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DAILY CHRONICLE
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County enterprise zone on hold State agency won’t certify approved plan because of budget mess By RHONDA GILLESPIE rgillespie@shawmedia.com DeKALB – DeKalb County’s application for an enterprise zone designation has been approved – but officials can’t quite relish their success without a state budget agreement. The lack of a budget deal led the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to announce a major holdup in the program. In a written statement, DCEO Director Jim Schultz said the agency will not certify
the 49 newly-named enterprise zones, including DeKalb County’s, “in light of Illinois’ current fiscal uncertainty.” “Local and state tax incentives are important business development tools, but cannot be truly effective while the state continues to bleed jobs due to high costs of doing business,” Schultz said in the statement. DeKalb County was one of 67 counties and municipalities to apply for the economic program earlier this year. Its joint application included in-
tergovernmental agreements with municipalities including DeKalb, Genoa, Sandwich, Sycamore, Cortland and Waterman. Each municipality also adopted an ordinance designating an enterprise zone, and expects it to help bring jobs and economic investment to the area. Businesses in the zone or that move into it qualify for special tax incentives, including a utility tax exemption, according to DCEO. Enterprise zone designations afford companies located in them such things as invest-
ment tax credits and sales tax exemptions from such items as construction materials and industrial machinery. The approval is good news, officials said. “We’re thrilled about [the approval],” said Paul Borek, head of the DeKalb County Economic Development Corp. “A lot of people came together to make this happen.” But with the state budDanielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com get gridlock in Springfield, Schultz won’t sign the A Clayco trailer sits Monday on the corner of Peace Road and Macom
See ENTERPRISE, page A5
Drive on the Park Eighty Eight campus – the newest changes to the grounds near the 3M campus in DeKalb.
Trump proposal on immigration splits GOP field
DRIVERS RAISE WORRY REGARDING ROAD
By THOMAS BEAUMONT The Associated Press
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
DeKalb County Highway Department traffic technician Jim English (front) checks the inner traffic control cabinet as fellow traffic technician Mike Keef grabs canned air while the two clean the traffic light controls July 30 at the intersection of Peace and Barber Greene roads in DeKalb.
On accident alert Residents concerned about Peace Road safety By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Deborah Bond has to drive – or as she puts it, “deal with” – Peace Road on a daily basis and said she’s tired of feeling unsafe. The highest concentration of accidents in DeKalb County happen at intersections along the 9.8-mile-long road, according to DeKalb County Sheriff’s reports. Officials attribute this to high traffic volumes along the route. While the highway department is looking at ways to improve safety, major construction projects are not expected in the next year. Bond, who lives in the Foxpointe subdivision off of Peace, wants to see lowered speed limits. “The speed limit on Peace Road should be lowered to 45 mph just south of Bethany to Route 23,” she said. “That small stretch is less than a mile. … We know speed is a major factor in crashes, so to me it only makes common sense to lower [the limit].” The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office has handled about 44 accidents along Peace Road so far
Peace Road statistics Peace Road is 9.8 miles long. It begins at Gurler Road just south of the tollway and ends at Illinois Highway 23 in Sycamore. Accidents by intersection 2014 Route 64 and Peace Road: 12 Peace and Barber Greene roads: 7 2013 Route 64 and Peace Road: 12 Peace and Barber Greene roads: 12 Peace and Fairview Drive: 8 2012 Route 64 and Peace Road: 13 Peace and Barber Greene roads: 11 Peace and Freed roads: 5 in 2015, Sheriff Roger Scott said. Most of those involved a failure to yield, driver distractions and icy conditions. Several of those accidents happened at Route 64 and Peace. That intersection consistently has the highest number of accidents annually.
In 2014, there were 12 crashes at Route 64 and Peace Road and seven at the intersection of Peace and Barber Greene Road. In 2013, 12 crashes took place at Route 64 and Peace, 12 took place at Peace and Barber Greene and eight took place at Peace and Fairview Drive. The Peace Road-Route 64 intersection was on the leaderboard again in 2012 with 13 crashes. At Peace and Barber Greene road, 11 crashes took place, and five happened at Peace and Freed roads, which is close to where Alison Rosenow lives. “It’s unbelievable what you have to watch out for,” Rosenow said. At the intersection of Freed and Peace, only a two-way stop sign helps drivers get across. Rosenow would like to see a traffic light there instead. “There are people trying to go straight to get to [North Elementary]. … People trying to turn left or right into high-speed traffic,” she said. It’s not shocking that most accidents happen along the road, Scott said. “Of county roads, it’s probably
the most frequently traveled,” he said. “It’s natural with a high number of car volume, plus the amount of intersections.” DeKalb County Engineer Nathan Schwartz echoed the sheriff’s sentiment. He said about 25,000 cars a day traverse the intersection of Route 64 and Peace Road. “Most intersections in the area don’t have that much traffic in the entire month,” he said. “A few intersections don’t have that much traffic in an entire year.” Speeding is one problem that officials and residents both notice. The speed limit varies along Peace Road and is based on engineering traffic studies, which follow Illinois Department of Transportation guidelines and take into account intersections, accident frequency, number of driveways and intersections, parking and pedestrian use. The DeKalb Township Road District has jurisdiction from Gurler Road to the south edge of the Interstate 88 tollway. The city of DeKalb has jurisdiction from the south edge of the tollway to
See ROAD, page A5
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Hinckley-Big Rock pair looking forward to girls golf season / B1
Resource Bank to revamp Willow’s Hometown Cafe building / A3
Sycamore to host Ribs, Rhythm and Brews on Saturday / A3
Advice ................................ B5 Classified........................B7-8 Comics ............................... B6 Local News.................... A3-5 Lottery................................ A2 Nation&World.............. A2, 5
DES MOINES, Iowa – Donald Trump is dividing his Republican presidential rivals anew with his call to rewrite the Constitution to crack down on millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, and to force Mexico to pay for a better border fence. Scott Walker embraced some of the plan Monday, but other contenders, such as Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina, dismissed elements as unworkable. Trump’s immigration proposal, his first formal policy plan since announcing his candidacy in June, won praise Monday from the GOP’s conservative tea partyers, some of whom favor changing the Constitution to reverse the “birthright citizenship” guaranteed to anyone born in the United States, no matter the status of their parents. At the same time, surveys show a majority of Americans, including Republicans, support allowing many immigrants in the U.S. illegally to stay. Trump leads his Republican rivals in national polls, and his proposal quickly reverberated within the party, which has struggled with the issue of immigration. Party leaders are determined to expand the GOP’s appeal with Hispanics after the 2012 election in which Mitt Romney won just 27 percent of the Latino vote. But many Republicans have adopted a hardline approach on immigrants, appealing to the party’s core voters who play an oversized role in nominating primaries and caucuses. Asked at the Iowa State Fair on Monday if he supports building a wall along the U.S. Mexican border, as Trump has proposed, Wisconsin Gov. Walker gave a quick “yes,” but he declined to address whether he supports deporting children of parents in the country illegally. “Going forward, the best thing we can do is enforce the law,” he said. Walker, who reversed his position in April on allowing a chance for legal status for those in the country illegally, also gave mixed answers on ending birthright citizenship. Christie said during a CNN interview that a wall or fence along parts of the border, especially in more urban and difficult-to-control areas, was conceivable, but “not the entire border. Doesn’t make any sense.” Likewise, the New Jersey governor is opposed to requiring Mexico
See IMMIGRATION, page A5
AP photo
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leaves the courthouse after serving jury duty Monday in New York.
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion...............................A7 Puzzles ............................... B5 Sports..............................B1-3 State .............................. A2, 4 Weather .............................A8