The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1025312
A-2 Front Wednesday, September 12, 2018 The Press-Dispatch BUILDINGS Continued from page 1 September 13 • 5:30pm at Enhancing Lives Through Innovative Healthcare From recovery care and wellness to management 309 West Pike Ave., Petersburg Entertainment: DJ Dustin Arnold Hot Dogs, Potato Salad, Baked Beans, Dessert and Drinks. Annual CAR SHOW & PICNIC FREE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY Prides Creek PARK & CAMPGROUND 1045 E CR 400 N, Petersburg • Just off I-69! • 812-354-6798 Jones Gang The Local Washington, Ind. band Saturday, Sept. 15 7-10 p.m. Amphitheater Gate fee: $2 IN CONCERT AT PRIDES CREEK PARK Bring Your Lawn Chair Everyone Welcome! FESTIVALS Continued from page 1 World Trade Center as it stood before the attacks of 9 - 11. It is believed many rescu- ers would have made a sim- ilar climb that day and un- fortunately many never re- turned home." "We make this climb in order to honor those we lost in the line of duty and to en- sure that we never forget them," said Popp. There will also be inflat- ables and carnival games from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The downtown area will have musical entertainment all day. They will have a disc jockey from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Chuck McCandless, Mark McCandless and Tony Ro- throck will perform from 2 to 6 p.m. A frozen T-shirt contest is set for 2 p.m. The Patoka Township Fire Department will have an extrication dem- onstration at 5 p.m. Batman will have a meet and greet at 7 p.m. Line-up for the Winslow Light-up parade starts at 8 p.m., with the parade start- ing at dark. Sunset will be at 7:57 p.m. on Saturday. Free shuttle rides be- tween downtown Winslow and Riverside Park will be available all day. Food booths, face painting, a dunking booth, balloon art- ists, sidewalk graffiti and a photo booth will also be on the grounds during most of the day. MONROE CITY FALL FESTIVAL The Monroe City Fall Fes- tival is set for Friday through Sunday, September 14-16. It will feature good eats, amusement rides and musi- cal entertainment. Friday, Sept. 14 Throughout the weekend, there will be music, flea mar- ket vendors, Walnut Grove homemade ice cream, sand- wiches, cold drinks, Reed Family funnel cakes, a coun- try store, train rides and in- flatables. The Monroe City High School Alumni Spaghetti Dinner starts at 5 p.m. and is followed by a Rodney Watts concert at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept 15 A pet parade starts at 10 :30 a.m. There will be a queen contest in the Blue Jean Center starting at 2 p.m. A variety show is set for 7 p.m. and fireworks at dark. Beech Hills BBQ by the Cow Muck Cookers will be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be a learn-to- paint class from 9 a.m. to noon. No talent or experi- ence needed and materials will be provided. It is lim- ited to the first 20 people. To register, call Wini Fran- cis at 812-444-9507 or 812- 254-2486. Sunday, Sept. 16 A community church ser- vice begins at 10 a.m. The Jeff Black Fish Fry starts at 11:30 a.m. The parade starts at 2 p.m. and the South Knox high School Band Concert will perform at 3 p.m. PETERSBURG CITY- WIDE YARD SALE The Petersburg City-wide Yard Sale is set for Saturday, September 15. There are more than 35 yard sales to draw a big crowd of bargain hunters, each located on a city-wide map in The Press- Dispatch. BUFFALO TRACE FESTIVAL The Buffalo Trace Festi- val featuring free rides, fire- works, bed races and musi- cal entertainment will start on Friday, September 28, with a 6 p.m. parade. The rides will start at 6 p.m. and run until 11 p.m. This year will also fea- ture an adult co-ed softball tourney that starts at 6 p.m. Friday at the Little League fields. Opening ceremonies are set for 6:30 p.m. on the Buf- falo Trace stage located on Main St. It will feature a welcome by Mayor R.C. Klipsch, the National An- them by Adam Houchins, Pledge of Allegiance led by Boy Scouts, and Houchins singing God Bless The USA. The Pike Central Jazz band will perform at 7 p.m., followed by Joe Nobody Band at 7:45 p.m. and Rod- ney Watts Band at 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 Saturday's events start early with the Amber Man- or Walk-a-thon in Hornady Park beginning at 7:30 a.m. Pike County Has Talent gets underway at 9 a.m. It will be followed by the Buffa- lo Trace Pageants at 11 a.m. Also starting at 11 a.m. will be the pie eating con- test, followed by the dog show. The free carnival rides on Saturday will start at 1 p.m. and run until 10 p.m. A fternoon activities in- clude a water balloon toss competition at 2 p.m. and the Buffalo Trace Hairy leg competition at 2:30 p.m. The Main St. Bed Races start at 4 p.m. Several musical perfor- mances are set for Satur- day. They start at 3:15 p.m. with the Pike Central High School Swing Choir. The Martins are set for 6 p.m. and Cook & Belle at 8:15 p.m. Fireworks will cap off the two-day event and start at 10 :30 p.m. "That would be my guess," Harris replied. Petersburg resident Don- na Dyer told the council that recent efforts to beau- tify the downtown area has been very successful, and encouraged the city to pro- ceed with the demolition of the two buildings. "These two buildings are a blight," Dyer said. "So it's really, really necessary." Cindy Gaskins, represent- ing the Pike County Com- munity Foundation and pres- ident of the Petersburg Re- development Commission, agreed. "The Foundation's all about making Pike County better," she said. "And get- ting rid of those buildings, making it safer and better for all of Pike County, is a plus all the way around." Ashley Willis, executive director of the Pike Coun- ty Economic Development Commission, also voiced her support for the proposed blight clearance project. "I would like to say that I think this project of blight clearance is strongly sup- ported, just to continue to bring success to and revi- talize the downtown district for businesses in the future or just facilities for the pub- lic to use," Willis said. "Cur- rently, these buildings are inhabitable." Becky Sullivan, whose hair salon business is locat- ed in an adjacent building that she owns, said that the deteriorating buildings were damaging hers. "It's tearing my building up as well, and that's going to have to be addressed at one point or another," Sulli- van said. Klipsch noted the pres- ence of Indiana 15 Region- al Planning Commission ex- ecutive director Lisa Gehl- hausen, who has been hired to prepare the city's appli- cation for a $500,000 blight clearance grant. "If you remember, this project was included in both our Stellar applica- tions in 2012 and 2013 as a project, to deal with these buildings," Klipsch said. "They've been vacant since 2008." "It's not something we're excited about, but it has to be done," Klipsch added. "We've been talking about this for years. We had to own them first, and now we own them, and we're going to be dealing with them, hopeful- ly, in 2019." Police Chief Chuck Baumgart agreed with those who spoke during the pub- lic hearing regarding the un- safe nature of the two build- ings. "My biggest concern is we get somebody that gets inside that building – and they're going in illegal- ly, like a kid, or something like that – and that building collapses," Baumgart said. "The integrity of the struc- ture is gone. There's noth- ing there. It's going to col- lapse." Fire Chief Ross Elmore agreed. "It's extremely danger- ous if some kid or some- body would get in there and start something that way," Elmore said. "Those build- ings are not safe enough for me to send firefighters in- to them, so we know where that leads – we're going to have a major downtown fire at that point, or could have. That's been my real concern on those two buildings, is if something like that hap- pens." "So, Lisa, you understand the urgency of doing this project? " Klipsch asked. "I do," Gehlhausen re- plied. "I'm hearing all sorts of things I hadn't heard about." Gehlhausen said that it was hoped that a grant ap- plication will be submitted by the end of September. "If we would be success- ful on our first application, when should we expect that? " Klipsch asked. "By the end of the year? " "We could hear by the end of the year if you get your ap- plication, and then you sign a grant agreement," Gehl- hausen said. "That usually takes about six weeks. And then go out for bids, and that takes a couple of months. So, in all likelihood, it will be a 2019 construction, or de- construction, project." Gehlhausen said that, in order to be eligible for a blight elimination grant, the community must classified as either low- or moderate- income, the project must be an emergency or blighted conditions must exist. "This is going under the blighted condition catego- ry," Gehlhausen said. "As silly as it sounds, it's not an emergency," Klipsch said. "To us, it certainly seems like it." "It's not very far from it," council member Gary Leavitt said. During his departmental update, Baumgart said that he wanted to remind the public that, since school has started, they should be on the lookout for buses when- ever they stop to load or un- load children. "We've got school start- ed, and we've got people run- ning the school bus arms," Baumgart said. "So we'll be out in force, looking for this, so we can make sure we submit that to the court. We can't have any of our kids killed, and I'll tell you the worst spot in on (Hwy.) 57." In addition, Baumgart said that the city needs ap- proximately 70 five-gallon plastic buckets, which will be used to create temporary fence posts for various uses, including the upcoming Buf- falo Trace Festival. "We have 30 now," Baumgart said. "If we could get, you know, 40 more, that would be awesome, or more than that. If you've got them, you can drop them off at city services, the police depart- ment, or city hall." "One thing I want to men- tion," Baumgart added. "It doesn't matter what was in them, because we're not go- ing to use them for water or anything like that." Klipsch added that vol- unteers to help with set-up, cleaning and tear-down be- fore, during and after the festival were needed as well. "Anybody wanting to vol- unteer to help us set-up or clean up or tear-down, con- tact me," Klipsch said. "So, not only do we need the buckets, we need some man- power." "That was tough last year with no more help than we had, and a lot of people after- ward said, 'Boy, I would've helped had I known,'" Klipsch added. "Well, we need to get the word out that we could use some help. Whether it's buckets or la- bor, anybody interested in helping us, contact me. I'll find something for them to do, I'll promise you." SEIZE THE WEEK'S SPORTS NEWS. Get a hold on the sports world when you read the newspaper. We bring you complete coverage of sports events and scores, so you can keep up with your favorite teams at a glance. Seize the day and subscribe today; call 812-354-8500 for convenient home delivery. Budget hearings for 2019 Pike County Councilmen and Auditor Ron Wilson go through the various department budget requests. They used a projector to show each budget on a large screen while they discussed that budget. They meeting typically lasts the majority of two days. They began reviewing the budgets Tuesday morning. Council approves funds for CR525S bridge deck By Andy Heuring The Pike County Council approved three additional ap- propriations for the highway department during a short monthly meeting prior to going into an all-day budget hearing Tuesday morning. Councilmen approved $ 39,260 to replace Bridge 91's deck. Highway Depart- ment Superintendent Rog- er Ham said during the last bridge inspection they found the bridge deck needed to be replaced. The bridge is locat- ed over the South Fork of the Patoka River in Patoka Town- ship on CR525S. Councilmen voted 7-0 to approve the additional. They also approved a $4,000 additional to pur- chase an air-conditioner re- charger. Ham said they need the recharger to repair air- conditioning units on their trucks, graders and other equipment. He said the cur- rent one was at the garage when he started working at the Highway Department. "It is probably 35 years old. It quit on us about two weeks ago." Councilmen approved the request by a 7-0 vote. Councilmen also approved the purchase of several 800 MHz radios for the Emergen- cy Management Agency to give to several departments. EMA Director Ryan Ben- ner requested they transfer $ 6,200 from Administrative Assistant to radios and re- pair. Benner said when he took over as EMA Direc- tor, there was a box of seven broken radios from various departments. He said Ken- wood, a radio manufactur- er has a promotion that lasts until September 28, in which they are giving a $400 trade- in for broken radios. He said that makes the purchase price about $1,200 a radio. Ham with the Highway Department said his radio would not work over the weekend while they were out working in the storm. He said he kept getting a mes- sage of "no range." Ham said he had it fixed twice and it keeps giving him the "no range" message. Councilman Todd Meadors asked which de- partment the broken radi- os came from. He said the replaced radios should go back to the departments they came from. Benner said he knew two of the radios came from the Sheriff's Department, but he wasn't sure about all of them. "The only issue I have with them is this isn't radio and re- pair. I would rather see this purchased from the equip- ment line item," said Coun- cil president Greg Willis. The purchase was ap- proved by a 7-0 vote. At the beginning of their budget hearing, Councilman Dennis Bishop moved to de- lay discussion of all wages until the end of the hearings and freeze new hires and capital expenditures to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.