THURSDAY
No v ember 13 , 2014 • $1 .0 0
HUSKIES’ GAMBLE
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SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
Hands-on instruction
Occupational programs gain popularity at Kishwaukee College
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Queries greet sober housing Board addresses latest proposal By ANDREA AZZO
aazzo@shawmedia.com
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Through the cylinders of a small-block Chevrolet engine, Chris Schomer (left) of Brookfield and Brad Bocker (right) of Oregon listen to Basic Engines instructor Shawn Long talk about cam-shaft bearings during a demonstration Monday at Kishwaukee College in Malta.
By the numbers
By ANDREA AZZO
aazzo@shawmedia.com MALTA – If money were not a factor, Brad Bocker would consider attending a four-year university rather than pursuing a two-year program at Kishwaukee College in Malta. But Bocker, a 19-year-old Oregon resident, only has $1,500 of the $4,000 he saved for college after paying Kishwaukee College tuition for two semesters. He is taking automotive classes so he can eventually become a technician at the Chrysler dealership where he currently works in Oregon. “It’s very beneficial, especially in the situation I’m in,” he said. Although Kishwaukee College has seen decreasing enrollment like other community colleges and universities nationwide, statistics show there has been a slight increase of students who are earning twoyear occupational degrees that allow them to find a job upon completion. Meanwhile, the number of students receiving transfer degrees to attend a four-year university after their Kishwaukee College education has been unsteady in recent years.
Shawn Long, an automotive technology instructor at Kishwaukee College, talks to his Basic Engines class Monday about how to properly install cam-shaft bearings. Long said students in his class can choose to earn a basic certificate or an advanced certificate, or finish their associate degree of applied science, depending on where they plan to work. According to Kishwaukee College’s 2014 Factbook, 129 occupational degrees were awarded in 2009 compared with 185 degrees in 2013. Meanwhile, 326 transfer degrees were awarded in 2013, down from 418 in 2012. Kishwaukee College officials attribute the popularity of occupational degree programs to the one-on-one inter-
action between students and instructors and encouragement of completing two-year programs. Some of the students in Kishwaukee’s automotive technology classes take the same classes with the same students as they progress through the program, said Sara Pohl, dean of the career technologies division.
Transfer degrees 2009: 295 2010: 351 2011: 318 2012: 418 2013: 326 Occupational degrees 2009: 129 2010: 142 2011: 152 2012: 184 2013: 185 Enrollment 2010-11: 7,588 2011-12.: 7,696 2012-13: 7,426
Source: Kishwaukee College 2014 Factbook
Kishwaukee College surveys have shown that students take occupational courses because they are looking to gain a skill in a specific area, they like the college’s proximity or they enjoy that they can fit in their classes with their work schedules, Pohl said. Occupational programs also have advisory committees in which industry professionals
See OCCUPATIONAL, page A5
SYCAMORE – The newest proposal to land a sober living house in Sycamore was met with many questions from DeKalb County Board members. Planning Zoning and Building Director Paul Miller revealed Wednesday during an Executive Committee meeting that county drug court officials have identified a vacant home at 491 E. State St. in Sycamore as a possible sober house for drug court participants who have completed a residential treatment program and need to live in a What’s next sober home. The house has been on An informal public the market for about a year, meeting regarding Miller said. The county the sober house would need to pay $145,000 proposal is schedto own the property, but it uled for 6 p.m. Dec. would be operated, repaired 4 at a location still to and upgraded by the drug be determined. The court program, Miller said. full County Board is Some board members expected to vote on such as Anthony Cvek, a Sycamore Republican from whether they’d supDistrict 4, said they would port purchasing the first like to know how the sober house during sober house program would its Dec. 17 meeting. work before they are asked to vote on whether they’d like the board to support the house purchase during their December meeting. In order to become official, the sober house would also need a special use permit from the city of Sycamore to allow it to operate as a group home. “Again we’re in a situation where we’re asked to pay for a house when we don’t have the plans,” Cvek said. “We haven’t learned from the same mistake we’ve already made.” A proposal for a sober house in Sycamore has already failed this year. A 2,388-square-foot house at 303 Exchange St. in Sycamore was proposed earlier this year but failed to become official after County Board members cited the proposal didn’t fit with the county’s 100-year plan, which would contain county property to the area bordered by North Walnut Street to the east, North Locust Street to the west, East Sycamore Street to the north and East State Street to the south. The Exchange Street house was on the wrong
See SOBER HOME, page A5
Demolition underway at Wurlitzer site in DeKalb
Building partially collapsed in 2012
was locked in a legal battle with the bank and the building owner’s estate. “It allows the property to be used for a good purpose,” City Attorney Dean Frieders said. “Not By KATIE DAHLSTROM just sitting there decaying.” kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com Crews will raze close to 90,000 DeKALB – Crews will spend square feet of the building, planthe next month or so demolishing ning documents show. The areas much of the former Wurlitzer Co. slated for demolition include the building, which collapsed more portions that collapsed and surrounding buildings, as well as the than two years ago. Crews hired by the Union Na- water tower. Parts of the building at 1660 tional Bank and Trust are tearing down more than half of the Pleasant St. collapsed twice in sprawling factory, part of which May 2012, crumbling from the collapsed in 2012. It has sat in lim- third to the first floor. City ofbo since that time while the city ficials condemned parts of the
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Pet dog killed
St. Charles woman: Coyotes are ‘not afraid of us anymore’ / A2
building shortly after the collapse. They put fencing around the property, but another floor in the building collapsed in November 2013, ending DeKalb police officer Fred Busby’s 27-year career. Busby entered the building in response to a call about possibly armed suspects inside. He was moving low to the ground on the second story toward the suspects when he fell through the floor up to his torso, while his feet dangled 15 feet above the concrete floor below. Frieders said a court order issued in DeKalb County in June mandated the building owners start trying to clear the property
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Holiday help
G-K Goodfellows raising funds for first Christmas distribution / A3
by September. He said they have been getting the proper permits in line before starting the demolition. Starting to clear the rubble took as long as it did because the city wanted to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the demolition, Frieders said. City officials have been working through Jeffrey Burns, the attorney representing Elgin-based Union National Bank and Trust to clear the property, he said. Bank officials did not return requests for comment Wednesday.
See WURLITZER, page A5
LOCAL NEWS
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Four-year sentence for DeKalb man convicted of stalking woman / A4
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Stalking case
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Camille Cyr, with Property Recycling out of Warrenville, drives an excavator Monday as he separates material from the Wurlitzer Co. building at 1660 Pleasant St. in DeKalb during demolition.
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