The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1191166
C-10 Wednesday, December 11, 2019 The Press-Dispatch EAST GIBSON NEWS Submit school news: Email: egnews@ pressdispatch.net Deadline: Noon on Friday Oakland City Elementary Wood Memorial Barton Twp. Elementary BARTON/FRANCISCO/OCE LUNCH MENU Thursday, Dec. 12: Popcorn chicken bowl, grilled cheese, chef salad with roll or ham and cheese sand- wich served with fresh fruit and juice. Friday, Dec. 13: Walking taco, pepperoni pizza pop- corn chicken salad or PB&J sandwich served with fresh fruit and juice. Monday, Dec. 16: Grilled cheese, chicken patty on bun, popcorn chicken salad or PB&J sandwich served with fresh fruit and juice. Rainbow of Flavors Week: Ex- tra option of Rainbow Flatbread. Tuesday, Dec. 17: Beef tacos, sloppy Joe on bun, chef salad with roll or ham and cheese sandwich served with fresh fruit and juice. Rainbow of Flavors Week: Extra option of Rainbow Flatbread. Wednesday, Dec. 18: Chicken and noodles, break- fast for lunch, taco salad with roll or PB&J sandwich served with fresh fruit and juice. Rainbow of Flavors Week: Extra option of Rainbow Flatbread. BARTON TOWNSHIP BASKETBALL SCHEDULE GIRLS Date Opponent Place Time 12/12 Winslow A 4:30 p.m. 12/16 Haubstadt A 4:30 p.m. 12/19 Winslow H 4:30 p.m. 01/07 Oakland City H 4:30 p.m. 01/09 St. Peter and Paul H 5 p.m. 01/10 Sixth Grade Tourney A 4:30 p.m. BOYS Date Opponent Place Time 12/12 Winslow A 5:30 p.m. 12/16 Haubstadt A 5:30 p.m. 12/19 Winslow H 5:30 p.m. 01/07 Oakland City H 5:30 p.m. 01/09 St. Peter and Paul H 6 p.m. 01/13 Oakland City A 5:30 p.m. 01/14 Holy Cross H 5:30 p.m. WOOD MEMORIAL UPCOMING SPORTS SCHEDULE WEDNESDAY, DEC. 11 Girls' 7 & 8 Basketball vs. Tecumseh, A, 5:30 p.m. Boys' Varsity Basketball vs. Springs Valley, H, 5:30 p.m. THURSDAY, DEC. 12 Boys' Freshman Basketball vs. Barr Reeve, H, 5:30 p.m. Girls' Varsity Basketball vs. South Spencer, A, 5:30 p.m. Boys' 7 & 8 Basketball vs. Heritage Hills, FES Gym, H, 5:30 p.m. FRIDAY, DEC. 13 Boys' Varsity Basketball vs. Perry Cen- tral, A, 5:30 p.m. MONDAY, DEC. 16 Boys' Freshman Basketball vs. Perry Central, A, 5:30 p.m. TUESDAY, DEC. 17 Girls' 7 & 8 Basketball vs. Washington Catholic, FES Gym, H, 5:30 p.m. Indiana Association of School Principals Rising Stars from WMHS. Oakland City Elementary held its annual Geography Bee on Dec. 6. The following students participated in the Geography Bee, back row (l to r): Houston Schoonover (champion), Grace Shoultz, Chuck Malcolm (runner-up), Brayden Bobbitt and Landon Crooks. Front row: Rylee Lange, Taylor Heeman, Jaxon Basham, Deacon Dupps and Andrew Berberich. Pictured are the Oakland City El- ementary Geography winner and runner-up, (l to r:) Houston Schoo- nover (champion) and Chuck Mal- colm (runner-up). CALENDAR Dec. 9 -13 – Santa Shop and Holly's House Dec. 12 – Boys' 6th Bas- ketball vs. Princeton, 5 p.m. Boys' 5th Basketball vs. Princeton, 6 p.m. Dec. 16 – Boys' 6th Bas- ketball vs. Pike Central, 5:30 p.m. Boys' 5th Basketball vs. Pike Central, 4:30 p.m. Dec. 17 – Boys' 5th Bas- ketball vs. Fort Branch, 4:30 p.m. Boys' 6th Basketball vs. Fort Branch, 5:30 p.m. Band Concert, 6 p.m. Dec. 19 – Girls' 6th Bas- ketball vs. Princeton, 5 p.m. Boys' 5th Basketball vs. Princeton, 6 p.m. Dec. 20 – End Quarter Dec. 23- Jan. 2 – Christ- mas Break CALENDAR Dec. 9 -12 – Santa Shop Dec. 10 -13 – Archery in PE Classes 3-6 Dec. 12 – Girls' Basketball at Winslow, 4:30 p.m. Boys' Basketball at Winslow, 5:30 p.m. Dec. 15 – 25 Days of Fit- mas Challenge Due Dec. 16 – Spelling Bee, 1 p.m. Girls' Basketball at Haub- stadt, 4:30 p.m. Boys' Basketball at Haub- stadt, 5:30 p.m. School Board Meeting, 7 p.m. Dec. 17 – Band Concert at WMJHS, 6 p.m. Dec. 19 – Girls' Basketball vs. Winslow, 4:30 p.m. Boys' Basketball vs. Winslow, 5:30 p.m. Dec. 20 – Christmas Par- ty: K-3 at 2:15 p.m., 4-6 at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 23- Jan. 2 – Christ- mas Break Study puts new jail at more than $30 million By Janice Barniak Gibson County Commis- sioners heard the results of a jail study to evaluate the options to address crowd- ing at the county's aging 1988 -built jail, which has been the subject of inmates' lawsuits. The current jail is not complaint with the Ameri- can with Disabilities Act or the Prison Rape Elimina- tion Act. "We've learned a lot about how to design facilities not just for the safety and secu- rity of the inmates, but for the safety and security of the staff," said Mark Van Al- len, of DLR, an international design group that works on municipal projects in multi- ple countries. "You are not in compliance with the Indi- ana jail standards." Van Allen told commis- sioners the committee— made up of judges, the pros- ecutor, sheriff and jail com- mander among others— had diverging opinions on which was the best option to address safety issues at the facility. Some members advocat- ed a 200 -bed, $ 31.2 million jail with the option of add- ing on in the future and oth- ers pressed for a 288 -bed jail at a cost of $ 38.9 million. "Now is not the time for us to be hopeful. If we hope too much about the price of the facility and think we can do it on the skinny, we're setting ourselves up for problems somewhere down the line if we have an unforeseen escalation in construction costs," Van Allen said. The more than $ 30 mil- lion estimates include con- tingency and soft costs of the surveys, legal fees, fur- niture, fixtures and equip- ment. Tariffs on foreign steel could even push the numbers up, he said. "The numbers we present to you today are realistic." Part of the safety con- cerns with the current jail, which has 120 beds, is that inmates sometimes have to bunk three to a two-bed cell, leaving the Sheriff and his corrections officers unable to separate different popu- lations of inmates as man- dated, for example, keeping non-convicted, misdemea- nors, juveniles remanded as adults and felons sepa- rated in the best way, Van Allen said, because day-to- day, there's no way for law enforcement to know who will be incarcerated. "It's like looking for a king non-smoking suite at a hotel, if there's no king non-smoking suite, you have to take that queen dou- ble bed. You and I can deal with that. If the sheriff has a maximum security individ- ual come in, and he doesn't have a bed in his maximum security area, he has a prob- lem," he said. According to Van Allen, the jail as it is now needs 200 beds to run safely. He said the question is wheth- er jail numbers will contin- ue to increase; the 288 -bed facility is a projection of what the county will need going forward if the incar- cerated population contin- ues to grow, an option he called option one. "Option one potentially exceeds county's ability to pay," he said. If started immediately, Van Allen estimated the de- sign phase would last nine months to a year before the project was bid. The site the county is looking at is seven to 10 acres, and estimates in- clude the need to run water and sewer to the site. Building at the current jail site would require seven levels, which would require more manpower to staff. In October, the Gibson County Council, in a split vote, passed a .2 percent jail tax to raise approximately $1.5 million per year for a maximum of 22 years, for a total of approximately $ 33 million. The commissioners' next meeting is set for 6 p.m. Dec. 17, though the topic of the jail might also come up at the Gibson County Coun- cil meeting at 9 a.m. Dec. 10, as the County Council is the financing body and passed the jail improve - ment tax. Courthouse will require increased security in 2020 By Janice Barniak Gibson County judges Jeffrey Meade and Rob- ert Krieg are applying for a grant to address court- house security after an Indiana law will require increased security at the courthouse as of Jan. 1, Gibson County Sheriff Timothy Bottoms told Gib- son County Commission- ers last week. "It's past time; we've been discussing it pret- ty heavy the last several months," said Commis- sioner Mary Key. "We're one of only a handful of counties in the state that doesn't have a secure en- trance." The historic court- house, which has won awards as one of the most beautiful in the state, has no less than six doors— two at each side of the handicapped entrances into the lowest level floor and then entrances up a flight of stairs into the main floor, where the au- ditor, treasurer, recorder, clerk and other county of- fices operate. Previous meetings on security have discussed adding metal detectors at the entrances, but the number of entrances has been a concern. The coun- ty has already increased bailiffs, remodeled the Su- perior courtroom and de- creased inmate transfers through video conferenc- ing. Animal Services director Foley moves towards retirement By Janice Barniak According to Gibson County Animal Services, executive director Brenda Foley is retiring to part-time at GCAS. "We are excited for her. We didn't want to lose her be- cause of knowledge of laws and grant writing," said oper- ations director Mary Essary. In other animal news, she reported: • The shelter current- ly has a guinea pig to adopt out. "It's a guinea pig with a house better than any of us," said Essary in a report to Gibson County Commis- sioners. • GCAS has grants availa- ble for seniors who need help with their pet care. • Kitten season never abated this year. "We have to get better sexual education to our cats. They just aren't stopping," she quipped. For those who want to as- sist GCAS, an online fund- raising auction has its own Facebook page. Redev. green lights $525k to address TMMI traffic By Janice Barniak Gibson County Redevel- opment, on Dec. 2, allocat- ed up to $525,000 to ad- dress traffic backups dur- ing Toyota Motor Manu- facturing of Indiana shift changes. The project will update U.S. 41 at CR 350 S., where westbound traffic backs up as far as Millennium Steel during peak hours. Part of that is the in- creased number of team members; the number has doubled from what that fa- cility had nine years ago; the road was last updated in 2007. According to engineers from Beam, Longest and Neff, peak hours are 5:15 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. If not ad- dressed, engineers said in the next few years, as TM- MI expands, and the new Vuteq plant draws more traffic, conditions could worsen. While the total cost is es- timated at $483,700, a con- tingency fee in case of is- sues over the course of the project recommended fund- ing up to $525,000. According to TMMI's Mike Wingo, the plant projects a 40,000 -vehicle, 10 -percent increase in pro- duction due to production of newer model vehicles, which could lead to addi- tional overtime, and poten- tial for what he called the worst case scenario, traf- fic-wise. The project is estimated to go to bid in the spring, with three to four months of construction time. The next redevelopment meeting is at 6 p.m. Jan. 13; meetings in 2020 have been moved to the second Mon- day of the month.