-time face-off, rival Marco Rubio was probably better. And the Republican candidates’ conflicting trajectories played out in Iowa on Wednesday as a confident Rubio worked to sustain his progress while Bush pursued a new strategy to regain his footing in a contest he was once expected to dominate. As he did the night before, Bush shifted his attention away from his Republican rivals and toward Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton as he campaigned in the state set to host the nation’s first nominating contest in less than three months. Bush insisted he wasn’t criticizing Rubio, even after declaring “I’m a better bet” to defeat Clinton. “I’m not being critical of anybody, with that statement, just for the record,” Bush told reporters after an event. He reminded voters of his political experience: “I’ve been vetted. I’ve been tested. I’m an open book.” At roughly the same time, Rubio called for a new generation of Republican leadership in remarks to 400 supporters in eastern Iowa, a mantra designed to contrast the 44-year-old Rubio with 62-year-old Bush and 68-year-old Clinton, both members of political families from decades past. “What are we waiting for?” Rubio implored. “The time to act is now.” He said the election is a “generational choice where we must decide what kind of country America will be in the 21st century.” Bush won an endorsement Wednesday from Bob Dole, the former longtime Kansas senator and Republican presidential nominee who will serve as the campaign’s chairman for veterans. The endorsement brought a highly respected establishment figure into Bush’s camp, although one who, at 92, illustrates the generational difference Rubio is talking about.
See REPUBLICANS, page A8
AP photo
Jeb Bush (left) speaks as Marco Rubio listens during the Republican presidential debate Tuesday at Milwaukee Theatre in Milwaukee.
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