As reported Saturday, there is to be a change of leadership at I.U. Health Starke Hospital. Linda Satkoski will become the Chief Operating Office for the entire La Porte health system after serving as the president of I.U. Health Starke Hospital for three years. David Hyatt has agreed to become the Interim President at Starke, and this change will take place June 4.
Satkoski says a number of big changes have been made in the last three years.
The Harlem Wizards basketball team brings their high octane form of Hoops to Knox tonight to help raise funds for the Knox Band Boosters. The money raised will be used to fund a trip to Florida by the Knox High School Band.
Opposing players taking part in the game will include, among others, WKVI Morning Man Tom Berg. Berg has been saving himself for just this moment.
The Knox Harvest Days celebration is August 24 – 26, and Michelle Bachtel, owner of the local H & R Block in Knox, is the new festival president. Bachtel says the organization has made a number of developments, including a new website.
“Well the first thing we did is establish the Knox Harvest Festival as its own legal entity, so it is now an organization that can be donated to. Sponsors can sponsor it and know the money is going where it needs to go and to whom its suppose to go. The second thing we did is develop a web page: knoxharvestfestival.org. If you need to e-mail me it’s just michelle@knoxharvestfestival.org,” Bachtel said.
Remember the Busy Bee Restaurant in North Judson? The Busy Bee opened on this date in 1985. Jerry Patterson then moved to the location and changed the name to Patterson’s. It is now Brantwood, which is North Judson’s former name.
The U.S. 35 widening project began in Knox on this date in 2001. Culver Road was closed for a two block stretch between U.S. 35 to Main Street. This was part of a $7 million dollar widening of U.S. 35 to four lanes. Construction extended from the Yellow River Bridge on the north to just past the Astoria Motel on the South.
In Culver on this date Mr. T’s Pharmacy became known as CVS after the sale of the pharmacy by the family of the late Ron Tusing.
Finally organized sports began in Indiana as the Summit City Baseball Club was organized in Ft. Wayne.
New Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson is slated as a speaker Saturday night at the Starke County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner. The event, to be held at the newly remodeled Bass Lake Community Center, will begin with a social hour at 6:00 and the dinner at 7:00.
Other local and state candidates are expected to be in attendance, as well as 2nd District Congressional candidate Jackie Walorski.
Lawson was selected by Governor Mitch Daniels to fill the position vacated by Charlie White who was convicted of six felonies earlier in the year and lost his job.
The new Secretary of State was a State Senator from Danville, who Daniels said “comes to the office with the highest credentials.” She assumed the office with only 53 days until the Primary Election, and went right to work.
Lawson is the second woman to fill the position of Indiana Secretary of State, after Sue Ann Gilroy.
There will be a change in leadership at I.U. Health Starke Hospital, as Thor Thordarson, President and CEO of I.U. Health La Porte announced Friday that Linda Satkoski, current president of I.U. Health Starke Hospital, will become the Chief Operating Officer for the entire La Porte Health system. David Hyatt has agreed to become the Interim President at Starke.
The change in leadership will take place June 4th, and we’ll hear more from Thordarson, Satkoski, and Hyatt in interviews next week.
The Starke United Annual Dinner was held last night at Community Services of Starke County.
Executive Director Julie Dessauer talked about programs Starke United supported during 2011 which included the Kindergarten Countdown, the Boy Scout and Girl Scout Food Drive, JA More than Money, Familywize, and 211. $13,000 will be distrbuted in undesignated funds this year.
New Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson is slated as a speaker Saturday night at the Starke County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner. The event, to be held at the newly remodeled Bass Lake Community Center, will begin with a social hour at 6:00 p.m. and the dinner at 7:00 p.m. CT.
Other local and state candidates are expected to be in attendance as well as Second District Congressional candidate, Jackie Walorski.
Accused of firing a gun in the Wythogan Park in Knox, Dustin Spencer was present for his initial hearing in Starke Circuit Court on Wednesday. Spencer pleaded not guilty to the charges against him: Criminal Recklessness as both Class C and Class D felonies.
Spencer requested a court-appointed attorney and was granted Attorney Timothy Lemon. These charges stem from an incident on April 10th in which police say Spencer fired a gun in the park with several bystanders, including juveniles playing on a baseball diamond, and he also allegedly fired the gun toward an occupied dwelling.
The Starke United Annual Meeting will be held this evening at the Community Services of Starke County building. The event is being sponsored by IU Health Starke Hospital.
Executive Director Julie Dessauer will give a review of 2011, including a report of the campaign total. Testimonials will be given by Rhonda Adcock of CASA and Barbara Miller of Community Services. An announcement of distribution will also be made.
How much is IU Health Starke Hospital really worth?
Starke County officials have agreed to hold a hearing on May 14th to consider adding an addendum to the Save the Hospital document to help answer that question. By adding an addendum to the ordinance, the officials would be able to dip into the fund to finance the hiring of a consultant firm that would place a value figure on the hospital, equipment and more.
The North Judson Police Department recently investigated another scam going around the area.
Police say a resident on Lincoln Avenue received what appeared to be a legitimate check in the mail for around $3,800 from a nationally-known insurance company. The person was asked to deposit the check and wire $1,900 back to the company to receive the remainder of the money. This is a scam. If you deposit the check and wire the money, the check will bounce and your money will already be claimed by the scammer.
The staff at the Starke County Environmental Management office will be sending out Envrionmental Assessment bills by the end of this week.
The estimated $20 fee is the state’s effort to reduce waste to landfills. It also allows recycling sites in the county and the fee helps provide the county-wide Environment Day. This year’s Environment Day event is scheduled for June 15th and 16th. More information on that event will be released at a later date.
The space shuttle Discovery completed its final flight yesterday and now it will be grounded as a museum relic. The Discovery took several victory laps above the Capital.
Second District Congressman Joe Donnelly described the thrill of watching Discovery as it took the victory laps around the White House, the Capital and Washington Monument.
“It was amazing to see,” said Donnelly. “It was sitting atop a 747 and it flew right over the Capital. As I saw it, it put a chill down my spine.”
The shuttle left at daybreak Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and three hours later made its final flight around Washington, D.C.
The Starke County Museum on Main Street in Knox has reopened after some remodeling. Volunteers are on hand to welcome you from noon until 4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. The volunteers include Ron Vindel, Peg Brettin, June Golding, Mary Ann Gappa, and Randi Beem. Starke County Historian Ed Hasnerl will be on hand too on Fridays.
A South Carolina firm has issued a recall for frozen entrees due to a mislabeling and because it contains an undeclared allergen.
Nestle Prepared Foods Company is recalling roughly 16,890 pounds of Stouffer’s lasagna frozen entrees that may contain stuffed peppers with Worcestershire Sauce made with anchovies, a known allergen that is not declared on the lasagna labels. Subject to recall are the 19 1/8-oz. Cartons of “Stouffer’s Lasagna Italiano,” with a best before date of “Jan. 2014,” and shipping cases of “Stouffers DS STFD Peppers,” each containing 12 cartons that may be labeled with “Stouffer’s Lasagna Italiano.”
Starke County Sheriff Oscar Cowen announced yesterday that a pill drop program is being conducted at the Starke County Jail. If you have any unused or expired prescription medications, you can drop them off at the jail between 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, until April 27th.
The Indiana Department of Transportation has awarded a bid to a Gary company on the bridge reconstruction project over the Yellow River on U.S. 35 in Knox.
Construction should begin on the U.S. 35 bridge by the end of April. Work on the bridge will be restricted to one lane at a time, so the other lane would remain open for one-way traffic, with a traffic signal controlling the flow of traffic. The expected length of the lane restrictions on the bridge is 150 days.
On the evening of April 10, 2012, officers with the Indiana State Police and the South Bend Police Department Special Operation Section worked in concert to remove more than 10 pounds of powder heroin from the streets. The multi-jurisdictional investigation that led officers to the estimated $400,000 in heroin stemmed from an investigation that started in Indianapolis during the summer of 2011.
The Starke County Jail Committee recently met with representatives from the DLZ Architectural Firm, Skillman Corporation, Umbaugh and Associates, and Ice Miller Legal Councilors.
The next phase of the committee’s work is the data collection by Paul Downing of DLZ. Downing said after he collects the data, including jail bed needs, he will pass the information along to the architectural team.
