Republican State Representative Tom Dermody, of LaPorte, introduced a new bill in the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday to help raise funds for a new jail in Starke County.
House Bill 1213 would allow the Starke County Council to increase the County Economic Development Income Tax (CEDIT) to finance, construct and equip a jail facility. The county council is only permitted to raise enough funds to cover the costs of the jail and the additional tax rate cannot increase more than .65%.
Three LaPorte residents were arrested on Friday on cocaine charges.
LaPorte Metro Operations Unit detectives served an arrest warrant to Gregory Green for Dealing Cocaine, a Class B Felony. Then, Larry R. Phillips, Jr. was arrested a short time later for delivering cocaine to Green’s address. Phillips has been charged with Possession of Cocaine, a Class B Felony.
The West Central School Board discussed the school’s dwindling budget at their meeting last week. Superintendent Charles Mellon said there are reasons as to why the school is losing money.
“There are two reasons for that,” said Mr. Mellon. “Of course, our enrollment has gone down and then there are different things that they are taking out that were items in the formula in the past like the small school grant, restoration grant and these type of things. I just wanted to convey to the Board that we did get our first draw. We look at being about $310,000 short of what we had last year. We add that on to $323,000 that we were short last year.”
Many burn centers are being taxed to the point of considering closing because they are being filled with uninsured burn patients who come in with meth related injuries.
Most of these patients are reportedly using a simple method of producing meth by putting ingredients in a two liter soda bottle. Just one simple error can cause an explosion, resulting in burns over the entire body.
The average medical bill is $130,000.
Police and medical officials are spreading the word about this dangerous practice.
Knox Community School Superintendent A.J. Gappa told the School Board that the Knox Community School Corporation will be hosting RISE evaluation training with the help of the Northern Indiana Educational Service Center, or NIESC.
“We intend to host the first two sessions of the training for the RISE evaluation system in February,” said Gappa. “Next year, according to state law, in order for administrators, or principals, to evaluate teachers, they have to go through this training system if they are going to use the RISE program. It appears that we will be heading in that direction. We want to be prepared in case we do adopt the RISE program. We want our principals to be able to do the evaluations of the teachers.”
Oregon-Davis graduate, Kelsey Minix, recently participated in the National Cheerleading competition at Disney World. She is on the cheer squad at Purdue University. Minix talked about the competition that was held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Center at Disney World.
“The routine is two minutes and 30 seconds long and it can’t be any longer than that,” said Minix. “There’s two different portions of music which is fast-paced and many skills set to it. Every school then does a cheer that you would do at a game. There’s a lot of tumbling, partner stunts, pyramids, basket tosses and so many things packed into two minutes and 30 seconds.”
DNR officials are warning you about walking on ice. A LaPorte man was rescued Sunday after falling through the ice on Clear Lake. LaPorte Fire Department officials found the man in water about eight feet deep.
Firefighters wearing proper cold suits went into the water and tied a line to the man. He was pulled to safety onto a floating sled.
With hundreds of hunters and others in attendance at the Knox Community Center on Sunday, the community said good bye to Eric Corey, of Knox.
Corey, 25, was the subject of many stories about his battle with ALS, his beating the odds for 10 years while hunting all over the world and setting up an event where other people with disabilities could enjoy the sport he loved so much. For three years, Eric and his family organized an event called Turkey Tracks and it grew every year with disabled people going turkey hunting with guides.
Several candidates filed for the 2012 Election in the Pulaski County Clerk’s Office last week.
On the Republican ticket, Michael Troy “Big Mike” Tiede filed for County Commissioner in District 2 and Steven Nellans and Jerry “Jay” Sullivan, Jr. filed for at-large seats on the County Council.
Democrat Sheila K. Garling filed for Pulaski County Auditor.
West Central School Superintendent Charles Mellon gave the School Board an update on the wind turbine project during the Board’s meeting on Thursday night.
Knox Community School Superintendent A.J. Gappa has been meeting with representatives from the Starke County Economic Development Foundation, Jerry Hollenbaugh, North Central Area Vocational Director, and Jerry Gurrado, Director of the SCILL Center in Knox. Superintendent Gappa told the Knox Community School Board that the group has been meeting to coordinate welding classes to be conducted at the Knox Middle School.
“With just a little bit of work, our former wood shop in the Middle School could be converted to a welding class area,” said Superintendent Gappa. “What I was asking the Board was permission to continue those talks and the Board seemed pretty excited about the idea themselves. This could be a win-win, not only for the school, but for community and the businesses in the area because people learn how to weld, they would become employable and they could improve their skills in the places they do work. This is just our opportunity to work with the business community and the Economic Development Foundation.”
The J.E.S.S.E. Cooperative is reorganizing to where all schools in the Cooperative will house their own services and classes for Special Education students. The North Judson-San Pierre School Board discussed that issue during their meeting and Superintendent Lynn Johnson relays that information.
“We are moving more services into our school district then we’ll have a service district comprised of Starke County – Knox, Oregon-Davis and North Judson-San Pierre,” said Mrs. Johnson. “This year is a transitional year and beginning July 1st most of our special education employees will become North Judson-San Pierre employees. Right now this is a transitional year. We are in the process of reorganizing and it’s an ongoing process this year.”
The staff at the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department is offering 911 public education classes to groups who are interested.
911 public education informs children how and when to call 911 and what to do when the 911 operator answers. The classes also teach adults about the questions 911 operators must ask in order to dispatch the appropriate assistance.
Officials can talk to school groups, pre-school groups, church groups or any other group who is interested in gathering as much information as possible on the 911 procedures.
The Knox City Police Department had 4,931 calls in 2011.
98 accident reports and 345 incident reports were completed. 39 people were arrested on Public Intoxication charges, 179 people were arrested on 226 traffic charges, 401 people were arrested on 698 criminal charges and 8 people were found to be in violation of ordinances.
The Starke County Court Appointed Special Advocate program, or CASA, will soon have a training class for volunteers.
Volunteers in the program are appointed by the court to express the wishes of a child in court and advocate the best interest of the child for the duration of their court case. You should have a passion for serving abused or neglected children, have good communication skills and dependable transportation.
Six athletes will be inducted into the Oregon-Davis Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday, February 4th.
2001 graduate Tara Kensinger and 1974 graduate Ralph Pearish will be inducted, along with the Howard brothers, Rex, Jim and Jerome, who played sports in the 1950s for the Grovertown Rams. Al Haro, a 1960 graduate from Hamlet High School, will also be inducted.
He hunted from Canada to Africa, and he started an event called Turkey Trax so other hunters (young and old) with physical disabilities like himself could enjoy the sport that he loved– and because of the seriousness of his disease, he made his parents promise that they would carry on the event if and when he passed away.
Eric Corey died on Wednesday afternoon in his home in Washington Township. Because of the number of people he became friends with and inspired, his funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Knox Community Center.
M.C. Smith Funeral Home is in charge of the services.
A Knox man was arrested Tuesday after allegedly battering his wife and firing a gun at her.
Starke County police received a call from the victim who said that she and James Daniel were arguing and he reportedly shoved her while she was on the phone with her father and she shoved him back. He then allegedly hit her in the face with his fist. He told her to exit the residence and her father came to get her.
LaPorte City Police Department officers were called to an accident in the early morning hours Thursday after a woman hit a pedestrian sitting on a bench.
32-year-old Tonya Wollum, of LaPorte County, was driving on Michigan Avenue when she jumped the curb and struck 35-year-old Ameer Henderson who was sitting on a bench outside 615 Michigan Avenue. Wollum then continued north up the sidewalk for about 75 yards until the vehicle came to rest at 605 Michigan Avenue.
The Starke County Plan Commission was informed by Building Inspector Bruce Williams this week that he has granted Julia (Povilaitis) Ford a permit for a structure that is placed at 6690 East 250 North in rural Grovertown.
The original permit that he had granted was eventually revoked by the BZA board because it was issued as a Type One Manufactured Home. Williams acknowledged that the permit issued on January 11th of this year was a Commercial Unit, but said it was to be converted to a Single Family Dwelling.
