Nominations are being accepted for Starke County’s Senior Volunteer of the Year and Older Hoosier of the Year.
Community Services of Starke County is accepting nominations for these two honorary awards. The Board will decide the winners for each category. The honorees will be entered into the Area 1 competition. Entry forms are available at the Community Services of Starke County on Culver Road in Knox. Forms must be received by March 15th.
The Indiana State Police, in cooperation with multi-agencies were able to identify, locate and apprehend the suspect in the shooting that occurred on the evening of February 17, 2011 on I-80 westbound at the Lake Station exit.
The Dodge Charger that was suspected to be involved in the shooting was located on I-74 in Montgomery County. A Fountain County Sheriff’s Deputy and Crawfordsville Police Officer were able to get behind the vehicle where a pursuit began. At one point during the pursuit, a 2008 Freightliner semi-box trailer was shot at and hit twice by the suspect in the Charger. The driver of the semi was not injured. Stop sticks were deployed and the suspect’s front tire blew; the vehicle lost control and went off the road into a tree line. The driver then fled on foot into the wooded area. Trooper Jon Eads and his K-9 Nico were able to locate and apprehend the suspect who was hiding in water. A weapon was also located and recovered.
Property owned by S.C.P. Building Products, LLC in Knox will go on the auction block today. The property will go on a tax sale, because over $93,000 in back taxes is owed.
S.C.P. Building Products, LLC has been doing business as The Federal Group. At one time, Rockwell Windows was doing business on the property, and was employing around 180 people, according to Starke County Development Foundation Director, Charles Weaver. Currently, there are approximately 25 people working at the Knox facility.
More than the Governor Mitch Daniels’ agenda was at stake in last November’s election. Republicans are now in the majority of both the House and Senate, and now stand to be in control of creating House, Senate, and congressional maps. Those maps will influence the outcome of elections for the next 10 years.
“The House is going to redraw their Districts and the Senate is going to draw their Districts,” explained Fifth District State Senator, Ed Charbonneau. “They are going to get together and approve them and gently draw the Congressional Districts.”
Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall sentenced two men to the Indiana Department of Corrections late last week. Both were sentenced for Dealing in Methamphetamine convictions. David Gingerich was sentenced to 8 years with 2 suspended, and Nathaniel Furlong was sentenced to 12 years with 4 suspended.
The sentences were handed down Thursday, February 17th.
The death of Bill Lemke Friday afternoon brought back memories to many North Judson Bluejay fans. Lemke was a member of one of the greatest basketball teams ever at the school. Coached by the legendary Guy Ingwell, Lemke played with two Bluejay greats Walt Zakostelsky, and Dick Hargrave. Some others on that team were Austin Gobdell, Tex De Armond and Al May.
Indiana State Police Troopers responded to a fatal accident Monday night.
John P. Leveque of Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin was southbound on I-65 and had slowed down for a crash that was ahead. After clearing the crash, Leveque began to accelerate his vehicle near the Demotte accident when he lost control of his vehicle on an ice patch. Continue reading
The Eastern Pulaski School Board accepted a generous donation for the Elementary School. Here is Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman:
“Our Star City Lions Club donated a sum of money to help with our Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “What we do, is we target second grade and with the money provided by the Star City Lions we buy three story books for each student in second grade. Kids are very, very proud to have their own book. They can put their name in it. So, at different intervals through the year, they will receive one of these three books and we thank the Star City Lions Club for helping us with that.”
The Starke County Sheriff’s Department investigated a fatal accident late Friday afternoon.
According to the accident report, Edward O’Boyle was traveling eastbound on State Road 10 when 93-year-old William Lemke pulled into the roadway from the Highland Cemetery, attempting to go westbound on State Road 10. O’Boyle told police he was unable to avoid striking Lemke’s vehicle on the driver’s side. Lemke was pronounced dead at the scene. O’Boyle sustained minor injuries. Both O’Boyle and Lemke are from North Judson.
A witness told police that she saw Lemke stopped at the stop sign at the entrance of Highland Cemetery. She said that the sun was about to set and that it was hard to see oncoming traffic.
One-third of the food handling businesses in Starke County are operating on expired permits. That fact was presented to the Starke County Health Board Monday night by Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Alexander.
That fact was discovered when going over the list of businesses to be inspected by new contract Inspector, David Kesvormas. Kesvormas told the Board that when he inspects a business that is operating on expired permits, he is notifying them and urging them to purchase the proper permit without a fine.
The Pulaski County Development Commission Board is looking for a new Director. Director Dan Dolezal submitted his resignation recently, listing April 1st as his final day on the job. In an interview with WKVI last week, Dolezal said he told the board, “April 1st and that’s no joke.”
Dolezal accepted the position as the Development Director six years ago after a long career in the health field. He told Ted Hayes last week that , “After a few weeks of retirement I found myself sitting on the front porch having an intense conversation with my three cats, and realized it might be time to go back to work.”
On a serious note, Dolezal said “job retention” in Pulaski County was his most satisfying accomplishment. Other things he has taken pride in assisting with are the Star City sewer installation and the Panhandle Pathway project. He hopes that CDC Board can get his successor in place soon so he can help in the training process.
After all he said, “Those three cats are waiting for me at home to point me in the direction of the next phase of my life.”
State Representative Tom Dermody (R-LaPorte) has co-authored a bill that changes the requirements for an imprisoned person to earn a reduction in their sentence time. House Bill 1416 would require that the Department of Corrections approve any correspondence courses an imprisoned person wishes to take to earn a high school diploma.
Current law allows an imprisoned person to take correspondence courses to earn a high school diploma and thereby reduce the amount of time they must serve, but it does not provide any oversight as to what courses they take or where the diploma comes from. The bill would require that any courses the person would like to take must first be approved by the IDOC before they can earn a diploma to reduce their sentence time.
The bill now goes to the Senate for further consideration.
Eastern Pulaski School Corporation will be in session today and this week’s calendar has changed.
“We’re going to be in school on Monday, February 21st as that was a built-in snow make up day so we are using it for that,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “The 25th of February was supposed to be our professional development and reports and records day. We are moving that to Monday, February 28th. Our students will be in school all week, the 21st through the 25th, and then not in school on February 28th.”
Congressman Joe Donnelly has nominated 17 students for U.S. Service academies.
Among those nominated is Chance Blankenship, son of Judge Patrick and Teresa Blankenship of Winamac. Blankenship has been nominated for both the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland and West Point Academy located on the Hudson River in New York state.
Others nominated in our area are: Cody Strange of Walkerton, Andrea Canacci of Culver and Nathan Turner of LaPorte. Both Canacci and Turner are Culver Academies students.
North Judson Fire Chief, Joe Leszek submitted the Fire Department’s statistics for January to the North Judson Town Board during the Board’s recent meeting.
The Department had two smoke investigations, one search and rescue call, two medical assist calls, and one burn complaint. Four of the calls were in North Judson, one call was in Wayne Township and two calls were in Jackson Township.
It’s called the Super Bowl of dog sled racing. The Iditarod Race will be held the first Saturday in March. The race covers 1,000 miles from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska has been called “The Last Great Race on Earth”.
Monday night, Karen Land brought her dog Borage to the Henry F. Schricker Public Library in Knox. The presentation described Karen’s Iditarod racing, with Borage wandering through the crowd making friends of young and old alike.
Here is just some of the news that made the news in the Kankakee Valley this week:
A former Winamac woman was reunited with her baby after her husband took of with him December 22nd. Sandy Young is filing for divorce from her husband, Maurice Young, after the incident kept her away from her 10-month-old son, Jacob.
Tim and Tracey Moore will be moving into their new Habitat for Humanity home today in Winamac. The 1,050 square foot home was built in six months by many volunteers for the Moore family. Continue reading
