Friday was a busy day for the Starke Circuit Court as Magistrate Jeanene Calabrese set several dates for many of the cases that appeared before her. In one such case, a jury status hearing for Jack Haut, a pre-trial motion and instructions date was set for July 19th at 1:00 p.m. Haut is charged with Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated Causing Death and Reckless Homicide after his pickup truck collided with the motorcycle of Tom White last July, causing White’s death. Continue reading
The North Judson Town Board will be revisiting building permit fees. The current fee schedule states that a residential permit fee will be based upon the square footage of the project. The permit fee is $.15 per square foot of the building. The fee schedule does not include a separate allowance for commercial buildings. The fee schedule will be modified to reflect that change.
Although looking weak, former WKVI Morning Personality, Tom Belcher, greeted friends and neighbors at a benefit given in his honor on Saturday at O’s Tap in downtown Knox. Belcher has faced many ups and downs in recovery following 43 straight days in an Indianapolis hospital.
While not fully recovered, Tom told all that he felt that he was on the “road to recovery.” He promised those in attendance to follow the doctor’s advise on all medical instructions, and said he would stay positive in the days ahead.
How would you like to be the brother of one of the writers of a hit TV show? Well, our own Pat Dunn is such a person. His brother, Jim Dunn, is a writer and producer of the hit SY-FY series, “Haven”, which begins its second season this Friday night.
A military veteran, and hero will be laid to rest August 13th. Ceremonies will be held for Maya, who served two tours in the middle east war on terror. Maya, a bomb sniffing dog that served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, mustered out of the military to eventually live out her life on the Don Thomas farm. She was 12 years old at the time of her death.
Maya was made a member of two military service organizations after moving to Starke County; the American Legion in Hamlet, and Knox VFW Post #748.
While not exactly Arlington Cemetery, the front lawn of the VFW Post will be Maya’s last resting place.
Here is just some of the news that made the news in the Kankakee Valley this week:
Irene Szakonyi and Kurt Snearly are not eligible to serve on the Knox Park Board because they are not members of the Board that named them to the Park Board. They are Ex-Officio members.
Ruth Matsey, President of the Coalition Against Domestic Abuse, says that she has been seeing a lot of child abuse in the form of neglect in Starke County. Matsey says that statistics show that more abuse happens where there is a lot of unemployment and Starke County does have a high rate of unemployment. Continue reading
The Community Services of Starke County Food Pantry is in need of donations.
“Our shelves are just about bare, there’s nothing on them,” said Cecilia Torres, Services Coordinator. “More and more people are turning to the Food Pantry and donations are down. We receive no government subsidies at all except for commodities and we haven’t received those in almost three months. 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 but we’ve been spending over $1,200 a month on meat alone. Right now I have a couple of packages of hot dogs and that’s it.”
Starke County Community Corrections Director, Bob Hinojosa, recently attended a summit in Indianapolis devoted to combating the high rate of offender recidivism. Also attending were Kim Kennedy and Shawn Mattraw from Community Corrections; Judge Kim Hall, Starke County Circuit Court Judge; Magistrate Jeanene Calabrese, Prosecutor Nicholas Bourff, Public Defender, Richard Ballard; Chief Probation Officer, John Thorstad; and Starke Circuit Court Probation officer, Kristi Nolcheff.
The Hamlet Water and Wastewater Operator, John Goble, has put in a request to the Hamlet Town Board to order equipment so the department can test for E. Coli. Goble currently takes water samples to LaPorte several times a month and the tests are run there. The Town pays $30 for the testing fee, plus mileage and labor. The Board will look into the request.
The North Judson Town Clerk-Treasurer, Connie Miller, is expected to meet with the Department of Local Government Finance to go over the proposed 2012 budget. Miller told WKVI that the State has allowed the Town to increase its General Fund by 2.9% which will amount to approximately $17,000. The proposed General Fund budget, with the increase, is $618,610. The entire proposed budget, including the General Fund, Local Roads and Streets, Motor Vehicle Highway, Parks, CCI and CCD will total approximately $795,630.
Jack Haut will appear in Starke Circuit Court this morning for a status hearing. Haut is charged with Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated Causing Death and Reckless Homicide.
In July 2010, it is alleged that Jack Haut was driving his pickup truck on US 35 north of Knox when he swerved into the other lane and struck Thomas White of Knox head-on. White was riding a motorcycle at the time of the accident and died at the scene.
His jury trial has been scheduled for July 20th at 9:00 a.m.
Even though almost 60,000 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War, it was always shocking when a hometown boy was lost.
“July 8th, 1969, was a sad day in Knox. Bob Hanselman, 20, son of Helen and Harley Hanselman was buried,” said Ted Hayes. “Bob Hanselman was part of the 26th Engineering Battalion serving in Vietnam. He was killed on June 17th, 1969, and his body was flown back and he was buried on this date in 1969. Although I did not know Bob Hanselman, to his friends he will always remain 20 years old.”
Violinist Adrienne Geisler visited the WKVI studios to perform part of a song that will be featured during her concert on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. CT at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Knox. Adrienne recently played in Carnegie Hall with the Albany Symphony Orchestra.
In 2009, she received her Masters in Violin Performance from the Peabody Institute of Music. Peabody is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University.
Firefighters from the Hamlet Fire Department were called to a structure fire at the corner of Davis and Main Streets in Hamlet shortly after 1:00 this morning.
It is not known at this time what caused the fire in the vacant building, but officials at the scene said no injuries were reported. An investigation is pending. The Koontz Lake and Knox-Center Township Fire Departments were called to the scene for mutual aid.
Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department arrested a Grovertown man Tuesday afternoon after officers located meth labs on his property.
A search warrant was executed at 1820 N. 1100 E. in Grovertown and the officers found several meth labs inside the residence. Officers also reportedly found precursors used to make methamphetamine.
Starke County EMS Director, Lisa Burger, informed county officials this week that the ambulances were recently re-certified by the state. In an inspection, the trucks are gone over and the paperwork is audited.
Burger told the Commissioners that in the future the state will be doing random inspections, so their number could be drawn in six months, or maybe not again for three years.
WKVI News is revisiting a story we had earlier in the week about the eligibility of two Park Board members. Because we used the phrase “not qualified”, some in our audience thought we meant the two members in question were not competent to sit on the Board. That is not correct, as the members Irene Szakonyi and Kurt Snearly are eminently qualified. Park Board President, Chris Marshall, called them very valuable, and we concur.
In a normal year Jim Wallace would have the right credentials to be Governor of the state. This isn’t a normal year, and the Republicans have an anointed candidate, Congressman Mike Pence. That, though, hasn’t stopped Wallace from campaigning hard for the Republican nomination. Wallace joined other Republicans in the Pulaski County 4-H Parade this week in Winamac.
“I grew up here in north-central Indiana,” he said. I went to Kankakee Valley High School. I was Senator Lugar’s first appointee at West Point and for nine years I was a combat pilot in the Army. I came back here the first chance I had and I’ve done a lot of stuff in local municipal politics.”
Jackie is giving it another run for a U.S. Congressional seat in 2012, but this time she’s running in a reconfigured district that favors a Republican candidate.
Walorski narrowly lost to Representative Joe Donnelly in the 2010 election, but it won’t be a rematch in 2012 as Donnelly has announced that he running for the U.S. Senate.
Arrowhead Engineering has closed its doors! That was the news story we led with back in 1977 on this date. Precision pulleys for the auto industry were manufactured at Arrowhead Engineering. Although the shutdown was initially for a two week period, the workers were not optimistic. It eventually closed its doors for good putting 100 workers out of work.
