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Serving DeKalb County since 1879
* Monday, July 21, 2014
A SWEET SUMMER • LOCAL, A3
SYCAMORE CLINIC
Candy falls from the sky in Malta
Youth baseball players learn from the pros Sports, B1
Sycamore police chief to retire City Council members to consider retirement date of Jan. 2 By JESSI HAISH jhaish@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Police Chief Don Thomas finds it strange to think about retirement plans when he still has five months of work to go. Thomas’ contract with the Sycamore Police Department was going to expire this month, but he told city manager Brian Gregory he was almost ready to retire. Grego-
ry worked out a contract with Thomas that would let him work until Jan. 2, which Sycamore City Council members will consider today. Thomas’ salary for this fiscal year was reported as $109,505, and he will continue to be paid at the same rate through the new contract. The search to find Thomas’ replacement will begin this summer. “I felt it was beneficial to
let them know now,” Thomas said. “I will have a role in helping the city find a new police chief, and I will help with the transition.” Thomas’ career spans 40 years, 24 of which were spent at the St. Charles Police Department. After his time there, he spent a year in Bosnia as the Chief of Human Rights Investigations for the United Nations’ police task force. He managed human
rights investigations and assisted women who were victims of international trafficking. He has found his 13 years with the Sycamore Police Department as the police chief rewarding. “I feel good knowing that I was able to have some impact on the improvement of the department,” Thomas said. “It’s a very nice town, a very safe town. It’s a good idea for the
police chief to have a stake in the community.” Thomas will continue to live in Sycamore with his wife, Susan, a retired teacher. However, he plans to spend much of his retirement with his children and grandchildren, and traveling to places like Turkey and Mexico. “We’re also going to leisurely drive around the
See POLICE CHIEF, page A8
About Don Thomas • Sycamore Chief of Police from 2001 to Jan. 2, 2015 • From Hoffman Estates, lives in Sycamore • Received bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from Aurora University Don Thomas • Received master’s of Public Administration from Northern Illinois University • St. Charles Police Department from 1976 to 2000 (Deputy Chief from 1994 to 2000)
Scores dead in first major ground battle in Gaza Strip
FUN ON THE KISHWAUKEE RIVER
Keeping the boat afloat
By KARIN LAUB and TIA GOLDENBERG The Associated Press
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
TOP: Sarah Graf and her brother David Graf, both of Elgin, paddle downstream Saturday during their timed run down the Kishwaukee River during the 10th annual Kingston Kardboard Boat Regatta. Their father, also named David Graf, built the pirate ship named H.M. Sea Hag in about three months, but it took a year to paint, using over 15 gallons. The H.M. Sea Hag won the head-to-head race between the five boats entered. ABOVE: Josh Burns (front), 14, and Wyatt Strohacker (back), 13, both of Sycamore wave their white flags while Todd Burns helps them out of the current at the Kingston Kardboard Boat Regatta on Saturday. The USA tank had a time of 3:37 to make it up stream and back around a set of buoys. Burns and Strohacker won the ‘Pirates of Pizzazz’ award.
Annual Kardboard Boat Regatta brings smiles, laughs By STEPHEN HABERKORN news@daily-chornicle.com Even though his son, Josh, sank into the Kishwaukee River on Saturday on the boat he helped build, Todd Burns of Sycamore could not have been happier. “It was great to see them smile and have fun and come out for a community event, and that’s really what it’s about. [There were] a lot of people laughing in the stands and cheering,” Todd Burns said. Josh Burns, 14, and his friend Wyatt Strohacker, 14, also from Sycamore, competed in the 10th
annual Kardboard Boat Regatta aboard ‘USA Tank,’ a boat they started building a couple days before the race. The rules of the competition limit construction materials to only cardboard and duct tape. The boat race is the closing event of Kingston Fest, a one day festival of food, games and competitions held at Kingston Township Park to raise funds for community projects and scholarships for high school graduates. The up-and-back race around two buoys about 175 feet apart in the Kishwaukee River began with individual time trials and concluded with a head-to-head,
free-for-all, with five boats competing at once. And while they didn’t win the time trials and ended up sinking during the head-to-head race, the boys did take home two trophies from the competition: the Flamboyance Award for best decorated craft, and the Pirates of Pizzazz Award for most-spirited crew. “That’s why we came out here – to have fun and try to get a trophy,” Josh Burns said. During the time trials, Burns and Strohacker struggled to made headway against the strong current. Burns’ father ended up “assisting” their boat
while wading in thigh-deep water. “When I saw how fast the current was and how wide we had built the boat, we knew we might be in a little bit of trouble. That’s why I stayed with them, just to keep them off of anything and from the banks,” Todd Burns said. The winner of the Fleet-ofthe-Fleet trophy for fastest time trial in a speedy 54.7 seconds was the Blackhawks Canoe, piloted by Sean Brigham and Michelle Erckfritz. The Blackhawks Canoe has
See REGATTA, page A8
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The first major ground battle in two weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting exacted a steep price Sunday: It killed 65 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers and forced thousands of terrified Palestinian civilians to flee their neighborhood, reportedly used to launch rockets at Israel and now devastated by the fighting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the offensive would continue “as long as necessary” to end attacks from Gaza on Israeli civilians. But Hamas seems defiant, international cease-fire efforts are stalled, and international criticism is becoming more vocal as the death toll among Palestinian civilians rises. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called Israel’s latest incursion “atrocious,” and said it must do far more to protect civilians. In Israel, public opinion will struggle to tolerate rising military losses in an open-ended campaign. Already, Sunday’s deaths marked the highest number of soldiers killed on a single day since Israel’s war in Lebanon in 2006. The ferocious battle in Gaza City’s Shijaiyah neighborhood came on the third day of Israel’s ground offensive, which had been preceded by a 10-day air campaign. In all, at least 432 Palestinians were killed and more than 3,000 wounded in the past two weeks. The overall death toll on the Israeli side rose to 20, including 18 soldiers, along with dozens of wounded troops, during that period. On Sunday evening, Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri in Gaza claimed his group had captured an Israeli soldier. An announcement on Gaza TV of the soldier’s capture set off celebration in the streets of Gaza City. But the claim could not immediately be verified and the Israeli military said it was investigating the report. Hamas has made similar
See GAZA, page A8
AP photo
Israeli tanks ride along the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip on Sunday. Escalating their ground offensive, Israeli troops backed by tanks and warplanes battled Hamas militants in a crowded neighborhood of Gaza City early Sunday.
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