With election time quickly approaching, last night’s Meet the Candidates presentation gave each candidate for contested state and county positions the opportunity to speak to the voters, allowing them five minutes to express themselves. The room was filled with interested voters at the Knox Community Center as candidates or their representatives made their cases to the audience.
Three people were arrested late Tuesday night after a search warrant was conducted at a home in Knox.
Officers from the Knox City Police Department, Hamlet Police Department and the Starke County Sheriff’s Department conducted a search warrant at 403 S. Shield Street in Knox where an active methamphetamine lab was found. Two children were in the home at the time of the incident and Indiana Department of Child Services was called to the scene to get them into a safer environment.
A LaPorte man was killed after being hit by a vehicle on the Toll Road.
The Toll Road dispatch center received a call about an erratic driver and shortly after that call was made, another came in about the same vehicle that just hit the back of a maintenance pick-up truck.
A worker for LaPorte District Maintenance Area 2, 52-year-old Daniel J. Miller of LaPorte, just exited the pick-up to retrieve trimming equipment from the back of the vehicle when a passenger car driven by 78-year-old Paul A. Kimbrugh of Coldwater, Michigan slammed into Miller and back of the maintenance truck. Continue reading
The Pulaski County Assessor’s office may soon undergo some modifications as Assessor Holly VanDerAa told the commissioners this week that Maintenance Director Morry DeMarco has offered to make adjustments to the boiler room, enlarging it, to allow her office to expand into that room. DeMarco explained he would have to enlarge a doorway, removing a section of wall, but the commissioners were uncomfortable with allowing that to happen without first having an engineer check the integrity of the building.
DeMarco explained that this would be the most cost-effective plan because the assessor would not have to move her office, but would rather enlarge it. Fire safety exits and other safety requirements will be unaffected, and he estimated that the overall cost would be less than $1000.
Come show your support for the volunteers that will be helping 15 local seniors move into their new homes on Saturday. IU Health will be partnering with Northwest Indiana Community Action Corporation and Community Services of Starke County for the Safe at Home project.
This project is designed to help seniors with low income own their own home and provide them with the basic necessities and safe surroundings that they need.
The event will be held on Saturday at IU Health’s billing center located at 11 S. Main St. in Knox. The event will begin at 8 a.m. CT.
A Meet the Candidates Night is set for Wednesday, Oct. 3 from 6–8 p.m. at the Knox Community Center.
Candidates will be allowed five minutes to speak during the event. In the U.S. Senate race, a representative for Democratic U.S. Senate–candidate Joe Donnelly–will appear along with Libertarian candidate Andrew “Andy” Horning. A representative for Brendan Mullen will appear on his behalf as he campaigns for the U.S. Representative District 2 seat. Libertarian U.S. Representative District 2 candidate Joseph Ruiz will attend.
A Plymouth man has been incarcerated after a fraud incident.
Plymouth police were notified Wednesday morning that a credit card and checks were stolen from a car parked in the 700 block of Ferndale Street. The credit card had been used at a gas station on West Jefferson Street shortly before the theft was called into the police department.
A Pierceton man died yesterday morning in a two vehicle accident in front of the Grovertown Truck Stop in Starke County.
Steve Mort was driving westbound on U.S. 30 and did not see a semi pulling out of the truck stop. The semi was turning eastbound on U.S. 30 when Mort drove into the semi’s trailer that was carrying a large wind turbine propeller. Mort’s vehicle went underneath the trailer trapping he and his passenger, his brother, in the vehicle. Mort and his brother, Tim Mort, were extricated from the vehicle. Steve Mort was transported to the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Plymouth where he later died of his injuries. Tim Mort was taken to Memorial Hospital in South Bend and was listed in stable condition.
A man accused of killing a former Knox woman will appear in Fulton Superior Court on Nov. 15 for a pretrial hearing.
Wilma Upsall was shot and killed after a burglary incident at the home she shared with her daughter and son-in-law in Rochester. In November 2011, Roy Bell, William Scroggs, and Jason Miller reportedly broke into the house to steal items and found Upsall in the home. She was then allegedly tied to a chair and shot to death.
Bell is the suspected shooter in the incident. Miller told police that he and Scroggs were outside of the residence when the shots were fired, and Bell allegedly said later that Upsall could identify him so he shot her.
Bell has been charged with murder and if he is found guilty, he could face the death penalty.
One person has died after sustaining injuries in a two vehicle accident on U.S. 30 in front of the Grovertown Truck Stop in Starke County this morning.
A semi hauling a wind turbine propeller was leaving the truck stop to go east on U.S. 30, escorted by four vehicles with wide-load signage. The semi and the load were completely across the westbound lane and partially across the eastbound lane. A man traveling westbound in his vehicle failed to see the semi. The man drove under the semi trailer carrying the propeller.
Plymouth police arrested an Indianapolis man who had two active Starke County warrants for Dealing in Methamphetamine and Possession of Chemical Reagents.
The dealing charge reportedly stems from an incident on Sept. 6 when Derrick Crockett was seen in a home on Tippecanoe Road in Starke County along with two other people who were not supposed to be in the residence. The homeowner along with his mother who found the three in the home smelled a strong chemical odor coming from the basement and gained entry to the home. Crockett and two other suspects were told to leave the residence and Starke County police were called to the scene.
A mini-riot broke out in the LaPorte County Jail Friday evening – this after the Sheriff’s announcement last week that the closure of a jail wing put the jail in an overcrowding situation.
The inmates refused to lock-down into their cells and deputies had to use tasers and pepper spray to bring order to the population. The inmates complied with orders prior to the arrival of road officers and a K9 unit to the cell block.
A missing 17-year-old LaPorte girl has been reportedly found safe and sound in Florida, having been reported missing on Wednesday.
The family of Emily Sue Snyder had been asking for the public’s help in locating their daughter who was reported missing on Wednesday. She was last seen at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday when she was presumed to be heading to classes at South Central High School, but her parents soon learned she didn’t make it to school.
A wing is now closed in the LaPorte County Jail after the LaPorte County Council did not approve a request for an additional appropriation of $70,000 to fund the jail overtime budget for the rest of the year. That money was to be used to properly staff jail operations. As a result, Sheriff Michael Mollenhauer said all overtime has been stopped.
Four people were arrested Monday in Marshall County after Indiana State Police officers found them to be in a stolen vehicle with a rolling meth lab.
Officers received information of an erratic driver headed eastbound on U.S. 30 near Oak Road in Plymouth. The vehicle was stopped for a traffic violation and during routine questioning of the driver, 49-year-old Bradley Shopoff of Fort Wayne, police learned the vehicle had been stolen out of Fort Wayne and a meth lab was in the car.
The Indiana State Police conducted a statewide enforcement campaign over the weekend targeting impaired and dangerous drivers. Troopers throughout the state arrested 346 impaired drivers, issued 4105 tickets, 6646 written warnings and made 360 arrests for various criminal offenses.
Officers from the Lowell Post issued 437 of those tickets and made 38 impaired driving arrests and 22 criminal arrests. Bremen Post officers issued 236 tickets and had 21 impaired driving arrests and 6 criminal arrests.
More than 83,000 Americans are missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the 1991 Gulf War, but last August, the remains of Starke County’s last known Vietnam POW/MIA, U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Andy Howe, were returned to Starke County. Forty years after his helicopter was shot down in Vietnam, Howes returned home to a hero’s welcome.
In honor of those missing or lost, the third Friday in September is nationally observed as POW/MIA day. This year, that date falls on Sept. 21.
The North Judson-Wayne Township Firefighters battled a house fire Friday night on 250 West.
Fire Chief Joe Leszek said flames were showing from the front of the home when they arrived on scene. They entered the home and extinguished the fire. No one was home at the time of the fire and Leszek says the fire appeared to have been started by an electrical issue.
A Medaryville man was arrested Tuesday after police found him to be in possession of drugs.
Two Pulaski County Sheriff’s deputies learned through anonymous tips that David and Brenda Conley were reportedly manufacturing methamphetamine at their Medaryville residence.
The Knox City Council last week discussed the old laundromat building at 64 E. Lake St., which will soon be demolished. Mayor Rick Chambers says he has already gotten a few quotes on its demolition, but they are still waiting on the necessary paperwork to be completed before any quote can be accepted.
Chambers told the council that if the paperwork is completed in time, the Board of Works will likely discuss and possibly choose the winning bid at their next meeting.
