The Press-Dispatch

On Veterans Day, we will recognize area Veterans whose courage and dedication have protected our freedom and our way of life for generations. Veterans +RQRU\RXU $VZHVDOXWHWKRVHZKRVHUYHG Call: 812-354-8500 Email: ads@pressdispatch.net Come in: 820 E. Poplar St., Petersburg JUST $20 6SRQVRU\RXU9HWHUDQIRU 6DOXWHWR Photo and information must be submitted by Friday, Nov. 6 at noon. Join us in recognizing your loved one's sacrifi ce for their country. United States Army DATE OF SERVICE 10/1/2010 11/7/2014 PROUDLY HONORED BY: Hancock Family JOHN HANCOCK Veterans Mail this form and photo to PO Box 68, Petersburg, IN 47567. Must be received by Nov. 6, 2020. Your photo will be available for pick up on Nov. 13, 2020 Your Name: __________________________________ Mailing Address: _____________________________________ City: ________________________________________ State: __________________ Zip: _________________ Phone #: _____________________________________ ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏ Check (enclosed) Card #: ______________________________________ Exp. Date: _____________________ CVN _________ VETERAN'S NAME DATES OF SERVICE BRANCH OF MILITARY SPONSOR Ad Information (Please Print) The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, October 14, 2020 D-7 EAST GIBSON Submit East Gibson news items: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: egnews@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Commissioners recommend new jail over renovation By Janice Barniak Commissioners approved a resolution last Tuesday, Oct. 6, in support of building a jail on a new green field site, after Structurepoint architect Rick Conner told commissioners it would cost more to renovate. Commissioners need to show progress on the jail proj- ect in time for a court date with the American Civil Lib- erties Union—the ACLU has a lawsuit pending that alleges overcrowding at the jail. "I think we all agree on the green field site," Conner said. "The operational costs will be lower on it." He said expanding the ex- isting jail was costly com- pared to building new, be- cause the small footprint of the land the jail is on means the jail would have to be built up vertically. Building addi- tional stories is more costly and would require more cor- rections officers to watch in- mates. "When you combine those two together, it becomes an easy decision," he said. "We studied both of those options. It was very clear...ex- pansion of the existing jail was not competitive," Conner said. The jail project, estimated to be at least $ 30 million, will be paid for by cash reserves, the jail tax and economic de- velopment funding. Conner plans to ask the Gib- son County Council at their meeting Oct. 13 to support the same plan, with a 2023 build. Conner urged commission- ers to begin soon, as many be- lieve construction prices will be very competitive in 2021 and 2022. "There are good reasons, if we want good construction prices, to get it bid as early as we can," he said. The design process was estimated at six to seven months, then another 4-6 weeks to bid the project and get a contractor. During design, they will consider site selection; six sites are under consideration. Top five worst bridges identified for repair By Janice Barniak Chris Andrzejewski, Unit- ed Consulting engineer, in a meeting Tuesday, Oct. 6, pre- sented to Gibson County Com- missioners the top five bridg- es that need attention, add- ing that the county has sig- nificantly more bridges than is average in Indiana, and the county is doing a good job re- placing, repairing and taking care of them. Average bridge age has gone down from approximate- ly 60 to 48 years old over the last 12 years. "We've replaced a lot in the last few years," Andrzejews- ki said. "We're gaining on it." UC has inspected the bridg- es the last seven years, sort- ing them by priority, turning the information over to the county engineer. A contract between Indi- ana Dept. of Transportation and Gibson County to repair Bridge 74, directly parallel to Wheeling Covered Bridge, was approved Tuesday, using 80 percent federal and 20 per- cent local funds. Health Department's server goes down By Janice Barniak Gibson County Health Dept.'s server went down last week, GCHD director Diane Hornby told commissioners, adding Owensville's Dan Par- rish, of Parrish Consulting, stayed up most of the night to get it running again. "It was really a hardship," she said. She added they'll need an- other server soon, and are hoping to use some of the IT funding related to COVID-19 to replace it. "We're not going to get much farther on this server and I have to have a comput- er," she said. Next month, the depart- ment will take over the Op- tum testing site at the fair- grounds. That was supposed to happen Oct. 1, but the state did not get the funding passed down quickly enough for the health department to take over. Hornby also asked com- missioners to fill a part-time position she had not been able to utilize. The person who was sup- posed to fill the position couldn't because of their health and COVID-19; they've since passed away. She'd like to put someone like a CNA in that position, who can act as backup to the nurses and help screen COVID-19 calls. She doesn't believe they'll be able to hire the person for $10 an hour, and plans to ask the Gibson County Council for $15 per hour. As vaccines become available, they'll need the extra staff person, she said. Commissioners approved the additional hire pending council approval. She also let commissioners know flu shots would be espe- cially important to have this year, and the health depart- ment has a limited supply, so people may want to get with their pharmacies, for exam- ple, to get that done. Gibson County Community Foundation gives $90,132 The Gibson County Com- munity Foundation has an- nounced their Community Good Grant awards, totaling $ 90,132 for 22 projects and programs serving Gibson County. All the grants were made possible by donors and organi- zations, establishing and con- tributing to community good and field of interest funds held by the Foundation. Based on the Foundation's funding priorities of arts and culture, community develop- ment, education, health, hu- man services, and other civ- ic endeavors, such as the en- vironment, recreation, and youth development, the grants conclude the Foundation's 2020 Community Good Grant Program. The 2020 Community Good Grants recipients are: •$7,500 to Holly's House, Inc. to support the "Think First and Stay Safe" child abuse prevention program that teaches elementary stu- dents how to recognize and react correctly to unsafe sit- uations; •$ 8,000 to Princeton Com- munity Intermediate School to purchase content-rich book bags for all Princeton Commu- nity Intermediate School stu- dents; •$4,000 to Gibson Coun- ty Habitat for Humanity to acquire property for a future build; •$ 3,000 to Gibson Coun- ty Youth Theatre to purchase the rights, royalties, materi- als and orchestration for the 2020 -2021 season; •$5,000 to Youth First to provide free access to expert mental health support in 16 Gibson County schools to over 5,000 K-12 students; •$ 8,000 to Tri-State Food Bank to provide hunger relief for local children during the 2020 -2021 school year; •$4,000 reserved for the First Alternate to the 2021 Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship in Gibson County to provide four $1,000 schol- arships over their four years in college; •$ 3,000 to East Gibson Dol- lars for Scholars to provide fi- nancial support for graduat- ing seniors of Wood Memo- rial High School to continue their education; •$ 3,000 to Gibson South- ern Scholarships, Inc. to pro- vide financial support for graduating seniors of Gibson Southern High School to con- tinue their education; •$ 3,000 to Princeton Area Dollars for Scholars, Inc. to provide financial support for graduating seniors of Prince- ton Community High School to continue their education; •$2,100 to Bread of Life Ministry, Inc. to provide a semi-truck load of food to lo- cal food pantries and individ- ual families in Gibson County; •$2,000 to Evansville Phil- harmonic Orchestral Corpo- ration to underwrite admis- sion for Gibson County third through fifth graders to at- tend the orchestra's Helen M. McKinney Young Peo- ple's Concerts, scheduled for March, 2021; •$7,500 to The Isaiah 1:17 Project to provide Bags of Hope for Gibson Co. kids en- tering foster care and a truck for transporting bags to Di- rect Access Points across the county; •$5,000 to Lyles Station Historic Preservation Corpo- ration to complete the final stages of a shelter house struc- ture, complete with a kitchen- ette area and updated picnic tables to better accommodate guests; •$ 3,000 to The Salvation Army Princeton to replace an oven to better prepare and distribute warm meals in the soup kitchen; •$5,000 to The Lord's Pan- try to purchase a used van to continue the delivery of food items to those that are unable to visit the pantry; •$2,577 to Sts. Peter and Paul School to purchase the Reflex Math program for sec- ond through fifth grade stu- dents; •$ 800 to Oakland City Columbia Township Public Library to support the So- cial Justice Book Club, a six- week program for students in grades 1-4, focusing on vari- ous leaders who broke ground fighting injustices; •$ 8,655 to Ivy Tech Com- munity College of Indiana to equip the Health Specialty Lab, which will support Certi- fied Nursing Assistant (CNA), phlebotomy and Qualified Medication Aide (QMA) cer- tification programs; •$1,500 to Tulip Tree Health Services of Gibson County, Inc. to purchase play therapy materials, which help children better express feel- ings/emotions and describe events during therapy ses- sions with Behavioral Health providers; •$2,500 to Hoosiers Feed- ing the Hungry to pay pro- cessing fees on large game/ livestock and give this meat to hunger-relief agencies; and •$1,000 to The Arc of Gib- son County to purchase stand- ing desk converters and an- ti-fatigue mats for work sta- tions. The funds making the grant awards possible are commu- nity good and field of inter- est funds, including the Toyo- ta Fund; Brown Family Fund; German American Bancorp Community Fund – Gibson; Jack Freudenberg Family Fund; Melvin Oing Memori- al Fund; Ann, John and Wil- liam Eugene Dunn Fund; Smithville Charitable Foun- dation Fund of Gibson Coun- ty; Friends of Gibson Coun- ty Fund; David and Janet Oldham Family Fund; Phil- lip and Sharen Buyher Fund; Troy and Virginia Land Unre- stricted Fund; Gibson Board of Trustees Fund; Bonapar- te Family Unrestricted Fund; and the Ray J. ( Jerry) Watson and Ruth L. Watson Memori- al Fund.

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