AUBURN â An option to connect a new DeKalb County Jail to the existing Community Corrections Center met with a storm of opposition in a meeting Tuesday afternoon.
DeKalb County Commissioners said connecting the buildings would save $3.1 million in construction costs, plus at least $5 million on operating costs and depreciation over the next 20 years.
The proposal would reduce the number of work-release beds in the Community Corrections Center from 52 to 12. The center opened in February 2020 and has never come close to its capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It would cost $25.2 million to build a jail combined with the Community Corrections Center, compared to $28.3 million for a freestanding jail immediately north of the Corrections Center, architect Tony Vie of the Elevatus firm estimated.
AUBURN â The DeKalb County Commissioners Monday turned down a request to hold a âRally for Reconciliationâ on the DeKalb County Courthouse lawn.
Zach Heimach of Auburn had requested using the lawn for the gathering, planned for April 24. The commissioners noted that while they would not approve holding an event on the lawn, the downtown Auburn sidewalks are not part of the courthouse.
Heimach said the event would be designed to allow local citizens to reconcile with history and take an honest look at the past.
His gathering would include classic American readings about what it means to be an American.
What the anti-racist gathering on the DeKalb County Courthouse sidewalks did not produce is any trouble.
People from as far as South Bend, Bloomington and Dayton, Ohio, gathered to respond to a Ku Klux Klan rally taking place at an undisclosed private location near Auburn.
The size of the Klan rally remained a mystery, while about 150-200 people assembled downtown at the rally organized by the newly formed Indiana Mutual Aid Coalition.
Between speeches calling for racial harmony, some people expressed disappointment at the size of the anti-Klan crowd or the number of rifles being carried by a defense team for the rally.
Nearly 100 peaceful demonstrators rallied at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Auburn on Saturday with no sign of the Ku Klux Klan, as had been original .
AUBURN â A national watchdog organization for hate groups is predicting a low turnout at a Ku Klux Klan rally scheduled for Saturday in the Auburn area.
An analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center on Thursday estimated that â15 or soâ people would attend the Klan rally, planned for an undisclosed indoor location.
For two months, the Texas-based Church of the Ku Klux Klan has been promoting an âIndiana White Unity Meet and Greetâ in Auburn on Saturday.
âThe venue of the event will be on private property and indoors. The event will be near Auburn, Indiana, on April 3, 2021, starting at 11 a.m.,â the Klan group wrote in a chat room for white nationalist groups.