The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1316377
B-2 Wednesday, December 9, 2020 The Press-Dispatch COUNCIL Continued from page 1 Since 1990 CHRISTMAS Dazl e THIS Southgate Center, Jasper www.olingerdiamond.com • 812-482-4214 Holiday Hours: Mon., Tues, Thurs. 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wed. & Fri. 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m., Sat. 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Open Sun. Dec. 20 Noon-4 p.m. Dazl Legendary Concept Cars 1955 LINCOLN FUTURA Metal Keepsake Ornament FUTURA Metal Keepsake Ornament 716 Main St. Petersburg • 812-354-9372 /margeshallmark Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 9-5; Friday 9-6 Metal Keepsake 716 Main St. Petersburg • 812-354-9372 /margeshallmark Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 9-5; Friday 9-6 Recordable Storybooks Legendary Concept Cars 1955 LINCOLN Legendary Concept Cars 1955 LINCOLN Legendary Concept Cars 1955 LINCOLN GIFT IDEAS Assorted Christmas Gi Items HALF PRICE Holiday Blankets Assortment to choose from NOW $ 19.99 REG. $29.99 Recordable Storybooks ID IDEA EAS BUY ONE GET ONE FREE GOOD SELECTION OF Keepsake Ornaments Selection of O ce Items & Stationary Santa is making stops in Petersburg on Sunday, Dec. 13 Load up the kiddos up for an evening journey to see Santa. We wish everyone a safe and magical Christmas! Paid for by e Petersburg Women of the Moose He will be at the VFW from 3 to 5 p.m. where kids can drop o their letters to Santa and receive a gi bag of goodies without leaving the vehicle. (Social distancing) en you can head on up the road to "The North Pole" at the Moose Lodge from 3 to 6 p.m. where Santa and his elves will be. and receive another bag of goodies delivered by Santa and his elves (fully masked) right to your vehicle. End the journey with a nice trip to enjoy the beautiful display of lights at Hornady Park! By Andy Heuring An Oakland City man was arrested on meth and drug charges after he was stopped for an improper headlight late Saturday night. Homer W. Dersch, 48, of Route 2, Box 267, Oakland City, was arrested by Pike County Sheriff's Sgt. Buck Seger on charges of posses - sion of meth, less than five grams, a level 6 felony, pos- session of marijuana and pos- session of paraphernalia. Sgt. Seger said he and Dep- uty Chris McKinney were on patrol Saturday night when they noticed Dersch driving a blue Chevy pickup south on Highway 61, near Highway 64, with an improper headlight. Sgt. Seger said they stopped Dersch and when Seger ap- proached the truck, he no- ticed Dersch "making a lot of movements." Seger said he saw a beer bottle in the passenger seat and several empties in the passenger floor board. Dersch said he drank five beers. He passed a portable breath test and some field sobriety tests. But K-9 officer Bleck indicated the presence of an illegal drug in the truck. During a pat-down, Sgt. Seger said he found a plastic bag in Dersch's unlaced boot. It contained a white powder substance and field tested pos- itive for methamphetamine. It weighed 1.3 grams, accord- ing to Seger's report. He al- so said police found a smok- ing pipe with marijuana in it and another one hitter pipe in the vehicle. Homer Dersch arrested on multiple possession charges By Andy Heuring A Vincennes man was ar- rested on meth charges after police stopped him on High- way 61, near Campbelltown, for having improper registra- tion last Thursday. Vernon Martin, 47, of 911 Broadway St., Vincennes was arrested on charges of posses- sion of meth and possession of a syringe, both level 6 felonies. Indiana State Trooper Hunt- er Manning said he was driv- ing south on Highway 61, south of Highway 56, when he checked the license plate on a black Grand Prix and it was registered to a 2006 Toy- ota. The vehicle was stopped at CR 175 E. Trooper Manning said when he talked with Martin, he could tell Martin was vis- ibly upset. Martin told him he had just been in an argu- ment with a person he lived with and he was driving to a friend's house. According to Manning's report, Martin said, "nothing about the vehi- cle was legal" and his driver's license had been suspended. Manning said used a screw- driver to turn off the ignition on the car. When he ran a check on Martin's driver's li- cense, he found it has been in- valid since 1999. Pike County Sheriff's Sgt. Buck Seger brought in K9 Officer Bleck, who indicated the presence of illegal drugs. Police found a syringe in the driver's seat. Martin told po- lice he had two bags of meth on him. Martin was transported to the Pike County Jail, where he gave police the bags with a white powder substance in them. Trooper Manning said, through his training and ex- perience, he believed the bags contained meth. Martin arrested on multiple charges By Andy Heuring A former Petersburg Police Officer was sentenced to 18 months of probation follow- ing his plea of guilty to three charges stemming from an in- cident on Sunday, August 25, 2019, when he was intoxicated and crashed a Petersburg po- lice car while on duty in Knox County. Isaac Read Salters, 30, of 1653 Washington Ave., Vin- cennes, was hired as a Pe- tersburg police officer in ear- ly 2019. According to police re- ports, Salters was on duty on a Sunday afternoon and called in to Petersburg police saying he had a nail in his tire and was going to drive to Vincennes to get it fixed. Pike County Police started getting reports of a po- lice car on Highway 61 driving at a high rate of speed and all over the road. Salters crashed at 8051 E. Highway 61, going off the road into a field. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Baumgart, at the time, said the police cruiser was a total loss. Knox County Sheriff's Capt. Charles Helderman, in his re- port, said Salters' speech was slurred and his "explanation of why he was in the area was not making sense." On November 18, Salters had a change of plea hear- ing in Knox County Superior Court. He then agreed to plea guilty to the three charges of official misconduct, a level 6 felony; operating a vehicle while intoxicated, endanger- ing a person, a class A misde- meanor; and operating a vehi- cle with a schedule I or II con- trolled substance or it metab- olite in the body, a class C misdemeanor. Judge Gara U. Lee, in his sentencing order, found one aggravator, that Salters was an on-duty police officer at the time of the incident and whose conduct violated pub- lic trust with a consequence of casting a shadow on the jus- tice system. Lee also found one mitigat- ing factor, which was Salters had pleaded guilty, saving the court time, money and effort. He ruled the aggravator out- weighed the mitigating fac- tor. He sentenced Salters to 18 months in prison, with all 18 months suspended to pro- bation on the official conduct count. A condition of the pro- bation is 100 hours of public service. Another condition is that Salters participate in a substance abuse treatment program and pay the fees to do so. On the second count of OV WI, endangering a person, Judge Lee sentenced Salters to one year in prison, with that year suspended to probation and the sentence to run con- current with the misconduct charge. Concurrent means the time on both sentences runs at the same time. He al- so suspended Salters' drivers license for 180 days. On the third count, Judge Lee sentenced Salters to 60 days in jail, with all sixty days suspended to probation. Salters sentenced for OVWI, crashing police cruiser Bell ringers needed this week Bell ringers are still need- ed for the Salvation Army collection locations in Peters- burg this weekend. Bell ring- ing chairman Cal Biddle said collections this year are run- ning at similar levels to last year despite COVID-19. How- ever, because of COVID-19's effect on the economy, the need this year is greater. Money collected in the Red Kettles goes to the Gib- son-Pike county chapter of the Salvation Army. Biddle said the Pike Cen- tral Key Club is ringing bells on Saturday at the Dollar Gen- eral Store, however, there are still plenty of openings this weekend. On Friday after- noon, ringers are needed from 1 to 5 p.m. at Dollar General. Volunteers are needed on Fri- day from 8 a.m. to noon and 2 to 3 p.m., also from 8 to 10 a.m. and 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday at Petersburg Hardware. IBEW donates to Somebody's Place Caleb and Hallee Miller dropped off 406 pounds of food, collected by the IBEW Local 16, to Somebody's Place. Caleb, a member of the RENEW Committee, helped organize the food drive for IBEW members to contribute. They also donated clothing to the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Hangers program. Caleb said they did the similar food drive last year and it was so successful, they decided to make it an annu- al event. Caleb and Hallee unloaded their pickup filled with the food last Thursday. Mike Voyles, Sandy Talley and Kyle Mills; Fire Territory Board: Bill Traylor; Wabash Valley Corrections Board: Kyler Henry; Unsafe Hearing Officer: Da- vid Henson; Board of Zoning Appeals: Jim Gaskins and Wendell Wil- son; Plan Commission: Joe Smith. WASTEWATER PERMIT RECEIVED Mayor Klipsch announced Petersburg had received their permit from the Indi- ana Department of Environ- mental Management for the first phase of redoing their wastewater treatment plant. "All is set to go on that now that we have the permit," said Klipsch. Petersburg gave that con- tract to Graves Plumbing, of Switz City, for $2.77 million. Graves was the low bidder on the project. It include head- works and an equalization la- goon. The equalization lagoon provides a buffer for the plant by holding large amounts of wastewater that goes through the system at peak times. This allows the plant to catch up to the flow in times of heavy rain. Klipsch said the permit al- lows the contractor to proceed beginning on January 4, 2021. SEWER LINE EXTENSION City Services Manager Ross Elmore said the extension of a sewer line to the Elmer Buch- ta Technology Center, located at the I-69 interchange, is go- ing well. "We hope to have that done in about two weeks," said Elmore. He said the water line is al- ready completed. OTHER BUSINESS In other business, Police Chief Chuck Baumgart said, during a recent windstorm and rain, they had some dam- age to a vent on the police sta- tion roof. It caused a leak that affected about a 10 foot by 10 foot area. Baumgart said a quick repair was done to stop the leak, but they need to look at it and see if they need to do more. Councilman John Melhis- er asked if they needed to re- place it. Baumgart said he didn't know yet, but they were going to check on it. In other police business, Baumgart recommended Zackary Blake and Andrew Copeland be hired as Re- serve Police Officers. "They are both people we would be glad to have on our force," said Mayor Klipsch. The council voted 5 -0 to hire them as reserves. Mayor Klipsch said the Downtown Streetscape proj- ect was going to go to bid in August. Fire Chief Ross Elmore said the fire department's year runs from December 1 to November 30. He said, in the last year, they responded to 252 alarms, including 35 in November. The next City Council meet- ing is set for 6:30 p.m. Mon- day, December 21. Want to share your news with others? The Press-Dispatch can help deliver it to Pike and the surrounding counties. NEWS! 812-354-8500