Starke County Highway Superintendent, Steve Siddall, approached the Starke County Commissioners last night with some good news: The DNR has given them a bit of leeway in the bridge repair situation. IDEM and CORE permitting will not be involved as long as construction stays above the water line, and only the DNR permit will be needed.
Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall came before the Starke County Council last night to request a transfer of funds to help cover the cost of hiring court-appointed attorneys for defendants who cannot afford a lawyer. Because of the increasing number of criminal cases, particularly those dealing with methamphetamine, the costs for appointing these public defenders are becoming staggering. Hall mentioned that the percentage of defendants who cannot afford an attorney and request to have one appointed has also gone up; 75-80% of defendants now need a public defender.
The Pulaski County Commissioners discussed with Sheriff Mike Gayer why a vehicle was purchased without their approval. Gayer said that he was under the impression that, because the vehicle is a necessary tool to the Sheriff’s Department, it fell under the type of purchase that did not need approval from the Commissioners. Gayer also stressed that he was not trying to circumvent the system and he meant no disrespect, and he purchased the vehicle as inexpensively as possible.
At least ten of the people arrested in the cock fighting raid that occurred in Starke County in late February still have not had their day in Knox City Court. Those cases where the defendants announced in court that they were securing attorneys have yet to be settled. According to court documents, those defendants are trying to work out settlements through their attorneys with the prosecutor’s office. If that is not worked out, trial dates will be set and those could occur in July.
A discussion of a Pawn Shop Ordinance that would license and regulate pawnbrokers within the corporate limits of Knox met with objections from the owners of First Choice Pawn and Loan of Knox.
Hank Minix and Chris Firebaugh objected to a part of the proposed ordinance that would demand that pawn shops get social security numbers, serial numbers and hold purchased items during a 10 day waiting period.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board recognized the Valedictorian and Salutatorian of the graduating Class of 2011. The Valedictorian is Morgan Welker and the Salutatorian is Emily Paulsen.
IU Health Starke Hospital is helping prepare the next generation of nurses by allowing college nursing students to shadow registered nurses at the hospital.
“We are having two clinical rotations each semester and these are usually second or third year Med-Surg students that are coming,” said Clinical Manager of Patient Care Services, Janet Gillon. “We’re very excited about the relationship because it’s something that brings about the autonomy of nursing – bringing them forward from where they are in their school curriculum into the actual working patient care centers.”
State Senator Ed Charbonneau (R-Valparaiso) was recognized Monday by Senate President Pro Tempore David Long (R-Fort Wayne) for achieving a perfect voting attendance record during the 2011 legislative session.
In addition to votes on bills, there are also votes on amendments, committee reports and procedural motions. Charbonneau’s floor votes totaled 535.
State records show this session, 118 Senate bills moved to the governor’s desk and 94 percent of third reading roll-call votes in the Senate were bipartisan in nature.
Forty members of Tri Kappa gathered at the Knox Community Center on May 14th to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Zeta Eta Chapter in Knox. One of the thirteen charter members, Judith Brooke, attended as a special guest.
Sandy Hansen, past Chapter President, presided at the celebration. She introduced other guests: Sue Crisman, past Council President, who came from Crown Point; Jenny McBride, Province XII Officer, a member of the Westville Chapter, and Lori Jacob, a past Province XII Officer from Walkerton. Other guests, former members of the local chapter, came from Kentucky and Michigan, as well as Selma, Plymouth, LaPorte, Culver, Walkerton, and Monticello in Indiana. Many friendships were renewed.
The North Judson-San Pierre Academic Super Bowl Social Studies squad was the Class 3 runner-up in the State Hoosier Academic Super Bowl Competition on Saturday, May 7th, at Purdue University.
The North Judson-San Pierre Academic Super Bowl Fine Arts squad achieved 5th place in the same competition.
The Knox-Center Township Fire Department was called to a fire at Sibo’s Grill, north of Knox on U.S. 35 shortly after 2:00 a.m. this morning.
According to Fire Chief, Kenny Pfost, an electrical issue started the fire in the facility. The building was not a total loss, but it did suffer extensive heat and smoke damage. Thousands of dollars in damage was done to the facility.
Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department officers arrested two people, Friday, May 13th, on methamphetamine related charges.
At approximately 6:30 p.m. ET, officers observed a vehicle pull up to a home near Beardstown on U.S. 35. Officers knew that the occupant of the home is in the nursing home and so they stopped and watched the occupants in the vehicle from a distance. After a while, the officers pulled into the driveway to check their story and one occupant fled into a building. At that time, Avery A. Mullins, 28, of Grovertown and Otis T. Young, 30, of Plymouth, were taken into custody. A wanted persons check found that both subjects were wanted on outstanding warrants in Marshall County.
Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman shared a few pieces of legislation that came out of the General Assembly with the School Board members at their recent meeting.
“Teacher evaluation is going to be more geared toward student data and how the students have improved in their actual achievement,” said Dr. Klitzman. “That’s going to be folded into the evaluation for teachers. Collective bargaining has been greatly restricted. Over the years, collective bargaining with our teachers has grown more and more and that’s through an agreement on both sides. It’s not a one sided thing. Our legislature passed a bill that limits what you can bargain so even if a school and a Teacher’s Association wants to go and bargain other things, legally they can not. This is what’s put in the statute.”
Graduation for the SCILL Center students is this week.
“Our graduation this year is going to be on May 18th, at 6:00 p.m. Knox time,” said Instructor Mark Anderson. “We’ve got 26 students that are going to be graduating this year. All of our students managed to get at least one ASE certification.”
This week, Indiana will be a key participant in what is possibly the largest ever Indiana exercise and the first ever national level exercise to be designed around a natural disaster. Participants include thousands of local and state emergency responders from eight states, as well as numerous federal officials in Washington, D.C. and the White House.
The fate of Marsh Manor on Main Street in Knox will be decided on May 25th. According to Planning Commissioner Greg Matt, the building has been boarded up after the last of the renters were evicted. According to some, the building had been home to several “squatters” too before it was finally emptied.
Once a home to Dr. Kelly, a prominent dentist in the community, the home had been turned into an apartment building. It had fallen on hard times during the past few years, with a fire the final blow to its viability as a rooming house.
“We lost a good man last week,” said Ted Hayes. “Don Paul was one of those guys who was a good husband, a good father, and a good grandfather. He was good for 4-H in Starke County having devoted thousands of hours in his lifetime to making sure 4-Hers had good guidance, and better still, a good role model.”
“But when I think of Don Paul, I will remember him as a great team-mate with his wife, Mabel. If you know Mabel as I do, you know she’s a take charge woman in a good way. And that was alright with Don because he was always there for her. Her accomplishments, which were many, made him so proud.”
“I remember the night Mabel was honored with the Schricker Award. There wasn’t a person in the room who was happier for her, than her husband Don.”
“And his grandchildren, well, his shirt buttons popped when mentioning their accomplishments.”
“Yes, we lost a good man last week. He’ll be missed by all who knew him. But we were all richer because he lived among us. We were all richer because of the example he set.”
Author and race car driver’s wife, Nancy Roe Pimm, was a guest at the Henry F. Schricker library this week. Nancy’s husband, Ed, raced in the 1980’s in the Indianapolis 500.
In her library presentation, Nancy talked about some of the drivers, and the drivers’ wives that she grew close to. She talked about Al Unser, Sr. Continue reading
Rhonda Cavinder and Shirley Fosler of the local Zeta Eta chapter of Tri Kappa recently attended the 59th State Convention of Tri Kappa, held in Indianapolis. As delegates, they attended business sessions and educational workshops, and sold the local chapter’s Tri Kappa ribbon, vinyl clings, and handmade cards. The Fine Arts winners from Province Conventions were on display, and Joan Byer of the Knox Zeta Eta Chapter received a second place on her entry in the Green Craft category, a quilt made from neckties. Continue reading
Mayor Rick Chambers informed the Knox City Council this week that he is exploring ways to protect city equipment from lightning strikes.
“Jeff, Ed and I, met with the company called Flotronics, a company that engineers and designs electrical systems components to stop lightning damage,” the Mayor told the Council. “They came up with some figures at the Wastewater Plant, $12,449 and $8,295 at the Water Plant. So, it’ll be about $21,000. It’s to protect the wires so the lightning doesn’t go through the wires into the machines and it’s put on in layers, like three different layers, of protection.”
