Indiana’s Four Star schools for the 2012-2013 school year were announced Tuesday.
Among the 331 schools named, four local schools achieved the status. Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz announced that John Glenn High School, Kingsbury Elementary School in LaPorte, Webster Elementary School in Plymouth and Tri-Township Consolidated School Corporation in LaCrosse reached Four Star School status.
If you see an additional amount on your Starke County property tax bill, you’re not seeing things.
Starke County Treasurer Kasey Clark previously told WKVI that the solid waste bills are included in this year’s tax statement. The solid waste bills had been sent out separately, but this year they will be included in the property tax statement.
The Marshall County Council approved a request from Clerk Julie Fox to hire two new employees in her office.
Fox explained that two of her deputies will be retiring, mostly due to the changes in retirement benefits.
Carolyn “Avon” Hansen has worked for 20 years with Marshall County. Fox said Hansen began in the clerk’s office and then moved to the child support division. She eventually came back to the clerk’s office and that’s where she will finish her career. Her last day will be May 30.
It’s an activity your family, friends or co-workers can enjoy and you’ll be helping a youth organization at the same time. It’s the annual Junior Achievement Bowl-a-Thon.
The Bowl-a-Thon is tonight at 6 p.m. CT at Bowlaway Lanes in Knox and teams are needed to help gather funds for Junior Achievement. Bridget Markin, a Junior Achievement representative, says this fundraiser is a worthwhile program for Starke County students.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board has started a discussion about The Crossing which is a school that helps educate students who have dropped out of school, transitioned to home school or who were expelled at one time during their educational career.
Superintendent Dan Foster stressed that the board is only in the discussion phase at this point.
IU Health is aggressively recruiting primary care physicians in order to keep up with demand in Starke County. Vice President for Strategy Brian Donnelly says there are nine currently practicing here.
“By 2017, four of those nine physicians will have reached age 72. I personally am not aware of any retirements pending. I don’t know that we’ve gotten a firm date from any of these folks. That’s not up to me to decide how long doctors practice, but at least in terms of looking at reality four of the nine physicians will be late in their careers when we get to 2017. This to us looks like a shortage,” Donnelly told the Starke County Commissioners.
A German auto components company will be setting up shop in LaPorte.
Governor Mike Pence was recently in Germany and met with the executives of Jäger Group and its subsidiary Jaeger-Unitek Sealing Solutions, Inc. will be expanding operations in LaPorte. The expansion will include 52 new jobs by 2016.
Three Rensselaer residents were killed in a semi vs. car accident Monday night on I-65 south near the 227 mile marker.
A semi driver hauling 28,000 pounds of apples from Washington was slowed in the right lane to avoid backed up traffic for a previous crash. An SUV driven by Dr. Mallik Chaganti of Rennselaer failed to slow for traffic and rear ended the semi trailer.
The Starke County Relay for Life pageant was held Sunday afternoon and over 200 in attendance. All funds raised during the event will go toward the fight against cancer.
The winners include:
Teeny Tiny Relay – Christine Fransen
Tiny Relay – Caloe Perretti
Tiny Relay Runner-up – Olivia Timm
Little Miss Relay – Autumn Redlark
Miss Relay – Zoe Seese
Charity Queen: Kendra Whitt
People’s Choice Queen: Caloe Perretti
Today is the deadline to either file your federal and state income taxes or electronically file an extension request in order to avoid hefty penalties and interest from the IRS and Indiana Department of Revenue. If you’ve waited until the last minute and won’t be able to get your return done, H&R Block senior tax advisor Michelle Bachtel says you have an option if you act quickly. “File the extension, because the extension alone is going to save you money. Even if you can’t afford to give them a penny, just file the extension,” Bachtel says. That extension will need to be filed electronically. It will give you six months to complete your return without late filing penalties, but Bachtel says any taxes you may owe still need to be paid today if possible in order to avoid failure to pay penalties and interest. Continue reading
The Starke County Building Corporation may have been able to save $29,000 had the water line extension from Henry Drive east to the new Starke County Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center been finished by its April 1 deadline.
The existing water lines to the building on State Road 8 at County Road 550 East are not wide enough to provide enough pressure should the building catch on fire. The county and city opted last fall to run new lines to the facility and contract the work out. The Knox City Council accepted a bid from Mark Milo Enterprises to do the work.
The Plymouth Aviation Board will be moving forward in obtaining a weather station.
Dave Lattimer told the Marshall County Council on Monday morning that it’s highly probable that the green light will be given for a weather station after several other improvements are made.
Lattimer explained that the runways need to be extended and widened and two taxiways from the ramp to the runways need to intersect at a “T” instead of at a 45 degree angle. The staff will also need to extend the taxiways. Insurance will also need to be adjusted. All of those improvements need to be done before the FAA will approve the Plymouth Airport for a weather station.
Early voting for the May Primary Election continues. The last day to vote absentee is Monday, May 5.
Early voting in Pulaski County is available Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m.to 11:30 a.m. and from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET until May 2. You may vote in the Pulaski County Courthouse each day with the exception of this Friday. This Friday is Good Friday and the courthouse will be closed.
This week is National Telecommunicators Week.
When you call 911, the dispatcher is the first person you speak to in an emergency. The dispatcher helps communicate emergency services to police officers, ambulance services and fire departments.
In one second, a dispatcher may be relaying license and registration information to an officer and the next second that dispatcher may be signaling fire, EMS and police to the scene of an accident or coordinating communication for a high speed pursuit.
The North Judson-San Pierre School Board will meet tonight in regular session.
The board members are expected to discuss budget reduction recommendations. More than $1 million needs to be cut from the budget and it is the goal of the board to eliminate positions instead of jobs.
During the board’s last meeting in March, Superintendent Lynn Johnson said it may take some creative scheduling in order to accomplish that goal. The corporation has until May 1 to issue reduction in force notices to affected teachers if the process goes in that direction.
The weather has dipped below the level where it was over the weekend, but meteorologists say it will be nice again this weekend which could lead to outdoor chores.
The Knox City Council members want to remind residents that there is a no burning ordinance within the city limits. According the ordinance listed on www.cityofknox.net, “no person shall start, kindle, cause, allow or maintain any form of leaf burning or wood burning of any kind, on private or public property, except as specifically authorized”.
The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson will be giving Easter Train Rides beginning on April 19th.
The excursion is a round-trip from the depot and crosses the Kankakee River and English Lake in a trip that goes over five miles. The trip also travels to a park along the tracks where passengers disembark to take part in an Easter Egg Hunt.
Starke County Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler has the blessing of the county commissioners to look into other sources of funds for road improvements.
He told them last week the county does not presently qualify for a lot of money available from the state because there’s no roadway user tax in place and said he would like to talk to the council about the costs and benefits of a wheel tax at various levels. Ritzler says counties that collect a wheel tax have some of the best roads in the state because all of the money that is collected is used to maintain and improve them.
The Marshall County Commissioners were informed by James Pheibush from the probation department that the Muncie juvenile detention center is closing and a new detention center is opening in Montgomery County.
Pheibush said Cedarbridge Treatment Centers offers more space and a segregation of younger juveniles from the older juveniles, plus there’s a gender separation. The travel time will be two-and-a-half hours from Marshall County.
U.S. 35 will be closed between County Road 800 South and County Road 900 South, about two miles south of State Road 10 in Starke County.
Indiana Department of Transportation officials say the closure begins today and will reopen in late April. Crews will be replacing a pipe across the road.
Southbound drivers will be detoured west on State Road 10, south on State Road 39, east on State Road 14, and back to U.S. 35. Northbound drivers will be detoured west on State Road 14, north on State Road 39, east on State Road 10, and back to U.S. 35.
