The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1184010
A-2 Front Wednesday, November 13, 2019 The Press-Dispatch net edition yeah, it's that fast! Z M www.PressDispatch.net/Subscribe It's The Press-Dispatch. No matter where you live. Delivered every Wednesday morning! Add it for $5 to your current print subscription or stand-alone for $35/year. * Reservations only, call: 812-354-9259 * 242 South Hwy. 57, Petersburg THANKSGIVING DAY BUFFET SERVING BUFFET INCLUDES Turkey, Roast, Ham and all the Trimmings $ 12 95 PLUS DRINKS & TAX THURSDAY, NOV. 27 • 11am-3pm • FREE knife sharpening by a Wüsthof representative • Great New Products: Slice, dice and chop before you buy • Great Specials • See some awesome gadgets in action Cut Abe WÜSTHOF KNIFE DEMONSTRATION a SATURDAY, NOV. 16 • 10AM - 2PM ON THE SQUARE IN JASPER • 812-482-1617 Store Hours: Mon–Fri 10am–5:30pm • Sat 10am–4pm WEATHER Continued from page 1 Christian artist Cochren & Co. announces an upcom- ing Christmas concert at 6 p.m. on December 8, 2019, at Antioch Christian Church in Washington. Cochren & Co. will pres- ent The Company Christmas Party Concert. It will be a one-of-a-kind Christmas experience featuring mu- sic, food and fun surprises. Tickets for General Admis- sion, Artist Circle Seating and VIP Packages are now on sale at www.cochrenmu- sic.com. Cochren & Co., led by southern Indiana native Mi- chael Cochren, signed to TobyMac's Gotee Records in August of 2018 and short- ly after released their first radio single "Church (Take Me Back)," a Top 10 Bill- board charting hit. The song also brought Cochren a nom- ination for Breakout Single of the Year at the 2019 K- LOVE Fan Awards. Cochren & Co. have tak- en their piano-based soul- ful pop sound all across the country, opening for artists such as Michael W. Smith, Newsboys, TobyMac, Crowder, Jeremy Camp and many more. "This is going to be a re- ally special night, one you don't want to miss," says Co- chren. "I'm so excited to be playing a Christmas concert at my home church. We've been traveling a lot this year and we haven't had many opportunities to play local- ly, and next year's touring schedule is taking me away even more. Really, this is the last concert we will have in Indiana until April or May 2020." Tickets are on sale now. VIP Packages include: ear- ly entry, reserved artist cir- cle seating, pre-show Q&A and meet and greet, exclu- sive free gift, and intimate pre-show reception with the artist. For more informa- tion, visit www.cochrenmu- sic.com or call 812-254-2651. Cochren & Co. to have Christmas concert at Antioch in Washington State Trooper Hunter Manning, who worked the late shift Monday, worked a rollover on Highway 61, about a mile north of Pike Central. Trooper Manning said Donald Myers, Jr., 56, of Loogootee, was driv - ing a Ford Explorer south on Highway 61. Myers told Trooper Manning he was driving about 30 to 45 mph, trying to stay in the tire tracks in his lane, when he hit a slick spot. Trooper Man- ning said Myers went across the centerline, then overcor- rected and swerved back to the right, running off High- way 61 into a ditch and over- turned at about 7:50 p.m. Myers was uninjured in the crash. Manning said he a worked slide-off on Highway 56, near Cato, and another on Highway 57, near the Rum- bletown Free Methodist Church. Josh Byrd, Pike County Highway Dept. Assistant Superintendent, said crews started at about 9 p.m. Mon- day night and worked un- til about midnight plowing snow. " We plowed what we could until about midnight. Then after midnight it froze up and we were putting sand down," said Byrd. He said the sun on Tues- day helped melt areas of blacktop roads. He was hop- ing the temperatures would rise over the next few days to help break up the snow and ice. A high of 36 degrees was predicted for Wednes- day and 41 on Thursday. Tuesday the high was ex- pected to hit 26 degrees; however, at noon, it was still only 19 degrees. According to the National Weather Service at Paducah, Ky., the 1.1 inches of snow Evansville got was the larg- est snow on record for No- vember 11. However, sever- al other November snows topped the two to three inches of snow Pike Coun- ty received. The largest No- vember snow ever in Evans- ville was 6.9 inches on No- vember 28, 1958. The oth- er snow topping Monday's snow was 2.4 inches on No- vember 2, 1966. "It wasn't a record for No- vember, but still what you received was a significant snow for early November," said NWS Meteorologist Se- an Poulos. E911 Continued from page 1 nals. He said Pike Central's Maintenance Director Max Deputy talked with New- Wave and was told they are experiencing problems while merging two compa- nies and systems. Capehart said he was told it is being worked on, but isn't expected to be fixed un- til the first quarter of 2020. He went to the Petersburg Elementary School and tried calling 911. He said the call went to a national service provider, but they couldn't tell him the address he was calling from or what phone number he was calling from. He said people with land- lines should use their cell- phones to contact 911, be- cause that system is work- ing. "I want to stress this. Our equipment in the county is working properly," said Capehart. It is the merger of two systems and a voice over system that is having glitches. He said Pike Coun- ty's 911 service provider is reaching out to NewWave and Frontier in an effort to work out the problems. He said the cellphone sys- tem that is different from the landline system is working fine and suggested people use their cellphones instead of landlines to make calls. Winslow man arrested, accused of shooting at car A man was arrested and faces two level 6 felony charges after he allegedly shot at a vehicle on Collins Street in Winslow on Sun- day, Nov. 10. Joseph S. Leslie, a 39 -year- old Winslow resident, was charged with criminal reck- lessness while armed with a deadly weapon and pointing a loaded firearm. Pike County Sheriffs were called to Collins Street in Winslow at approximate- ly 1:40 p.m. Witnesses told them Leslie had discharged a shotgun toward the back of their vehicle as they were driving past his residence. According to the report filed by Deputy Paul Col- lier, Leslie told officers he retrieved the shotgun, went into the woods and "shot three rounds downward in- to another hill," because he thought someone was shoot- ing in the woods that his fa- ther owns. A black shotgun was recovered from his bed- room. He was transported to the Pike County Jail by officers. 'Webelos in the Woods' Scout event Petersburg Cub Scouts Jackson Burkhart, 9, and Damion O'Brien, 10, examine and explain the dif- ferent animal pelts at Campsite No. 6 during Webelos in the Woods at the Old Ben Scout Reservation on Saturday, Nov. 9. See additional photo on page A-5. WINSLOW Continued from page 1 ing meeting and agrees that a raise is needed for all ex- pect the council itself." IN OTHER NEWS: • The council also dis- cussed the disposal of tree limbs in town. There is no current place to dispose of limbs in city limits. The town is working to provide a solution of what can be do- ne with materials once they are disposed of, but no ac- tion was taken at this time. • The council discussed a payment to the town from NewWave for the space they lease to store some equip- ment. Popp said he would make contact with New- Wave. "I believe that there may be some rules with this that they may need to include service to the governmental builds, just need some clari- fication from the service pro- vider," he said. • The board approved a request to turn on water for a home renovation. The request was on a monthly base, charging only for wa- ter used, waiving water de- posits because this property will be rented out. The rent- er can then establish an ac- count and make the deposit. • Vice-president Deb- ra Lamb had a follow-up on painting a path on Por- ter Street, from the school to Main Street. The compa- ny was unable to provide a quote at this time. The town will ask for another once spring is here. • Popp spoke on a USDA grant opportunity and the town is in a good position to receive funding. These funds are for equipment usage and he is asking for all the departments to sub- mit equipment requests. The max the town can get is $50,000, the grant has no open or close date and little restrictions. • Winslow will have a strategy meeting this Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. in Town Hall. This is planned to be a series of meetings to develop a plan for 2020 and the coming years, and look- ing at what projects need to be done and budgeted, ac- cordingly. The communi- ty is welcome to come and give their input. There will be discussions held over road improvements, water system upgrades and other issues facing the area. The next town council meeting will be Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. November meeting. Chief of Staff Daniel Shackle and As- sessment Division Director Barry Wood made their way from Indianapolis on snow- covered roads to attend the meeting. They explained that per- sonal property for utilities in Indiana is self-assessed. Those assessments are then turned into the DLGF, which reviews those assessments. Shackle and Wood said they only have two people to review these and they simply don't have the man- power to go on site and do a complete review of the as- sessment. "So this is a desktop audit of these," said Council Pres- ident Greg Wills. "Yes, we review them and see if what they are report- ing to us makes sense," said Wood. He said the next step is the taxpayer, IPL, then has a chance to appeal their as- sessment. "Luckily we don't have too many. We work pretty closely with them," said Shackle. In a previous meeting, Councilman Jon Craig said he had learned that Mor- gan County had offered tax abatement to IPL for their new Eagle Valley natural gas plant, completed in April of 2018. Shackle and Wood said IPL has facilities in 20 dif- ferent Indiana counties. Councilman Willis said he was unaware anything at the Petersburg IPL plant had changed. All the equipment that was assessed at $192 million was still in opera- tion there, even though their assessment had dropped to $ 98 million. Willis asked, "Can they ar- bitrarily throw it to whatever county they want? " "They are self reporting," said Wood. "We aren't saying that it is right or wrong. We say you have to be able to show us what the 20 percent obso- lescence is. Ninety-nine per- cent of the time they can," said Wood. Wood said Pike County of- ficials can ask if the assess- ment is correct. "Knowing what we know, and knowing Morgan Coun- ty gave a 60 percent abate- ment for 10 years, it seems like it is incentivised to move everything they can to Mor- gan County to get all the benefit they can," said Coun- cilman Craig. Councilmen asked if util- ities have always been able to move around their distrib- utable tax to wherever they want in Indiana. Wood and Shackle said that has always been the law. However, they said re- cently it was changed to al- low utilities to report their self assessment on person- al property to the DLGF in- stead of to the county offi- cials, where the assessment was located. They said the amount of that assessment isn't confi- dential, but what equipment made up that assessment is confidential. Wood and Shackle said another thing that changed is IPL hired a different firm to do their assessment. Councilman Dennis Bish- op said, "It seems to me ev- ery bit of this wants to keep our fences low. It looks like by moving that distributable property they were able to save taxes because of the abatement in Morgan Coun- ty. Logically you would as- sume if someone had incen- tive to do that, it would be more of a reason to compare those and see if they mea- sure up," Wood said the DLGF, "Can't speak to that. We don't know if because of abatement they moved it." "Can't someone be sus- picious of what they are do- ing? " asked Bishop. "We can be suspicious, but it is still okay with the law (to do that)," said Shack- le. Wood said if the utility isn't able to explain their as- sessment and distribution, "Then that is when we chal- lenge it." "Was that question asked this time and did they pro- vide you justification? " asked Craig. "Anything they report is confidential. . . There was some back-and-forth." Shackle and Wood agreed IPL did not notify Pike County in advance that this big drop in assessment was coming. However, they said IPL met the statutory re- quirements. "We encourage utilities to communicate to their local officials about these chang- es coming, but obvious- ly that wasn't done," said Shackle. Willis said he had a prob- lem with IPL being able to allocate assessment all over the state. "To me, that is where the problem is in its entirety. They can allocate it however they choose, to meet their needs." Councilman Randy Har- ris asked what Indiana stat- ute allowed this to happen. Wood and Shackle said the change in recent years was to allow utilities to report to the DLGF, not to local offi- cials. He said they couldn't cite it from memory, but they would find that statute and send it to the council. He was asked if they could identify who voted to make the change. A fter more than an hour of discussion, Councilman Craig thanked Wood and Shackle for attending the meeting. COUNCIL Continued from page 1