WEEKEND $1.50
Breaking news at Daily-Chronicle.com
Serving DeKalb County since 1879
Saturday-Sunday, June 28-29, 2014
ANNUAL GARDEN WALK
STORM DAYZ TOURNAMENT • SPORTS, B1
Master Gardeners plan stroll, plant sale Lifestyle, C1
DeKalb, Sycamore softball players team up in travel ball
Tristyn Criswell
Smoke-free policy comes to county All Housing Authority homes affected; health agency helping residents with transition The DeKalb County Housing Authority’s smoke-free policy went into effect June 1 Should renters be allowed to in all of its properties, which smoke in their apartment? Vote include Taylor Street Plaza, online at Daily-Chronicle.com. Garden Estates Apartments and Lewis Court Apartments in DeKalb, among other prop“People may live here for a erties. Smoking is no longer allong time but not talk to each lowed inside any of the Housother. Groups come out here ing Authority’s buildings. The DeKalb County Health and have a good time. “But the winter may be fair- Department has been working with the Housing Authority ly unpleasant.”
By JESSI HAISH
Voice your opinion
jhaish@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Bob Gosnell thinks the DeKalb County Housing Authority’s decision to make its properties smoke free is the best thing that’s ever happened to Taylor Street Plaza. “You come out here and meet people,” said Gosnell, who is a resident of Taylor Street Plaza, 507 E. Taylor St.
to help residents through the transition as well as provide help to those interested in quitting smoking altogether. If residents do not comply with the policy, there is a tiered system in place, including fines, for violations. “We’re targeting not the smoker but the smoke itself,” said Michelle Perkins, executive director of the DeKalb County Housing Authority. “It’s going well and we are
proud of our tenants. Smoking is a hard thing to tackle.” Melissa McAvoy, health educator for the DeKalb County Health Department, has helped with writing materials about smoking for interested residents, and earlier this year provided cessation classes for those who wanted to quit. The process to create a smoke-free policy took about a year. Brad Rubeck, DeKalb Area Rental Association president,
SYCAMORE FIREFIGHTING TRAINING UNDERWAY
SMOKY SIMULATION
said the introduction of smokefree initiatives such as this are fairly new since the Housing Authority went smoke free. “Each property owner has the choice to make their own decisions about it,” Rubeck said. “Most people were not familiar that you could take that initiative.” Britany Garcia, Mason Properties rental agent, said
See SMOKE FREE, page A10
Judge: No to term limits Redistricting not on ballot either By SOPHIA TAREEN The Associated Press CHICAGO – Measures that would allow Illinois voters to decide on lawmaker term limits and a new political redistricting process can’t appear on November’s ballot, a judge ruled Friday, in a decision that could be a setback for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Mary Mikva decided the measures didn’t meet constitutional requirements and ruled them invalid. Attorneys for the term limits group vowed to appeal, while Bruce the redistrict- Rauner ing group announced they’d scrap efforts for 2014. Rauner, who’s trying to unseat Democratic Gov. Pat Pat Quinn Quinn in what is one of the most competitive governor’s races nationwide, has made term limits a campaign cornerstone. In addition to railing against “career politicians,” his campaign sees the measure as a way to inspire supporters to vote. But his group and another supporting changes to redistricting have said the court case, and a separate signature verification process by election officials, has been laced with politics in heavily-Democratic Cook County. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of business and community groups, but argued by well-known elections attorney Michael Kasper who’s represented top Democrats, including House Speaker Michael Madigan. An opponent of term limits, Madigan is the longest serving House speaker nationwide at nearly three decades.
Monica Maschak – mmaschak@shawmedia.com
Firefighter paramedic Ryan Gustafson practices bailing out of a second-story window during firefighter bail-out training June 18 at a donated house in Sycamore.
Donated homes offer unique training opportunties By ANDREA AZZO aazzo@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Clouds of smoke emanated from a Sycamore home as firefighters stormed in, hose in hand, to rescue their colleagues. The smoke was so heavy firefighters couldn’t see a foot in front of them. They crawled through the house, using a thermal imaging camera to find people inside and a rope to find their way out. Firefighters called “mayday” over the radio to tell others where they were and how much oxygen they had left. It was all just a training exercise,
though. There was no fire, and a machine created the smoke Wednesday morning. “In a real situation, it would be much darker than this,” said Marc Doty, Sycamore assistant fire chief. The Sycamore Fire Department has been using the house at 221 N. Main St. for the past two weeks for training. Last week, drills focused on firefighters escaping the home through second-story windows. This week, crews were working on rescuing fallen firefighters. Next week, they’ll cut holes into the roof to simulate ventilating smoke and gases.
It’s not often that fire departments use donated homes or other buildings for training. The last time Sycamore had one was about 1½ years ago. DeKalb typically receives a couple of these structures every year, said DeKalb fire Chief Eric Hicks. Last year, DeKalb firefighters trained at the former Small’s Furniture City building on Sycamore Road. Training involves practicing methods of putting out fires, rescuing victims, rescuing fallen firefighters, escaping through
How to help Fire departments always are looking to train in structures about to be demolished. To donate a home, contact your local fire department. For video of the training, visit Daily-Chronicle.com or scan this QR code.
See FIRE TRAINING, page A10
RTA files suit to halt enforcement of new sales tax rules By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI jduchnowski@shawmedia.com The Regional Transportation Authority filed another lawsuit Friday aimed at preventing sales tax arrangements similar to those the city of Sycamore has with two major airlines. The RTA, the umbrella organization that oversees the Chicago Transit Authority, the region’s Metra commuter line and the Pace suburban bus service, is asking a Cook County
judge to stop the Illinois Department of Revenue from enforcing its new point of sale rules, which RTA leaders believe exceed the department’s regulatory authority. Overall, the RTA’s goal is to stop companies from creating small satellite offices outside its boundaries in order to purchase materials at a lower sales tax rate. The sales tax rates are lower in Sycamore – 8 percent compared with 9.5 percent in Cook County – in part because it does not include
the sales taxes that support the RTA. In the past four years, the RTA has spent about $1.8 million in legal fees fighting the issue, which leaders believe is costing them tens of millions of dollars a year in sales tax revenue, said Jordan Matyas, the RTA’s chief of staff. “If that keeps happening, that just means that that burden gets passed on to the riders, whether that be cuts in service, increases in fares,” Matyas said. “It just depends on how big this
practice gets and how long it keeps going.” Matyas believes the lawsuit filed Friday is a matter of interpreting the law and can be resolved quickly, while a spokesman for the state Department of Revenue said the department stands by the new rules. “The state spent five months seeking comments from everyone involved,” spokesman Carson
See RTA, page A9
See TERM LIMITS, page A10
Inside today’s Daily Chronicle Lottery Local news Obituaries
A2 A3-4 A4
National and world news Opinions Sports
Weather A5-10 A11 B1-4
Advice Comics Classified
C6 C7 D1-4
High:
86
Low:
72