One of the agenda items for the combined Starke County Council and Commissioners meeting tonight will be a method for paying for 9-1-1 dispatch services. The money is collected by the state, and will be distributed to the individual counties.
According to Auditor Kay Chaffins, last week the funding to maintain 9-1-1 services has been going down each year. In 2010, the county received $408,354. In 2011, the amount was $362,849.
The Starke County Legacy of Women organization is offering grants to women in the community to attend a leadership event or conference.
“This is our second year that the Legacy of Women is providing grants for women in our county to hopefully have them go either for conferences or plan a retreat,” stated member Sheri Bartoli. “We’re asking them then to bring the ideas back to the community.”
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security District Two Response Task Force will participate in coordinated effort on Wednesday, April 25th at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville, Indiana.
The State Level Exercise 2012 Tornado Alley will bring together the efforts of firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, emergency managers, law enforcement personnel and other local emergency response professionals from Elkhart, Fulton, Kosciusko, Marshall, Starke and St. Joseph Counties. Pulaski County officials will be deploying the Tactical Rescue Team and Service and Support Element.
The eradication of Eurasian watermilfoil and curlyleaf pondweed in the Koontz Lake will begin on Tuesday, April 17th.
The Koontz Lake Association and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources River Enhancement Program will be conducting a whole lake treatment for control with EPA approved Sonar Herbicide. Other treatments will be completed within 90-120 days following tomorrow’s treatment.
There are a few seats available on the bus that will take you to Washington, D.C.
“We’re filling up,” said WKVI Tour Director, Ed Hasnerl. “We still have a seat or two available for anyone who wold like to go. We have some cancellations. It’s going to be an exciting time. We’ve got Alan Selge, from the Knox Middle School, who is a great historian. He is going to be sharing his DVDs and he’ll be in costume. That will be a great kick off.”
Ed talks about the sites you will visit on the trip.
“All the standard memorials – the Vietnam Wall, the WW II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, and F.D.R. Memorial.”
Give us a call for information at (574) 772-6241. The trip dates are June 14th-18th.
Residents of Corey Drive in Knox are requesting street lights, according to Mayor Rick Chambers.
“One of the NIPSCO guys stopped up the other day. He said a couple of people in that area had stopped and talked to him about getting two lights in that subdivision. There are no street lights on Corey Drive at 500 East. The ordinance that the planning commission is working on would require new subdivisions to put in their own lights. Now there is a light at the intersection of 500 east and Corey Drive. They are asking for two lights. If you have been in that area there is a hump, and the NIPSCO guy thinks a couple of lights on either side would be nice,” said Chambers.
Two Starke County residents were arrested Wednesday after a traffic stop.
Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department and Indiana State Police were cleaning up a methamphetamine lab at a property in the 8000 East block of 200 South when a vehicle drove by and committed a traffic violation. A traffic stop was conducted and the officer discovered the vehicle was stolen from an owner in Starke County. Officers detained Brittany Griffith and Jason Brooks as a result of the investigation.
The Starke County Retired Teachers organization met this week and welcomed Pam Brooke, Family Nutrition Program Assistant in the Starke County Extension Office, as the guest speaker.
With retired teachers often cooking for one, Pam Brooke gave advice on how to turn this type of cooking into several meals.
“I get a lot of seniors who want meals for one or two,” said Brooke. “Here’s an idea I give to them. Make a big meal and freeze part of it. If you do something like that, you always have a meal when you don’t feel up to cooking,”
The initial hearing for Robert Ryan Corbin was held in Starke Circuit Court Tuesday. Corbin is charged with two counts of Attempted Child Seduction after he allegedly sent inappropriate Facebook messages and that he wanted to pick her up. He also requested pictures of the student and asked her explicit questions.
A preliminary plea of not guilty was entered for Corbin, who has retained Attorney Nicholas T. Otis of Newby Lewis Kaminski and Jones in LaPorte. His attorney announced his intent to file a motion to dismiss the charges and the state has 30 days to respond to the motion. The first pre-trial conference date for Corbin has been set for June 6th at 8:30 a.m., with a hearing on the motion to dismiss to take place at 9:00 a.m. Continue reading
Knox City Police were called to a fight and ended up arresting a man for an active meth lab.
Police were called to a residence on Lake Street and found two men fighting in an upstairs room. When police attempted to detain the men, David Heineman, Sr. resisted demands by the police officer to stop resisting. The other subject complied and told police that the argument started because he thought meth labs were in the room. The officer did observe items that were commonly used in the manufacture of methamphetamine in the room.
A two part community forum will be held April 12th and 26th at the Bass Lake Property Owners Association building to discuss the health needs in Starke County. The two part series is sponsored by Health Link, Better Health for Indiana and the Purdue Center for Regional Development.
Three Starke County residents were arrested on theft charges after two separate incidents.
On Monday, Plymouth Police officers were notified that Jacob D. Fier and Michael J. Hardel, of Knox, were allegedly shoplifting while in Walmart. They were going to flee the scene, but the pair went back into the store. They have preliminary charges of Theft and were incarcerated in the Marshall County Jail.
The Drug Free Double Dare Challenge will be held this Sunday, April 15th at the Knox Middle School. This is the 12th year for the popular event which brings middle and high school student teams together to answer prevention questions about the harms of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
This is a memorable day in the history of Starke County. On this date in 1965, three people were killed and 200 buildings were damaged during the Palm Sunday tornadoes. The hardest hit area was Koontz Lake where then-Sheriff Gordon Armstrong reported 156 houses severely damaged. 33 of the homes were completely destroyed. Killed at Koontz Lake was 50-year-old Everett James. The other two victims were rural Walkerton residents.
One of the most famous bridges in Starke County might be abandoned. The bridge over Eagle Creek on 600 East at County Road 25 North was recommended to be closed by engineering firm, Beam, Longest and Neff. If abandoned, the bridge would be turned over to the farmers in the area who use it, and they would be in charge of maintenance to be able to get their farm equipment over the structure. It would not be open to traffic.
You might have thought that your federal income tax returns were due next Monday. Usually when April 15th falls on a weekend, the income tax filing deadline is pushed to the following Monday. When the deadline falls on a federal holiday, it’s pushed to the next business day. This time around, April 15 falls on a Sunday and yet your taxes are not due until April 17th. Why?
April 16th is Emancipation Day which is a holiday in Washington, D.C. Emancipation Day marks the anniversary of the signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act by President Lincoln in 1862, which freed the slaves in the District of Columbia.
This week is National Telecommunications Operators Week. This week is set aside to recognize the importance of those who coordinate the efforts of police, fire, EMS workers as they perform their duties.
Telecommunications operators, or police dispatchers, are the unsung heroes of public safety. In one second, a dispatcher may be communicating a routine function to an officer and the next they may be coordinating a high speed pursuit, dispatching emergency assistance to run to an accident scene, or there may be a situation where police are involved in a gun battle.
The Drug Enforcement Agency is sponsoring the fourth nationwide “Prescription Drug Take Back” initiative on Saturday, April 28th. The Indiana State Police is partnering with the DEA in this event and expired, unused, and unwanted prescriptions can be disposed of at any Indiana State Police post on the 28th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. local time.
Starke County Clerk Evelyn Skronski is in today with some important information about the upcoming Primary Election.
“Voter registration closes on April 9th at the close of business and then it doesn’t reopen until May 22nd. The first day of in-office voting also begins the 9th of April,” said Skronski.
The Junior Achievement Bowl-a-Thon is this Wednesday, April 11th at 6:00 p.m. CT, at Bowlaway Lanes in Knox where native Hoosier and Hall of Fame Pro Bowler, Mike Aulby, will be in attendance to sign autographs and help cheer on the teams in the tournament.
Junior Achievement Board President, Bridget Markin, says there are great teams already signed up and there is room for three more five-member teams.
