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Tuesday, March 25, 2014
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State officials probe sewage incident IEPA, state health department to visit Cortland mobile home park By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com CORTLAND – A few weeks passed before Debbie Jones realized it was sewage being pumped onto the ground yards from her trailer. “I didn’t know what they were doing,” Jones said, referring to the people she saw setting up a pumping system in a large white tank outside her home in the Edgebrook mobile
home park near Cortland. The system was set up to alleviate a backup in a septic tank by pumping sewage from the tank onto the ground. Jones said the system has been in place about two months. The Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency are investigating the mobile home park for dumping sewage onto the ground for weeks.
The park is outside the town limits of Cortland at 300 S. Somonauk Road. It includes about 90 units and is owned by Chicago-based Zeman Homes. Zeman also operates the mobile home park in Sycamore. Zeman Homes CEO Dee Pizer did not return calls for comment Monday. According to Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold, the park licensees can-
not be fined under the Mobile Home Park Act. The law does allow officials at the state public health department to suspend or revoke the park’s operating licenses, however. “In general in an investigation, we look to see are the proper systems such as electricity, water and sewer are set up correctly,” Arnold said. “But it’s hard to say what else we will look at in this case.” Kim Biggs, spokeswoman
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for the Illinois EPA, said her agency could issue an enforcement action that could lead to fines. State officials will be on site today to investigate, Biggs said. The situation came to light Friday after officials with the DeKalb County Health Department received an anonymous tip at 1:30 p.m. that sewage was leaking into Mound Rest Cemetery east of the park. The empty lot where the tank sits
also is bordered by Route 38, the Cortland Animal Hospital and mobile homes. After bringing in a pumping truck to temporarily prevent sewage from being dumped on the ground, county officials notified state officials, who will be handling the investigation because the park is in rural Cortland. Greg Maurice, DeKalb
Officials: Missing plane went down in Indian Ocean By EILEEN NG and TODD PITMAN The Associated Press
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia
Senior Stephanie Holbrook works on a batik canvas March 18 during teacher Chad Gregory’s advanced placement art 2D design class at DeKalb High School. The designs of the batik are made with hot wax to preserve the canvas and fabric dye applied for color.
D-428 follows state trend in advanced placement classes Voice your opinion
By DEBBIE BEHRENDS dbehrends@shawmedia.com DeKALB – High school students like Stephanie Holbrook and Tyler Koch take advanced placement classes for a variety of reasons, including to prepare for college classes or just to embrace the challenge. Enrolled in advanced placement art 2D design, Holbrook worked last week on a batik wall hanging. Batik designs are created with hot wax to preserve the fabric, and then color is added with fabric dyes. “AP art classes really allow your creative juices to flow,” Holbrook said. Regardless of the reasons, DeKalb High School is following a statewide trend toward more students – and more minority students – enrolling in AP classes. Illinois is emerging as a national leader in closing the equity gap for Latino and low-income AP test takers, providing additional access to college for traditionally underserved populations, according to a news release from the Il-
Which advanced placement classes would you be interested if you were in high school? Vote online now at Daily-Chronicle.com.
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Alayna Gersic, a senior is Isabelle Kovarik’s advanced placement chemistry class, double checks her measurement during an equilibrium lab March 18 at DeKalb High School. linois State Board of Education. State Superintendent of Education Christopher A. Koch calls this a huge step forward in achieve excellence and improving college access. “Illinois is committed to preparing all students for success in college and careers through equal, yet challenging, opportunities,” Koch said in the news release. “The latest AP exam results are further proof that our efforts are on the right track.”
Although AP tests, which determine if students can receive college credit, are conducted in May, Holbrook hasn’t decided if she will take any. Holbrook is a senior at DeKalb who plans to attend Western Illinois University in Macomb, with plans for a career in graphic design. Enrolled in AP chemistry at DeKalb, Tyler Koch plans to test in May. A junior, he plans a career in engineering. “This was the only AP science class that interest-
ed me,” Koch said. DeKalb High School offers AP classes in art, biology, calculus, chemistry, English language, English literature, European history, government and politics, Spanish and U.S. history. Music theory is offered as an independent study, and classes taken in the Engineering Academy at Kishwaukee College are weighted and taken for dual credit. DHS does not limit the number of AP classes a student can take. DeKalb School District District 428 high school counselor Cindy Dugan said during the 2012-13 school year, 151 students took 245 exams. This year, among the 1,750 high school students enrolled, about 300 are taking AP classes.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – After 17 days of desperation and doubt over the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, the country’s officials said an analysis of satellite data points to a “heartbreaking” conclusion: Flight 370 met its end in the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean, and none of those aboard survived. The somber announcement late Monday by Prime Minister Najib Razak left unresolved many more troubling questions about what went wrong aboard the Boeing 777 to take it so far offcourse. It also unleashed a maelstrom of sorrow and anger among the families of the jet’s 239 passengers and crew. A solemn Najib, clad in a black suit, read a brief statement about what he called an unparalleled study of the jet’s last-known signals to a satellite. That analysis showed that the missing plane, which took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early March 8, veered “to a remote location, far from any possible landing sites.” “It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” he said. His carefully chosen
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words did not directly address the fate of those aboard. But in a separate message, sent to some of their relatives just before he spoke, Malaysia Airlines officials said that “we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived.” Officials said they concluded that the flight had been lost in the deep waters west of Perth, Australia, based on more thorough analysis of the brief signals the plane sent every hour to a satellite belonging to Inmarsat, a British company, even after other communication systems on the jetliner shut down. The pings did not include any location information. But Inmarsat and British aviation officials used “a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort” to zero in on the plane’s last position, as it reached the end of its fuel, Najib said. In a statement, Inmarsat said the company used “detailed analysis and modelling” of transmissions from the Malaysia Airlines jet and other known flights to describe “the likely direction of flight of MH370.” Najib gave no indication of exactly where in the Indian Ocean the plane was last heard from, but searchers have sighted possible debris in an area about 1,240 miles
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A relative of one of the Chinese passengers aboard the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 grieves after being told Monday of the latest news in Beijing. It was the grim news that families of the missing flight had dreaded for weeks, they heard it from Malaysia’s prime minister: new analysis of satellite data indicates the missing plane crashed into a remote corner of the Indian Ocean.
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