The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1420652
B-2 Wednesday, October 20, 2021 The Press-Dispatch We're not afraid to shed some light on the truth. 812-354-8500 SUBSCRIBE TODAY! SCHOOL Continued from page 1 No Checks LAYAWAY Christmas for VISIT BATHBOMBSPETERSBURG.COM OPEN WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY 10 A.M. - 6 P.M. 714 E. MAIN STREET • 812-789-3054 G I F T S H O P BathBombs Petersburg Disney Hoodies Personalizing Available! 15% holds your purchase. YOU HAVE UNTIL DEC. 31 TO CLAIM Personalize MOST ITEMS in the store (items personalized after final payment) After Bath Collection Pajamas and More Heated Socks Now Carrying TOYS WE HAVE Baby ITEMS! NEW! including P o p I t s Mon-Fri 7AM - 6PM Saturday 7AM - 5PM Sunday 10AM - 4PM Hwy. 41 N., Princeton at Lyles Station Rd. 812-385-2641 Memmer's HEAVY DUTY CLEAN HOURS Stihl pressure washers have powerful engines to clean driveways, houses, decks and more RB 200 Accessories make cleaning a snap! Rotary Surface Cleaner & Gutter Cleaner We offer expert repair on all tools FESTIVALS Continued from page 1 expected at the Fall Vendor Event at Knight's Tree Farm on Highway 61, about a mile north of Winslow. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 23. SATURDAY, OCT. 30 Brenton Chapel Fall Festival The Brenton Chapel Church of Christ will have a Fall Festi- val on the Tri-Cap parking lot on Illinois St., next to Amber Manor. It is set for 4 to 6 p.m. and will include a Trunk-or-Treat, as well as games and prizes. Halloween Meal and Movie Night The Jefferson Township Ru- ritan is sponsoring a Hallow- een Meal and Movie Night. They will show a double fea- ture of Casper the Friend- ly Ghost, followed by Ho- cus Pocus. The movies will be shown in the Communi- ty Center's gym and start at 6:30 p.m. They will also offer dine-in and carry-out meals. There are two options, a $10 smoked pork chop or marinat- ed chicken breast sandwich or $5 option of a hot dog. Sides available include cheese hash- brown casserole and green beans, chips and applesauce. Haunted Halls and Trunk-or-Treat Pike Central's Student Gov- ernment is hosting a Haunted Halls and a Trunk-or-Treat at Pike Central on Saturday, Oct. 30. The Trunk-or-Treat will be from 5 to 6 p.m. in front of the cafeteria doors at the back of the school. Haunted Halls is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Proceeds will go to Riley Children's Hospi- tal. Trunk-or-Treats First Christian Church in Petersburg has a trunk-or- treat from 4 to 6 p.m. at 1400 E. Main St. Petersburg First Baptist Church will have a trunk-or- treat from 4 to 6 p.m. on the back parking lot, starting at the Eighth St. entrance. Pike County Library Peters- burg branch will have a trunk- or-treat from 10 a.m. to noon. By Andy Heuring Petersburg's newest doc- tor is a native returning to his hometown. Adam Rudolph grew up in Petersburg and decided he wanted to work in a small town. So when he got the opportunity to return to work as a doctor in his home- town, he jumped at it. Adam is the son of Chris and Amy Rudolph. Chris is a multi-generation farmer who has lived and farmed at the edge of Petersburg his whole life. Adam decided early on he wasn't going to be a farmer, but he didn't know what he wanted to do. "I worked on the farm in the summers and I decided I didn't want to be doing manu- al labor. I thought I would go to college and figure out what I wanted to do." He graduated from Pike Central in 2009 and went to Indiana University Southeast in New Albany with several of his classmates. In his first year at college, he didn't declare a major. "I didn't know what I wanted to do. . . I just thought I turned 18 and all of a sudden I'm sup- posed to know what I want to do for the rest of my life," said Rudolph. He did general studies his first year. But in the second year, he said the university makes you declare a major. "I always liked science and biology. So I went with biolo- gy." A strange thing happened along his way through college. "I started making better and better grades. A few of my friends started teasing me about it, saying 'you should be a doctor.'" While it was a joke, it sank in with Rudolph. "I started to get my foot- ing," said Rudolph about his college career. He also started hanging with a group of pre-med stu- dents, which piqued his inter- est and eventually he took the plunge. He said the pre-med group helped him on classes to take that would help him get into medical school. "I think I started reading more and more about it. It seemed to spark my interest. The hu- man body is super interesting. I liked the idea of helping peo- ple take better care of them- selves." Rudolph said, from the start, he wanted to be in fam- ily medicine and work in a ru- ral area. "I have always kind of viewed medicine as a fam- ily doctor being able to help people, and knowing a little bit about everything, and then if they need help with some- thing specialized, they can get it. We get the opportunity to sit down and get to know peo- ple," said Rudolph. So he went to Indiana Uni- versity Medical School at Terre Haute, which is a sat- ellite campus that specializes in family and rural medicine. He spent four years at Terre Haute. Rudolph said a lot of places you do two years at the satellite and then go to Indy for two years, but not in the Terre Haute program. While there, he met his wife, Hil- lary Schroeder. Her parents now live in Greencastle. She also has ties to this area. In the 80's, her father, Dan, was principal at Pike Central High School. Adam and Hillary were both in the program at Terre Haute. She was focusing on being a pediatrician. A fter completing the pro- gram in Terre Haute, both Adam and Hillary got the op- portunity to do their residen- cies in Portland, Maine. "I had kind of planned on going away from Indiana for residen- cy. We thought, 'let's go see somewhere else.'" But he added, "We always thought we would come back. Maybe not to Petersburg, but to a small town." He said they loved the ar- ea in Maine. They were there for three years. He said it has similar medical needs, but was very different cultural- ly. "It was very urban, food focused and left leaning. We probably would have stayed there," said Rudolph. But Dea- coness began to talk to them about an opportunity to return home. "Ultimately, it seemed like the best fit for us." Adam is working for Dea- coness in the Petersburg Of- fice. Hillary is working as a pe- diatrician in Princeton. They are living in southern Pike County. He started in Sep- tember and luckily, for him, in a brand new building that opened just weeks before he arrived. Rudolph returns to Petersburg, specializing in Family Medicine CR 900 E. crash Two vehicles met head-on in a sharp curve on CR 900 E., just east of Pikeville, at 8:20 a.m. Monday. No one was injured. "They hit head-on. Fortunately, they weren't going very fast," said Pike County Deputy Cody Jones. Deputy Jones said Justin Stieneker, 27, of 7553 S. CR 900 E., Velpen, was driving south on 900 E., when he turned too sharp and went into oncoming traffic, hitting Davian DuPont, 39, of 8026 S. CR 900 E., Velpen. By Andy Heuring Pike County and Indiana's COVID numbers are continu- ing to drop. The number of hospitalizations in Indiana fell everyday in the last week from 1,708 on Oct. 12 to 1,551 on Oct. 18., which is the lowest number since Aug. 17 of 2021. The number of new cases had a similar trend, as there were 2,757 new cases on Oct. 12, which fell to 701 on Oct. 17. That is the lowest number re- corded in Indiana since July. Pike County had 21 new cas- es in the last week, with 11 of those on the first two days in the last week. On September 8, Pike County had 43 new cases, with more than 100 for the week. Pike also had a seven-day, all-test positiv- ity rate of more than 22 per- cent, which at the time was the highest in Indiana. On Tuesday, the positivity rate dropped to 10.7 percent. The state's seven-day, all-test rate is 8.8 percent. There have been no deaths in the county since October 8. Statewide, new deaths due to COVID have ranged from 26 on Oct. 12 to a low of six on Oct. 18, which was the on- ly day there were less than 16 in the last week. Last Thursday, the Federal Drug Administration's adviso- ry panel endorsed the Mod- erna booster shot. However, Health Department officials said that is only the first step. The CDC ACIP is scheduled to meet on October 20 and 21 to issue recommendations for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster doses. Dubois Co. Health Depart- ment officials said if the CDC approves the booster shot, then they will begin the pro- cess of getting final approval and announce when they will be giving the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters. Pike County announced the testing site hours will be cut back from closing at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays to closing at 6 p.m. Pam Cosby said no one was coming to the testing site after 6 p.m. Jessica Adams has been hired as the Ratts 1 Solar Project local representative. Adams is an 11-year resident of Pike County, where she re- sides with her husband, Grant, and their four children. While she has many responsibilities at home and on the farm, Ad- ams looks for ways to volun- teer in the community. The Ratts 1 Solar Project team is committed to building strong local relationships. As local representative, Adams will be available to talk with landowners and community members about the Ratts 1 So- lar Project throughout the dif- ferent phases of development and construction. "My family understands the importance of diversify- ing farmland. We are looking forward to the positive chang- es the local solar project will bring to not only farmland, but also the community in which we live," said Jessica Adams. "I'm excited about my posi- tion with the project and my role in educating the commu- nity on the benefits this proj- ect will bring to Pike County for years to come." Adams can be reached at info@pikecountysolar.com or 812-781-3023. She is also available at the Ratts 1 Solar Project's new local office at El- mer Buchta Technology Cen- ter, 3401 IN-61, Petersburg. Office hours are Tuesdays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. EDT; Thursdays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. EDT; and by ap- pointment. Ratts 1 Solar Project is a 150 -megawatt (MW ) solar field planned near Peters- burg. The project has secured all necessary approvals and is preparing for the construction phase. The Ratts 1 Solar Proj- ect will employ up to 350 peo- ple within Pike County. Once complete, the solar field will produce enough electricity to power 28,000 Indiana house- holds annually and will oper- ate for 35 years. Arevon and Tenaska are working together on 8,000 MW of solar projects across the U.S., including Ratts 1 So- lar and four other projects in southern Indiana. More in- formation is available at pike- countysolar.com. Local, state COVID numbers continue their decline Jessica Adams hired as Solar Project representative ed start date of January 2022 and a completion date of De- cember 31, 2022. In personnel matters, the board accepted three resig- nations from the Pike Central cafeteria staff: Sandi Bolin, Lindsey Smith at PC and Can- dace Reibold. The board voted to move Teri Oakley and Me- lissa Brock from their current four-hour positions to a five- hour and a 5.5 -hour position, and hire Alishia Willis for a 5.75 -hour position. Dawn Lemkuhler was hired as a clinical assistant. Kim Runion was hired as a instruc- tion assistant for Special Edu- cation at the high school. They also approved numer- ous coaches at Petersburg El- ementary School: Chris Yon and John Cannon as fifth grade boys' volunteer bas- ketball coaches, Jerry Black- well and Trent Whitehead as fifth grade volunteer girls' basketball coaches, and Chel- sea Knepp and Julia Meadors as volunteer fifth grade cheer coaches. Pike Central assistant swim coaches hired were: Missy Sparks and Andrew Russell, with volunteers Chaney McK- inney, Jacob Bohnert, Danette Weisman and Jamie Luff. Na- than Luff was hired as a sev- enth grade basketball assis- tant. Samantha Benner was hired as the Pike Central Middle School nurse and Mike Wil- lis was hired as the Middle School Resource Officer. The next school board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 9.