75 cents
Breaking news at Daily-Chronicle.com
Serving DeKalb County since 1879
Monday, February 3, 2014
KLONDIKE DERBY • LOCAL, A3
BOYS BASKETBALL • SPORTS, B1
Kids learn outdoor survival skills
Barbs show progress in win over Sycamore
Luke Davis III
DeKalb County Board honors Scott Sheriff’s 45 years of public service celebrated By DEBBIE BEHRENDS dbehrends@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Roger Scott has accomplished something few people ever do. The DeKalb County sheriff has served the county’s police force for 45 years and been elected to the post seven times after first being appointed in 1985. DeKalb County Board Chairman Jeff Metzger said, according to county payroll records, Scott has served the county longer than anyone.
Voice your opinion What is your longest tenure at a job? Vote online at Daily-Chronicle.com.
Although his appointment wasn’t popular at the time, Metzger said Scott has proven detractors wrong. “In March 1985, the County Board appointed Roger as county sheriff,” Metzger said in a statement he read at the January County Board meet-
ing. “Some say he was a compromise candidate, but many knew the qualities Roger would being to the office.” Scott’s career with the county began years earlier when he was hired in communications, then called the radio room, he said. “I joined the department Jan. 1, 1969, on third shift in the radio room,” Scott said. “I worked in the radio room about eight or nine months.” Scott said Melvin Shaw was the sheriff at the time, and it was a different era.
Tough decision
“We only had about 15 people in the whole department then,” Scott recalled. “We have about 100 now.” During his years with the department, Scott has pursued several initiatives, including the Drug Task Force, Major Crimes Task Force, Special Operations Team, electronic home monitoring to ease crowding at the jail and the county’s K-9 program in 1974. Chief Deputy Gary Dumdie, formerly a K-9 handler
See SHERIFF, page A10
Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott conducts a meeting Tuesday in his office in Sycamore. Scott, who began in the communications division and has been elected sheriff seven times, was recognized for 45 years of service at a recent County Board meeting.
Officials: OD eyed in actor’s death
Knowing when to stop driving difficult for most seniors
By DEBBIE BEHRENDS dbehrends@shawmedia.com Nikki Crooke of DeKalb plans to keep driving until they tell her she can’t any more. Crooke, 79, of DeKalb, said she would feel a terrible loss of independence without her driver’s license. “I worked as a visiting nurse for hospice up until just three years ago,” Crooke said. “I put about 800 miles a month on my car.” Discussions about giving up one’s driver’s license – and with it a measure of independence – are difficult for senior citizens. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 5,401 people age 65 and older were killed and 185,000 were injured in motor vehicle traffic crashes. These older individuals made up 17 percent of all traffic fatalities and 8 percent of all people injured in traffic crashes that year. In January, two crashes on Peace Road in Sycamore involving drivers in their 80s led to serious injuries; in one, an 85-year-old driver died as a result of injuries suffered in the crash. Seniors, and those who care for them, need to have discussions about driving, advised Diana King, senior service director for Family Service Agency. But it’s not always an easy one. “Always be respectful and sensitive when having that conversation,” King said. “Understand that it’s difficult to lose that independence.” Illinois law requires that drivers older than 75 take a vision and driving test to renew their driver’s licenses. Sometimes drivers also have to take the written test, de-
Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46, found dead in NYC home The ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK – Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won the Oscar for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote and created a gallery of slackers, charlatans and other characters so vivid that he was regarded as one of the world’s finest actors, was found dead in his apartment Sunday with what officials said was a needle in his arm. He was 46. The actor apparently died of a drug overdose, said two Philip l a w e n f o r c e - Seymour ment officials, Hoffman who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Envelopes containing what was believed to be heroin were found with him, they said. Hoffman – with his doughy, everyman physique, his often-disheveled look and his limp, receding blond hair – was a character actor of such range and lack of vanity that he could seemingly handle roles of any size, on the stage and in movies that played in art houses or multiplexes. He could play comic or dramatic, loathsome or sympathetic, trembling or diabolical, dissipated or tightly
Photos by Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
Dorothy Bierman, 86, drives west Friday on Fairview Drive in DeKalb. Bierman has been driving for about 70 years. BELOW: Bierman makes a right turn from South Fourth Street onto Fairview Drive on Friday in DeKalb. Discussions about giving up one’s driver’s license – and with it a measure of independence – are difficult for senior citizens. Advanced age, slower reflexes and health issues are among the signs that it may be time to give up one’s driver’s license.
Courses scheduled Rules of the Road review courses are scheduled to assist seniors in passing their Illinois driver’s licensing test. n In DeKalb, on Tuesday, May 2, Aug. 1 and Oct. 3. Call Diana King at 815-758-4718 for more information. n In Sandwich, on March 13, July 10 and Nov. 13. Call Susan Thanepohn at 815-786-9404.
pending on any incidents in which they may have been involved in the previous four years. At age 82, drivers have to take a road test every two
years. From age 87 on, a road test is required annually. King said the senior centers in DeKalb and Sandwich
See LICENSE, page A10 See HOFFMAN, page A10
Weather
Inside today’s Daily Chronicle Lottery Local news Obituaries
A2 A2-4 A4
National and world news Opinions Sports
A6-7 A11 B1-3, 6-7
Advice Comics Classified
B4 B5 B8-10
High:
18
Low:
4