Culver Community School Board Members (from left, clockwise): Jack Jones, Ryan Seiber, Marilyn Swanson, Brad Schuldt, Eugene Baker, Jim Wentzel, Ed Behnke, Ken VanDePutte
Monterey Town Board President Jim Fleury says the movement to deannex Tippecanoe Township from the Culver Community Schools Corporation has been put on hold, pending the outcome of House Bill 1047.
House Bill 1047 is currently being discussed by the education study committee at the state-level, and it involves the feasibility of establishing a process by which residents of a part of an existing school corporation may elect to deannex from that corporation and either annex to another existing corporation or establish their own.
Culver Community School Superintendent Brad Schuldt
The Culver School Board has switched to their summer meeting schedule, having met last on June 4 with no meetings scheduled until July 16. Superintendent Brad Schuldt says the board is currently working on filling a number of open positions including the assistant principal position at the elementary school. Two teachers have retired from the corporation, and two other employees have moved on to other projects.
Schuldt says Assistant Principal Craig Hopple has left the corporation to take a job in Plymouth at Lincoln Jr. High.
Three other positions are also vacant: the social studies and English positions at the high school are currently open, as well as an IT assistant position for the corporation. Schuldt says the board will likely discuss filling the positions at the July 16 meeting.
Construction has started in the town of Culver for the Safe Routes to School project, with new sidewalks being installed down School, Ohio, and Main streets. Clerk-Treasurer Karen Heim says the construction, which started last week, is a great thing for the town.
The town was awarded the grant last year through the Indiana Department of Transportation, and Heim says they’ve applied for the grant’s second round. If the town receives the second grant, sidewalks would likely be installed down Academy Road, College Road, and Lakeshore Drive.
The town of Culver has a new town manager. David Schoeff comes to Culver after serving as the director of engineering for the city of Huntington for the past 12 years, and he is also currently finishing his degree in Business Administration.
Schoeff says he already has goals in mind for the town.
“One of my goals is attempting to find ways to help fund projects, and to help Culver grow and prosper,” he said.
The Maxinkuckee Players will hold auditions today for their summer production of “Crazy For You.” The audition times are from 9 a.m. to noon, 1 – 4 p.m., and 6 – 8 p.m. ET at the Culver High School Auditorium.
Gregg Underwood, a member of the Maxinkuckee Players, explained what the director will expect to hear from you when you audition.
“They can bring a song of their choice to sign with the piano or A Capella. Be prepared to read from a script given to you and perform a short dance combination,” Underwood said.
Pulaski Extension Chord members, Jodie Schlatter (L) and E. Anne Ketchen provided musical entertainment and information during their visit
We had three great guests this morning in the WKVI Studios.
Jodie Schlatter and E. Anne Ketchen, two members of the Pulaski County Extension Chords, were in the studio to talk about the group and their performance this Saturday. The Pulaski County Extension Chords will present “Life is a Highway” on Saturday, April 28th, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. ET at the Winamac High School Socialtorium. Ticket price is $6.00 and can be purchased from the members of the Pulaski County Extension Chords or they can be purchased at the door. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. ET. If you would like to get your tickets ahead of time, call Jodie Schlatter at (219) 204-0966 or Pam Rausch at (574) 946-3858. Continue reading →
Culver participants get ready for this year's event
More than 50 teams and 400 participants will be involved this evening in the fifth annual Relay For Life of Culver. The overnight event begins at 7:00 p.m. ET at the Multipurpose Building on the campus of Culver Academies.
Student organizers have set a $130,000 goal for this year’s event, which will be held indoors and outdoors. Many of the events will be staged in the Multipurpose Building on the corner of Indiana 10 and Academy Road, but activities and vendors will also be located in the grassy area along Indiana 10. Relay walkers will be able to turn their laps inside, outside, or a little of each.
An open house for the new Culver Garden Court apartments was held yesterday.
The apartments are for seniors aged 62 and older and for the developmentally disabled. It was built with a $1.3 million dollar HUD Grant, and is located at 801 South Main Street in Culver.
Board of Directors President Ronald Liechty talked about the history of Garden Court apartments.
Culver EMS Director Chuck Dilts told the town board this week that their volunteer numbers are dwindling from people retiring and moving on for other reasons. Because the numbers are decreasing so drastically, Culver EMS is now looking for volunteers that want to help a worthy cause.
Culver Town Council Members (from left to right) Ed Pinder, Ralph Winters, Ginny Bess, Sally Ricciardi
The Culver Town Council this week heard a request from resident Tom Kearns for the council to provide funding for a sidewalk to be installed to link Miller’s Merry Manor nursing home to an existing sidewalk at the ball field on the east side of School Street.
The Marshall County Sheriff’s Department responded to a call that a truck was found submerged in Lake Maxinkuckee in Culver.
The investigating officer reports that Cara Lewellen, of Culver, was backing up her boat/trailer into the water on the west shore access of Lake Maxinkuckee. While backing up, she lost control of the vehicle, causing it to become fully submerged in the water. Lewellen escaped from the vehicle before it entered the water and she was not injured. The vehicle and trailer were later retrieved by Marshall County Dive Team members.
A 17-year-old Culver girl was airlifted to South Bend Memorial Hospital after she reportedly suffered a gunshot wound to her neck from what was possibly a live round of ammunition that had ignited from a nearby fire at her residence on Tamarack Road in Culver.
According to a release from Marshall County Dispatch, a 911 call was received reporting Andrea Bottomley had been shot in the neck and was still conscious and breathing- though she felt numbness in her body. After being treated at the scene, Bottomley was transported by MedFlight to South Bend where she was treated for her injuries and later discharged. The incident is still under investigation.
Culver Community School Superintendent Brad Schuldt
“If you build it, they will come.” That phrase comes alive in Culver, as a number of volunteers have converted what was previously farm fields and weeded areas into something useful: soccer fields for Culver Community Schools.
“We have about five acres out there that used to be just farm field and just weeded areas, and over the last couple years we’ve had some volunteers in the community working on trying to develop that a little bit. They didn’t build any buildings at all, but they’ve got it kind of leveled off and they’ve made two small soccer fields for lower elementary grades and one soccer field that’s a little bit closer to full size,” said Superintendent Brad Schuldt.
Schuldt says that the field will be used primarily in the evenings after school, or for Saturday soccer programs. While players would previously have to share the field or just wait for the evening to use the field in the playground at the north end of Culver Elementary, they can now use one of the new soccer fields.
Schuldt says that there was no expense involved in making the soccer fields.
It’s no big construction or anything like the Liverpool stadium expansion, we didn’t spend any money on it. It’s all community volunteers getting it ready and that kind of thing, Schuldt said.
The only downside to establishing these new fields is the impact on parking. Schuldt says that the parking lot in that area only has about 25-30 spots, and sometimes when they have girls’ softball games, those spots can be filled fairly quickly. With the addition of parents bringing their children for evening and after-school soccer leagues, the parking lot will be filled to capacity– but Schuldt says they have opened up some of the grassy areas for parking as well, so that won’t be a problem.
Three men from Culver were arrested in Plymouth Monday night on drug charges.
An officer from the Plymouth Police Department pulled over a vehicle at the intersection of Michigan and Diamond Streets and the officer took K9 Rex around the vehicle. The K9 indicated the presence of narcotics and in a search of the occupants and the vehicle, the officer found heroin, marijuana and several items of paraphernalia.
The Culver Police Department is investigating an armed robbery incident at the Family Dollar store at 18701 State Road 10 in Culver.
On Saturday evening around 8:40 p.m. ET, a male subject entered the store and approached a cashier, displayed a weapon and bag and then demanded money at gunpoint. Employees followed the demands and an undisclosed amount of money was taken from the business. No one was injured.
The days of students lugging backpacks stuffed full of books and folders may soon be at an end, thanks to the recent movement from traditional hardback textbooks to electronic books. Culver Community Schools Superintendent Brad Schuldt recently told WKVI that Apple has recently begun providing textbooks for the iPad, and as of last week, two textbooks that the high school currently uses have been ported to the iPad.
Schuldt said that they are very interested in gradually moving into the digital age with most, if not all, of their textbooks on the iPad, but it remains to be seen how fast book providers will release their books digitally.
Tom Collins passed away last week at the age of 100. Leaving behind a wealth of survivors, Collins was born in Yazoo City, Miss., but passed away at Miller’s Merry Manor in Culver. He was a former resident of Chicago, working as a meat packer, but moved to Winamac in 1969. He was preceded in death by his wife, Lillian Williams, who passed away on February 14, 2002.
Collins played professional baseball on a team many people may not know: the Memphis Red Sox, a professional Negro League baseball team based in Memphis, Tenn., from the 1920s until the end of segregated baseball. Collins even played with one very notable player from the team: Satchel Paige, who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971—the first player to be inducted from the Negro leagues.
The Maxinkuckee Singers perform at the Knox United Methodist Church
The Maxinkuckee Singers performed last night at the Knox United Methodist Church. It was the next to last performance of the season for the Singers whom have entertained audiences for over two decades with their Christmas show.
The compact one hour show is filled with the traditional, sacred, and humorous songs of the season.
Culver Community School Board Members (from left, clockwise): Jack Jones, Ryan Seiber, Marilyn Swanson, Brad Schuldt, Eugene Baker, Jim Wentzel, Ed Behnke, Ken VanDePutte
A petition that has been circulating since the closure of Monterey Elementary School by the Culver Community School Corporation has finally made its way to the school board. The petition, which has gathered 641 signatures, requests deannexation from the Culver School Corporation with the hope of being annexed into the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation. According to Superintendent Brad Schuldt, Monterey Town Board President Jim Fleury presented the petition to the board at this week’s meeting.
Fleury explained that Tippecanoe Township has a total of 840 landowners, so 641 signatures is an overwhelming majority. Continue reading →
Culver Town Council Members (from left to right) Ed Pinder, Ralph Winters, Ginny Bess, Sally Ricciardi
A new comprehensive plan for the town of Culver may be in the works to replace their current, 12-year-old plan. According to Kevin Berger, President of Easterday Construction Co., the town is eligible for an OCRA Planning Grant, which can provide the town with up to $50,000 for compiling this comprehensive plan. The grant allows a portion of the funds to go toward grant administration, which allows the town to hire an outside firm to work on it.
