Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department Investigates Death of 19-Year-Old

Posted on Author WKVI

A death investigation is being conducted by the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department.

On Saturday evening, Pulaski County EMS and deputies were called to 518 W. Montgomery St. in Francesville for a man who was not breathing. Nineteen-year-old Devin Holbrook and 32-year-old Anthony Gentry were working on landscaping at the house and Holbrook reportedly made the comment that he wasn’t feeling well. The pair went into the house to watch television and Holbrook fell asleep in the chair. When Gentry went to wake up Holbrook, he found that Holbrook wasn’t breathing and his lips were blue. Gentry began CPR and told his mother to call 9-1-1.

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Starke County Jail Committee On The Hunt For Property

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Sheriff's Department

The Starke County Jail Committee is currently searching for property for a new jail.

Starke County Commissioner Kathy Norem told the committee that the sooner that they find property for the new jail, the better. The city of Knox will not allow the installation of a new radio tower for the jail over 100 feet, so the sooner they find property, the sooner a radio tower that fits the county at the best suitable height can be built.

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Brutal Battery Under Investigation In Pulaski County

Posted on Author WKVI

The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a brutal battery incident that occurred Saturday night.

Officers and the Pulaski County EMS were called to a residence on State Road 14 in Winamac after a woman had called requesting medical attention. She said her ex-boyfriend, James Penicaro, held her against her will for two hours. When emergency personnel arrived on scene, they found the woman severely beaten with injuries to her face and head and other minor injuries to the rest of her body.

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Starke County Commissioners Refuse to Combine Voting Precincts

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Commissioners Kathy Norem, Dan Bridegroom and Jennifer Davis

The Starke County Commissioners yesterday morning made a couple changes to the voting system, including a pay raise for poll workers. Clerk Evelyn Skronski approached the commissioners with a few requests, including a request to combine a number of precincts and raise the per-day pay rate for inspectors, judges, sheriffs, and other workers at the polls.

Skronski told the commissioners that she wanted to combine precincts Washington 1 and 2 together, and Wayne 1 and 2. Commissioner Kathy Norem said that Skronski needed the approval of the commissioners to do so, and she was “vehemently against” the idea of combining precincts. Commissioner Dan Bridegroom agreed, saying it would cause a number of problems with people trying to vote, because the increased number of voters at the same location would increase wait times, which could cause some people to turn away from the polls.

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Pulaski County Commissioners Accept Bid to Re-Wire Courthouse

Posted on Author WKVI
Pulaski County Commissioners Tracey Shorter, Kenneth Boswell, Michael Tiede

The Pulaski County Commissioners last night approved a bid to perform an electrical upgrade to the courthouse. According to Maintenance Director Morry DeMarco, one contractor backed out of the bidding process because the scope of work was too extensive for their company.

Complete Electric presented a bid of $74,910 for the upgrade, and Rogers Electric came in at $49,750. A third bidder, Kennedy Electric, quoted $18,870 for the work.

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INDOT Allocates $2.1 Million For U.S. 31

Posted on Author WKVI

The Indiana Department of Transportation has allocated a $2.1 million federal grant to build a portion of U.S. 31 in Marshall County near Plymouth to make sure the state doesn’t lose the money.

The Obama administration announced in August that states had until yesterday to specify how to spend $473 million in federal dollars that had been earmarked for highway projects between 2003 and 2006.

INDOT spokesman Matt Deitchley said that the state had always intended to use that money to rebuild a portion of U.S. 31 between South Bend and Plymouth, but not a specific part. He says the state will hear bids from contractors to begin construction on that stretch of the road next year.

Knox Clerk-Treasurer Says State Audit Came Back OK

Posted on Author WKVI
Knox City Council

Knox Clerk-Treasurer Jeff Houston told the city council last week that the city’s audit has been completed by the state, pending official approval by the state supervisor. Houston explained that the audit, overall, went well; though he was unsure as to how city court fared with the audit. He said the only exception that the state took was that the deposits were not corresponding with what the books indicated was being deposited.

Houston explained that this was because some deposits were not listed as to whether they were cash or checks, so they could not be checked back on in the records. So, Houston said he has implemented a new form in his office that will be used to reconcile all cash and checks collected with the amounts deposited.

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Starke County and Others Change Income Tax Rates

Posted on Author WKVI

A number of counties in Indiana have changed their withholding income tax rates with increases across the board. Starke, Perry, Hancock, and Carroll counties each raised their rates effective yesterday.

In Starke County, the resident rate has increased from .0106 to .0171, with the non-resident rate increased from .0081 to .0146. Perry County increased their resident rate to .0156 from .0106, and the non-resident rate from .00685 to .01185. Hancock County raised their non-resident rate from .004 to .0045, and Carroll County raised their resident rate from .015039 to .017039.

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Knox Redskin Brigade Advances to Regional ISSMA Competition

Posted on Author WKVI

The Knox Redskin Brigade will advance to the Indiana State School Music Association Regional competition on Saturday, Oct. 13, having earned a Gold rating at the District Competition held at Concord High School in Elkhart this weekend.

Craige Phipps, band director at Knox, says a Gold rating is required in order for a band to advance to the Regional level. With the Redskin Brigade’s success at District, Phipps says they will soon advance to the Lafayette Jefferson Regional competition on Saturday, Oct. 13. The competition will take place at 12:05 p.m. ET.

Knox will also be competing this Saturday at the Plymouth High School’s “Harvest Festival of Bands.”

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Alliance EMS Customer Appreciation Day a Success

Posted on Author WKVI

Alliance EMS held their first Customer Appreciation Day yesterday afternoon, and with the huge crowd that turned out for the event, it may very well be the first of many. With events available for all ages, including face painting, Bozo pail games, three-on-three basketball, horseshoes, and plenty of other activities, the event at Broken Arrow Campground raised quite a turnout.

Blood pressure checks were offered at the campground, along with glucose checks and other screenings on top of free food and drink, Alliance EMS succeeded in their efforts to raise community awareness.

The event lasted from noon to 3 p.m., and WKVI broadcasted live on location from the event. Morning host Tom Berg even took the opportunity to commandeer an ambulance!

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Pulaski Co. Sheriff’s Dept. To Upgrade Jail Technology, Website

Posted on Author WKVI
Pulaski County SHeriff'

The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department has improved its technology in the jail. Jail Commander Phil Cherry talks about the upgrade.

“We just implemented a new jail management system and it’s called JailTracker,” explained Cherry. “It provides us here in the jail with a lot more detailed information with regards to the movement of our inmates. That includes med passing, programming and head counts. We do a head count at lock-down and it gives us an actual physical count of the inmates in the jail. It’s enabled us to almost go paper-free.”

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Man Sentenced To 3 Years For Possession of Pills in Pulaski Co.

Posted on Author WKVI

A San Pierre man pleaded guilty in Pulaski Circuit Court on Friday in a plea agreement to two amended charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance, a Class D Felony, and Public Intoxication as a Class B Misdemeanor.

Craig Madsen was arrested March 1 after Pulaski County police found him to be intoxicated and in possession of prescription medication while at a Winamac boys basketball sectional tournament. He was reportedly harassing students at the time police were called to the school. When police searched him, he had 78 pills in his possession. The state originally filed a charge of Dealing a Controlled Substance, but it was amended to a possession charge.

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Speed Limit Lowered on 12th, Peach Roads in Marshall Co.

Posted on Author WKVI

The Marshall County Commissioners approved an amendment to a speed limit ordinance on 12th and Peach roads.

The speed limit has been reduced to 35 mph from 40 mph in those areas. Dave Winrotte told the commissioners that he circulated the original petition to reduce the speed limit to 35 mph for safety reasons–not to allow golf carts. He noted that although the traffic study results indicated an average speed of 37.8 mph, many drivers do exceed the speed limit and that the hills and curves on the two roads make it difficult to see oncoming traffic.

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Knox City Council Approves Redistricting Ordinance

Posted on Author WKVI
Knox City Council

Knox City Attorney David Matsey told the council last week that the redistricting of voting precincts has been completed, but he said they made very few changes. Matsey explained that state law requires all municipalities to reestablish districts two years after the most recent census, so the city is required to complete the redistricting ordinance by the end of this year.

He said there are a number of requirements in the redistricting process, including a condition that all districts must be roughly the same size. However, Matsey said because the county will not be reconfiguring precincts, the city can retain the same districts. He presented an ordinance reaffirming the city’s current districts and suggested repealing the current ordinance and adding the new ordinance, worded exactly the same, before the end of the year.

A motion was made and passed to approve the ordinance on its first reading, and the council proceeded to vote to suspend the rules and approved the ordinance on its second and third readings as well, placing the new districting ordinance into effect immediately.

Pulaski Co. Health Dept. Offers Walk-in Flu Shot Clinic This Week

Posted on Author WKVI

Walk-in flu shot clinics have been scheduled by the Pulaski County Health Department.

The clinic hours are Oct. 2–4 from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 4 p.m., and Oct. 3 from 8 a.m. to noon and 1–7 p.m. ET at the Pulaski County Health Department.

Flu vaccines will be $20 for adults and $20 for children. Insurance companies will not be billed. Parents can inquire if your child qualifies for publicly funded vaccines through the state. Call the Pulaski County Health Department at (574) 946-6080.

Meet The Candidates Night Planned for Wednesday

Posted on Author WKVI

A Meet the Candidates Night is set for Wednesday, Oct. 3 from 6–8 p.m. at the Knox Community Center.

Candidates will be allowed five minutes to speak during the event. In the U.S. Senate race, a representative for Democratic U.S. Senate–candidate Joe Donnelly–will appear along with Libertarian candidate Andrew “Andy” Horning. A representative for Brendan Mullen will appear on his behalf as he campaigns for the U.S. Representative District 2 seat. Libertarian U.S. Representative District 2 candidate Joseph Ruiz will attend.

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Residents Reminded To Keep Signs Out of Right-of-Way

Posted on Author WKVI

As the political season heats up, you are reminded that campaign signs are prohibited from federal and state highway rights-of-way. INDOT personnel are required by state law to remove unauthorized signs if they are in the right-of-way.

All signs will be taken to an INDOT sub-district office. The sub-districts in our area include stations at LaPorte, Plymouth and Winamac, and anyone wishing to reclaim a sign may do so from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday though Friday.

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Pulaski Memorial Hospital Warns Of Senior Alertline Scam

Posted on Author WKVI

Pulaski Memorial Hospital has received word about a possible scam that may affect their “emergency response system” users. Pulaski Memorial Hospital Home Health & Hospice provide this service, and they have been contacted by the company with a warning.

A scam involving a fake company is attempting to mimic Philips Lifeline and is making the rounds that affects senior citizens in our community.

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Guilty Verdict Returned For Ryan Taylor

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Courthouse

The jury came back with its verdict in the case against Ryan Taylor, a man charged with Arson after setting his mother’s car on fire with a flare in an attempt to destroy the vehicle.

The final arguments were heard yesterday morning, first from the state, then from the defense. The defense claimed Taylor was the rightful owner of the vehicle, having both possession and control of the vehicle after he said his mother gave it to him because she was moving to Florida; the state refutes that, saying his mother was still the legal owner to whom the vehicle was registered, and consequently, Taylor had no right to destroy it.

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