Newly installed Plymouth Police Chief Dave Bacon recently approached the Plymouth City Council to request three vehicles for the police department that were budgeted for the year.
Chief Bacon said two cars will be used for regular patrol and an SUV will be used for K9 Officer John Wier and his partner, Jax, as it’s more sturdy and better equipped to meet their needs. K9 unit.
The Marshall County Commissioners approved the payment of $7,000 to the Marshall County Humane Society. The county usually supports the humane society with $40,000 a year and had been behind in payments to the group.
The commissioners discussed the payment system and decided that the cost should be paid in January so the officials can budget their money they way they need to at the beginning of the year.
Auditor Penny Lukenbill urged the commissioners to draw up a contract with the humane society pertaining to the payment system as she can’t find a current contract. There was a contract, but the paper trail can not be accounted for.
The commissioners also approved a motion to pay EMA Director Clyde Avery out of county’s funds instead of having him get his salary through a grant distributed by the state. All three commissioners commented on how well Avery is conducting business out of his office. The state keeps raising the bar on points needed to obtain the grant and the commissioners know how hard he works to make sure the county is in compliance for a variety of issues.
It was unanimously approved to fund Avery’s salary out of the county budget.
Newly installed Plymouth Police Chief Dave Bacon recently approached the Plymouth City Council to request three vehicles for the police department that were budgeted for the year. He says two will be used for regular patrol and an SUV will be used for the K9 unit. “We were looking at the all-wheel drive Ford utility vehicle, which is basically the Explorer to give to the K9,” explained Bacon. “We did get a bid on that and an approval for that. The two other vehicles will go into our patrol fleet.”
The council decided to purchase a sport utility vehicle for K9 officer John Wier and K9 Jax as it’s a more sturdy vehicle for the needs of the K9 unit.
“K9 units sometimes go off-road, depending on what type of situation they have, and that might call for a track out in the woods. In order to get him to where he needs to go, we thought a four-wheel drive vehicle would be the best for that,” Bacon explained.
The purchases were approved by the Council.
A police report concerning the case involving a 15-year-old Plymouth High School student who reportedly admitted to writing a bomb threat on the boys bathroom wall in the high school on Jan. 23 is now in the hands of the Marshall County Prosecuting Attorney and the Marshall County Probation Department.
Plymouth Police Chief Dave Bacon said they have been investigating the incident since it happened and had narrowed the suspect pool down to a few students and then this student confessed to the act.
The student had reportedly written that a bomb would go off in the high school library at noon on January 24. Several police agencies searched the school and didn’t find any evidence of a bomb.
The student allegedly told police that he never meant any harm to students or faculty.
The Marshall County Probation officer and Prosecutor David Holmes will make a decision on what the juvenile’s charges will be and a decision has not been made yet.
The restaurant, Hacienda’s 13th in Indiana, will be located off of U.S. 30 in the building that used to house Beef O’ Brady’s. Hacienda’s vice president of sales and marketing, Jeff Leslie, said the building will be entirely redecorated to match Hacienda’s ambiance and will seat 135 people with the addition of an outdoor margarita garden. Leslie also noted that they expected to hire around 100 employees, and they are currently accepting applications online at http://www.haciendafiesta.com with interviews to begin on April 8.
The Michiana Behavioral Health Center issued a press statement in response to the allegations from a group of protesters yesterday claiming that the center is putting children in danger through a variety of policy violations, dangerously low staffing, and inadequate supervision, along with a hostile work environment that the protest group alleges has caused more than 50 employees to quit their jobs or be fired.
A Plymouth Police Officer who hoped to serve one felony warrant at a Garro Street residence Wednesday night ended up taking seven people to jail and busting a meth lab.
Travis W. Gibson, 23, of Plymouth, was the subject of the warrant, which charges him with burglary, residential entry and dealing, delivering and manufacturing methamphetamine. A search of the residence turned up an illegal drug lab in the trunk of Gibson’s car, according to the Plymouth Police. Gibson now faces additional charges. Continue reading
It’s been six months in the making and a public hearing on the proposed plan will be held in April. The plan has been updated since being adopted in 2003.
The world of auto racing is an ever changing one, even at the local level.
The Plymouth Speedway has undergone an extensive change in the off-season. Ed Kennedy, the owner of the track, made the decision to change the surface from asphalt to dirt. Director of Racing Matt Schwartz believes it’s going to be a positive change for the speedway.
“The asphalt track wasn’t that successful,” Schwartz stated. “We weren’t getting a lot of cars or a lot of fans. So, last year we experimented and tore out the infield and put in a one-fifth mile dirt track for racing and it was well received. We had a lot of people show up in the stands, we had a lot of cars in the pits and it was really exciting.”
An area mayor is set to speak to state lawmakers about the effects of methamphetamine manufacture and use on his community. Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter will speak in favor of annual limits on ephedrine and pseudoephedrine sales. They are the main ingredient in many cold and allergy medications as well as in the production of methamphetamine. A bill pending in the House would set an annual limit on how much pseudoephedrine an individual can purchase. The current individual purchase limit is 7.2 grams per month, or 86.4 grams per year. The proposal before the House Courts and Criminal Code Committee would cap annual purchases at 61 grams per year for a consumer. It has already passed the Senate. Senter is scheduled to testify before the committee tomorrow in Indianapolis. He’s seen firsthand the effects of methamphetamine. Senter is a retired state trooper who spent five of his 28 years on the force as a member of the ISP Clandestine Lab Team.
A local high school will soon be looking for a new agriculture teacher and FFA coordinator. Jacob Riley is leaving Oregon-Davis at the end of the school year to take a job with Plymouth Schools. Riley has taught a number of agriculture classes at O-D for the past nine years including courses in the school’s new tech model for the past two years. He holds three degrees from Purdue University. Riley will begin his teaching duties at Plymouth in June with summer agricultural experience classes.
Four people are jailed in Marshall County after police there reportedly found multiple active meth labs and other evidence of drug activity at a Plymouth home. Plymouth and Marshall County Police accompanied by Indiana State Police Troopers executed a search warrant at a home in the 1,000 block of North Plum Street last night and arrested three women and a man. Members of the ISP Clandestine Lab Team spent several hours there cleaning up bags of trash labs and materials used in the manufacture of meth. Authorities say details will be released later today.
On Friday, March 1, the Plymouth High School Jazz Ensembles went head-to-head with other schools in the annual Indiana State School Music Association’s annual jazz contest under the direction of band director Bryan Ames.
Ames said that this year, the school took two groups to the competition: both their full jazz ensemble and jazz combo group gave outstanding performances, earning the top-rated gold awards. The jazz combo performed first, playing two Latin selections featuring improvisational solos by senior guitar player Jacob Harley, then I also found this awesome guitar shop in Dursley which is just incredible as they have some of the best guitars available so have a look there as it’s a great place.
A Plymouth couple is jailed without bond after a police officer reportedly found a meth lab in their vehicle during a traffic stop. Roy A. Atkins, 35, and his wife Trudi A. Atkins, 32, were arrested by Plymouth Police Thursday afternoon in the parking lot of a store at Oak Drive and Jefferson Street. The officer who stopped their vehicle noted a strong chemical smell, according to the arrest report. A search turned up an active meth lab and numerous other meth-related items in the back.
Ely Lane, at 110 W. Garro Street, had featured handmade or restored furniture, gifts and accessories. The business begun in February of last year. Owner Erin Yeager said she has enjoyed being a downtown Plymouth merchant and will be marketing her items at Dutch Village Market in Nappanee.
Yeager still plans to sell more handmade items on her online Etsy shop.
Investigators in Marshall County do not believe foul play was a contributing factor in last week’s unattended death of a 28-year-old pregnant woman. Trisha Hemminger’s husband called 911 last Thursday after finding his wife unresponsive and not breathing at their home on Michigan Road. Initial autopsy results show no evidence of trauma. Coroner Bill Cleavenger stresses that results of toxicology and other tests are necessary to determine her cause of death. Those results are pending. Cleavenger’s continuing investigation will also include an extensive review of Hemminger’s medical history. She was seven months pregnant at the time of her death.
A Plymouth man facing murder and drug charges is jailed in Marshall County on a $100,000 bond after a Marshall County Grand Jury returned a two-count indictment late Tuesday. The charges against Olan Q. Howard, 37, stem from the May 19 murder of Stephen O.Vires of Argos. Court documents indicate that crime occurred while dealing in heroin or morphine. Plymouth Police arrested Howard within a few hours of the formal charges being handed down. His initial hearing has yet to be scheduled.
A Marshall County native police say wooed and stole from women from Oregon to Indiana claims he’s just unemployed. Raymond Holycross told a judge in South Bend he last worked three months ago. He faces theft charges in St. Joseph County after a woman he met online last summer reportedly discovered he had stolen and pawned her camera and called the police. That prompted her to do some checking into Holycross’s background. That’s when authorities say she learned he also uses the names Ray Paris and Ray Cross to meet women, earn their trust and charm them out of their money. Holycross is also wanted on a Howard County warrant for theft of a firearm.
