Applications are currently being accepted for the first annual Winamac High School/Winamac Community High School Alumni Association scholarship worth $250.
The scholarship will be awarded to a Winamac High School senior who is planning to attend a post-secondary school or college. One scholarship will be awarded during the alumni banquet on June 16th at the Church of the Heartland in Winamac.
The City of LaPorte, in partnership with the LaPorte County Family YMCA and IU Health LaPorte Hospital, will be marking the inaugural Fitness Friday on March 30th, at 4:00 p.m. CT.
Everyone in the city is invited to join in a 5k run or walk every Friday afternoon until September with Mayor Blair Milo. Milo says this is part of an effort to provide positive community events that brings people out into the city to “enjoy some fun and fellowship together” while also promoting healthy lifestyle choices. She says that shorter distances will be marked as well, and everyone is invited to participate at whatever level they are comfortable.
The state Department of Transportation is asking Adopt-A-Highway groups to help in the annual spring cleanup of Indiana’s highways.
INDOT and Adopt-A-Highway groups are planning a statewide effort to clean up Indiana’s highways during Trash Bash 2012. The event runs from April 7 through April 22.
Three fire departments battled a house fire at 200 E. and 500 S. in the Bass Lake area yesterday afternoon.
Firefighters from the Bass Lake, Knox-Center Township and North Judson-Wayne Township Fire Departments responded to the location where a 100-year old structure was fully engulfed in flames before crews arrived on scene. No cause has been released yet. A representative from the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s office was scheduled to meet with Bass Lake fire officials to determine a cause of the fire.
Weaver and Boos Consultants had a brighter report for the Starke County Commissioners this month. The company has been contracted to monitor and provide solutions to problems at the old Starke County Landfill located at 625 East and 550 South. In monitoring the groundwater at the site, it was found that there is no significant impact on the water quality. The report stated that another test will be done in June or July and if that test proves negative, Weaver and Boos will contact state authorities about only monitoring the site once a year, or discontinue groundwater monitoring altogether.
Congressman Joe Donnelly has sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to reduce the price of gasoline. He stated that opening the reserve has proven to reduce gas prices.
Last year, President Obama allowed the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the reserve and that action reduced the gas prices six percent.
Contracts were signed last week by the Starke County Commissioners for work to be done by the Kankakee-Iroquois Regional Planning Commission for debris removal work on the Yellow River.
“We’re going to start at the Marshall-Starke County line,” explained Commissioner Dan Bridegroom. “We’ll GPS all of the log jams, those will be bundled, and that’s the work they will bid on.”
Only recently more debris has gone into the river.
“We do know there was one big tree that fell in during the last big storm we had about three weeks ago. Since then, five more trees have gone into the water.”
The $150,000 grant to do the work is coming from the stimulus money offered two years ago. Territorial Engineering is now preparing the bid specifications and work will hopefully begin sometime this summer.
The Northwest Indiana Community Action Corporation, on behalf of the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, has announced that they will be opening the Housing Choice Voucher Program Waiting List for Starke and Pulaski Counties.
“Walk to School Day” in the Town of Winamac is scheduled for Thursday, April 12th.
Students will gather at 7:15 a.m. ET at the Downtown Depot on the corner of Main and Logan Streets in Winamac and the walk will begin at 7:30 a.m. ET. The students will walk down Main Street to the north side of the County Courthouse, to Monticello Street to Riverside Drive and it will end at the Elementary and Middle Schools. Safe Routes Task Force leaders, Kiwanis Key Club members and local law enforcement will also participate in the effort. You are also welcome to join in.
Though classes have already started, it’s still not too late to sign up. Several openings are still available for the computer classes offered at the SCILL Center, which are open to the public and area businesses. Classes will be offered from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., with a cost of $40. A minimum of six people are required for each session.
Ed Hasnerl has a few more seats available for his summer trip to Washington, D.C.
”We aren’t going for another three months, but I do have room for four more on the motor bus. We’re going to see all the great sites in Washington. We’ll hear Abraham Lincoln speak, we’ll be visiting the Gettysburg Battlefield, and there’s a good chance that Martha will fix lunch for us at Mt. Vernon,” Hasnerl said.
Even though it’s cooled off a little, spring bugs are still thinking it’s mid-April. Pests, such as wasps, have begun to appear and in Southern Indiana there’s been reports of mosquitoes.
Along with the bugs we don’t like to see, there are some pretty species out, like butterflies.
The warm winter, and summer-like March temperatures have allowed bugs to move up their seasonal appearances.
Some Entomologists are even saying that ticks didn’t rest at all over the winter.
The LaPorte County Sheriff’s Department investigated a two vehicle accident at the intersection at State Road 39 and U.S. 30 last night.
Flora Howard, of North Judson, was reportedly traveling through the intersection and a semi ran a stop light and hit Howard’s car. She received non-life threatening injuries in the incident and the semi driver was not injured. Howard was taken to IU Health LaPorte Hospital for her injuries.
Thirty-four-year-old Nathan VanDerAa, of Star City, received his sentence in U.S. District Court Friday from Judge Robert Miller, Jr. of 33 months in the Bureau of Prisons and two years of supervised release following his plea of guilty to charges of Unlawful User of a Controlled Substance in Possession of a Firearm. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Frank Schaffer.
To most people in the Republican Party in Starke County, Ione Moore was thought of as “Mrs. Republican.” A Starke County office holder and faithful party worker, Mrs. Moore was given many awards by the local party, and only three years ago received a special state certificate for her years of service to her community by then-Secretary of State Todd Rokita.
Funeral services will be held at 1:00 p.m. today for Mrs. Moore at the Braman and Son Memorial Chapel in Knox. She passed away at the age of 92 on Friday.
Besides the special state award, Mrs. Moore was the 1997 Schricker Award winner and was the Senior Volunteer of the Year in 1996.
Winamac Wastewater Superintendent, Brad Zellers, told the Town Board that a lift station may need to be installed on the east side of the Panhandle walking trail on the farm real estate.
Water is draining off the farm ground and going into the town’s sanitary system, causing a great additional cost to the sewer plant. Identifying the responsible party is the next step and a meeting with the property owners will be scheduled with the Drainage Board.
Mayor Rick Chambers announced at the most recent Knox City Council meeting that there was money left over from the Storm Sewer Infrastructure project.
Chambers said Territorial Engineers has looked over the project, and the Knox Street Department was given the extra money.
“The street department had the first shot at it and they wanted some streets repaved and overlaid,” stated Mayor Chambers. “The streets to be repaved are Sycamore between John and Bender, and John Street east of U.S. 35 from Prettyman to McGill will also be completely repaved.”
Ancilla College in Donaldson has a new Interim Admissions Director. His name is Eric Wignall, and even though he’s new to the admissions office he is not new to Ancilla. Wignall has been with the college for a year-and-a-half doing market-type research.
We asked Wignall to describe his job.
“The Director of Admissions is the person who is involved in bringing students to Ancilla,” explained Wignall. “I’m part of the funnel, or the system of people who tell you about Ancilla College and how it works.”
LaPorte County TRIAD is launching a new project to assist senior citizens. I.C.E., which stands for In Case of Emergency, is designed to give senior citizens a way of informing medical, fire or police personnel with vital medical information in case they are incapacitated and unable to provide the information.
Tom Berg has been talking about going into the Guinness Book of World Records for a radio broadcasting endurance mark. It was on this date in 1928 at Bass Lake when George Byer, of Knox, won the roller skating endurance contest.
He roller skated continuously, except for five minute rests for 25 hours and 28 minutes. He was one of 11 entrants in the contest, which was sponsored by Nehi Company and Rannells and Kriss. It attracted the attention of scores of people.
