The North Judson Town Board learned that the State Road 39 sewer separation project is moving along. The Board members approved the first pay request in the amount of $306,614. $15,330 of that will be retained until the completion of the project. The project is being funded by a grant.
The Board is also reviewing a newly proposed animal ordinance. It will be discussed at the next Board meeting on Monday, October 3rd.
The West Central School Board discussed enrollment and funding during their meeting last week. The count day was September 16th and the enrollment figures were sent to the state to be placed in a funding formula in order to determine the amount the state will provide in funding to the corporation.
Even though we live in a digital age, there is still a lot of paper collected in governmental offices. It stacks up, it goes into boxes, it’s stored in every nook and cranny, and then one day the officials in those offices say, “enough is enough.”
Knox and County officials recently got together at a Public Records Commission meeting. This is the first such meeting held in seven years.
At the meeting, Knox Clerk-Treasurer, Jeff Houston, was elected Chairman. Retention schedules were adopted in which old receipts, bills and other paper records could be destroyed. Some records, like minute books and ledgers, must be retained.
Ancilla College’s annual recognition dinner will be on October 6th on the campus of the school at Donaldson, Indiana.
Betty Chesak will be honored as the Sister Mary D. award winner and Charles Weaver will receive the Ancilla Award. This award is given to an individual who is a community leader who has demonstrated service and commitment to Ancilla and the community.
Hensler’s Nursery in Hamlet had its Fourth Annual Giant Pumpkin Growers Contest on Saturday.
John Barenie of Griffith, Indiana, was the contest winner with a pumpkin weighing in at 1,308 pounds. He is now the Indiana state record holder. Barenie’s pumpkin beat the previous state record of 1,273 pounds, held by Roger Howard, of Grovertown, since 2005. Don Young, of Des Moines, Iowa, came in second with a 1,159.5 pound pumpkin and Julie Young, of Des Moines, was in third place with a pumpkin weighing 924.5 pounds.
Drug and Tobacco Free Starke County recently awarded $18,000 in grants from the Drug Free Starke County Fund. Grants were awarded in three categories: Prevention, Treatment and Justice.
The recipients include North Judson-San Pierre Middle School and High School, City of Knox for National Night Out, TAR WARS “Beware of Tobacco”, Knox Middle School for two programs, Porter-Starke Services for the Prime for Life Program, and Starke County Probation for the Substance Abuse Evaluation Supplementation program. The Knox City Police Department received a thermal imager and money for drug and evidence lockup.
Click to find out the current Friday Night Mixed League standings
Four Knox residents were arrested Friday morning after officers from the Knox City Police Department and the Starke County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant at 202 W. Locust Drive in Knox.
Officers had received complaints about methamphetamine being used in the residence around small children and after an investigation, a search warrant was issued. Arrested were Ellis Clemons, 44, and Brandie Kotras, 33, who have preliminary charges of Possession of a Legend Drug and Maintaining a Common Nuisance. 25-year-old Tracie Young has preliminary charges of Possession of Marijuana and Maintaining a Common Nuisance. Steve Wilson, 40, was also arrested and he has preliminary charges of Possession of Marijuana, Maintaining a Common Nuisance and Failure to Register as a Sex Offender.
The Oregon-Davis School Board heard a presentation of a request for the purchase of some school property at its most recent meeting.
“We heard a presentation by the Township Trustee with the investigation to build and go after property for a new fire station in Hamlet and they’re looking at the property where the old school used to sit,” said Superintendent Dr. Steve Disney.
The North Judson Town Board approved a resolution to allow a trade of equipment between the North Judson-Wayne Township Fire Department and the Knox-Center Township Fire Department. The North Judson Department will get a 1980 Ford pumper truck with a 750 gallon tank and in exchange, Knox will receive an air bag system that is capable of lifting up vehicles to help in emergency situations. The Knox City Council members approved a similar resolution at their recent meeting.
Emergency personnel participated in Emergency Vehicle Operator Training (EVOC) on Sunday at the Washington Township Fire Department. The participants had classroom instruction and course training.
The training was facilitated by Tom Champion from Terre Haute who provides this training to several departments throughout the state. Continue reading
The 10th Annual Miss Kankakee Valley and Miss South Bend Scholarship Pageants were held in Knox Saturday afternoon.
The winners from the competition will now go on to the Miss Outstanding Teen and Miss Indiana Pageants in Zionsville next summer.
Announced as Miss Kankakee Valley this year was Samantha Rife, of Star City. Samantha attends Ball State University, where she is majoring in telecommunications and also is a member of the women’s track team. Samantha has also applied for another competition.
The annual Ancilla College Recognition Banquet will be held Thursday, October 6th, on the campus.
During the evening, two important awards will be conferred on a pair of important people to the college. The first award is the Sister Mary D. award given to a person who has shown outstanding leadership in promoting Ancilla College. The recipient of the award is Betty Chesak, of North Judson, who has for many years worked tirelessly to raise money for scholarships through the Alumni Association.
The recent Bella Vita pledge walk at Wythogan Park in Knox helped raise $6,385 for the new pregnancy resource center located on Heaton Street.
Rhonda Adcock, President of the organization talked to us about the day.
“We had a really good cross section of our community there,” said Adcock. “We were able to get 88 walkers and we had about 120 people in attendance with all of our helpers and our board members and everyone that was there. We had a great financial turnout and we were able to have the Mayor come and be our Marshall for the walk.”
The annual Economy Auto Sales Customer Appreciation Party was held at Wythogan Park yesterday. In one hour, over 400 hotdogs and 550 hamburgers were served.
There was fun for the kids and giveaways.
“The rain in the morning stopped long enough to have the picnic and it started sprinkling at the end,” said George Mammarella. “I don’t have a final count, but I think we had about 400 people.”
Fire Department and ambulance personnel and police officers from many departments in Starke County will be participating in Emergency Vehicle Operator Course training Sunday morning (September 25th) at the Washington Township Fire Department.
Tom Champion, from Terre Haute, is the state instructor for the class which takes firefighters, EMS personnel and police officers through a driving training course. This will give all emergency personnel certification for the rest of the year. The training will not cost the county any money; it is supplied by an insurance company.
A Knox man was arrested Thursday after an employee at Burger King observed him to be intoxicated in the Drive-thru.
According to the police report, the Knox City Police officer observed the suspect vehicle going eastbound on State Road 8. The officer stated that he saw the driver go left of center three times and initiated a traffic stop. The driver failed to stop; in fact, he sped up. The chase went north on State Road 23 where the officer clocked speeds up to 95 miles per hour. The pursuit ended at 9840 E. 50 S. at the suspect’s home. The officer got out of his vehicle and ordered Danny Traylor out of the vehicle. He told officers that he had to hurry home and get food to his wife. The officer observed Traylor to be intoxicated and asked to perform sobriety tests which he refused. He was eventually taken into custody and taken to IU Health Starke Hospital for a blood draw.
Here is just some of the news that made the news in the Kankakee Valley this week.
The Knox City Council is looking at city ordinances and zoning ordinances to make sure that all property is accounted for so the city can control building and other issues in the two mile jurisdiction.
The only department that got an increase in the 2012 Starke County budget was EMS. The County Council expects that when the EMS is upgraded to Advanced Life Service, the EMS can charge more for ambulance services. Continue reading
Harold’s Picks: (21-8)
John Glenn-42 CMA-14
Knox-14 Culver-12
NJSP-38 Kankakee Valley-7
South Central-41 Lake Station-12
West Central-21 Winamac-14
Nathan’s Picks: (19-10)
Culver-28 Knox-21
John Glenn-35 CMA-14
NJSP-40 Kakakee Valley-20
South Central-35 Lake Station-0
Winamac-21 West Central-7
Now that the “go-ahead” has been given to the Starke County Library Board to proceed with their $1,785,000 renovation project at the Henry F. Schricker Public Library in Knox, the public now wants to know what’s planned.
Acting Library Director Sheila Urwiler has that answer.
