Three Offenders Appear in Starke Circuit Court for Initial Hearings

Posted on Author WKVI
Murriah Dailey

Murriah Dailey made an appearance in Starke Circuit Court Wednesday, but her case has been continued until Friday at 9:00 a.m. due to some issues with the police report. The officer has not yet signed the report, so the prosecuting attorney has been unable to file charges at this time. An affidavit for probable cause has been filed for two counts of Attempted Murder, as well as counts of Motor Vehicle Theft, Battery on a Police Officer, and Resisting Law Enforcement with a Vehicle. More charges are expected to be filed by state police after their investigation is completed.

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Gas Prices Continue to Fluctuate

Posted on Author WKVI

Do you feel like you’re a yo-yo when it comes to gasoline prices? If you filled up Tuesday night or early yesterday morning you were lucky because by mid-morning the gas prices had spiked higher. Prices that had fluctuated between $3.60 and $3.80 for a gallon of regular suddenly were up to $3.95 locally.

Memorial Day Weekend Starts the Tourism Season in Starke County

Posted on Author WKVI
Rich Wieczorek

The Memorial Day Weekend is the “kick-off” for summer fun in the area. Rich Wieczorek, spokesperson for the Tourism Board in Starke County, is in to tell us about the guides that are available at the tourism office in the Chamber Depot.

“Right now we’ve got the Visitor’s Guide and it’s information for people coming into the county because when the come in the county, where do they go? Well, they pick up the Visitor’s Guide and there it is. The festivals are in there, recreation, antique shops, places to eat, and if they don’t have a place to stay, lodging is listed. At the same time, the campgrounds are all opening up now. The Bass Lake Beach and Campground will have free Wednesdays again and Hickory Hills is going full blast too.”

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Senator Jim Arnold to Represent Parts of Starke County in State Senate

Posted on Author WKVI
Senator Jim Arnold

WKVI News had an opportunity recently to talk with Eighth District State Senator Jim Arnold (D) of LaPorte. Arnold, if elected in 2012, will represent a few townships in Starke County.

“It’s a pleasure and an honor to have the opportunity to represent the people of Starke County,” said Senator Arnold. “I don’t have all of Starke County, but I do have five townships in the northern part of the County. I picked up additional portions of St. Joe County as well. I’m honored and privileged to be down here and I look forward to working with the people on concerns of mutual interest.”

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North Judson-San Pierre 3rd Grade Class Tours Starke County Museum, Courthouse

Posted on Author WKVI
Dan Roscka tells the students some of Starke County's history

Mrs. Ridley’s third grade class from North Judson-San Pierre Elementary School took a tour of the Starke County Museum in Knox Tuesday morning. The tours were given by Marianne Gappa, June Golding, Peg Brettin and Dan Roscka. Dan Roscka told the students about the time capsule that was opened during the County’s Sesquicentennial.

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Jim Shilling to be Featured on Friday’s “Ted Hayes Remembers” Program

Posted on Author WKVI
Jim Shilling

TED HAYES REMEMBERS-6-3

This week on “Ted Hayes Remembers”, Ted will talk with Jim Shilling.

Jim and Melba Shilling have been in the forefront of collecting and maintaining a history of Starke County for decades. Jim has shown the Starke County Courthouse to hundreds of people, and taken hundreds more on tours of the Starke County Museum.

Ted asked Jim to talk about historical events over the past 50 or so years that have impressed him.

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Services for Andy Howes Set for August

Posted on Author WKVI
Andy Howes

Services will be held in Starke County in August for Chief Warrant Officer, Andy Howes. Although complete details are not available at this time, it is known that services will be August 2nd and that his remains will be taken on to his final resting place, Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Those services will be held August 5th. Howes’ partial remains have been in U.S. possession since 1988. They were identified through DNA samples.

Originally, plans were set for 2012 but were moved up to August of this year.

Howes was on a mission in November of 1970 when his helicopter failed to return to base.  He was a Knox High School graduate.

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Officials from Starke, Pulaski Counties Participate in Earthquake Exercise

Posted on Author WKVI

The largest ever Indiana exercise and the first ever national level exercise designed around a natural disaster was held last week. Starke County EMA Director, Ted Bombagetti and Pulaski County Chief Deputy Sheriff, Ron Patrick, who is the District Two Task Force Commander for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, were involved in the exercise that took place at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center. Pulaski County Sheriff, Michael Gayer, attended the training and he talks about the training center in Jennings County:

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Five Star to Display Historical Starke County Pictures

Posted on Author WKVI
A worker puts up the first historical Starke County picture at Five Star

The Five Star store in the Knox Mall is going to house 40 to 50 four by six foot pictures depicting Starke County’s history. The first picture went up yesterday and Jim Shilling was there to describe the scene.

“We’re putting up the first picture above some of the produce on the northeast corner of the store,” said Shilling. “It’s a picture of the Charles Windisch store that was in Starke County about 100 years ago. If you look closely to the left, that’s Charles Windisch and if you look in the back, you’ll see the cooler. That’s not a cooler like you think of now. That storage above it is filled with two or three hundred pounds of ice and that’s the cooler. He butchered his own meat, it was always fresh and it was quite a grocery store. On the bottom right, you can almost pick out a Red Delicious apple.”

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Assistance for Employees Affected by La Porte Hospital Reducation in Staffing

Posted on Author WKVI

There will be a special information session today for Indiana University Health LaPorte Hospital employees affected by the recent reduction in force at the WorkOne office in LaPorte. The session will introduce you to the many transition services available through the WorkOne system.

WorkOne services, including assessment such as Work Keys; free workshops; e-learning and training opportunities; labor market information and job search assistance through Indiana Career Connect; and information on unemployment insurance will be featured. Today’s information session will be offered at four different times at the LaPorte WorkOne office from 8:30-10:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. to Noon, 1:00-2:30 p.m. and 2:30-4:00 p.m. CT.

If you are interested in attending one of these sessions and would like to reserve a spot, call Shelley Cottrell at (219) 362-2175 ext. 258.

Starke County Sheriff’s Department Receives Transfer for Pension Fund

Posted on Author WKVI
Sheriff Oscar Cowen
Sheriff Oscar Cowen

The pension fund for the Starke County Sheriff’s Department has received its necessary fund transfer, thanks to Sheriff Oscar Cowen and the County Council. At their joint meeting with the Commissioners, Cowen asked for $108,514.32 to be transferred to the Sheriff’s Pension Fund. This transfer has been requested annually for several years.

“We call it the riverboat money. It comes in, it goes into an account. The only way it can come out of that account is the sheriff has to ask for it. And if the sheriff doesn’t ask for it, it can’t be taken out,” said Commissioner Dan Bridegroom.

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Man Arrested after Threatening Starke County Woman with Knife

Posted on Author WKVI
Tony A. Glover

Tony A. Glover, of Nappanee, Indiana, was arrested by officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday, May 17th after he allegedly placed a knife against the throat of a Knox woman and threatened to harm her.

According to the police report, three witnesses told police that Glover had placed a knife against the victim’s throat and threatened her. Glover was in possession of knife at the time police questioned him about the incident. He told police that he never threatened the victim or the witnesses.

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Starke County Election Board Reviews Spring Primary Election

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Election Board: Starke County Clerk Evelyn Skronski, Brenda Stanojevic and Kenny Wallace (sitting) Pat Mitchell and Jim Henriott

The Starke County Election Board met yesterday in its first meeting since the Spring Primary Election where the Board members discussed the election.

Board President, Pat Mitchell, was asked if he thought the first election with the consolidation of the four Center Township precincts was a success.

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Starke County Law Enforcement to Participate in Operation Pull Over Blitz

Posted on Author WKVI

The Starke County Sheriff’s Department, Hamlet Police Department, Knox City Police Department and the North Judson Police Department will be participating in an Operation Pull Over Blitz that begins today and goes through June 5th. Officers will be on extra patrols to conduct a campaign on seat belt safety.

This enforcement period is designed to save lives and the officers encourage all occupants in a vehicle to wear their seat belts. Anyone not wearing their seat belt when stopped by police will receive a ticket. 250 other police agencies throughout the state will be focusing on this seat belt enforcement. Officers will also be watching for drivers who follow too closely, make unsafe lane changes, drive aggressively, fail to properly restrain children in child seats, and operate a vehicle while impaired.

IU Health Starke Hospital to Help Knox Elementary PTO with Playground Project

Posted on Author WKVI
This pile of mulch is just one that IU Health Starke Hospital volunteers will be helping the PTO with today

IU Health Starke Hospital employees will be participating in the third annual Day of Community Service event today at the Knox Elementary School. The staff members will work with the Knox Elementary PTO to assist with landscape upgrades to the playground facilities at the school.

The project will begin at 7:00 a.m. today. The Hospital gave the PTO $3,000 to buy mulch and two semi loads of mulch was delivered to the school this week for the project. The PTO purchased an additional $1,000 worth of mulch to fully complete upgrading the playground facilities.

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Bella Vita Fundraising Event a Success

Posted on Author WKVI
Susanne Lange

250 interested people turned out for the Bella Vita Pregnancy Resource Center’s fundraising reception last night at the Knox Community Center. Pledge Chairman, Dr. Thomas Browne, urged all in attendance to provide the funding to help sustain this worthwhile and needed service. Following the evening, Executive Director, Susanne Lange, told WKVI’s Ted Hayes about the first two months of operation and how many are using the services.

“We’ve seen over twenty clients and have enrolled many, many girls, ages 14-34, in our Earn While You Learn program who are actually showing up consistently.”

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Three Starke County Residents Arrested after Police Find Methamphetamine in Home

Posted on Author WKVI
David P. Howard
Doug Beem
Myrtle Beem

Three Starke County residents were arrested Tuesday on methamphetamine related charges. Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department conducted a search warrant at Myrtle Beem’s residence at 9792 E. 150 N. in Grovertown where they allegedly found methamphetamine, precursors to manufacture methamphetamine, controlled substances, legend drugs and drug paraphernalia.

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Starke County Named in Disaster Declaration

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

Governor Mitch Daniels has issued a disaster emergency for 34 counties due to severe weather that caused widespread damage to homes, businesses and public property beginning April 18th.

Affected counties experienced flooding, damaged roads, downed power lines and other severe damage. The Executive Order includes Starke County, which is the only county in the northern part of the state to be included. Starke County EMA Director, Ted Bombagetti, told WKVI that the levee break on the Robbins Ditch was included in the claim along with a levee break by the Kankakee Fish and Wildlife area outside of North Judson.

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