Practices for the annual Christmas Cantata will begin on Sunday, September 18th at 2:00 p.m. at the Knox United Methodist Church. This will be the 14th annual Community Choir production.
You are invited to be a part of this year’s Cantata. Members range in age from teens to seniors. Practice will be held on Sundays. Two performances of the Cantata will be held on December 11th. Call Jim Oliverius at 772-3609 with any questions you may have about the Cantata.
Starke County officials held an open meeting yesterday afternoon, after they had met in executive session, to discuss the findings of the State Board of Accounts 2010 audit of the Treasurer’s office. Council President Mark Smith was designated to be the spokesperson. Mr. Smith explained that the 2010 audit has accounted for all of the $890,956 shortage except for $21,906. dollars.
Even though the 2010 audit discrepancy was reduced to $21,906. as an unexplained variance Smith said the 2009 audit still finds a discrepancy of over $523,000 in the 2009 audit and that amount is still unresolved.
The 2010 audit that showed that the auditor found book-keeping errors that explained the $869,050 discrepancy councilwoman Judy Benninghoff said the errors shouldn’t have been laid at the feet of Treasurer Linda Belork, but should have been the fault of auditor Kay Chaffins. She stated that the problem was that the Auditors Office was carrying an inflated cash balance and that was the Auditors problem not the Treasurers.
County attorney Martin Lucus defended Chaffins and said that what was relevant was the fact that the State Board of Accounts found issues with the Treasurer’s Office not the Auditor’s Office
In the end Smith and Commissioners Dan Bridegroom and Kathy Norem instructed auditor Chaffins to see if she could find the 2009 errors, before a professional forensic accounting firm had to be brought in to do the job.
Here is a look at some of the news that made the news in the Kankakee Valley this week:
The group working on the Starke County Jail are now compiling data so they can better decide on what facility would be right for the needs of the county.
The Starke United kick-off event is set for September 21st at 8:00 a.m. at the Knox Community Center. This year’s goal is $50,000. Continue reading
Charlie Vorm, President and CEO of American Oak Preserving Co, Inc., with International Headquarters in North Judson, Indiana and the Starke County Economic Development Foundation (SCEDF) announced today the beginning of construction on a new 6,000 square foot structure by American Oak. The new building will be a refrigerated structure that will be used for the short-term storage and sale of Christmas trees and wreaths coming from a supplier in North Carolina from approximately November 15 through December 15. The products will be available online from such retailers as Sam’s Club, 1-800-Flowers and Home Depot, with orders transmitted to American Oak for shipment directly to customers. The building will have three loading docks. It is expected that during this 30-day period, several shipments per day will be both received and sent. While no new production employees are expected to be hired, the current production employees will work an additional month to 45 days. During any period the building is not in use for this purpose, it will serve as a warehouse for other American Oak products.
The Starke County Commissioners are getting together in Executive Session this afternoon to analyze the 2010 Treasurer’s audit released this week by the State Board of Accounts.
Although the report pointed out that there were hundreds of thousands of book-keeping discrepancies, all but $21,906 has been found. When granted access to the county’s bank account statements and depository records, County Auditor, Kay Chaffins, was able to investigate the material.
The Star City Fire Department and the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office are investigating a house fire that occurred at Nathan VanDerAa’s home in Star City on Sunday.
The Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office told WKVI that the fire is considered incendiary, meaning that it was created by someone. The home and VanDerAa’s vehicle were both set on fire. VanDerAa was reportedly not at home at the time of the incident. If you have any information about this arson, call the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department at (574) 946-6655. A reward of $5,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of any suspect(s) responsible for this incident. Continue reading
Starke County Community Corrections Director, Robert Hinojosa, presented his annual calendar year report to the Starke County Commissioners this week.
Hinojosa talked about the three components of Community Corrections. Those are Home Detention, Community Service, and the Community Transition Program. He talked about the Community Transition Program.
“The offenders who have been sentenced to the Department of Corrections from Starke County all get released back with little or no services available to them so what we’ve chosen to do is provide services in the last 30 to 60 days of their sentence to transition them back,” explained Hinojosa. “We know that if they are unable to access services, they will fail, they will get rearrested, they’ll go back to the Department of Corrections and it’ll be a never ending cycle.”
A bridge inventory was presented to the Pulaski County Commissioners this week. According to the inventory, there are currently 74 bridges in Pulaski County. One bridge is fracture critical, meaning that is needs to be looked at to determine its need of repair immediately, and six underwater inspections will be due in 2014. On the plus side, the majority of bridges in Pulaski County are considered to be in great condition, with most issues on the minor side.
Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department were called to a single vehicle rollover Wednesday afternoon on U.S. 35 just north of 300 North.
The driver, Douglas Kline, 67, of Granger, Indiana, told police that he was traveling north on U.S. 35 and he must have dozed off. The vehicle left the roadway and flipped in a ditch on the west side of the road. Kline suffered minor injuries in the accident. He was transported to IU Health Starke Hospital for treatment.
Prosecutors have asked Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak, Jr. to revoke the bond for 38-year-old Johnny R. Mathis Jr., of LaCrosse, who has been charged with defrauding a local casino by not paying a $1.3 million gambling line of credit.
Mathis, who is charged with theft and fraud, both Class C felonies punishable by a sentence of two to eight years, and deception, a misdemeanor, has been free on $2,000 cash bond posted in July 2007. When he posted bond, Mathis signed a document that he may not leave the state without permission of the court. After missing a court hearing in March 2010, the judge allowed travel for business purposes.
The North Judson Town Board took a good look at what the paving schedule would be in the near future and the members decided that chip and seal work may work more in their favor than the cost of paving.
In other news:
Officers from the North Judson-Wayne Township Fire Department are looking at quotes for a new rescue truck and Town Marshal, Doug Vessely, told the Board that he is gathering quotes for five new police vests.
The Knox Community School Board created a new technical position and filled it at their meeting this week. Superintendent A.J. Gappa gives us the details on the new position.
“This year, we had a teacher retire from the Middle School in the Industrial Tech area and rather than fill that position, the Administration felt that with the One-to-One Computer Program which we have undertaken, we would best be served by a teacher/coach that could go in and help teachers with the computers and the programs and different objects that they could use in their classroom,” he said.
Harold’s Picks (9-6):
NJSP-48 Boone Grove-0
Culver-27 New Prairie-7
Jimtown-55 Knox-0
John Glenn-58 LaVille-7
South Central-34 Whiting-21
West Central-48 North White-14
Winamac-32 South Newton-14
Nathan’s Picks (11-4)
NJSP-35 Boone Grove-14
Culver-28 New Prairie-7
Jimtown-55 Knox-0
John Glenn-60 LaVille-0
South Central-28 Whiting-14
West Central-42 North White-14
South Newton-21 Winamac-14
Week 3
Harold’s Picks (4-5):
John Glenn-48 Knox-6 (Actual score: John Glenn-53 Knox-8)
Winamac-28 North White-6 (Actual score: Winamac-49 North White-18)
West Central-28 Tri-County-7 (Actual score: West Central-60 Tri-County-7)
Culver-34 Triton-12 (Actual score: Culver-33 Triton-3)
South Central-28 Hammond Noll-14 (Actual score: South Central-33 Hammond Noll-7
Rensselaer-21 NJSP-7 (Actual score: NJSP-26 Rensselaer-14)
Nathan’s Picks (7-2):
John Glenn-28 Knox-0 (Actual score: John Glenn-53 Knox-8)
Winamac-21 North White-7 (Actual score: Winamac-49 North White-18)
Tri-County-21 West Central-20 (Actual score: West Central-60 Tri-County-7)
Culver-35 Triton-7 (Actual score: Culver-33 Triton-3)
Hammond Noll-35 South Central 28 (OT) (Actual score: South Central-33 Hammond Noll-7)
NJSP-28 Rensselaer-21 (Actual score: NJSP-26 Rensselaer-14)
Week 2
Harold’s Picks (1-3):
West Central-35 Caston-21 (Actual score: West Central-38 Caston-8)
South Central-21 Culver-14 (Actual score: Culver-29 South Central-12)
Pioneer-35 Winamac-7 (Actual score: Pioneer-48 Winamac-21)
Jimtown-27 John Glenn-20 (Actual score: Jimtown-14 John Glenn-13)
Knox-20 NJSP-14 (Actual score: NJSP-19 Knox-0)
Nathan’s Picks (4-0):
Caston-21 West Central-20 (Actual score: West Central-38 Caston-8)
Culver-35 South Central-21 (Actual score: Culver-29 South Central-12)
Pioneer-42 Winamac-7 (Actual score: Pioneer-48 Winamac-21)
John Glenn-17 Jimtown-7 (Actual score: Jimtown-14 John Glenn-13)
NJSP-14 Knox-6 (Actual score: NJSP-19 Knox-0)
A meeting was held yesterday with county officials to discuss the funding of the Hamlet West Infrastructure project. Starke County Economic Development Foundation Director, Charles Weaver, has a synopsis of the meeting.
“The meeting came about because we’ve finalized the grant reimbursement with the Economic Development Administration (EDA) which we turned a little more than $128,000 this last last draw for the project. With the completion of the EDA part of the project, we can now go back and do the final billings to the State of Indiana under the Industrial Development Grant Fund, as well as to TIF bonds managed by SYSCO. This will allow the county to be reimbursed, in whole, for the project.”
The Starke County Commissioners are considering moving the drug testing of some government employees, including the highway department, to Midwest Toxicology. At this week’s Commissioners meeting, Highway Superintendent, Steve Siddall, said when he sends an employee to IU Health Starke Hospital, it could take hours for them to have the drug test administered. In case the Emergency Room is busy, they must wait. Siddall said that he fully understood that the ER room takes precedent, but that with Midwest Toxicology there would be no waiting period.
A major upgrade to the software used in the Pulaski County Recorder’s office is underway. The county commissioners approved a request from Recorder Lynn Wilder, who highly recommended an upgrade to software provided by Computer Systems, Inc. CEO/President Kevin Cook and Account Manager John Wood were also present to speak about the software.
With a cost of $45,452, the new software will be a vast improvement over the old software, which hasn’t been updated since 2003. The new software will be funded 100% out of the perpetuation fund, which is a fund which is primarily used for the preservation of documents through electronic means. After a storm caused a large server crash in her office, Wilder decided it was time to upgrade. She received three quotes for software: one from Manatron, which was too expensive and offered an inferior product; one from Fidlar, which was top-notch but extremely expensive; and one from Computer Systems, Inc., who offered the perfect price and excellent software.
The North Judson Town Board approved a change order with the State Road 39 project during their meeting this week. The project originally came under bid by approximately $108,000 and with this leftover grant money, the Board approved sewer separation work to be done on two additional blocks at a cost of $75,969. That leaves $33,000 left in available grant funds for change orders. Nies Engineering is currently working on sewer separation project.
9-11 services are planned throughout the listening area this Sunday.
At Knox, WKVI is sponsoring a Commemoration Ceremony at the Knox High School Football Field from 4:00-5:00 p.m. CT. Among those participating are WKVI personalities Tom Berg, Harold Welter, Ed Hasnerl, and Ted Hayes. Starke County EMS Director, Paul Mathewson, will also speak and vocalist Mae Crider will present special music.
The Community Services of Starke County Food Pantry shelves are again bare. Cecilia Torres told Ted Hayes yesterday that 279 families were helped with meat and groceries in August. That number reached an all-time high.
“More and more people are turning to the Food Pantry and donations are down,” said Torres. “We get our food from churches, organizations and individuals who open up their pocketbooks and their hearts to us. We’ve gotten a few dollar donations.”
