The Bella Vita Pregnancy Resource Center will be hosting its second annual fundraising event in May. Susanne Lange, the Executive Director, tells us about the scheduled event.
“On May 17th, Bella Vita will be hosting its second annual Chocolate Fountain Fondue Fund Raising Event,” announced Lange. “Vincey from WFRN will be the emcee. We will have some client testimony. I will be speaking, giving a yearly update. And of course we’ll have the chocolate fondue treat, and a lyrical dance number.”
One year ago Claude Slisher was announced as The Older Hoosier of the Year and Joan Chesak was selected as Senior Volunteer of the Year.
Also one year ago, the Executive Director of Marshall-Starke Development Center, Mike Lintner, was reporting a shocking statistic. 70% of people with disabilities are unemployed. Marshall-Starke Development Center has been working for many years to help those with disabilities to become employable.
Jonathan and Nathan Hummel pleaded guilty yesterday in Starke Circuit Court to several charges against them. The pair were involved in an armed robbery incident at the Knox CVS pharmacy on December 20th.
A man was arrested in Elburn, Illinois, after fleeing from police following his alleged robbery of the LaPorte Savings Bank. On Friday, April 20th, deputies from the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Office were called to the bank in response to a hold-up alarm. Within several seconds of the alarm, the LaPorte County Regional Dispatch Center received a telephone call from an employee of the bank who said that the bank had just been robbed at gunpoint, and he said that a single male had entered the bank with a handgun.
Several Bass Lake residents got the answer they were seeking at the recent Starke County Commissioners meeting. The residents, who have placed a pier into the water at the end of Shewski Road in the past, petitioned the commissioners to allow them to do so again this year.
One of the sticking points was that the pier would be three feet over the access point in the lake. After several of the residents made points to the commissioners, a motion was made by Commissioner Jennifer Davis to allow the pier to be put in this year, and it will be studied and evaluated before the next season. That motion was approved unanimously as the room rang with applause.
The news that IU Health Starke Hospital will have an Interim President will have no impact on plans of IU Health LaPorte Hospital pursuing the purchase of the Starke facility. Thor Thordarson, CEO/President of LaPorte Regional Health System said the commitment is still there.
The Harlem Wizards came to Knox last night appearing in a fundraiser for the Knox High School Band. Money raised was to be used for a band trip to Florida.
While the Wizards play almost every night, some of the “ringers” rounded up by Coach Craige Phipps left a little to be desired. Tom Berg tried to keep up with the Wizards star guard who was simply known as “The Roadrunner.”
Knox’s First, First Lady was laid to rest yesterday at Crown Hill Cemetery. Alice Kay, 101, was the wife of Knox’s first Mayor, Glen Kay.
In services at the Catherine Kasper Home Chapel in Donaldson, Father Mike, Acting Priest for the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ Ministry, noted in his funeral mass that Alice liked to dance. He said, “I hope that someone will commission a mural painting of Alice dancing with Jesus in Heaven.”
Ted Hayes remembered that on her 100th birthday everyone at the party saluted her with a glass of expensive champagne. Alice didn’t say much but indicated to her caretakers that she would pass on the cake for another glass of “the bubbly.”
Seatbelt patrols throughout Marshall County have been stepped up since April 20th, as part of the state’s Rural Demonstration Project. State police officials have announced their participation in the annual effort, which aims to increase seat belt use by motorists in rural counties with the highest percentage of unrestrained fatalities.
The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute says 64 percent of the state’s overall traffic fatalities occurred on rural roadways in 2011. In an effort to reduce that number, about 24 law enforcement agencies throughout the state, along with the Indiana State Police, will participate in the project that runs through May 17. Participating agencies will be tasked with looking out for unrestrained motorists in any vehicle, including pickup trucks.
The Knox Harvest Days Committee will be meeting tonight at the H&R Block office in the Knox Mall. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. CT and anyone willing to help with the August Festival is encouraged to attend. Michelle Bachtel is in charge of the festival this year and says she would like to take it into Wythogan Park this year.
Planning for the 35th Annual North Judson Mint Festival is in full swing, says Clerk-Treasurer Donna Henry. The festival will take place on Father’s Day weekend, as always, June 15, 16, and 17.
The committee is currently working on organizing the Mint Pageant, where people will vote for the Mint King and Queen, Prince and Princess, as well as Little Miss and Little Mister. The pageant will take place Sunday, May 20, at 6 p.m. in the North Judson – San Pierre High School Auditorium. For more information or to find out how to compete, contact Cortny Barnes at (574) 207-3719.
As reported Saturday, there is to be a change of leadership at I.U. Health Starke Hospital. Linda Satkoski will become the Chief Operating Office for the entire La Porte health system after serving as the president of I.U. Health Starke Hospital for three years. David Hyatt has agreed to become the Interim President at Starke, and this change will take place June 4.
Satkoski says a number of big changes have been made in the last three years.
School corporations across Indiana will receive a total of $6 million to recognize and award their best teachers. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett announced that 28 recipients will receive Indiana’s “Excellence in Performance for Teachers” award.
“The real root and the soul of this grant was to recognize and reward the most important asset in our schools and those are great people who touch the hearts and the souls and the minds of children, and put their lives on course to be our next leaders,” said Dr. Bennett.
The grant was established by the Indiana General Assembly during the 2011 legislative session in an effort to help school corporations and charter schools recruit and retain effective teachers.
The Oregon-Davis School Corporation will receive $27,192 for incentives while the Fort Wayne Community School Corporation received the most money with $1.6 million. The Bremen Public School was another school in the area that will receive money. That school corporation will get $101,000.
The Harlem Wizards basketball team brings their high octane form of Hoops to Knox tonight to help raise funds for the Knox Band Boosters. The money raised will be used to fund a trip to Florida by the Knox High School Band.
Opposing players taking part in the game will include, among others, WKVI Morning Man Tom Berg. Berg has been saving himself for just this moment.
The Knox Harvest Days celebration is August 24 – 26, and Michelle Bachtel, owner of the local H & R Block in Knox, is the new festival president. Bachtel says the organization has made a number of developments, including a new website.
“Well the first thing we did is establish the Knox Harvest Festival as its own legal entity, so it is now an organization that can be donated to. Sponsors can sponsor it and know the money is going where it needs to go and to whom its suppose to go. The second thing we did is develop a web page: knoxharvestfestival.org. If you need to e-mail me it’s just michelle@knoxharvestfestival.org,” Bachtel said.
The West Central School Board got an update on the wind turbine last week from Superintendent Charles Mellon.
“Well, we are in production,” stated Mellon. “There is a little additional tweaking that will be done. We’re still getting some voltage spikes which all three companies are working on and they think they have a solution and will be correcting that. We have been in production for a while and in the short future we should be able to get a read-out just to see what our production has been — say over the last two week period.”
The wind turbine is not quite in full commission mode yet.
“Until those issues are solved and it’s fully commissioned, it’s not considered ours yet,” Mellon said. “They still have their work to do so we’re still anxiously awaiting, but we are getting credit for the kilowatts that are being produced during this time.”
Drawings from two Lottery Jackpots will be held tonight.
The Power Ball, worth an estimated $162 million, and Hoosier Lotto worth $9 million will be drawn.
Kenneth Lebeda of Peru, an Iraq War veteran won a Hoosier Lottery prize on Friday, August 13th, proving that “Friday the 13th was his lucky day.”
Remember the Busy Bee Restaurant in North Judson? The Busy Bee opened on this date in 1985. Jerry Patterson then moved to the location and changed the name to Patterson’s. It is now Brantwood, which is North Judson’s former name.
The U.S. 35 widening project began in Knox on this date in 2001. Culver Road was closed for a two block stretch between U.S. 35 to Main Street. This was part of a $7 million dollar widening of U.S. 35 to four lanes. Construction extended from the Yellow River Bridge on the north to just past the Astoria Motel on the South.
In Culver on this date Mr. T’s Pharmacy became known as CVS after the sale of the pharmacy by the family of the late Ron Tusing.
Finally organized sports began in Indiana as the Summit City Baseball Club was organized in Ft. Wayne.
With April comes the Fifth Annual National Safe Digging Month, and CenturyLink wants to remind all Indiana residents to always call 811 at least a few days prior to any digging project.
Striking a single line can cause injury, repair costs, fines, and inconvenient outages. Big or small, all digging projects should be reported by calling 811, even if you are just installing a mailbox, building a deck, or planting a tree or garden.
The depth of utility lines can vary for any number of reasons, such as erosion, previous digging projects, and uneven surfaces. By calling 811, you can ensure these lines are properly marked, eliminating the risk of striking an underground utility line.
According to the Damage Information Reporting Tool report, utility lines are damaged by digging once every three minutes nationwide, and one-third of these incidents are caused by failure of the professional excavator or homeowner to call 811 before beginning their digging project.
New Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson is slated as a speaker Saturday night at the Starke County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner. The event, to be held at the newly remodeled Bass Lake Community Center, will begin with a social hour at 6:00 and the dinner at 7:00.
Other local and state candidates are expected to be in attendance, as well as 2nd District Congressional candidate Jackie Walorski.
Lawson was selected by Governor Mitch Daniels to fill the position vacated by Charlie White who was convicted of six felonies earlier in the year and lost his job.
The new Secretary of State was a State Senator from Danville, who Daniels said “comes to the office with the highest credentials.” She assumed the office with only 53 days until the Primary Election, and went right to work.
Lawson is the second woman to fill the position of Indiana Secretary of State, after Sue Ann Gilroy.
