Starke County Sheriff’s Department Investigates Burglary

Posted on Author WKVI

The Starke County Sheriff’s Department responded to a burglary incident at Hines Salvage in Grovertown on Sunday, June 26th.

The owner told police that he found a knife laying on the ground by the office door, which he thought the suspect(s) used to get into the business. Once the unknown suspect(s) were inside the business, it appeared several drawers were gone through and weapons were taken. Also taken from the office were bolt cutters that were used to cut off six locks that were on trailer doors and garage doors. 6-7 car radiators were stolen, along with 4-5 catalytic converters and several feet of copper wire.

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Bella Vita Offers Classes to Area Women

Posted on Author WKVI
Tona Miller

Tona Miller, one of the councilors at the Bella Vita Pregnancy Resource Center has said that to date, over 35 women have entered classes at the facility.

“I think that they are very interested in our classes,” said Miller. ” We have a program called the ‘Earn While you Learn’ program and what this program does is every class that you come to, prenatal or parenting, you earn what we call baby bucks. With these baby bucks, you can purchase items out of our store. We have clothing, diapers, cribs, walkers, strollers, anything baby related. You also earn the baby bucks for going to your doctor’s visit or WIC appointments. I think most of the girls are very interested in this program because it helps them in a financial way.”

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Attorney Status Hearing Set for Hobart Givens

Posted on Author WKVI
Hobart Givens, Jr.

An attorney status hearing is scheduled in the Starke Circuit Court this afternoon for Hobart Givens, Jr., 21, of Knox. Givens is charged with one count of Stalking, a Class D Felony, and Possession of Marijuana after being apprehended by police following a complaint.

On June 13th, police received a complaint from a resident who said that their 11-year old daughter was harassed by a male subject driving an older maroon Ford Taurus with lightning bolts on both sides. The girl told police that she had been walking her dog on Potter Street when the subject pulled up next to her and asked her how old she was. When she didn’t respond, he asked her if she needed a ride, at which point she immediately picked up her dog and ran home. When police arrived on scene, the victim was “very scared and upset.”

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Fire Department Officers Participate in Training Sessions

Posted on Author WKVI
Mike Bucy and Joe Short from the Washington Township Fire Department

Local Fire Department officers participated in a two-day training session facilitated by Mike Bucy, Chief of the Stevens County Fire District #1 near Spokane, Washington. The sessions were held at the Washington Township Fire Department.

Bucy was asked about what the information he was giving to the officers.

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Knox Man Arrested after Alleged Threats

Posted on Author WKVI
Jerry Riley

Jerry Riley of Knox was arrested Friday after a domestic incident was called into the Starke County Sheriff’s Department.

Witnesses told police that Riley had arrived at a residence on 800 South and rammed his car into his wife’s car and then backed up and hit a car belonging to Alexander Honchar, pushing it out of the driveway and into the lawn. Riley then exited the vehicle and confronted this step-son, Kebun Boule, about taking jewelry. Riley then allegedly hit Boule. Alexander Honchar told police that he walked around the corner of the porch and Riley surprised him and allegedly held a box cuttter style knife to his throat and Riley reportedly threatened him. Honchar then hit Riley and called 9-1-1.

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Ted Hayes Accompanies Civil Air Patrol on Mission

Posted on Author WKVI

WKVI’s own Ted Hayes was given the opportunity to go airborne with members of Indiana’s Wing of the Civil Air Patrol last Friday as they conducted a simulated mission to provide aerial photographs of bridges along the Kankakee River. Col. Mark Reeves of Indianapolis was the Commander for the evaluation. Lt. Col Matt Creed, First Lt. Lindsay Shipps, and Captain David Sinn conducted the mission.

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Civil Air Patrol Conducts Training in Starke County

Posted on Author WKVI
The plane is prepared for take-off

On July 1st, 1946, President Harry Truman established the Civil Air Patrol. It was charged with three primary missions: Aerospace education, cadet programs and emergency services. Over the past weekend, members of Indiana’s Wing of the Civil Air Patrol were in Knox conducting exercises to prepare themselves for whatever disasters they might be called to in the state.

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Nathan VanDerAa Appears in Starke Circuit Court

Posted on Author WKVI
Nathan VanDerAa

A status hearing regarding the violation of Nathan VanDerAa’s probation was held in Starke Circuit Court Friday. VanDerAa admitted to five violations of his probation, including an arrest in Pulaski County that he did not report for possession of methamphetamine as well as driving while suspended, failure to complete community service, and an overdue balance owed to the probation department. He has also not completed his drug abuse prevention evaluation and did not report to probation as directed.

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Starke County to Receive Federal Public Assistance

Posted on Author WKVI
Flooding occurred after a levee break on the Robbins Ditch. Photo by Becky Pulver.

President Barack Obama has approved 32 counties for federal public assistance for damage sustained by severe weather that began April 19th. Starke County was the only county listed from Northern Indiana that will be receiving funding.

Public assistance means state and local governments and certain non-profit organizations in the designated counties are eligible to apply for federal assistance to pay 75 percent of the approved cost of debris removal, emergency services related to the disaster and repairing or replacing damaged public facilities, such as roads, buildings and utilities.

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IU Health Starke Hospital Implements New Information System

Posted on Author WKVI
IU Health Starke Hospital

IU Health Starke Hospital has implemented a new hospital information system.

“IU Health Starke Hospital implemented a new hospital information system which includes computerized provider order entry and electronic medical records,” said I.T. Director, Ashley Norem. “What this means is that IU Health Starke Hospital now operates all patient related procedures and processes digitally, improving the quality of care for our patients.”

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Starke County Council Approves Salary, Car for New Paramedic EMS Director

Posted on Author WKVI

Starke County Commissioner Kathy Norem brought the Starke County Council up to speed on the work of the Advanced Life Support Committee at the Council’s recent meeting. Norem said that the ALS Committee hopes to have a paramedic chase vehicle in operation by the first of the year. She reviewed the time line of codes that have to be approved by the State before they can start. One is that I.U. Health Starke Hospital will agree to be the sponsoring hospital.

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Starke County P.T.A.B.O.A. Board Reviews Land Values

Posted on Author WKVI
John Viveiros

The P.T.A.B.O.A. Board met this week to review and approve the property values following the recent reassessment.

“The Assessor, by law, has to come up with the land values,” said John Viveiros, Project Manager for the reassessment project in Starke County. “We went through and did a neighborhood delineation based on the sales and came up with land-based rates for each and every neighborhood.”

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Facts Presented at Recent Gas Price Forum

Posted on Author WKVI

A few interesting pieces of information came up during Scot Imus’ presentation on gas prices in LaPorte this week. He’s the Executive Director of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.

Do filling station owners like high gas prices or low gas prices? Low. Stations general make 70% of their income off of gasoline sales, and 70% of their profit from convenience items (i.e. candy bars, potato chips, pop, coffee, knick knacks, etc). When gas prices are high, consumers have less money to spend on the convenience items.

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Community Services of Starke County to Increase Transportation Fares

Posted on Author WKVI
Community Services of Starke County
Community Services of Starke County

Community Services of Starke County is announcing a fare increase for transportation beginning July 1st.

“The reason why we had to do an increase is because of the cost of gasoline,” said Director Joan Haugh. “We put this off and we’re not seeing a break. We’re already six months into this year and we’ve almost spent as much as we did last year. With that cost increasing, we felt that we had to do something so we are increasing as of July 1st. The people that we’ve already told are regular riders and they’ve been asking us for some time when we are going to be raising our rates. How can we afford not to? I think they understand but I just wanted to let the public know too that there is a slight increase.”

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Gas Price Forum Held in LaPorte

Posted on Author WKVI
Senator Jim Arnold talks with a constituent following the forum

Over 75 people attended a meeting to address gasoline pricing in LaPorte last night. The meeting was arranged by State Senator Jim Arnold (D-LaPorte) and State Representative Tom Dermody (R-LaPorte).

Presenters were Scot Imus, Executive Director of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, and Maureen Hellman-Ferguson, Executive Director of the Indiana Petroleum Council.

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Starke County Commissioners Fail to Approve Dog Kennel Ordinance

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Commissioners ( L to R ) Kathy Norem, Dan Bridegroom, Jennifer Davis

Starke County Commission President, Dan Bridegroom, said that the County might be back to square one this week after a dog kennel ordinance failed to gain approval for the third time.

Over 60 dog owners crowded into the County Annex building Monday night to disagree with many aspects of the proposed ordinance that was being presented by Administrator/Building Inspector, Bruce Williams.

After an hour of discussion and comments from the audience, the Commissioners, on a motion by Kathy Norem and seconded by Jennifer Davis, voted to deny the ordinance as presented, and sent it back to the Plan Commission.

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Starke County Library Board Seeks $2 Million for Renovation and Expansion

Posted on Author WKVI
Curt Pletcher and Ellen Dodge

The Starke County Library Board asked the Starke County Council this week for permission to enter into a bond issue for $2 million to renovate and expand the Henry F. Schricker Library in Knox.

“We’ve had several focus groups and at each one of the meetings, the two main things that came up were more room for the children and meeting rooms,” said Library Director, Ellen Dodge. “Those are our two key points.”

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