The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1175076
The Press-Dispatch Local Wednesday, October 9, 2019 A- 7 The Press-Dispatch 812-354-8500 | www.pressdispatch.net *By enrolling in the Birthday Club, you agree to have your name, town and birth- day, or the person's name and town and birthday of whom you are enrolling, printed in e Press-Dispatch on the week in which the birthday occurs. Joining is easy! Visit pressdispatch.net/birthday or send your full name, address, city, state, zip code, phone number and birthdate to birthdayclub@pressdispatch.net.* Each week, a list of birthdays will be published in the paper! You could win a FREE PRIZE from area businesses and a three-month subscription to e Press-Dispatch. MUST RE-ENROLL EVERY YEAR! Join the One WINNER is drawn at the end of each month Continued from page 1 COUNCIL their November 12 meeting. Councilmen suggest- ed they send him a letter naming the people who took time to attend the meeting and ask him to attend their November 12 meeting. Craig suggested they use their time to develop questions to ask Bennett about the change in IPL's assessment. Craig said he has talk- ed with some attorneys about the county's best options, whether those are appeals to the DLGF, or legislative fixes. "Any recourses we have mov- ing forward." Craig said from his re- search, he found IPL is assessed three ways. Lo- cally they are assessed on things not involved in pro- ducing power. Then fixed and tangible assets gauge the plant building as well as intangible things like the power lines and other things used to distribute the power are all assessed by the state. What he found is IPL opened a new plant in Morgan County. Morgan County gave them a 60 percent abatement. Con- sequently their state-wide assessment went down by $444 million. Craig said he is inter- ested in how the abate- ment in Morgan County affected Pike County. He said the greatest issue comes back to the percentage lost in Pike County. He said it prob- ably isn't correct to say IPL transferred their as- sessment from counties throughout Indiana to Morgan County to take advantage of the 60 per- cent abatement. But he added, "How do we know it is being done accurately? They (DLGF) told me they are experts in assessment, not in tax law." "So if they don't know, who does know, and if they don't have checks and balances, who does," said Craig. "The thing I have a problem understanding is if they have all this per- sonal property in Pike County, how can it be dis- tributed to another coun- ty? " Willis said he under- stood the law changed a few years ago and now they are able to distribute the assessment to which- ever county they want to. "It blows me away how that could have passed," said Willis. He later add- ed, "It is special interest law." Councilman Dennis Bishop said, "Morgan (County) gave them 60 percent abatement. So that affects all of us. . . They abated money that is going to go to all of us." "They (Morgan Coun- ty) elected to not receive everything due to them. But the way it is collected, it affected us," said Craig. In other business, Li- brarian Stephanie Raw- lins told councilmen the library suffered about $20,000 to $ 30,000 wa- ter damage from a hard rain on Monday, Septem- ber 23. The Petersburg Branch is in the process of an $ 800,000 addition to their current library. She said over that week- end the construction crew had double-wrapped a section of roof that was not completed. But a wind storm over the weekend apparently pulled the wrap off and it was fol- lowed by a downpour ear- ly Monday morning. "On- ly Pike County can have a flood during a drought," said Rawlins. Rawlins said when staff walked into the library that morning the carpet was waterlogged. About 600 books in the junior fiction section were dam- aged and will have to be replaced. "The (electri- cal) outlets in the floor were filled with water." She said all of their equipment in the geneal- ogy department was de- stroyed by the water as were numerous files. "Luckily we had just changed insurance com- panies and they had re- cently updated our poli- cy," said Rawlins. In other business, the council approved an ad- ditional appropriation of $ 9,750 to replace the serv- er for their 911 system. E911 Director David Capehart said when they upgraded their older com- puters that can be sup- ported, they developed compatibility problems with the server. It was approved by a 7- 0 vote. In the Sheriff's budget, councilmen approved an additional appropriation of $ 30,000 to purchase a new police vehicle. He also requested $ 6,900 to replace an evaporator and cooling unit that operates the jail's walk-in refriger- ator. They were both ap- proved by 7-0 votes. The next council meet- ing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, November 12 in the Courthouse au- ditorium. Pike Central teams place first in two categories in STEM Challenge/Manufacturing Day Pike Central High School's Precision Machin- ing program had three teams competing in the in- augural STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Chal- lenge/Manufacturing Day event on October 3, 2019, at Vincennes University Jasper Campus ( VUJC). Two teams from Pike Cen- tral won first place in two of the eight industry challeng- es. The first team was victo- rious in the 3D Print Chair Pack Challenge, sponsored by Kimball International. Team members included Blake Henson, Jenna Hor- rall, Dalton Goslee, Alec Frederick, Sam Henson and Kade Love. In addition, this group got second place over- all for the entire challenge. The second winning team was in the Scrap Puzzler Challenge, sponsored by In- diana Furniture. Team mem- bers included Bryce Piers- ma, Ayden Wigand, Caleb Tyree, Chase Mehringer, Joel Henson and Logan En- glert. The inaugural event was a partnership between VU- JC and Grow Southwest Indi- ana Workforce. The STEM Challenge is an event in- tended for high school stu- dents to solve real world STEM problems provided by regional industry leaders. Hosted at VUJC, the STEM Challenge partnered with eight industries that provid- ed unique STEM challenges for 24 teams from nine dif- ferent high schools. Industries included Far- best Foods, Indiana Furni- ture, Kimball International, Kimball Electronics, Best Home Furnishings, Master- Brand, Jasper Engines and Transmissions, and Waupa- ca. Teams comprised of six students who competed in situations of real world cir- cumstances. The series of problem solving and exercis- es were based around actu- al situations that take place in high-tech manufacturing jobs. A total of $ 3,500 in cash prizes was awarded to the top three teams in each challenge and the top three teams overall. net edition pressdispatch.net/edition Web, Smartphone, Tablet Streamline the Headline! 812-354-8500 • 820 Poplar St., Petersburg, IN • ads@pressdispatch.net