The Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office, Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority encourage Hoosiers to pursue safe ways to stay warm this season.
Heating equipment was the second leading cause of home fires in the United States in 2008. More than 66,000 reported fires caused 480 civilian deaths, 1,660 civilian injuries and more than $1 billion in property damage.
The totals are in from this past weekend’s food drive at the Knox Mall. WKVI collected $2167.73, and 1,469 pounds of food. Added to that total of food is 1,125 pounds from Boy Scout Pak #281 in North Judson for a total of 2,594 pounds of food. A big thank you again from Joan Haugh and everyone at Community Services of Starke County who received the money and food for their food pantry.
The North Judson-San Pierre High School Choral Department has tickets available for this year’s Madrigal dinner on Friday and Saturday, December 3rd and 4th, at 7:00 p.m. CT and Sunday, December 5th, at 1:00 p.m. CT. All performances will take place at the Grand Central Station restaurant in North Judson.
This is the 20th year for the Madrigal dinner. For tickets, call Choir Director, Donna Ness, at (574) 896-2158 or (574) 896-5041.
Holiday traffic is expected to increase this year by about 11% from last year according to AAA. The average distance travelers will go is 812 miles, and the median spending will be $495.00. The price for gasoline has increased to an average of $2.89 a gallon which is the highest prices of the year as recorded by AAA.
Leave it up to Phil Potempa of the Northwest Indiana Times to come up with the ingredients to a Thanksgiving recipe from the late blond bombshell Marilyn Monroe. The actress was known for a lot of things, but cooking was never one of them. But Phil has found the ingredients in a new book about Marilyn entitled “Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, and Letters.” The ingredients were found on page 180 of the book and included water soaked sourdough bread, chicken livers and hearts, ground beef, hard boiled eggs, raisins, grated parmesan cheese, nuts, herbs, onion, parsley and celery. Now those are the ingredients. The only problem is Phil didn’t tell us how much of everything to use.
Police responded to an anonymous drug tip on Saturday afternoon that resulted in several felony arrests. Police arrived at 5880 W. 500 S. in North Judson where the home owner refused to allow police into the residence. After police left, a vehicle left the residence and passed the police. The driver was not wearing a seat belt and Mat Anderson from the North Judson Police Department attempted to perform a traffic stop but a short pursuit ensued. During the pursuit, items were thrown out of the vehicle. The items were located and taken into custody. The driver, Stephen Adrian Braasch, 28, of Argos, was arrested.
Beverly Powers, 72, of Winamac, passed away Sunday in Memorial Hospital in South Bend. Beverly, at one time, was in our profession writing first for The Leader and then the Pulaski County Journal. Her column “From My Little Corner of the Room” was a “ must read” of all who read the Journal regularly. She was involved with scores of organizations and in her lifetime, participated in many worthwhile causes in her community.
Our sincere sympathy goes out to the entire family.
Can you believe this? The Love Inc. Ministries sold 750 dozen cookies during their bazaar on Saturday. We wouldn’t have believed it either if director Wendy Medborn had not told us herself. What a great accomplishment and all of the money raised goes to the ministries programs in the community.
Love Inc.’s food drive gathered 40 grocery carts of food on Saturday. Food was taken to Ray’s Super Foods, N.J. Foods and Dollar General. All of the food was taken to the Food Pantry in North Judson.
Wendy asked us to thank everyone who contributed to both efforts.
The annual Starke County Ministerial Alliance community-wide Thanksgiving service has been scheduled for Wednesday, November 24th at the Knox United Methodist Church.
Pastor Art Good will present the Thanksgiving message and several musical selections will be offered by representatives of area churches. The program begins at 7:00 p.m. CT.
The Alliance uses the love offering taken at the service to fund expenses for gasoline, food and/or lodging when needy travelers pass through the community.
Hundreds of state and local law enforcement agencies were recently honored at the 16th Annual Operation Pull Over Awards Banquet at the Ritz Charles in Carmel, Indiana. The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office was among those agencies honored, taking home the award for Operation Pull Over, OPO Small Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff’s Office also received a $1,000 Equipment Award to be used for the purchase of law enforcement equipment of their choice. The Sheriff’s Office has received awards in three of the past four years of participation in the Operation Pull Over Enforcement Programs.
Efforts conducted through Operation Pull Over rely on a dual strategy involving high-visibility enforcement and heightened public awareness aimed at deterring impaired and dangerous driving and increasing seat belt use.
Here are a few turkey facts for this year’s Thanksgiving:
Eight years ago today, a miracle happened on a basketball floor in Michigan City. Jessica (Neace) McCann, a Knox High School basketball player at the time, collapsed on the floor when her heart stopped for no reason. She would have died if it had not been for the quick action of a Michigan City coach and long time family friend, Jackie Estok. They literally brought her back to life.
Since I grew up on Grandpa’s farm, I was destined to become a farmer, it seems. After college and the army, I joined up with Dad and we farmed the home place together for several years. I feel very lucky to have been born in Starke County, Indiana, to Russell and Edna Shilling. As I look back on those few years when Dad and I farmed together – wow. He allowed me to experiment with all sorts of innovative ideas and yet with a careful eye, guided my inexperience. There is nothing like “been there, done that”. And he let me know it in his gentle way.
The changes that we have seen in Agriculture, just in my time, have been tremendous. There have been more changes in production agriculture during the last fifty years than the 10,000 years before that. During the great depression, the average farmer was selling enough farm produce to feed 3-4 other people. During the 1950s, the average farmer in the U.S. was feeding 50 people. A tremendous increase, in just a few years. Now, the average farmer is feeding 154 people. It is estimated that by 2030, farmers around the world will have to produce 4 billion tons of food for the growing population. Upgrading one’s growing operation with a seedling planter can pay off for many growers.
Starke County is doing its part. The average farm in Starke County is only 259 acres, but those acres produce more than 81 million dollars in income for Starke County each year. That’s third, behind Manufacturing and Retail Sales. I haven’t found all of the figures of the Ag-related retail, but I know that the Farm Bureau Coop has a gross sales of more than 59 million dollars in materials to farmers. When a farmer talks about a 1″ rain as “a million dollar rain”, it is more than a figure of speech. A 1″ rain every week during June, July and August will add about 10 to 12 million dollars to the Starke County economy. Farmers are not only spending huge amounts of money on production inputs, such as implements, seed and fertilizer for their crops, but also adding to the economy by patronizing the local stores.
The next time you see a Starke County farmer, whether he farms 50 acres of vegetables or 5000 acres of corn, think about the food he helps grow and the part he plays in the local economy.
A good site to learn more about Indiana agriculture is:
http://www.farmersfeedus.org/in/corn/10
Jim Shilling
Starke County Historical Society
http://www.starkehistory.com
http://www.scpl.lib.in.us/historical/
Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman, told the Board of a great achievement by the students and teachers at the Corporation.
“I received an email from the [Department of Education] that our School Corporation was going to be recognized in Indianapolis at a press conference as on of the top 25 School Corporations in the whole state in terms of growth on the Language Arts-Reading portion of the I-STEP and Math,” said Dr. Klitzman.
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The Maxinkuckee Players are already making plans for the 2011 summer presentation. A meeting is scheduled in Culver early next month to elect officers.
If you have a suggestion for a possible musical production for the Players 2011 season you may contact Charlie Weaver at 574-772-5000 in Knox, who is a member of the selection committee. That committee will make several suggestions to the Players members who, in turn, will make the final selection at a meeting in January or early February.
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Team Standings:
High Scratch Team Game: Quarter’s 862; 1st Choice Pawn 810; Hensleys 804; High Team Scratch Series: Quarter’s 2459; Hensleys 2326; Bowlaway Lanes 2294; High HDCP Team Game: 1st Choice Pawn 917; Quarter’s 895; WKVI 890; High HDCP Team Series: WKVI 2564; Quarter’s 2558; Hensleys 2545; High Individual Scratch Game: Gordon Buckman 275; Josh Budka 268; Josh Nies 261; High Individual Scratch Series: Gordon Buckman 678; Rob Snowdon 669; Shawn Hale 663; High Individual HDCP Game: Josh Nies 282; Gordon Buckman 276; Josh Budka 272; High Individual HDCP Series: Rob Snowdon 735; Shawn Hale 726; Mark Hensley 720.
Knox Community Elementary School students gobbled up the evening at the “Cookies & Milk & Bedtime Stories” event. As students came in they got books, and entered into a drawing for a turkey. They got to sit with their parents and get read to. Then ten lucky kids got to come down and claim a turkey. The evening’s festivities concluded in the cafeteria, where they got cookies and milk while visiting with their friends.
The Starke County Commissioners will be meeting at 4:30 this afternoon to review health insurance plans. The three members have divided 5 quotes from various agents for review. The bidders are: Key Healthy Partners, First Source Insurance, Teachers Credit Union, The Healy Group and First Choice Insurance Services. After comparing cost and coverage the members will meet in an open meeting to select the company that will be the health insurance provider.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society of SS Cyril and Methodius Conference, has helped 401 persons in 2010 at a cost of $9,672.82. The Society serves persons in the North Judson – San Pierre area who have a need. Either financially or spiritually.
Society members provide information about services available to them and often help them through a financial crisis.
There are twenty-five members of the local society; Mary Kay Powell is President; Rich Akers, Vice President; Peg Okley, Treasurer; Joan Haugh, Secretary.
For rnore nnforrnauon on how you can help the Soclety with financial donations, please call the cell phone for St. Vincent de Paul Society, (574) 249-0162
November 15th-19th is Hunger Awareness week and the Oregon-Davis Jr/Sr High School National Honor Society is sponsoring a food drive to help local food banks. They are asking for food to help provide Thanksgiving meals for needy families and non-perishable items for the local food banks. Canned corn, canned green beans, stuffing mix, potatoes, sweet potatoes, noodles, boxed crackers, cord bread mix, bread, canned pumpkin, canned cranberries and juice are some of the items needed to help families enjoy their Thanksgiving meals. Monetary donations will be used to purchase a turkey and other perishable items.
