The Indiana Wing of the Indiana Civil Air Patrol will be conducting a weekend search and rescue exercise at the Starke County Airport. Approximately 130 Senior, Junior and Auxiliary cadets will bivouac from Friday night until Sunday.
Eight Civil Air Patrol aircraft will be used in the exercise, which will be a staged plane crash. Col. Mark Reeves will be in charge of the training session.
The annual Starke United Meeting and Recognition night will be tonight. New Executive Director, Julie Dessauer, talks about the evening.
“The Annual Membership Meeting will be April 7th at 5:00 p.m. at the Community Services building,” explained Starke United Executive Director, Julie Dessauer. “The keynote speaker will be Judge Marvin McLaughlin and event is sponsored by IU Health Starke Hospital.” Continue reading
Dr. Tom Turpin, an Entomology professor at Purdue University, provided the program this week at the Purdue Ag. Alumni Annual Meeting held at the Toto Cafe.
“Many of them are pests, of course,” said Dr. Turpin. “We have many disease carrying insects like mosquitoes and then we have those that feed on our crops and those who feed on our possessions like termites in our homes. The pest status of some of them makes us concerned about them but that’s a very small percentage. Less than three percent of all the species are actually problem insects.”
The Knox High School Drama Department will present Fiddler on the Roof on Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. in the High School Auditorium.
“Fiddler is an older show and it is set in 1905 in Russia in a little village of Anatevka,” said Director Terrill Hahn of the musical. “It’s got some great classic songs in it like ‘Matchmaker’, ‘If I Were a Rich Man’, ‘Tradition’, and ‘Sunrise, Sunset’. All of those songs I’m sure people are familiar with.”
Miss Hahn says this play has been a challenge for the actors and everyone involved.
Lisa Napierkowski was arrested Monday on a warrant for Trafficking with an Inmate and Dealing in a Schedule IV Controlled Substance after a routine traffic stop.
According to police, A car driven by Otis Young was stopped at 700 E. and 100 N. in Starke County on Monday and Lisa Napierkowski was apprehended as a result of the traffic stop. It is alleged that in late February, Lisa had brought Clonzapam to the Starke County Jail lobby bathroom and placed them under the trash bag. An inmate, Korey Draper, then admitted to gaining possession of the drugs which numbered 40. He told police that he put them in a pill bottle and placed them in a vent. When jailers searched the vent, the pills, credit cards and syringes were located and placed into evidence.
Starke County officials closed three bridges last week and determined that at least half of the bridges in the county need to be replaced or repaired.
The following bridges were closed:
Bridge #9 over the Jane Ditch (700 N and 500 E) in Oregon Township;
Bridge #62 over the Smith Ditch (Range Rd. and 500 S) in California Township;
Bridge #156 over the Robbins Ditch (Range Rd. between 400 and 500 N) in Davis Township.
Individuals covered under Medicaid or by private insurance will soon have a hard time finding health service in Pulaski County. Starting July 1, new federal guidelines state that the Pulaski County Health Department can no longer provide service to those covered under Medicaid if a Medicaid provider exists in the county, and individuals covered by insurance for vaccines can also no longer receive service from the Health Department. Because the Health Department is not a Medicaid provider, and a provider does indeed exist in the county, the Health Department will be unable to render services to those individuals. They are currently looking into becoming a provider, but it can be a long process.
On Monday night, the North Judson Town Board approved a special event permit submitted by the Illiana Historical Association. The members in the organization hope to participate in a World War II reenactment event on Friday, June 3rd through Sunday, June 5th, on the old railroad bed property, east of Luken Street, north of the new Firehouse. More details of the event will be available as the event draws closer.
The Knox Community School Board discussed the 2011-2012 school calendar Monday night. The calendar shows that the first day of school for Knox students would be Wednesday, August 10th with the end of the first semester as December 21st. June 1st, 2012 would be commencement. The first and second semesters would equal 90 days apiece. Superintendent, A.J. Gappa, told the Board that the schedule works with the Jesse Cooperative and the vocational programs as well.
The Hamlet Town Board met in special session to discuss the downtown sewer improvement project.
The Board learned that $80,000 will be left over from the project. The Board will contribute $10-15,000 to ensure that all streets affected in the sewer improvement project will be repaved curb to curb. Work is currently being done on Pearl Street and Davis Street. The project is expected to last through the summer.
North Judson-San Pierre High School has the honor of having both the Starke and Pulaski County Lilly Scholarship winners this year.
Andrew Frasure, Jr., a Senior at the school, has been named the Pulaski County winner, while Jessica Jachim was named the Starke County winner.
Jessica is the daughter of Michael and Sherri Jachim. Andrew Frasure, Jr. is the son of Ruby and Rabion Frasure, of rural Winamac.
Frasure is interested in majoring in Chemistry, and possibly pursuing a career in Dentistry. He has narrowed his college choices down to Valparaiso University, I.U.P.U.I. and the University of Indianapolis. His grade point average was 4.1 on a 4.0 scale in high school.
Also a member of several sports teams, Andrew has been selected to play in the Indiana East-West All Star game on April 23rd.
From our archives:
Starke United Inc. honored several volunteers on this date in 2000. Chairman Terry Kimmel announced that the fundraising campaign went $3,000 over its goal of $90,000. Kathy Norem was honored for her work as the Fund Raising Campaign Chair. Kimmel was also given a plaque honoring him for four years as chairman, and Mike Haugh was honored for helping to launch Starke United.
The Knox Instrumental Music and Dance Department and Knox Community Middle School was host to fifteen middle school bands this past Saturday for the annual Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA) Junior High, Middle School and Elementary Organizational Contests. The contest is a chance for bands, orchestras or choirs to perform in front of a panel of judges where they can receive a Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Participant rating. Knox Middle School entered their 7th grade band, conducted by Mr. David Elliott, and 8th grade band, conducted by Mr. Craige Phipps into the competition where they both were awarded Gold ratings.
Congratulations to Mark Anderson, of Knox, who is the winner of the Aarons/WKVI NCAA bracket challenge! Mark won a 42” Plasma TV from Aarons in LaPorte by picking the right teams in the NCAA men’s bracket and getting the most points to win the contest. Mark was asked his strategy for the contest:
“I’ve got to admit, it was just mostly luck,” he replied. “I have been a March madness fan for years and years and I fill out a bracket with my students every single year. I watch nearly every single game and so I’m pretty hooked on it. I’ve got to tell you that this was all luck.”
Kirby Banks, General Manager of Aarons in LaPorte, presented WKVI’s Ted Hayes with the 42” Plasma TV that will be awarded this week to the winner of the first ever Aarons/WKVI NCAA bracket challenge. The Samsung TV is worth $1,042! 256 people entered the bracket challenge. The presentation will be made the winner this week.
Thank you all for entering the contest!
Starke County finally has a drug policy for certain County workers. The Drug Test Policy was voted into the Employee Handbook yesterday on a 3-0 vote of the Commissioners.
All new employees will have to take a pre-employment drug test. Those involved in accidents with County vehicles will have to take a post-accident test.
Residents of the Pleasant View Rest Home in Pulaski County may soon be enjoying the benefits of a roof without leaks, thanks to the “Friends of Pleasant View,” an organization dedicated to supporting the home. The roof has gone into disrepair, and a number of leaks have sprung causing further damage. The county previously wanted to close it, but the Friends of Pleasant View has been doing some fundraising to, hopefully, get this problem taken care of and put the rest home back in comfortable condition.
Starke County employees will see an increase in their contribution for health insurance in 2012. The various increases for individual employees, those with spouses and those with families, will take effect January 1st.
Along with the increases, it was announced that wellness incentives will be built into the policy that will allow employees to reduce the amount of the increases.
Knox City Police Chief, Clint Norem, reports that in the month of March, the Police Department had 419 calls, handled 9 accidents and had 45 incident reports.
State lawmakers are trying to decide whether to make Indiana more attractive to industry by lowering the state’s corporate income tax rate from 8.5% to 6.5%. The proposal has already passed the Senate and is awaiting committee hearings in the House.
All agree it would make the state more appealing to companies wanting to expand or relocate to Indiana, but it would also mean $76.3 million dollars less coming into the state from corporate taxes.
