The Press-Dispatch
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Local ........ A1-B6 Sports .........B1-3 Classifi eds ....B4-5 Church ........C1-3 Obituaries....C4-5 Home Life....C5-7 School.........C8-9 Opinion .. C10-11 History ......... 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 HIGHLIGHTS on page 3 See FIRES on page 2 Wednesday, January 2, 2019 Volume 149 Number 1 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) $ 1 Three sections 26 pages Six inserts See SALLEE on page 8 News highlights from July to Dec. 2018 recapped By Andy Heuring Two destructive fires hit the area but no one was injured in either. A small storage building near Otwell was destroyed by fire on Thursday after- noon and a car burst into flames while sit- ting next to the gas pumps at Spud's in Ire- land early Friday evening. Ireland-Madison Township Fire Chief Stan Seifert said they don't know what caused Ashley Harris' car to burst into flames at about 5:15 p.m. Friday. Seifert said Harris, 20, of Otwell, had filled the car with gas, put the nozzle back on the pump and went inside Spud's to pay. When she came out of the store, she noticed it looked like her windshield was smoked up and then she saw a bright orange flash. Sief- ert said the car burst into flames, and Har- ris ran to the other side of the car and was able to retrieve her pets, a cat and rabbit By Andy Heuring While it may seem the election just fin- ished, and with the federal government shutdown ongoing most people are on a political overload, the next election is just around the corner. The first day for candidates to file to run for Petersburg City Council, Mayor or Clerk-Treasurer is Wednesday, January 9. The last day to file is noon Friday, Febru- ary 8. Petersburg has four council districts and one at-large position. The four districts are divided by Highway 61 and 57. The south- east quadrant that would include the library is District 1, the quadrant with the Gospel Center is District 2, Hornady Park is Dis- trict 3 and the VFW is District 4. Mayor R.C. Klipsch said he plans to seek re-election. Klipsch was appointed mayor in January 2015 to replace Frank Coleman, then won the seat in November.. The other incumbents are District 1 Gary Leavitt, District 2 John Melhiser, District 3 Bertis Jenkins, District 4 Brian VanMeter and at-large Fran Lewis. Filing for city election begins Jan. 9 Following is the second part of news high- lights from an eventful year: 2018. JULY • A 16 -month-old baby was found dead when her mother checked on her. Jayla Johnson, the daughter of Jeff Johnson and Dwaina Young, of 2175 E. Main St., Lot 11, Petersburg, was found not breathing. In- diana State Police Detective Tobia Odom said an autopsy was performed as is stan- dard with infant deaths. He said they had preliminary results, but are awaiting the fi- nal results. He said police did interviews re- lating to the death, which is normal proce- dure in child deaths, but added, "We don't suspect anything at all." • Pike County Deputy Prosecutor Tom Dysert resigned his position with the coun- ty. Dysert served as Deputy Prosecutor from Jan. 1, 2015, until his resignation on May 4, 2018. His resignation occurred amid accusations from a man in jail, Josh Wilson, who claims Dysert used drugs. Dysert ad- amantly denied those allegations. • Abbi Knepp was crowned as queen of the Little Miss Firecracker pageant as part of the Otwell Fourth of July festivities. • John Voyles, of Petersburg, finished 46th in the FLW Tour's Angler of the Year standings – just two spots away from ad- vancing to the Forrest Wood Cup – by plac- ing 51st in a season-ending tournament held at Lake St. Clair in Harrison Town- ship, Michigan. • A Petersburg woman was arrested on charges of arson, insurance fraud and forgery related to a trailer fire on April 28, 2018. Theresa Loveless, 62, of 714 S. Ninth St., was arrested on a warrant by Peters- burg Police Cpl. Kyle Mills. Loveless was accused of setting fire to a house trailer at 509 N. White River Ave. According to a probable clause affidavit filed with Pike Cir- cuit Court by Assistant Chief Matt Wells, of the Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office, the April 28 fire "was intentionally start- ed." Firemen entered the mobile home and found a couch in the living room on fire. The mobile home had damage throughout estimated at $7,000. • The Otwell Miller Academy School Board approved the hiring of Rich Padgett, Jr., to succeed Rick Fears as the public char- ter K-5 school's director during its regular monthly meeting. The 55 -year-old Padgett, an Otwell native who graduated from Pike Central High School in 1981, had served as assistant principal at Union County High School in Liberty, Ind., for 12 years before retiring from secondary education in June 2018. Prior to that, Padgett spent six years at Pike Central High School: five years as athletic director for grades 9 -12 and as head varsity football coach and one year in the classroom teaching U.S. and World History. • A Sunday morning fire believed to have No one injured in separate fires By Andy Heuring Roughly six months ago, Collin Sallee posted a picture of himself on social media in a hospital bed giving the thumbs up sign. He had just completed a series of surgeries to repair his exploded vertebrae. On June 13, Sallee, 19, had fallen about 35 feet in a construction accident. When he crashed to the floor below him, one of his vertebrae compressed so hard it exploded and sent shrapnel through his spine and spi- nal cord. Prior to his accident, Sallee was an elite endurance athlete. He had won age-group state championships in cyclocross. At one time, he was ranked third in the nation in his age group in cyclocross and won a cou- ple of cycling road races. He also completed the Ride Across Indiana, a 161-mile, one-day ride that starts in Terre Haute at St. Mary's of the Woods and finishes at Earlham Col- lege in Richmond. A fter graduating in December 2016 of his senior year, Sallee had quickly advanced to a job of his dreams, working construction, albeit on a little different path than most. Sallee said, "I had some things I wanted to do." He went to Meyer Distributing imme- diately after high school and worked there until April 2017. He quit to hike the Appala- chian Trail, a 2,200 -mile trail through the Appalachian Mountains, between Spring- er Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katah- din in Maine. Typically, hikers start early Spring in Georgia and hope to get to Maine before the winter sets in. He did about 600 miles of the trail before he lost interest in it. "I started out wanting to do the whole thing. I was in great shape, but I just decided I wanted to so something else," said Sallee. That something else was to work at a ranch in California. So he started search- ing for ranches needing help and was hired. The ranch he worked for was north of Sacra- mento, Calif. Sallee said it was within about 45 minutes of the Paradise, Calif. fire. "It was crazy hot and never rained." said Sallee. He did that for a few months and then re- turned to Pike County and started working construction. "I loved it. If I started walk- ing today, I would go back tomorrow and do it again. I woke up every morning excit- ed to go to work. I loved my job, I miss it," said Sallee. Sallee has always been full speed ahead and is just the type person that might find such a catastrophic injury overwhelming. But Sallee didn't. "It wasn't like I woke up in the hospital and they told me, 'you are paralyzed.' I nev- er lost consciousness. I told the first person to get to me, 'hey be careful, I'm paralyzed.'" "I never had an issue with it. It was just like flipping a switch. This is what it is going to be, let's work with it," said Sallee. "I don't know if I'm the exception or not. But I didn't have a day that stands out to me where I said this is really bad. I took it for what it was and made the best of it. . . I just really didn't have that struggle of accepting it," said Sallee. Sallee recovery going 'full speed ahead' Brasher to compete in Miss Indiana Fair Queen Pageant preliminaries Jan. 5 2018 Miss Pike County 4-H Fair Emily Brasher will compete in preliminaries for the 2019 Miss Indiana State Fair Queen Pageant in Indianapolis, Saturday, Jan. 5. The doors will open at 4 p.m., with the competition scheduled to start at 5 p.m. During the finals, which will be held starting at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 6, 16 semi- finalists will be named, then narrowed to a field of top 10 finalists, and ending with the crowning of Miss Indiana State Fair 2019. On Friday, Jan. 4, all 87 county fair queen representatives will have a face-to-face in- terview with the Indiana State Fair Queen Pageant judges. Then, on Saturday, Jan. 5, the county representatives will participate in the traditional State Fair Queen's lun- cheon, where each county fair queen repre- sentative has lunch with their parents and/ or invited guests of their choice. "As you can see, our Miss Pike County, Emily Brasher, has three days of action- packed schedule ahead of her and, with no doubts, Miss Emily will represent Pike County and Pike County 4-H well," said Pike County 4-H pageant chairman Kelly Cook. "We are extremely proud of Emily. On behalf of the Pike County 4-H, we send our best wishes to Miss Emily." The winner of the state pageant will re- ceive the title "Miss Indiana State Fair 2019" and must be prepared to spend the entire 17-day period at the 2019 Indiana State Fair from Aug. 2-18. The winner will also appear for the Indiana State Fair Com- mission and Indiana State Fair Board in of- ficial capacities as required until a succes- sor is crowned. Jefferson Township Firemen approach a fire that destroyed an abandoned one room residence near CR550N and Highway 257 at about 3:15 p.m. Thursday. Collin Sallee, 19, of rural Winslow sits in his hand-driven trike. Sallee, an elite endurance athlete, was paralyzed in June when he fell about 30 feet in a con- struction accident. Sallee is beginning to train for para-cycling events with an eye on competing in the Paralympics someday.