The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1003328
A-2 Front Wednesday, July 11, 2018 The Press-Dispatch PADGETT Continued from page 1 WINSLOW Continued from page 1 ARSON Continued from page 1 er. Hortin told investiga- tors Loveless said she had bought the trailer from Dav- enport, and Davenport had signed the Bill of Sale. Probable cause was found for charges of arson, a Level 4 felony; arson with intent to defraud, a Level 6 felony; in- surance fraud and forgery, both Level 6 felonies. A level 4 felony is punish- able by a presumptive sen- tence of six years, with a range of two to 12 years in prison. A Level 6 felony is punishable by six months to 30 months in prison. that gave me an awful lot." "My mother still lives here," Padgett continued. "I'm still connected to it. So it's just really about paying a debt that I need to pay back to the community for the great things that it did for me – not only here, but Pike County as a whole. When the opportunity present- ed itself, I went, 'Yeah, that sounds like a unique chal- lenge and a unique way to get back involved.' So here we are." Padgett will succeed Rick Fears as the Otwell Miller Academy's director. "There's some big shoes to fill," Padgett said. "They've laid a tremendous foundation for the school to get it going in a very short time frame. That's been one of the biggest challenges for them. I'm sure we're no dif- ferent than any other school system in the State of Indi- ana right now – finances are a front-burner item. You've got to be able to be frugal and make sure you're pro- viding as many services as you can to your clientele. Our kids are first, our fami- lies and then our communi- ty. That will be our focus, as it has been all along." It was Fears who made the recommendation to the Ot- well Miller Academy School Board to appoint Padgett as his successor beginning with the 2018 -19 school year. Padgett, who received a two-year contract, will be paid $53,000 for the 2018 - 19 school year and, if enroll- ment increases by five per- cent or more, $55,000 in the 2019 -20 school year. In addition, Padgett will receive a health insurance stipend of $500 per month. The motion to approve Padgett's hiring was made by parent representative Jenny Byrd and seconded by parent representative Lou Fort. Byrd, Fort and Friends of Otwell Elementary repre- sentative Steve Schoppen- horst voted in favor of the motion, while teacher rep- resentative Kim Elliott ab- stained. "Rich, welcome to the Ot- well Miller Academy as our new director," Fears said. "Those are some awfully big shoes you're wearing," Padgett replied. "Oh, no, they're not big at all," Fears said. "You'll be able to handle everything, and we wish you the best of luck. You've got good peo- ple to work with and we'll help you every way we can to make this school a suc- cess. So, welcome aboard." In other action, the Ot- well Miller Academy School Board voted to not offer health insurance – or a monthly stipend for health insurance – to its employees for the 2018 -19 school year. Fears prefaced the dis- cussion regarding employee health insurance by saying that the issue had been talk- ed about "more than once" throughout the past year. "When we did a survey of staff, it was brought to our attention that they were not opposed to doing away with health insurance for the '18 - '19 school year," Fears said. "A lot of them have spouses that they can go on a plan, and they felt like this would be a better situation for them than the plan OMA of- fered. That's one reason we considered the health insur- ance situation as it is. And, of course, the other is the cost savings to OMA." "I basically want to state that if it were a possibility that we were able to, and make it all work, number- wise, monetarily-wise, in general, overall, we would," Byrd said. "We truly would. And we just want you all to know that." "One thing that hurt OMA with health insur- ance is we're such a small pool of employees," Fears said. "We have no bargain- ing power with any of the in- surance companies, at all." Fort subsequently made a motion to cancel the offering of health insurance to em- ployees "regrettably" and Byrd seconded. The vote was 3-0 with Elliott again abstaining. In other business, Fears announced that the school's application to start a lunch program had been mailed to the Indiana Department of Education on Friday, July 6. "So they're in the mail, and now we're just wait- ing feedback from the DOE on what we need for the lunch program," Fears said. "We're still optimistic we'll have a lunch program the first of August, but un- til we hear from the DOE, we won't know for sure. So we're still planning on hav- ing that the first week, if at all possible." Fears also said that work was continuing on calculat- ing the amount of textbook fees that will be charged for the 2018 -19 school year. "It should be completed this week, and those will have to be approved before we could, obviously, charge them to our parents," Fears said. Fears noted that enroll- ment – as well as the pay- ment of textbook fees – will be conducted from Wednesday, July 25, through Wednesday, Aug. 8, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, with the exception of Thursday, Aug. 2, when enrollment and pay- ment of textbook fees will be conducted from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. At Fears' urging, the school board voted to sched- ule a special-called meet- ing for Monday, July 23, at 6 p.m., to approve the text- book fees. "If no other items pop up in the meantime, that would be a very short meeting," Fears aid. "If they do, then we'll have that time to dis- cuss." In addition, the board vot- ed to accept the resignation of Misty Sullivan as one of the school's bus drivers. "Misty is going to drive for another corporation next year, she has informed me," Fears said. "I might want to comment that Misty did an excellent job for us this year. She will be missed. She went above and beyond on any- thing for the bus driving. We could always count on her, very reliable, and she did a great job. I hate to lose her but, at the same time, we un- derstand and wish her well wherever else she may go." Fears also informed the board that he would at- tempt to contact the compa- ny that provided pest con- trol services for the school building during the 2017-18 school year. "We did have a pest con- trol company that came here last year for most of the year, and someone hasn't – I haven't – been in contact with them," Fears said. "I wasn't the one that made the agreement with them. So, if it's okay with the board, I will contact the necessary people to get the pest con- trol people back here before school starts." "Gnats and flies are pret- ty bad in here, and arti- cles and paper have a lot of spiders coming indoors," Fears added. "So it probably wouldn't hurt to have it. It's really just a continuation of the company we had on this, at least that's what we'll try first. This also relates to our Friends' issue as well, being as they own the building." Registration and payment of book rental and material fees for the 2018 -19 school year will be conducted at Pe- tersburg Elementary School on Tuesday, July 31, from noon to 6 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 1, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 2, from noon to 6 p.m., and Monday, Aug. 6, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Registration and payment of book rental and material fees for the 2018 -19 school year will be conducted at Winslow Elementary School on Thursday, Aug. 2, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday, Aug. 3, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Monday, Aug. 6, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Registration and pay- ment of book rental and material fees for the 2018 - 19 school year will be con- ducted at Pike Central Mid- dle School and Pike Central High School on Wednes- day, Aug. 1, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 2, from noon to 6 p.m., Friday, Aug. 3, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and on Monday, Aug. 6, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The 2018 -19 school year begins for Pike County School Corporation schools on Wednesday, Aug. 8, with the first full day of classes for students. Teachers will report one day earlier, on Tuesday, Aug. 7, for a work day. School registration dates set one incident,' said Strobel. "Did you tell him that? asked McCandless. "I did," said Strobel. "This is not a pleasant thing. Nobody is trying to kick Nathan around. When you have several incidents of going on private property, and then the last incidence of going on private property and we are being threated to be sued over it, we had to do something," said Brewster. Bottoms suggested put- ting a warning on the prop- erty owner's door letting them know about it. Clerk-Treasurer Stacy Worthington said she had developed a couple of warn- ing notes for Town Marshal Steve English and Street Supervisor Dave Gayhart to leave at residences. She said while Winslow has ordi- nances on weeds and other nuisances, "there was nev- er a system put in place for warning people." She presented the coun- cil with sample notices. She said when there is a problem or a complaint lodged, Eng- lish or Gayhart could leave the notices and then if the problem isn't addressed, she would notify the individual of potential fines. In other personnel mat- ters, Councilman Strobel said he had talked with Town Marshal Steve English and it was his understand- ing English was recovering and would return to his job in about a month and a half. Sherry Nelson told the council she wanted, "to get it on the books (that) we are concerned, if a negotiable agreement can't be met and him (English) be forced in- to early retirement." "As far as I know, Steve is recovering and will be back at work in about a month and a half," said Strobel. "Are we going to have a marshal? " asked Nelson. Strobel repeated, "I just said he is recovering and will be back at work in about a month and a half." A fter the meeting, Brew- ster said English is recover- ing from knee surgery. Dep- uty Town Marshal Steve Nel- son works on the weekends, but during the week Win- slow does not have an officer on duty. Nelson works dur- ing the week for Winslow's Street Dept. Brewster said they have talked with state police and the sheriff's department about helping cover Win- slow during this time. COMPLAINTS ADDRESSED Several complaints were addressed at the meeting. Nelson also complained to the council about cars parking on the north side of the entrance to the Lit- tle League park at Main St., making it hard to see when pulling onto Main St. Rick Mathias said itwas a private drive and those were his cars. He said he would see to it that a car wasn't parked next to the highway. A few minutes earlier, Debra Lamb, with the Zon- ing Board, told the council that Winslow has an ordi- nance prohibiting political signs from being displayed until 30 days before the elec- tion. Mathias said his signs were the only ones being dis- played. "I'll be contacting my lawyer tomorrow morning," said Mathias about his polit- ical signs. Joe Wells complained about a grown-up field be- hind his house along Lafay- ette St. "We have a weed or- dinance in town and that is in town," said Wells. Strobel said the town would be in contact with the property owner. Tony Williams com- plained about a vacant house at First and Brenton sts. "The doors are open and kids are going to get in there. This had been go- ing on for three years that I know of," said Williams. The next meeting is set for 9 a.m. Monday, July 23 in Winslow Town Hall. Pizza float one of 800 plus This giant pizza float from Monroe Pizza, of Oakland City, was one of the many rafts, floats and kayaks that clogged the Patoka on Saturday. The second Clog the Patoka event drew 811 participants on the six-mile float down the Patoka River, which ended at Riv- erside Park in Winslow. See story and additional photos on page A-4.