The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1282448
IN Session School's Session Session SCHOOL B-4 EAST GIBSON B-5 SPORTS B-1 NEWS TIPS Phone: ���������������������812-354-8500 Email ����� editor@pressdispatch�net INSIDE Local ���������������� A1-12 Opinion ������������� A6-7 Classifieds ���������� A8-9 Legal Notices �����A9-11 Sports �����������������B1-3 School ��������������������B4 East Gibson ��������� B5 Church ��������������B6-8 History �������������������B9 Obituaries ������������� B10 Home Life �������� B11-12 USPS 604-34012 Wednesday, august 26, 2020 PIKE PUBLISHING VOLuMe 150, nuMBeR 35 $1.00 24 Pages tWO seCtIOns thRee InseRts PeteRsBuRg, In 47567-0068 County records first COVID death Total cases increase to 82 By Andy Heuring Pike County recorded its first death due to COVID-19 on Friday. Officials are not re- leasing the identity of the person who died or even the age group. Cases of COVID rose to 82 in Pike Coun- ty. Health Nurse Amy Gladish said there are 25 active cases and as of Tuesday, there were five people in the hospital. "This virus is far from over," said Gladish. She added, "It is unfortunate any time we lose one of our residents. But we know it is a real possibility." Gladish said Pike County's numbers are still low despite the increases. COVID was fairly late getting to Pike County. On May 23, the county only had six positive tests for COVID. They didn't record another positive case until June 30. During the months of Ju- ly and August, there have been 76 positive tests for COVID, with a high of six cases be- ing recorded on August 14. Since then, the most to be recorded on one day was three on August 24. "It has gone pretty smoothly so far," said Gladish of kids returning to school on August 12. She said new cases have been related to the school. She said the state just sent out new guide- lines on when kids should return to school af- ter either testing positive or showing symp- toms. "They just changed it. We are still go- ing through it, trying to figure out a new game plan," said Gladish. "Our school has done a fantastic job in staying on top of it. We stay in constant communication with them. It is defi- nitely a group effort." She said her concerns are about when the flu season returns this fall and winter. "The worry is hospitals will get overloaded if they add COVID on top of the flu. I'm hoping peo- ple will get their flu shots," said Gladish. She said flu shots arrived last week at CVS and the health department expects to get their flu shots in the next week or so. Pike County is working on getting a local COVID testing site. Gladish said Pam Cosby See FILING on page 3 See COVID-19 on page 3 By Andy Heuring Two school board candidates filed just before the deadline last week. Jim Johns and Krystal Halbrader both filed last week. Halbrader filed for the District 5 seat. It is currently held by Steve Potter, who now serves as president of the board. Potter filed a few days earlier. Johns filed for the District 4 seat. He is challenging incumbent Chris Satterfield. Incumbent Chris McKinney is the only candidate in District 3. The school board races will be on the fall ballot. There are four local races in Pike County. Those races are clerk of the cir- cuit court, which has Republican in- cumbent Lana Griffith being chal- lenged by Democrat Summer Sor- gius. The county coroner race pits Democrat Nicholas Henson against Republican Raymond Brooks. The county treasurer's race is between Republican Susan Brittain and Democrat Jody Hoover. The county council at-large race is a five-way race for three posi- tions. Voters can vote for three can- Halbrader, Johns file for school board By Andy Heuring Pike County native Michael Co- chren has been nominated for a Dove Award. Cochren & Co. has been nominated for New Artist of the Year. The GMA Dove Awards started in 1969 and honors "out- standing achievements and excel- lence in Christian Music." Cochren & Co. is a regular on Christian music stations like K- LOVE with his songs One Day and Church (Take Me Back). Last month Cochren & Co. released a new single Who Can. It debuted at number 31 on the hits list. "That is my highest debut," said Cochren last week. Cochren, who isn't yet 30 years old, has had a fast rise in the Chris- tian music scene. He has gone from singing in the Pike Central Swing Choir and performing solos at the Petersburg Church of God to touring with Casting Crowns and Toby Mac. About three years ago, Cochren & Co were performing locally and he started a Go Fund Me page to raise money so they could get do a top notch recording. Since then, the doors have opened. "It has been a whirlwind of a couple of years. Meeting people who are my musical heroes and being able to share the stages with them," said Cochren. He is on a drive-in tour through North Carolina and Florida this week with Casting Crowns and Toby Mac. The drive-in perfor- mances are an adapt-and-over- come COVID-19 move by musi- cians. Cochren said the perfor- mances are in large parking lots or places that can accommodate a large number of vehicles. Attend- ees can sit in their vehicles, in lawn chairs around their vehicles, in the back of their pickups or on top of their vehicles. Cochren will be performing at 20 of the Drive- in Theater Tours in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Ar- kansas, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Pennsylvania through the end of October. Some of the performances in the area include: Gibson City, Ill., on September 18, Versailles, Ind., on Sept. 24, Louisville, Ky., on Oc- tober 16. Cochren's day-time job is wor- ship pastor at the Antioch Chris- tian Church on US 50, between Washington and Montgomery. "I'm always thankful for the lo- cal support," said Cochren of lo- cal fans. The Dove Awards will not have a live event this year due to the pandemic, but they will be broad- cast October 30 on TBN. Pike County native and Christian music performing artist Mi- chael Cochren has been nominated by GMI Dove Awards for New Artist of the Year. Cochren nominated for New Artist of the Year Tractor drive Matthew Perry and his father, Sonny, lead a long line of tractors out of Prides Creek Park on Saturday at 10 a.m. The First Annual Pike County Short Run Tractor Drive went on an 18-mile route of central Pike County and ended up back in Prides Creek just after noon. Ross Elmore said they originally wanted to do the event in July, but weren't able to get it worked out un- til last weekend. They also have a 28-mile tractor drive scheduled for Saturday, September 26. It will start from Whitehead Motors in Peters- burg. See additional photos on page A-5. By Andy Heuring The Pike County School Board voted to pay an engineering firm $ 9,500 to test square col- umn beams along the south wall of the Pike Central swimming pool area during their Tues- day, August 18 meeting. They also announced all elementary school meals will be free meals this year. The school board earlier in the year had vot- ed to replace the pool liner and do other main- tenance and repair. However, as they started working on those items, concerns were raised about steel support in the pool area and air han- dling capacity. A field inspection of the "square post col- umns" around the walls of the pool by Hodge Structural Engineers generated more concern. A letter to the school from Hodge talks about deterioration of the support structure around the pool. "Corrosion of the structural steel col- umns is the most readily observable structural deterioration. Corrosion of the structural steel is most severe on the west and south sides of the gym. On the west wall, there are two I- shaped columns where there has been signif- icant material loss on the column flanges and the beginnings of material loss on the web of the columns. Both 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 also states the corrosion problem has ex- isted in the past because there "are steel plates welded to the north face of most of the columns just above the floor." "Corrosion of these columns has continued over time and we were able to scrape rusted material from inside the previously repaired/ patched columns. The tube columns are more difficult to evaluate visually because it is like- ly that corrosive deterioration has occurred in- side the closed sections where it cannot be ob- served." It also said the structural steel above the ceil- ing in the pool area has corrosion, but it was not as severe as in the columns. W. Gray Hodge recommended five steps be taken: 1) Repair the base plate and bottom of the I- shaped columns on the west wall of the pool. School board faces costly repairs for deteriorating pool area See POOL AREA on page 2