The Press-Dispatch
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Local ........ A1-12 Sports .........B1-5 Classifi eds B10-11 Church ........C1-3 Home Life....C4-7 Obituaries....... C7 Opinion .......C8-9 School.... C10-11 E. Gibson ..... C12 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 CHRISTMAS on page 2 See CENTER on page 10 Wednesday, November 14, 2018 Volume 148 Number 46 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) $ 1 See WINSLOW on page 2 Three sections 34 pages Eight inserts Roger Roach-Philpot By Andy Heuring A homeless man was arrested last week on a charge of rape af- ter threatening texts sent to his victim prompted her to call police and report the rape. Roger Roach-Philpot, 46, for- merly of Beaver Dam, Ky., was arrested on November 9 by U.S. Federal Marshals in Kentucky on a warrant from Pike County. The warrant was for a Level 3 fel- ony charge of rape, which carries a sentence of three to 16 years in prison. Roach-Philpot is accused of raping a woman in June while she worked with him to clean up a trailer lot in Minnis Trailer Court, which she had purchased from him, according to a proba- ble cause affidavit. Pike County Deputy Sheriff Brad Jenkins, in the affidavit, said he talked with the woman, who told him she had a protective order against Roach- Philpot and he had sent her text messages saying "he wanted to rape her again." According to Jenkins, the wom- an told him that in June Roach- Philpot had pushed her down to the ground, pulled her pants and underwear down and raped her. She said he held her down against her will, despite her repeatedly asking him to stop. She said she didn't report it be- cause she was afraid of him. How- ever, when she received the text messages that he wanted to rape her again, she called police. Deputy Jenkins, in the affida- vit, said the woman told her boy- friend about the attack. When Jen- kins contacted her boyfriend, he confirmed the woman had told him about the attack. Jenkins said when he called a number for Roach-Philpot, the person answering said he had the wrong number, but seemed extremely nervous. According to court records of the texts from a number match- ing Roach-Philpot's, he stated he wanted to rape her earlier, but didn't because she had an ankle bracelet on. The woman said she had a home detention bracelet on prior to the rape, but she had completed her home detention when the attack took place. A warrant for Roach- Philpot's ar- rest was is- sued on Oc- tober 22, 2018. Deputy Jenkins said Roach- Philpot had fled the scene and was eventually located in Kentucky by the U.S. Marshals and booked in the Pike County Jail on Novem- ber 9. Homeless man charged with felony rape By Andy Heuring Santa is coming to town in both Winslow and Pe- tersburg on the first weekend of December. Santa will be in the annual Christmas parades. The Win- slow parade is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, De- cember 1. Line-up is at 9 a.m. at the Winslow Fire Department on Union St. The parade will proceed from there to Main St., and then north to the Little League park. Other activities in conjunction with the parade in- clude Santa and Mrs. Claus meeting children in the Nazarene Church Fellowship Hall following the pa- rade. This will also be the location of the Mouse House, which allows kids to purchase inexpensive gifts for siblings and friends for between $1 and $5. Winslow will also have a Winter Wonderland fea- turing numerous Christmas decorations and dis- plays in the former Dime Store on Main St. It will be open on the day of the parade. PETERSBURG PARADE DEC. 1 The Petersburg Christmas parade will start at 3 p.m. on Saturday, December 1, with line-up on Wal- nut St. in front of the Old Petersburg Gym. The pa- rade will go one block on Highway 61 to Main St. and then proceed south to Second St. Santa will be in the parade and then he will be available to see children at the corner of Seventh and Main Sts. HOLLY WALK IS SET FOR DECEMBER 8 Petersburg Annual Holly Walk is set for Saturday 8. The event is sponsored by the Discover Downtown Petersburg organization. All civic groups, booster clubs, churches school groups and other organi- zations are invited to participate during the event with entertainment and/or fundraising events. Con- tact Deena Doerner at The Ole Flower Shoppe or Marge Leavitt at Marge's Hallmark. More details of the event will follow soon. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR SALVATION ARMY BELL RINGERS The Pike/Gibson Salvation Army is in need of bell ringer volunteers in Petersburg. If you would like to ring, please contact Cal Biddle at 812-582-2385. Times are available from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Petersburg Dollar General on Fridays and Saturdays, November 22 through December 22. Al- so, you can ring at Petersburg Hardware from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Satur- Parades, events scheduled for holidays By Andy Heuring The Winslow Town Coun- cil meeting Monday night start- ed on a somber note as council opened the meeting with a prayer for fellow councilman Greg Sim- mons. Simmons was hospital- ized just prior to the meeting. He has been battling cancer. Council president Terry Strobel said Sim- mons' wife, Katrinka, called him and asked if he and those at the meeting would pray for Simmons. Strobel said Simmons was not do- ing well and his prognosis was not good. He opened the meeting with a prayer for Simmons. Clerk-Treasurer Stacy Worthington announced she re- ceived notice Winslow would be receiving an $ 86,940 grant for pav- ing. Winslow will have to match that with 25 percent. Worthing- ton said she took a class to learn about how to write the grant appli- cation and had 1.5 hours of help from Midwestern Engineering Inc. on the application. The sec- tions of road Winslow request- ed for the Community Crossroad Matching Grant Funds were: Bluff St. from Porter to North St. $11,659; Factory Ave. from Highway 61 to its end $21,580 ; Brenton St. from Highway 61 to end $21,395; North St. from Bluff St to Col- lins St. $ 31,620 ; Porter St. from Bluff St to Col- lins St. $ 33,495; Winslow's match for the grant is about $28,000. It is the second year Winslow has applied for the grant. Last Winslow council discusses paving, fire truck purchase Getting ready for the Christmas season City services manager Alan Tegmeyer works from a bucket truck to put Petersburg's Christ- mas decorations in place for the coming holidays. The decorations were placed on the new temporary utility poles on Main Street. The task is expected to be completed by Thanksgiving. Hornady Park decorations are also being set in place for the annual Christmas in the Park display. B-12 THANKSGIVING MEALS IN Monica's MINUTES B-6 NOV. 17 & 18 See B-9 for details. C h r is tk in d l m a r k t F ERD I NAND Press-Dispatch WITH THE By Andy Heuring The Pike County council said 'no' to another $250,000 needed to build an event center at Prides Creek. The Pike County Park and Recreation Board's request for an additional $250,000 died for the lack of a second during the coun- cil's Tuesday morning meeting. The Park and Recreation Board in conjunction with the Pike Coun- ty Economic Development Cor- poration had received a grant to build an event center at Prides Creek. However, when the proj- ect went to bids, the bids came back about $200,000 higher than estimated at a cost of $ 825,000. Consequently they had to ask for more money to complete the proj- ect. Several months ago the coun- cil voted to allow the funding of the project, but questioned its vi- ability at the first cost level. John Mandabach of Bowman Family Holdings and an officer of the Pike EDC told the council Pike County had worked hard to get on the radar of state and fed- eral officials and developers work- ing with private and public part- nerships that had developed a me- ga site and other industrial sites, including a Master Plan for the ar- ea's development for both indus- try and residential development. But he said there was more to de- velopment than just infrastruc- ture and facilities. "We started with a blue line around 8,000 acres," said Man- dabach. He said from that, ma- ny people and businesses, "have created what folks in Indiana Eco- nomic Development Corporation have said is one of the strongest partnerships in the state. To get the state to prioritize this area. When the state came through and put a lot of investment into the county." He added, Indiana Council nixes funding for Event Center at Prides Creek Lessons about living on the frontier Joe Bill Dyson displays his knife throwing skills to Steph- anie King's fifth grade class on Monday. Dyson, along with Keith Thomas and Tom Mosley, demonstrated loading and shooting a black powder rifle, throwing a tomahawk and starting a fire without matches, among other frontier skills to the students.