Starke County Law Enforcement to Participate in Operation Pull Over Blitz

Posted on Author WKVI

The Starke County Sheriff’s Department, Hamlet Police Department, Knox City Police Department and the North Judson Police Department will be participating in an Operation Pull Over Blitz that begins today and goes through June 5th. Officers will be on extra patrols to conduct a campaign on seat belt safety.

This enforcement period is designed to save lives and the officers encourage all occupants in a vehicle to wear their seat belts. Anyone not wearing their seat belt when stopped by police will receive a ticket. 250 other police agencies throughout the state will be focusing on this seat belt enforcement. Officers will also be watching for drivers who follow too closely, make unsafe lane changes, drive aggressively, fail to properly restrain children in child seats, and operate a vehicle while impaired.

IU Health Starke Hospital to Help Knox Elementary PTO with Playground Project

Posted on Author WKVI
This pile of mulch is just one that IU Health Starke Hospital volunteers will be helping the PTO with today

IU Health Starke Hospital employees will be participating in the third annual Day of Community Service event today at the Knox Elementary School. The staff members will work with the Knox Elementary PTO to assist with landscape upgrades to the playground facilities at the school.

The project will begin at 7:00 a.m. today. The Hospital gave the PTO $3,000 to buy mulch and two semi loads of mulch was delivered to the school this week for the project. The PTO purchased an additional $1,000 worth of mulch to fully complete upgrading the playground facilities.

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Bella Vita Fundraising Event a Success

Posted on Author WKVI
Susanne Lange

250 interested people turned out for the Bella Vita Pregnancy Resource Center’s fundraising reception last night at the Knox Community Center. Pledge Chairman, Dr. Thomas Browne, urged all in attendance to provide the funding to help sustain this worthwhile and needed service. Following the evening, Executive Director, Susanne Lange, told WKVI’s Ted Hayes about the first two months of operation and how many are using the services.

“We’ve seen over twenty clients and have enrolled many, many girls, ages 14-34, in our Earn While You Learn program who are actually showing up consistently.”

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Kankakee Valley Sectional

Posted on Author Nathan
Emily Paulsen tied her sectional pole vault record at 9 feet 6 inches.
Rachael Franko of Winamac and Cameron Croyle of North Judson compete in the 100 meter hurdle finals.
Dagny Zupin of Winamac, Kendall Gardner and Olivia Lickwar of North Judson compete in the 1600 meter run.
Courtney Surma Placed 3rd in pole vault clearing 9 feet.

At the Kakakee Valley Sectional on Tuesday evening our area had nineteen individuals and relay teams advance to the Chesterton Regional. Winamac finished 2nd as a team, scoring 89 points, North Judson was 6th with 44, Oregon-Davis came in 9th with 24.5, West Central was 10th with 21, and Knox finished in 12th with 6.5 points.

Pulaski County Board of Aviation Commissioners to hold Public Hearing on Airport Expansion

Posted on Author WKVI

The Pulaski County Airport expansion project is still a very hot topic, as Chris Smith approached the Commissioners this week to ask about the process to close a road. The proposed expansion for the airport would require the closure of road 100 West, in addition to a large amount of land acquisition from citizens. Many residents feel that this is not only unnecessary, but that it would violate many of their rights.

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Three Starke County Residents Arrested after Police Find Methamphetamine in Home

Posted on Author WKVI
David P. Howard
Doug Beem
Myrtle Beem

Three Starke County residents were arrested Tuesday on methamphetamine related charges. Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department conducted a search warrant at Myrtle Beem’s residence at 9792 E. 150 N. in Grovertown where they allegedly found methamphetamine, precursors to manufacture methamphetamine, controlled substances, legend drugs and drug paraphernalia.

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Gas Prices Begin to Drop in Kankakee Valley

Posted on Author WKVI

The gas prices are dropping and Don Good from the Good Oil Company in Winamac gives us his analysis of the current trend.

“Part of it is that this time of year, we go into what they call the turn around on the terminals which is an environmental requirement,” explained Good. “All the refineries pull their inventory down to put the summer-grade gas in and that always creates some glitches, but it also creates some opportunities for the speculators. I think there has been some economic news that has come out that kind of spooked them a little bit. There’s actually been a drop in demand so that spooks the speculators a little bit and when they leave the market, prices are going to come down now. This is the most volatile time I’ve ever seen. In this industry, we’ve seen where one night it goes up twenty cents and the next night it comes down fifteen cents. Usually, it takes some type of disaster to create that kind of volatility, but right now it’s just mainly the speculators jumping in.”

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Knox Communty School Board Approves Apple, Inc. Lease

Posted on Author WKVI
Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa

The Knox Community School Board members approved a lease agreement with Apple, Inc. to provide a one-to-one computer program for students in grades six through twelve.

“The computers are not going to take the place of teachers as some people fear,” explained Superintendent A.J. Gappa. “They’re just a modern tool that teacher have to use so students can improve their learning throughout Middle School and High School. Under this program, the student will get a computer that will be his computer for the next four years. The plan is that the student can take it home because that just extends their learning day. After four years, we will reevaluate the lease.”

No Vote Yet on Pawn Shop Ordinance in Knox

Posted on Author WKVI
Knox City Council #2
Back Row: Mayor Rick Chambers, Ed Blue, Clerk-Treasurer Jeff Houston, Greg Matt and Attorney David Matsey. Front Row: Linda Berndt, Jeff Berg and Ron Parker

The Knox City Council members are currently in the process of gathering information on a Pawn Shop Ordinance and at their last meeting, they reviewed an ordinance prepared by City Attorney David Matsey. Because it was just an information item, there was not a vote to move it to first reading. Mr. Matsey said his ordinance was modeled after similar ordinances in Bloomington and Indianapolis.

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Hamlet Storm Water Improvement Project Nearly Complete

Posted on Author WKVI

At their meeting Tuesday night, the Hamlet Town Board members learned that the storm water improvement project is almost complete. Paving will be done this week on Starke Street, Pearl Street, and Davis Street and the project should be done. Work has been ongoing to extend storm drains along those roads to alleviate a standing water issue in the old downtown area in Hamlet. The project came in under budget and the Board was able to use the extra funds, plus $15,000, to pave the roads after the drainage equipment was installed.

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Starke County Named in Disaster Declaration

Posted on Author WKVI
Flooding occurred after a levee break on the Robbins Ditch. Photo by Becky Pulver.

Governor Mitch Daniels has issued a disaster emergency for 34 counties due to severe weather that caused widespread damage to homes, businesses and public property beginning April 18th.

Affected counties experienced flooding, damaged roads, downed power lines and other severe damage. The Executive Order includes Starke County, which is the only county in the northern part of the state to be included. Starke County EMA Director, Ted Bombagetti, told WKVI that the levee break on the Robbins Ditch was included in the claim along with a levee break by the Kankakee Fish and Wildlife area outside of North Judson.

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Bella Vita Fundraising Event Tonight at Knox Community Center

Posted on Author WKVI
A ribbon cutting ceremony was recently held at the newly opened Bella Vita

The Bella Vita Pregnancy Resource Center’s First Annual Fundraising reception will be held tonight at 6:30 p.m. CT at the Knox Community Center. A ribbon cutting for the center was held last week, and Executive Director Suzanne Lange said tonight’s affair will be to raise funding for the operating expenses.

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SCILL Center Auto Show this Saturday

Posted on Author WKVI
SCILL Center

The 10th annual SCILL Center Auto Show is this Saturday, May 21st from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT at the facility in the Knox Industrial Park. Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. and everyone is invited to participate. Bring in that classic or modern car and show it proudly during this event. There is a $15.00 registration fee and that includes a dash plaque.

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Knox Community School Board Appoints New Middle School Principal

Posted on Author WKVI

The Knox Community School Board members appointed a new Middle School Principal Monday night.

“The Board appointed Dave Miller, the current Middle School Assistant Principal, as Principal,” said Superintendent, A.J. Gappa. “His term will begin on July 1st of this current year. Dave has been with the Corporation for a little over 20 years, I believe, and he’s been in the current post of Assistant Principal at the Middle School for the last 17 years. The Board thought he’s been loyal to the District and they wanted to give him his chance at the Principal-ship. In the past, Mr. Miller has served under two or three different principals and at one point, he didn’t feel that he wanted to accept the Principal-ship because he was happy where he was. But, at this point I think he feels it was time for him and the Board agreed.”

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Knox City Hall Phone Numbers Left out of New Phone Book

Posted on Author WKVI

A lot of times secretaries and government office workers wish they could get away from phone calls so they can get some work done. The phone calls have quieted down at Knox City Hall under an unusual circumstance.

“Our phone numbers were left out of the new phone book,” Mayor Rick Chambers told the Knox City Council. “That was because of the switch over to the computer system. I’ve gotten with the newspaper this week and they’re going to put an article in the paper listing all of the phone numbers. I’m going to have cards printed up with phone numbers and we will leave those at the Clerk’s office. We’ll pass them out to anybody who needs them.”

Pulaski County Commissioners Approve New Health Department Fee Schedule

Posted on Author WKVI
Pulaski County Commissioners Tracey Shorter, Kenneth Boswell, Michael Tiede

A new fee schedule for the Pulaski County Health Department was approved by the County Commissioners on Monday.

“We came to the Commissioners to ask for them to approve a new fee schedule; we are going to now start charging for childhood vaccines an administrative fee of $8 per shot. For people who are on Medicaid, they will not need to pay that at time of services, we will be filing that with Medicaid because we are soon becoming a Medicaid provider,” said Terri Hansen of the Pulaski County Health Department.

Part of the necessity of this fee comes from the Departments’ desire to change one of their part-time nurses to a full-time nurse. Due to new guidelines and programs implemented by the state, a larger portion of the nurse’s time is dedicated to these programs, which means less time to perform other duties.

Hansen hopes that the change in the fee schedule will bring more money into the fund and make it easier to convince the Council and the Commissioners to approve the full-time position. The cost for the full-time nurse would be $37,000. The county already pays $22,000, and a grant would cover the remaining amount. The only money the county would need to come up with would be the money to cover the employee’s benefits, but with the new fee schedule, Hansen feels that shouldn’t be a problem.

Starke County Health Board Introduces New Fee Schedule

Posted on Author WKVI
Frank Lynch

Starke County Health Nurse, Frank Lynch, presented a new fee schedule for the Commissioners’ final approval.

The fees to obtain copies of birth and death records have been slightly increased to a flat-fee of $10 each. Previously, the fee to obtain birth certificates was $8 for the first copy and $7 for each additional copy, while the fee for death records was $10 for the first and $9 for any additional copy.

A fine of $250 for food establishments operating without a permit has also been approved. This is a very important step in cracking down on food-related infractions, as David Kesvormas, the Starke County Contract Food Inspector, is conducting inspections and will now be able to issue these fines.

On the other end of the spectrum, fees for septic permits have been decreased significantly from $200 for a new install and $40 for repair to a flat rate of $60. This change is due to the retirement of the previous Environmentalist, David Singleton, who was certified and able to perform borings and soil samplings. Because he will no longer be doing so, contractors and home owners will need to hire a soil scientist to perform these procedures, which can get pricey.