The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, November 16, 2016 A-3 LOCAL Call: 812-354-8500 Email: news@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg NEWS BRIEFS Oakland City Library hosts Bows and More workshop tonight The Oakland City Co- lumbia Township Pub- lic Library will host a Bows and More work- shop, Wednesday eve- ning, Nov. 16, at 5 p.m. Learn how to make a per- fect bow for your season- al displays. They will also share other easy-to-make crafts that will add a lit- tle pizazz to your holiday wrapping. Materials will be provided. For more information, call 812-749 -3559. Flu vaccines available at Pike Co. Health Dept. The Pike County Health Department has flu vaccines available for $20. Medicare bill- ing is available for those 65 years of age and old- er. Call 812-354-8797 to schedule an appointment. Demolition Derby Drivers meeting Nov. 21 The 4-H Council will be hosting an informational Demolition Derby Driv- ers meeting, Monday, Nov. 21 at 6:30 p.m. at the 4-H Building. Anyone in- terested in participating with the tentative 2017 Pike County 4-H Fair De- molition Derby is highly encouraged to attend this informational meeting. Dubois Co. Museum hosting 'Opening of the Festival of Trees' Nov. 17 The Dubois County Mu- seum will be hosting the Opening of the Festival of Trees on Thursday, Nov. 17, from 6 -7 p.m. EST. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. This year's theme is "Christmas Memories from Days Long Ago." Lo- cal writer Martha Rasche will introduce Rafe Schae- fer, of Ferdinand, and Di- an Laubacher, Mary Lou Schmitt, Betty Weinzap- fel, Arlene Wuchner and Johnnie Heeke, of Jasper, all participants from her writing program, to read their writings on their Christmas memories. The Dubois County Museum, located at 2704 N. Newton Street, Jasper, is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1-4 p.m. It is closed on Monday. Call 812-634- 7733. Visit the museum website at www.dubois- countymuseum.org. Thank you A special thank you from area Right to Life groups for your support during this 2016 calendar year! We thank you for voting Pro-Life, your financial support and your support and attendance at the Right to Life banquet. It is greatly appreciated! Abortion may not be ruled unconstitutional in Jan. 2017 but this is a step in the right direction. We continue to pray for our country and its leaders. DAVIESS COUNTY RIGHT TO LIFE Daviess County Right to Life, Inc. P.O. Box 41, Washington, IN 47501 PLEASE JOIN US as we celebrate the opening of our new VINCENNES ORTHOPEDICS AT GOOD SAMARITAN November 21, 2016 Health Pavilion | Memorial Parking 5 to 7 p.m. Meet the surgeons and staff, tour the new office and enjoy some delicious appetizers. Valet Services Will Be Available The VFW would like to say thank you to all of our Veterans. ank you for your service and for our freedom. SPECIAL THANKS TO: Ray Stilwell, Tom Hensler, Reno Richardson, Bugsy Phillps, Roger Brittain, Dr. Minnis, Steve Pride, Tim Hardin, Jamie English, and Jim White for doing the Veterans Day Ser vices for the schools and assisted living facilities. A big thank you to the Ladies' Aux. and Men's Aux. of Post 3587 for providing food for our Veterans. Rodney Watts for a wonderful night of entertainment. Bill Heiple for donating the flag for the front of the building. O'Reilly's for donating the paint to paint the gun in front of the building. Jim Capozella for painting the gun, and Brooks Yon for painting the soldier in front of the building. Thank You same? Is the pricing the same? " "The pricing's not the same," Blake replied. "There's a little bit of vari- ance in it. There's one page that had the maximum cost amount at $1,989,949, and another page that has it at $1,795,381.20. Those were in the same e-mail." Cochran countered that the quote for $1,795,381.20 was based on 116 enrollees while the Anthem quote it was based on – $1,989,949 – was for 128 enrollees. "So what does that mean, Tony? " board vice-president Chris McKinney asked. "Our enrollment is not 128," Cochran replied. "It's actually 116, so you would get credit for that correspond- ing reduction in enrollment. What was used was that 116 number for our enrollment to put the spreadsheet togeth- er. That's the quote that An- them actually released based on the enrollment." ONI's quote, Blake said, was based on 116 enrollees from the very beginning. "Just so everybody under- stands, the census data on the number of enrolled em- ployees was given to every- body," Blake said. "Any time an agency brought us in a quote, it was emailed to all the others, so at no time was it, 'This one's brought this, no, we're not going to tell you.' We've been very trans- parent by emailing all docu- ments to all the carriers and all at the same time." Blake said that the school corporation would be re- ceiving a rebate from the In- diana Public Schools Trust of approximately $200,000, which would go into the school corporation's account for health insurance premi- ums at Home Building Bank. "Our regular checking is at GAB," Blake said. "We keep the health insurance account separate from the regular checking account so there's no concern that funds get co-mingled. When a re- fund check comes in, it goes into that account as well." "Originally, we had been told that we needed to keep a minimum of a half mil- lion dollars in that account, which, until right now, we've never been able to do," Blake added. "And we've had other presentations where they've said, 'Well, as long as you keep at least two months' worth of premiums in sav- ings, you're okay." McKinney, however, re- quested that the school board table the recommen- dation and schedule a spe- cial-called meeting on Mon- day, Nov. 21, to act on it. "I'm not taking anything away from the committee," McKinney said. "I appreci- ate all the time that you guys have put in. But, for me, this is the first time I've seen these actual numbers. I had one over the weekend that we got, and now we've had two new revised ones." Blake subsequently asked ONI Risk Partners benefit consultant Ben Schmitt to tell the school board about some of the programs that ONI offers. "I think that's also part of the presentation and some of the things that the commit- tee was interested in," Blake said. However, after Schmitt's presentation, Cochran in- formed the school board that German American In- surance could do the same. Board president David Waltz then asked members of the Insurance Commit- tee to explain how they felt about the quotes from ONI and German American In- surance. "It seems like they're real- ly competitive at this point," Waltz said. "To me, the edge goes toward Old National be- cause they have some pro- grams that have been offered to us. German American has been working on some pro- grams they have not offered yet. So we've got an edge here. We can try Old Nation- al, is my thinking, give them a shot and evaluate them over the course of a year." "Maybe we can get the exact same quote, but we haven't seen that," Tray- lor replied. "Even today at 4 o'clock, we hadn't seen the same quote from both places." "In terms of the Anthem quote? " Waltz asked. "Yes. From Anthem," Traylor said. "The lowest quote we saw was from Old National." Shedd told the school board that the Insurance Committee had been work- ing for weeks and had re- quested information from German American Insur- ance that it was unable to get until the last minute. "I feel like we've just been asking for information and asking for information and it's coming in at the 11th hour, you know, right at the very last minute," Shedd said. "And we've been meet- ing every week trying to get more and more information, all that we can. And we're try- ing to make the best judg- ment we can based on every- thing that we have." Shedd said that ONI had gone the extra mile to drive down the price of the An- them quote. "We were told from the get-go, Anthem would prob- ably not be feasible," Shedd said. "We met with (ONI) on Friday and we said we would really like to go with Anthem and stick with them, is there any way that we can try to get another quote? They worked Friday. They worked over the weekend. They came back with a quote for us on Mon- day." "We had already request- ed that on Thursday," Co- chran replied. "Well, we hadn't heard from anybody but them," Shedd said. "They were the ones that kind of brought it. We said that we would like another quote from Anthem, and we kind of feel how it came together for us ... they called and did kind of the footwork and got that quote down for us. So, to me, that's kind of why I would go that way, because they have real- ly been working hard to get us what we need." "Are you all unanimous in your opinion? " Waltz asked. "We discussed this eve- ning when we met that we want to give them a chance," Hedge said. "I mean, we can evaluate as the year goes, and that is what we want to do." McKinney subsequent- ly made a motion to table the recommendation. A fter McKinney's motion failed for lack of a second, Waltz made a motion to accept the Insurance Committee's rec- ommendation, which was seconded by board member Ron Sharp. "I'm basing my second on these folks right here," Sharp said. "They're the ones that have been in this whole time. I've sat across the bargaining table the last two years from some of them, and I know their due diligence, and they pick the numbers apart." The motion was approved by a 3-1 vote, with Waltz, Sharp and board member Chris Satterfield voting aye and McKinney casting the lone dissenting vote. Board secretary Nathan Harker was not present at the meet- ing due to illness. In other action, the school board voted unanimously to donate some surplus play- ground equipment and picnic tables located at the former Otwell Elementary School building for placement either at the playground adjacent to the Otwell Community Cen- ter or at the park in Velpen. Most of the playground equipment and some of the picnic tables at the former el- ementary school will be tak- en apart and re-located at ei- ther Petersburg or Winslow elementary schools. "We have some pieces of equipment that (PES prin- cipal Rick) King and ( WES principal Ritch) Luker did not need," PCSC director of support services Todd Hark- er wrote in a memo to the school board dated Nov. 4. "With your approval, I would like to donate these pieces to local parks." Todd Harker noted that he had received a request from Tracy Evans for a few of the pieces for the park at Velpen, but McKinney sug- gested that the playground equipment be made available for the playground in Otwell as well. "I am all in favor of do- nating it," McKinney said. "However, some of the local community members in Ot- well did make those teeter- totters." McKinney said that when he had been asked about the playground equipment this past summer, he was under the impression that it would all be relocated to Peters- burg and Winslow. "Again, I don't mind donat- ing it, but I just think that I put it out there, given my word that it was only going to be split between those, and I would hate to turn around and just give it to Velpen without giving them the op- portunity," McKinney said. The motion to approve the donation of the playground equipment – with the particu- lars to be negotiated – subse- quently passed unanimously. In other action: • The school board voted to accept $2,500 donations from Jasper Engine & Trans- missions and Kimball Elec- tronics to Pike Central High School precision machining instructor Mark Scott's class for the Greenpower Electric Car Project. • The school board voted to accept several grants to lo- cal educators from the Pike County Community Founda- tion – $2,000 to PCHS teach- er Nathan Bradford for the Robotics program; $2,500 to PCHS teacher Mark Scott for the Greenpower Electric Car Project; $2,500 to Pike Central Middle School teach- er Cassi Craig for Chrome- books and cart to be used by eighth grade students in math classes; $500 to PCMS principal Mindy Hill-Keeker for attendance incentives at the middle school; $ 900 to Winslow Elementary School teacher Jackie Henson to pur- chase Chromebooks; $500 to WES teacher Andrea Wise- man for autistic students; $150 to WES teacher Kim Russell for Listening Cen- ters; $ 850 to WES teacher Nancy Garris for the "Paws for Reading" program; and $ 830 to Petersburg Elemen- tary School teacher Char- lotte Beck to be used for ed- ucational classroom centers. SCHOOL Continued from page 1 NEWS! Want to share your news with others? The Press-Dispatch can help deliver it to Pike and the surrounding counties. 812-354-8500