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Board to mull sales tax issue again Chair: It’s an option we need to look at for jail expansion meeting Wednesday, members agreed to include the possibility of a referendum S Y C A M O R E – D e K a l b in a jail expansion discussion County voters could decide slated for the DeKalb County for the third time if they want Board meeting next week. to increase sales tax to help “It’s not necessarily saying pay for an expanded jail. that that’s the route that we During the DeKalb County will be taking,” County Board Board Executive Committee Chairman Mark Pietrowski
By KATIE DAHLSTROM
kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com
Jr. said. “But it’s an option that we need to look at.” Among other problems, jail overcrowding has led to inmates having to be transported to other county jails, which costs about $1 million a year. Pietrowski, a Cortland Democrat serving District 3, and Vice Chairman Tracy Jones, a Kirkland Republican from District 1, said the question would appear on the spring 2016 ballot at the earliest. The question would likely
ask voters for a quarter-cent or half-cent sales tax increase, which could generate up to $3.2 million, County Administrator Gary Hanson said. Voters twice rejected measures that would have increased sales tax by a halfcent, once in 2004 and again in 2006. DeKalb Democrat Paul Stoddard of District 9 said he believed the last two measures failed because voters didn’t see an end to the tax increase. “I think if you want any
What’s next
down,” Stoddard said. “Otherwise I don’t think it has a chance of passing.” County Administrator Gary DeKalb County Board Hanson will give an overview of members in November 2012 the jail expansion project during approved a plan to expand the DeKalb County Board meeting the 89-bed jail to 163 beds with at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Legislative Center, 200 N. Main St., extra space left unfinished in the addition for future imSycamore. provements, Hanson said. Hanson estimates that plan would cost about $30 chance of any potential refmillion now, given inflation erendum to pass, you’re go- since 2012. ing to have to have a sunset County Board members clause that when the jail is paid off, the tax goes back See TAX, page A3
2 more face charges in 2013 heroin overdose
Preserving history
By ERIC R. OLSON eolson@shawmedia.com
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Anne Thomas and husband, Tony Thomas, enter the DeKalb Area Women’s Center at 1021 State St. this past Friday to set up for the December Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair. The DeKalb Area Women’s Center building was built in 1917 as the Finnish Temperance Society and has a long list of structural repairs.
DeKalb Area Women’s Center seeking funds to restore historic building By AIMEE BARROWS news@daily-chronicle.com DeKALB – Anna Marie Coveny of the DeKalb Area Women’s Center finds it amusing that the building that houses a women-centered organization doesn’t have a kitchen. “For 20 years, we’ve never had a kitchen,” Coveny said. “The women haven’t demanded one. But if we had a real kitchen, it would open up the possibility of more rentals or catered events.” More rentals and events could translate into more money to use on much-needed repairs to its historic building at 1021 State St. in DeKalb’s Pleasant Street neighborhood. The building was constructed in 1917, when it was known as the Majakka Hall, a Finnish Temperance building. It now has local landmark status. The DeKalb Area Women’s Center rented the building for $1 when it formed in 1993. The center has a mission to encourage women’s empowerment and celebrate women and women’s culture. It was left to group organizers to make the necessary improvements. The group now owns the building, and the list of needed upgrades has been piling up. Coveny said the center has received grants from local and state groups that
DeKalb Area Women’s Center Director Anna Marie Coveny points to a makeshift water collection device the staff made after water seeped in near the center’s front stairs and destroyed the flooring above. However, window repairs and construcpaid for weatherproofing projects and roof repairs. But other parts of the building tion of a kitchen would be major undertakare crumbling. For example, rotted wood ings. Just last week, one of the furnaces around the windows needs to be fixed, and broke, and the women found out they need some windowpanes need to be removed, Coveny said. See RESTORATION, page A5
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SYCAMORE – Rhonda Jergens wasn’t sure what to think Wednesday after two of her son’s friends were charged with drug-induced homicide in connection with his death from a heroin overdose. She knew exactly how she felt, though. “I feel very sad that it has come to this,” said Jergens, whose son, Kurt Hudson, died of a heroin overdose at her home in Malta in September 2013. “I’m sad for their families, and I’m sad for them.” DeKalb County Sheriff’s police said drug-induced homicide charges had been filed against Geoffrey P. Seymore, 41, and Melissa M. Neal, 32, both of whom already are being held at area jails. Neal is being held at the Winnebago County jail, and Seymore Melissa M. is in the DeKalb County lockup, po- Neal lice said. Both were arrested Friday by DeKalb police on felony retail theft charges for a string of thefts from local retailers that took place between April and October, police said. Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Gary Dumdie said Neal and Seymore Geoffrey P. had both been involved in procurSeymore ing the heroin that killed Hudson. “They participated in the delivery of the heroin,” Dumdie said. “Even though they may not have actually purchased it with their own money, they certainly participated in the act of the purchase.” Drug-induced homicide is punishable by six to 30 years in prison. Hudson was 28 when he died, and three people now have been charged in connection with the incident. In October, Demario Q. Ware of Rockford was charged with drug-induced homicide; police allege he sold the heroin that killed Hudson. Earlier this year, Seymore told the Daily Chronicle that he and Hudson went out to celebrate Hudson’s recent release from prison and ended up buying a $10 bag of heroin outside a Rockford nightclub. They eventually returned to Hudson’s mother’s house, where they got high. Hudson did not wake up after using the drug. He died Sept. 29. “It just happened,” Seymore told the Daily Chronicle in a story that appeared in September of this year. “After some drinks and old times, it just happened. We never left the house with that being the intention.” Jergens said she wanted to support Seymore because he and her son had been friends for years, but she also questioned how to look at it. “Somebody said something to me today. They said, ‘Was he really a friend, or more like a partner in crime?’ ” Jergens said. “... I’m sure that Kurt’s watching over, and maybe this is what needs to be done.” At the center of it all, however, is heroin, a drug so powerful that it makes people think of nothing but feeding their addiction, Jergens said. “That’s why I’ve made it a mission to try to reach out to people,” Jergens said, “to tell them that this is an epidemic, and it’s affecting other lives.”
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