The Press-Dispatch
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yeah, it's that fast! net edition Z M www.PressDispatch.net/Subscribe The Press-Dispatch. No matter where you live. Fresh produce at Farmers Market Vanessa Modesitt purchases fresh vegetables from Chad Searls at the Farmers Market on Saturday. Pe- tersburg was buzzing with activities, as the county-wide yard sale and the Farmers Market were just a cou- ple of activities happening Saturday. The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, July 22, 2020 A-7 DEATH Continued from page 1 EAST GIBSON Submit East Gibson news items: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: egnews@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Health Dept. asks people to wear masks to protect economy By Janice Barniak According to the Gibson County Health Dept., as cas- es surge, locals can protect the area's economy by wear- ing masks as a way to reduce cases and thereby keep the ar- ea working. Diane Hornby, public health nurse and GCHD di- rector, told the Gibson Coun- ty Council that when the coun- ty has 86 new cases, that's ap- proximately 400 to 500 people who have to quarantine for two weeks because they've had contact with the person. "Some businesses have to shut down for a short peri- od because so much staff is out," Hornby said. "It's real- ly putting more pressure on them...It's as much to protect that business as it is to pro- tect that person. It also pro- tects the economy." She said testing negative only a day or two after con- tact isn't enough because the virus hasn't had enough time to build up for the person to test positive. At the state level, Gov. Er- ic Holcomb has also pushed mask wearing with the Mask Up Hoosiers campaign. As the health department's case load gets higher, it's al- so hard to track all the illness- es and what stage they are at. She said as the cases are spiking now, it will likely be a few weeks before the hospital- izations will spike; right now, people will be in the stage of getter sicker. The state is sending anoth- er testing team, a drive-up lo- cation, she said, and they want to open it in the southern part of the county, where there are clusters. On July 15, there were 138 cases total. There had been 27 in June, and 94 since the beginning of July; 58 cases were active. As of this Mon- day, however, cases were at 158 (20 more since July 15). The highest numbers of cases are in the under-40 crowd, with 20 -29 year olds leading demographics at 22.8 percent of cases, followed by both 0 -19 and 30 -39 year olds punching in at 14.6 percent of cases. In previous weeks, the health department has said people have brought the vi- rus back from vacationing in places with higher incidences of coronavirus. The county did receive a new drive-through testing site that opened July 16 and will continue through July 25 at Ivy Tech Community College on Crabtree Drive in Prince- ton. This week, July 21-25, the hours will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. No appointment is nec- essary. Back-to-School Bash Crossroads Baptist Church's Back-to-School Bash has become bigger and better as years go by, said orga- nizer Jeanne Lee at the Saturday event. Where the bags used to be mostly gently used, now they are almost completely new supplies, and the church serves more people than it did in year's past. This year, not only were volunteers mostly wearing masks, but the church was supplying them in school bags with the thought they might be required. Above: Sheila and Perla Beadle organize supplies. County Council eyes $18 million in requests Insurance increases, overtime, heart monitors all up for consideration By Janice Barniak Gibson County Council will look to trim approximate- ly two million off their 2021 general fund requests com- ing from department heads, as proposed expenses exceed budget growth for 2021. Originally, the council be- lieved they'd be looking at $19,376,889 in requests, but that total was off when the council realized an extra ze- ro was on the commissioners' requests, making it $1 mil- lion instead of $100,000 as a budget for the area planning commission. That meant ac- tual requests for 2021 were $18,476,889. That's higher than 2020's $16.8 million in requests, of which $15.75 million were ap- proved. Approving all of the re- quests would put the coun- cil at more than $2 million over what was approved last year. However, South Gibson Councilman Jeremy Overton said the council can expect a levy growth (increased tax revenue) of $425,000 in the coming year. "That would mean we could comfortably spend about $16,204,602," he told the Star-Times Saturday, adding they could approve slightly more than that, how- ever, because of approving a budget for the new public de- fender's office. The new de- partment will be run by at- torney Lisa Moody, and the state is footing 40 percent of the budget for that office, meaning the council will like- ly approve closer to $16.5 mil- lion, knowing about $288,400 would be reimbursed. "That leaves us with just shy of $2,000,000 that we'll have to cut from the bud- gets," he said. Requests for increases came from many depart- ments; commissioners said the county will face $ 950,000 in additional health insur- ance costs alone, another $ 91,000 increase in retire- ment contributions, and an- other $59,000 in social secu- rity costs. The new public defender's office requested $721,500 — 40 percent of which will be re- imbursed by the state. The new magistrate is a cost of $51,000, and the new pre-tri- al services department, re- quired after bond changes from the state, will add anoth- er $143,000 to the requests. Gibson County Emergen- cy Medical Services request- ed $ 96,500 for salary increas- es and overtime, and another $126,000 for new heart mon- itors. The Gibson County Sher- iff's Office also requested $100,000 for two new patrol officers and for salary in- creases. Gibson County can be reimbursed $77k through CARES Act By Janice Barniak According to Emergen- cy Management Agency di- rector Terry Hedges, up to $77,630 of county expenses due to COVID-19 can be reim- bursed to the county through the CARES Act. Those expenses can include non-budgeted staffing, for ex- ample, the part-time help that staffed the courthouse to check temperatures, and the overtime the staff has used due to COVID-19, as well as PPE and other related expenses. The cost for the two employ- ees to monitor the courthouse door is $ 600 a week, which breaks down to two part-time employees at $15 per hour. (The health department nor- mally has five staff, and they also do immunizations, dog bites, septic/sewer and restau- rant inspections, among other duties, which is why two more were employed). It will cost $13,200 to have a person screening for the rest of year, which is something the judges have requested. People have been turned away for fe- vers. "There are people coming to the courthouse sick and they're getting those people new court dates, and they're turned away," said attorney Jim McDonald. Public Health Nurse Diane Hornby added, more costs may be coming as Optum, the coun- ty's current testing site, plans to leave July 31. They were originally sched- uled to leave at the end of June, but then the county started to see an increase in cases and the time was extended. The state wants the coun- ty to pick up the tab for subse- quent testing, and is planning to pay a lump sum of $50,000, which is supposed to cover all testing expenses, from the tests to the building to the staffing, which will have to in- clude at least two, if not three, people. Believing that may not be enough, Gibson County is look- ing at partnering with Posey County on a site. Hornby said that if testing had a cost instead of being free as it is now, fewer people might test, regardless of symptoms, especially those that don't meet the hospital's require- ments for testing. She said the site would also likely be utilized to roll out a vaccine when it became avail- able. Hornby asked the council for an additional $20,000 to cover expenses. "It's pretty much depleted the funds," she said. She didn't want to complete- ly deplete the part-time funds line because she may need it to get the testing site up and running. When asked when the coun- ty will be able to stop screen- ing, Hornby said that depends on locals. They thought it might shut down in June, but then cases increased. "It's really going to depend on our community and how ma- ny cases we have in our com- munity." door, but later a pathologist determined it was not human blood. The affidavit states "From the condition of the body, Sha- ron Fox had abrasions on her face and or head, and readi- ly appeared to have suffered traumatic injury, causing her passing. There was blood in proximity to the body. Fur- ther, from position of Sharon Fox's body, it did not appear that she would have landed in that position on her own pow- er or volition." Fox's body was found near the bottom of a staircase into a basement that was described as a cellar. An autopsy was performed on Monday, July 20 at 4 p.m. by forensic pathologist Dr. James Jacobi. The release states: "Preliminary autopsy report by Dr. Jacobi indicates the probable cause of death as a cervical spine fracture as the result of a fall on a stairway, presumably accidental." "The Pike County Coroner's Office estimates time and date of death occurred around 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 18, 2020," said the release. It continues, "A final cause of death will be issued by Dr. Jacobi once the investigation is completed, and laboratory and toxicology reports are re- ceived. Toxicology and lab re- sults generally take four to six weeks to conduct." Pike County Prosecutor Darrin McDonald said it like- ly was an accident, but be- cause of the circumstances around it, "We want to do due diligence and make sure it was an accident, dot all our 'i's and cross our 't's." Sharon and Edward were in the process of a divorce and she had gotten a protec- tive order against Edward in 2019. According to the prob- able cause seeking a search warrant in May of 2019, po- lice were called to the resi- dence on a complaint from Sharon that Edward had "put his hands on her " and "would not leave." The incident did not result in an arrest. On Monday, Edward was arrested on charges of ob- struction of justice and re- sisting law enforcement. The charges stemmed from an in- cident when police were inter- viewing Edward and asked him for his cellphone. Police said they wanted to hold the phone while they sought and received a search warrant for the phone. Edward refused to give the phone to police. De- tails about the incident were not available at press time. Spotlight