HANGING TOUGH
December 27-28, 2014 • $1.50
DeKalb holds off Moline to reach holiday classic finals / B1 daily-chronicle.com
SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
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DeKalb leaders set goals for 2015 By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – DeKalb residents will have more say in policy decisions if city officials carry out their New Year’s resolutions. As 2015 approaches, aldermen say they want to have more discussions and do more planning regarding the city’s challenges, like balancing a sixth straight year of declining property values, providing adequate city services and setting a tax levy that won’t deter new residents and businesses. “Everyone wants to lower taxes,” Ward 4 Alderman Bob
Snow said. “But taxes translate into police and firemen and public works employees who cut off water main breaks. So, I think we need to have a dialogue with the community about what level of services they want.” Earlier this month, the council approved a tax levy the same amount as last year, which means city officials are requesting the same amount of property tax revenue as they did last year. Their approval came despite concerns from city staff that they cannot continue to use general fund revenues to pay for some of the
Economy in 2014 shaky, but finished on upswing
city’s pension obligations. To Ward 6 Alderman Dave Baker, the solution to raising city revenue is not to increase taxes, but to attract developers and residents to open businesses and build homes. “We need to eliminate permit fees and impact fees and write checks to people who build houses in DeKalb,” Baker said. “We should pay people to come to DeKalb so we can grow the [equalized assessed valuation].” Baker said he hopes the 2015 election will bring at least two new aldermen on board who agree with him to hold the line
on taxes. Voters in four wards will choose aldermen in the April 7 election. Ward 1 Alderman David Jacobson is unopposed in seeking re-election, while Ward 7 Alderman Monica O’Leary will face off against challenger Craig Roman. Meanwhile, two contested races have emerged for Ward 5 Alderman Ron Naylor’s and Ward 3 Alderman Kristen Lash’s seats. Neither Naylor nor Lash are seeking re-election. Mayor John Rey said economic development will be his top priority in 2015. At least four businesses – Barnes & No-
ble, Big Lots, General Electric and Moxie – have announced they will leave DeKalb within the next few months. He said the keys will be offering an attractive incentive program and touting the area’s assets, like development-ready sites in Park 88 and the Chicago-West Business Park. Rey also said he thinks team-building will be critical in 2015 now that City Manager Anne Marie Gaura has been in her position for about a year, and the community development department, headed by Director Ellen Divita, has been re-established.
Jacobson suggested aldermen hold quarterly strategic planning meetings to allow them more time to debate major issues and plan. He would like to revisit the Greek Row revitalization plan next year, and he hopes the council and residents will be part of the city’s forthcoming strategic plan and comprehensive plan. Overall, Jacobson, along with his fellow aldermen, said next year will come with a simple theme. “I think,” Jacobson said, “2015 will be defined by how we get what we need with what we have.”
SYCAMORE TEEN CRITICALLY INJURED IN CRASH CONTINUES RECOVERY AT HOME
By JOSH BOAK The Associated Press WASHINGTON – The U.S. economy flexed its old muscles in 2014. More than five years removed from the Great Recession, worries had taken hold at the start of the year that perhaps the world’s largest economy had slid into a semi-permanent funk. But consumers, businesses and investors, after enduring a brutal winter, showed renewed vigor as the year wore on and set the United States apart from much of the world. Stocks repeatedly set record highs – and did so again Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising modestly to a new peak. Employers were on pace to add nearly 3 million jobs, the most in 15 years. Sinking oil prices cut gasoline costs to their lowest levels since May 2009. Auto sales accelerated. Inflation was a historically low sub-2 percent. The U.S. economy proved it could thrive even as the Federal Reserve ended its bond buying program, which had been intended to aid growth by holding down long-term loan rates. All told, the United States remained insulated from the financial struggles surfacing everywhere from Europe and Latin America to China, Japan and Russia. So what explained the U.S. economy’s resilience this year? Economists say it largely reflected the delayed benefits of finally mending the damage from the worst downturn in nearly 80 years. Unlike past recoveries that enjoyed comparatively swift rebounds, this one proved agonizingly slow. It took 6½ years to regain all the jobs lost to the recession – 8.7 million – far longer than during previous recoveries. “It was a healing process from a severe recession and the financial crisis,” said Richard Moody, chief economist at Regions Financial, a bank based in Alabama. The healing isn’t complete. Wage growth remains lackluster and has barely outpaced extremely low inflation. Home building has been tepid. But worries earlier this year that the economy might be trapped indefinitely by sluggish growth have largely faded. Here are the economic highlights of 2014:
HIRING BOOM Employers added 2.65 million jobs over the first 11 months of the year, and the unemployment rate sank to 5.8 percent from 6.7 percent. When the government announces the December job data next month, the 2014 job total is expected to be just shy of 3 million – the most since the dot-com era in 1999. Compared with recent years, those gains have been less concentrated in lower-paying industries such as retail, food service and temp agencies. “We’re finally entering that virtuous cycle phase of the expansion” when more jobs lead to higher incomes, which generates more
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Morgan Witmer, 16, glances over to her mom, Debbie Witmer (right), while talking about her occupational therapy Tuesday in their Sycamore home. Witmer was critically injured in an Oct. 27 car crash in which she was a passenger. She was flown to St. Anthony’s Medical Center in Rockford in critical condition and later transferred to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
Slow and steady By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – The past two months have been about small victories for Morgan Witmer. She focused on tasks like walking downstairs to her bedroom or wiggling her fingers. Now, she’s looking forward to lifting a glass of water with her formerly paralyzed left arm, going back to school and seeing her 17th birthday. They might seem like small feats, but to Morgan and her family, they amount to much more considering they didn’t know if she would survive a serious car crash Oct. 27. “I would be very frustrated that I had to wake up and do this every day,” Morgan said. “But then I think about what I’ve been given. I’ve been given the chance to live again. I was basically dead. [I think] of all the people that saved me, and then I think of how grateful that I should be that I’m even here.” Progress came quickly, but it didn’t come easy, Morgan said. She spent more than a week at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford after the crash broke her neck in three places and bruised her spinal ligament, leaving her paralyzed on her left side. She also suffered collapsed lungs and had
Morgan Witmer (right), 16, starts a tissue paper fight with friend Ryann Schopfer, 16, after they exchanged presents Tuesday in Witmer’s bedroom. three broken ribs on each side of her rib cage. started.” “This changed everything,” her dad, Mel She was transferred to the Rehabilitation Witmer Jr., said. “In this time and our situ- Institute of Chicago, where she did inpatient ation with Morgan, we have been focused on hour-to-hour, day-to-day, since this journey See RECOVERY, page A5
See ECONOMY, page A5
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Bears re-sign center Roberto Garza for 1 year / B4
Local libraries, rec centers plan activities to keep kids busy on break / A3
Olson: 2014 was the comeback year in many ways / A2
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