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Righty dominates in Cubs’ 2-0 win over Dodgers / B1
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Theater seeks city’s help to renovate DeKalb City Council to consider $173K project for Stage Coach Players theater at 126 S. Fifth St., is seeking almost $173,000 in tax increment financing funds to DeKALB – The Stage Coach pay for a project it says will Players are looking to improve address safety, aesthetic and their theater building and property maintenance conhave asked the city for help. cerns. The nonprofit, 100 percent Stage Coach representative volunteer-driven DeKalb the- Sue Johnson said the buildater company, based out of the ing’s drab, dated exterior isn’t
By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN
bkeeperman@shawmedia.com
a great front for the community theater company. “It really isn’t representative on the outside of what is happening on the inside,” she said.” Being a volunteer organization, we do have a little bit of funds and try to do all of our repairs in house. … But, at this point, we really need
to address the exterior of our building.” The total cost of the project is estimated at $272,452. Stage Coach will pay $75,000 and is asking the city to allocate $172,452 from TIF funds and to contribute an additional $25,000, covering about 70 percent of the project.
Lisa Sharp, an architect working with the theater on the project design, said the improvements would be long-lasting and help make the 20,290-square-foot building more presentable. “I think you’ll see a dramatic improvement in the way Stage Coach appears and will
help anchor improvements to the downtown,” Sharp said. DeKalb has two TIF districts, and the Stage Coach players’ theater is located in the central TIF area. Proposed work includes installing new doors, repairing damaged
See STAGE COACH, page A4
Vote tally for Iran nuclear deal rises to 31
WRAPPING UP CORN FEST
The ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photos by Mary Beth Nolan – mnolan@shawmedia.com
Volunteer Joelle Sexton of DeKalb serves up hot sweet corn Saturday at DeKalb Corn Fest. She said it was her seventh year volunteering at the festival.
Steeped in tradition DeKalb Corn Fest brings community together despite rain By RHONDA GILLESPIE rgillespie@shawmedia.com
and KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com
Liz Mitchell (left) and Dora Welch of DeKalb dig into their corn Saturday at DeKalb Corn Fest.
DeKALB – Jeff Birtell recalled to his granddaughter Saturday his first Corn Fest, where he fed a hungry crowd from the back of a pickup truck during the summer he turned 13. Birtell, 57, sat at the same festival with three generations of his family as they celebrated his one-year-old granddaughter’s first time at the annual event, which has grown significantly since he was a teenage boy, he said.
“They brought a few picnic tables around and that was it,” Birtell said. “It was real simple – not all this, by no means. It just keeps growing.” Now, the corn boil requires a team of people to load, unload and haul fresh corn into boiling tubs, and serve an eager and hungry crowd, who came out despite the rain. The three-day event set the bar a little higher this year and, gratefully, officials said, wasn’t rained out. “It’s a hometown tradition,” said Corn Fest chairwoman Lisa Angel.
See CORN FEST, page A4
LOCAL NEWS
SCENE
SPORTS
WHERE IT’S AT
Pioneer Day
Spoon talk
Tough loss
Locals experience the past at annual event in Genoa / A3
Souvenir silver spoons to be discussed at Sycamore History Museum / A8
DeKalb boys soccer loses to Sterling in Barb Cup final / B2
Advice ................................ B5 Classified........................B7-8 Comics ............................... B6 Local News.....................A2-3 Lottery................................ A2 Nation&World...............A2-4
OAK CREST DeKalb Area Retirement Center
WASHINGTON – Oregon’s Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley on Sunday became the 31st senator to announce support for the Iran nuclear deal, as momentum builds behind the agreement the Obama administration and other world powers negotiated with Tehran. Merkley’s backing puts supporters within reach of the 34 votes required to uphold a presidential veto of a congressional resolution disapproving the agreement, which curbs Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief. Republicans are unanimously against the deal. But with an overwhelming number of Senate Democrats in favor, some have now begun aiming to amass 41 yes votes, which would allow them to kill the disapproval resolution outright in the Senate and protect Obama from having to use his veto pen. A vote on the nuclear deal the U.S. and other world powers negotiated with Iran is scheduled for early September. Merkley said that while he thinks the deal has “significant shortcomings,” it is the best strategy to block Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. “Because of these shortcomings, many have argued that the United States, instead of implementing the agreement, should withdraw from it, persuade our partners to set the agreement aside and work together to negotiate a better deal,” Merkley said in a statement. “However, the prospects for this are slim. All of our partners ... believe that the current deal – in regard to its central goal of blocking Iran’s pathways to a nuclear bomb – is sound. They have committed the good faith of their governments behind the agreement and intend to honor the deal as long as Iran does likewise, with or without the United States.”
AP file photo
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., speaks at a news conference May 7 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C..
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion..............................A11 Puzzles ............................... B5 Sports..............................B1-4 State .............................. A2, 4 Weather ........................... A12
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