The Press-Dispatch

September 16, 2020

The Press-Dispatch

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CHARGERS SOCCER ON A 5-GAME STREAK 5-GAME STREAK SPORTS B-1 Pike Central boys' soccer posted a win at South Knox on Tuesday followed by a win over North Posey. LOCAL A-12 double double Friends Brittany Harbin and Danielle Houtsch celebrated their twins' second birthdays with a cake. NEWS TIPS Phone: ���������������������812-354-8500 Email ����� editor@pressdispatch�net INSIDE Local ���������������� A1-12 East Gibson ��������� A5 Obituaries ���������������A6 History ������������������� A7 Opinion ������������� A8-9 Classifieds ������� A10-11 Legal Notices �������� A11 Sports �����������������B1-5 School ��������������������B6 Church �������������� B7-9 Home Life �������� B10-12 USPS 604-34012 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 PIKE PUBLISHING VOLUME 150, NUMBER 38 $1.00 24 PAGES TWO SECTIONS TWO INSERTS PETERSBURG, IN 47567-0068 Bark Park work continues Matt Robinette, Holly Pfeiffer and Sam Haycraft weave together two sections of chainlink fence before hanging it on the pole structures they have built. They were a few of the volunteers who helped with the Benner Bark Park project. Saturday morning, the volunteers hung about half the fence around the park. They hoped to fi nish in one more day. dou dou dou dou dou Friends Brittany Harbin and Danielle Houtsch celebrated their twins' second birthdays with a cake. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 VOLUME 150, NUMBER 38 dou Friends Brittany Harbin and Danielle Houtsch celebrated their twins' second birthdays with a cake. Schools intend on Sept. 25 return to in-person learning By Andy Heuring Pike County Schools' intentions are to re- turn to their green status on in-person learn- ing after September 25, after a being on a hy- brid schedule since the day after Labor Day. "All appearances are we will return back to the green status," said Pike County School Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Blake. She add- ed, "It is not our intentions to stay yellow or shutdown." The green status would be the system the school began with when school started in Au- gust. Then on September 2, they announced the schools would be off on Thursday, Friday and Labor Day, and then reopen on Tuesday after Labor Day on the modifi ed plan, where half the students attend two days and the oth- er half two days, with no students in the school on Wednesday. The hybrid plan is set to be reevaluated as of September 25. Dr. Blake said the shutdown wasn't from a larger number of students or teachers testing positive, but from a large number of teachers and aids being under quarantine. She said if they would have had enough substitute teach- ers, they might have been able to stay on the green status. But she said the quality of in- struction was suffering due to the number of teachers out of the classroom. The school board also reviewed their pro- posed 2021 budget during a brief public hear- ing. They are requesting a grand total of $26,953,080 for 2021. Dr. Blake said this is down slightly in actual dollars from the $27,591,229 they requested in 2020. She explained the advertised rate is much higher than the actual rate will be once it goes through the Indiana Department of Local Gov- ernment Finance approval process. She said they are advertising an assessed value for Pike County as $531.8 million, which is 70 percent of the previous year's value. That number will change, but this is done to assure the adver- tised rate will generate a minimum amount. Pike County's assessed value dropped dras- tically after AES moved assessment on paper out of Pike County to Morgan County, where they were offered abatement. She used last year's advertised tax rate as an example. They advertised an assessed val- ue of $499.4 million and a tax rate of 2.3713 percent, but it was certifi ed at an assessment of $ 625 million, with a tax rate of 1.1795 per- cent. The requested tax levy is $10,877,249 for 2021, about $1 million less than request- ed in 2020 when they requested $11,843,000. Blake said people should not be alarmed about the high advertised tax rate as the cer- tifi ed rate will be much lower. A copy of the budget is available at www. budgetnotices.in.gov. She said the school board is scheduled to vote on adoption of the 2021 budget at their 7 p.m. Tuesday, October 13 meeting. They will then submit it to the Indiana DLGF, which has until January 15, 2021, to certify it. The board voted to approve a change to kin- dergarten classes' report cards. A letter from Winslow kindergarten teacher Kim Russell said the kindergarten teachers now use a scale that is different from that used by fi rst and second grade teachers. She explained an "N" grade is the lowest grade for kindergarten, but for fi rst and second grade, it is the middle ranking of Needs Improvement. She said they want to add the M for mastery to the scale and use four letters of M, S for satisfactory, N for needs improvement and U for unsatisfactory. Russell, in her letter, said if approved, they would begin using the new grading scales for the fi rst grading period. Dr. Blake said all the kindergarten teachers were in agreement on the matter. The school board voted 3-0 to approve the change. School board members Chris McK- inney and Forrest Manning were not in atten- dance. There were several personnel changes made. See CAMER AS on page 2 See WINSLOW on page 2 See SCHOOLS on page 2 Saturday morning fun Shealyn Bendern, Temperance Smith and Zoey Bender play on a Little Tikes car Saturday morn- ing on the sidewalk in front of their homes. By Andy Heuring Pike County Commissioners vot- ed 3-0 in a specially called meeting Friday morning to purchase new cameras for the courthouse securi- ty system. Pike County is using COVID re- lief funds to pay for the system. Pike County Auditor Judy Gumbel said a review of the courthouse se- curity system showed several cam- eras were no longer supported by the manufacturer and needed to be changed out. Because the cameras could be used to monitor for people wearing masks and practicing social distancing in the courthouse, it qual- ifi es for the COVID relief grant. She said $402,627 were made available to Pike County to use for COVID relief. Commissioners replace security cameras By Andy Heuring The 2020 general election will be like no previous election in Pike County. It will be conducted at vote centers instead of polling places for each precinct. There will be three sites in the county on election day that will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Those are the Gospel Center gym in Petersburg, the Winslow Community Center and the Otwell Community Center. However, a mobile voting center will be going throughout the county for early voting on set days. The mobile center will be in: • Spurgeon on Tuesday, October 13 at Jordan Memorial Park from 3 to 8 p.m. • Union on Tuesday, October 20 from 3 to 8 p.m. at Union Communi- ty Building. • Stendal on Tuesday, October 27 from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Lockhart Community Center. Early voting in the Clerk's offi ce begins on Tuesday, October 6. It will run each day Monday through Fri- day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., except for Columbus Day. It will also be open on Saturdays, October 24 and 31, from 8 a.m. to noon. The vote centers were fi rst used in the primary election, but this is the fi rst time they are going to be used in the general election. In pri- or elections, a voter had to go to the precinct where they lived. Voters can now go to the most convenient vote center. The Clerk's offi ce is accepting ab- sentee ballots by mail requests now. The deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail is October 13. Depu- ty Election Clerk Jenny Deffendoll said they have about 200 requests for ballots by mail already. She add- ed the fi rst ones will be sent out on Thursday. Voters can request a ballot appli- cation by calling the Clerk's offi ce at 812-354-6025 or by going to indi- anavoters.com. The last day to register to vote in Indiana is Monday, October 5. Mobile voting center to be available in county for early voting Winslow council approves IT upgrades By Grace Miller A huge number of topics were covered in Monday's Winslow Town Council meeting in- cluding utility payment arrangement plans, a Keystone add-on upgrade, IT upgrades, the CARES Act funding, Halloween safety and a 2020 budget resolution. UTILITY PAYMENT ARRANGEMENT PLANS The council looked over and discussed new plans for utility payment arrangements. To track these payments, clerk-treasurer Stacy McCandless told the council about a $2,000 Keystone software add-on. Speculating that payment arrangements will not go away in the future, president Josh Popp said that he thinks purchasing the Keystone add-on will be an added benefi t going forward that they can pay for now. A motion was passed 2-1 to purchase the Keystone upgrade to handle the payment ar- rangements, with Richard "Dick" Brewster in opposition. The council decided to contin- ue on with the old way of managing payment arrangements so they can see what the Key- stone software can do. In addition, Popp plans on drafting a resolution that will include mul- tiple payment options for customers. IT UPGRADE PHASE 2 IT Upgrade Phase Two consists of a new phone system, with an upfront cost of $ 600 and a monthly payment of $211.45. This phone system comes with fi ve phones and will elim- inate the current phone and fax lines. It will

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