Graduation Services Scheduled for June 3rd for Three Starke County Schools

Top Ten (L to R) Darienne Griffith, Hayley Windbigler, Katelyn Peters, Kaitlyn Betz, Tiffany Friedlund, Tabitha Tepes, Elisabeth Caudill, Brittany Shannon, Carole Surfus and Heather Rogers

The Knox Community High School Seniors will graduate on Friday, June 3rd, at 7:00 p.m. CT in the Weinberg Gymnasium. The Valedictorian for this graduating class is Darienne Griffith. The Salutatorian is Hayley Windbigler. The rest of the top ten students in the class include: Katelyn Peters, Kaitlyn Betz, Tiffany Friedlund, Tabitha Tepes, Elisabeth Caudill, Brittany Shannon, Carole Surfus, and Heather Rogers. Continue reading

Week in Review for May 16th-20th, 2011

Here is just some of the news that made the news in the Kankakee Valley this week:

The Knox-Center Township Fire Department responded to a fire at Sibo’s Grill shortly after 2:00 a.m. Monday. Fire Chief, Kenny Pfost, said that an electrical issue caused the fire.

The Starke County Commissioners are moving forward with repairs on bridge #156 over the Robbins Ditch. They leaned toward the selection of a concrete box beam bridge with an estimated cost of $116,000. A DNR permit will be the only one needed for this project. Continue reading

Airport Association Board Public Hearing Not Quite What Was Expected

Many of the individuals who attended last night’s public hearing regarding the Pulaski County Airport Expansion Project were a bit surprised. Most of the people expected a more direct form of a question and answer session, but were instead greeted with a court stenographer to whom they could address their questions, or a “question box” in which to drop their query. Various information displays on whiteboards were propped up throughout the snow removal building for people to glean information from, along with several tables with plans, layouts, and other displays set out. Individuals were free to roam the snow removal building to examine all the information.

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Starke County Sheriff’s Department Receives Transfer for Pension Fund

Sheriff Oscar Cowen
Sheriff Oscar Cowen

The pension fund for the Starke County Sheriff’s Department has received its necessary fund transfer, thanks to Sheriff Oscar Cowen and the County Council. At their joint meeting with the Commissioners, Cowen asked for $108,514.32 to be transferred to the Sheriff’s Pension Fund. This transfer has been requested annually for several years.

“We call it the riverboat money. It comes in, it goes into an account. The only way it can come out of that account is the sheriff has to ask for it. And if the sheriff doesn’t ask for it, it can’t be taken out,” said Commissioner Dan Bridegroom.

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Pulaski County EMS Requests Funds for New Ambulance

A new ambulance may be en route to the Pulaski County EMS. Jason Rogers of the EMS told the Commissioners that they’ve been having a large amount of ambulance problems: One of their trucks has broken down and needs a new fuel injection system for the third time, another truck also needs repaired, and a third truck is unable to be used because the state no longer commissions it.

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Man Arrested after Threatening Starke County Woman with Knife

Tony A. Glover

Tony A. Glover, of Nappanee, Indiana, was arrested by officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday, May 17th after he allegedly placed a knife against the throat of a Knox woman and threatened to harm her.

According to the police report, three witnesses told police that Glover had placed a knife against the victim’s throat and threatened her. Glover was in possession of knife at the time police questioned him about the incident. He told police that he never threatened the victim or the witnesses.

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North Judson Town Board Approves Bid Ordinance, Sewer Separation Bid Deadline Extended

North Judson Town Board: Dan Anderson, Wendy Hoppe, Jane Ellen Felchuk, Attorney Cassie Hine and Clerk-Treasurer Connie Miller

The North Judson Town Board approved the final reading on an ordinance that establishes the requirements for responsible and responsive bidders that bid on a town project. The Board is required to accept the lowest bid received. Under this ordinance, if the Town Board members receive a low bid on a project and the lowest bidder is found to not be the best company for the job and it can be documented, the Town would have the right to accept the next lowest bid.

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Starke County Election Board Reviews Spring Primary Election

Starke County Election Board: Starke County Clerk Evelyn Skronski, Brenda Stanojevic and Kenny Wallace (sitting) Pat Mitchell and Jim Henriott

The Starke County Election Board met yesterday in its first meeting since the Spring Primary Election where the Board members discussed the election.

Board President, Pat Mitchell, was asked if he thought the first election with the consolidation of the four Center Township precincts was a success.

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Starke County Law Enforcement to Participate in Operation Pull Over Blitz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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