The Bella Vita Pregnancy Resource Center’s First Annual Fundraising reception will be held tonight at 6:30 p.m. CT at the Knox Community Center. A ribbon cutting for the center was held last week, and Executive Director Suzanne Lange said tonight’s affair will be to raise funding for the operating expenses.
The 10th annual SCILL Center Auto Show is this Saturday, May 21st from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT at the facility in the Knox Industrial Park. Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. and everyone is invited to participate. Bring in that classic or modern car and show it proudly during this event. There is a $15.00 registration fee and that includes a dash plaque.
We’re coming to the close of the school year and many graduation activities are scheduled at our local schools. The Knox Community High School Senior Awards Day will be Friday, May 20th at 8:00 a.m. CT in the High School Gymnasium. All parents and students are welcome to attend. Graduation will be Friday, June 3rd at 7:00 p.m. in Weinberg Gym.
The Knox Community School Board members appointed a new Middle School Principal Monday night.
“The Board appointed Dave Miller, the current Middle School Assistant Principal, as Principal,” said Superintendent, A.J. Gappa. “His term will begin on July 1st of this current year. Dave has been with the Corporation for a little over 20 years, I believe, and he’s been in the current post of Assistant Principal at the Middle School for the last 17 years. The Board thought he’s been loyal to the District and they wanted to give him his chance at the Principal-ship. In the past, Mr. Miller has served under two or three different principals and at one point, he didn’t feel that he wanted to accept the Principal-ship because he was happy where he was. But, at this point I think he feels it was time for him and the Board agreed.”
A lot of times secretaries and government office workers wish they could get away from phone calls so they can get some work done. The phone calls have quieted down at Knox City Hall under an unusual circumstance.
“Our phone numbers were left out of the new phone book,” Mayor Rick Chambers told the Knox City Council. “That was because of the switch over to the computer system. I’ve gotten with the newspaper this week and they’re going to put an article in the paper listing all of the phone numbers. I’m going to have cards printed up with phone numbers and we will leave those at the Clerk’s office. We’ll pass them out to anybody who needs them.”
A new fee schedule for the Pulaski County Health Department was approved by the County Commissioners on Monday.
“We came to the Commissioners to ask for them to approve a new fee schedule; we are going to now start charging for childhood vaccines an administrative fee of $8 per shot. For people who are on Medicaid, they will not need to pay that at time of services, we will be filing that with Medicaid because we are soon becoming a Medicaid provider,” said Terri Hansen of the Pulaski County Health Department.
Part of the necessity of this fee comes from the Departments’ desire to change one of their part-time nurses to a full-time nurse. Due to new guidelines and programs implemented by the state, a larger portion of the nurse’s time is dedicated to these programs, which means less time to perform other duties.
Hansen hopes that the change in the fee schedule will bring more money into the fund and make it easier to convince the Council and the Commissioners to approve the full-time position. The cost for the full-time nurse would be $37,000. The county already pays $22,000, and a grant would cover the remaining amount. The only money the county would need to come up with would be the money to cover the employee’s benefits, but with the new fee schedule, Hansen feels that shouldn’t be a problem.
Starke County Health Nurse, Frank Lynch, presented a new fee schedule for the Commissioners’ final approval.
The fees to obtain copies of birth and death records have been slightly increased to a flat-fee of $10 each. Previously, the fee to obtain birth certificates was $8 for the first copy and $7 for each additional copy, while the fee for death records was $10 for the first and $9 for any additional copy.
A fine of $250 for food establishments operating without a permit has also been approved. This is a very important step in cracking down on food-related infractions, as David Kesvormas, the Starke County Contract Food Inspector, is conducting inspections and will now be able to issue these fines.
On the other end of the spectrum, fees for septic permits have been decreased significantly from $200 for a new install and $40 for repair to a flat rate of $60. This change is due to the retirement of the previous Environmentalist, David Singleton, who was certified and able to perform borings and soil samplings. Because he will no longer be doing so, contractors and home owners will need to hire a soil scientist to perform these procedures, which can get pricey.
The Indiana State Police, including the Lowell District troopers that cover Starke, Pulaski, Lake, Porter, Newton and Jasper Counties, will be joining 250 other law enforcement agencies in the state in an effort to reduce injuries and fatalities by participating in the Operation Pull Over, Blitz 67, “Click it or Ticket” campaign. Troopers are able to perform extra patrols during the Memorial Day holiday travel period thanks to federal funds.
Three defendants were recently sentenced in Starke Circuit Court.
Judge Kim Hall sentenced Michael DeWitt on charges of Bribery, a Class C Felony, Public Intoxication and Criminal Mischief. He was sentenced to serve four years in the Indiana Department of Corrections with two years suspended on the Bribery charge. DeWitt will serve six months in the Starke County Jail with three months suspended on the remaining charges. The sentences will run concurrently. In a second case, DeWitt was given six months in the DOC with none suspended for a probation violation which will be served consecutively to the first case. The first 20 months shall be served in prison and the last 10 months will be served on electronically-monitored home detention. He also serve 24 months on probation.
Knox Community High School Junior, Connor Carlson, applied for and was chosen by Kankakee Valley REMC to participate in Indiana’s Electric Cooperative Youth Tour to Washington, D.C.
The purpose of the trip is to provide young adults with the opportunity to travel to our nation’s capital. Connor will be able to experience first-hand how our government functions, learn about the complexities of today’s electric utility industry, discover the unique characteristics of cooperative business enterprise, and to meet and work with hundreds of his peers from throughout the United States.
Connor, along with other students in Indiana, will travel from Indianapolis on Friday, June 10th to Washington, D.C. with a stop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to see the battlefield. The students will visit several places in Washington, D.C., and participate in a Town Hall Meeting where they will share their thoughts and opinions on a variety of timely issues. They will then visit with representatives of Indiana’s Congressional delegation. The group will return on Thursday, June 16th.
All of Connor’s travel expenses from Indianapolis, meals, lodging and scheduled event fees will be paid for by Kankakee Valley REMC.
The staff at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum are gearing up for another busy season with train rides and visits to the Museum on Mulberry Street in North Judson.
The Nickel Plate Road steam locomotive no. 765 will be making another trip to the Museum during the Memorial Day weekend, May 28th through the 30th. Recognized as a national historic landmark, locomotive no. 765 is the largest operating steam locomotive east of the Mississippi River. It was rebuilt and is operated by the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society. The locomotive will take passengers on a 2 hour, 20 mile round-trip journey in Starke County. Passengers will have the rare opportunity to enjoy “the steam experience” in an open-air sightseeing car.
Students of Miss Sandie’s Dance Studio will present the 33rd recital this weekend at the Knox High School Auditorium. The performances will be Saturday, May 21st at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 22nd at 2:00 p.m. CT. There are 125 students in the recital and the theme this year is “Dancing Through Life”.
“It’s about life’s experiences from childhood to adulthood, the happy times and the sad times and the good and the bad times,” explained Miss Sandie. “You’ll be seeing creative musical theater numbers, dynamic jazz, really cute tiny tots, beautiful lyric and ballet, humorous novelty numbers, some tap, and ethnic dance. There will be serious moments and deep spiritual expressions.”
The Marshall County Sheriff’s Department is investigating several daytime residential burglaries in north central Marshall County. Burglaries have been reported at residences on Quince Road, 3rd Road, Lilac Road and Filbert Road.
Witnesses have told police that a few of the burglaries revealed the suspect vehicle as a white Ford Ranger and two males, approximately 20 to 30 years of age, to be the occupants of that vehicle and allegedly participating in the acts.
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.”
