Four individuals in relation to the animal fighting contest that took place in February appeared before Judge Kim Hall in the Starke Circuit Court Wednesday morning with defense attorney Douglas Shaw. Gilberto Narravo, Salvador Reyes, Juan Carlos Rodriguez, and Arnoldo Perez were present with their spouses, who agreed to act as translators from English to Spanish and vice versa. The four men are charged with counts of Attending an Animal Fighting Contest, a Class D Felony.
In the state of Indiana, 800,000 Hoosiers a month rely on food stamps, including thousands in our listening audience. Yesterday it was announced that the Hoosier Food Stamp program has earned a $1.65 million dollar bonus from the Federal Government. Indiana’s 7.13% error rate in 2009 dropped to 2.6% in 2010. The national rate is 3.8%
Even though record numbers of Americans are relying on food stamps to make it through the recession, Indiana’s accuracy rate dramatically improved. Without better accuracy, the program would have paid $311 million too much and denied $45 million.
The food stamp program is the nation’s largest assistance program.
Starke Circuit Court Magistrate, Jeanene Calabrese sentenced Christina Orange yesterday. Orange was charged with Dealing in Methamphetamine, Assisting a Criminal, Possession of Chemical Reagents or Precursors with Intent to Manufacture, Possession of Methamphetamine, Maintaining a Common Nuisance, and Dumping Controlled Substance Waste.
The West Central School Board had to reduce the teaching staff by two-and-a-half teachers and three to five instructional assistants were let go. The school lost 54% of its primetime funding, or about $40,000, that provides for the salary of the instructional assistants.
David Scarberry and Rose Martin, along with their attorney Richard Ballard, appeared in court Thursday in relation to methamphetamine charges, and requested a motion to suppress. Martin and Scarberry testified that they didn’t explicitly give officers permission to search the bedroom they rented from Amy Ahlenius.
The North Judson Mint Festival begins today! Music from Narrow House will open the Festival at 5:00 p.m. at Norwayne Field and the carnival and food booths will be opening around that time. The Mint Idol Contest will be at 6:00 p.m. at the St. Peter Lutheran School and the Father and Grandfather of the Year recipients will be announced at 7:00 p.m. in Norwayne Field.
The North Judson-Wayne Township Fire Department will be burning down the old Blue Bird Inn in North Judson in a training exercise on June 26th.
The North Judson Town Board has been after the owner to clean up the property at 523 Lane Street, which he has not done, and recently, the owner was late in paying $1,343.30 in inspection fees to the town. The bank, who now owns the property, gave permission to the fire department to burn down the property in a training exercise.
Are you a college, or high school student looking for something to do this summer? If you haven’t found a job yet, maybe you could volunteer your talents. There is an online volunteer center in Starke County that can plug you into something you might be interested in doing. All you have to do is access the site at to look at the listings in not only Starke, but three other counties too. The program is open to all ages.
Kathy Wojkovich is the Volunteer Center Director for the United Way Region, and we asked her to talk about the site.
If you ever visited the Knox VFW during celebrations of patriotism you probably saw Harvey Hammerlund. Dressed in his Navy Blues with a pipe in his mouth, Harvey Hammerlund was the epitome of what’s good about this country. Hammerlund passed away Wednesday, June 14th.
“It’s probably appropriate that Harvey died so close to Flag Day, June 14th, because Harvey honored that flag and he honored his country,” said WKVI’s Ted Hayes. “If the definition of patriotism is feeling, expressing or inspired by love of one’s country, then you could put that tag on Harvey Hammerlund. He and Joe Smrt flew to Washington, D.C. on one of the first Honor Flights. While there, they visited the World War II monument. Like a slow drum beat, the World War II veterans are leaving us, but they’ll never be forgotten. They’re wonderful people, like Harvey Hammerlund.”
For a complete obituary notice, visit the Obituary page on this website.
The North Judson Fire Department was called to a house fire at 5315 W. 500 N. in northern Pulaski County.
Residents were in the home when the storms went through Wednesday morning and it was around 9:00 a.m. when they heard a loud crack. Minutes later, the smoke alarms went off and as the residents were exiting the house, flames were already showing from the ceiling. All occupants made it out safely. When the fire department arrived, Fire Chief Joe Leszek said the home was completely engulfed and the house was a total loss. An investigator from State Fire Marshall’s office will be at the scene today to determine the cause of the fire.
Since December 2007, IT Director Bob Smith has been overseeing all computer-related projects, repairs, installations, and countless other activities in Starke County, and with about 120 county PCs to maintain, he has certainly had his hands full. And so, when Smith announced his resignation to the county commissioners, they were compelled to accept his resignation with a heavy heart. Smith’s last day as IT Director of Starke County will be July 29. Because of the vast number of responsibilities that comes with being a one-man department, Smith announced his resignation over a month in advance to not only finish out some of the current projects, but also to give the county time to find a replacement.
Now that the Monterey Elementary School is closed where will the students attend school next year? Many of the over 130 elementary school students could be going to Winamac Elementary. With that possibility, the Eastern Pulaski School Board this week discussed the possible need of transporting those students from Tippecanoe Township to Winamac.
The City of Knox has joined Hammond and LaPorte in opposing an electric rate increase proposed by NIPSCO for electric. The resolution will be sent to the State Regulatory Agency stating the reasons for the opposition.
The resolution is supporting Hammond’s lawsuit against the increase.
At this week’s Culver Community School Board meeting, Principal Julie Berndt informed the board that the Title I application for Culver Elementary and Middle School is nearly complete. Berndt had been serving as the director of the long process of changing the schools to “School-wide Title I,” as opposed to their current status of “Targeted Title I.” This change would allow every student in need of assistance to get it, without the long process and less stipulations.
Knox Middle School Principal, Steve Cronk, was going over his last analysis of ISTEP results when Anita Goodan walked into his office for his last radio interview. The reigns are being handed to Assistant Principal, Dave Miller, who has been in that position for the past 17 years.
“Dave will do a marvelous job. He does a great job of things that a lot of people haven’t really seen because he’s had the Assistant Principal job. Dave is a real lover of kids. He has a very close relationship with kids which will get closer as he moves out of that discipline role into the Principal role.”
The Knox Neighborhood Watch meeting is tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the Knox City Court Room in Knox City Hall. Greg Matt, from the Neighborhood Watch Committee, says it will be an important meeting for residents to attend.
“We’re going to have a program on gangs,” said Matt. “If you’ve noticed in the past few months around Knox, we’ve had some gang taggings on buildings downtown, in the alleys and in other neighborhoods. There are other gang signs that have been going up like sneakers over power lines. Thom Morin will be coming in and discussing gangs and the telltale signs of whether your children are getting involved. It’s something that every citizen in the City of Knox should be aware of and hopefully concerned with.”
The Knox City Council reviewed a new Park Board Ordinance at its meeting this week.
“This was brought about when we were doing our five year plan,” said Mayor Chambers. “Our five year plan was sent to OCRA for approval and they found that our original park plan was outdated by state statute. It had to be newer than what ours was so Dave [Matsey, City Attorney] has put together this ordinance and it is almost identical to the old one. There’s very little difference. It’s right out of the state statute books.”
The Winamac Town Board received an update on the proposed dog park this week.
The Pulaski County 4-H members have been trying to obtain funding for two years for a dog park that will be located on Logan and Pearl Streets in Winamac. The dog park will be available for residents to let their dogs out and enjoy the outdoors and the park will also eventually used for agility training.
The Starke County Board of Commissioners will be meeting Thursday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. to discuss funding for the class action lawsuit being brought against the County by Jack Haut, a prisoner in the Starke County Jail.
Haut has brought suit against the county alleging unconstitutional and unlawful conditions of confinement at the Starke County Jail. In his suit, Haut alleges that the conditions at the jail are consistently and dangerously overcrowded. Continue reading
