Spotlight on Success Falls on Knox Middle School

Posted on Author WKVI
Danielle Slomka and Tyler Simola-Wallingford

The Spotlight on Success fell on the Knox Middle School students and their video news program at the recent meeting of the Knox Community School Board.  The news program that contained school news and the weather forecast aired on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the beginning of the day.   Middle School Guidance Counselor, Chris Ross, helped the students edit and record their program in the school’s “green room”.   Danielle Slomka and Tyler Simola-Wallingford answered questions from the Board and explained the news program.

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Local Teen to Compete In Miss Indiana’s Outstanding Teen Contest

Posted on Author WKVI
Taylor Quella

Eight young women from the South Bend area will compete for the titles of Miss Indiana and Miss Indiana’s Outstanding Teen in Zionsville.  Teen finals are June 24th and Miss Indiana Finals are Saturday, June 25th.

Celebrating 71 years of service to Hoosier Young Women, the Miss Indiana Scholarship Pageant is a preliminary to the Miss America Pageant, the largest source of scholarship money to young women in the world.

Taylor Quella, of Knox, is Miss Kankakee Valley’s Outstanding Teen.  She is 17 years old and she attends Knox Community High School.  Taylor is expected to compete 5th in the Miss Indiana’s Outstanding Teen Competition on Friday, June 24th at 7:00 p.m. ET at the Zionsville Performing Arts Center.  She joins 21 others in the competition.

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Starke County Relay for Life Event Raises over $50,000

Posted on Author WKVI
Stacey Floran (from the American Cancer Society), Rick Chambers and Megan Hamand

The Starke County Relay for Life event was held over the weekend. The goal this year was $38,000 and at the closing ceremonies Relay Chairman, Megan Hamand, reported that $51,162 had been raised.

Team Imagine raised $8,000 and they were announced as the winners of the team collection event. The captain of Team Imagine is Michelle Downs, who is a cancer survivor. There were 38 teams in this year’s event, which was held at the 4-H Fairgrounds in Hamlet. Continue reading →

Rodger Griffin Charged after Alleged Intimidation Incident

Posted on Author WKVI
police badge

Rodger Griffin was arrested on Thursday after a brief foot pursuit with police.

Griffin, 48, allegedly battered his girlfriend and when her son tried to diffuse the situation, Griffin reportedly threatened his life and pulled a machete and waved it at him making alleged threats.  The police were called and Griffin left the residence. When officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Deparment and the Knox City Police Department arrived, they were advised that Griffin had run into the woods on State Road 8. Officers did locate Griffin and chased him through thick woods. He was eventually taken into custody and booked into the Starke County jail.

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Knox Students Named Unsung Heroes

Posted on Author WKVI
Back Row: Robbie Snowdon, Joey Miller and Knox Mayor Rick Chambers. Front Row: Chastity Griffith, Samantha Piper and Cheyenne Jordon. Not pictured: Destiny Wells

A group consisting of six Knox School students were selected to receive this year’s Unsung Heroes award. The students, Samantha Piper, Joey Miller, Destiny Wells, Chastity Griffith, Robby Snowdon, and Cheyenne Jordon surprised moderately mentally handicapped teacher, Bruce Klimek, with a cash donation for his class. Four students of the team are Knox High School Freshmen, one is an 8th grader and the other is a 5th grader.

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Knox School Board Approves New Contract for Athletic Trainer

Posted on Author WKVI
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa

The Knox Community School Board approved the athletic trainer contract for the next school year:

“The LaPorte Regional Health system supplies the trainer, in this case it’s Heather Skelly, who has been with us for a number of years, and we help support that contract,” said Superintendent, A.J. Gappa. “And with prices going up, we had to sign a new contract and the Board did approve that so we have our trainer for another year at least and that’s a good thing.”

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Robert Rozhon Receives Larry Hartley-Striker Award

Posted on Author WKVI
Back Row: James Minkert, Rick Minkert and Chuck Lovins. Front Row: Floyd Burton, Robert Rozhon and Grover Goetz

In a ceremony held at the Knox South Side Fire Station Sunday, Starke County Honor Guard member, Robert Rozhon, of North Judson, was presented the Larry Hartley-Striker award for service to the unit.

Mr. Rozhon, 79, is a charter member of the award winning organization. He was a member of the San Pierre Fire Department from 1963-1976, and the North Judson Fire Department from 1976-1997.

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Starke County Commissioners Question Claims

Posted on Author WKVI

The Starke County Commissioners discussed a claim submitted by Treasurer Linda Belork for stamps that she says are required to send out delinquent bill notices. The claim, which was for $6,000, was denied because the Commissioners felt they were unable to justify spending such a large amount of money on stamps with the necessary data to back up the claim. Belork was informed that she will need to pull her records and find a more specific number of stamps required for mailing.

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Airport Data Issues Presented to Pulaski County Commissioners

Posted on Author WKVI

Several citizens of Pulaski County approached the Commissioners with a slide presentation detailing many issues and potentially false figures with the proposed airport expansion project. The presentation also argued the reasoning behind the proposal.

One of the reasons that was given for the airport expansion project was that increasing the length of the Arens Field runway to 5,005 feet would decrease insurance premiums for corporate aircraft. In the presentation, insurance premiums are “based on pilot age and experience, history of claims, expected hours of operations.” Also, the Airport Layout Plan states that the proposed action would have no effect on business or economic activity in the project area or local public service demands.

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Kindergarten Countdown Program Offered to Eligible Knox Students

Posted on Author WKVI

The Knox Community School Corporation, along with IU Health Starke Hospital and Starke United, are teaming up to offer a Kindergarten Countdown program that will begin Monday, June 20th. The two week Kindergarten mini-camp is for those students entering Kindergarten who have had no exposure to Pre-School. Peggy Shidaker, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Knox schools, says this is a great jump start program for these children.

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Hamlet Town Board Takes Measures to Slow Traffic

Posted on Author WKVI

Several complaints have been received about cars traveling too fast between Pearl Street and Indiana Street in Hamlet, and the Town Board approve changing the speed in that area to 20 miles per hour. Because there are often children playing nearby, the Town Marshal originally approached the Board to request the installation of a stop sign on Short Street to slow traffic, but Board Members Curtis Simpkins and Kerry Stone were uneasy about the idea. Instead, they changed the speed in that area from 30 MPH, and will put reflective tape on the sign to ensure drivers notice the change.

Vehicle Catches Fire at McDonald’s in Knox

Posted on Author WKVI
Bill Wallace talks to Knox-Center Township Fire Chief, Kenny Pfost, about the car fire

A car caught fire in the McDonald’s parking lot in Knox this morning.  No injuries were reported and the Knox-Center Township Fire Department responded to the scene.  The car was owned by Bill Wallace.  There is no report yet on how the fire started.

Accident Causes Gas Leak in San Pierre

Posted on Author WKVI

US 421 is now open in the San Pierre area where NIPSCO crews were working to correct a gas leak that occurred last night around 8:00 p.m.

According to police, a person was driving his vehicle traveling in the area of State Road 10 and US 421when he left the roadway and struck a telephone pole. The vehicle ran over a NIPSCO gas main causing a gas leak. The vehicle landed on its top. The driver was treated at the scene and eventually taken to IU Health Starke Hospital.

For safety reasons, residents were evacuated from the area. The accident remains under investigation.

Clean-up Continues at Holloway Motel

Posted on Author WKVI
Holloway Motel

Clean-up efforts continue at the Holloway Motel. In April, Starke County police discovered active methamphetamine labs at that location. Six individuals were arrested in the raid and face several methamphetamine related charges. The Indiana State Police Clandestine Lab team was called to remove the three active labs.

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Starke County Prosecutor Receives Report of Erroneous Toxicology Lab Results

Posted on Author WKVI
Nicholas Bourff

The IU Toxicology Lab was recently audited and was found to have erroneous marijuana lab results that could potentially cause trouble in cases that involved those test results. Starke County Prosecutor, Nicholas Bourff, said he has received two notices involving marijuana cases.

“The toxicology department notified us several months back that they were being audited on some tests from between 2007 and 2009 that some mistakes may or may not have been made. Regardless, they have to notify us of those. We got our first two in and they arrived Monday morning. I’ve been reviewing those two and they were both on misdemeanor cases in Knox City Court and I believe they were from 2008. So far, I haven’t quite been able to determine if those results had anything to do with the outcome of their cases,” said Bourff.

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Starke County Commissioners Discuss Dog Kennel Ordinance

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Commissioners ( L to R ) Kathy Norem, Dan Bridegroom, Jennifer Davis

An ordinance regulating dog kennels was discussed at Monday’s Starke County Commissioners meeting. The Planning Commission has been working on this ordinance for several years, and it has been sent back to the Planning Commission with several comments from the commissioners to consider for correction. The maximum number of dogs that would be allowed outside at any time is six, but the Commissioners had a concern with that and requested it to be changed.

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Starke County Relay for Life Focuses on Survivors

Posted on Author WKVI

The Starke County Relay for Life event is this Friday and Saturday and event chairperson, Megan Hamand, says the committee is really trying to get the survivors engaged in the event.

“What they’ve gone through, it’s an amazing victory and they really deserve to be celebrated,” said Hamand. “We have a new survivor chair, Michelle Downs, who is really passionate about survivor engagement. We’ve got a special scavenger hunt for them, we have a special lap just dedicated to survivors and caregivers, we have prizes, we have a reception with a birthday cake because a world with less cancer is a world with more birthdays.”

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News from Starke Circuit Court

Posted on Author WKVI

Several cases were dismissed, others were modified, and some were set for trial in the Starke Circuit Court this week.

Jamie Jones, with her attorney Richard Ballard, was scheduled for jury trial Tuesday morning but was able to reach an agreement for three felony cases. Jones was charged with possession of a controlled substance, a trafficking charge, and a third charge of possession of stolen property. She was able to reach an agreement in which the third charge, possession of stolen property, would be dropped, but she would receive one year in the DOC for possession of a controlled substance and five years for trafficking. None of that sentence would be suspended, and they would be served consecutively.

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