The Press-Dispatch
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A-4 Local Wednesday, July 12, 2017 The Press-Dispatch &21*5$78/$7,216 722857($0 )RU3XWWLQJ3DWLHQWV 6DIHW\)LUVW 7KDQNVWR\RX*RRG6DPDULWDQHDUQHGWKH QDWLRQ¶VWRSGLVWLQFWLRQIRUSDWLHQWVDIHW\ZLWKDQ³$´ JUDGHIURPWKH/HDSIURJ+RVSLWDO6DIHW\*UDGH 7KH³$´UHFRJQL]HVRXUKLJKVWDQGDUGVLQSDWLHQW VDIHW\7KLVKRQRUEHORQJVWRHYHU\RQHRIRXU WHDPPHPEHUVZKRZRUNHYHU\GD\IRURXU SDWLHQWV&RQJUDWXODWLRQVDQGWKDQN\RX 7KH /HDSIURJ +RVSLWDO 6DIHW\ *UDGH LV DQHOLWHGHVLJQDWLRQIURP7KH/HDSIURJ *URXSDQDWLRQDOLQGHSHQGHQWZDWFKGRJ WKDWVHWVWKHKLJKHVWVWDQGDUGVIRUSDWLHQW VDIHW\LQWKH8QLWHG6WDWHV 66HYHQWK6W_9LQFHQQHV,1__JVKYLQRUJ Free HIV and Hepatitis C testing at Pike County Health Dept. The Pike County Health Department and the Aids Resource Group are partner- ing together to bring Free HIV and Hepatitis C testing to Pike County. The Mission of the Aids Resource Group (ARG) is to provide quality specialized case management, HIV pre- vention education and sup- portive services to people living with, at-risk for, or af- fected by HIV/AIDS. It is the goal of the ARG to educate and empower the communi- ty to recognize and reduce the stigma associated with AIDS, as well as Hepatitis C. ARG serves Daviess, Du- bois, Gibson, Knox, Martin, Perry, Pike, Posey, Vander- burgh, and Warrick counties in Southwestern Indiana. The ARG will be conduct- ing Free HIV and Hepatitis C testing on Tuesday, July 25, from 1:30 -4 p.m. at the Pike County Health Depart- ment 907 E. Walnut Street, Petersburg. Appointments can be made, but walk-ins are accepted. If you have risk factors for HIV or Hep- atitis C, take advantage of this free, confidential op- portunity. For more infor- mation or to schedule an appointment, call the ARG at 812-421-0059 or the Pike County Health Department at 812-354-8797. Pike County's jobless rate remains flat at 2.6 percent By Ed Cahill Pike County's jobless rate remained unchanged from April to May at 2.6 percent, according to preliminary figures released by the In- diana Department of Work- force Development. However, the county's jobless rate was the lowest for the month of May since 1998, when it was also 2.6 percent. According to estimates released by the Indiana De- partment of Workforce De- velopment, 6,169 of Pike County's labor force of 6,335 were employed during May, leaving 166 persons without jobs. In May 2016, when the county's jobless rate was 4.1 percent, it was estimat- ed that 6,160 of the county's labor force of 6,424 were em- ployed, leaving 264 persons without jobs. In adjoining counties: • Daviess County's job- less rate rose from a revised 2.0 percent in April to a pre- liminary 2.1 percent in May. In May 2016, Daviess Coun- ty's jobless rate was 3.3 per- cent. • Dubois County's jobless rate rose from a revised 1.9 percent in April to a prelim- inary 2.0 percent in May. In May 2016, Dubois County's jobless rate was 2.9 percent. • Gibson County's jobless rate rose from a revised 2.2 percent in April to a prelim- inary 2.3 percent in May. In May 2016, Gibson County's jobless rate was 3.5 percent. • Knox County's jobless rate rose from a revised 2.5 percent in April to a prelim- inary 2.7 percent in May. In May 2016, Knox County's jobless rate was 4.2 percent. • Warrick County's jobless rate rose from a revised 2.4 percent in April to a prelim- inary 2.5 percent in May. In May 2016, Warrick County's jobless rate was 3.9 percent. Statewide, county non- seasonally adjusted unem- ployment rates increased in 62 counties, decreased in 18 counties and remained the same in 12 counties from April to May. Adams, Dubois and La- Grange counties registered the state's lowest unemploy- ment rate during May at 2.0 percent. Vermillion County recorded the state's highest unemployment rate during May at 4.2 percent, followed by Fayette (4.0 percent) and Lake (4.0 percent) counties. The Elkhart-Goshen met- ropolitan statistical area had the state's lowest jobless rate among the state's 13 MSAs in May at 2.1 percent, while the Gary MSA had the state's highest MSA jobless rate in May at 3.7 percent. The jobless rate for the Evansville MSA was 2.9 percent in May, which was up one-tenth of a percent- age point from 2.8 in April. In May 2016, the Evansville MSA's jobless rate was 4.1 percent. According to data provid- ed by the Indiana Depart- ment of Workforce Devel- opment, the Evansville MSA – which includes Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh and Warrick counties – had a to- tal of 160,800 jobs in May, an increase of 1,800 jobs from May 2016. From April to May, the Evansville MSA experi- enced significant increases in the leisure and hospital- ity (+300), health care and social assistance (+200), manufacturing (+200), ed- ucation and health servic- es (+100) and state govern- ment (+100) sectors. Meanwhile, significant decreases occurred in the retail trade (-200), mining, logging and construction (- 100) and trade, transporta- tion and utilities (-100) sec- tors from April to May. Indiana's seasonally-ad- justed unemployment rate rose fell from a revised 3.6 percent in April to a prelim- inary 3.2 percent in May while remaining lower than the national jobless rate of 4.3 percent. Indiana's labor force de- creased by 2,062 over the previous month with an 8,946 increase in employ- ment and an 11,008 decrease in unemployment. Indiana's total labor force stands at more than 3.33 million and the state's 64.5 percent la- bor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 62.7 percent. "Indiana continues to see its unemployment rate re- main at levels not seen for nearly two decades," said Steven J. Braun, Commis- sioner of the Indiana Depart- ment of Workforce Develop- ment. "The state's strong economy and the growing workforce needs of busi- nesses are the main drivers of this. Those who are unem- ployed or feel they are under employed are urged to stay positive and take advantage of the resources and job as- sistance programs offered by their local WorkOne Ca- reer Centers." Braun noted that Indiana continues to see a decline in unemployment insur- ance claims, which he be- lieves is directly related to a constricting labor market. Meeting employer demand of the more than one million jobs that are projected to be filled over the next 10 years presents both an opportuni- ty and a challenge in devel- oping the state's workforce, he said. Private sector employ- ment has grown by more than 36,100 jobs over the year, and has increased by 3,500 jobs over the previ- ous month due to gains in the private educational and health services (+3,100) and construction (+2,100) sec- tors. Gains were partially offset by losses in the trans- portation, trade and utilities (-4,100) and manufacturing (-2,500) sectors. Total pri- vate employment stands at 2,680,800 and is 3,900 above the November 2016 peak. PRO-LEVEL POWER • Heavy-duty deep commercial deck • Exclusive SmoothTrak™ steering • Patented automatic parking brake • Commercial-grade engine with fuel-injected options Memmer's Mon-Fri 7AM - 6PM Saturday 7AM - 5PM Sunday 10AM - 4PM Hwy. 41 N. at Lyles Station Rd Princeton • 812-385-2641 Financing fees may apply. See dealer for details. 0 % MONTHS FOR 48 'A Butterfly to Remember' Memorial event July 27 A Butterfly to Remem- ber Memorial event will be Thursday, July 27 at 6:30 p.m. at the Golden Living Center Petersburg Health- care and Rehab., 308 W. Pike Ave., Petersburg. The event is sponsored by Asera Care, of Evansville. It will be a butterfly release honoring your loved ones. The event is open to the community. For more information and to RSVP by July 25, contact LaToya Hardiman at 812- 858 -1032 or email latoya. hardiman@aseracare.com. County Council establishes committee to study the area's technology needs By Andy Heuring Pike County Councilmen estab- lished a committee to study the coun- ty's technology situation to see how to best manage it. They also heard from the Economic Development Council and Chamber of Commerce, and set the dates and time for their budget hearings. Councilmen determined the com- mittee would study technology needs for all the county offices and wheth- er to hire a firm to manage it, or if the county needs to have a person em- ployed by the county to take care of their technology. They decided the committee members would be coun- cilman Max Elliott, Sheriff Jeremy Britton, Assessor Mike Goodpaster, Auditor Ron Wilson, a representative from the commissioners and Judge Bi- esterveld. "We may have the best set-up go- ing right now, but unless we look in- to it we will always have the question, 'what if,'" said Elliott. Councilmen scheduled their 2018 budget public hearing to be immedi- ately following their 8:30 a.m. Tues- day, August 15 monthly meeting and their budget hearing for following their 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, September 12 meeting, noting it may carry over to September 13. Robyn Smith, President of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce, ex- plained a request coming to the council at their next meeting and the Chamber's request for funding they will see in their budget hearing. Smith told them the Chamber is having money problems. She said the Commissioners are requesting $2,500 for 2017 and allowing them to move out of their building on Main St. into a courthouse office. Smith said their building costs about $700 a month for utilities. She said they al- so lost an upstairs renter, which cost them about $4,000 a year. She said they have requested $20,000 in the 2018 budget. Smith went over a long list of achievements by the Chamber in recent years and praised the work new Executive Di- rector Leslie Tegmeyer has being do- ing. The additional appropriation re- quest will not come before the coun- cil until next month. Economic Development Executive Director Ashley Willis also brought the council up to date on their achieve- ments. She discussed a list of items such as getting a state certified shovel ready site approved, having an 8,000 acre megasite development with pub- lic and private partnerships, submit- ting a grant for the Technology and Entrepreneur Center to the Feder- al Economic Development Council, working on a housing study and a master plan. She said last year they had con- tact with site developers and submit- ted proposals on six requests in 2016, but already in 2017 they have submit- ted requests on 12. Willis said the last two years have been spent developing their infra- structure and getting sites such as the Southwest Indiana Megasite and others ready. They also have zoning in place at the I-69 exchange and rede- velopment district. "The year 2018 is going to be the year of marketing. We have been working to get things ready so we can market it," said Willis. She said, "It is no long a matter of if they will get a project. It is a mat- ter of when." Willis told the council they will be requesting a budget of $120,000 for 2018. She said this budget will include funds so they can go to various meet- ings to market Pike County. In other business, the council took action on an additional appropriation request for $2,789 to increase the wag- es for the Soil and Water Director. Councilmen Greg Mangin said he thought it would be appropriate to take changing that salary ordinance during their 2018 budget hearings. Other councilmen expressed concern about changing a salary ordinance in the middle of the year. Auditor Ron Wilson said there will be at least four requests to change sal- ary ordinances in this year's budget hearings. Councilmen also approved $25,507 of additional appropriations in the Sheriff's Department, which was to take insurance payments and put them back into the proper funds. Sheriff Britton said $4,900 was for a vehicle damaged in an accident and the rest was related to lightning dam- age at the jail suffered in a storm ear- lier this year. Councilmen approved a $10,200 additional from the Park and Recre- ation budget to pay for blacktop ma- terial. Dave Elgin said they are go- ing to be paving a new road past new campsites. He said they have a list of 189 peo- ple waiting for a campsite. Councilmen approved a transfer for $25,000 from the Highway Depart- ment's rock fund. From that $25,000, $5,000 is going to tires and $20,000 to repairs. Highway Superintendent Roger Ham said they had to put an all-new undercarriage on their paving machine this year. Samaritan Center Block Party this Friday The Samaritan Center in Peters- burg is sponsoring a block party from noon until 4 p.m. on Friday, July 14. There will be a clown at the party to paint faces and make balloon cre- ations. Area businesses are encour- aged to set up booths in front of the Samaritan Center and have giveaways and drawings. For more information contact Mel- ody Anderson at 812-354-8785. A rain date of July 21 has been set. net edition yeah, it's that fast! Z M www.PressDispatch.net/Subscribe It's The Press-Dispatch. No matter where you live. Delivered every Wednesday morning! Add it for $5 to your current print subscription or stand-alone for $35/year.