The Bass Lake Fire Department was called to a house fire at 6560 S. State Road 10 at Bass Lake. Fire Chief, Les Jensen, told WKVI that the two-story brick home was a total loss. The Fire Department battled the blaze for about 45 minutes before it came under control. Jensen said the home was a summer home owned by an Illinois resident. The preliminary cause of the fire is a lightning strike. The home was valued at at least $500,000. Continue reading
LaPorte City Police Department officers are investigating a stabbing incident that occurred in the 900 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in LaPorte. When officers arrived on scene, a 23-year-old female, a 55-year-old female and a 63-year-old female inside were all suffering from stab wounds.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held yesterday at the recently opened Bella Vita Pregnancy Resource Center in Knox. The Center is located in a home that was owned by Frances Meyers on South Heaton Street.
“I have the honor to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors for Bella Vita Pregnancy Resource Center,” said Rhonda Adcock. “This day, for me, represents a vision that has become a reality. What started out as a desire to just help hurting women came from hearing burdens and stories of others, a vision to have a crisis pregnancy center here in Knox. Starting on the Steering Committee, and now the Board, has given me a front row seat to see that vision become the reality that you see within this house today.”
Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall sentenced John Brooke this morning. Brooke is the last of the suspects involved in the police shootout at Bass Lake in February 2010. Brooke was found guilty of six charges in a jury trial in April. Judge Hall categorized Brooke’s counts into three different criminal episodes and sentenced him according to those elements.
Brooke was sentenced to 15 years on the count of Conspiracy to Commit Armed Robbery and 4 years on the count of Possession/Manufacturing of a Destructive Device. Those sentences will be served concurrently. Brooke was sentenced to 4 years on the Intimidation charge, 1 year on the Resisting Law Enforcement charge and 1 year on the Unlawful Use of Body Armor charge. Those sentences will run concurrently together. Brooke will serve 3 years on the Assisting a Criminal charge. All of those sentences will be served consecutively for a total of 22 years in the Indiana Department of Corrections. None of the sentence was suspended and he will be credited for 452 already served in jail.
Pulaski Memorial Hospital will host a community wide Health Fair on Saturday, May 14th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET at the Hospital.
The emergency staff will be demonstrating the use of the new robot for stroke victims. The pharmacy will offer a disposal program for out-of-date medicine and massages will be available for a free will donation that will go to the Pulaski Memorial Auxiliary. Prizes will include a Wii game console, a three month membership to the YMCA, gift baskets, and a bone density test.
The students at the SCILL Center recently took ASE classes for certification.
“There were 152 tests that were given over a week’s period of time, which included steering, suspension, brakes, electrical and electronic systems, engine performance, engine repair, automatic transmission systems, transaxles, manual drive line, axles and heating and air conditioning,” explained SCILL Center Instructor, Rod Dawson. “In each of the categories, we had actually 19 students that were taking each one of these tests, and they scored over a fifty percent in each of them with a pass rate. I was quite impressed with the students and it was an excellent showing for the first time around. I felt that the students needed to take all eight areas and it just validates what they actually are doing here for training.”
TED HAYES REMEMBERS 5-13 (download or listen)
You’re invited to listen to “Ted Hayes Remembers” today at 12:20 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. CT. He will talk about the Knox High School Class of 1961.
It was the biggest class to graduate to that date (110). The varsity basketball record of 19-1 still stands as the best ever. Mark Simmons taught Government and History, Jane Beeson taught Home Ec., Henry Meurer was the High School Band Director, Bob Beeson was the basketball coach and Dale Snelling was the football coach.
Linda Lock and Ron Fletcher were chosen as Mr. and Miss Knox High School. Linda was also the Homecoming Queen her senior year.
Starke County Sheriff’s Department officers responded to a one vehicle car accident Wednesday on 600 E. near 400 North in Hamlet. A red pickup truck was located in the ditch and was occupied by Don Paul, 74, of Grovertown. Paul was taken to IU Health Starke Hospital where he was pronounced dead. A medical condition is believed to have caused the accident. Assisting at the scene were the Hamlet and Knox Fire Departments.
John Brooke, who was found guilty by a jury in his actions surrounding a police shootout at Bass Lake in February 2010, will be sentenced this morning in Starke Circuit Court.
Brooke was found guilty by a jury of six of the seven counts against him on April 15th. Conspiracy to Commit Armed Robbery, Intimidation, Possession and Manufacturing of a Destructive Device, Resisting Law Enforcement, Unlawful Use of Body Armor, and Assisting a Criminal were among these counts. The jury found him not guilty of the count of Possession of a Destructive Device.
After his first plea agreement was denied by Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall on April 20th, another plea agreement was reached in the case of Kevin Eggert who has plead guilty to one count of Intimidation, a Class C Felony. Eggert has been incarcerated for 148 days since his arrest, and the victim, Misty Ross, was present to give her approval of the plea agreement.
Corey Czarnecki, of Knox, is resting in a Chicago Hospital today after a Tuesday night motorcycle accident that occurred in LaPorte County.
Czarnecki was riding his motorcycle on County Road 600 North when a dog suddenly darted in front of him. The police report stated that when Czarnecki hit the brakes, he left a 13 foot rubber skid mark and the bike traveled 120 feet before coming to rest. The owner of the dog, Dawn Scott, said she saw the dog run toward the road. When she ran to the site of the accident, she found Czarnecki laying on the side of the road.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board approved one summer school class at its meeting this week.
“We’re going to offer summer PE,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “Right now, we have 55 students signed up. It’s a three-and-a-half hour block of PE and they’re able to do so many things that you can not do during the school year because of time constraints. They’ll do activities like canoeing, biking and fishing.”
The annual Random Act of Kindness event will be held June 12th. Do you know of someone who should be recognized for a single event or continued kindness efforts? If you do, submit them to Darla Cook at the Knox Mayor’s office. The sooner she gets your nomination, the sooner she can invite your nominee to the June 12th celebration. A non-partisan committee will judge the entries.
After being released from jail on his own recognizance on April 20th, Donald Smith was given a plea and sentencing hearing Wednesday in Starke Circuit Court. His plea was not only denied, but in an unexpected turn of events, he was immediately returned to jail.
Smith is charged with Intimidation, a Class D Felony; Dealing Methamphetamine, a Class B Felony; Possession of Precursors with a Firearm, a Class C Felony; and Theft, a Class D Felony. His bond was originally set at $75,000 before he was released.
A young man who left home to follow his dreams of a career in Hollywood is dead after falling from a roof while taking photos of a model. Tom Bridegroom was a talented musician and actor who had appeared briefly in a T.V. series.
The fall was from the fourth story of the building.
Bridegroom was originally from Starke County, but had graduated from Culver Academy in 2000. After graduation from Vassar College, he headed west.
If you are of a certain age and attended Knox High School in the early 60’s you will probably be able to answer this question.
Who were the class officers of the KHS Class of 1961?
If you said Carl Lotter, Jan Johnson, Thad Pryce, Linda Lock, Bob Goode, and Ron Fletcher, you’d get an A.
Those students were just part of the graduating class of 1961, and Ted Hayes will honor this 50 year class Friday at 12:20 p.m. and at 5:30 p.m. CT during his “Ted Hayes Remembers” program.
After being closed for several years, the famous Shore Club restaurant and bar will be reopened under new management.
Jane Sheets, from Culver, is the new owner, and Ted Hayes stopped out at the Shore Club yesterday to take a tour. The carpenters and painters were working hard to get the place open by May 23rd.
“We’re really excited about banquets and opening the restaurant,” said Sheets. “We have a chef that started at Disney World and was there for eight years and he’s been on both coasts. I found him teaching culinary school at Ivy Tech. He will be our head chef in here. We have an excellent group that we pulled together to get everything ready to go.”
The Starke County Commissioners made a decision to move forward with repairs to Bridge #156 over the Robbins Ditch at 400 North and Range Road. The heavily traveled bridge was recently closed by an emergency order.
The State had approved a plan to rebuild the bridge but that would have meant two years of the structure being down.
The Culver Town Council has received several letters from residents of the town notifying them of water issues, and they plan to attach these letters to a grant application to get these problems fixed. Recently, the review committee met with three different engineers in regards to a grant to conduct a water study. Commonwealth Engineers, DLZ, and GAI Consultants were reviewed, and Commonwealth was approved as the engineer if the water study grant is received.
Schools are facing tough times with the changes in the state’s funding formula, including Eastern Pulaski Schools.
“From the funding we got in 2011, we are going to be cut the restoration grant of $618,000, a small school grant of $107,000, a primetime grant of $80,000, allowances to help with our special needs program $28,000, vocational allowance to help with that program $11,000, and we’re anticipating our Title One program to be cut about $8,000,” said Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman.
