The Press-Dispatch
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Local ........ A1-12 Sports .........B1-6 Opinion .......B7-8 East Gibson .... C9 Classifi eds B10-13 Church ........C1-3 Home Life........C4-8 Obituaries........... C9 School......C10-11 WHAT'S INSIDE: CONNECT WITH US: NetEdition ...pressdispatch.net/edition Facebook.....facebook.com/pressdispatch E-Mail .........news@pressdispatch.net Phone:.................. 812-354-8500 Fax: ...................... 812-354-2014 E-Mail . editor@pressdispatch.net NEWS TIPS: PIKE PUBLISHING See WINSLOW on page 2 See MASTER on page 3 Three sections 38 pages Four inserts Wednesday, April 25, 2018 Volume 148 Number 17 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) $ 1 See LIEN on page 2 By Ed Cahill A fourth contractor has filed a notice of intention to hold a mechanic's lien against property owned by Friends of Otwell Ele- mentary, Ltd., after allegedly not being paid more than $ 318,000 for work it performed during the construction of the Otwell Mill- er Academy building. A sworn statement by Gudorf Supply Company, Inc., president Michael L. Gu- dorf – which was filed along with the No- tice of Intention to Hold Mechanic's Lien in the Pike County Recorder's Office on Fri- day, March 16 – asserts that Friends of Ot- well Elementary, Ltd., owes the Jasper, Ind., company $ 318,893.43 "for labor, plumbing, and HVAC and related systems." In October 2017, Gehlhausen & Son Dry- wall, Inc., in Evansville, Ind., filed a me- chanic's lien after allegedly not being paid $ 6,745.20 for work it performed during the construction of the Otwell Miller Acade- my building. In November 2017, Superior Insulation Co., LLC, of Huntingburg, Ind., filed a me- chanic's lien after allegedly not being paid $7,025 for work it performed during the construction of the Otwell Miller Acade- my building. In January 2018, Weyer Electric, Inc., of Ferdinand, Ind., filed a mechanic's lien af- ter allegedly not being paid $ 93,695.81 for work it performed during the construction of the Otwell Miller Academy building. Together, the four mechanic's liens to- tal $426,359.44. "I have had discussions with them ... and they are still working on trying to come up with some financing," said Indianapolis at- torney Mike Einterz, who represents both Weyer Electric, Inc., and Gudorf Supply Company, Inc. "They indicated that they hoped to have something back to us with a proposal to resolve the matter by the mid- dle of May." "My clients have indicated they're will- ing to work with them as long as there's a reasonable plan placed on the table," Ein- terz added. "So that's what we're hoping to find here in the next 30 days." A mechanic's lien is a claim by someone – a person or a business – who performs construction or repair work on either com- mercial or residential property. Work for which a mechanic's lien can be imposed is defined by state and case law as any type of construction or remodeling work, including supplying materials for the people who do the work. Indiana's mechanic's lien statute pro- vides for the ultimate seizure and sale of the property owners' interest in the real es- tate to recover the unpaid debt, costs and reasonable attorney's fees. "A mechanic's lien is traditionally good for a year, from the date you filed it," Ein- terz said. "You usually have to file litigation within a year. The parties, if they're work- ing on some kind of a payment arrange- ment, if everyone's in agreement, they can extend that deadline further. But, by stat- Mechanic's lien to be filed against OMA Petersburg City-Wide Yard Sale May 12 The City-Wide Yard Sale is set for Satur- day, May 12 in the Petersburg area. A map of their locations, and ads describing what is for sale will appear in the May 9 issue of The Press-Dispatch. Yard Sale participants will receive a cor- responding number card that matches their number on the map to post at their location, and their yard sale ad will list highlights of their items for sale. The deadline to place an ad is Monday, May 7 at 5 p.m. Ads can be submitted in person, by phone, fax or e-mail. By Andy Heuring Winslow Councilmen nixed purchasing another fire truck and spent most of Mon- day morning's hour-long meeting discuss- ing how to deal with sewer compliance and stormwater issues. Councilman Dick Brewster said the town's income on the Public Safety income tax was only about $480 a month instead of the $714 Fire Chief Jason Bottoms had cit- ed at the previous meeting. Brewster said the amount had been dropping. He also said the fire department only had a balance of about $2,500. At a previous meeting, Bottoms had sug- gested the town loan the fire department $20,000 to purchase a used truck from Bruceville and they would pay it back with the money from the Public Safety income tax. Brewster said he just didn't understand how Winslow was going to be able to afford the purchase of a second truck. Winslow nixes second fire truck By Ed Cahill Isaac Theising rarely us- es a bunch of words when one or two will do. Case in point: Asked how he felt after winning five gold medals in swimming at the Turnstone Endeavor Games – the largest multi- sport, multi-disability com- petition in the nation – on Saturday, April 21 in Fort Wayne, Ind., the Pike Cen- tral Middle School eighth grader softly replied, "Pret- ty good." "He's always been real quiet," Pike Central boys' swim coach Mike Bohnert said with a laugh. "I always sit beside him on the bus, so I make him talk to me, asking him questions so that he has to answer some- thing more than a 'yes' or 'no.' "It's always entertaining," Bohnert added. Theising, the 14-year- old son of Winnie and Dave Foster, of Petersburg, and Dean Theising, of New- burgh, was born with the most severe form of spina bifida – myelomeningocele – and is mostly confined to a wheelchair. "Spina bifida is a birth de- fect that affects the spine and spinal cord," Winnie Foster said. "Before birth, the baby's spine, the spi- nal cord and the spinal ca- nal do not form or close nor- mally. The nerves that run through the spinal cord are exposed and damaged." When Theising came out for the Pike Central Middle School team two years ago as a sixth grader, however, he took to swimming like, well, a duck takes to water. "We didn't treat him any different than any- body else, and pushed him just like we did everybody else," said Bohnert, who currently coaches the mid- dle school and high school swim teams along with his wife, Beth. "We didn't ex- pect him to be on every- body else's time, but we ex- pected him to try, and he re- ally does." "He's worked hard at it, and it just keeps getting bet- ter, and he keeps enjoying it more and more, I think," Bohnert added. "This year, he really started seeing the improvements." During last month's Pock- et Athletic Conference Mid- dle School Championship, Theising placed 15th out of 18 swimmers in the 50 -yard freestyle with a season- best time of 54.30 seconds – more than 19 seconds fast- er than the 1:03.40 he swam in the season-opening meet Theising swims to five gold medals at Endeavor Games See GOLD on page 4 Winslow Sports League parade participants Landon Sharp (left) tosses two fists full of bubble gum and suckers to spectators during the Winslow Sports League's opening day parade on Saturday, April 21. Teammate Jackson Brewster (right) adds a fistfull as well. See ad- ditional photos of the Winslow parade on page A-7. Ed Cahill photo By Andy Heuring Pike County unveiled their Master Plan for the future prosperity of the county. It is titled "Pike County Interchange Area Mas- ter Plan," but it is really the plan for Pike County's prosperity over the next few de- cades. "We now find ourselves in the game," said Petersburg Mayor R.C. Klipsch. The game he is referring to is the game of marketing Pike County to the world. Last Thursday, about 50 people crowded into the auditorium of the Pike County Courthouse to see the presentation that gave an over- sight of the 139 -page Master Plan that was developed over more than a year and two public input meetings. "Impressive," commented Dr. Barry Pirkle following the presentation. The Master Plan lays out the road map for development of about 4,000 acres near the I-69 interchange with Highway 61, about a half-mile south of Petersburg. Much of the ground is owned by Bowman Family Hold- ings, which is the parent company of So- lar Sources. They also own another 4,000 acres around the area, which is covered in the Master Plan. (The Master Plan can be viewed at pikecogrowth.org/masterplan. pdf ) A website for the megasite can be seen at indianamegasite.com. The plan includes an extensive land use, transportation and infrastructure plan to accommodate development for retail/com- mercial, residential, and light and heavy in- dustrial development. "We are standing here today because of some great partnerships. . . These partners are committed to promoting our prosper- ity," said Pike County Economic Develop- ment Council president Jon Craig. Craig cited the cooperation and support of local elected officials at the county and city level, private businesses and their lead- ers, as well as the Pike County EDC. "We are a very pro-growth and pro-busi- ness community, thanks to the forward thinking of our leaders," said EDC execu- tive director Ashley Willis. She added, "The Pike County Econom- ic Development Corporation is very excit- ed to officially launch the Pike County I- 69 Master plan and continue in marketing the unique assets that we have to offer light and heavy industrial customers. PCEDC is very grateful to our local elected officials, board members and other partners in sup- porting our goal of business attraction and participating in our master planning pro- cess. The PCEDC would also like to rec- ognize the Bowman family for their invest- ment in our economic development vision in Pike County." "We believe Pike County is ideally po- sitioned along the I-69 corridor and is the perfect location for large scale capital in- vestments," said John Mandabach, of Bow- man Family Holdings. "The master plan Master Plan puts Pike Co. in the game Isaac Theising, a Pike Central eighth grader who par- ticipated in Middle School Swimming, captured five gold medals in swimming events Saturday in Ft. Wayne.