This is Doctor’s Day – a day set aside to honor all doctors in the United States.
At IU Health Starke Hospital, there are 125 doctors on staff, providing care in 26 specialties.
Dr. Phillip Hassan is the President of the Medical Staff and is also an Emergency Room Doctor. We asked Dr. Hassan about the duties of the President of the Medical Staff.
It was 11 years this week that the Starke County Sesquicentennial Kick-Off Dinner was held in North Judson at the Lutheran Education Center. Chief White Eagle and wife Bobbie Bear provided the program. Chief White Eagle had appeared in a number of movies and such television shows as “Bonanza” and “The Lone Ranger.” Also performing was the WKVI Musical Ensemble. WKVI’s Ed Hasnerl was the Master of Ceremonies.
The woman who was at the center of a controversy that ultimately involved the Starke County Tourism Office and Drug and Tobacco Free Starke County was arrested yesterday on a State Police warrant and charged with Theft. Jennie Carter was booked into the Starke County Jail and eventually bonded out on a $5,000 cash bond.
Carter was accused of mishandling $7,140 in 2011. She eventually admitted to the misappropriation of the funds and agreed to pay it back by March 15th of this year.
The last day to register to vote in this year’s Spring Primary Election is Monday, April 9th.
There are three registration options for you to consider: You can register at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles when you go to renew your Driver’s License, you register online at this website, or you can go to your county’s clerk’s office and fill out a registration form.
If you are already registered to vote and are not able to go to the polls, but would like to vote absentee, in-office absentee voting begins Monday, April 9th, at 8:00 a.m. CT in the Starke County Clerk’s Office. You may vote absentee until Noon on Monday, May 7th. Primary Election Day is Tuesday, May 8th and polls will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. prevailing time.
Knox is one of 50 municipalities named in a federal lawsuit. Kevin D. Miller, who was subjected to a K9 drug search of his person and car in Marshall County last year, has brought suit claiming that dog and all trained by Vohne-Liche Kennels are unreliable. Miller claimed that the dog falsely detected drugs in the car, and in the process of searching the vehicle traumatized his wife. He had initially been stopped for a traffic violation.
A sex offender residence check resulted in the arrest of a suspect on drug charges.
Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department went to 11060 E. 400 N. in Grovertown and once on scene, they found several items on the property and inside a camper that are commonly used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
Police obtained a search warrant and the warrant was executed with officers confiscating sulfuric acid, lye, solvent, methamphetamine, a one-pot method meth lab and an HCL generator.
Tomorrow is Doctor’s Day, but a recognition breakfast will be held today at IU Health Starke Hospital. David Hyatt, Vice President of Operations at the hospital, talked with us earlier in the week about the doctors here.
Plea agreements have been filed in open court for Murriah Dailey and Robert Reed. Dailey was previously charged with two counts of Attempted Murder as a Class A felony, Attempted Escape, Robbery, Receiving Stolen Property, two counts of Resisting Law Enforcement, and Striking A Law Enforcement Animal. Reed faced charges of Robbery, Receiving Stolen Property, two counts of Resisting Law Enforcement, and one count of Habitual Traffic Violator. Murriah Dailey appeared in front of Starke Circuit Court Magistrate Jeanene Calabrese on March 26th 2012 and the plea agreement was found to be acceptable.
The continuing dispute between two adjoining property owners passed another procedure recently when the Starke County Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously rejected an appeal by Betty and George Dotlich of rural Grovertown. The Dotlich appeal was that a permit issued to place a double wide structure on property owned by Julia Ford was in error.
If you are unemployed and are finishing the first 26 weeks of regular state unemployment insurance and moving to federally funded extended benefits will now be required to go to WorkOne for an in-person interview of your work search records.
All unemployment insurance recipients must report three places they looked for work each week, but only those who receive a notice are required to go to WorkOne. In April, you will begin receiving notices in the mail. Make sure your address is up to date in Uplink, Indiana’s online unemployment insurance filing system, to ensure you get the notice.
Two were arrested on drug charges Monday afternoon after police responded to a suspicious vehicle call.
Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department were called to the area of 200 South, east of 800 East. This area is known to police as a drug activity area. Police waited for the suspect vehicle to exit a wooded area and they were able to conduct a traffic stop on 200 South just west of State Road 23.
The Indiana Farm Bureau celebrated it’s 93rd Anniversary on March 25th.
The Starke County Farm Bureau held it’s annual meeting last week, and we asked the Director of State Government Affairs, Bob Kraft, to give us an overview of farming. He talked first about the bright side.
What does the Superintendent of your school district receive in salary and compensation? Beginning July 1st, school corporations will have to hold public meetings before signing contracts with Superintendents where they disclose the total annual compensation in the contract. The boards will then have to take public comment and post the contract on their websites.
The state Department of Transportation is asking Adopt-A-Highway groups to help in the annual spring cleanup of Indiana’s highways.
INDOT and Adopt-A-Highway groups are planning a statewide effort to clean up Indiana’s highways during Trash Bash 2012. The event runs from April 7 through April 22.
Three fire departments battled a house fire at 200 E. and 500 S. in the Bass Lake area yesterday afternoon.
Firefighters from the Bass Lake, Knox-Center Township and North Judson-Wayne Township Fire Departments responded to the location where a 100-year old structure was fully engulfed in flames before crews arrived on scene. No cause has been released yet. A representative from the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s office was scheduled to meet with Bass Lake fire officials to determine a cause of the fire.
Weaver and Boos Consultants had a brighter report for the Starke County Commissioners this month. The company has been contracted to monitor and provide solutions to problems at the old Starke County Landfill located at 625 East and 550 South. In monitoring the groundwater at the site, it was found that there is no significant impact on the water quality. The report stated that another test will be done in June or July and if that test proves negative, Weaver and Boos will contact state authorities about only monitoring the site once a year, or discontinue groundwater monitoring altogether.
Congressman Joe Donnelly has sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to reduce the price of gasoline. He stated that opening the reserve has proven to reduce gas prices.
Last year, President Obama allowed the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the reserve and that action reduced the gas prices six percent.
Contracts were signed last week by the Starke County Commissioners for work to be done by the Kankakee-Iroquois Regional Planning Commission for debris removal work on the Yellow River.
“We’re going to start at the Marshall-Starke County line,” explained Commissioner Dan Bridegroom. “We’ll GPS all of the log jams, those will be bundled, and that’s the work they will bid on.”
Only recently more debris has gone into the river.
“We do know there was one big tree that fell in during the last big storm we had about three weeks ago. Since then, five more trees have gone into the water.”
The $150,000 grant to do the work is coming from the stimulus money offered two years ago. Territorial Engineering is now preparing the bid specifications and work will hopefully begin sometime this summer.
The Northwest Indiana Community Action Corporation, on behalf of the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, has announced that they will be opening the Housing Choice Voucher Program Waiting List for Starke and Pulaski Counties.
Ed Hasnerl has a few more seats available for his summer trip to Washington, D.C.
”We aren’t going for another three months, but I do have room for four more on the motor bus. We’re going to see all the great sites in Washington. We’ll hear Abraham Lincoln speak, we’ll be visiting the Gettysburg Battlefield, and there’s a good chance that Martha will fix lunch for us at Mt. Vernon,” Hasnerl said.
