The Knox Community School Board will meet in regular session tonight.
The board members will hold a public hearing on the proposed 2014 all-funds budget. They will also consider extracurricular resignations, extra curricular appointments, new hires, and transfers.
The board will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the school board meeting room in the administrative office inside the Knox Elementary School Palmer Wing.
It was a secret until now. How many miles did the participants log in the Moving Starke County Forward walking challenge? Organization member Nancy Dembowski gives us the answer.
“We made 27,426 miles which is around the world to San Francisco overseas to the west and all the way back to Starke County – and a little further,” said Dembowski. “We are just so proud of the people of Starke County. 269 people participated. We truly believe that this initiative has made 269 people healthier today than they were when they started and that’s what it’s all about.”
A disaster or emergency, such as a winter storm, tornado or flooding, may leave you without electricity, heat or even running water. You also could be cut off from getting local groceries and services or even immediate response from police, fire or emergency responders. Are you prepared if this happens?
IU Health is sponsoring this event where certified child passenger safety technicians will be available to check the safety belt to ensure it properly protects the child in case of a crash in addition to other safety checks.
The evaluation should take approximately 30 minutes to complete.
The Automotive Safety Program has technicians available at more than 120 year-round child safety seat fitting stations across the state.
With the recent announcement from IU Health that the healthcare provider will soon be cutting 800 jobs at several facilities throughout the state, many people are left wondering how that will affect the Kankakee Valley at a local level. Fortunately, there are no layoffs anticipated for IU Health LaPorte or IU Health Starke hospitals, but the director of marketing at IU Health Starke Hospital, Neil Mangus, told WKVI that these local hospitals are suffering from fewer patients and declining payment rates as well.
Eighty-six marijuana plants were seized Thursday after officers from the LaPorte County Metro Operations Unit and the Indiana State Police Eradication Team unearthed two growing operations.
One operation was found in the 9800 West block of County Road 300 North in Coolspring Township in LaPorte County. Seventy-three plants were seized at that location while 13 plants were seized from a location in the 3600 block of Brookside Drive in Long Beach.
A misdemeanor jury trial held this week in Starke Circuit Court ended with a not guilty verdict for Jennifer Norem, who had been accused of Battery as a Class A misdemeanor and Resisting Law Enforcement as a Class A misdemeanor. The trial took only one day with Deputy Prosecutor Autumn Ferch leading the state’s case and Martin Bedrock defending Norem.
The Pulaski County Council on Monday approved a revision to the salary ordinance regarding dispatchers for the sheriff’s department, reducing their number of hours per week while increasing their base pay. This will allow them to work 40 hours per week as opposed to 42 hours as they have been while keeping their paychecks the same.
The Starke County Planning Commission will hold a regular meeting and two public hearings on Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the county government building, located at 53 E. Mound St. in Knox. Amongst the agenda items is a public hearing to consider the approval of a proposed major subdivision to be known as “Almero,” consisting of 10 lots in North Bend Township, the petitioners and legal owners of which are Robert and Madalyn Michels.
The Culver town-wide garage sale is set for Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27 and 28. While there are no yard sale permits required to host a sale, there is a benefit to holding a garage sale during the town-wide yard sale dates as more people will be in the area checking out the sales. To have your sale listed on the map, email the information to clerk@townofculver.org or call (574) 842-3140 no later than Tuesday, Sept. 24.
Harold’s Picks (11-4)
New Prairie-40 Culver-7
Jimtown-46 Knox-0
John Glenn-31 LaVille-6
Whiting-28 South Central-14
West Central-56 North White-14
Winamac-49 South Newton-14
NJSP-14 Boone Grove-7
Nathan’s Picks (11-4)
New Prairie-42 Culver-0
Jimtown-48 Knox-14
John Glenn-35 LaVille-7
Whiting-28 South Central-13
West Central-41 North White-0
Winamac-48 South Newton-21
Boone Grove-28 NJSP-14
Tom’s Blind Picks (6-9)
Culver over New Prairie
Knox over Jimtown
LaVille over John Glenn
South Central over Whiting
North White over West Central
Winamac over South Newton
NJSP over Boone Grove
IU Health has announced they will be laying off approximately 800 employees by December in an effort to improve productivity and cut down on expenses. In a letter that was reportedly sent to IU Health team members from CEO Dan Evans, IU Health has significantly reduced labor costs with flexible scheduling and by not filling open positions, but those reductions have not been enough.
The letter explains that IU Health adopted a goal of improving productivity by 25 percent over the next five years because the company believes that “the future reimbursement environment, from all payers, will look much like Medicare does today,” and in order to manage “population health” well, the hospital system must invest in new technologies and advances in the face of worsening reimbursements.
The Starke County Commissioners last week approved the plans for the County Road 300 East project at the behest of Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler, who explained the project will make the industrial park in that area more desirable for businesses.
“The plans to widen the road from Culver Road to basically the bridge just south of State Road 8, and it is to accommodate businesses for the Starke County Industrial Park, and it will allow better access to the park. This is in conjunction with another project on 300 East that’s going to widen the intersection at State Road 8 and 300. It’s going to allow trucks better access into the park, thus making the industrial park more desirable for businesses to come in,” Ritzler explained.
The Knox City Council approved the second reading of an ordinance that creates a fund for fees collected for rental property registrations and inspections.
Mayor Rick Chambers clarified that there are no new fees with this ordinance. The city just had to create a separate fund in the budget for the fees. The fees are currently $25 for both rental property registrations and inspections. The city building administrator and the council may look at adjusting that fee at a later time.
A LaPorte woman was sentenced in U.S. District Court Thursday after pleading guilty to the felony charge of Theft of Government Funds.
43-year-old Christina Glenn and four other individuals fraudulently collected government funds in the form of unemployment insurance benefit payments from the state. Glenn and the others convicted in this investigation worked for the same company in Michigan City and received wages while they worked there. On top of that, they fraudulently applied for and received unemployment benefit payments. The total amount of restitution to be paid to the state from each defendant ranged from $15,000 to $25,000 but collectively totaled $97,523.
The Winamac Town Board held a preliminary hearing on the 2014 budget. Town Manager Jim Conner said no public comment was made during the hearing.
“The final adoption will be at our October meeting on the 14th,” stated Conner. “We tried to cut it back some for next year so that we’re not using so much cash-on-hand and tryin got get around to having a balanced budget.”
Marshall County Sheriff Tom Chamberlin informed the Marshall County Council this week that the jail kitchen will be getting two new stoves.
He explained that the old stove was severely damaged when fire retardant had sprayed in the kitchen during an overnight incident in September. A settlement was reached to replace two commercial-grade stoves in the kitchen. When installed, the kitchen will have two stoves and four ovens to help prepare meals for the almost 200 inmates in the facility.
Starke/Pulaski Habitat for Humanity is still accepting applications to build a home for a family in need, but according to Steve Morrison of Habitat, they have not yet received any qualifying applications. While that is frustrating, he said, they are still accepting applications for this great opportunity to help a family.
“We’re restricted by the guidelines of the International Habitat for Humanity as to the income levels and job responsibilities and the various credit bureau reports standings with the individuals, and we’ve just been unfortunate so far in getting someone who truly qualifies for Habitat for Humanity. But, we continue to look at people and continue to accept applications and hope that we can come up with one that we can build a house for,” said Morrison.
