The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1238334
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, April 22, 2020 A-3 LOCAL Call: 812-354-8500 Email: news@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg plication is May 21. The other option is to vote early in person at the Pike County's Clerk's Of- fice. This option is usually available for a month prior to the election. But this year, it will only be from May 26 to June 1 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m on Monday through Friday, on Saturday, May 30 from 8 a.m. to noon and again on Monday, June 1 from 8 a.m. to noon. Griffith said she doesn't expect a very heavy turnout in the primary. Continued from page 1 SCHOOL Continued from page 1 ELECTION READER GUIDE Subscriptions: Change of address: subscribers changing addresses will please give old address as well as new one along with phone number. We cannot guarantee prompt change unless this is done. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Press-Dispatch., P.O. Box 68, Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 or e-mail to subscribe@ pressdispatch.net. Subscription rates: One year: $31 for Pike County and all 475/476 zip codes; $34 in the state of Indiana; $51 elsewhere in the USA. Paid in advance. Subscriptions taken after noon on Friday will not receive a paper until the second edition after their subscription date. About us: Andy Heuring and John B. Heuring, Publishers Andy Heuring, Editor John B. Heuring, Adv. Mgr. Eric Gogel, Production Mgr. Monica Sinclair, Office Mgr. Cindy Petty, Adv. Sales Pam Lemond, Adv. Sales Kate Jones, Adv. Designer • • • Published every Wednesday by the Pike County Publishing Co. Phone: 812-354-8500 820 E. Poplar St., P.O. Box 68, Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 • • • Entered in the Post Office in Petersburg, Indiana for transmission through the mails as Periodical Mail, postage paid at Petersburg, Indiana – published weekly. (USPS 205-620) Contact us: Phone: ...................................................................812-354-8500 Fax: ....................................................................... 812-354-2014 E-mail: Andy Heuring, Editor editor@pressdispatch.net Advertising ads@pressdispatch.net General News news@pressdispatch.net Sports sports@pressdispatch.net NEWS BRIEFS United Way offering relief fund for non-profit organizations The United Way of Pike County has started a CO- VID-19 Relief Fund that will help non-profit organiza- tions who serve clients and families in Pike County during this epidemic. If you are a non-profit organiza- tion that helps serve Pike County through food, shel- ter, utilities, gas, etc. and would like an application, contact Krista Robinette with the UW of Pike Coun- ty by emailing unitedwaypike@frontier.com or call- ing 812-582-9781. Oakland City-Columbia Township library offering limited document service The Oakland City - Columbia Township Public Li- brary is offering limited document services for time- sensitive and emergency documents at this time. Uti- lizing a mobile print service, patrons can send docu- ments to the library and arrange for a no-contact deliv- ery of documents. Library director Julie Elmore states, "we recognize that many essential benefits needed right now require documents to be printed and/or faxed and patrons rely on us for those services." The library also has one computer set up for unem- ployment filing only. Patrons wishing to access any of these services should call the library at 812-749 -3559 for an appointment time. Pike Co. Library to host blood drive June 26 Pike County Public Library will host a community blood drive with the American Red Cross on June 26, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Petersburg Branch Library. For more information or to make an appointment to donate, call 812-354-6257 or sign up online at red- crossblood.org. UE Summer I classes moved to online Instruction As the COVID-19 virus continues to be a significant threat in our region, the University of Evansville Sum- mer I classes (May 18 - June 19) will continue to be of- fered through online instruction. For the full communi- ty-wide message, visit the coronavirus section of their website at: https://www.evansville.edu/coronavirus/ update-2020 -04-06 -summer-I.cfm. Time to register for Birthday Club If you haven't submitted your birthday within the last 6 months, please register again at www.pressdis- patch.net/birthday. Entrants have a chance to win monthly prizes from local businesses and a three- month subscription to The Press-Dispatch. Upcoming event? We want to know! Do you have an upcoming event? Send it to news@ pressdispatch.net or call 812-354-8500. MKT-5894-A-A1 edwardjones.com Schedule your retirement review today. Shane Minton Financial Advisor 100 S Hull Street Ft Branch, IN 47648 812-753-3893 Member SIPC Even If You Lose Your Job, You Still Have Choices During difficult times, it's easy to feel like things are out of your control. So it's essential to consider every financial decision carefully, especially when it comes to your retirement savings. Edward Jones can help. We'll start by getting to know your goals. Then we'll sort through your current situation and work with you face to face to develop a strategy that can help you keep your retirement on track. To make sense of your retirement savings alternatives, call today. Tom Willis Financial Advisor . 801 N Vincennes Avenue Petersburg, IN 47567 812-354-9950 IRT-1425-A-A1 e Spurgeon High School Alumni Banquet for May 23 has been cancelled. It will be rescheduled for next year. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL JUNE HADLOCK AT 812-664-9077 SPURGEON HIGH SCHOOL BANQUET CANCELLED 201 S. 7th St., Petersburg • Memorial Day flowers/grave saddles • Flowers for ALL Occasions CALL 812-354-8793 to place your order and make arrangements for pick-up Remember Mom This Mother's Day • May 10 Bike riding weather Katie, 7, and Luke Knepp, 3, were out learning to ride their bikes with training wheels at their grand- parents' house in Petersburg on Monday. Temperatures reached the mid-60s on that day. Katie was just about to graduate to no training wheels. coach and girls' track coach resigned effectively immedi- ately in a letter dated April 3 to Pike Central Principal Brian Holland. "Of course, I will coop- erate in any way neces- sary to assist in the transi- tion between myself and my successor(s) in the above- listed positions," stated Roach's letter. Pike Central wrestling coach Ryan McCain also submitted his resignation. McCain had coached the Chargers the past two seasons. "I think we were headed in the right direc- tion," said McCain. He led them to an 11-22 season in his first year and 18 -13 in his second season. He also had two wrestlers advance individually to the regional in both seasons. "Basically family obliga- tions and what is going at work," said McCain about his resignation. He works at IPL at Petersburg. He said prior to this year, he was able to work the mid - night shift, which allowed him to be involved with the wrestling team. However, he said, in the future, he wasn't going to be able to guaran- tee he could work around his coaching schedule. "I will probably be in- volved with the team some- how," said McCain. McCain placed third in the state at heavyweight for Pike Central and then made All-American status while wrestling in college. Petersburg Elementary School music teacher Kar- en DeCoursey notified the school board she is going to retire at the end of the school year. Winslow custodian Kelly Martin also announced he was resigning, effectively May 22, 2020, which is the last day of school in Pike County. Dr. Blake said the Pike Central High School Prom is scheduled for June 27 and the Spring Fling, which is the middle school equiv- alent of the prom, is set for June 20. In other business, the school board purchased a firearm and other equip- ment for each of their School Resource Officers. The equipment for each officer costs $1,630. Board member Chris McKinney said he thought there was going to be other equipment needed in the fu- ture. Board president Steve Potter said he had talked with SRO Jason McKinney about what equipment they needed and their future needs. He said they know better what they need than he does. "I didn't want to put my thumb on them and tell them what they need. They are the experts and they know what they need," said Potter. In other business, the board also accepted sever- al donations that included: $199 from IPL for the mid- dle school Robotics Club to purchase a robotics kit. Blake also said it was rec- ommended to her the corpo- ration consider marketing some of the timber behind the school. She said she walked through the woods with Multi-Resource Man- agement, Inc. of Birdseye. MRM, according to the agreement, would have ex- clusive marketing rights to the timber for 12 months. They will mark, measure and tally the trees to be of- fered, and provide an esti- mate of the timber value and minimum value. Pike County schools would have the option to proceed or not with the sale. MRM would also administer the auction of the timber. The board voted 5 -0 to ap- prove the agreement with MRM. The next school board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 12. County Council discusses effects of COVID-19 By Andy Heuring Pike County councilmen met by teleconference last Thursday and discussed ef- fects of COVID-19 on the county. They also talked about how to continue to fund the county Emergency Medical Service. Two years ago the county passed a Pub- lic Safety Local Option In- come Tax to fund the EMS. However that income tax is not keeping up with the cost of operating the EMS. County Auditor Judy Gumbel told the council they had received an 1170 public safety report. She said the average payroll runs from $26,000 to $28,000. "It isn't going to go down," said Gumbel. She added the EMS had some special cir- cumstances. She said they had bills for their workman's comp. insurance and liabil- ity insurance of more than $40,000 at the beginning of the year. "It is tight. I want- ed to make everyone aware of how tight," said Gumbel. EMS Director Chris Young said they had sever- al items at the end of last year and beginning of this year that increased their ex- penses. He said there were four paid holidays at the end of the year and an extra pay in January along with the in- surance bill. Young said he was talking with their in- surance company to see if there was a way to spread payments through the year instead of paying it all at the beginning of the year. "Judy is right. We are tight (on fi- nances)," said Young. Councilman Greg Wil- lis said the council made a transfer late last year to help. "I think we realized we would have to transfer some money into this at some time. But it is happening sooner than we thought," said Willis. He suggested Young and Gumbel prepare an order for additional funding for their May meeting. He suggest- ed they leave the amounts blank. Then in May they would have a better idea on the amounts. Young said they have been hurt in the revenue department because they aren't getting any transfer runs due to COVID-19. Councilman President Jon Craig said he would like to see the total expenses his- tory on the service so they can see what type of revenue they are going to need. Young said it would take a while because their expens- es were in different budgets. He said the commissioners' budget used to pay for EMS employee benefits. Willis said he thought they had put together those expenses for about five years. Gumbel said she thought she knew where she could find them. Willis added "I think Chris needs to look at run- ning it as frugally as he can and generate whatever reve- nue he can," Willis. In other business, the council approved a $5,000 transfer from hardware-soft- ware maintenance to equip- ment for the purpose of pur- chasing new laptop comput- ers for court personnel. The new laptops will allow most of them to work from home.