The Starke County Relay for Life Kick-off event will be held Wednesday, January 19th at 6:00 p.m CT at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Knox. Information for this year’s Relay will be available as well as refreshments.
The North Judson-Wayne Township Fire Department presented its December 2010 monthly report to the North Judson Town Board members Monday night.
The Department had three smoke investigations, three structure fires, one vehicle fire, five medical assists and four vehicle accident assists. Four of the calls occurred within the Town limits of North Judson, eight within Wayne Township, one in Jackson Township, one in Rich Grove Township, and two mutual aid calls in San Pierre. 21,650 gallons of water was used in December.
The North Judson Police Department had issued a Silver Alert earlier Wednesday for a missing 82-year-old North Judson man. North Judson Town Marshal, Doug Vessely canceled the Alert at 7:40 a.m. CT when Robert L. Lemke was found deceased about a half mile from his home in a lightly wooded area. Robert Lemke was last known to be in the vicinity of Vine Street in North Judson at 4:00 p.m. CT Sunday, January 2nd.
The Indiana General Assembly begins its legislative session today. Some 200 plus bills have been filed for the session so far with more expected.
One bill would roll back a law that went into the books in July that requires retail alcohol sellers to card everyone, no matter how old they appear to be.
Starke County Police deputies arrested Robert Packer, 40, of Walkerton, on Monday, January 3rd, in connection with the theft of auto parts from the Grovertown Truckstop on December 31st, 2010.
Packer is being held at the Starke County Sheriff’s Department on preliminary charges of Theft, Driving While Suspended and Possession of a Syringe.
Crude Oil prices were up 17 cents Monday, settling at a multi-year high of $91.55 at the close of formal trading. This marks the first time crude has topped $90 to begin a year since 2008.
The Knox Community School Board reorganized at its meeting Monday night. The new President of the Board is Harold Welter who succeeds Gary Dulin. Mary Lynn Ritchie was retained as Vice President and Jerry Fletcher was retained as Secretary.
The Board also retained Sherry Fort as Corporation Treasurer, Linda Binkowski as Deputy Treasurer, Mark Jensen as Transportation Director/Head Mechanic, Kit Ream as Food Services Director, William F. Satterlee III as Corporation Attorney, Kirk Bennett as the Board’s Legislative Liaison, Alan Selge as the Starke County Historical Society representative and Ruth Bailey as the Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority representative.
The North Judson Town Board reorganized at its meeting on Monday night. Dan Anderson was retained as the Town Board President and Utility Superintendent, Cassandra Hines was appointed as the Town Attorney, Doug Vessely was retained as Town Marshal, and Steve Ransom was retained as the Building Inspector.
Before he passed away in 1995, beloved Knox Middle School Principal Chuck James bequeathed some of his prized possessions to those who he thought would enjoy them. One of the possessions was an MIA bracelet he had worn after the downing of Andy Howes’ helicopter in Vietnam. The bracelet has been in the Board Room at the Knox Elementary School in a display case.
The Knox High School Athletic Hall of Fame Induction night will be January 29th, 2011. The new inductees will be introduced before the start of the Knox and Washington Township boys varsity game.
NIPSCO has reported that 415 customers are without power in the Wanatah/LaCrosse area. The power reportedly went out around 10:17 a.m. CT. NIPSCO crews are investigating why the outage occurred and will restore power as quickly as possible. LaCrosse Schools will be dismissing at 1:00 p.m CT today (Tuesday, January 4th) and Wanatah schools will dismiss at 1:15 p.m.
On a 2-1 vote, President Dan Bridegroom, Vice President Kathy Norem and Secretary Jennifer Davis were reappointed to their positions on the Starke County Board of Commissioners. Jennifer Davis and Dan Bridegroom voted for the slate and Kathy Norem voted against. Bridegroom and Davis are both Democrats and Norem is a Republican.
The first Starke County baby of the year was born at the LaPorte Regional Medical Center. Amy Singleton, of Knox, gave birth to an 8 lb., 5 oz. baby girl on Saturday, January 1st at 6:26 a.m. CT. The baby’s name is Ireland Rose Furlong. The LaPorte Regional Medical Center’s OB department reported that three New Year’s babies were born that day and Amy’s was the only one from Starke County.
Bob Howard has been replaced as a member of the Starke County Health Board. Howard had served for 10 years on the Board, 8 of them as President. Although he reapplied for another term on the Board, the Starke County Commissioners named Jennifer Davis and Beverly Fraine for the two positions that were available.
In her first lengthy interview since the election, Jackie Walorski told South Bend Tribune writer, Kevin Allen, that she is keeping her options open for another run for a congressional seat. Walorski lost to Congressman Joe Donnelly in November in a race that was decided by only 2,500 votes. In the article, Walorski blamed her defeat on the fact that Libertarian candidate, Mark Vogel, got a last minute boost in a mailer sent out by the Democrat Party. The mailer called Vogel the “true” conservative candidate in the race.
Two representatives of the Fitness Forum in Plymouth approached the Starke County Commissioners about instituting a fitness-wellness program for the County’s 125 employees. Corporate Representative, Patty Choquette, and Mary Labuzienski, Clinical Program Director, pointed out that employees who work-out make better employees in the long run. They also described the weight reduction, smoking cessation and healthy living classes the employees could take advantage of.
North Judson Town Marshal, Doug Vessely, reports that in the month of December 2010, there were 134 police calls, 25 traffic stops, 3 thefts-conversion, 5 accidents, and 4 family disturbance calls. 2 Battery reports, 2 Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated reports, 2 thefts-conversion reports and 2 alcohol-drug reports were filed. 14 traffic/ordinance tickets were written, 11 traffic warnings were given, and 6 adults arrests were made.
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers would like to remind residents that it’s time to renew or purchase dog tags for the year. There is an ordinance in effect that requires all dogs within the City of Knox to have a dog tag. This ordinance will be enforced regularly as the new year progresses.
Knox City Police Chief, Clint Norem, has released the Department’s December statistics. The Department had 370 calls, 11 accident reports and 18 incident reports. There were 7 Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated reports and 1 Public Intoxication report. 12 people were arrested on 15 traffic charges, 29 people were arrested on 55 criminal charges, 5 juveniles were arrested on 6 charges, and 3 people were cited for ordinance violations.
North Judson Clerk-Treasurer, Connie Miller, informed WKVI that a water leak has been detected off Sheridan Street between Laurel and Cherry Streets. The Street Department is currently working on correcting the issue. If any residents experience discolored water, let the water run for a little while until it clears up.
