The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1220193
Local ����������A1-10 Birthdays ������� A5 East Gibson � A7-9 Sports ��������� B1-3 Opinion ������� B4-5 School �������� B6-7 Classifieds ��B8-12 Church �������� C1-3 Home Life ��� C4-7 Obituaries ������ C7 History ����������� C8 WHAT'S INSIDE: Phone: ���������������������812-354-8500 Fax: ��������������������������812-354-2014 E-Mail ����editor@pressdispatch�net NEWS TIPS: PIKE PUBLISHING Wednesday, March 11, 2020 Volume 150 Number 11 Phone 812-354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) $ 1 Three sections 30 pages Four inserts See COUNCIL on page 2 See WINSLOW on page 2 See ROBOTICS on page 3 The Pike County Ministerial Fellowship Lenten Breakfasts schedule is as follow: MEN'S SCHEDULE March 14 Petersburg First Baptist March 21 River of Life March 28 Petersburg Free Methodist April 4 Otwell United Methodist WOMEN'S SCHEDULE: March 14 Otwell United Methodist March 21 Sts. Peter and Paul March 28 Open date April 4 Petersburg First Baptist The men's breakfasts will begin at 8 a.m., with the ladies' beginning at 9 a.m. They are scheduled to last one hour. Area churches host the separate breakfasts and have a speaker. Proceeds from the breakfasts go to the Sam Taylor Scholarships, which gives a grant to all college-bound seniors of the Pike County Ministerial Fellowship churches. Lenten breakfasts at First Baptist and Otwell UM By Andy Heuring A Winslow area man and his two sons are without a home fol- lowing a Saturday morning fire. Dan Caudill said he was in the garage, starting a fire in the woodburner and prepar- ing to clean up his garage Sat- urday morning. That's when he heard someone beating on his house's door yelling the house was on fire. He said he ran out of the ga- rage and saw smoke and flames coming from the house on Highway 61, just south of the former Leighty's Trading Post. Caudill rented the house from Benny Thomas. Caudill lived there with his boys, Dan- iel and Michael, ages 11 and 12. He said both go to Winslow Elementary School. The boys were staying with their mother for the weekend. Caudill said the fire was too advanced for him to get into the house to get anything out of it. The call came in at 8:50 a.m. Patoka Township Fire De- partment Lt. Ethan Kunz said Winslow's fire truck arrived at the scene first, and he and other Patoka firemen were there with- in 10 minutes of their first call. He said the initial call to them was of flames coming from the front of the house. Crews were hindered in fighting it by a hot electrical line that had burned off the house and was on the ground sparking. Kunz said firemen were only able to be on three sides of the house because of the hot line. "It was a fast-moving fire due to a large fire load inside the house," said Kunz. With- in minutes the roof and front porch had collapsed. "It was total loss," said Kunz. Thomas said he and Caudill were working on getting a trail- er in the area ready for Caudill and his sons to live in. Caudill said people had brought them clothes, some that fit and some that didn't. "The biggest thing right now is we need beds. I need a bed and my kids need a bunk bed." He said they were staying with friends in the short term. "That is always crowded. I hope we can move in by the end of the week," said Caudill. The oldest boy's clothing sizes are 14 husky pants, large shirt and 9.5 shoes. The young- er son wears 14-16 pants, 12-14 shirt and size 6 shoes. These can be taken to Benny Thom- as' residence south of Winslow. Caudill family loses home to fire on Saturday Several teams from Pike County compet- ed at the VEX State Robotics competition on Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium. Four teams from Petersburg Elementa- ry School placed in their divisions, but did not advance to the finals. About 200 teams had qualified for the state finals out of 998 teams in Indiana. Petersburg teams placed as follows in their divisions: Dabbing Einsteins 28th, Any precinct can vote at any center Pike County voters will no longer vote at a precinct-specific polling place on elec- tion day. Instead, they will vote in one of three voting centers. Those centers will be Petersburg Gospel Center, Winslow Com- munity Center and the Otwell Communi- ty Center. Pike County officially gained status as a vote center county effective March 4, 2020, after receiving approval from the Indiana Election Division and is now the 43rd In- diana county to switch to the vote center model. "Simply put, vote centers are polling plac- es where any eligible voter in the county may go to vote on Election Day versus the traditional precinct-based polling sites on Election Day, where voters are restricted to a designated polling location based on their residence," said Pike County Clerk Lana Griffith. She continued, "The vote center model gives voters the flexibility and conve- nience to cast their ballot anywhere in the county. Every precinct-style ballot is avail- able at each vote center location." Pike County will implement the use of vote centers during the 2020 May Primary. Along with the election day sites in Pe- tersburg, Winslow and Otwell, there will be satellite voting stations in Stendal, Spur- geon and Union prior to election day. The dates for those satellite centers are still be- ing decided. Pike County registered voters can begin early voting on April 7 in the Clerk's Of- fice on the second floor of the courthouse. Voting centers to be used in primary Local robotics teams compete at state level Pike Central to perform 'Newsies' Pike Central will perform "Newsies" this weekend at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday in the Vance Hays Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased from any cast member or by calling 812-354-8478. The show won two Tony Awards. Based on true events, "Newsies" tells the captivating story of a band of underdogs who become un- likely heroes when they stand up to the most powerful men in New York. It is directed by Melissa Traylor. Above: Dalton Williams as Oscar Delancey, Evan Brackney as Wiesel, A J Hill as Morris Delancey, Colin Craig as Davey and Jerzey Reibold as Les, play crew members. Wiesel and his crew are selling "papes" to the Newsies. See ad- ditional photos on page A-10. By Andy Heuring During their Monday night meeting, Winslow appointed a new fire chief and agreed to look into a process to establish speed bumps on town streets. Rick Mathias took the oath of office from Town Council president Josh Popp during the council meeting. Mathias had been elected by the Winslow Fire Department as Chief. However, the Winslow Council re- fused to officially appoint him as chief at the previous meeting. Monday night, they vot- ed unanimously to appoint him. Mathias takes over after former Fire Chief Jason Bottoms resigned earlier. Councilman Debbie Lamb submitted a proposed process that would give the town council the authority to put speed bumps or "speed humps" in place. "Are these even legal on a public street? " asked Councilman Dick Brewster. "Oh yeah," said Lamb. "Are you sure? " said Brewster. Lamb gave each councilman a copy of the proposed speed bump policy. It includ- ed several parts, including: purpose, defi- nition of speed humps, installation of cri- teria, general conditions, signage, neigh- borhood support, installation process and removal or modification of speed humps. Lamb said they needed to work out some of the details of the policy. But basically, a group of neighbors could petition the coun- cil to have one put in place. Some of the details that have to be worked out include the percentage of peo- ple in the area that have to be in favor of its installation, percentage of people needed to have it removed and the cost to have one re- moved. She also said they needed to final- ize distances around the speed "humps" that would be included in the application. Several people, including the public works dept., police dept., fire dept., and town council, would have to approve of the "speed hump," before it would be installed. The policy also had a form for people to fill out and submit. "I think I would like to take this home, read it and digest it first," said Popp. No ac- tion was taken on the speed humps. PLANNING GRANT APPLICATIONS The council voted 3-0 to apply for two planning grants. Council President Popp Rick Mathias is new Winslow Fire Chief County establishes new policy on non-tax money By Andy Heuring Pike County Councilmen appropriated funds to purchase new E911 consoles and established a new policy on non-tax lev- ied monies during their Tuesday morning meeting. Councilmen voted 7-0 to purchase new Dispatch consoles and the IT personnel to install the consoles, while keeping the emergency dispatching system up and run- ning. E911 Director David Capehart said he got prices from two firms and eventual- ly went with Xybix for the installation at a cost of $40,706.72. Another $2,925 was add- ed to have Eck-Mundy to install the coun- ty's E-911 computers and phone systems into the consoles without shutting down the system. Capehart said the current consoles Patoka and Winslow firemen battle a blaze that destroyed the house where Daniel Caudill and his sons lived. The fire started at about 8:50 a.m. Petersburg, Stendal and Spurgeon assisted with the blaze. Firemen were on the scene for three hours.