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Wednesday, June 25, 2014
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Newton, Iowa
Police chief: Proper procedures followed in dog shooting incident
OBITUARIES
By Ty Rushing Daily News Senior Staff Writer
Cathy Farland, 67 “Gene” Miller, 78 Ina Peterson, 89
Newton Police Chief Jeff Hoebelheinrich said Tuesday he believes his officers have been properly trained to handle calls involving potentially dangerous animal situations and when they should fire their service weapons. Hoebelheinrich’s comments come a week after Newton Police Department Lt. Bill Henniger was involved in an incident in which he shot a pit bull after responding to a report of a dog running loose June 16. While the incident itself has sparked discussion among members of the community, a lot of discourse has centered on Henniger firing his service weapon twice,
INSIDE TODAY
Local
Girls’ birthday benefits JCARL
and with the second shot being unaccounted for. “Obviously, they are only supposed to use their service weapon when it’s justified. That means either the protection of the officer, protection of a victim, protection of anybody. And everyone knows that once that bullet goes out, that officer is responsible (for) where it goes,” Hoebelheinrich said. “So they have to be careful that they know what’s in the background, whose in line of sight … and we are trained on that every year. All the officers have been trained on that … Again, if an officer is in danger, if a citizen is in danger, we are going to use the weapon when it’s justified — and from everything I’ve seen at this point,
it was justified.” When Henniger fired his weapon last week, he was responding to a call about a large dog roaming the 300 block of North Third Avenue East. The caller stated the dog had cornered a man who was pushing a baby in a stroller. The Walker family, which owned the dog that was shot and later died, and NPD have different versions of what happened in reference to the second shot. The Walkers stated their dog was retreating after Henniger shot it the first time. They say the officer then fired again as the dog was retreating toward their 7-year-old daughter. SHOOTING See Page 5A
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SAMs model possibly coming to two local schools By Ty Rushing Daily News Senior Staff Writer
Sports
Hawk boys outlast Trojans
raced here in Newton.” Newton is recognized as being a successful track throughout its 40-year history by constantly improving the track, being minutes away from Des Moines and having unique aspects that are unlike any other track in the country. “I couldn’t think of a better place to hold our national event than right here in Newton. All the history and all the good racing this track provides makes us proud and happy to be a part of this track,” O’Neal said.
With the loss of two instructional coaches and an assistant principal becoming a principal, the Newton Community School District is exploring ways to compensate for those vacant positions within its K-3 buildings. At Monday’s board of education meeting, Associate Director of Elementary Services Jim Gilbert presented a solution the board in the form of the School Administration Manger program. According to the educational organization School Administrators of Iowa, a SAM program would turn building principals into instructional leaders for their schools. “The purpose of having a SAM gives us a very similar result to having an instructional coach,” Gilbert said. Gilbert said he talked to Berg and Thomas Jefferson elementary school principals, Jolene Comer and Lisa Sharp, respectively, and both are eager to give the program a shot. If the district went into that direction, the plan for the program is for the SAM to handle a majority of the non-instructional duties for Sharp and Comer so that they can focus more on the academic aspect of their jobs. According to the district’s job posting of the two SAM positions, the SAMs would manage activities, coordinate building facilities and transportation needs, handle minor disciplinary measures and handle non-instructional student supervision. Superintendent Bob Callaghan said that the salaries for the two instructional coaches and former assistant principal last year was around $252,000 combined. He said with two SAMS, that cost could range from $125,000 to $140,000 a provide a savings of more than $100,000. He also emphasized that this would be a way for the district to develop its future leaders internally and that 22 people had applied for the job so far. Callaghan said they had received only one application for the instructional coach positions that were posted. A number of board members questioned the necessity of this program and wanted clarification if this job would be considered an administrative position. Callaghan said that it was sort of an in-between type of position.
KART KLUB See Page 5A
SCHOOL See Page 5A
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Religion
Concert at First Christian Church
Zach Johnson/Daily News Christopher Tharm sits in his kart preparing for one of his races at the Newton Kart Klub. Tharm’s family is a major sponsor of the Kart Klub. He is currently in ranked first in multiple divisions. The Newton Kart Klub is known for its unique shape and speed of the track. It has been open since the ’70s making this one of the oldest tracks in the country. The Kart Klub will host the National Kart Races later on in the summer.
Weather
Newton Kart Klub building tradition of family, friends, racing
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By Zach Johnson Daily New Staff Writer
Thursday
High 81 Low 67
Friday
High 84 Low 70 Weather Almanac
Tues., June 24 High 84 Low 63 No Precipitation Also: Astrograph Page 11A Classifieds Page 9A Comics & Puzzles Page 6A Dear Abby Page 6A Opinion Page 4A
By Ty Rushing Daily News Senior Staff Writer
Police Page 3A Our 113th Year No. 27
98213 00008
more have raced here at Newton and are examples of the greatness that comes from the sport of karting,” O’Neal said. The addition of NASCAR in Newton has O’Neal excited for the future of karting locally and for the opportunities for young kart drivers aspiring to go to the next level. “I am a past NASCAR champion, so I know firsthand what exactly this could provide for young children who have dreams of going to the next level,” O’Neal said. “We have had eight competitors make it to the NASCAR Sprint Cup race level that actually
Supervisors approve changes to county VA director salary structure
Obituaries Page 3A
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Last weekend, Newton Kart Klub hosted a weekend of kart racing with the CRI KartStars of the Heartland Series. “We’re a Midwest touring series for National caliber kart racing,” CRI KartStars of the Heartland Series Director John O’Neal said. “Our symbol represents wheat, which recognizes all the hard working farmers that support the Midwest. We race in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota — at all the local community tracks.” NKK has been building and creating a family racing tradition for the sport of kart racing for more than 40 years. The sport of karting has been used as a platform for many drivers of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as well as NASCAR legends, with many of them having a history of karting here in Newton. “Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray, Landon Castle, Michael Annette and many
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A few weeks ago, the Jasper County Commission of Veterans Affairs had a clear objective: to ensure that the county’s current director of Veteran’s Affairs Chris Chartier had a future in Jasper County. On Tuesday, and with the aid of Jasper County Human
Resources Director Dennis Simon, the commission presented the Jasper County Board of Supervisors with a resolution to place Chartier back into the county’s department head pay plan program. “We weren’t looking for a large increase but would like to get him into a step progression, where over a period of time we could increase his wages a little more respectably,” Simon said.
Simon said he and the commission researched the best model for growth for Chartier and felt placing him into Range 14, Step 2 in the county’s department head pay plan was the right fit. “We weren’t here really looking for a raise but only to a future,” JCCVA spokesman John Billingsley said. The plan Simon and the commission presented the
board showed a slightly more than $500 difference between what he was scheduled to make in the 2014-2015 fiscal year and what they would like to see him at, but it would set him up for future advancement. The board approved the resolution and Chartier will make $47,004 in FY15. SUPERVISORS See Page 5A