The Starke County and Marshall County Commissioners and EMA directors have implemented an advisory level travel restriction.
The advisory level is the lowest level when talking about travel restrictions. The advisory level means that routine travel or activities may be restricted in areas because of a hazardous situation. Individuals should use caution or avoid those areas. Continue reading
County officials have offered the Koontz Lake Volunteer Fire Department what they hope is a workable option to make sure they are able to respond in tandem with Starke County EMS to all medical calls. Members of the fire department took exception with the county’s policy to let Grovertown-based Medic 5 decide whether they need their assistance, saying the department has provided medical services to year-round and seasonal residents since its establishment in the early 1940s. Starke County Council President Dave Pearman, who is also a volunteer firefighter, says public safety is the county’s number one concern. He says the Koontz Lake Fire Department’s pagers can be programmed to get the EMS calls automatically. He says it will cost the township about $30 per pager.
Township Trustee Mark Allen called a meeting of fire department, EMS, dispatch, sheriff’s office, emergency management and county government representatives. “The whole purpose of this meeting wasn’t trying to point fingers at anybody. I think some people might have thought about that in the meeting, but it’s not the case. This was just a matter of everybody getting on the same page and working for what’s best for the township. At least now we have an option. Actually Dave had a good suggestion. That was never suggested before. That would have been great to know that,” Allen told WKVI news after the meeting. Continue reading
The Starke County Building Corporation plans to appoint a committee to discuss future uses for the current jail. They are meeting this morning at 8:30 at the county annex building, prior to the commissioners meeting at 9. Skillman Corporation will also provide an update on how construction of the new jail east of Knox on State Road 8 is going. It’s scheduled for completion in the spring of 2015. The commissioners agenda includes consideration of a proposal from Starke County Clerk Evelyn Skronski to relocate some precincts. Officials from IU Health Starke Hospital will also discuss the physicians recruitment program. EMA Director Ted Bombagetti and James Coad are on the agenda regarding the county’s emergency preparedness plan. Wendy Elam from CADA has a proclamation for the county to declare April Child Abuse Prevention Month. CADA, CASA and the Indiana Department of Child Services are kicking off the awareness campaign tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m. at the Nancy J. Dembowski Convention Center in downtown Knox with a Pinwheels for Prevention candle lighting ceremony. Members of the public are invited to come show their support for children in the community. In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will take place inside.
Marshall County EMA Director Clyde Avery said the Yellow River crested and is on its way down. In Tippecanoe, the river is out of its banks along Blackford Drive and water is seeping into the back yards of properties that sit along that portion of the river. On Monday afternoon, the river level was at 13.97 feet; major flooding occurs at 14 feet. Avery is closely monitoring both rivers.
IT Director Joe Short told the commissioners that since the storms in June and July 2012 damaged the sheriff’s department’s radio tower, causing it to be shorter and consequently shortening the range of the signal along with FCC-mandated narrowbanding efforts compounding those issues, he has reprogrammed and relocated the Koontz Lake antenna to a location in Hamlet. On top of that, Short said he replaced the transmit radio in Hamlet with a base radio, which solved the communications problem in that area.
EMA Director Ted Bombagetti explained to them the process to declare a local communication emergency, which would give the county the authority to do what needs to be done to restore full radio communications while getting the FCC licensing caught up at a later time. County Attorney Martin Lucas reviewed the information and gave it his approval.
Once again, Hoosiers have stepped up at a time of need. Donations have been pouring into southern Indiana, with the official donation site operating out of the old U.S. Census Bureau warehouse located at 700 Partol Road in Charlestown.
Starke County EMA Director Ted Bombagetti says the items of greatest need are money, non-perishable food items, paper products, gloves, heavy duty trash bags, personal hygiene products, baby items, cat and dog food, kitty litter, yard tools, gas cards, socks and underwear, tarps, and other items.
Items that are not needed include perishable, refrigerated, or frozen foods, and clothing. No volunteers are needed at this time, but Bombagetti says this could change in the future. Anyone with questions can call (574) 772-9182.
The Community Services of Starke County Food Pantry considers itself blessed by all the generous donations from the community, but Director Joan Haugh says keeping the pantry stocked with food is an ongoing struggle and, as always, they need donations of paper products, dish soap, laundry detergent, and shampoo– things that cannot be purchased with food stamps.
A new ordinance is in effect for Starke County which adopts the state standard for disaster emergency declaration. EMA Director Ted Bombagetti explained that the ordinance was adopted in order to alleviate confusion between counties when dealing with disaster emergencies.
When Ted Bombagetti was named the Emergency Management Agency Director, his appointment wasn’t without conditions. One such condition was that he monitor and file paperwork for various grants for the county. Bombagetti appeared before the county commissioners last week to give them an update on his success.
President Barack Obama has approved 32 counties for federal public assistance for damage sustained by severe weather that began April 19th. Starke County was the only county listed from Northern Indiana that will be receiving funding.
Public assistance means state and local governments and certain non-profit organizations in the designated counties are eligible to apply for federal assistance to pay 75 percent of the approved cost of debris removal, emergency services related to the disaster and repairing or replacing damaged public facilities, such as roads, buildings and utilities.
The largest ever Indiana exercise and the first ever national level exercise designed around a natural disaster was held last week. Starke County EMA Director, Ted Bombagetti and Pulaski County Chief Deputy Sheriff, Ron Patrick, who is the District Two Task Force Commander for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, were involved in the exercise that took place at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center. Pulaski County Sheriff, Michael Gayer, attended the training and he talks about the training center in Jennings County:
Starke County Highway Superintendent, Steve Siddall, briefed the Commissioners and public Monday as to the damage done due to the levee break last week on the Robbins ditch.
“It broke out Thursday morning sometime and we were notified,” said Siddall. “The water had come across 400 North and then to the south of that on Range Road. Both roads took a pretty good beating. We’re looking at a lot of damage. $10,000 in damage is a rough estimate. I haven’t been up there because we’re trying to let things dry up. We weren’t able to open up Range Road up to 400 North on Friday by putting stone down as the road was impassable. We just barely made it across Friday to put stone down.”
