DAILY CHRONICLE
‘MORALE BOOSTER’
April 25-26, 2015 • $1.50
WEEKEND SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
Bears help Fairdale tornado recovery / B1 daily-chronicle.com
HIGH
LOW
46 34 Complete forecast on page A12
Facebook.com/dailychronicle
@dailychronicle
Long-term Fairdale aid in works As first responders depart, committee aims to raise millions for victims By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com DeKALB – As emergency responders and aid organizations withdraw, a new committee has been established to assist the families of Fairdale and surrounding areas long after the initial relief phase ends. The Kishwaukee United Way
and the DeKalb County Community Foundation have partnered to establish the DeKalb County Disaster Recovery Fund, a pass through fund which will be used by the newly developed DeKalb County Long-Term Recovery Committee to support recovery and rebuilding efforts for DeKalb County residents. “Our objective is, as first
responders pull out, the people who were the victims of the tornado don’t see a hole in the network of support to help them continue to face needs as they’re changing day by day, week by week,” said Bill Nicklas, committee chairman and president of Nicklas Consulting. Nicklas has held administrative positions at Northern Illi-
nois University and he was city manager of DeKalb from 1992 to 1997 and held the same position in Sycamore from 1998 to 2011. Weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., affected families can call 815-761-8078 and talk to a person to learn about what resources are available to help them. The committee plans to connect families with resources for
everything from rebuilding their homes, to dealing with trauma and reuniting with their pets. It’s goal is to be a clearinghouse for all services the residents may need. DeKalb County Community Foundation Executive Director Daniel P. Templin said he
See TORNADO, page A9
FINANCIAL DISPARITY TIED TO DIFFERENCES IN HEALTH OUTCOMES
EARNING GAP EFFECTS
Get help Weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., families affected by the Fairdale tornado can call 815-7618078 to get information on resources.
Budget cut hits nursing homes Medicaid funding reduced by $106M By KERRY LESTER and NICK SWEDBERG The Associated Press
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
DeKalb County Community Gardens’ Hannah Thompson (right), an intern from Kishwaukee College, tries a piece of chickweed with Heath Johnson, a master grower with DCCG, while watering and tending plants April 14 inside the greenhouse at Kish Gardens in Sycamore. BELOW: Janelle Stein, SNAP educator and community outreach with the University of Illinois Extension, explains product unit pricing Tuesday while speaking at a food budgeting class called “Eating Right When Your Budget is Tight” at Hope Haven in DeKalb. According to the USDA and Feeding America, 13.4 percent of DeKalb County, or 13,920 people, were considered food insecure from the most recent 2012 numbers.
Income inequality a public health issue in DeKalb County By BRETT ROWLAND browland@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The gap between DeKalb County’s rich and poor is having a negative effect on the health of residents, according to area officials and public health researchers. “Income inequality can affect how long and how well we live,” said Jane Lux, public health administrator at the DeKalb County Health Department. The disparity can exacerbate community differences leading to a loss of social connections, Lux said. Such inequality particularly affects the poor. People whose household income is in the 80th percentile of all DeKalb County homes earn 5.2 times as much as those in the 20th percentile, according to the annual County Health Rankings recently released by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In the county, households in the top fifth had income of $99,628 or more a year. At the other end, the
bottom fifth of households earned $19,342 or less. In Illinois, the income inequality ratio ranges from 3.1 in Kendall County to 7.4 in Jackson County. A higher inequality ratio indicates greater division between the top and bottom ends of the income spectrum. Statewide, the overall ratio is 4.8. Nationally, the highest ratio was 9.6 in Schleicher County, Texas, a rural county in the cen-
ter of the state with a population of about 3,500. “We know that poverty is definitely related to health,” said Jan O’Neill, an associate researcher who is a community coach with the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program. “We also know that when there is a big difference between the haves and the havenots, that adds more social stress and increases the risk of mortality
– through cardiovascular disease due to increased stress.” Income inequality can create divisions within communities that can lead to a dearth of services for the disadvantaged. O’Neill said that in some areas, funding for public education can decline if wealthy families enroll exclusively in private schools. Income inequality is a new measure in the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program, which ranks the health of nearly every county in the United States based on health factors such as high school graduation rates, obesity, smoking, unemployment, access to healthy foods, the quality of air and water, income and teen births. Overall, the data shows DeKalb County ranks among the state’s healthiest counties. The county ranked No. 11 of the 102 counties in the state on health outcomes and 25th for health factors, according to County Health Rankings. In some areas, however, the county lags behind its peers and the state as a whole.
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois nursing homes are at a loss for how they will deal with a roughly $65 million cut in state Medicaid funding made by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office as part of a budget fix for this fiscal year. Pat Comstock, executive director of Health Care Council of Illinois, said managers at nursing homes might have to go without paychecks as they scramble to figure out how to cut spending without violating state mandates for staffing and level of care. Her organization represents the more than 730 nursing homes in the state. “This is so massive and so devastating that it’s going to take us a while to figure out how we’re going to cope,” Comstock said Friday. Rauner’s office said Thursday that it’s cutting $106 million from Medicaid, the health care program for low-income and disabled people, as part of a deal with legislators to close a $1.6 billion gap in the fiscal year that ends in June. The governor’s office said providers of certain services will see their reimbursement rates reduced by 16.75 percent. Hospital and mental health services will be exempt from rate reductions, but hospitals will have to pay an additional assessment as part of the legislation. Besides Medicaid, services for young homeless people and victims of domestic violence and rape also will see funding reduced. The details of how the cuts will affect various agencies came roughly a month after lawmakers approved legislation to close the budget hole. It includes $1.3 billion in transfers from special funds and a 2.25 percent across-the-board cut. The $35.7 billion budget that the Legislature passed last spring didn’t provide enough funds to pay for promised programs and services as lawmakers delayed a vote on whether to extend the state’s
See HEALTH, page A9 See MEDICAID, page A9
LIFESTYLE
EDITOR’S NOTE
SPORTS
WHERE IT’S AT
Kitty clothing
Don’t hit kids
Repeat result
Woman’s cat hat project leads to Etsy sales, book / C1
Beating your children doesn’t ‘teach them a lesson,’ it just hurts / A2
NIU men’s tennis again falls to Buffalo in MAC semis / B1
Advice ................................ C4 Classified........................D1-4 Comics ............................... C5 Local News.....................A1-4 Lottery................................ A2 Nation&World...........A2, 5-9
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion..............................A11 Puzzles ............................... C4 Sports..............................B1-4 State ...................................A4 Weather ........................... A12