Pulaski/White Rural Telephone Cooperative is getting into the video business. The company announced plans to acquire TV Cable of Winamac, doing business as Zing.
“It’s always been in our strategic plan to introduce video, or a cable TV-type service, into our mix of services we offer out,” PWRTC President and CEO Mark Dickerson said after last night’s Winamac City Council meeting. “This keeps us local. The entity here, TV Cable of Winamac, was looking to sell, so we came to terms. It’s going to be a great thing for all of us here.” Continue reading →
A Winamac man who reportedly tried to flee from police Friday to avoid being arrested for making meth faces numerous drug charges after jail officers reportedly found more contraband in his pants. Officers from the Winamac Police Department and Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office got a tip about drug activity and responded at 7:34 p.m. on Friday, May 9 to an apartment in the 400 block of West Main Street in Winamac. A deputy reportedly spotted David Wayne Gentry, 29, walking behind the apartment building and ordered him to stop. Gentry ran, according to the police report, and was apprehended after a brief foot chase. Both Gentry and his girlfriend, Shannon Lee Hardin, 30, were arrested after deputies reportedly found an active meth lab and other precursors inside the home. Continue reading →
The Eastern Pulaski School Board members will have a full meeting tonight at 5:30 p.m. ET.
The board members will recognize Valedictorian Eric Newman and Salutatorian Courtney Boos. The members will also hold public hearing on additional appropriations and discuss recommendations to continue with Title 1 and high ability grant programs, approve handbooks, and technology network infrastructure upgrades.
Two Pulaski County government agencies will meet tonight.
The Winamac Town Council will meet at 7 p.m. ET in the Municipal Utility Complex. Winamac Fire Chief Bill Weaver will have an update and Chris Smith will have a garbage collection update. Eric Galbreath will have information on the TV Cable and John Julian from Umbaugh and Associates will give the council water and waste water ordinances plus information on the pool.
Pulaski County Commissioners Larry Brady, Terry Young and Tracey Shorter
The Pulaski County Highway Department will soon have some new equipment. The county commissioners Monday approved the purchase of a ditch bank rotary mower from Bane-Welker Equipment for $8,950. Theirs was the only bid, and it met all of the specifications. Likewise, Braun Chevrolet in Winamac submitted the only bid for the three-quarter ton pickup truck the highway department was looking to buy. The commissioners approved the purchase of a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD for $30,950 from the local dealership. Highway Superintendent Mark Fox says the county got 17 dump truck bids. The commissioners accepted his recommendation to buy a Mack truck with a Jones body from Pozzo Truck Center and let Terry Truck Equipment in Winamac fit the chassis with the necessary uplift. Fox says that’s the most cost-effective way to go, for a total of $151,642. The truck still needs to have a power passenger window so the driver can see while plowing snow and a chip box hitch installed. Fox says the two additions should not cost more than $1,500. That vehicle will have a 15 to 20 year lifespan.
The commissioners rejected the lone bid they received for a diesel tractor. Bane-Welker’s bid exceeded the specifications, as it was for a four-wheel-drive tractor. Fox says the extra drive train will cost the county considerably more to maintain. The county will solicit new tractor bids later this year.
Pulaski County Commissioners Larry Brady, Terry Young and Tracey Shorter
The Pulaski County Commissioners Monday unanimously approved a zoning change to turn recreational and residential land back into farmland.
The advisory plan commission recently approved the request to rezone the former driving range at Moss Creek Golf Course from RR-1 to A-1, which means it can be tilled under and planted. The commissioners also approved the rezoning of six nearby lots in the Moss Creek Acres Subdivision from residential to agricultural use.
Visitors to Tippecanoe River State Park can sit in the sun, enjoy the tranquility of the river, flora and fauna behind the Nature Center on a new scenic overlook.
Park staff, volunteers and members of the Friends of Tippecanoe River State Park completed the project Saturday as part of the third annual volunteer day and welcome back weekend.
Funeral services for a local soldier killed last week in Germany are this weekend in his home town. Army Spc. Ryan P. Grandstaff of Winamac, died in a single-vehicle accident in Ansbach, Germany last Wednesday morning at 4:45 a.m. He was 24. Grandstaff graduated from Winamac Community High School in 2009, where he ran track and was a co-record holder on the four by 100 relay team. He loved playing football and continued his career at Anderson University. Grandstaff then attended Vincennes University and studied aviation technology. He worked for Plymouth Tube and the Braun Corporation before joining the Army on Oct. 2, 2012. Grandstaff became a crew chief on a Blackhawk Medivac Helicopter. He was stationed to Ansbach, Germany on April 27, 2013. Continue reading →
If the brutal winter has you itching to get outdoors, head to Tippecanoe River State Park this weekend for the third annual volunteer day. Assistant manager Jason Hickman says gate fees will be waived for anyone who comes out to lend a hand. Volunteer activities will start at 10 a.m. EDT at the Nature Center. The big goal is to build a second scenic overlook. The Friends of Tippecanoe River State Park nonprofit organization replaced one last year after securing donations and volunteers to do so. Hickman says they’ve secured money for the other one. Weather permitting he says the goal is to get it framed and decked out. That’s the main project for the weekend, but Hickman says it’s not the only one. Volunteers are also needed to clean and spruce up the Nature Center and remove invasive plants and some small trees from the waterfowl dam. Bird feeders also need to be hung up. Volunteers are asked to bring gloves and cordless drills, if possible, and wear long pants and sturdy shoes.
A program to inform all military veterans in Pulaski County about programs and services available to them will be held Friday, May 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET at the VFW Post #1728-1066 on U.S. 35 south in Winamac.
Representatives from the Northwest Indiana Community Action, North Central Action and Pulaski County Human Services, Inc. will inform veterans about assistance programs, older Americans services, transportation, veterans services, employment services, and nutrition services.
A local soldier was killed early Wednesday morning in a single-car accident near his military base in Germany. Spc. Ryan P. Grandstaff, 24, of Winamac, was en route from Katterbach Army Airfield in Ansbach, Germany to an appointment at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center when his vehicle left the road and hit a tree, according to a spokesman for the Army’s 12th Combat Aviation Brigade. German emergency medical responders pronounced Grandstaff dead at the scene. The crash remains under investigation. Continue reading →
The Kankakee Valley boasts some of the best high schools in the state, according to recent rankings by a national publication. John Glenn High School in Walkerton ranks 17th on the 2014 U.S. News and World Report list. The magazine awarded the school silver medal. Students there have an opportunity to take advanced placement tests, and 36 percent do. Of the school’s 611 students, 85 percent are proficient in English and 84 percent are proficient in math. Knox Community High School earned a bronze medal from U.S. News and World Report. The publication notes 25 percent of the 606 students enrolled take AP courses and tests, 77 percent are proficient in English and 69 percent are proficient in Algebra. Continue reading →
Pulaski County EMS is down one ambulance until one damaged during a recent fire can be either certified and put back into service or totaled and replaced.
Director Nikki Lowry told the county commissioners Monday that the county’s insurance adjuster asked her to inspect the truck. Lowry said she’s not qualified to do anything more than determine whether it’s clean. The vendor from whom the county bought the most recent ambulance is willing to help if the county will bring the truck to Iowa.
Firefighters from three departments spent four-and-a-half hours battling a house fire southwest of Winamac Tuesday afternoon. A neighbor called 911 at 3:30 p.m. and told dispatchers the home at 7948 South 475 West was fully engulfed. The Star City Volunteer Fire Department responded and requested tanker support from the Winamac and Buffalo Fire Departments. They ended up filling their trucks at the boat launch in Pulaski in order to more quickly get water to the scene. Pulaski County REACT also assisted by directing traffic. There’s no word yet on a cause. No injuries were reported. The firefighters left the residence at 8 p.m.
The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft of a truck from a property west of Winamac. A bronze 1994 three-quarter ton Chevrolet truck was stolen from the area of State Road 14 and 400 West sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. Monday, according to a news release. The truck has tube step sides, a sticker on the tailgate that reads “Get Hooked on Fishing, Not Drugs” and a Bass Master sticker in the window. The truck’s license plate number is TK181MCC. If you see the truck, call the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office at 574-946-3341 or contact the closest law enforcement agency.
Hunger Skateparks produced this rendering of the proposed Winamac Skatepark.
A young man from Winamac has the blessing of the Pulaski County Commissioners to make his ambitious Eagle Scout project a reality. Clark Gudas wants to turn Rhinehart Park next to the Pulaski County Family YMCA into a skate park. He says it will give area youth a safe place to participate in activities like skateboarding, rollerblading and BMX biking.
Money is still available to help low income Pulaski County residents pay their winter heating bills.
The Energy Assistance Funds will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to households that have not applied for aid yet during this heating season.
Funding is limited, and applications are taken by appointment only at the Pulaski County Human Services office. Call 574-946-6500, email pulaskipchs@embarqmail.com or stop by the office at 115 W. Pearl St. in Winamac to schedule an appointment or to obtain additional information.
The Winamac Town Council learned this week that the company who installed water lines on the north end of town last year will be back next week to finish some work.
Town Manager Jim Conner said the finishing touches should start on Tuesday.
The Winamac Town Council discussed the town pool at length during their regularly scheduled meeting this week.
According to Town Manager Jim Conner, a representative from Reno Sys, a pool rehabilitation company in Indianapolis, discussed plans for the pool. It’s going to be expensive and it’s going to be a large project.
The Winamac Town Council has a full agenda for their regular meeting tonight.
One of the bigger items the board has discussed as of late is the town pool. The pool will be closed this summer as the maintenance cost to keep the existing pool up and running is too costly. The town is pursuing options to get the pool up and running in 2015.
Pulaski/White Rural Telephone Cooperative is getting into the video business. The company announced plans to acquire TV Cable of Winamac, doing business as Zing.
