The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1089368
Local ...........A1-6 Sports .........B1-3 Classifi eds ..B6-8 Church ........C1-3 Home Life....C4-7 Obituaries....... C8 History ........... C9 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 Wednesday, March 6, 2019 Volume 149 Number 10 Phone 812-354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) $ 1 Three sections 26 pages Six inserts See PROJECTS on page 2 See RIVER on page 3 See THEFTS on page 2 River Harbin Surrounding communities seeing uptick in thefts By Andy Heuring "Don't leave your keys in your car! " is Pe- tersburg Police Chief Chuck Baumgart's mantra of late. He started it after two vehicles had been stolen from Petersburg and a third, taken from Dubois County, was found in Peters- burg during the last week. "All three of these have been cases where people left their keys in the car," said Baumgart The first vehicle taken was a silver 2005 Chevrolet Colorado four-door pickup. It was taken from Jim Gaskins' driveway on February 26 and has a license plate num- ber of TK750NAY. Then on Thursday, February 28, Dubois County called Pike County and asked them to be on the lookout for a car taken from Huntingburg. Baumgart said Petersburg Police Sgt. Chad McClellan found that vehicle at 112 S. 14th St., Petersburg, at about 1 p.m. On Saturday, Baumgart said police re- ceived a call at about 7:30 a.m. from Am- ber (Clark) Ashley that her 2006 Chevro- let Equinox had been stolen from her resi- dence at 205 N. 12th St. Police were then notified later that morn- ing about a vehicle matching that descrip- tion being crashed near the Pike-Gibson County line. Petersburg Police Cpl. Kyle Mills said it was located on CR 525 S., which runs parallel to Highway 64, about a quar- ter of a mile north of it. Cpl. Mills said Ash- ley's vehicle was found in the woods on its side. He said it was being driven east from Gibson County into Pike County and the driver missed a sharp S curve, hit an em- bankment and launched the vehicle into the woods, with it coming to rest on its side. The occupant kicked out the sunroof to get out of the vehicle. When Chief Baumgart was telling the Pe- Three vehicles stolen from area in recent auto theft spree Petersburg plans $11+ million water department upgrade State recommends ordinance to ban road block fundraising By Andy Heuring Petersburg had the first reading of an ordinance that would authorize more than $11 million in water system improvements, including a new water treatment plant. It is predicted the improvements will increase Petersburg water bills by $ 9 a month. However Petersburg Mayor R.C. Klipsch said the $ 9 figure is the worst case scenar- io. "It is possible it won't be that much of an increase." He also said even with the increase Pe- tersburg will still have one of the lowest wa- ter rates in the area. Among the cities and towns of Santa Claus, Princeton, Loogootee, Ferdinand, St. Anthony, Washington, Jasper, Hunt- ingburg, Dale, Lynnville, Gentryville and Patoka Lake, currently Petersburg is the lowest. They now have an average rate of $21.96. The highest town was Gentryville at $47.95 and Patoka Lake was the highest water company at $52.88. Klipsch said even with the $ 9 increase Petersburg would still be the third lowest of the group coming in at just over $ 30, which would put them at just below Loogootee, which is at $ 31.54. The planned improvements would re- place Petersburg's Water Treatment plant that was built in 1930s. Petersburg has al- ready closed on property located adjacent to the current Sewer Plant. The existing water tanks will be cleaned and painted in- side and out. A new tank will be construct- ed south of Petersburg between I-69 and Fire destroys truck Petersburg firemen Kyler Henry and Austin Kendall put out a fire that erupted in the engine compartment of Colton DeJarnett's truck on Sunday. DeJarnett's 1993 Ford Ranger truck was fully involved when firemen arrived at his 1619 N. SR 61 residence. By Andy Heuring County Commissioners authorized the County Highway Department to obtain bids to replace their computers. Mark Baker, of Matrix, which is contract- ed by the county to maintain their comput- er systems, told the commissioners it would cost about $12,000 to make all the upgrades needed at the Highway Department. He said replacing three desktop comput- ers for the highway superintendent, assis- tant superintendent and bookkeeper would be $5,322. A network computer to manage the fuel distribution system for the county Highway, EMS and Sheriff's Department would be $ 3,994, plus another $2,569 to clean up the network so it would work on that computer. Commissioner President Mark Flint said, "I would like to replace it, but I don't want to commit on this to Matrix or any other firm. I would like to commit to purchasing the equipment, but not to committing to Ma- trix today." He further explained the highway depart- ment was using 13-year-old computers and needed new ones. But he wanted to get pric- es from other companies before making a de- cision on which computers to buy. In other business, the commissioner ap- proved advertising for mowing bids on the Old Town Cemetery in Petersburg and Cole- man Cemetery in Monroe Township. Com- missioner Assistant Kristi Dischinger said the advertisement for bids would be the same as in past years. They also voted to appoint Chris Young as assistant director of the Emergency Man- agement Agency. The county is required to appoint an assistant to Director Ryan Ben- ner. Nelson said Benner recommended Young. The commissioners voted 3-0 to ap- prove him. They also appointed Nelson to the Mental Health Board. Highway dept. to upgrade computers By Andy Heuring A special birthday celebration is sched- uled for a special little boy. River Harbin plans to celebrate his fourth birthday on Thursday, March 12 at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis. He has survived and fought his way through more than most seniors celebrat- ing their 84th birthday. River was born on March 12, 2015, to Zach and Brit- tany Harbin. He was born with a heart condition called cardiomyopathy. He was given only an 18 per- cent chance of survival be- fore birth. He was born in Indianapolis and directly taken to Riley Children's Hospital, where he was im- mediately a known fighter for his life. He still proves to be a fighter. He had open heart surgery at seven days old and was listed on the 1A heart transplant list; howev- er, he has not yet received a new heart. A fter six weeks, he im- proved so much that he was released from the hospital to go home with his family. "Once he got home, he did great," said his grandmother Shannon Harbin. However, said she in the winter, he often came down with a cold and it would go to his heart. It would take him a while to get over it. But this year it was much worse. He has had many checkups with his doctors at Riley's over the last three years, along with managed outpatient care and daily medications at home. He had to be admitted to Riley's on De- cember 2, 2018. He has been there ever since. River has had multiple surgeries, one with a Berlin Heart being placed and EC- MO due to his heart not working well enough for survival. He has endured a brain bleed, kidney fail- ure, collapsed lungs mul- tiple times, RSV, and ma- ny other complications all through the 2018 holidays to present day. In the past nine weeks, River has had two open heart surgeries, four brain surgeries, and many other procedures. He just had his fourth brain surgery on Valen- tine's Day putting his bone flap back. "We are persistently praying for improvements in his cognitive, physical and neurological function," said his moth- er, Brittany. She added, "River continues to fight through the worst of outcomes and shows what miracles truly are." River was relisted on the heart transplant list on February 20 as a status 1A. He will not leave the hospital this time until he re- ceives a new heart. River to celebrate special birthday Amber Ashley's Chevrolet Equinox was crashed sometime Saturday morn- ing near the Pike-Gibson county line, after it was stolen late Friday night. It was the second vehicle stolen from Petersburg in the last week. A third vehi- cle, stolen from Huntingburg, was found last week in Petersburg. Sunday, March 10, don't forget to spring forward for Daylight Saving Time. While technically the changeover be- gins at 2 a.m., many will set their alarm clocks to the correct time the night be- fore, which will be setting the clock for- ward one hour. Daylight saving time takes effect Sunday