Two people were seriously wounded in an accident that occurred early Saturday morning in Pulaski County.
The accident occurred at the intersection of State Road 39 and State Road 14 around 5:30 a.m. ET. Edward Brooke, of Knox, reportedly pulled out in front of an ambulance at the intersection. Norman Bathke, 44, of Medaryville, the driver of the ambulance was not injured but Brooke was taken to Pulaski Memorial Hospital with injuries. The ambulance was registered to United Mobile Care, Inc. of San Pierre. It was foggy at the time of the accident
Several West Central students will be getting an up close and personal look at the inner workings of the Pulaski County EMS as they start job shadowing EMTs beginning next semester. At least ten students from the West Central Health Occupations class will begin shadowing at the EMS Department in January.
EMS Director Nikki Lowry explained that this is the second time since she became director in June 2011 that the Health Occupations class has shadowed EMTs, for a good reason: she said it exposes them to the reality of what EMTs do on a daily basis.
A Medaryville man was questioned by Pulaski County Sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday after an alleged battery incident.
The suspect, Arnold Neely, 49, told police that he and the victim had been at the American Legion in Medaryville. When they returned home, the pair started arguing and Neely allegedly pushed the victim. The victim fell on the ground beside the wood stove and broke beer bottles and the glass table near the scene.
Absentee voting numbers are up in both Starke and Pulaski Counties.
Starke County Clerk Evelyn Skronski reports almost 800 absentee ballots have been cast so far with walk-in voters and mail-in ballots. She indicated that this is a significant amount of ballots cast so far, especially with three weeks to go until the General Election on Nov. 6.
Pulaski County Commissioners Tracey Shorter, Kenneth Boswell, Michael Tiede
Nathan Origer, executive director of the Pulaski County Community Development Commission, gave the county commissioners an update on his efforts to bring new business to Pulaski County.
Origer explained that he is currently speaking with an Illinois business that may be interested in moving to the area, but he said they are trying to find a suitable property. He said he is trying to get the county to become more aggressive and proactive with enticing businesses to move to the county, and it seems their efforts are paying off. The Francesville area, Origer explained, has at least two cabinet makers that have set up shop, and T&S Recycling is working on getting their own building up to shape.
The Pulaski County Junior Leaders and the Winamac Community High School Sunshine Society will be doing a different kind of trick-or-treating on Thursday, Oct. 25.
Members of both organizations will be trick-or-treating for canned goods for the Pulaski County Food Pantry. They will be traveling around the Winamac, Francesville and Medaryville communities picking up canned food items from residents between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET, so leave your items outside on the step if you wish or you can give your donation to the volunteers when they come to the door.
If you know you will not be home that night and would like to donate, you may drop off your canned goods at the Pulaski County Extension Office by Oct. 26.
Last year, over 1,000 pounds of food were donated to the Pulaski County Human Services food pantry.
Pulaski County Commissioners Tracey Shorter, Kenneth Boswell, Michael Tiede
The Pulaski County Commissioners this week explained their reasoning behind choosing a bid that was more than twice the cost of another bid for masonry repairs in the courthouse tower. David Zeltwanger, owner of DK and Sons, LLC, asked the commissioners to explain why they chose a $16,828.75 bid over his bid of just $7450.
Commissioner Ken Boswell explained that the winning bidder, Kuiper Masonry, was chosen partly because Jim Kuiper, its president, attended the commissioners meeting on Feb. 20 and toured the tower with the commissioners, explaining the work that would be done. Boswell said they appreciate the time it took out of the vendor’s day to explain the process step-by-step.
The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department is beginning to gather collections for the Shop with a Cop program this Christmas.
The staff will provide clothing and toys during the Christmas season to the families in need. An account for the Shop with a Cop campaign has been established at the Alliance Bank located in Francesville and Winamac. When donating to the account, ask for Shop with a Cop.
Pulaski County Sheriff Michael Gayer encourages all clubs, individuals or companies that can spare a little to do so to allow others less fortunate to enjoy “the true spirit of the season.”
The Eastern Pulaski School Corporation is currently investigating a fraudulent bomb threat made at the school on Wednesday, Oct. 10. Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman explained that they had been alerted by a student that a threat had been written in one of the stalls in the high school girls’ restroom indicating that a bomb was in the school and would go off at a specific time.
A Winamac man was arrested Thursday after allegedly threatening the lives of two people with a gun.
Pulaski County police were called to Kit Matthes’ residence after a 911 hang-up/open line phone call was made to the dispatch center. Police arrived at 2979 North County Road 800 West and found Matthes, who said two people were in the house with him. Officers noted that Matthes was acting like he was intoxicated on a controlled substance.
Pulaski County Commissioners Tracey Shorter, Kenneth Boswell, Michael Tiede
The Pulaski County Commissioners this week accepted a bid for office supplies for county offices. They were presented with a breakdown of each company’s prices for the products most needed by the county, and the commissioners added up the totals to determine which company would offer the county the best prices on their most-purchased items.
A motion was made to award the bid to DeGroot Technology Services in Winamac, whose products came in at a total of $351.73 – the lowest of the bids presented.
Pulaski County Commissioners Tracey Shorter, Kenneth Boswell, Michael Tiede
The Pulaski County Commissioners this week upheld an order to demolish a Winamac home at the request of Building Inspector Dave Dare.
Dare told the commissioners that a building at 419 W. Jefferson St. in Winamac had become dilapidated after a tree had fallen into the home and destroyed the west wall. He said he had spoken to the homeowner, Ryan Galbreath, and informed him that he needed to repair the home or it would be demolished. Dare said Galbreath chose not to repair the home.
A Department of Corrections van was involved in a crash in Pulaski County on Thursday.
The DOC van, driven by 32-year-old Michael Ritchey of Rockville, was driving south on State Road 39 when he reportedly failed to yield to the right of way at the intersection with State Road 14 in Pulaski County.
A Department of Corrections van was involved in a crash in Pulaski County on Thursday.
The DOC van, driven by 32-year-old Michael Ritchey, of Rockville, was driving south on State Road 39 when he reportedly failed to yield to the right of way at the intersection with State Road 14 in Pulaski County.
Besides the technology upgrades in the classroom at Eastern Pulaski schools, Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman said they are also working on upgrading a lesser-known device: the Weatherbug system atop the school. Klitzman said the weather station had been damaged by this summer’s strong, damaging winds, and the corporation’s insurance company will be funding its repairs.
“The nice thing about this weather station is it’s on top of our high school, so in terms of the readings for temperature, wind direction, wind speed, humidity, all that is right here in Winamac and right now it’s not working. The camera is not working, so we need to repair that,” said Klitzman.
The Pulaski County Food Pantry is in need of donations.
Pulaski County Human Services Director Jacki Frain indicated that donations of canned items, soups, peanut butter, jelly and other shelf food items are needed. Diapers, shampoo, deodorant, paper products and other toiletry items are also needed.
The amount of absentee ballots already cast indicates voters are showing an interest in the Presidential, U.S. Senate and Gubernatorial races.
Starke County Clerk Evelyn Skronski said over 150 absentee ballots have already been filed and that form of voting has only been available since Monday! With the federal races, Skronski noted that the local races, especially the school board races, have generated a lot of interest in this General Election. She added that many voters in the North Judson area are paying particular attention to the referendum question that asks if the North Judson Town Council should expand to five members from three members.
In honor of the many volunteers who have made the Tippecanoe River State Park what it is today, the Friends of the Tippecanoe River State Park will be holding a Volunteer Recognition Day at the park on Saturday.
The Friends are a new organization formed in June consisting of a group of community volunteers who work with Park Assistant Property Manager Jason Hickman and Park Manager Vernon Gillum. The group provides support to the two and volunteers for activities, even performing cleanups and other services to benefit the park.
Hickman said the recognition day is a small way to show how appreciative the organization is to those who have helped the park.
“We’re recognizing volunteers that have helped throughout the year. We’ve had close to 60 volunteers donate close to 1000 hours this summer and spring, and this is just the park’s chance to say, ‘Hey, thank you, we appreciate what you did.’ So we got a variety of events going on that should be enjoyable for a lot of people,” said Hickman. Mary Perren, the secretary of Friends of Tippecanoe River State Park, said helping this organization is just one way to polish the jewel that is the park.
“This is a way for us in the community to say, ‘This is one of our crown jewels. We want to make it nice. We want to make it enjoyable for everybody to come out here and what can we do to do that?’” said Perren. (10-12-12 – Perren – What Can We Do)
One of the first tasks the volunteer organization did this year was organize a cleanup at the nature center. The group gave the building a floor-to-ceiling detailed clean, and Perren said volunteers helped out where the park’s limited staff was unable to get to, and without these volunteers, the park wouldn’t be what it is today.
One of the first things they did this year was a cleanup at the nature center, pulled everything out, gave it a floor to ceiling cleaning. Volunteers helped where the limited staff was unable to get to, so its beneficial to the park to have them.
To become a member of the Friends of the Tippecanoe River State Park, call (574) 946-3213 for more information.
As schools throughout the country migrate from the rapidly-antiquating textbooks, chalkboards, and other teaching tools, the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation is following the same path, but Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman said his corporation is going about it a bit different.
Klitzman explained that the corporation will be slowly phasing in the new technology, as opposed to dropping new technology on the heads of teachers and students at the beginning of the school year. He said they will be systematically adding new devices throughout the year, and they’ve already started this school year with iPads in the hands of 7th graders working in science. On top of that, Klitzman noted they also have several handheld devices that go beyond iPads, such as notebooks, netbooks, and other devices, in several advanced high school classes.
