The Starke County Youth Club will be holding its annual Radiothon today from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Youth Club volunteers will be taking pledges at the WKVI studios to help support the after school program.
“We are a youth development organization serving children and families since 2001,” said Irene Szakonyi. “We’re really excited about our fourth annual Radiothon. The phone lines will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. CT for you to call in your pledge to support Starke County children.”
A bill for the purchase of a new police vehicle for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department was brought to the Commissioner’s attention this week, and to their annoyance, they discovered it was a purchase they had not approved. The Commissioners had previously passed a resolution that required they approve all purchases over $500 before they can be made, but the new vehicle, a 2011 Dodge Charger with a total price tag of $23,000, had not even been brought to the Commissioners attention before it was purchased.
The Annual National Day of Prayer Service was held yesterday morning at the Knox Community Center. Sponsored by the City of Knox, and Love Inc., over 200 people attended and heard an address by Pastor James Adcock of the Bible Baptist Church.
“The World Day of Prayer is a day of reflection of where our nation is, was and where it’s going,” said Pastor Adcock. “Everything in our nation has come as a result of prayer, from George Washington to our current President, Barack Obama. Everything happens as a result of prayer and I think this is the day we reflect on that.”
Starke County Community Corrections Director, Bob Hinojosa, has announced that he has been notified that the Starke County office has been awarded a state Community Corrections grant for $183,718. The funds will be used to staff and maintain the office from August 1st, 2011 until July 31st, 2012.
This is the fourth year the Starke County Community Corrections has received the grant.
This is Correctional Employees Week and Hinojosa wanted to bring it to the attention of the Starke County Commissioners at their recent meeting. Hinojosa pointed out that the offender population has become more aggressive in the past decade and he thinks all law enforcement personnel deserve recognition during this special week. The Commissioners agreed and complimented Hinojosa of the exemplary work done by Starke County Community Corrections.
A rainy and cool spring season has caused planting problems for farmers in Starke and Pulaski Counties.
“Those things combined have made for a very wet season which, in general, has delayed planting and we’re well behind the average planting for this time of the year. I’m specifically talking about corn planting. For example, the information that we had this past week indicated that across the state, we had planted two percent of the corn, compared to sixty-nine percent at the same time last year,” said Alan Kurtz, Ag and Natural Resources Educator at Purdue Extension.
An Anchor Writers luncheon celebration was held Thursday, May 5th at the Knox Middle School.
“About five or six years ago, we decided that as a K-12 system we needed to promote good writing,” explained Middle School Principal, Steve Cronk. “Four times year, we ask students to provide us with writing samples and then from those samples the teachers select the best ones. We then have those kids come in for the luncheon. They get a free lunch with their parents and their teachers, and they get a booklet that contains their essay as well as the other winning essays.”
I.T. Director Bob Smith appeared before the Starke County Commissioners this week. Smith notified the Commissioners that he needed to make some “tweaks” in the Video Arraignment Program and the Starke County Jail monitoring system to make them work more effectively.
“We found out there were a few glitches that was missed, so this is an additional requirement we need to meet for the law that Judge Hall informed me of,” said IT Director, Bob Smith. “We just want to make sure that we are covering everything and getting it up to par.”
Roberta Clemons was scheduled for jury trial on Wednesday in Starke Circuit Court, but instead, she plead guilty to all charges. There was no plea agreement. The potential jurors watched the defendant plead guilty and then they were free to leave the courtroom.
The Sentencing Hearing took place shortly thereafter. Judge Kim Hall sentenced Clemons to the maximum of three years on each of the three counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance, a Class D felony. The sentences will be served concurrently. She was ordered to participate in an intensive drug treatment program in the Indiana Department of Corrections. If she successfully completes the treatment program, she may petition the Court to modify her sentence.
The courthouse is now a weapon-free zone, thanks to the ordinance passed by the Starke County Commissioners at their recent meeting. A public hearing was held regarding the proposed ordinance that would restrict firearms and other weapons at courthouse facilities as well as other public meetings. There was no public comment, and the Commissioners voted to approve the ordinance.
“We’re just trying to protect our court, protect our judge, protect the people who work at the courthouse, and also us,” said Commissioner Dan Bridegroom.
With the death of Osama Bin Laden, many people are remembering back to September 11th, 2001. That was the awful day that planes attacked the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. At the time of the first attack, President George Bush was in Sarasota, Florida. He was visiting a second grade class promoting education at the Emma Booker School. He was reading “The Pet Goat” to the students.
When the news of the tragedy hit, we were all notified of the President’s whereabouts. It was then that we, here, realized that the Principal of the school was the daughter of a Koontz Lake resident.
The Knox Community School Board member discussed entering into a lease agreement with Apple computers at their recent meeting.
“That program would involve having an Apple Macbook computer for each of the students enrolled from grades six through twelve,” said Superintendent, A.J. Gappa. “We’re looking at a four year lease program that Apple promotes through different school corporations throughout the State of Indiana and also throughout the country. Apple representative, Joseph Lee, was here to help answer questions that the Board members had about the program. Many questions have been answered, but there are some other items that the Board wants to look at before they make a commitment because it is such a large commitment. We anticipate getting some of those questions answered before the next Board meeting.”
On “Ted Hayes Remembers” this week, he’ll feature an interview with the late Almo Smith.
In his days in Knox, Almo Smith worked at the Kingsbury Ordinance Plant, sold insurance, served on the Hospital Board, and was the City Court Judge. He was also one of the founding fathers of WKVI radio. Mr. Smith hired both Harold Welter and Ted Hayes to get the station “off the ground.”
A generation of kids went down the curly slide in Wythogan Park. Now, the old curly slide has gone the way of many rides that have seen “better days.”
A new slide has been erected.
“We bought a brand new swirl slide that will replace the old one that he had installed on August 2nd, 1977,” said Park Superintendent, George Byer. “This one will be a blessing for us. We wanted new playground equipment so this is going to fall right in place.”
Knox City Democrats went to the polls yesterday and re-elected Mayor Rick Chambers, Clerk-Treasurer Jeff Houston, and City Councilman Ron Parker in the contested races.
Chambers defeated challenger Mark Smith 401-288 in the mayoral race, and at party headquarters, he thanked his supporters.
“It’s been an exciting four years and I’m just humbled by the public coming out and voting and supporting me,” said Chambers. “We’re here to support the public. I’ve got to thank my family. My Mother-in-Law, my kids, everybody else that helped me, and the City workers who have made me look good for the past four years. We’ve got to thank them.”
A litany of complaints have been filed by an attorney for Starke County Jail prisoner, Jack Haut. The Class Action allegations were made on behalf of Haut and those similarly situated pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Most of the complaints have to do with alleged overcrowding. Specifically, the Haut suit claims that because of overcrowding prisoners are forced to sleep on the floor in dayrooms for months at a time.
A Knox man’s scheduled trial for today has been canceled in a surprise move by the defendant, Jose Santiago, Jr.
Santiago yesterday in Starke Circuit Court plead guilty without any plea agreement to charges relating to an indoor marijuana growing operation in February of this year.
Police Officers from Knox, Starke County and the Indiana State Police conducted a raid on the illegal operation at 207 Roosevelt Road in Knox and seized 78 marijuana plants in the raid.
Starke County Highway Superintendent, Steve Siddall, briefed the Commissioners and public Monday as to the damage done due to the levee break last week on the Robbins ditch.
“It broke out Thursday morning sometime and we were notified,” said Siddall. “The water had come across 400 North and then to the south of that on Range Road. Both roads took a pretty good beating. We’re looking at a lot of damage. $10,000 in damage is a rough estimate. I haven’t been up there because we’re trying to let things dry up. We weren’t able to open up Range Road up to 400 North on Friday by putting stone down as the road was impassable. We just barely made it across Friday to put stone down.”
A record $127,000 was raised during the Relay For Life effort at Culver Academies in April. It was the fourth Relay for Life event held at the school and because of the weather it was the first Relay held indoors.
In all, there were 100 volunteers working on the event, that was co-chaired by Kyle Blankenship who said, “We weren’t about to cancel the two day event because of a little rain.”
The Academies’ fund raising effort was bolstered April 13th by a $2,500 check from the Kelly Cares Foundation, and its founders Brian and Paqui Kelly. Paqui Kelly is a two time cancer survivor and the wife of the University of Notre Dame football coach.
The Knox Community School Board approved a change order in the Knox High School renovation project. Brian Bohlender from Barton Coe Vilamaa went through the funds for the project. Work is being done in the pool area, water piping is being replaced throughout the school and new lockers are being installed. At their meeting Monday night, the Board approved the installation of a pool deck liner and the deck liner pad at a cost of approximately $36,048.
Mayor Rick Chambers defeated challenger Mark Smith in the City of Knox Mayoral Primary Election held Tuesday. Total votes totaled were Chambers 401 to Smith’s 288. Also challenged in the primary this year was City of Knox Clerk Treasurer Jeff Houston. His opponent was Clarence Marshall. Houston received 365 votes to Marshall’s 318.
The only other contested race featured the City Council District 2 seat presently held by Ron Parker. He was challenged by Robert Shireman . Parker won the race with 305 votes to Shireman’s 290.
Other council seats which were not contested included City Council at-large Linda Berndt the top vote getter with 471 votes, Donald Kring Council District 1 403 votes, Jeff Berg City Council District 3 445 votes and Greg Matt City Council District 4 437 votes.
The only Republican to run in this years primary was Judge Charles Hasnerl who received 51 votes and was not challenged in the primary and the Democrats did not file a candidate for that office.
