It’s Primary Election Day! Voters in precincts 1, 2, 3, and 4 in Center Township in Knox are encouraged to vote today and all voting will be done at the Knox Community Center. Polls will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Starke County Clerk, Evelyn Skronski, received 182 absentee ballots in her office. 123 walk-in ballots, 37 ballots by mail and 22 Travel Board were received. Of those votes 163 were Democratic ballots and 19 were Republican ballots.
The Pulaski County Commissioners met yesterday evening and were approached by taxpayer Tim Hoffa regarding the airport expansion project. Hoffa explained to the board that there is one vital benefit to be gained from expanding the runway, and that is the ability to save lives.
Hoffa is currently in the process of being evaluated for a double-lung transplant, and one of the qualifications for such a procedure is a nearby airport with a runway of at least 5000 feet. Hoffa said he was ecstatic when he heard about the proposed expansion, because it shortened his trip to the airport in the event of a donor match. Hoffa explained that he would have a limited amount of time to get to the Fulton County airport, which is the closet airport that meets these requirements. He stressed that hundreds of lives could be saved with this expansion, and that the Commissioners should approve and expand the runway because saving lives is more important than any other potential issues with the project.
Knox City Police Chief, Clint Norem, says the Department handled 396 calls in the month of April, investigated 6 accidents and filed 36 incident reports.
19 people were arrested on 24 traffic charges, 50 people were arrested on 66 criminal charges and 2 people were cited for 2 ordinance violations. There were 7 battery arrests, 10 warrant arrests and 11 drug arrests made in April.
The 2011 Environmental event at the Starke County Highway Garage was a big success. A record number of vehicles passed through during the four day event that occurred Wednesday, April 27th through Saturday, April 30th.
750 vehicles came through where residents were able to dispose of their materials. 450 of those vehicles came through on Saturday. 1,500 gallons of oil was disposed of, 6 semi trailers of tires were hauled away, and several semi loads of appliances and computers were taken from the Highway Garage. Two semi loads of hazardous waste was collected.
A breakfast to observe the annual National Day of Prayer will be held Thursday, May 5th, from 6:00-7:30 a.m. ET, at the Church of the Nazarene in Winamac. The event is sponsored by the Winamac Kiwanis Club and all are welcome to attend.
Oregon-Davis students are joining in the fight against cancer by participating in a mini Relay for Life event beginning at 7:50 a.m. on Friday, May 6th on the Oregon-Davis school campus.
Students have been collecting donations and will walk during the event as they learn about ways to stay healthy and to help prevent cancer for one class period.
Starke United recently awarded several agencies with money from donations. The Coalition Against Domestic Abuse, Community Services of Starke County, Drug and Tobacco Free of Starke County, Junior Achievement, Love INC, Starke County WIC, Starke County ABATE, Starke County CASA, The Caring Place, The Salvation Army Starke County Unit, and the Starke County Youth Club all received grant money of $3,500 or less.
Bryanne Cavender of Knox was this month’s lucky contest winner! She won a computer from NWI Technologies for correctly guessing a TV Theme while playing with WKVI’s Lenny Dessauer in the afternoon. Thank you to NWI Technologies for a fantastic prize to giveaway and thank you, Bryanne, for listening!
Listen for May’s contest, Movie Quotes, an a mini vacation package for one lucky winner! The contest will begin May 9th.
The Third Annual Turkey Tracks event was held over the weekend in Starke County. Opening night was Friday, and the hunters, guides, and well wishers gathered at the Knox VFW for a dinner, fellowship and entertainment provided by country singer, Billy Wayne.
During the ceremony that followed the dinner, Bass Pro Shops in Portage and Clarksville gave special monetary and tracker gifts to the participants. The Clarksville representative gave each of the hunters their own monogrammed turkey callers, and Eric Corey was presented with a one-of-a-kind caller in engraved box. The Turkey Tracks organization also received a $1,000 check for the program.
The annual Lincoln Day Dinner was held Saturday night at the Bass Lake Community Center. With party leaders, state, national, and local candidates in attendance, the evening was proclaimed a success for the Grand Old Party (GOP).
Following the evening festivities, WKVI interviewed three Republicans of note, State Senator Ed Charbonneau, State Treasurer Richard Murdock, and candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, Jackie Walorski.
The Knox City Council recently approved the street paving schedule for this summer.
“We do have some intersections that we’re going to take care of that are in really bad shape. We’re still able to pave up to a half of a mile of streets. We used to be able to pave one mile and now we’re down to a half of a mile with the same budget,” explained Street Superintendent, Jeff Borg.
The Pulaski County Community Development Commission has a new Director. Nathan Origer has been in the office for a little over a week and he says he’s ready to begin his duties.
“If you’ve got a business looking to expand here in the County, I’m the guy who’s going to help you look for grants, navigate the abatement process, the revolving loan fund process, and also potential companies coming into the County,” said Origer. “I’m going to be giving them all the reasons why Pulaski County is where they should bring their operation. I’m going to work with the community and county government, small project development, and work with the PACE program on workforce development.”
Origer was asked what aspects Pulaski County has to attract businesses.
“I think we’ve got a government that is looking forward to entertaining new clients and businesses. There are communities with strong infrastructure. Winamac is doing a sewer separation project right now to improve theirs. Medaryville is undertaking a new storm water project so they will have better drainage over there. We’ve got a good agriculture base so we could look into value added products. We’ve got a rail line on the west side of the county and we’ve got a rail bank on the northeast side of the county. We do have one U.S. Highway that has connections to some pretty important places and we’re close to I-65. It’s just an ideal location where you’ve got quality of life, lower cost of living, and still close enough to the big markets for a company to do what it needs to do.”
The Knox community is encouraged to give Baugh Construction a big thank you as the owner brought a crew down to Wythogan Park and erected two new dugouts on field number two, at no cost to the Park Board or the City.
Ted Hayes was there Friday afternoon to talk with the owner, Jed Baugh.
“Our kids are in baseball and my oldest boy was probably in it for seven years and somebody said they needed dugouts so we figured we would do them,” said Baugh. “The dugouts are cement block dugouts. We poured a concrete pad to set them on and we’re building benches on the inside. The roof will be trimmed out with cedar trim with a steel pole barn metal on top.”
Baugh Construction’s main focus in the past few years has been siding and exterior work, but as Jed told Ted his crew will tackle just about everything in the construction line. Jeff Sample donated the metal for the roof.
If you’d like to thank Jed and the crew you can call them at 772-6808.
As many as 120 students are expected to receive diplomas at the Ancilla College 2011 Commencement, Saturday, May 7th. College President, Dr. Ron May, says an Ancilla alum will deliver the address.
“Mary Szymusiak is an Ancilla College graduate, Class of 1995,” said Dr. May. “Her degree from us is in Liberal Studies. She went on to complete her Bachelor’s Degree. She taught Junior High and High School in North Judson. She has remained very much involved since that time with the whole Ministry Center community here at the college, along with her husband, Jim. She is now the owner and operator of Tefft Bridge and Iron in Wheatfield and we think she’s a very good example for our graduates of how you can take a degree at Ancilla and build it into something substantial.”
Free diabetes screenings will be held at IU Health Starke Hospital Tuesday from 7:00-11:00 a.m. CT.
“I, and a nurse from LaPorte Hospital, who is certified Diabetes educator, will be set up in the hospital lobby for free screenings for anybody who would like to come in and get their blood sugar tested and screened for diabetes,” said Dietitian, Deb Meznarick. “Following that, on May 10th, we’re going to start diabetic classes. Dr. Holm, who is from Holm Clinic in Plymouth, will be assisting and teaching the classes. It will be a four week series on Tuesdays from 6:00-7:00 p.m.”
To set up a time for your screening, please call IU Health Starke Hospital and speak to Deb Meznarick.
Several upgrades are in the works for the Starke County Jail. The Commissioners approved a bid this week for the tear off and installation of a new roof on the Jail and the Board members will also be reviewing bids to replace the HVAC system at the Jail during their meeting on Monday.
One recent upgrade has helped the operation of the jail and the courts. Here is Sheriff Oscar Cowen:
Voters in precincts 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Center Township have a chance to vote absentee today and tomorrow from 8:00 a.m. to Noon and from 1:00-4:00 p.m. CT in the Starke County Courthouse. The final time to vote absentee will be Monday, May 2nd, from 8:00 a.m. to Noon only. Election Day is Tuesday, May 3rd. The polls will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and voting will be conducted in the Knox Community Center.
There are two other candidates running for a seat on the Knox City Council and they are unopposed in the Knox Primary Election.
Greg Matt has served for eight-and-a-half years on the Council and he says that his focus is the economy and jobs.
“In the next four years, I hope we can continue our partnership with the Starke County Economic Development Foundation and bring in more industry and more jobs,” said Matt. “Charlie’s been a great asset to us and we’ve been quite successful. A lot of that is because he had a great opportunity to bring in the rail into our Industrial Park. I’m very pro industry because that gives us a lot of employment and that’s what we would all like to see.”
The Knox Community School Board got a lesson in technology at their recent school Board meeting and the teachers were 5th grade students.
“We just showed the Board what we’ve been doing this year in technology,” said Laura Barnes, Computer Applications Teacher at the Knox Elementary School. “We’ve started all of the grade levels on various new technologies IPads, some web tools such as Glogster and My Big Campus so we showed the Board some of those things. Glogster is a web tool which is basically a cross between a blog and a virtual poster. The kids can use them for presentations with projects, they can use them as a creative journal – there are a lot of educational tools for it.”
The Winamac Town Park is under water. Winamac Park Superintendent, Don Thompson, said the back end of the park is under water and the walking paths are also under water. The water has reached the 4-H buildings in the Town Park as well.
Thompson said the Tippecanoe River is expected to crest near 11 feet Friday afternoon and the flood stage is at 10.0. According to the National Weather Service, at 11.5 feet, houses and lots could flood in the eastern parts of Winamac near the State Road 14 bridge.
