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Sycamore parks looking to grow Design approved for expansion of district’s Airport Road sports complex By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Sycamore Park Board members have approved a design for a sports complex expansion that includes more and better parking and moving its soccer fields out of flood-prone areas – all part of the city’s Action
2020 plan. The expansion of the complex along south Airport Road calls for bigger soccer and football fields and parking space along the 89 acres donated several years ago, as well as a natural wetland restoration project on the property closest to the river. Across Airport Road,
Health reform brings growth in food stamps
a new community center, splashpad, sledding hill and dog park will be located along 25 acres. “We’re pretty much out of space as the community continues to grow,” Park District Vice President Michelle Schulz said. The football and soccer fields will be moved to the op-
posite end of the expansion, away from a flood-prone area, while the baseball fields and parking lots at the existing sports complex will be revised for better traffic flow, Schulz said. “You get all that [activity] going in one small complex, and we’re worried about safety,” Schulz said. “Baseball
fields are still going to be in the sports complex, we’re just going to revise how they’re laid out.” The Sycamore Park District is in the process of submitting applications for three of several grants for which they plan to apply over the next five years, one of which would help pay for the sports
complex expansion, park district Executive Director Dan Gibble said in a news release. “We can’t do all these projects just on the back of local property taxpayers,” he said, “so we will begin fundraising and use grants to make all of this happen.”
See SYCAMORE, page A6
Federal aid unlikely for Fairdale
By CARLA K. JOHNSON and DAVID MERCER The Associated Press CHICAGO – President Barack Obama’s health care law has had a surprising side effect: In some states, it appears to be enticing more Americans to apply for food stamps, even as the economy improves. New, streamlined application systems built for the health care overhaul are making it easier for people to enroll in government benefit programs, including insurance coverage and food stamps. In most affected states, the enrollment increases were not huge, ranging from 1 percent to 6 percent over two years, according Illinois impact to an Associated Press analysis. The sole exIn Illinois, food-stamp ception was Nevada, enrollment increased where enrollment shot 2.5 percent to 2.08 mil- up 14 percent. lion between January The enrollment is 2013 and December climbing as Repub2014, an increase of licans try to cut the about 50,000 people costs of the food proin a period when the gram and at a time state’s unemployment when food-stamp usage would normally be rate fell from 9.1 percent to 6.2 percent. expected to decline. Eligibility rules have not Illinois has long let changed. people sign up for West Virginia’s food stamps, Medicaid and other benefits on food-stamp enrollment increased 4 percent afa single form, state ter a Medicaid expanofficials said, but a new online application, sion that was part of the health care changnicknamed “ABE” for es. Enrollment jumped the 16th president, is because people were easier to use. “more engaged with our systems and more aware what they’re eligible for,” said Jeremiah Samples of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. With the economy improving, national food-stamp enrollment declined in 2013 and 2014. But in 11 states, demand rose between January 2013 and the end of 2014, the AP analysis showed. Ten of those states expanded their Medicaid programs under the health law. Florida did not expand Medicaid but led the nation in health law enrollment in private insurance plans. Six of the states employed new easy signup systems that helped people apply for both Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, at the same time. Some used online calculators or click-the-box features. The food-stamp increase was not envisioned by either supporters or opponents of the new health care system. While it’s unclear exactly how much growth can be attributed to the law and incentives it offered to states, the increased enrollment could be expensive. The average food-stamp recipient was paid $125.35 a month last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP. Based on that, the nearly 632,000 people added to food-stamp rolls in the 11 states
See FOOD STAMPS, page A6
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott (right) walks with DeKalb County Sheriff’s Lt. Andy Sullivan (left) on Friday down Route 72 through Fairdale while debris cleanup with DeKalb County and DeKalb Township equipment continued behind them. Route 72 is now open.
Local donations continue as effort shifts to long-term recovery mode By BRETT ROWLAND browland@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The road to recovery in Fairdale will be paved with local dollars. DeKalb County and local municipal officials aren’t counting on an influx of state or federal cash to help with the cleanup and long-term recovery and rebuilding work needed after an EF4 tornado struck the unincorporated DeKalb County community April 9, killing two, injuring more than a dozen and destroying scores of homes and buildings. With cleanup work ongoing, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency is still in the process of collecting information about the damage and working to determine the unmet needs of residents and local governments. Once the IEMA has that information, it will be able to determine what assistance the state might be able to offer, said Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the agency. “It’s still too early,” Thompson said. “At this point, we’re continuing to collect information.” In the meantime, state agencies, such as the Illinois Department of Transportation, are assisting local governments in the affected areas. But local leaders don’t expect the kind of federal disaster assistance that helped survivors of the
IEMA Director James K. Joseph (second from left) talks to Alisha Hart, daughter of Fairdale homeowner John Hartman (right), while sharing their story with Gov. Bruce Rauner as he and Rauner toured the disaster area on Friday. deadly 2013 tornado that struck Washington. After that EF4 tornado, which killed three people and damaged more than 1,000 homes, the Federal Emergency Management
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Agency’s Individual Assistance Program approved more than $2.5 million in grants for home repairs, rental assistance and to replace lost personal items. And the U.S. Small Business Admin-
istration reported that more than $18.7 million in low-interest disaster loans had been approved to help the rebuilding process. No
See RECOVERY, page A6
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