The Press-Dispatch
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Local ...........A1-8 History ........... A7 Sports .........B1-3 Classifi eds ..B4-6 Church ........C1-3 Home Life....C4-8 Obituaries....... C8 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 27, 2019 Volume 149 Number 13 Phone 812-354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) $ 1 Four sections 34 pages Ten inserts See PAVING on page 2 See HODGES on page 2 See COUNCIL on page 2 Chargers LOCAL A-3 SPORTS B-1 Lady Chargers fall to Jasper in season opener Petersburg Elementary School Spring Concert Scouts collect non-perishables for Somebody's Place Keaton Johnson, Gavin Eager and Eagle Scout Sam Haycraft load items into Scoutmaster Larry Haycraft's van on Saturday morning. They were two of several Petersburg Boy Scouts who went door-to-door through town to collect the items to donate to Somebody's Place. See additional photos on page A-5. Film crew for Gil Hodges documentary in town Thursday Crew wants to interview locals with stories of Hodges A film crew for a new film documentary on the life of Gil Hodges, native son of Pe- tersburg, is scheduled to arrive in his home- town on Thursday, March 28 to film at var- ious locations in and around Petersburg. The goal of the film is to help educate and inform sports enthusiasts of one of base- ball's greatest players of the 1950s, who went on to manage the Washington Sen- ators and New York Mets, before his un- timely death in 1972 at the age of 47. As manager, he led the "Miracle Mets" to a World Series championship in 1969. The film will also focus on Hodges' life off the field as one of the finest gentlemen to ever play the game of baseball – a man of great faith, integrity and patriotism. Kevin O'Malley, one of the film's creators and executive producers, has been working with Randy Harris, former city mayor and local businessman, to arrange for the film- ing in Petersburg. Any local citizens inter- ested in being interviewed for the film can meet Harris and the film crew on March 28 at Cakes and Coffee Café on Main Street at 2 p.m. Interviews for the film began in Decem- ber 2018 and include former teammates and players who played either with or for him both in Washington and New York. In By Andy Heuring Pike County and Petersburg got letters Tuesday announcing they would be receiv- ing more than $ 600,000 in paving grants. Pike County received a letter dated Tues- day stating: "Your community has prelim- inarily been awarded $525,851.32 in Com- munity Crossing Matching Grant Funds based upon your estimates for your priori- ty project applications." Petersburg got a nearly identical letter with a different amount. Petersburg was awarded $ 93,931.98 for the White River Ave. Project. Mayor R.C. Klipsch said this project will pave and improve White River Ave., from where White River Ave. intersects with Highway 61, and run north to North St. and then out to Highway 61. "We are thrilled with what we are receiv- ing this spring and what we are getting from last year. We got more than $200,000 last year and about $ 90,000 on this one," said Klipsch. He explained when INDOT starts a ma- jor project to completely redo Highway 61 and the sidewalks from Main St. to the north edge of Petersburg, it will be done in sections. This will also allow traffic to detour around the work. Klipsch said Petersburg requested the grant to make the improvements prior to the Highway 61 project. He said INDOT will then go back and return the condition of the detour to its original form, so Peters- burg should have a newly paved street on White River Ave., even after it has been used as a detour. Klipsch said there are about 11 streets that will be paved with the grant money they received last fall. INDOT has recently changed from tak- ing applications once a year for Communi- ty Crossroads paving grant to taking appli- cations twice a year in August and January. Because they received the money from the August request in the fall, it was already past paving season. So the work will be do- ne this spring and summer. Pike County's $525,000 will be spent on the following roads: CR 850 E. in Jefferson Twp., from High- way 356 to north of CR 550 N., about 2.5 miles; CR 1200 S. in Lockhart Twp., east from CR 1050 E. to Bridge 158, 1,733 feet and west from CR 1050 E. to the rock, 5,460 feet; CR 50 E. in Patoka Twp., from Highway 64 to CR 375 S. (Ayrshire Rd.), 9,262 feet; CR 350 E. in Patoka Twp., from CR 400 S. to Winslow, 4,653 feet; County, city receive $619,000+ in paving grants By Andy Heuring County councilmen approved funding for the assessor to combine two part-time po- sitions into one full-time position during a special meeting Tuesday morning. They also voted to purchase a Wi-Fi sys- tem from Eck-Mundy for the courthouse. The Wi-Fi system was the reason they called the special meeting. Indiana has mandated all of the county courthouses have an e-filing system in place by May 17, 2019. This system requires there be Wi-Fi available in the courthouse. They voted to purchase a system recom- mended by the Technology Committee. Councilman Max Elliott, who is a member of the Technology Committee, said the committee liked the bid from Eck Mun- dy, which provides 15 different stations for $ 8,533. The other bid was for $29,000 for 16 stations from Matrix of Jasper. Auditor Judy Gumbel, who also is on the Tech Committee, said Eck-Mundy only had five employees, but she said they were long-time employees of 15 to 24 years. She said, originally the committee had some concerns about the size of Eck-Mundy, but they offer 24-7 emergency service and their daytime hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Gumbel said she talked to Spencer County, who us- es Eck-Mundy for their service. "They said they 'loved' them." Councilmen voted to pay for the Wi-Fi stations from County Economic Develop- ment Income Tax funds. Two other technology purchases were ta- bled. The county needs to purchase a new server for the courthouse. It currently has only the assessor, auditor and treasurer on it and it is already at capacity. Because of the state mandates, the court system is now going to be placed on the same server. Gumbel and Elliott said they had four quotes for the new server. However, they are waiting on Eck-Mundy to get give a fi- nal bundled quote. They said it could be lower if they got the bid for installing the Wi-Fi system. They could bundle the two projects. Elliott asked, "Does this have to be do- ne today? " Gumbel, "No." "You aren't going to be buying new com- puters in the next two weeks are you? " Gumbel replied, "No." "Why don't we just wait until the next meeting and we can figure it out? " asked Elliott. The council also had questions about County to get new WI-FI system for courthouse offices Stendal Flea Market Alan Mitchell, of Stendal, talks with Toni and Gary Cook about glassware during the Stendal Flea Market on Satur- day. The Community Center gym was packed with vendors and shoppers during most of the day at the annual event. See additional photo on page A-8