We continue today with our interviews with the Knox city candidates for elective office in the spring Primary on May 3rd.
Mark Smith is the President of the County Council and has been coroner in the past. He is the owner of M.C. Smith Funeral Home in Knox.
Smith noted the improvements made in past administrations, including the highway project through Knox, Gateway Project, renovation of the old depot, and others. He said he feels we’re not progressing now, as we did then.
Absentee voting has begun in the Starke County Courthouse for the May Primary Election. This election will feature the City of Knox candidates running for office only.
Absentee voting is available on the first floor of the Starke County Courthouse, Monday through Friday from now until Friday, April 29th from 8:00 a.m. to Noon and from 1:00-4:00 p.m. CT. Absentee voting will also be available on Saturday, April 23rd and Saturday, April 30th from 8:00 a.m. to Noon and 1:00-4:00 p.m. On Thursday, April 28th, absentee voting will be available from 5:00-7:00 p.m. You may vote absentee May 2nd from 8:00 a.m. to Noon. The Starke County Courthouse will be closed on Good Friday so absentee voting will not be available.
Bridge #156, the bridge over the Robbins Ditch on Range Rd. between 400 N and 500 N, may not be out of commission for as long as expected. Lee Nagai explained an alternative method of repairing the bridge, suggesting a deck maintenance project as opposed to the state’s recommended plan of total reconstruction.
The Town of Winamac will not pick up bagged grass again this year. According to Town Manager, Jim Conner, the Town Board decided that residents will need to dispose of their own grass clippings. The issue was brought up last year when the Town Board and Wastewater Superintendent, Brad Zellers, expressed concern about the grass clippings in the streets and the problems they cause with the sewer system, especially during rains.
Porter-Starke Addictions Councilor, Leo Smith, conducted a seminar yesterday on relapse in the recovery process.
Leo Smith tells us the first thing necessary to prevent relapse.
SCILL Center Instructor, Rod Dawson, is in this week to give us car care tips for National Car Care month. He says we can’t neglect spark plugs
“People don’t realize it, but that spark plug will fire 3 million times within a thousand miles of driving,” said Dawson. “Take a look at what that spark plug actually does. There’s a lot of heat, a lot of electrical, and chemical erosion that happens on that spark plug. It does wear down and it does need to be replaced.”
School was delayed for students at the Walkerton Elementary School today after a gas leak was detected on the property last night. The gas leak has been contained and students are in school today.
The six individuals arrested Friday night on various methamphetamine charges will appear before Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. for their initial hearings.
Mathew Schoff, Cheryl Paschen, Kimberly Hurley, Tracey Gaideski, Timothy Clark, and Holloway Motel manager, Freeman Spelts, were arrested Friday after police found three active methamphetamine labs at the Holloway Motel on U.S. 30 in Starke County. They have charges ranging from Possession of Paraphernalia to Manufacturing Methamphetamine and Neglect of a Dependent. An 8-year-old child was taken into protective custody after the incident.
Bond has been set at $50,000 each.
Nearly 20 citizens of Pulaski County packed into the Commissioners’ meeting room to dispute the expansion of the county airport. The Pulaski County Airport Association Board has been looking into expanding their runway by 800 feet, which would allow larger corporate aircraft to land at their airport without jeopardizing their insurance, but the expansion requires the closure of road 100 West, as well as the acquisition of land from citizens. Everyone, from farmers to pilots, had something to say regarding the issue.
It’s two weeks before the Primary Election in Knox. Today, we will begin a series of interviews with candidates running in contested races.
Rick Chambers is completing his first term as Mayor of Knox. The Mayor sat down with us recently to talk about that four year term.
“The first term was very exciting,” he said. “I like dealing with industry. We had industry move into our Industrial Park every year I’ve been Mayor. We added about 80 jobs, we did six tax abatements for industry that either expanded or built new. It was very exciting seeing that Industrial Park grow.”
Porter-Starke Addictions Councilor, Leo Smith, will conduct a seminar today at 11:30 a.m. CT at the Knox Community Center. His topic will be relapse.
Smith was asked if it’s true that most people who begin a recovery process relapse before becoming successful.
The West Central School Board has decided to move forward with the wind turbine project.
“In the contract, there will be contingencies as far as whether or not we do proceed, but one of the largest issues had to deal with the insurance and that has been solved at this point in time,” said Superintendent Charles Mellon. “The connection point will be in the contract as a contingency and it is also being worked on at this time. This deals with NIPSCO where we want the connection to be prior to the meter so we can use the electricity ourselves that are generating. We are still waiting on the feed-in tariff regulations to be clarified and approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.”
The Eastern Pulaski School Board members discussed textbook rental fees and cafeteria prices for the 2011-2012 school year at their recent meeting.
SCILL Center Instructor, Rod Dawson, has another gas mileage saving car care tip for National Car Care month. Today, he talks tire maintenance.
“Make sure we keep them to the proper OEM specifications on tire air,” said Dawson. “Make sure you rotate them and look the tires over periodically. If you’re running two to three pounds on an under inflated tire, it’s like driving around with your parking brake on. You’re going to lose one to two miles per gallon.”
If in the course of your travels you drive by WKVI, you will see a beautiful purple toilet sitting in our front yard. Now you might wonder what that toilet is doing here and especially sitting in our yard.
We were selected to be a part of Starke County Relay for Life’s Toilet Parade.
Someone in Starke County donated the toilet in our honor and we get to proudly display it in our yard.
A John Glenn High School student died Friday night in a one vehicle car accident in the 30000 block of Riley Road south of North Liberty.
According to a published report, 17-year-old Tyler Wiegand, of North Liberty, was traveling eastbound in his pick-up when it went off the north side of the road, just west of Sycamore. The pickup rolled several times before coming to a stop in a ditch.
The Holloway Motel complex was the site of a huge drug bust in Starke County on Friday with some of the building used for clandestine methamphetamine production. Because of the fact that dangerous particles remain in the air, Starke County Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Alexander, evacuated the facility and condemned it after the arrests were made.
Property tax bills in Pulaski County were mailed out last week and you may be concerned with the absence of a homestead credit you won’t see on line 4b of your statements.
The state homestead credit has been phased out statewide. On March 14th, 2008, the Indiana General Assembly passed the property tax reform bill House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1001-2008. One component of the bill was a change in the way state property tax relief is delivered.
Beginning with 2008-pay-2009 property taxes, the State permanently assumed school and welfare costs formerly paid from property taxes in exchange for a phase-out of the property tax credits offered in the past. This lowered the property tax rate but also reduced the amount of credits given. This credit has been phased out over the past three years, so property tax bills will have likely changed in 2009, 2010, and 2011 in part as a result of this phase-out. For homesteads, the phase-out of the state homestead credit becomes complete for 2010-pay 2011 property taxes. This credit is reflected on Line 4b of your tax statement.
You should still be receiving both the homestead standard deduction and the homestead supplemental deduction. The sum total of all deductions is indicated on Line 2a of your tax statement. Each deduction is also itemized in Table 5 of the tax statement. These are the deductions you are confirming by completing the pink verification form.
