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Febru a r y 9, 2015 • $1 .0 0
KEY COMEBACK Corral sets career high in points, leads Huskies to victory in late run / B1 HIGH
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Station’s cost to be laid out DeKalb City Council will get full accounting of police department By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – DeKalb City Council members today will get a full accounting of the cost of the new DeKalb Police Department – more than a year after it opened. Aldermen in 2011 capped the project at $12 million, but the total amount for the police station actually was more than $12.24 million, about 2 percent over the set cost, according to city documents. Mayor John Rey said although he’s pleased with the thoroughness of the staff review of the costs, he would have liked to see a similar breakdown sooner. “The current policies and procedures would allow for much more transparency as the spending progresses,” Rey said. City Manager Anne Marie Gaura said the presentation comes after she told aldermen they would receive a cost breakdown. She also said if the police department project was completed under the revised financial policies she implemented in March, the changes in cost would have been more transparently presented to the council. Overall, Gaura said, the amount actually spent on the project was not shocking considering the size. “When you look at the total cost, the additional
If you go WHAT: DeKalb City Council Committee of the Whole meeting WHEN: 5 p.m. today WHERE: DeKalb City Hall, 200 S. Fourth St., DeKalb
costs have specific projects associated with them,” Gaura said. “It is not surprising on a project of this size that you have those additional costs.” According to accounting that will be presented to the City Council today, the city incurred the extra costs because of several items. A communications and transmitter tower was $45,000 more than the anticipated cost, while document printing cost nearly $6,800 more than budgeted. Furniture cost $67,000 more than expected and $98,000 more for site preparations, electric moves and other expenses. Construction management fees and owners risk insurance added up to almost $7,000 more than what was included in the guaranteed maximum price. City officials also are counting $48,000 of administrative tow fee money that was used for items other than furniture when determining how far over
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Cliffton Hansen, 15, of Boy Scout Troop 2810 out of Sycamore, picks up rings as he is pulled in a shopping cart in a “jousting” event during the annual Klondike Derby on Saturday at the Sycamore Sportsman’s Club.
Klondike Derby an education in teamwork for county Boy Scouts Voice your opinion
By AIMEE BARROWS news@daily-chronicle.com Tom Barone, Klondike Derby event coordinator, describes Saturday’s annual Scouting event as “heaven to a 9-, 10-, 12-year-old boy.” If he’s right, more than 200 Scouts from all over DeKalb County discovered heaven as they converged on the Sycamore Sports Club for a competitive, fun-filled day. “The boys love it,” said Barone, who’s also scoutmaster of Troop 2 in Kirkland. “We let them have fun and they learn things along the way. They get to play with fire, do races, run around and play in the snow.” But it’s not all fun and games. Teamwork and survival skills were two of the main items the boys learned throughout the day, said Dave Lave, scoutmaster of Waterman Troop 139.
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builds friendly competition.” Barone said the Scouts also learn winter survival skills, which he said are important. He said remaining calm is one important skill the boys need to know. “We tell them as long as they don’t panic, and are preAustin Petrie, 10, of Cub Scout Pack 134, aims candy at a target in the slingshot event during the annual Klondike Derby on Saturday. pared, they’ll be OK,” Barone said. “Just because it’s 10 See a video and more photos at Daily-Chronicle.com. degrees doesn’t mean you’re “The events teach them scoutmaster for Troop 139, going to freeze to death. The teamwork skills, troop spir- said the entire weekend is problem is when people don’t know what to do. But we teach it, and if they camp out, they very educational. learn how to be prepared for “They find out what they them what to do.” Justin McCarthy, a Boy the cold weather, as far as know and what they don’t what to wear and cook and know,” Mitchell said. “It tests Scout in Troop 139, said he’s how to stay warm,” Lave said. their knowledge and puts See SCOUTS, page A4 His son, Mitchell, assistant their brains to work, plus it
ANALYSIS
What happens if Homeland Security shuts down because of budget? By ERICA WERNER and ALICIA A. CALDWELL The Associated Press
AP file photo
A TSA agent checks a bag at a security checkpoint area Nov. 21 at Midway International Airport in Chicago.
WASHINGTON – Spending for the Department of Homeland Security hangs in the balance as Congress fights over immigration matters in the agency’s annual funding bill. Without action by Feb. 27, the department’s budget will shut off. To hear Democrats and many Republicans tell it, the result would be unacceptable risks to U.S. security at a time of grave threats worldwide. In reality, however, most people
will see little change if the department’s money flow is halted, and some of the warnings of doom are as exaggerated as they are striking. “There are ghoulish, grim predators out there who would love to kill us or do us harm,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We should not be dillydallying and playing parliamentary pingpong with national security.” In the view of some House conservatives, however, shutting off the agency’s $40 billion
budget for a time “is obviously not the end of the world,” as Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., put it, because many agency employees would stay at work through a shutdown. Who’s right, and what would the effect be if Congress were to let money for the department lapse? Salmon and a few other conservatives are the only ones saying it publicly so far, but the reality is that a department shutdown would have a very limited effect on national security. That’s because most department employees fall into exempted cat-
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egories of workers who stay on the job in a shutdown because they perform work considered necessary to protect human life and property. Even in a shutdown, most workers across agencies, including the Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Customs and Border Protection, would continue to report to work. Airport security checkpoints would remain staffed,
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