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DAILY CHRONICLE
Area residents open new restaurant in DeKalb, Diddy Dogs / A8 HIGH
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DeKalb council approves budget Plan for fiscal 2016 passes on 6-2 vote, includes general fund surplus of about $500K By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – City Council members voted, 6-2, Monday to approve a fiscal 2016 budget with several cutbacks and increased revenues that helped to increase the general fund surplus from $84,000 to about $500,000. Council members first continued a public hearing on the spending plan at their Monday meeting before voting to give it final approv-
al, with Ward 1 Alderman David Jacobson and Ward 7 Alderman Monica O’Leary opposed. The budget includes general fund revenue of $34.9 million and $34.4 million in expenditures. When the council met June 8, it gave preliminary approval to a budget with some amendments, including budgeting for a $450,000 surplus to compensate for what Financial Advisory Committee members considered one-
time revenue sources. At second reading, the budget showed a $502,734 surplus, city Finance Director Cathy Haley said. “We’re going in the right Cathy Haley direction,” Haley said. Cuts to the budget included eliminating about $138,000 in fleet cost. Originally the city planned to buy three
new vehicles – two for the police department and one for the fire department. Tuition reimbursement was cut in half, brought down to $20,000, according to city documents. An IT assessment that originally was set to cost about $50,000 was removed from the budget, as well, although a percentage of those costs had been shared with the water fund, according to city documents. Building permit revenues from 3M’s plans to build a
S.C. governor calls for Confederate flag to come down
new facility in the Park 88 Industrial Park were estimated to come out to about $200,000. The city could take in about $50,000 of that revenue, with the rest going to contractor SAFEbuilt for inspection fee costs, unless additional agreements are worked out, Haley said. Items added to the budget since the preliminary approval included $5,000 to the fleet fund to buy a used vehicle for the fire department. The department will
have to settle for used vehicles, after the allocation was eliminated to up the surplus. This purchase would come out of the fleet fund balance of about $18,000, so the city won’t have to touch the general fund, Haley said Ward 5 Alderman Kate Noreiko said that although there were some things in the spending plan she still questioned, overall she was comfortable with the budget.
See DeKALB, page A7
‘SUNDAY DINNER PLEDGE’
The ASSOCIATED PRESS CHARLESTON, S.C. – South Carolina’s governor declared Monday that the Confederate flag should be removed from the grounds of the Statehouse, reflecting what she described as a new consensus that the slayings of nine black churchgoers has changed what the banner stands for. Gov. Nikki Haley’s about-face comes just days after authorities charged Dylann Storm Roof, 21, with murder. The young white man appeared in photos waving and holding Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags, and purportedly wrote of fomenting racial violence. Survivors told police he hurled racial insults during the attack. “The murderer now locked up in Charleston said he hoped his actions would start a race war. We have an opportunity to show that not only was he wrong, but that just the opposite is happening,” she said, flanked by Democrats and Republicans, blacks and whites who joined her call. “My hope is that by removing a symbol that divides us, we can move our state forward in harmony, and we can honor the nine blessed souls who are now in Heaven,” Haley said. Only days after the massacre inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, what was long thought politically impossible in South Carolina became the go-to position for the state’s politicians. Haley, a Republican, urged the state’s GOPled House and Senate to debate the issue no later than this summer. If not, she said she will call a special session and force them to resolve it. “I will use that authority for the purpose of the legislature removing the flag
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Katheryn “Kay” Lymen, 99, laughs Monday with her nephew, Bill Raynolds, of Hampton, Virginia, as he has lunch with her in her DeKalb home with another niece and nephew, Jack and Karen Meyers of Woodstock. The three visit Lymen at least once a year and bring along her favorite lunch, KFC chicken. Lymen has four kids, 15 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren spread out all around the country.
Family connection
Home care service encourages dinners with senior relatives
See FLAG, page A7
By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com
AP photo
People raise their hands as a show of unity as thousands of marchers meet in the middle of Charleston’s main bridge after nine black church parishioners were gunned down during a Bible study Sunday in Charleston, S.C.
DeKALB – For Katheryn “Kay” Lymen, the only unusual thing about turning 100 will be sharing the day with her two sons and daughter, she said. Lymen will celebrate her 100th birthday Dec. 10, and aside from reaching that milestone, the day will be special because it’s one of the two times a year she typically sees her children. “I don’t think I ever thought about being 100. It’s a big number,” she said. “I’ll probably think it’s just another day, but my children are coming – they all live
1,000 miles away.” People’s busy schedules are making it tougher for them to schedule family meals, including those with relatives who might be senior citizens living by themselves. In response, Helen Slagle and her husband, Wayne, owners of DeKalb’s Home Instead Senior Care office, are encouraging families in DeKalb, Ogle and Lee counties to take the Sunday Dinner Pledge – a promise to share a meal once a week with a senior family member. As people age, their appetites naturally begin to subside. When
See SENIORS, page A7
Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Samantha Slagle (left) and Helen Slagle, with Home Instead Senior Care, cut out decorations for Jack Ager, 8, and his three siblings to use on their posters that will decorate donation boxes Thursday at the family service agency.
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