The Press-Dispatch
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Local ...........A1-8 Sports .........B1-2 Classifi eds ..B3-7 History ........... B8 Church ........C1-3 Home Life....C4-8 Obituaries....... C7 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, May 8, 2019 Volume 149 Number 19 Phone 812-354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) $ 1 Three sections 28 pages Seven inserts See CHARGES on page 2 See COUNCIL on page 2 The property tax deadline for the first in- stallment is Friday, May 10. "Due to the large amounts of mail we receive for the Spring In- stallment, any payments sent through the mail will not be processed until after May 10, 2019. No penalty will be assessed to these payments as long as the postmark on the envelope is May 10, 2019, or prior," said Query. The Treasurer's office will have extended hours in May. They will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern time) Monday through Friday. But they will also be open on Saturday, May 4, from 8 a.m. to noon and Thursday and Friday, May 9 and 10, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Spring property tax installment due Friday By Andy Heuring A Petersburg Police officer has been charged with three level 6 felonies and a mis- demeanor after he admitted to his superior he had taken more than $ 9,400 from seized evidence. Cpl. Scott Wright, 37, was arrested on a war- rant last week on charges of official miscon- duct, a level 6 felony, two counts of theft, both level 6 felonies, and one count of theft, a class A misdemeanor. The investigation started on March 5, when Petersburg Police Sgt. Chad McClellan and Cpl. Jared Simmons were trying to find $7,510 that had been seized from David Vickers dur- ing an OV WI and possession of meth arrest. The Pike Circuit Court had ordered the $7,510 be released. According to a probable cause affidavit, Sgt. McClellan and Cpl. Sim- mons were trying to find the envelope the cash had been placed in that had then been logged into the evidence cage. When they couldn't find it, Sgt. McClellan called Cpl. Wright, who was the evidence clerk for the Petersburg Po- lice Dept. He and McClellan were the only peo- ple to have a key to the evidence cage. Wright was on vacation at the time. According to the affidavit, "Wright directed him to numerous locations to look for the envelope to no avail, so the two hung up." However, a few minutes later, Wright called Sgt. McClellan back and told him "he would not locate the money because he had been tak- ing money from the evidence room for the past couple of years." According to the affidavit, Sgt. McClellan then reported this to Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Baumgart. Baumgart then ordered McClellan to secure the evidence room and Baumgart called the Indiana State Police to investigate the missing money. Baumgart also notified Petersburg Mayor R.C. Klipsch and Pike County Prosecutor Dar- rin McDonald. According to the affidavit, Cpl. Wright re- quested a meeting with Chief Baumgart and Sgt. McClellan on March 31. In that meeting, Cpl. Wright was suspended pending the inves- tigation. The affidavit stated, Wright said "he needed to tell them he had taken money from three cases and the evidence containers were in his office." Baumgart said they discovered cash had been taken from three cases: $7,510 from the David Vickers case; $ 680 from a case against Greg Fowler; and $1,246 from Brandon Soll- City officer charged in connection with missing funds By Andy Heuring Pike County Commissioners accepted the bids of Cave Quarries and Asphalt Ma- terials, Inc. on paving materials to do their Community Crossroads paving grant proj- ects. They also received notice to expect flooding along the Patoka River. EMA director Ryan Benner told the commissioners he received notice from the Army Corps of Engineers to expect mi- nor flooding along the Patoka River. Ben- ner said Patoka Lake on Tuesday was at 547.24 and water starts flowing over the spillway at 548. He said the last time wa- ter went over the spillway was 2011. The dam is not in danger. But the Army Corps is going to release more water than nor- mal to lower the lake level so they will have the capacity to control it. Because once it starts going over the spillway, they can no longer control the river level. Benner said flooding can be expected, but it is not an- ticipated to be nearly as bad as it was in 2011. The commissioners only received two bids for tack oil and one bid for hot mix asphalt on the Community Crossroads paving project. Both bids were by section for each of the road paving projects. The prices listed below are for each individu- al road project combined, not each section of each road. Cave Quarries' total price in- cluded a tack oil bid. Asphalt Materials' bids were only for tack oil. Asphalt Materi- als bid $2.10 per gallon, where Cave Quar- ries bid $ 6 per gallon. Pike County High Superintendent Rog- er Ham said the county will go with the lowest bid, which will be using Asphalt Materials to supply the tack oil. So the to- tal project prices by Cave Quarries will be less the difference of their bid and Asphalt Materials' bid on tack oil. CR 850 - 13,260 feet in Jefferson Twp., from Highway 356 north to 500 feet past CR 550 N. - $130,200, tack oil bid. CR 1200 S. - 7,193 feet from CR 1050, from the rock to east to County Bridge - 158 $79,703. CR 50 E. - 9,262 feet in Patoka Twp., from Highway 64 to CR 375 S. - $105,906. CR 350 E. - 4,653 in Patoka Twp., from CR 400 S. north to Winslow Town limits - $ 82,997. CR 375 W., CR 400 N. and CR 350 W. - 10,357 feet in Madison Twp., from High- way 56 to CR 350 N. (Cart Rd.) - $102,405. CR 825 W. - 6,258 feet in Clay Twp., from Gibson County line to new blacktop - $ 61,545. Division Rd. - 10,708 feet in Logan Twp., from CR 700 W. to CR 500 W. - $110,425. CR 400 S. - 4,714 feet in Patoka Twp., from Highway 61 to CR 350 E. - $57,756. "Will not accepting these bids slow this down? " asked Commissioner Jeff Nelson. Ham said it would slow it down, because they would have to wait two weeks until the next meeting to approve them. "This is all you have got," said County Attorney Val Fleig. He explained they had one hot mix and tack oil bid from Cave Quarries and one tack oil bid from Asphalt Materials. The commissioners voted 3-0 to accept the bids and take the lowest bid. They also voted so write a letter of sup- port for the Technology Center grant ap- plication. The Pike County Economic Develop- ment Corp. received a 60 -40 grant to build the Technology Center, but the bids came in more than $ 900,000 over the estimated cost. Economic Development Executive Director Ashley Willis said the US EDA came back to Pike County and suggest- ed they reapply for an 80 -20 grant, which would cover the $ 900,000 difference. How- ever, she said they had to withdraw their first grant application. Consequently, they needed a new letter of support for the proj- ect. The commissioners voted 3-0 to amend the current wage and salary ordinance to increase the matron and courthouse su- perintendent positions from 35 hours to 40 hours. They also voted 3-0 to approve an additional appropriation of $ 3,000 to pay for additional hours for the courthouse su- perintendent. Circuit Court and Prosecu- tor budgets will pay the matron's addition- al hours. An $ 80,000 additional in the materials line of the MVH fund was approved. Ham said this was to pay for two box culverts where a bridge had washed out on CR 825 W. near Union. They also approved a transfer of $45,000 to purchase a dump truck. The next commissioners' meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Monday, May 20 in the courthouse auditorium. Commissioners receive flood warning, accept paving bids By Andy Heuring Petersburg was told its water and sewer departments are in good financial condition and they hired a new police officer during their Monday night meeting. The City Council voted 5 -0 to hire Isaac Salters. Police Chief Chuck Baumgart said Salters was working for the police department of Hanover. He added Salters has already completed police acade- my, passed his physical and is a trainer for the Hanover Depart- ment. "He looks more than qualified," said Councilman John Melhiser. "He is very qualified," said Baumgart. "I think we are very fortunate," said Mayor R. C. Klipsch of hir- ing Salters. Deen Rogers of Baker Tilly, which used to be Umbaugh, gave a financial management report on both the water and sewer depart- ments for 2018. Rogers pointed to some posi- tive factors which are increasing metered sales. Rogers said the amount is from increased sales, not rate increases. Petersburg had $1,019,414 in total sales for 2018, which is up about $18,000 from 2017 and $54,000 over 2016 sales. Their net operating receipts after expenses was $473,470 which is also up from $460,589 in 2016 and $428,193 in 2017. Rogers said they anticipate me- tered sales to remain the same for both 2019 and 2020, while ex- penses are expected to increase by $19,000. So the net operating receipts will fall to $427,600 by Twister during Riley Dance Marathon Liberty Taylor and Emily Krieg giggle as they try to hang on and not fall out of the Twister game they were play- ing with Dalaney Welch and Carlie Halbrader. The Riley Dance Marathon at Pike Central raised $17,009.59 for the Herman Wells Research Center located on the Riley Children's Hospital Campus. See additional photos on page A-8. City water, sewer departments in good financial condition 65 Sales PIKE COUNTY YARD SALE ALGIERS CAMPBELLTOWN GLEZEN OTWELL PETERSBURG VELPEN WINSLOW THIS SATURDAY, MAY 11 SEE PAGE B-4 Turner uninjured in Tuesday crash A Patoka man was uninjured when he fell asleep and drove off the road on his way to work at about 7 a.m. Tuesday. Bradley Turner, of 201 S. Wood St., Patoka, told Pike County Deputy Sheriff Brad Jenkins he had been working a lot of hours at the power plant and fell asleep. Deputy Jenkins said Turner was driving east on Highway 65 when he ran off the right side of Highway 65 and hit a tree, just west of the intersection of Highway 65 and 56, about seven miles west of Petersburg. Turner was checked out by the Pike County EMS and released. The county-wide yard sale is this Saturday. There are 65 partic- ipating yard sales spread around the county for bargain hunters to go wild on. A map with each of the yard sales numbered and listed is on pages B-4 and B-5. There are 45 in Petersburg, nine in Winslow, four in Algiers, three in Velpen, two in Campbelltown, and one each in Glezen and Otwell. County-wide yard sale is Saturday