The North Judson Town Board members received information on implementing a 50/50 sidewalk program at their meeting on April 4th. The Board has not made a decision on whether or not to move forward with the project. The attorney will look over the proposal and other information and bring it back for discussion at the May 2nd meeting.
The Senior Volunteer of the Year and the Older Hoosier of the Year award winners were announced Thursday during a luncheon at the Bass Lake Fire Department.
“Today, we are honoring all of our volunteers for the past two years, for 2009 and 2010,” said Community Services of Starke County Director, Joan Haugh. “This is just our opportunity to give them a little credit for all of the many hours of service they’ve put in or the donations they’ve given to support our programs and the food pantry. We’re very grateful for them and if anyone out there would like to volunteer, please call me.”
We continue with our introduction of the primary candidates to you today. Clarence Marshall is a Democrat candidate for Clerk-Treasurer for the City of Knox. He’s a lifetime resident of Starke County, primarily living in Knox.
We asked him to talk about his background.
“I worked at the Rudd-Shepherd dealership for 36 years and most of those years I was the Service Department Manager,” explained Marshall. “I did leave for a couple of years. I worked at Automatic Music for a few years and also Ed’s Auto Parts.”
April is National Car Care Month. SCILL Center instructor, Mark Anderson, says that it may be a good time to check your exhaust system.
“Cars have an exhaust system underneath that is made out of aluminized metal which reacts with the salt that they put on the roads in the wintertime,” said Anderson. “At this time of the year, we see a lot of exhaust systems and mufflers laying along the side of the road, so this is a good time of the year to check your exhaust system. Just go behind the car and give your tailpipe a little bitty kick and see if anything rattles. If it does, you should take it in and get it fixed.”
A Community Good Friday Worship Service is scheduled this evening by the Starke County Ministerial Alliance. The program begins at 7 p.m. at the Knox First Christian Church, 301 South Pearl Street.
Several area pastors are participating in the service. Ed Hasnerl, pastor at the Eagle Creek Community Church will bring a short message. Special music will be provided by Sally Povalitis, Marilyn McCarty, Nancy Lerch, Diane Riddle, Doris Michael and Jeanell Quillen.
Nearly 150 Knox Elementary School third grade students visited the Starke County Museum this week to learn more of the history and the people of the area in which they live. In the annual trek to the museum at 401 South Main Street in Knox, the home of former Governor Henry F. Schricker, seven classes each spent an hour with volunteer guides and watching local history videos. Continue reading
More than 200 Knox Community Elementary School students’ original poems could be published this fall in the 2011 Young American Poetry Digest, a program of the National Schools project.
Charles Ratliff, writing teacher at the school, says nearly 800 poems were submitted to be considered for the anthology, which is a collection of writing in book form. He says the work of 50 fifth graders, 79 fourth graders,
and 70 third graders were accepted.
Starke County Sheriff’s Department officers arrested four on methamphetamine charges at a Knox residence Wednesday afternoon. Continue reading
The Knox City Police Department investigated a two vehicle accident that occurred shortly before 1:00 p.m. today at the intersection of Culver Road and US 35 in Knox.
According to City Police Officer, Chad Dulin, Sharon Button, of Winamac, was traveling southbound on US 35 when she reportedly disregarded the stoplight at the intersection and struck a vehicle driven by Dalerie Ford of Knox. Ford was traveling westbound through the intersection when the accident occurred.
Representatives of Indiana University Health Starke Hospital will meet next week with members of the Starke County Board of Commissioners and the County Council to discuss the future and continued use of the facilities leased from the County. The current lease expires in 2016.
“We are committed to be here, we want to stay here, but we also know that improvements are going to have to be made along the way, particularly in relationship to the building” stated hospital CEO Linda Satkoski. Continue reading
The six individuals arrested at the Holloway Motel on various methamphetamine charges were given their initial hearings this afternoon. Matthew Schoff, Timothy Clark, Cheryl Paschen, and Kimberly Hurley were charged with Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Class B Felony, along with other charges. The others, Tracey Gaideski and the Holloway Motel manager Freeman Spelts, were charged with Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of a Controlled Substance, as well as other charges. Gaideski was also charged with one count of Taking a Minor to a Nuisance after her 8-year-old child was taken into protective custody following the arrests. Schoff, Paschen, and Hurley were additionally charged with Possession of a Syringe.
A plea and sentencing hearing for Kevin Eggert was held Wednesday morning. Eggert is accused of threatening to kill Misty Ross while pointing a 12-gauge shotgun at her, and faces one count of Intimidation, a Class C Felony, and one count of Pointing a Firearm, a Class D Felony.
EMS Director Larry Brock presented his report to the Pulaski County Commissioners on Monday. Brock is seeking grants for repairing two ambulances and purchasing a generator for their Winamac station.
“We are seeking a ambulance grant to replace two of our ambulances , rechassis them, and a second grant for a generator for the Winamac station,” said Brock. “We have some rust damage due to a light that’s rusting in, of course because it’s on top of the ambulance it may fall through and we need to take care of that issue right away.”
The March unemployment rate in Indiana and in all those Counties in the Kankakee Valley area dropped from February, according to the latest figures from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. Starke County dropped a full percentage point to 11.2%. That’s still a ranking of 10th highest of the state’s 92 counties.
The North Judson-San Pierre School Corporation has received new paperwork concerning the budget.
“We’re still kind of looking through that information. The proposal is for a large cut, but it’s not as bad as we thought,” said Superintendent Lynn Johnson. “We’re still waiting for specifics with the Full-Day Kindergarten funding and hopefully that will help out the budget too. The cuts weren’t quite as deep as we thought. They’re still considerable, but we’re working hard at managing those. The original proposal was $1.2 million. I’m really not quite sure how it’s going, we’re just starting to work on that. It’s less than a million, but still a significant cut.”
At the request of the highway department, the Starke County Council approved the spending of $135,000 for bridge inspections throughout the county. In total, 67 bridges are to be inspected, with the expense coming out of the county’s cumulative bridge fund, which can only be spent on bridges.
The bridge inspections are a necessary expense, especially when given the current state of the bridges in Starke County. Three bridges were recently closed, and three others are in danger of being reduced to one-lane to allow for repairs.
Speculators and the unrest in the Middle East continue to drive gas prices in the United States. We talked to Don Good from the Good Oil Company about the current gas price situation.
“You’d think we’d be losing some steam on this,” said Good. “It’s pretty much speculation that is driving prices. The good news is unemployment is down and the bad news is, the economy is going to heat up, petroleum is going to go up, use is going to go up so that’ll probably keep it from going down too much. As long as the Middle East is in turmoil, there’s more support there. I’m going to guess that we should see it leveling off very soon, but to be honest with you, I never thought we’d get to four dollars either.”
We’re less than two weeks away from the 2011 Primary Election, and we’re talking to the candidates running for office in the City of Knox Election.
Knox Clerk-Treasurer Jeff Houston is in his 5th year in the position. We asked Houston what he enjoys about the job.
“I enjoy working with people, and I enjoy planning for the future with the City,” said Houston. “Right now we’re working on a number of different projects including the new J.W. Hicks project. We’re working with different grants – we’re working in the park right now with a five year grant. I like interacting with the different people in the City and with utility customers. All in all, I enjoy the job altogether.”
National hiring day for McDonald’s was held yesterday. It was the intent of the business to hire 50,000 employees nationwide during the one day event.
Billy Boldt, Manager at the McDonald’s restaurant in Knox said that they received 70 applications. 47 applications were received the day of the event. while others were received online prior to the event. 11 people were hired and three others are pending. 56 interviews were conducted and part-time crew member positions were filled.
