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Janu ar y 19, 2016 • $1 .0 0
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DAILY CHRONICLE
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Retired county judge dies at 72 By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com Retired DeKalb County Judge Kurt P. Klein, who served as the county’s presiding judge for more than a decade, has died. Klein died Friday of a Judge Kurt heart attack Klein during a stay at his Arizona vacation home. He was 72.
Kurt Klein remembered as ‘larger than life’ Family and friends will host a memorial service Monday. His work in the community as an attorney, judge and allaround family man was unprecedented and his contributions have changed Sycamore for the better, Klein’s daughter, Emily Sullivan said. “My dad was a man that
was larger than life, from his stature to his huge heart,” she said. “He has absolutely been the most influential person in my life, and his loss has created a void impossible to fill. “He was the perfect shoulder to lean on, a strong voice of reason, and always good for a cheesy joke. He was genuine and passionate about all of his
roles in life: husband, father, papa, friend, judge and biker. He loved life and we loved him.” Klein, a U.S. Army veteran, began his career in DeKalb County in 1977 as first assistant state’s attorney and was a founding member of the Gallagher, Klein and Brady law firm. Klein was an attorney for
43 years, being appointed as a judge in 1995, DeKalb County Judge Bill Brady said. Klein served 11 years as the DeKalb County Presiding Judge and was a leading force in creating the 23rd Judicial Circuit, which includes DeKalb and Kendall counties. He always paid close attention to the juvenile courts, howev-
er, and the children who frequented them, and even established the first Juvenile Safe House for at-risk youth. “He handled that call not because he had to – most people would have passed it off to somebody with less experience – but because he wanted to,” Brady said. “His commitment to children who didn’t have as good a life as others was an emblem of what he’s all about.”
See KLEIN, page A5
Confederate flag gone, MLK rally shifts focus
‘EQUALITY OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION FOR ALL’
By JEFFREY COLLINS The Associated Press
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
DeKalb Public Library Executive Director Dee Cover speaks to the crowd Monday in the lobby of the expanded DeKalb Public Library in front of the exterior wall of the Haish Memorial Library building at the reopening of the library in DeKalb. The Haish Memorial Library building, built in 1930, is being remodeled.
DeKalb library reopens Second phase should be finished by late summer Voice your opinion
By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Jack Gioe, 6, looks forward to having more room to read and play at the library each week. “It’s good,” he said, of the expanded DeKalb Public Library, which opened to the public Monday. Gioe was looking through the children’s area on the second floor of the new building with his mom, Carissa Gioe and his sister, Delilah, 3. “There is a lot more space and stuff,” he added. The $25.3 million project broke ground in July 2014. During the next six months, the Haish Memorial Library building, which was built in 1930, will be renovated. By the project’s end in late summer, the library will have more than tripled its original size from 19,500 square feet to 65,000 square feet. Community members and public officials crowded the new lobby Monday for the grand opening ceremony. Library officials aimed to open on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in part because accessibility and equality have been priorities of the project. Americans with Disabilities Act compliance was a major focus
What new feature of the DeKalb Public Library are you most interested in? Vote online at Daily-Chronicle.com.
Ella Mathison (left), 9, and Emma Kimmel, 10, rock on chairs Monday in the Clark and Arlene Neher Tree Room in the children’s section of the expanded DeKalb Public Library during the reopening of the library in DeKalb. The children’s area now takes up an entire floor. of the project, and increased technology will provide resources the community needs, said Dee Coover, executive director of the library. “This library speaks to the equality of access to information for all,” Coover said. “Public libraries are for all patrons the same experience and the same opportunities.” The project was paid for in
part by an $11.6 million grant from the Illinois State Library, but lack of a state budget has caused a delay in funding, which led to a debated tax-levy increase. Loans and bonds, tax increment finance district funds from the city of DeKalb, community donations and fundraising also will be needed to pay for the project.
“We are in a new era as a community,” Mayor John Rey said. “This expansion compliments the art-deco design of the original building and provides full accessibility. … It sports current and future technological advances.” The Rev. Leroy Mitchell, of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, was the keynote speaker Monday and spoke of fond memories in libraries as a child and Martin Luther King Jr. “He was a well-read man,” Mitchell said. “And I think it’s appropriate that we open this library on his birthday, as a celebration also of literacy and the importance of reading.” The top floor of the three-level building hosts the expanded children’s section, reading and study spaces, a Lego wall and the “Tree Room,” which is aimed at crawlers and toddlers.
See LIBRARY, page A5
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COLUMBIA, S.C. – For the first time in 17 years, civil rights leaders gathered Monday at the South Carolina Statehouse to pay homage to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. without the Confederate flag casting a long shadow over them. The banner was taken down during the summer after police said a young white man who had posed for photos with a rebel flag shot nine black church members to death during a Bible study in Charleston. After the massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Republican Gov. Nikki Haley reversed course and made it a priority for lawmakers to pass legislation to remove the flag. “Isn’t this a great day? It’s so nice to be standing here and not looking at that flag,” said Ezell Pittman, who attended most of the King Day anti-flag rallies since they started in 2000. “I always had faith it would come down. I hate it took what it did, but was real happy to see it go.” Across the country, the 30th anniversary of the holiday to honor the civil rights leader assassinated in 1968 was remembered in different ways. In Michigan, people delivered bottled water to residents of Flint amid the city’s drinking water crisis. In Atlanta, an overflow crowd listened as the nation’s housing secretary talk about the 50th anniversary of King’s visit to Chicago to launch a campaign for fair housing. Rallies against police brutality in Minnesota and California briefly shut down traffic on two bridges. South Carolina NAACP President Lonnie Randolph said the flag’s removal was tangible evidence the state cares about civil rights when pushed hard enough. But he warned there would be other fights ahead.
See MLK, page A5
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Attendees hold a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. during the King Day at the Dome event Monday in Columbia, S.C.
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