The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1232982
A-2 Front Wednesday, April 8, 2020 The Press-Dispatch yeah, it's that fast! net edition Z M www.PressDispatch.net/Subscribe The Press-Dispatch. No matter where you live. TAX BILLS Continued from page 1 SCHOOLS Continued from page 1 COMMISSIONERS Continued from page 1 By Andy Heuring A rural Petersburg man was arrested for drunken driving after police received a call of an intoxicated man driving near Prides Creek. Terry Eugene Jones, 57, of 2787 E. Doane Ln., Pe- tersburg, was arrested on a charge of operating a ve- hicle while intoxicated (re- fusal) at about 9:30 p.m. Fri- day night. Pike County Sheriff's Deputy Paul Collier said Tim Pyle called central dispatch and told them Jones was in- toxicated and was driving a burgundy Trailblazer to- ward his girlfriend's resi- dence. Collier said he had been called earlier in the day to a verbal altercation between Jones and his girl- friend, Candace Parks. Collier said he located a vehicle driving in the mid- dle of the road on CR 475 E., near CR 400 E. He stopped it and found Jones was driv- ing. Parks was in the passen- ger's seat and Paula Adams was in the backseat. Deputy Collier said he could smell alcohol on Jones' breath. Jones said he had two beers to drink. However, he failed field sobriety tests and tested more than twice the legal limit for blood al- cohol content on a porta- ble breath test. He was tak- en to the Pike County Jail, where he refused a chemi- cal test. He was taken into custody. Adams and Parks called friends, who came and picked them up. to foot traffic, only allowing courthouse employees into the office. She added the property tax bills will be going in the mail in the next week. Commissioners' president Mark Flint asked if she had a drop-off box. She said she had one in- side the courthouse. She said people can pay online, mail in their statements with a check or pay by cred- it card, however, there is a fee for the last option. "Why do people need to come into the office? " asked Commissioner Jeff Nelson. Query said people don't need to come into the of- fice, but added, "I'll have a lot of people who want to pay in cash." "I know you have a lot of elderly people who want to pay cash. I get that, but cir- cumstances have changed. I think we either mail it in or pay online. That is the way they are going to have to do it," said Flint. County Attorney Val Fleig said, "They can pay in cash if they are dumb enough to mail it in." Query said Sheriff Kent Johnson had gotten her quite a bit of information on a secure drop box, but they were "so expensive." She said they were $500 to more than $1,000. "I thought we had this conversation about getting a box a few meetings ago," said Commissioner Ryan Coleman. "We did have this conver- sation, but they were so ex- pensive and I didn't think I could get one," said Query. "I'm still a fan of check or electronic only. I don't have the option to send cash to Duke Energy. It is check or electronic pay," said com- missioner Nelson. "Okay, we have kicked this around enough. Let's just go with check or elec- tronic pay," said Flint. The commissioners voted 3-0 to approve these two pay- ment options. Mowing bids for the Old Town Cemetery in Peters- burg near the library and Coleman Cemetery in Mon- roe Township were grant- ed to the low bidders. Jason McKinney had the low bid of $ 85 for Old Town Cemetery, while Persimmon Ridge re- ceived the contract for Cole- man Cemetery with a bid of $ 90 per mow. The other bids were Manning's Four Sea- sons with bids of $175 for Old Town and $225 for Cole- man, and Marshall Mowing bid $225 for Old Town and $175 for Coleman. The commissioners vot- ed to request a $434,357 ad- ditional appropriation for the Highway Department. Bookkeeper Melanie Brit- ton said Pike County has already received the mon- ey, they just needed to ap- propriate it so they can use this amount for their match of a Community Crossroads paving grant. Pike County's $434,000 match is 25 per- cent of the overall amount to fund 10 different paving projects. The next commissioners' meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Monday, April 20. It is expected to be an online meeting. People can request to take part in the meeting by calling the Commission- ers' Office at 812-354-8448. Serving Dubois and all surrounding counties! 450 East 11th Avenue, Jasper Making work-from-home WORK! We can handle all your needs Remote Access, Servers, Computers, Phone Systems, Switches, Firewalls, Routers, Monitors, and More. Leasing options available You name it, we can help! Call 812-634-8001 today! 716 Main St. Petersburg • 812-354-9372 Visit us at facebook.com/margeshallmark Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 9-5; Friday 9-6 MARGE'S HALLMARK Marge's Hallmark has lots of Easter gi ideas Easter Plush Bunnies by Hallmark and Ty A Variety of Easter Baskets Pre-made or fill yourself Call ahead and we'll have your order ready for curbside pickup Marge, Debbie and Sydney wish everyone a Happy Easter A Variety of Hallmark Cards for Easter and all occasions New Selection of Libs Candy Site selection firm visits megasite On March 5 -6, WIN Ener- gy REMC and Hoosier Ener- gy generously arranged for a well-known, experienced site selection firm to visit Pike County for two days. Pike County EDC hosted a site selector, Sarah White, from Global Location Strate- gies, out of Greenville, S.C., who has experience working with various heavy industri- al companies and Fortune 500 companies to select lo- cations for manufacturing facilities. For the first day of the vis- it, Pike EDC executive di- rector Ashley Willis, with lo- cal elected officials and busi- ness stakeholders, shared the story of Pike Coun- ty and the vast opportuni- ties at the I-69 interchange and the Southwest Indiana Megasite. That was followed with a windshield tour of the megasite, railroad, Buch- ta Technology Center site, road improvement projects, Pike County schools and community assets. Over the second day, White presented to Pike County EDC on the site selection process and the work that goes into the se- lection process behind the scenes, evaluating the util- ities/costs/etc. Willis said, "During White's presenta- tion, she shared great things are happening in Pike Coun- ty and we have done a lot of due diligence, which is great to know for her firm and the companies she works with." White made some recom- mendations for the sites in the megasite and at the in- terchange as the county looks to the future and fur- ther mitigates risks for com- panies looking to invest in the community. At the conclusion, Ashley Willis explained, "the op- portunity WIN Energy and Hoosier Energy gave to Pike County was to showcase our sites to a first-class site se- lection firm who helped lo- cate companies like Georgia Pacific, Irving Tissue, Hex- cel, pet food manufacturer, and several others. They are the type of firm we want to work with and be aware of for future projects. Global Location Strategies brings large capital investment and lots of jobs in their projects and that's exactly what we need in Pike County. I can't thank WIN Energy and Hoo- sier enough for the site tour with Sarah White and GL S." graduation. Some schools in the area have already announced they are go- ing to do a virtual gradua- tion. Blake said she hopes they can avoid that, but ac- knowledged, with the stay- at-home order, there are not a lot of options. She said one option they have looked at is having graduation outside. Last week, schools hand- ed out the second lesson packet for their eLearning and distance learning. Stu- dents at the various schools picked up their assignments for the next two weeks and dropped off their work. Lines at Petersburg Elemen- tary School were stretched in both directions across the parking lot. But parents, teachers and administrators seemed to think it went smooth. "We are trying to make the best of the situation," said Blake. "This was our first col- lection of the eLearning packets. Teachers will have scheduled times to check the work that is turned in. We want to emphasize the importance of the students doing their assignments. Students need to be sure to continue looking at their classroom instructions by going to the eLearning tab on the school website," said Petersburg Elementary School Principal Rick King. He said, "Teachers are available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays through email or other means." be charged a $1 reprint fee. If you would like a receipt, be sure to enclose a self-ad- dressed, stamped envelope in with your payment." "Those who pay in cash, you will either need to pur- chase a money order or wait until the Courthouse is opened to the public. There is no certainty that we will open again by July 10, 2020, so please, take that into con- sideration." •Paying by credit card over the phone: Call 866 - 290 -5400. "We no lon- ger accept credit card pay- ments over the phone in our office. The service fee for MasterCard, Visa, Amer- ican Express and Discov- er is 2.5 percent of the pay- ment amount, with a min- imum service fee of $1.95. Be sure to have your parcel number(s) available." • Online payments: For online payments, parcel numbers are required for this service. Go to www. enoticesonline.com/index. php/pik. "This is certainly not how I wanted my last tax season as an officeholder to play out. I have experienced very few problems in my eight years as Treasurer, but this one is beyond my wild- est imagination. I ask that you please be patient with us. We are working with a limited staff and are doing the best we can during these trying times. Once the mail starts coming into our of- fice, it may take even lon- ger for your check to clear your bank. Please, do not call our office to see why it hasn't been cashed. We will get to it, but it's going to take us longer. Above all else, be safe—do what the health officials are asking us to do and pray—it's the only way we're going to get through this," said Query. Phone call leads to DWI arrest By Andy Heuring Area roads should see some significant improve- ment in the next few months. Winslow, Petersburg and Pike County were notified on Tuesday they will receive more than $1 million in pav- ing grants through the Indi- ana Crossroads program of the Indiana Department of Transportation. Governor Eric Holcomb and INDOT Commissioner Joe McGuinness announced the local entities were three of 214 statewide to receive $126.5 million in grants. "Hoosier communities are able to take on more need- ed road work and do it in re- cord time, thanks to Com- munity Crossings," Gov. Holcomb said. "Our commit- ment to partnering with cit- ies, towns, and counties on vital infrastructure helps build strong communities poised for investment and job growth." Locally, Pike County re- ceived the lion's share. The county will receive $782,303 to do 10 projects. Peters- burg will receive $142,811 and Winslow will receive $105,596. "I think it is wonderful. I know our clerk-treasurer and everybody worked hard on this," said Winslow Coun- cilman Debra Lamb. She said the roads the money will go to are "in par- ticularly in bad shape." She said even though this is the second time Win- slow has received mon- ey through the Crossroads program, they intend to ap- ply again in the next round of grants. "Our streets are in bad shape and hopefully we can continue to make prog- ress on them," said Lamb. County, communities get $1 million in paving grants Pike County Economic Development officials and business leaders met with Sarah White of Global Lo- cation Strategies recently to market Pike County.