The Press-Dispatch

July 29, 2020

The Press-Dispatch

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Poplar Street, Petersburg HOURS Mon-Fri 7AM - 6PM Saturday 7AM - 5PM Sunday 10AM - 4PM Hwy. 41 N., Princeton at Lyles Station Rd. 812-385-2641 • Kawasaki Engine 42" Cut • Heavy-duty welded steel deck • Exclusive SmoothTrak™ steering • Heavy-Duty Fabricated Frame GREAT PERFORMANCE. GREATER VALUE. Memmer's Hardware & Outdoor Power $ 2,899 STARTING AT County Council warns jail project could top $34 million By Janice Barniak Gibson County Council, on Tuesday morning in a special meeting, approved advertising $ 311,000 from jail tax funds for a pre-design phase for a new jail, with some councilman giv- ing voice to their reservations on the jail-building project. The jail is the subject of mul- tiple lawsuits with the Amer- ican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and commissioners have been moving forward to change jail overcrowding; how- ever, previous estimates on costs for a jail have exceeded $ 30 million, and, according to Councilman Jeremy Overton, the most the jail tax would be bonded for would be $19 mil- lion. "Can you work within that constraint in any way? " asked Overton of American Struc- turepoint COO and engineer Willis "Rick" Conner. Conner said possibly, if they could find a way to use the ex- isting facility, but that their or- ganization, in this first phase, was going to look at the num- bers and add in the most re- cent data, trying to make a few choices that would meet the state standards. "We will not sit down and say 'You've got $19 million'," then design to the number, he said, because they need to meet standards and try to find a design that will support us- ing fewer jailers. A design that uses more jailers will cost the county more in the long run when they're talking about the person's pay, healthcare costs, retirement, etc. "We'll design as small as you can logically support," he said. He said jail costs usually are divided with a third going to construction debt, a third in operations costs, like food, lights and medical care for in- mates, and a third in jailers. "That alligator eats every year. Every month," he said. Councilman Bill McConnell was against a "green site" con- struction built from the ground up. "I will not vote for anything beyond a 60 -bed increase at- tached to the current jail," he said. "I will not support any- thing else at this time...This is not a $200 -a-day hotel. It's for the purpose of correction. It's not an accommodation. All these folks that come into this are criminal in some way. They need every possible consider- ation. But I will not support anything beyond a 60 -bed in- crease at the current jail." He said, in talking to taxpay- ers, he believed that to be their wish as well. "I don't want to hear any more from the county com- missioners," he said. He said one possibility would be to use the existing land owned by the jail, and maybe segregate out women to a different building, for ex- ample. Conner said for most coun- ties the size of Gibson, it is more expensive to run two locations in terms of jailers. He said the data needed to be looked at again and updated since it would be the basis of the design, and that the ACLU was pushing back on an addi- tion, being more in favor of a new jail. Overton asked Conner to make sure that before any addi- tional expenses were incurred that American Structurepoint comes to the council, not rely- ing on the okay of the county commissioners, who, he said, have approved expenses with- out the approval of the council in the past. "I don't want to come back with a result we can't afford and be back to square one," he said. "The budget becomes the guiding light going forward." Conner agreed, saying that is how it usually works. "I hope the surprise you have is that it costs less be- cause of the market it's going into." He said in the previous drafts, there have been three options, but an estimated $ 34 million in construction costs. Overton attended the coun- ty commissioners' meeting the same night, where they hired American Structurepoint con- tingent upon the council ap- proving the funding. "In the contract, there was a $ 34 million construction bud- get, obviously we don't have that," Overton told commis- sioners. He asked commissioners to decide how much they're will- ing to set aside of the EDIT funds they have available to fund the project. Commissioner Steve Bot- toms said some jails have found ways to make money on their facilities by designing and staffing properly, then hous- ing federal prisoners, which brings in money from the state. Commissioner Gerald Bled- soe said he'd had yet to see their contract before that day. Conner said he was willing to write a letter to the ACLU and judge about a realistic time frame for the process, Overton said. He said none of the options discussed previously are feasi- ble financially. Bottoms said they needed to meet projected needs, and none of the projections show jail populations going down. Masks mandated throughout state, many do not plan to comply By Janice Barniak Governor Eric J. Holcomb signed an executive order last week requiring Hoosiers to wear face coverings in most public settings as of yesterday, but many locals say they will not be masking up. Local Maddie Johnson, for example, believes masks should be necessary for peo- ple who test positive for COVID-19, those in medical facilities and people in high- ly populated areas. Where people can be six feet apart, however, she said she doesn't see it. "For lower populated areas, where social distancing is easy to do, I don't find it necessary. Most health departments are posting 'at risk' as being with- in six feet of an infected per- son for 15 minutes or more. In most stores, you do not come that close into contact with an- other shopper and most have a plexiglass wall to protect both parties when paying for goods. Personally, I feel the majority of the mask man- date is giving the public a false sense of security," she said. "I will definitely comply for any medical facility, as was sug- gested in earlier drafts of the mandate, it's common sense to take an extra precaution where it's highly likely an in- fected or positive person has traveled and has stayed in the same room or has seen the same doctor for more than 15 minutes." She said she has a loved one in assisted living, and she doesn't travel to stores that have had a recent spike or travel to high-incident areas. "Instead of following the mask mandate, I have still limited my time in any public place to reduce the risk of ex- posure. I have avoided most stores that require them and choose to shop more small businesses when I can, or do without. If it was a necessity that I cannot get anywhere else (example: Walmart for prescriptions) then yes, I will comply." The Governor's mask man- date will apply to the whole state, but in the face of law en- forcement saying they would not enforce mask usage, it's not going to be associated with a misdemeanor offense as was suggested in earlier drafts of the mandate. State and local health de- partments will be in charge of enforcement. "As we continue to monitor the data, we've seen a concern- ing change in some of our key health indicators," Gov. Hol- comb said. "Hoosiers have worked hard to help re-open our state, and we want to re- main open. By masking up, we can and will save lives, and slow the spread of COVID-19." For people over eight years old, masks are required in pub- lic indoor spaces and commer- cial spaces, while using public transportation or other vehi- cle services, in outdoor public spaces when it's not possible to socially distance from people who are not in the same house- hold, in schools for students in third grade and above, and for all adults, with exceptions for strenuous physical activity. There are also exceptions for medical purposes, disabil- ities, exercising, eating and drinking. "Hoosiers have worked hard to get where we are today, with businesses open and people back at work. We want to keep it that way. We don't want to di- al things back. Face coverings can and will help us blunt the increase of this virus," Gov. Holcomb said. According to Holcomb, the mask mandate is in response to increased overall hospital- izations that have gone from 600 a day near the end of June to approximately 800 a day now, along with the highest number of cases reported in a single day—1,011 reported positives. Holcomb also pointed to a rise in COVID-19 positive cas- es, with cases having doubled in the last month. Some counties, he said, had minimal positive cases but now report double-digit posi- tive cases regularly. The executive order is in ef- fect until at least Aug. 26. Johnson and many others plan to mask up with less fre- quency, however, and she be- lieves COVID is on the decline. "In my opinion, I think we have already seen the peak for our tristate area and are very fortunate with the low num- bers of death," she said. "We are seeing more recoveries, but I do not think it is based off people complying with masks...To be quite honest, all of my opinions are based on the best common sense I can see in all of this. I have fol- lowed Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx." She said people need fresh air they cannot get through masks, but said her opinion might change with new infor- mation. "I try to keep an open mind," she said. Even Summer Explosion, a Princeton Park summer camp program finishing its last week, plans to end the way it began—maskless. "As we all know, the Gov- ernor's face mask mandate starts tomorrow. Summer Explosion will continue doing what we have been doing for the past eight weeks. We will be social distancing the best that we can inside, we will con- tinue to clean as we have all summer, and I do not feel the need for the kids to have to wear face masks while we are inside," the program wrote on their Facebook page Sunday. Jacob Stieneker plays the lead in the short film Cold Creek. Stieneker and Dylan Query collaborated on the award-winning short film and are now working on a feature length version entitled Cold Cross. ana University German Films Festival. Query, after graduation from Pike Central, went to Ball State, where he majored in telecommunications, entre- preneurship and digital media storytelling. He started Query Produc- tions, a videography compa- ny. It specializes in weddings, corporate videos, events, mu- sic and short films. For his day job, Query works for Allegion in Carmel as a vid- eographer preparing strategic communications. Query said, in 2018, he and Stieneker worked together to make the short film Cold Creek. They entered it in sev- eral festivals and won awards. It is a western with lots of Pike County in it. Cold Creek is about William McCarthy. "Orphan William McCarthy seeks revenge on Sheriff Fe- lix Danberry for the murder of his parents, Henry and Eliza- beth McCarthy. Cold Creek is a short story about how the in- nocence of a young boy is eas- ily taken advantage of with tragic and dark consequences. Taking after his parents, Wil- liam becomes an outlaw with revenge at his core," said Que- ry's summary of the film. Query, on his website, states, "For the last 4 years, I studied at Ball State Universi- ty and was encouraged many times to leave the state of In- diana in order further my ca- reer successfully. Ultimately, they're wrong. Indiana has the potential to be more than it is now. Indiana has the poten- tial to be a state that incubates and supports young filmmak- ers and talent. Along with my own journey, it's my dream to encourage and help other local Hoosier filmmakers. Togeth- er, we can build a film indus- try community." Because of the success of Cold Creek, Query hopes to use it as a vehicle to get an In- diana film industry communi- ty started. He and Stieneker are in try- ing to raise funds to make Cold Creek into a feature-length film entitled Cold Cross. "We are trying to raise $10,000 to hire Indiana talent. We aren't using it to purchase equip- ment. We have all the equip- ment we need. We are want- ing to be able to hire Indiana talent for the film," said Query. They have set up a Go Fund Me page for the film. The link to the film is: https://gf.me/ u/ygfdyj. As of Monday, July 27, the site had been up for 10 days and collected $1,336 with 22 donors. They have a goal of $10,000. Query said they aren't just asking people to give them money without giving the do- nors something. He said each donor of $ 9 will get a digital ticket to be able to view the feature-length film Cold Cross, when it is re- leased. Cold Creek was filmed most- ly in Pike County. "Almost all of the locations are shot from within 30 minutes of Peters- burg, most of it near Pikev- ille," said Query. He said Cold Cross will be the same. "Almost all in south- ern Indiana, there might be a couple of locations in central Indiana. All of the locations are still in Indiana." "We are still in the fundrais- ing mode. Still working out de- tails and starting the talent search. We hope to have the details finalized by the end of 2020. We will start by 2021 and hope to release it by the end of the summer 2021." "This is a homegrown fea- ture-length film, the likes of which southern Indiana has never seen before. It is some- thing new. We are trying to start a movement here. I have a pretty big vision about the future, where I want to take this. I want there to be a sta- ble video production firm in the state of Indiana. Someone has to start it and I want to be a part of the conversation," said Query. "I am a proud Hoosier film- maker."

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