He was first Mayor of Knox in the 1950s. He was a Studebaker Dealer when the South Bend manufactured car was “cool,” and he was a clothing store owner in the building that now houses Fingerhut Bakery. I’m talking about the late Glen Kay who passed away on this date exactly 35 years ago today.
The Junior Achievement Bowl-a-Thon at Bowlaway Lanes in Knox brought in approximately $4,500 Wednesday for the organization, thanks to pledges gathered by the five-member teams bowling from Starke and Pulaski Counties.
All bowlers had a great time with some winning door prizes and other chances to win prizes during Wednesday’s fundraiser. Niki Clemons, Bridget Markin, and all involved with Junior Achievement did a great job planning the event. The WKVI Men’s and Women’s teams participated in the two game event with each team winning a game.
The S.C.P. property sold Tuesday in the tax sale conducted at the Starke County Annex. S.C.P., doing business as the Federal Group on Culver Road in Knox, had been placed on the sale for back taxes of $93,000. The company’s four parcels of land and buildings were put on the auction, with opening bids of $300.00.
Purchasing all four of the parcels was the Starke County Economic Development Foundation, with with Ben Osinski of the Foundation’s Board placing the bids. The 40 acre parcel of land went for $500 and the other three parcels went for $300 a piece.
The Starke County BZA Board will continue on with business until a someone steps up to fill a vacancy on the Board.
Roger Chaffins had to relinquish his seat on that Board when he was elected as a Township Trustee. At this week’s Starke County Council meeting, it was announced that no one had emerged to put in his or her name for a seat on the Board. The replacement must be a Democrat.
Don White, Bob Troike, Sherri Bartoli, and Denise Marks are the current members of the Board.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board approved the purchase of laptop computers from the Gifted and Talented fund for AP English students.
“The AP students have a very rigorous curriculum,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “It is the equivalent of the college level English class so we are going to provide them with laptops where they can do their research, do their word processing and check the internet. The computers are not their computers. We will have a little agreement that they’re going to use it properly and take care of it. At the end of the year, we’ll collect those and hopefully will be able to assign them to a new group of students for next year.”
Starke County residents, Phil and Megan Hamand, are in the process of adopting a child from the Ukraine.
“We actually put our application in to adopt in July of 2010 so things are going pretty quickly,” said Megan. “We just found out last week that we should be traveling to the Ukraine to meet our child at the end of August, maybe beginning of September of this year. That’s a pretty quick adoption turnaround. Ukraine as approved our home study, which is a big step, and right now we’re just getting all of our international paperwork put together so we can legally adopt the child from Ukraine and the United States.”
In anticipation of Indiana’s March 10th FAFSA deadline, Ancilla College will offer a series of free one-on-one workshops for people looking to file their 2011-2012 FAFSA applications.
Filling out the FAFSA is a vital step for college students to complete in order to be considered for financial aid. The FAFSA not only enables students to be considered for federal, state, and institutional grants, but is also necessary for those looking to take out a Stafford or Parent Plus Loan for the 2011-2012 academic year.
Nominations are being accepted for Starke County’s Senior Volunteer of the Year and Older Hoosier of the Year.
Community Services of Starke County is accepting nominations for these two honorary awards. The Board will decide the winners for each category. The honorees will be entered into the Area 1 competition. Entry forms are available at the Community Services of Starke County on Culver Road in Knox. Forms must be received by March 15th.
Property owned by S.C.P. Building Products, LLC in Knox will go on the auction block today. The property will go on a tax sale, because over $93,000 in back taxes is owed.
S.C.P. Building Products, LLC has been doing business as The Federal Group. At one time, Rockwell Windows was doing business on the property, and was employing around 180 people, according to Starke County Development Foundation Director, Charles Weaver. Currently, there are approximately 25 people working at the Knox facility.
Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall sentenced two men to the Indiana Department of Corrections late last week. Both were sentenced for Dealing in Methamphetamine convictions. David Gingerich was sentenced to 8 years with 2 suspended, and Nathaniel Furlong was sentenced to 12 years with 4 suspended.
The sentences were handed down Thursday, February 17th.
The death of Bill Lemke Friday afternoon brought back memories to many North Judson Bluejay fans. Lemke was a member of one of the greatest basketball teams ever at the school. Coached by the legendary Guy Ingwell, Lemke played with two Bluejay greats Walt Zakostelsky, and Dick Hargrave. Some others on that team were Austin Gobdell, Tex De Armond and Al May.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board accepted a generous donation for the Elementary School. Here is Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman:
“Our Star City Lions Club donated a sum of money to help with our Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “What we do, is we target second grade and with the money provided by the Star City Lions we buy three story books for each student in second grade. Kids are very, very proud to have their own book. They can put their name in it. So, at different intervals through the year, they will receive one of these three books and we thank the Star City Lions Club for helping us with that.”
The Starke County Sheriff’s Department investigated a fatal accident late Friday afternoon.
According to the accident report, Edward O’Boyle was traveling eastbound on State Road 10 when 93-year-old William Lemke pulled into the roadway from the Highland Cemetery, attempting to go westbound on State Road 10. O’Boyle told police he was unable to avoid striking Lemke’s vehicle on the driver’s side. Lemke was pronounced dead at the scene. O’Boyle sustained minor injuries. Both O’Boyle and Lemke are from North Judson.
A witness told police that she saw Lemke stopped at the stop sign at the entrance of Highland Cemetery. She said that the sun was about to set and that it was hard to see oncoming traffic.
One-third of the food handling businesses in Starke County are operating on expired permits. That fact was presented to the Starke County Health Board Monday night by Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Alexander.
That fact was discovered when going over the list of businesses to be inspected by new contract Inspector, David Kesvormas. Kesvormas told the Board that when he inspects a business that is operating on expired permits, he is notifying them and urging them to purchase the proper permit without a fine.
The Pulaski County Development Commission Board is looking for a new Director. Director Dan Dolezal submitted his resignation recently, listing April 1st as his final day on the job. In an interview with WKVI last week, Dolezal said he told the board, “April 1st and that’s no joke.”
Dolezal accepted the position as the Development Director six years ago after a long career in the health field. He told Ted Hayes last week that , “After a few weeks of retirement I found myself sitting on the front porch having an intense conversation with my three cats, and realized it might be time to go back to work.”
On a serious note, Dolezal said “job retention” in Pulaski County was his most satisfying accomplishment. Other things he has taken pride in assisting with are the Star City sewer installation and the Panhandle Pathway project. He hopes that CDC Board can get his successor in place soon so he can help in the training process.
After all he said, “Those three cats are waiting for me at home to point me in the direction of the next phase of my life.”
Eastern Pulaski School Corporation will be in session today and this week’s calendar has changed.
“We’re going to be in school on Monday, February 21st as that was a built-in snow make up day so we are using it for that,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “The 25th of February was supposed to be our professional development and reports and records day. We are moving that to Monday, February 28th. Our students will be in school all week, the 21st through the 25th, and then not in school on February 28th.”
North Judson Fire Chief, Joe Leszek submitted the Fire Department’s statistics for January to the North Judson Town Board during the Board’s recent meeting.
The Department had two smoke investigations, one search and rescue call, two medical assist calls, and one burn complaint. Four of the calls were in North Judson, one call was in Wayne Township and two calls were in Jackson Township.
It’s called the Super Bowl of dog sled racing. The Iditarod Race will be held the first Saturday in March. The race covers 1,000 miles from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska has been called “The Last Great Race on Earth”.
Monday night, Karen Land brought her dog Borage to the Henry F. Schricker Public Library in Knox. The presentation described Karen’s Iditarod racing, with Borage wandering through the crowd making friends of young and old alike.
The deadline for candidates to file in the City of Knox 2011 Starke County Municipal Primary Election was at Noon on Friday, February 18th. Here are the candidates for the spring primary:
Knox City Court Judge:
(R) Charles Hasnerl
Knox Mayor:
(D) Rick Chambers
(D) Mark C. Smith
Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall sentenced two in court Friday morning.
Judge Hall accepted a plea agreement submitted for Amber Bottorff where she plead guilty to a charge of Maintaining a Common Nuisance, a Class D Felony. As part of the agreement, a charge of Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Class B Felony was dropped. As part of her sentence, she will serve 18 months on home detention.
On December 31st, 2010, North Judson Police were requested to assist the Starke County Community Corrections team while they were conducting a home inspection. After checking on a detainee in the 5900 block of U-road, officers made a discovery of an active Methamphetamine Lab. North Judson Officer, Mat Anderson, arrested Amber Rae Bottorff, 21, of North Judson for Manufacturing of Methamphetamine and Maintaining a Common Nuisance.
