The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/668770
A-2 Front Wednesday, April 20, 2016 The Press-Dispatch FUNDING Continued from page 1 CHARTER Continued from page 1 MINI TRUCKS: BIG IN VERSATILITY! 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Main St., Petersburg 812-677-3787 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. • Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. • Saturday MENTION THIS AD AND GET ONE ITEM... HALF PRICE • Tops • Accessories • Dresses • Jewelry • Skirts • Belts • SLEEP • SIT • STAND IN STOCK FOR QUICK DELIVERY! Home Comfort Centers 650 Division Rd. Jasper (US 231 S. next to Jasper Engines) 812-482-2246 105 N. JFK Ave. Loogootee 812-295-5444 Mon,Tues, Thur 9-5:30, Wed & Fri 9-7, Sat 9-3 Second, we intend to contin- ue all fundraising and opera- tional activities as currently scheduled, and are schedul- ing more." "Finally, everyone needs to know this is not the end," Houtsch added. "We will edit and expand our exist- ing application and refile as soon as possible. Our peo- ple have already been work- ing the problems for several days. tOtwell Miller Acade- my will open. To this end, we are totally dedicated." According to the press re- lease, the group's Lil Hoo- siers Preschool and Day Care – which has hired a director, Tiffany Scherle, of Jasper, to secure licens- ing – is scheduled to open in August. "Further, the group's Ot- well Alumni Game on April 23 and other fundraising ac- tivities will continue, with more in the works," the press release stated. "Reg- ular executive board meet- ings and open general meet- ings will continue, with the next open general meeting on May 16 at 7 p.m." At that meeting, the press release stated, the Friends of Otwell Elementary School board will present more de- tails about Ball State Univer- sity's announcement. "Additional attention will be placed on special educa- tion services to be offered at the Otwell Miller Acade- my in the next round of char- ter approval," it stated. "The FoOE has secured the ser- vices of a special education consultant and is seeking a local expert in the field to help improve the services to be offered at the Academy." With the opening of Ot- well Miller Academy post- poned, the press release not- ed, the Friends of Otwell El- ementary School will have more time to secure fund- ing and tighten its timeline to open. "While Otwell students and their parents may choose to relocate to outside the county, it is hoped that this will be temporary and the children will move back to the county when the char- ter school opens next year," the press release stated. "In the meantime, this will al- low the Pike County School Corporation to see if closing Otwell Elementary will cure the current financial woes left behind by the previous school administration." "FoOE's mission to 'seek solutions to Pike County's school crisis through devel- oping alternative education- al opportunities, improve existing educational struc- tures and build a bright- er pathway to success for our children remains un- changed," the press release continued. "The group is committed to work with the school corporation and the community to improve the educational services in the county through meth- ods other than closing our schools, firing teachers and increasing taxes." "Additionally, FoOE re- mains dedicated to keeping an elementary school in Ot- well, either run by the school corporation with local sup- port for building mainte- nance (as offered during the September 2015 school board meeting) or by a char- ter school, and keeping Pike County children in the Pike County school system," the press release concluded. "A community is reflected in its school, and a school re- flects the community. To- gether, we can build stron- ger schools and a stronger community." An old-fashioned big top circus is coming to Peters- burg Thursday for perfor- mances at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at Petersburg Gospel Center field. Culpepper & Merriweather Circus, which has been featured in The Chicago Tribune and on En- tertainment Tonight, Nation- al Geographic, Nickelodeon and A&E, will perform un- der the big top Thursday on Illinois Street in Petersburg. Advance tickets are on sale at German American Bank until Wednesday. Tick- ets for children and seniors are $7 and adults $10. Pric- es go up slightly the day of the show and tickets are on- ly available that day at the circus. The circus will feature Miss Simone on the breath- taking trapeze, perform- ing jungle cats, unicycles, prancing ponies, Miss Geor- gia displaying flexibility to the extreme, the Wheel of Destiny and tight rope. An advertisement in this week's Press-Dispatch for the Culpepper & Merriweather Circus includes a coupon to clip-out for a $1 discount on pony rides. A big event before the family-oriented show is the big top tent raising, which is open to the public begin- ning at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, the morning of the circus. Circus comes to Petersburg this Thursday Pike County Economic De- velopment Corporation. He said the site selec- tors look over a long list of things, including if a site is shovel ready. "This gets us in the game," said Manda- bach. The money from Pike County, Solar Sources and WIN Energy will help pay for things, like getting the environmental study, geo- technical work and title work done. All of which are requirements of getting the shovel ready certification. Willis said future steps would be to include the me- ga site into an Economic Re- vitalization Area and a Tax Incremental Finance zone. "This is very important," said county commission- er Jeff Nelson. He added, "WIN Energy, not only are they contributing $15,000 on this, they have already run underground three phase electric to that lift station and it isn't a money maker. They anticipate things hap- pening out there. They want to be a part of that. There is a lot of private partnerships here. This is what that mon- ey (EDIT funds) is for," said Nelson. The commissioners voted 3-0 to request the $11,436. It will now go before the Coun- ty Council, who will decide to approve the additional ap- propriation request. The commissioners also voted to request $ 9,500 from the general fund to pay for repairs to the courthouse electronic door, and heating and cooling systems. Commissioner Assistant Kristi Dischinger said she got three quotes from Mess- mer Mechanical, Johnson Controls and J.E. Shekell, Inc. to replace two valves on the courthouse chiller and a heating valve. The bids were Messmer $10,572.20, John- son Controls $ 6,890 and J.E. Shekell $ 6,583. Shekell's bid also included a $120 deduc- tion if they received the bid on both jobs. "Is there any reason to not go with the low bidder? " asked Commissioner Presi- dent Brian Davis. "They (Shekell) are a good outfit. We use them at the plant (IPL)," said com- missioner Nelson. Dischinger presented the commissioners with prices of $2,090 for a heavy use door and a normal door for $1,680. Commissioners decid- ed the normal use handi- capped door would be suffi- cient for the courthouse. "I envisioned the heavy traffic door as a hospital, where it is being used constantly," said Dischinger. The commissioners ac- cepted the Shekell bid and voted to request an addition- al appropriation for $ 9,500. In other business, the commissioners approved re- leasing Sun Energy's bond on CR 1075. "They closed this road and now have put it back. They did a swell job," said Highway Department Superintendent Roger Ham. The commissioners al- so approved an interlocal agreement between the commissioners and the Sol- id Waste Management Dis- trict. It calls for the Solid Waste Management District to pay $25,000 toward a new pickup truck for the county. Ham said they were going to purchase a new Chevro- let Silverado 1500 4x4 Crew Cab for $29,760. The next commissioners' meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday, May 2 in the Pike County Courthouse Auditorium. By Ed Cahill Petersburg Mayor R.C. Klipsch announced Mon- day, April 18, that he will be asking the city's common council at its next meeting on Monday, May 2, to com- mit approximately $500,000 to cover a 20 percent local match for a downtown re- vitalization grant through the Indiana Department of Transportation. Klipsch told the council that he had recently met with INDOT Commission- er Brandye Hendrickson, who suggested that the city submit a proposal as part of the agency's 2021 INDOT Call of Projects, in order to coincide with the next time INDOT will again be doing paving work on Highway 57. "They typically do that about every five years," Klipsch said. "So she thought the way to do this, if we were to submit a re- quest ... for 2021, the timing would be right, in that the paving would be done and, at the same time, we could have this possibly, hopeful- ly, approved as an INDOT project." Klipsch said that the downtown revitalization project being envisioned would be pretty much the same as the one included in the city's Stellar grant appli- cations in 2012 and 2013. "Remember, we were do- ing sidewalks, street lights, storm gutters, the whole landscape of the downtown area," Klipsch said. Klipsch noted that the Stellar application request- ed approximately $ 3.1 mil- lion for the downtown revi- talization project. "But I think that also in- cluded some of the paving," Klipsch said. Lochmueller Group of Evansville is currently work- ing on cost estimates for the downtown revitalization project, which Klipsch esti- mated could range from $2.1 million to $ 3 million. Klipsch added that sub- mitting a proposal under INDOT's 2021 Call for Proj- ects would also give the city time to budget for the local match, starting with ap- proximately $150,000 the city received from the sale of the former Doty Insur- ance building to the Parsi- fal Group a year ago. "So right out of the gate, we're going to start with $150,000," Klipsch said. "If we were to budget in the years 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 $75,000 out of our EDIT money ... at the end of 2020, we would have $450,000 available for our match." If the local match turns out to be more, Klipsch said that the TIF money current- ly being used to pay off the city's short-term commit- ment for the Downtown Ter- race could be used. "We're receiving some- where in excess of $ 60,000 now in TIF money, but for the next three years, that will be required on the Downtown Terrace," Klipsch noted. "So 2017, 2018, 2019, there would be no TIF money available. But in 2020, there's at least $50,000 that can be commit- ted to that. That would get us our half million dollars, if that's what we need." "It's very doable," Klipsch added. "In fact, we'll be in much better shape to do this now than we were back when we were trying to do it through the Stellar appli- cation." "Okay," council president Fran Lewis said. "May 2nd, you will be wanting us to make a decision? " "Uh-hum," Klipsch re- plied. "You might think about it. The decision to this group would be, do you com- mit for the 20 percent of that project, if we are awarded? That's the question." "I've got to see numbers first," council member John Melhiser said. "I will get that informa- tion; they're working on it," Klipsch replied. "I wanted to bring it to your attention to- day so we don't just drop that on you, all of a sudden, and we have to make a decision like this. So as soon as I get that information, I'll get it to all of you." During a portion of the meeting dedicated to up- dates from the various de- partment heads, Peters- burg Police Chief Chuck Baumgart asked that city residents make sure that they keep their lawns mowed. "I have been noticing a lot of the grass has been getting a little bit out of con- trol," Baumgart said. "We'll be issuing notices fairly soon if it's over a certain height. Don't ask me what that height is." "Twelve inches," Klipsch replied. In addition, Baumgart said that parking downtown, especially around the court- house, was becoming an is- sue. "We're having some com- plaints come in around the courthouse, the two-hour parking," Baumgart said. "We will start enforcing that in the next few days, to en- sure that people are adher- ing to the two-hour parking signs. The main problem is right there on 8th Street. That's our biggest problem." Klipsch noted that there were eight parking spaces along 8th Street that are des- ignated as a two-hour park- ing zone. "And those eight spots, we will be watching them," Baumgart said. Mayor asks to commit $500,000 for downtown revitalization grant match Clown Tina "Skeeter" Bausch with the Culpepper and Merriweather Circus went to area schools and pre-schools. Above she talks and performs for pre-school children at the First United Methodist Church. The circus, sponsored by the Gospel Center, is scheduled for 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Gospel Cen- ter's parking lot on Illinois St. in Petersburg.