The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1217670
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, March 4, 2020 A-7 EAST GIBSON NEWS Submit school news: Email: egnews@ pressdispatch.net Deadline: Noon on Friday LUNCH MENU BARTON/ FRANCISCO/ OAKLAND CITY Thursday, March 5: BBQ riblet on bun, nuggets with roll, chef salad with roll or ham and cheese served with fresh fruit and juice. Friday, March 6: ba- con egg and cheese, pizza, pop chicken sal- ad, peanut butter and jelly or lent fish sand- wich served with fresh fruit and juice. March 9-13: rainbow of flavors week: extra op- tion of nacho pizza Monday, March 9: hot dog on bun, cheeseburger on bun, pop chicken salad or peanut butter and jelly served with fresh fruit and juice. Tuesday, March 10 : nachos with salsa, ten- ders with roll, chef sal- ad with roll or ham and cheese served with fresh fruit and juice. Wednesday, March 11: bosco sticks, corn- dog, taco salad with roll or peanut butter and jelly served with fresh fruit and juice. WOOD MEMORIAL Thursday, March 5: Riblet on bun or turkey cheese fb served with fresh fruit and veggies, and juice. Friday, March 6: Fish and cheese on bun or bac/cheese ciabatta served with fresh fruit and veggies, and juice. March 9-13: Extra op- tion: nacho pizza Monday, March 9: Asian cuisine or ten- der basket served with fresh fruit and veggies, and juice. Tuesday, March 10 : Nachos with salsa or spicy Cajun gumbo served with fresh fruit and veggies, and juice. Wednesday, March 11: Bosco sticks or taco salad with salsa served with fresh fruit and veg- gies, and juice. APC meeting brings new ideas for zoning By Janice Barniak Gibson County's Area Planning Commission met Feb. 28 to further discuss the county's proposed zon- ing ordinance, hearing from propo- nents and opponents of wind energy. First, however, committee mem- bers had some ideas. For example, County Surveyor Scott Martin said he'd had a chance to look at the min- imums for agriculture and their set- backs since the last meeting. He said that requiring one acre minimum lot areas in ag could cause issues, where some would like to be able to keep a smaller lot in an ir- regular shape, where even if they had an acre out of it, they might not be able to meet the setbacks on the oddly shaped, say, triangular piece of land. He asked if setbacks and mini- mums were necessary in ag. APC Attorney Mike Schopmey- er said it was mostly for situations where an ag parcel with a home is adjacent to residential neighbors who have those minimum setbacks. "If ag puts a barn on the line, it's not fair for the house," he said. He added one APC member, Greg Reising, has five homes on his prop- erty. "I'm by far not the only one in this county doing it," Reising said, ask- ing about whether it needed to be limited to direct family. There would be issues, say, when a son died, and a daughter-in-law was left. The spirit of limiting it to fami- ly (as yet to direct descendants through grandchildren, not niec- es, nephews, aunts or uncles), was to keep farms from having 20 to 30 people living on them. Martin said it didn't seem right to limit it; if people had a church mem- ber they wanted to take care of or anyone else, they would have to ask for permission. "It's not limiting it, it's expand- ing it," said Schopmeyer. In earli- er drafts, even those family mem- bers the ordinance currently allows would not be permitted. RWE RENEWABLES Project Manager Karsen Rumpf and fellow RWE Renewables spokes- man Oliver Ellen provided follow up information, much like what they presented in previous meetings. RWE would like to put a wind farm in South Gibson, but while some farmers have leased land to the company, many are opposed to the wind turbines based on worries it will interfere with doppler radar, property values or quality of life. The representatives refuted what they said were reports of a turbine having masked a tornado in Maroa, Ill. Turbines have no major impact according to the NOA A, Ellen said. APC members asked for a clear definition of major versus moder- ate impact. "A warning has never been missed," Ellen said. He said Gibson County has only five to seven days a year that require weather warnings, which would average to two to three lost days of power per year. The company expects to finish their layout by mid March. They asked the board to allow the NOA A to make recommendations on their plan and not let the ordinance be in- fluenced by the requests of their op- position. Setbacks to provide, according to Ellen, "a reasonable amount of safe- ty." "I say reasonable because nothing can be 100 percent safe. I could walk out right now and get hit by a car," he added, then said there have been no wind turbine injuries in Indiana. "Some Indiana counties have banned wind turbines, that's true," Ellen said, blaming politics for large setbacks in those areas. Blade breaks do occur, but Ellen said that it's only a half of one per- cent, 3800 of 700,000, for example. "We understand the community deserves to feel safe," he said. The ordinance, as currently draft- ed, would "kill the project," he said. APC Board member Ken Becker- man was interested in the half a per- centage fail rate on the blades as giv- en by Ellen. He asked him how many turbines were planned; the company plans 48 turbines with three blades each. "So you're saying about one blade will break a year," Beckerman said. "A little less than once a year. Most of the time, it falls directly un- der," Ellen said. SARA NEWTON Sara Newton presented tran- scripts of an Aug. 20 meeting with the National Oceanic and Atmos- pheric Administration discussing no build zones, and mitigation zones which she said can corrupt doppler data up to 30 miles away from the doppler installation. She estimated 435,000 people rely on the radar for weather warnings. She also talked about ways in which a wind farm can interfere with low level scans of the doppler, bringing scans from a doppler on a clear day that showed the data from a wind farm area. "That's the corrupted data. And it never goes away." She showed a video from Illinois where a weather forecaster on Dec. 1, 2018, tells his audience that a wind farm masked their ability to see weather. "During the storm, they stopped the live feed, and went back to the football game," she said. She said this was most danger- ous at night, when weather spot- ters wouldn't be able to see storms or tornadoes. The wind farms have discussed doing a curtailment agreement, stopping their turning during se- vere weather. Newton disagreed with that solu- tion because curtailment agree- ments generally set out which months, what kind of storms and how often the turbine company will curtail, and also generally prevents public statements by either party about the performance of the wind farms on curtailing. "The tri-state deserves a doppler that works 100 percent of the time," Newton said. "Our safety during tor- nadoes is not on their radar." Greg Reising asked why, if it was also not good to build in the mitiga- tion zone, that wasn't also designat- ed "no build." Steve Obert said he heard the National Weather Service resisted building in Owensville because they thought Paducah and Louisville pro- vided enough coverage. Newton said those radars don't see below 4,000 feet here. JASON BUCK Farmer Jason Buck runs a CAFO, a livestock confined feeding opera- tion, and objected to zoning because he said CAFOs should be permit- ted in agriculture zones without re- striction. "We are a CAFO and we are proud of it. We feed a lot of people around the world." He said as far as who a farmer can build homes for on his property, he wanted it expanded to include more family, like nieces and nephews, or even others. "If you have a worker who has dedicated his life to you, maybe you want him to have a home, and take over if you don't have family. It should be for anybody." He asked why the county couldn't exempt ag totally. "Agriculture has total exemption is what I'm asking." He added that as a resident, he also doesn't think zoning is a good idea. "We don't need government to lure businesses in at taxpayers' ex- pense...taxpayers are footing the bill today," he said. "I really don't think it's broke, so why are we trying to fix it...We've granted exemptions for coal mines, oil and gas. They come and go, but the taxpayers are still here." Attorneys Grant Schwartzentru- ber and John Molitor came to rep- resent citizens who were against zoning. They said the county hadn't fol- lowed appropriate procedures and zoning would likely be challenged in court. Molitor said the county hadn't decided they wanted zoning, which he likened to getting married to the idea. "Is this going to be a shotgun wed- ding? " he asked. If the county wants to regulate windmills, he advocated a public safety ordinance and a licensing process. They said Carmel won the abili- ty to regulate the mining industry at the Indiana Supreme Court level through licensing. "Citizens of the county are unlike- ly to tolerate an improper adoption," Molitor said. Schwartzentruber agreed. "There is a way to thread the needle. There is a path forward." He said using zoning would expose the board, commissioners and coun- ty to lengthy protracted litigation. "You would be foolish to go down the path you are currently on," he said. APC president Steve Obert want- ed to know if commissioners went through any steps they might have missed if that was the only imped- iment. "You're planning the wedding re- ception before you've been asked to get married," Molitor said. "Well, what about the pre-nup," asked Obert. "There's a floor you have to follow. There are laws that have to be fol- lowed," said Schwartentruber. The next meeting will be at 1 p.m. March 12 when the board should have a revised copy of the ordinance and maps for the public to see what zone they would be in. UPCOMING MEETINGS • March 12, 1 p.m. at the North Annex - Working meeting with first look at zone maps for APC members • March 19, 6 p.m. at Toyota Events Center - doors will open by 5 p.m. to showcase maps of the county so people from the public can find their property, what zone it would be in and request adjustments if necessary. **The group cancelled next week's meeting.** Toyota Experience Center opens to showcase tech By Janice Barniak The Toyota Experience Center, formerly the Toyota Visitor's Center, opened Feb. 27 after a period of remodeling. TMMI president Leah Curry opened the update by saying el- ementary and high school stu- dents are often hosted in the ex- perience center, which is now more interactive. "We revamped it," Curry said. "We have areas with co-bots over here. That's robots that work hand-in-hand with team mem- bers." The strength of the robots has been adjusted to make them safe. The center also has lenses that virtually put visitors inside the paint and stamping depart- ment. The technologies in the center show the same technolo- gies employees use on the floor, Curry said. "We can grow and grow this. Many people don't realize what's right in their backyard. It's here, you can take tours and see everything," she said. As the Chamber of Commerce and local business leaders gath- ered to cut the ribbon to open the center, Curry joked they should do this again, maybe in a year. "But that time, we should have the robots cut the ribbon," Curry said, challenging the students to create those robots. EXPERIENCE CENTER SEEKS TEAM MEMBERS The new Toyota Experi- ence Center will create sev- eral part-time positions for people who are friendly and love a busy environment. An- yone interested can pop by the center for more infor- mation. Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Indiana president Leah Curry cuts the ribbon on the new Toyota Experience Center Feb. 27. Toopes leads Oaks in NCCAA Mideast Regional Tournament The opening game of the Na- tional Christian College Athletic Association (NC- CA A) Mideast Re- gional Tourna- ment was Monday as the third seed- ed Mighty Oaks played Alice Lloyd College Eagles. Tyler Toopes, a 6'5" senior from Winslow, has a scoring average of 25.6 points per game to go with 4.7 assists as the Oaks take up the regional after fin- ishing the regular season 10 -17. The winner of game one ad- vanced to face top-seeded Kentucky Christian University in the champi- onship game on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Johnson Center. The winner earns a bid in the NCCA A National Championship in Winona Lake, Ind. Princeton man charged with OVI On Feb. 26, at 1:49 a.m., Depu- ty Michael Rose conducted a traf- fic stop on a black 2000 Chevy pick- up for having improper headlights on Morton Street in Oakland City. Upon approaching the vehicle, Dep- uty Rose detected the odor of an al- coholic beverage coming from the driver, 34-year-old T.J. Hill, of Princ- eton. At that point, Deputy Rose began a roadside DUI investigation that re- sulted in Hill being taken into cus- tody and transported to the Gibson County Jail, where he was charged with Operating a Vehicle While In- toxicated. He has since posted a $450 bond. Assisting Deputy Rose in his in- vestigation was Deputy Loren Bar- chett and Francisco Town Marshal Michael Collins. Tyler Toopes Tommy Ray (T-Ray) Fletcher II Tommy Fletcher named OCU athletic director Tommy Ray (T-Ray) Fletch- er II has been appointed as the new athletic director of Oakland City University beginning June 1, according to OCU president Dr. Ron D. Dempsey. Fletcher has been head baseball coach for the Mighty Oaks since 1995, with 456 career wins. Fletcher has been serving as interim co-athletic director since summer 2019, along with long-time softball coach Patti Buchta, who will assume the po- sition of associate athletic direc- tor and eligibility coordinator, along with the coaching duties. Coach Fletcher said, "I am excit- ed for this op- portunity and I cannot thank the universi- ty administra- tion enough for this chance to help lead our athletic de- partment in- to a new era. Having the priv- ilege to lead the baseball pro- gram here for the last 26 years is something I will always trea- sure. The relationships and memories will last a lifetime, but I am excited to take on the next challenge in my career. We have a great staff in place and look forward to working with everyone of them as we serve our student athletes and university." His teams set a single-sea- son record for wins with 27. Under his tenure, the Mighty Oaks made four Final Four ap- pearances (1996, 2002, 2005 and 2016) and an NCCA A Na- tional Runner-up finish in 2005. Fletcher studied accounting at OCU, where he played base- ball for his entire college ca- reer, graduating in 1995 as an All-Region performer in 1994. Dr. Dempsey stated, "T-Ray is a Mighty Oak through and through. He is a man of great character and I look forward to working with him as our athlet- ic director. OCU hosts 13 inter- collegiate athletic teams and had made application to par- ticipate in the National Asso- ciation of Intercollegiate Ath- letics (NAIA) and the River State Conference starting in Fall 2020."