The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1286276
PIKE CENTRAL WINS AT NORTH KNOX SPORTS B-1 Both Charger cross country teams won at North Knox September 1, with Libby Stone leading the girls and Ethan Gorby the boys. LOCAL A-3 Keeping up with the NEWS TIPS Phone: ���������������������812-354-8500 Email ����� editor@pressdispatch�net INSIDE Local ���������������� A1-12 East Gibson ��������� A5 Opinion ������������� A6-7 Classifieds ���������� A8-9 Legal Notices ����������A9 Obituaries ������������� A10 History ����������������� A11 Sports �����������������B1-5 School ��������������������B6 Church �������������� B7-9 Home Life �������� B10-12 USPS 604-34012 Wednesday, september 9, 2020 PIKE PUBLISHING VOLUme 150, nUmber 37 $1.00 24 paGes tWO seCtIOns three Inserts petersbUrG, In 47567-0068 A rural Stendal area woman died as the re- sult of a house fire on Old State Road 64 at about 3 p.m. Tuesday. Debra Houchin, 63, of 7926 E. Old State Road 64, Stendal, was found dead in her res- idence. Lockhart Township Fire Chief Larry Riesenbeck said someone stopped to drop off groceries to Houchin and found her trail- er filled with smoke and the walls blackened. Riesenbeck said when the fire department arrived, the fire was already out. He said Houchin was on oxygen and smoked, but they don't know what triggered the fire. The Indi- ana State Fire Marshal's office is investigat- ing the cause of the fire. The fire was reported at about 3:30 p.m. Lockhart Township was assisted by Spurgeon and Patoka fire departments. Houchin dies from injuries sustained in Tuesday house fire By Andy Heuring Pike County Schools reopened to in-class instruction on a hybrid schedule this week. Roughly half the student population is meet- ing two days a week and half are meeting the other two days a week, with no one meeting at the school on Wednesdays. The three days stu- dents aren't in the building, they are doing re- mote learning. The A group goes to school on Mondays and Tuesdays, with the B group at- tending on Thursdays and Fridays. Last week, Pike County Schools took off Thursday and Friday, and also Labor Day this week, then started back up on Tuesday. Pike Schools Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Blake said, "Our reopening plan stated we would be monitoring attendance, but also local conditions. Our attendance wasn't due to a large numbers of positive tests. But we had a large number of students and staff going into quar- antine. It got hard to maintain coverage in the classes the way it needed to be," said Blake. She said early last week they had 17 adults, teachers and aids who were on quarantine. To find substi- tutes to replace them was becoming impossible. "We chose to go into the moderate-risk sce- nario," said Blake. The moderate-risk scenario divides the stu- dent population into two groups and keeps them separated. Their plan also attempts to keep all the kids on sports teams in the same group, be- cause they have close contact with each other. "It isn't perfect, but we tried to look at the groups and because we knew those groups had been practicing together for quite a while, we tried to keep them together. A lot of the (CDC and state) guidance talked about the coworker groups, whether it is in the classroom or a team that meets together. We are just trying to min- imize the contact. In theory, if a student is pos- itive, you have the smaller group in the class- room and their sports team trying to keep it contained instead of spreading it across a larg- er group," said Blake. Pike County's current plan calls for the schools to stay on this hybrid plan until Sep- tember 25, then reassess the situation. Pike County Health Nurse Amy Gladish said Tuesday there were four new cases added on Friday. That brought the county's total up to 113 cases. "The good news is we haven't had another case added since." She said she thinks this is the first time the county has gone that many days for nearly a month without a new case. Gladish added she hopes this is the start of a cooling down period locally for COVID. However, she added people should still con - tinue to social distance and take precautions. Gladish said there is a lot of contract trac- ing going on statewide. She said, locally, peo- ple are not answering their phone because when they see an out of area number, they think it is a sales call. She sad if you received a call from the num- ber 833-670 -0067, answer the call because it is state health officials wanting to talk to you about contract tracing. Gladish also wanted to remind people if they are planning a wedding or other event that will have more than 250 people in attendance, a plan has to be submitted to the Pike County Health Department. The plan on how to han- dle COVID prevention has to be approved by the health department. Gladish added, large events of less than 250 people don't require a plan approval, but if you want assistance with it, the health department will provide guidance. By Andy Heuring A man high on drugs, believing he was being chased by police, was arrested Sun- day night after he broke into two Petersburg homes trying to steal a vehicle to flee police. Jason Hammock, 45, of 304 S. 15th St., Pe- tersburg, was arrested on charges of burglary, two counts of attempted auto theft, residen- tial entry, criminal trespass and public intox- ication. Petersburg Police Cpl. Kyle Mills said he responded to a 911 call of a man at 301 S. 16th St. who was entering Juanita Walls' residence and demanding her car keys. Mills said Walls told him Sarah Slaven's boyfriend had come into her home and de- manded her car keys. She said he told her he had broken out of prison and the cops had given him a 20 -minute head start. Walls said Hammock paced around her house go- ing from room to room, poured himself two glasses of water and then fled on foot. Walls said Hammock told her he had been in a neighbor's basement and had cobwebs all over him. Mills said he went to Hammock's former place of residence and spoke with his fami- ly. According to Mills' report, they told Mills that Hammock wasn't there and that Sarah Slaven had dropped him off earlier in the day, after they had gone to Evansville to get drugs. Hammock's family said he was "geeked" out on something. While Mills was there talking with Hammock's family, central dis- patch got a report Hammock was at 1501 Main St. and had gained entry to another residence. While Cpl. Mills, State Trooper C.J. Boeck- man and Deputy Paul Collier were on their way to 1501 Main St., another report said Hammock had left there and gotten into a vehicle at 1409 Main St. Hammock charged with two break-ins By Andy Heuring The Winslow Light-up Parade and Monroe City Blue Jeans Fest have been cancelled. Winslow earlier cancelled their Fall Festival, but hoped to have the Light-up Parade. It was scheduled for Saturday, September 19. The Monroe City Blue Jeans Festival, which was scheduled for the same weekend, has al- so been cancelled. Light-Up parade, Blue Jeans Fest cancelled See HAMMOCK on page 2 Schools begin hybrid schedule; no COVID cases reported since Friday Building on Ninth St. razed A crew began razing the former law office of Val Fleig on Ninth St., just north of Main St. in Petersburg. Petersburg's Rede- velopment Commission had taken control of the building. Mayor R.C. Klipsch said the plan is for it to be a parking lot for the former Movie Gallery building, which has been donated to the City of Petersburg. He said they are hoping the parking lot just behind the Movie Gallery building will make it more attractive to prospective development projects. Charger cheer car wash Pike Central Charger Cheerleaders Ava Hudson, Grace Brandle, Emma Quackenbush and Carlie Halbrader wore masks while washing cars Saturday morning as a fundraiser. It was located at Casey's in Petersburg.