The cause of this house fire on 200 N. east of 900 E. in Grovertown remains under investigation.
An investigator from the state fire marshal’s office will be in Starke County today to investigate the origin of a house fire in Grovertown. The Washington Township Fire Department received the call around 2:30 yesterday afternoon, according to Assistant Chief Dave Pearman. The house at 200 North and 900 West was fully engulfed when they arrived. Firefighters from Hamlet, Koontz Lake and Knox also assisted, and with their help the blaze was contained in about 30 minutes. Pearman says the owners were home when the fire started. No injuries were reported.
David PearmanYesterday afternoon’s weather provided a brief respite from the sticky, humid heat and heavy rains that have been taking turns around the area, and Starke County officials jumped at the opportunity to provide an appreciation day for county employees. County Council President Dave Pearman said it’s a concept that they’ve tossed around for a while and, finally, they decided to just get the ball rolling and start a new tradition.
The Starke County Council this week discussed a number of options available to grow the county’s levy, specifically three options regarding income tax and property tax.
Council President Dave Pearman explained that the state froze levy growth for the majority of Hoosier counties back in the 1970’s, and several counties are now wondering how to go about unfreezing that growth. He explained that the levy was frozen to prevent counties from extending their levy growth beyond the means of their local growth – essentially spending beyond their means.
With the Starke County Jail construction project pending, Starke County Sheriff Oscar Cowen and the county officials are still dealing with overcrowding issues in the jail. Some inmates are being housed in the Pulaski County Jail, per an agreement, to help in the overcrowding situation.
Starke County Council President David Pearman said that he hopes that agreement will continue until the new jail is built.
“The state has certified our jail for 62 beds and as we approach that number, we will continue to house inmates outside our jail in another facility. Hopefully, Pulaski County will want to continue working with us.”
The Starke County Commissioners and the Starke County Council met in a joint session Monday night to discuss the proposed jail project.
Council President David Pearman talked about the overall objective of the meeting.
“The overall goal of the meeting was to finally end up with getting the first look at the proposed ordinance that would enable us to utilize the 0.65 percent tax rate,” said Pearman. “However, what we did for the benefit of the rest of council, was basically go through the jail presentation but also, during each slide, kind of give a feel and some flavor of what the public had during our presentations.”
Thursday’s public information meeting regarding the progress of the Starke County Jail Committee answered a number of questions from the community.
One question asked was whether or not prisoners could be used to clean up roads and do other work for the county, and committee member Dave Pearman said that is one possibility that is being considered. However, Pearman pointed out that prisoners need to be supervised at all times, and they also have to factor in the cost of transportation and the chance of escape.
The Washington Township Fire Department was called to a fire on 1025 East Monday night.
Assistant Fire Chief Dave Pearman said a big oak tree fell on some electrical lines in that area which caused two transformers to explode. The tree then fell into the road, and a driver soon struck the tree. The fire was extinguished by the fire department and the driver received minor injuries and refused treatment at the scene.
REMC was called to the scene to deactivate the electrical lines so cleanup could begin.
With the exception of some rain yesterday, it has been a dry spring and Dave Pearman, Assistant Fire Chief with the Washington Township Fire Department, says the firefighters have been called to several fires this season due to the dry conditions.
“We’ve seen a lot more property damage and really what it boils down to is that people are going out and they might be having a small fire and they leave it unattended,” explained Pearman. “They tend to not have any tools such as a rake, shovel and a hose available and really what we’ve seen with 90 percent of those fires is had they attended the fire, had they had tools and water present that they probably could have controlled those fires.”
Starke County Council members will resume discussion tonight concerning an amendment to an ordinance that, if approved, would allow the county to use up to $50,000 in Save the Hospital Funds to hire a consultant to evaluate the hospital’s real and personal property.
The Council had discussed the proposed amendment during a special meeting on May 14, but it was voted down. Council President Dave Pearman said the motion needed a five-member approval, but only gained four “yes” votes.
“The thing that I really want to reiterate about this is this is not necessarily saying that we are going to spend even one dollar to start with, but we need some enabling legislation to allow us to seek a consultant for this project to make sure that we make the wise decision for the public’s best interest,” said Pearman.
Members of the Starke County Jail Committee toured a number of jail facilities throughout the state last week. Starke County Council President and Jail Committee member Dave Pearman was just one of the members who went to the Jasper County Jail, and he explained why the members went to that jail.
“One of the key reasons why we were taken to Jasper County Jail is their community, at the time of their jail planning, was about the size of ours. We have about 23,000 in our community and they have about 35,000 today. They have a 120-bed facility, it’s state of the art and it very much fits what we think our model possibly could be if we actually do decide to build a new facility,” said Pearman.
This home, at 2915 S. 800 E. in Washington Township, was a total loss
A fire ripped through a home at 2915 S. and 800 E. in Starke County on Friday, December 23rd.
“The occupants awoke to an extra warm home, but there were no smoke alarms going off,” said Washington Township Assistant Fire Chief, Dave Pearman. “The man entered the living room and saw flames showing in the house and immediately tried to get their dogs out and that took a little bit of time. By the time they had most of the dogs, all but one, out of the house, the house was fully engulfed. Unfortunately, their smoke detector wasn’t working.”
Tony Kerby lost his life in the Yellow River attempting to save his younger brother’s life. The good looking boy went in the treacherous waters to save his 8-year-old brother Dominick when the youngster slipped off a rock. Dominick was saved when a person in the park pulled him to safety, but Tony could not swim to the banks.
Community members were so saddened by the death that a cross was put at the site to honor his efforts and his life. The memorial was created by Shelby Clemons of North Judson, his wife, Danielle, and Misty Baldridge of Knox.
Superior Court Judge Patrick Blankenship swears Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall into office
The Starke County Republican elected officials were sworn into office last night in the Starke County Circuit Courtroom. Superior Court Judge Patrick Blankenship swore in Judge Kim Hall. Judge Hall then swore in the rest of the candidates.
“It was a wonderful evening and a great opportunity to place these fine folks under oath to faithfully and impartially perform their duties,” said Judge Hall.
The number four story of 2010 is the Republican resurgence in Starke County.
Long a bastion of Democrat government, the Republicans rode the wave of national sentiment to local success. The major impact will be felt on the Starke County Council where the Republicans won three of four seats up for election. Tony Radkiewicz defeated longtime council member Chuck Estok, Mitchell Semans defeated Becky Ferch in a seat that had been held by Dan Awald, and Dave Pearman defeated E.J. Rogers in the seat held by Bill Dulin.
Judge Kim Hall beat back a challenge by former Judge David Matsey by a wide margin.
The state races went Republican, as did the U.S. Senate Race that saw Dan Coats return to the senate by a wide margin. Democrat Representative Joe Donnelly was returned to his seat with a narrow victory over Jackie Walorski, and Democrat Nancy Dembowski got by Frances Ellert for the 17th District House seat. Both candidates, though, blamed the votes that went to the Libertarian candidates for their defeats.
The Republicans gave notice in Starke County that the GOP Party is back, and to be reckoned with in the future.
One person has died in a house fire that occurred at 7315 E. 100 N. in Starke County. Washington Township Fire officials, along with the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s office, are investigating the fire that occurred at midnight.
