The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1277609
PAGE A3 Reeat with Rustic Charm Winslow native Floyd Knight saw a need in his hometown and went to work to fill it. He had started a tree farm, but Knight and several of his buddies didn't have anywhere to drink coffee and pontificate. Wednesday, august 12, 2020 PIKE PUBLISHING VOLuMe 150, nuMBeR 33 $1.00 24 Pages tWO seCtIOns thRee InseRts PeteRsBuRg, In 47567-0068 NEWS TIPS Phone: ���������������������812-354-8500 Email ����� editor@pressdispatch�net INSIDE THIS ISSUE Local ����������������������������A1-A12 Classifieds ������������������������A8-11 Sports ���������������������������������� B1 Church ���������������������������� B2-4 History ��������������������������������� B5 Home Life ��������������������������B6-8 Obituaries ����������������������������� B8 Opinion ������������������������B10-11 USPS 604-34012 School Corporation corrects vendor payments in Annual Financial Report Due to a software-related cleri- cal error, the Pike County School Corporation mistakenly reported Vendor Payments in the Annual Fi- nancial Report as double the actu- al amounts. They have corrected the error, and the revised Vendor Payment section of the report can be found on page A-9 in this week's edition. By Andy Heuring It is likely Pike Central will not be able to use its swimming pool this school year. Pike County schools have been going through some major physical upgrades at the schools in recent months and more are on the agenda. In the school board's special meeting Thurs- day, July meeting items were discussed. At Pike Central, the high school gym got new bleachers this summer and the air ex- change system has been replaced recently for most of the school. Both the bleachers and air handling system were original to the school building, which opened in the Fall of 1974. But there are still some more major projects that need addressed. Pike School Corp. Superintendent Dr. Su- zanne Blake said they planned to redo the swimming pool liner this summer before school restarted. However, the more they worked on the pool, they realized more re- pairs were needed. Blake said the engineer described the pool situation like unraveling a sweater, "the more you unravel it, the big- ger it gets." She said when engineers inspected the steel beams around the pool, they found they were "showing signs of wear." A letter from W. Gray Hodge, of Hodge Structural Engineers, said he had two en- gineers inspect the steel beam structure in the pool area that supports it, as well as the weight lifting and mechanical areas above the pool. "On the west wall there are two I-shaped columns where there has been significant ma- terial loss on the column flanges and the be- ginnings of material loss on the web of the column. Both of the I-shaped columns on gri- dline "AP" are heavily loaded, but the condi- tion of column AP/84 is the most worrisome because it supports most of the weight-train- ing and mechanical room floors." It continued, saying there are eight "square tube" columns along the south wall. "It is ap- Pike Central pool replacement could cost $1 million Bark park volunteers continue work Bridget Butcher strains as she lifts an 80-pound bag of concrete mix and carries it to a post hole. The volunteer crew worked Saturday morning setting posts for the dog park fence. Winslow passes speed bump policy By James Capozella Discussions during Monday's Winslow Town Council meeting re- sulted in decisions on passage of the speed bump policy, purchasing a computer backup system that pro- vides remote "work-at-home" capa- bility, updates on the Community Center project and also water me- ter replacement. SPEED BUMP ORDINANCE The second reading of the 2020 - X speed bump policy ordinance was passed by president Josh Popp, vice-president Debra Lamb and council member Richard "Dick" Brewster. Lamb expressed the fact that there would be several con- cerns addressed by the council before a speed bump could be in- stalled. Brewster said he thought the use would be very limited, but one area might be near the school. Lamb said that was a likely location, but there is also a negative side, that it would slow down emergency re- sponse to the school. IT UPGRADE PHASE 1 A heated discussion ensued over a Matrix Integration IT Upgrade that would alleviate problems with the server crashing, provide back- up and allow remote access and work-at-home capability, accord- ing to Popp. The first phase need- ed to be installed by December at a cost of $10,512 and would be reim- bursable. Popp said he had been to three meetings on the project and that council members were notified. Brewster said he didn't think he had been notified or that the notification came late. He said he wasn't spend- ing money on something unless he knew more about it. He wanted to talk with someone in a town the size of Winslow that had the system in place. County Council approves Tenaska solar farm By Andy Heuring A 1,200 -acre solar farm passed a major hurdle Tuesday morning as the Pike County Council voted 6 -0 to approve an agreement be- tween the developers and the county, as well as approve a tax abatement for the $110,000 million project. The project was tabled from the council's July meeting, where 20 residents comment- ed during a three-hour public hearing on the project. Councilmen voted to table the issue until they could work through some of the is- sues raised by concerned neighbors. A committee of council president Jon Craig and council members Max Elliott and Travis Troutman was formed to negotiate with Tenas- ka on the project. "We had some initial thoughts that we went back to after the last hearing. Then the last two weeks were filled with a lot of Zoom meet- ings on key areas that needed to be addressed. This project has potential for growth to dou- ble over time. We wanted to make sure that every process developed for the initial phase would carry through for the second phase," said Craig. He said initially Tenaska had proposed a 100 -foot set back. However, that was increased to 200 feet prior to last month's meeting. "The committee was not satisfied with a 200 -foot setback." He said they worked with Tenaska and the set back is now 300 feet. However, it is 200 feet for solar structures and in the last 100 feet, they can have access roads, buried structures and storm drainage. They have also placed 200 -foot bubbles around non-participating residents, where no construction can take place. "That means if the company would put something in that bubble, they would not receive any type of tax abatement from the county." See WINSLOW on page 4 See SOLAR on page 12 See PC POOL on page 2 Library employee passes away at work A Petersburg Library employee's death, while at work, has closed the library for the rest of this week. Linda Terry, 73, died while working at the library at about noon on Tuesday. Deputy Coroner Scott Seifers said the coroner was called to the library at about 12:30 p.m. and determined Terry had died suddenly of nat- ural causes. The library posted on Facebook, "Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Pike County Libraries will be closed the rest of the week. Summer Reading prizes will be handed out next week. We apologize for any inconve- niences." Terry, of Lynnville, was a long-term employ- ee of the library. Efforts to contact library staff were not suc- cessful prior to deadline. Learning how to bait a fish hook On Saturday morning, at the Scout Adventure, Petersburg Scout Master Larry Haycraft demonstrates to Oliver Troyer, of Washington, how to bait a hook with a worm. After an informational demonstration, kids got to fish in Lake Ashley at Horna- dy Park. It was one of several Scouting experiences kids from kindergarten to seniors in high school could take part in. See addi- tional photos on page A-5.