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DeKalb debates theater’s future
Beating the summer slide
Business model study in works for Egyptian By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com
and Orson Welles’ birthday. “Having lots of activities to do in the summer keeps up their skills and helps keep them motivated to learn,” said Gillian King-Cargile, the director of STEM Read NIU. “That’s where summer camps can be really helpful.” This week, A STEM Read Summer Camp was scheduled that would center activities and lessons around the best-selling book “The Martian” by Andy Weir. It was canceled, however, because of a lack of sign-ups. It was integrated into the current STEM camp, but still incorporated some of the planned events, such as a Skype session with Weir. Celeste Shea, an incoming sophomore at Kankakee High School, originally signed up for “The Martian”-themed camp, but said she wasn’t sad about
DeKALB – City Council members appear open to installing air conditioning at the Egyptian Theatre, but not before determining a more profitable business model for the venue. For fiscal 2016, $330,000 in tax increment financing funds have been allocated to the historic Egyptian, which is located in DeKalb’s central area TIF district. Those funds will be put toward three main projects, including $100,000 in prioritized capital projects, such as aisle lighting, a $50,000 operations feasibility study and $180,000 to update air conditioning design and engineering plans from 2012. Aldermen voted Monday to approve TIF funding for the Egyptian on the condition they have a chance to review the business model study before money is spent toward the air conditioning study. Bob Snow, Ward 4, said he didn’t think the city should be so focused on profits and losses when it came to organizations like the theater. “We invest a lot in community projects,” Snow said. “We invest in the schools. … We invest in the streets. … The park district puts up parks. We have the Ellwood House, the Gurler House, the Glidden Homestead. All those are community assets. … We’re investing in the culture of DeKalb.” The business model study would help determine the most prosperous structure for the theater, determine operations and revenue potential and help provide an implementation plan, according to Economic Development coordinator Jennifer Diedrich. “It has become very evident that the current operations model of the theater isn’t practical nor is it sustainable,” Diedrich said. The Egyptian had a net loss of about $2,000 in fiscal 2014, offset by a cash balance from the previous year. The theater is unable to operate year-round because of the lack of air conditioning, according to city documents. Different business models could be a private-public partnership, maintenance as a nonprofit or a
See SUMMER, page A5
See THEATER, page A2
Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Camp counselor Alecia Eschenbrenner (left) helps Kaitlin Shibovich, 16, of Mundelein attach a makeshift water rocket to a platform Tuesday during a Northern Illinois University STEM Outreach summer camp outside of Faraday Hall on campus.
Activities, events keep students engaged while school is out By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com DeKALB – School’s out for Andrew Reid, but that doesn’t mean he’s taking a break from learning. Reid, who will be a senior at suburban Elmwood Park High School, was among those who traveled to DeKalb this week for a weeklong STEM Outreach Camp at Northern Illinois University. On Tuesday, Reid was one of about a dozen high schoolers who used a bicycle bump to create air pressure to launch 2-liter bottles – most of them containing water, some of them not – into the air to measure their velocity. An engineering camp also is happening at NIU this week. “It’s fun science,” Reid said. “It’s strictly science, sometimes it’s engineering, but we’re sticking around science.”
Schedule of free local happenings • Animal Quest, featuring exotic animals: 10:45 a.m. July 29 at Sycamore Library, 103 E. State St. • Books & Barks – read to a dog: 6 to 7 p.m., every Wednesday in July at Sycamore Library, 103 E. State St. • Storytime: 10 a.m., every Wednesday and Thursday through August 27 at Sycamore Library, 103 E. State St. NIU and local libraries work to combat the so-called “summer slide,” the vacation period when students math and reading skills can erode, by offering programs and events that keep them engaged, while also introducing them to potential careers in science, technology, engineering and math. “As a younger man, I understand over the summer, you
• Wildcard: Building Sandwiches: 6:30 p.m. July 9 at DeKalb Public Library, 309 Oak St. •Book discussion of “The House with a Clock in It’s Walls” by John Bellaires: 6:30 p.m. July 1 at DeKalb Public Library, 309 Oak St. •Ball Run Activity: 6:30 p.m. July 15 at DeKalb Public Library, 309 Oak St. kind of ... forget everything you learned,” said Sam Watt, a 2014 NIU grad and camp counselor. “Kids love to learn. It gives them something fun to do. They’re wanting to learn.” STEM Read at NIU organizes events and activities centered around popular science fiction all year. In May, they hosted a party commemorating the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast
Midwest states clean up after storms spawn tornadoes By CARYN ROUSSEAU The Associated Press CHICAGO – Strong storms that swept across northern Illinois spawned at least four tornadoes, severely damaged homes and forced first responders to pull survivors from basements, officials said Tuesday. At least four tornadoes also hit parts of Michigan late Monday into early Tuesday, while possible tornadoes came through northern Indiana and
Iowa. The storms knocked out power to thousands of people, but by Tuesday morning, the skies had cleared and the rain had moved east. Particularly hard hit on Monday night was a private camping resort in Sublette, a community about 100 miles west of Chicago. Five people were hurt, and one was hospitalized with serious injuries. The National Weather Service confirmed it was an EF-2 tornado with winds between 111 mph and 135 mph.
Fire Chief Kevin Schultz said damage was worse than anticipated, spread across about 700 acres of the Woodhaven Association resort. “At this point in time, the best words to describe it is decimated,” Schultz said Tuesday morning. “There are trailers that are in trees. There are trailers that are upside down. ... It is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.” Gov. Bruce Rauner deployed the 80-member Illinois
Task Force 1 search-and-rescue team to assist on Tuesday morning, and said at a news conference that he was concerned out-of-towners were hurt or trapped and wouldn’t be reported missing. About 70 miles southeast of the camping resort, another confirmed EF2 tornado raked Coal City about 10 p.m. Monday and damaged several subdivisions. Authorities said five people suffered minor injuries and everyone was accounted for in the city of
about 5,000 people, but crews planned to conduct a secondary search Tuesday. Debra Burla, 59, and her husband sheltered in an underground crawlspace on their 100-year-old farm, but the wind nearly sucked her out of it, she said. “I kept crawling to the middle [of the crawlspace] ... because I was sitting right by the opening of it,” said Burla, whose farm was heavily damaged. Her daughter, son-inlaw and granddaughter were
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Kearfott named athletic director at DeKalb High / B1
Budget talks begin during Sycamore School District 427 meeting / A3
Oswego football player Austin Warner commits to NIU / B1
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temporarily stuck in their own crawlspace after their garage collapsed on top of it. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency was gathering information on the extent of the storm damage in the area. Rauner also issued a state disaster proclamation for Lee and Grundy counties to make state resources available for recovery. “It’s a miracle, frankly, when you see the devastation
See WEATHER, page A5
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