WEDNESDAY
Augu s t 26 , 201 5 • $1 .0 0
DAILY CHRONICLE
INSIDE, GUIDE TO
2015 CORN FEST WHAT’S ON TAP THIS WEEKEND Preview of Corn Fest / A3
daily-chronicle.com
SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
Facebook.com/dailychronicle
HIGH
LOW
73 52 Complete forecast on page A12
@dailychronicle
Forest district to add more land Purchase is the second this month for DeKalb County entity; part of expansion program By RHONDA GILLESPIE rgillespie@shawmedia.com DeKALB –The DeKalb County Forest Preserve District will be adding more land to its portfolio, after a forest preserve committee voted to buy another 1.57 acres in the Sycamore area. Members of the committee are also members of the County Board.
The decision was made at Tuesday’s committee meeting to move forward with buying the parcel from an owner that Superintendent Terry Hannan said he couldn’t name until later today. He did disclose that the district paid $23,000 for it, and that the acquisition is part of the district’s expansion efforts. He did not say exactly where the property is located. “It will be part of larger fu-
ture forest preserves. And it will be used for trails, picnics areas and such,” Hannan said. As part of a 2006 referendum, the Forest Preserve District, which is in the county but is its own separate taxing body, identified land it would like to have as part of its overall public landscape that includes greenery and trails, and that would complement its conservation activities, Hannan said.
Money was dedicated then to securing those lands – which are owned by families, individuals and other entities – as the parcels become available. Maintenance is also funded. The district’s $1.5 million budget includes $500,000 for purchasing land and upkeep. This latest sale happened as a result of the owner coming forward, wanting to sell the land for public use, Hannan
said. It follows the purchase earlier this month of 36.94 acres adjacent to the Prairie Oaks Forest Preserve in Kingston. The $223,487 purchase almost doubles the preserve’s holdings. Commissioners announced that they would be seeking a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to help pay half of the cost. Hannan said that by next
NIU wants smoking ban on DeKalb streets
year, the district will have 19 preserves and more than 1,400 acres under its purview, after the county signs over Evergreen Village. Since the referendum was adopted, the district has added new preserves and other public spaces or expanded the acreage in existing ones. “We’ve spent money on four or five new preserves since 2007,” Hannan said.
Gas prices decreasing after spike BP official: Oil refinery has been safely restarted By RHONDA GILLESPIE rgillespie@shawmedia.com
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Northern Illinois University freshman Taylor Krause (left), 23, smokes a cigarette and talks with Sam Westberg, 18, who is holding his vaporizer Tuesday on the northwest corner of Russell Road and Lucinda Avenue – across the street from campus – between classes. Portions of the north side of Lucinda Avenue are city-owned, giving tobacco-using NIU students a space to smoke close to campus. As of July 1, NIU has enforced a state law that makes its campus smokefree.
Smoke-Free Act rules could be applied to streets that run through campus By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Northern Illinois University is seeking the city’s permission to enforce its smoking ban on city-owned streets that run through – and are adjacent to – campus. Jerry Blakemore, vice president and general counsel for the university, said that NIU would take full responsibility for enforcing the act on the city streets, which would include Lucinda Road, from Annie Glidden Road to Woodley Road and portions of Carroll Avenue, Lincoln Terrace, Locust Street, Garden Road and Normal Road. The university is concerned that students will congregate on those DeKalb streets to smoke, causing additional safety hazards. Blakemore estimated about 26 percent of NIU students were smokers. The statewide Smoke-Free Campus Act went into effect July 1. It prohibits smoking on public university property, which in-
Portions of the north side of Lucinda Avenue are city-owned, giving tobacco-using NIU students a space to smoke close to campus. cludes using any kind of lighted smoking materials such as pipes, cigars and cigarettes. Prohibited materials also include electronic cigarettes and vaporizers. The law doesn’t apply to those driving cars through campus. Bader Aladhali, an NIU student, stood at the corner of Lucinda and Normal roads Tuesday to
smoke a cigarette between classes. He said that while he thought the smoke-free campus act made sense, he didn’t think it would be good for it to extend to the city streets. “This isn’t the campus,” he said. “There’s housing here. You have classes and get 10 or 15 min-
utes for a break. I don’t have any other place to go, so I’d be late to my classes.” DeKalb’s 1st Ward Alderman David Jacobson and 4th Ward Alderman Bob Snow were skeptical of the proposal. Snow said he thought it essentially criminalized smoking. Jacobson agreed. “You’re telling these kids, ‘You must live on campus’ but then providing them no avenue to smoke,” Jacobson said. “If they don’t have a car, they really have no where else to go to smoke. … I realize the university has to comply because it’s a state law. But it’s outrageous and silly. … If the city can provide an outlet for those kids to smoke, so be it. … Maybe we should put some ashtrays out there.” Fifth Ward Alderwoman Kate Noreiko said that while she saw both sides of the issue, she thought the city should support the university’s efforts. “I appreciate what Alderman Jacobson and Alderman Snow
See SMOKING, page A5
SPORTS
FOOD
LOCAL NEWS
WHERE IT’S AT
Match point
Going green
Plea entered
Sycamore starts the season with a win over Hampshire / B1
Late summer cobb salad perfect for staying healthy, eating vegetables / B8
Ex-substitute teacher says he’s not guilty of sex charges / A3
Advice ................................ B4 Classified........................B6-7 Comics ............................... B5 Local News.................... A3-4 Lottery................................ A2 Nation&World...........A2, 5-9
DeKALB – Local motorists are starting to get some relief at the pump, as gas prices are heading downward. About two weeks ago, the cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gas jumped from an average of $2.49 in the DeKalb and Sycamore areas to $2.99 – in the span of 24-hours. Now, in places such as along the Route 23 corridor connecting the two cities, gasoline price signs indicate a decrease of about 10 cents. The rise in gas prices was blamed on a machine malfunction at a British Petroleum refinery in Whiting, Indiana. The equipment failure fueled market speculation that there wouldn’t be quite enough supply to meet demand. But BP said the equipment is fixed and production is increasing. “BP has safely “BP has safely restarted a large crude restarted a large distillation unit that had been shut down crude distillation since Aug. 8 for uns c h e d u l e d r e p a i r unit that had been work. Restart of this shut down since unit is increasing Aug. 8 for the refinery’s fuel production, with outunscheduled put ramping up over repair work.” time,” BP spokesman Brett Clanton said. The BP refinery Brett Clanton is the largest in the BP spokesman region and provides much of gasoline supplied to stations in the Midwest, especially in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. “In the meantime, the company continues to meet its contractual fuel supply obligations,” Clanton said. Some area drivers seemed to take the pump price fluctuation in stride. The latest jump came just before Oscar Hansen was headed to Europe on vacation. “I feel that gas is inexpensive here. We’re lucky in this country to have gas as cheap as it is,” said Hansen, who owns Glidden Campus Florist in DeKalb. He said he doesn’t raise his floral or delivery prices when gas prices go up. “It’s the way we’re set up [in the U.S.], people scream over the prices,” he said. The recent price jump at the pump came as travel analysts were predicting gas prices would start to go down, because new school years were starting and families were predicted to be winding down their summer travels. And now, the cost of crude oil per barrel has gone down. As of today, NASDAQ listed the price at $39 a barrel. This time last year, it was about $43. Most of the cost of a gallon gas is for the crude and federal, state and local taxes.
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion..............................A11 Puzzles ............................... B4 Sports..............................B1-3 State ...............................A4-5 Weather ........................... A12