THURSDAY
June 11, 2015 • $1.00
DAY OF THE DINO
DAILY CHRONICLE
NIU professor breaks down the science behind ‘Jurassic’ films / C1 HIGH
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College leader plans to retire
Local ice rink on wish list?
Search committee to form at Kishwaukee By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com
MALTA – Kishwaukee College President Tom Choice says he plans to retire in December after 14 years at the college and more than 30 years in the Illinois Community College system. “I’ve been doing this for about 31 years,” Choice said. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while. With the pension system, I felt this was as good a time as any.” “The college has grown and changed over its long history,” Choice said in a statement, “and I feel blessed to have been here to see a number of those changes in the last 14 years that have improved the Kishwaukee College experience for both students and employees.” The board of trustees “reluc- Tom Choice tantly accepted” Choice’s resignation at their Tuesday meeting, according to a news release. Now, the process begins to establish a search committee that will find another candidate over the next couple of months, Board Chairman Bob Johnson said. “We are searching various search firms and individuals that conduct searches for presidents, and we will work with them over the next several weeks,” Johnson said. He said a search committee usually consists of 11 people comprised of administrators, faculty, trustees, foundation board members, residents and others. However, the last search committee that Kishwaukee College assembled was in 1999 when David Louis was hired as president. Choice was hired without a search committee in April 2007, after serving as vice president of career/transfer instruction for six years. However, the board has already agreed to establish a search
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Parker Grudecki, 12, of Sycamore collects his ice hockey goalkeeper gear to load in his family’s SUV before heading off to Darien for a championship game Sunday with his West Dundee Leafs team. Since there are no local ice arenas for hockey and no local teams, Grudecki and the Rissman family of Sycamore play with teams from West Dundee or Rockford, depending on the age or season.
Area hockey players favor idea, but community support mixed Toews, Saad score as Hawks tie series in 2-1 win
BY KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com DeKALB – To someone who didn’t know better, the “hockey taxi” license plate holder on the back of Julie Rissman’s car might seem like just a joke. Six days out of the week, however, the Sycamore mother shuffles duffel bags and her preteen sons and nephew between their homes to one of the rinks nearest to them – about 20 miles away in West Dundee. The attention drawn by the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final has reignited a spark of hope for some community members and points to a larger hockey fan base in the area, as well as the possibility for a DeKalb ice rink. Julie Rissman’s youngest son, Ethan Rissman, 9, said he immediately loved everything about
CHICAGO – Jonathan Toews and Brandon Saad scored, Corey Crawford withstood a furious barrage in the closing minute and the Blackhawks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-1, to tie the Stanley Cup Final at 2 games apiece on Wednesday night. See Page B1 for more coverage. the sport. Soccer, which each boy tried, was the antithesis of everything they loved about hockey. They were outdoors, they had to run on uneven grass rather than glide across smooth ice, and most disappointingly – it was hot. “It was super hot and it was just not our cup of tea,” Ethan Rissman said. “They had fans
there, but that didn’t work. I like to play in a cold environment.” So year-round for Julie Rissman and her husband, time is divided between preparing their sons for tryouts, driving them between practices and tournaments, and meeting together at the end of a night or week to finish homework, eat dinner, and do it all over again the next day. “I like to say we take the summer off, but before we know it, the boys are in their skates for warmups for the fall season,” Rissman said. “I think my kids would be well out of hockey by the time we ever got [a rink] here.” JC Wheems, the Northern Illinois University Hockey Club president, said NIU did consider building a rink in 2002, when the university opened the Convocation Center. “Unfortunately, it was going to
cost something like $8 million,” he said. “A sheet of ice has to be refrigerated. There’s a lot of power that goes into that; there’s a lot of upkeep.” There are ice rinks in areas outside DeKalb County, including in Rockford, as well as suburban locations including West Dundee, Geneva and Naperville. But in DeKalb County, ice sports such as hockey and figure skating are seasonal activities confined to the lagoon at Northern Illinois University, downtown Genoa and other ponds. As the Blackhawks’ success has made more people pay attention to ice hockey, local hockey fans and families have not lost sight of their wishes for a local ice rink to practice and play on. “Use the Blackhawks as kind
See ICE RINK, page A4
See KISHWAUKEE, page A4
Comptroller: Without budget, most state payments would stop By SOPHIA TAREEN The Associated Press CHICAGO – Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger said Wednesday that if lawmakers don’t reach a state budget deal by the end of the month, she’ll be unable to do her job of paying most of the state’s bills. The Republican, who Bruce Rauner hand-picked while governor-elect, warned of a scenario where state employees wouldn’t receive paychecks, public schools would stop getting state aid and ven-
dors – from child care providers to road construction crews – wouldn’t get paid. “There will be very real consequences for taxpayers and organization throughout our state,” Munger told reporters in her first major Chicago news conference since her appointment in January after the death of her predecessor, Judy Baar Topinka. Illinois lawmakers are at a budget impasse. Legislative Democrats approved a spending plan that avoids cuts to services but acknowledge
it’s at least $3 billion short of revenue and want Rauner to approve new taxes. The Republican governor has said he won’t sign the “phony” budget and lawmakers Leslie should first conMunger sider his agenda, including overhauling workers compensation and term limits, to better Illinois’ business climate. Munger tried to ratchet up pressure for both sides to come
to an agreement before July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. But the businesswoman who’s holding public office for the first time largely blamed the Democratic-controlled Legislature, echoing many of Rauner’s charges. She accused legislators of “needless theater” and failing to accomplish other reforms, although she declined to specify what she wants to see on the table. “They have failed to do their job,” she said. “Their failure now prevents me from doing mine.”
Without a budget deal, there would be no new payments to providers of Medicaid, which pays medical expenses of the poor and disabled, nonprofit groups and other vendors, Munger said. She added that state employees would stop getting paid on July 15 and schools would miss general state aid payments starting Aug. 10, which could cause major disruptions. She said some payments would continue because they don’t rely on budget appropriations or are protected by law.
SPORTS
LOCAL NEWS
LOCAL NEWS
WHERE IT’S AT
Honor given
Expansion ahead
Royal crowns
Sycamore’s Dion Hooker wins award for boys track / B1
DeKalb Public Library raising funds for $25.3 million project / A3
Genoa Days king and queen named, given scholarships / A3
Advice................................. C4 Classified........................ C6-8 Comics................................ C5 Local News..................... A3-4 Lottery................................. A2 Nation&World....................A2
Those include most payments to municipalities and those for debt, retirement benefits and some assistance for poor families and disabled people. Both Rauner and Democratic leaders have accused each other of refusing to compromise on the budget, and there have been few signs of progress in overtime sessions since lawmakers blew a May 31 budget deadline. On Tuesday, the General Assembly took up a proposal freezing
See BUDGET, page A2
Obituaries..........................A4 Opinion................................A5 Puzzles................................ C4 Sports...............................B1-4 State....................................A2 Weather..............................A6
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