The Press-Dispatch
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Local ...........A1-8 Sports .........B1-2 Classifi eds ..B3-8 Legals .........B5-8 Church ..... C1-12 Home Life....C4-7 Obituaries....... C8 History ........... C9 Opinion .. C11-12 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 THEFT on page 11 Wednesday, August 1, 2018 Volume 148 Number 31 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) $ 1 See 4-H FAIR on page 2 Three sections 32 pages Four inserts By Andy Heuring The 46th Zoar Mosquito fest will feature many of the things that have made it unique for the last 45 years. The stationary parade, sack races, egg toss, Gospel Music and the Southern Indiana Wiffleball Championship. But they will also have some new events. A Color Family Run is set for 8 a.m. on Sat- urday and they will add a wiffleball home run derby. The Mosquito Fest is set for Friday, Au- gust 3 and Saturday, August 4. Opening ceremonies will be at 6 p.m. fol- lowed by Iron Mountain Band at 7 p.m. The food stands featuring fried and BBQ chick- en dinners will open at 4 p.m. They will fea- ture 15 flavors of homemade ice cream, homemade pies, lemonade, elephant toes, sandwiches. The wiffleball tourney starts on Friday and will run through much of the day on Saturday. It will be followed by a home run derby. SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 Activities start early on Saturday with breakfast in the tent serving at 6:30 a.m. and registration for the Color Family Fun Run beginning at 7 a.m. The run will be- gin at 8 a.m. Entries for the flower, produce and quilt shows will be accepted from 10 a.m. to noon in the Zoar United Methodist Church base- ment. The traditional stationary parade begins at 1 p.m. Like no other parade, the entries set up on the driveway of the grounds. In- stead of the entries marching by the spec- tators, the spectators walk around the pa- rade entries. The Old Fashioned games start at 2 p.m. with three-legged races, sack races, egg toss and balloon toss. A kids' pedal tractor pull is set for 4 p.m. New for Saturday are pork chop dinners beginning at 5 p.m. Homemade ice cream, pie and lemonade will still be available as well. Also at 5 p.m. is fun with Jim and Mag- gie balloon art. 46th Zoar Mosquito Fest begins Friday Kayden Cummins competes in the three-to-five-year-old pedal tractor 4-H Family Fun event and made a full pull on his first try. James Capozella photo See TEXTBOOKS on page 2 By Ed Cahill Otwell Miller Academy's text- book rental fees for the 2018 -19 school year were set during a spe- cial-called meeting of the OMA School Board on Thursday, Ju- ly 26. According to a document pre- sented by OMA director Rick Fears to the school board, the textbook rental fees for 2018 -19 will be: • Kindergarten: Consumable $15.28; Rental $52.50 ; Technolo- gy Fee $10. Total – $77.78. • First Grade: Consumable $19.25; Rental $52.92; Technolo- gy Fee $10. Total – $ 82.17. • Second Grade: Consumable $21.55; Rental $40.15; Technolo- gy Fee $10. Total – $71.70. • Third Grade: Consumable $10.15; Rental $ 60.81; Technolo- gy Fee $20. Total – $ 90.96. • Fourth Grade: Consumable $11.92; Rental $55.25; Technolo- gy Fee $20. Total – $ 87.17 • Fifth Grade: Consumable $4.04 Rental $72.61; Technology Fee $20. Total – $ 96.65. Fears told the OMA school board that the proposed textbook rental fees were prepared by Rich Padgett, who was hired at the board's previous meeting to be Fears' successor as the school's director. "Since we didn't have textbook rental last year, this is all new," Fears said. "The only thing I told him was we needed to make it comparable to the other schools in the county, the elementary schools." "We differ in some grades as far as what we have versus what they have, but, in the end, it's all pret- ty comparable," Fears continued. "We did add a technology fee be- cause that's something you can add into book rental, and that will help if we need software or some applications. We did not have that help last year." "It looks comparable to the oth- er schools' rates," OMA parent representative Jenny Byrd said. Textbook fees set for Miller Academy By Andy Heuring The race for two school board seats officially began last week. The filing period for those two po- sitions opened last week and runs through noon Friday, August 24. It appears there will be one open seat as incumbent Ron Sharp said he isn't planning to seek re-elec- tion. "I'm not going run again un- less something drastic changes. I told the folks who asked me to run, that I would for one term to try and help get the school corpo- ration back in the black and op- erating without loans. I was fig- uring it would take about three and a half years. I'm happy to say with everyone working together we pulled it off in about two and a half years," said Sharp. He held the District 1 seat. David Waltz holds the District 2 seat. Waltz said he intends to seek re-election. District 1 consists of the town- ships of Clay, Madison and all three precincts of Washington Township. District 2 consists of the City of Petersburg. The school board races require a candidate to reside in a specific district, however the entire coun- ty votes for each race, not just the district in which they live. Election Clerk Jenny Deffen- doll said as of Tuesday afternoon no one had filed for either posi- tion, although Waltz had picked up a packet. She added candi- dates must submit a petition with the names of at least 10 registered voters to file for school board. Two school board seats have no candidates By Andy Heuring If you talk to a member of the 4- H Fair Council that oversees the 4-H Fair you will find they are all sporting big smiles, maybe a big, tired smile, but a big smile. The 2018 Pike County 4-H Fair came to an end on Saturday after a week of great weather and great attendance. "Marvelous, is the word I'm us- ing," said Becky Steinhart, to de- scribe the 2018 fair. She should know she has been involved with 4-H for almost 45 years now. "It had that old nostalgic feel. You know just walking down the midway, there were couples walk- ing around, holding hands and riding rides. That is what we are shooting for and we are getting there," said Steinhart. She said participation by 4- H members was up this year as well. "I had 30 members of my club (Lucky Clovers) compete with projects," said Steinhart. While they want it to have the old feeling, the fair has changed drastically the last two years. Last year they managed to get sponsors to pay for free rides on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It brought in big crowds. They also reduced the amphitheater events to Thursday, Friday and Satur- day and charged $5 to park on the nights of the free rides. An- other change this year is to move the Miss Pike County and other pageants to Saturday afternoon and evening in the Pike Central High School Auditorium. So in- stead of battling the heat, humid- ity and bugs of a typical July eve- ning, they were conducted in an air-conditioned auditorium. "It went very well. We had good attendance for all five of our pag- eants," said Kelly Cook of 4-H Council. She said they were wor- ried the first year of the move could cost them some attendance, but instead attendance was up. "It rained that afternoon, so we felt very fortunate to be inside. It seemed like it was much easier on the contestants and spectators," said Cook. "We don't have all of our final figures yet, but I think definitely it was a financial success. No ques- tion," said 4-H Council President Judy Gumbel. She said they will get their fi- Fair sees great attendance, participation Abandoned house fire extinguished An abandoned house fire near Algiers on Tuesday afternoon was extinguished after embers from it were blowing on- to a nearby residence. Jefferson Township Fire Department Chief Chris Young said the fire had actually been started by the owner Cecil Messer. He said Messer was burning it to make way for a new building he hoped to erect in the same location. However Young said the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has cracked down on burning buildings and rubbish. Young said is now only legal to burn natural debris, not anything that has been processed. Jefferson Township was on the scene for about 90 minutes at the fire that was reported at 1 p.m. Young said it was near the address of 4252 N. CR750E. By Andy Heuring An Oakland City man was arrested and police are seeking a second person on charges of stealing items from a Solar Sources mine near Spurgeon last week. Zachary S. Besing, 30, of 427 w. Morton St., Oakland City was arrested on charges of theft greater than $750 and criminal tres- pass. Police have requested a warrant for Jo- seph L. Robinson of 153 E. Niblack Rd., Vin- cennes on the same charges. Pike County Deputy Sheriff Buck Seger said he was contacted by Chris Robling on Friday, July 27 saying he had some items stolen and he had photographs from a trail camera of a vehicle and occupants. Deputy Seger said he met with Robling who told him he had an industrial torch, two metal fuel tanks for the torch, a battery, 16 pieces of 4 x 10 channel metal and two sprockets, in all valued more than $2,200. Seger said he was contacted by Gibson County Deputy Austin Farrington, who told him he had seen the photographs and it was Besing's truck in the picture. Deputy Seger said the next morning he was notified by central dispatch they had a report of Besing's vehicle being at a resi- dence of 2354 E. CR375S, in a truck match- ing the description of the vehicle in the pho- tographs. Seger said he went to the resi- dence and located the truck, which had two fuel tanks matching the description of those stolen from Robling. Deputy Seger said he took a picture of them and sent it to Robling, who verified those were his tanks. Seger said he then went to the residence and spoke with Besing. According to Seger's report, Besing said he and Robinson were driving around drinking on Thursday night. He claimed Robinson said he worked there and had permission to be on the mine prop- erty, even though there were no trespassing signs displayed. He originally claimed Rob- One arrested, one sought for theft at Solar Sources $ 4 Savings End Saturday 4 Sa Sav avings gs End Satu Sa Saturday rday ay $ $ 4 Savings End Saturday Extended through Aug. 4 at Noon. See page A-3 for more details.