An amended date has been set for a trial for James Campbell. A full week will be dedicated for the jury trial beginning Monday, Sept. 22 at 9 a.m. in Starke Circuit Court.
Campbell is charged with arson, a Class A felony, to which he has pleaded not guilty. He is accused of intentionally setting a fire at C&C Salvage at the corner of Toto Road and U.S. 35 south of Knox on Thursday, March 20. Eight fire departments were called to the business to put out the extensive fire.
Telephone scammers are at it again. The Starke County Sheriff’s Department has received numerous reports from local residents of a variety of suspicious calls from people seeking to have money wired to them for various reasons. These include winning a Publisher’s Clearinghouse sweepstakes or other prize and having a grandchild in jail. Most of the calls seem to be targeting elderly people. Sheriff’s department officials urge anyone who gets such a call not to send money, no matter how persuasive the person on the other end of the phone is. Continue reading
The Starke County Commissioners voted unanimously to increase the meal allowance for Election Day vendors from $25 to $35 per poll worker. That cost covers breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks. Polls are open from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m., and workers cannot leave during that time. Starke County Clerk Evelyn Skronski says she will need an additional $582.14 to cover the expense for the Nov. 4 General Election. She can transfer that money from her postage account. Skronski notes the council will need to consider the added cost when they craft future budgets. Municipal elections will take place next year, and 2016 is a presidential election year.
Since students are finished with classes, summer is the perfect time for renovations at the schools. Particular projects on the agenda for Knox Community Schools are the track repairs and the air conditioners at the middle school. Next week, weather permitting, the Knox High School track will be resurfaced and repainted. During the Monday evening Knox Community School Board meeting the the renewal of the Trane five-year service agreement was unanimously approved. Three air conditioning companies had bids submitted but Trane was the only company that allowed payments to be made over time instead of all at once. The agreement starts June 15. The middle school air conditioners will be shut down for a week in July in order for the compressors for the chillers to be replaced. The board assures this will not interfere with summer school courses.
Starke County EMS Director Paul Matthewson and Council President Dave Pearman hope to have a final recommendation for the county commissioners at their next meeting with regard to expanded paramedic service. They’re still crunching numbers to determine if the county can sustain the additional cost of adding more paramedics and ambulances in order to provide transfers from IU Health Starke Hospital to other facilities. Commissioner Kathy Norem says they need to proceed carefully and make a sound financial decision so as not to incur a huge deficit. She says while offering additional transportation services will increase revenues, overhead costs will go up as well. Money to cover those costs would come from the county’s general fund.
This weekend is the kickoff for the Knox Farmer’s Market at Sandy Acres Park on South Heaton Street. Food and craft vendors are welcome. Individuals interested in participating can sign up for free at the mayor’s office. All food must be homegrown, and crafts have to be handmade. Participants keep all the money they make. Even if you aren’t a vendor you are still encouraged to attend the launching event this Saturday June 7. The farmer’s market will be open from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. It runs from June until the end of October.
The Starke County Highway Department will be busy throughout the summer making improvements to 145 miles of county roads. Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler says the projects are based on the PASER, or Pavement, Surface, Evaluation and Rating, system and average daily traffic.
“All of the townships are well-represented on the list,” Ritzler told the county commissioners. “The San Pierre area now has the most roads. Most of the roads we added we’re adding in that area because they had the lowest PASER ratings and were a little under-represented on the previous list, and now we’ve put those on there. We’re probably going to chip-seal all of the roads in town and probably a couple of the roads out west of there.” Continue reading
The meal prices for the Knox Community Schools’ 2014-15 school year have been officially set by the school board. The breakfast price will remain the same at $1.15. Lunch prices will increase by 10-cents. That brings the elementary school lunch price to $1.85. The middle and high school lunches will be $2.10. Knox Community School Corporation Superintendent A.J. Gappa says even with the 10-cent increase, Knox Elementary School still has the lowest lunch price in the area.
Indiana Conservation officers are continuing in their search for 29-year-old Ron Wood, Jr.
Wood, a Knox High School graduate, went missing after jumping into Lake Michigan Saturday night to attempt to rescue struggling swimmers who drifted from their boat a mile off shore. All swimmers were rescued by the US Coast Guard and nearby boaters except for Wood who remains missing.
Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department K-9 Gil’s nose landed three people in jail Saturday night for various drug charges. He assisted with a traffic stop in the 3500 block of County Road 650 South in Pulaski County.
A truck driven by Jason B. Maroules, 36, of Knox, was pulled over for driving on the wrong side of the roadway, according to information provided by the sheriff’s department. He had two passengers with him. Paul Mast, 44, of Bourbon, was in the front seat. A female who repeatedly told the officers her name was Amanda Cooley but was found to be Heather Manns, 35, of Winamac, was in the back seat. She was arrested for false identifying.
The Starke County Commissioners will open bids for two scheduled and one emergency bridge replacement at their Monday, July 7th meeting. Highway superintendent Rik Ritzler is is working with a design firm to finalize plans for the emergency bridge replacement on County Road 700 East over the Yellow River. The road has been closed since a tree struck the bridge earlier this year. Ritzler says the project will be considerably less expensive than originally anticipated.
“I thought it was going to cost $150,000 for the repair. It came in at about $45,000,” Ritzler told the commissioners. The reconstructed bridge will be able to open to full traffic, including farm vehicles. It’s still scheduled for replacement in 2018. He adds plans for the bridge will be finalized and sent to the commissioners for review prior to their June 16th meeting. Continue reading
A 29-year-old Knox High School graduate is missing in the waters of Lake Michigan.
Ron Wood, Jr. of Chicago and several others were in a boat drifting off shore north of Mount Baldy on Saturday night. Two members of the group jumped into the lake and became separated from the boat. A few passengers jumped into the water to retrieve the swimmers. The remaining passenger in the boat could not start the boat’s engine and called 911.
WKVI is sponsoring a singing competition for youngsters during the Starke County Fair. WKVIdol will take place Monday, July 14 at 8 p.m. at the fairgrounds. The competition will be divided into three age groups: ages 7-10, 11-14 and 15-18. Each age group will have a maximum of four contestants. The first step for would-be contestants is to submit a 1 minute singing demo with your name, address, email and telephone number. You can drop it off at the station on a compact disc or other digital media file or email an mp3 to wkvidol@wkvi.com. Please list the top three family-friendly songs you would like to perform. Duplicate songs will not be allowed, so the sooner you submit your demo, the greater your chances of getting to sing your favorite song for the competition. Continue reading
Starke County residents have signed up to take another step forward in improving the health in Starke County.
The kick off event for Moving Starke County Forward’s “Another Step Forward” walking challenge was held Saturday where a ceremonial first lap around Wythogan Park was taken by those in attendance.
The Knox Community School Board will discuss breakfast and lunch prices for the 2014-15 school year when they meet this evening. The North Judson-San Pierre School Corporation has raised prices for next year. It is possible Knox will follow suit. Another agenda item is discussion of the Trane service agreement for air conditioning systems. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at Knox Elementary School.
This year’s Knox Community High School graduation will feature something unique. A few seniors went to principal Dr. Elizabeth Ratliff earlier this year and inquired about voting for their own commencement speaker. All seniors were eligible to be chosen as the speaker. The 2014 senior class voted to have Chris Baczynski give the commencement speech at their ceremony on Friday, June 6. Baczynski was a member of the SCILL welding program, a football player and served as student council president. He will be attending IUSB after graduation.
Come celebrate the recent renovations at the Henry F. Shricker Public Library in Knox during their annual summer reading program kick off today at 5:30 p.m. The theme for this year’s children and young adult program is Fizz…Boom…Read. It is a science oriented theme but that doesn’t mean that the reading choices are limited to science books. Students will be required to fill out a reading log and will then be eligible for prizes. The program runs from June 2 until July 26. Although the kickoff aimed towards kids there is a summer reading program for adults in which they will need to read six books checked out from the library. Entertainment for the little ones will include the presence of story book characters such as Clifford the Big Red Dog and Llama Llama Red Pajama. Any questions about this program or any other library services can be directed to program director Andrea Brown at abrown@starkecountylibrary.org or 772-7323.
The pavilion and picnic benches at Sandy Acres Park got a fresh coat of paint, thanks to IU Health Starke Hospital associates and their families. President Craig Felty says they chose the site for their annual day of service. They worked with Knox Park Superintendent George Byer to figure out how to best use their time and talents. Associates tackled several projects. They painted picnic tables and the park pavilion, installed exercise equipment and spread mulch in the play areas. Felty says all of the IU Health associates enjoy getting out and giving time back to the community.
“The choices you make today will follow you tomorrow” was the message that guest speaker Janice Hernandez wanted the students to take away from the SCILL graduation ceremony Thursday evening.
Hernandez is in charge over at Integrity Trade Services and advised the students gradating from the program to include their work with the SCILL Center on their resumes.
