The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1319905
A-2 Wednesday, December 16, 2020 The Press-Dispatch Designers: Angie Carter, Jane Reed, Sandy Tichenor Mon. - Fri. 9:30am-5:30pm • Sat 9:30am-3pm 816 E. Main St., Petersburg • 812-789-3046 beautiful jewelry by HOLIDAY fresh & silk fl oral arrangements Great GIFT IDEAS • Lanterns • Chimes • Decor & More Last Minute GIFTS silk fl oral arrangements Last Minute GIFTS Great GIFT IDEAS GIFT IDEAS fl oral arrangements fl oral arrangements Great Single $275 $240 Student/Senior $225 $190 Husband/Wife $460 $415 Family $635 $530 1-Year Membership Specials New Mystic Tan Spray Booth 604 E. Illinois St., Petersburg 812-354-1303 Mon-Thur:10am-7pm Friday:10am-6pm Saturday: 10am-1pm Gift certifi cates are available and make a great gift! New Mystic Tan Spray Booth New Mystic Tan Spray Booth $20/session New Mystic Tan Spray Booth New Mystic Tan Spray Booth New Mystic Tan Spray Booth New Mystic Tan Spray Booth Bronzers, Scents and Accelerators addt'l $5 each Like us on Facebook! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from... TANNING SPECIAL 2 Months Tanning on any bed $60 * does not include spray tan booth Looking for the perfect gift? 1-Year Membership Specials on any bed Looking for the perfect gift? Christmas Savings Special Schools. Lauren is the daughter of Christian and Amanda Young of Winslow. She is a senior at Pike Central High School and plans to attend Ball State University to study Biology/ Pre-medicine, with a goal of becoming a Dermatologist. In addition to excelling aca- demically, Lauren has been in- volved in National Honor So- ciety, Key Club, student gov- ernment and the Riley Dance Marathon. She is also a mem- ber of the soccer team, track and field team, and Swing Choir. She worked as a Gene- alogy Intern at the Pike Coun- ty Public Library. Scholarship award alter- nates were also announced as first alternate Libby Stone and second alternate Hunter Russell. The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Pro- gram is administered locally by the Community Founda- tion, with the support of local high schools, and the admin- istrative oversight by the Inde- pendent Colleges of Indiana, Inc. (ICI). Since the program was first introduced in 1998, Lilly En- dowment, Inc. has provid- ed over $424M in grant sup- port for the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Pro- gram. The primary purposes of the Lilly Endowment Com- munity Scholarship Program are 1) to help raise the level of educational attainment in In- diana; 2) to increase aware- ness of the beneficial roles In- diana community foundations can play in their communities; and 3) to encourage and sup- port the efforts of current and past Lilly Endowment Com- munity Scholars to engage with each other and with In- diana business, governmental, educational, nonprofit and civ- ic leaders to improve the qual- ity of life in Indiana general- ly and in local communities throughout the state. The Pike County Communi- ty Foundation is one of nine re- gional county affiliates of the Community Foundation Alli- ance. The Alliance holds more than 1,200 named funds estab- lished by individuals, families, businesses, civic groups, and agencies to improve the qual- ity of life throughout south- western Indiana, with char- itable assets of more than $118million. During our most recent fiscal year, grants and scholarships awarded from all Alliance funds to benefit pro- grams, projects, and people in the nine affiliate counties to- taled over $ 3.7 million. The Alliance provides manage- ment, administrative, and de- velopment expertise and ser- vices, so every local affiliate foundation can focus on pro- moting philanthropy, build- ing endowment, and grant- making, making a difference in their community today and for years to come. ber jumped to 1,138 by Octo- ber 5 and 2,544 by November 10. It peaked at 3,460 on No- vember 30. It fell to 3,022 on December 13, but jumped to 3,229 the next day. Indiana hospital capacities are falling as the hospitaliza- tions remain high. Accord- ing the Indiana Department of Health, 23.9 percent of the ICU beds in the state are avail- able, while 69.9 percent of the ventilators are still available. Pike County's testing site, located on the parking lot of the Petersburg Moose, is open Monday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday from 3 to 6 p.m., Thursday and Sat- urdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Testing is free. Anyone wanting to be tested can go online and fill out a regis- tration, and then go to the drive-thru testing site. Peo- ple are asked to not get out of their vehicles. See Business Box for special services Page C-5 AWARD Continued from page 1 out of operating capital. . . It became clear that such a sup- ply contract would not be fi- nalized in a timeframe neces- sary to avoid the idling of op- erations and the termination of employees." White Stallion, headed up by Steve Chancellor, pur- chased 51 percent of Solar Sources, which had been op- erating in Pike County since the 1970s. White Stallion, in 2018, opened several mines in the area, as well as a wash plant at the Charger Mine and had intentions of opening the sur- face and underground por- tions of the Charger Mine. CLOSURE Continued from page 2 COVID Continued from page 2 By Andy Heuring A rural Petersburg husband and wife were arrested after they fought over smoking mar- ijuana. Stephen Christopher, 28, and Heather Christopher, both of 739 N. CR 125 W., Pe- tersburg, were arrested on a charges of domestic battery committed in the presence of a childless than 16, a level 6 felony, and possession of mari- juana, a class B misdemeanor. Pike County Sheriff's Sgt. Buck Seger and Deputy Paul Collier were sent to the Chris- tophers' residence after Ste- phen's father, Todd, called police to report the two were downstairs arguing. Sgt. Seger said when they arrived, Todd said his son and daugh- ter-in-law were downstairs ar- guing and he didn't know if they had gotten physical. Heather went upstairs and stayed with police while Sgt. Seger went downstairs to talk with Stephen and saw a child in the kitchen crying. Seger said Stephen told him they had gotten into an argument because he wanted Heather to stop smoking marijuana, but she didn't want to stop. Stephen said he smelled a jar of marijuana that was on the floor and Heather smacked him in the face, and he smacked her back. He then picked her up and carried her outside. Stephen then showed police where Heather had cleaned up the marijuana and jar, and put them in the trash. When police talked with Heather, she initially denied they had smoked marijuana and said they had not been physical with each other,. Sgt. Seger's report stated when police told Heather that Stephen said they had hit each other, she denied hitting him. Both had marks on their faces, according to Seger's report. Both were taken into custo- dy and the child was left with the grandparents. Couple arrested after fight over marijuana Six local trials required to be rescheduled By Andy Heuring Six jury trials scheduled in Pike County for January and February will not happen on that schedule. On Monday, the Indiana Supreme Court issued an order suspended all jury trials in Indiana. The order stops all jury trials through March 1, 2021, due to effects of COVID. "We have been slow on jury trials anyhow," said Pike Cir- cuit Court Judge Jeff Biester- veld. He said there were six cases scheduled for trial in January and February. "That doesn't mean all of them would go to trial," said Biesterveld. Some would be pleaded and others would be continued. Biesterveld and Pike Coun- ty Deputy Prosecutor Sarah Christianson said the Indiana Supreme Court order waives the speedy trial requirement. Christianson said, in Indiana, if a defendant wants, the state is required to bring them to trial in six months. This usu- ally happens when a defendant is being held in jail. A news release from the In- diana Supreme Court states: "We have hope that 2021 will bring improved conditions. But hoping is not enough. There is more we must do, and we must act now," Chief Jus- tice Loretta Rush said about the Court's latest action to ad- dress the pandemic. "Since March, we have been balanc- ing the requirement to keep courts open with the need for public health. The worsen- ing pandemic creates urgen- cy for us to halt jury trials as we maintain all other court op- erations, including through re- mote proceedings." It continues, "The Supreme Court has given local courts authority to adjust opera- tions since the beginning of the public health emergency, most recently in a November 10 order. This authority has included holding remote pro- ceedings and streaming pub- lic hearings online. In addi- tion, a Resuming Operations Task Force released guidance on managing court proceed- ings as conditions change, guidance on safely resuming court operations, and proto- cols for mitigating in-court exposures." "We are working on that," said Judge Biesterveld. He said they used federal COVID money from the CARES Act to purchase computers and other equipment that eventually will allow them to use Zoom for some of their hearings and ju- ry trials. So far, they have on- ly been doing some hearings remotely. He said Spencer County re- cently had a murder trial and live-streamed it. "We will have that capability. We don't have it yet, but we are working to- ward it,." Pike County uses the same tech firm, Eck-Mundy, as Spencer County does, so they hope to be able to live-stream trials in the future. Pike County, last Wednes- day, was declared a Red Zone county. Biesterveld said with the current guidelines of not al- lowing more than 25 people at a gathering, having a jury trial would have been tough. He said with a 12-person ju- ry, they typically call 75 peo- ple in to be interviewed for ju- ry selection. They already had reconfig- ured the courtroom to best al- low social distancing. Biesterveld said they have been given guidance from the Resuming Court Operations Task Force. Their guidelines are as fol- lows: BLUE ZONE COUNTIES 1. Enforce mask mandates 2. Enforce social distancing 3. Encourage a liberal sick leave policy 4. Consider rotating staff schedules for those in shared spaces to limit the number of people in the office at the same time 5. Proceed with jury tri- als and in-court proceedings while enforcing mask wearing and social distancing YELLOW ZONE COUNTIES 1. Enforce mask mandates 2. Enforce social distancing 3. Rotate staff by allowing remote work to limit the num- ber of people in the office 4. Move minor proceedings to remote 5. All gatherings are limited to 100 or fewer people 6. Proceed cautiously with jury trials and in-court pro- ceedings while enforcing mask wearing and social dis- tancing, (only if the in-court proceedings can be conduct- ed with 100 or fewer people). ORANGE ZONE COUNTIES 1. Move most proceedings to remote 2. All gatherings are limited to 50 or fewer people 3. Hold only emergency hearings and necessary jury trials (only if the in-court pro- ceedings can be conducted with 50 or fewer people) 4. Access to court facilities should be limited to attorneys and parties required to attend emergency, in-person hear- ings and individuals seeking emergency protective orders 5. Allow most or all (if pos- sible) staff to work remotely 6. Refrain from issuing civil warrants/body attachments. RED ZONE COUNTIES 1. All gatherings are limited to 25 or fewer people 2. Hold no jury trials 3. Hold all proceedings re- motely 4. Allow all employees to work remotely 5. Hold only emergency hearings (only if the in-court proceedings can be conducted with 25 or fewer people) 6. Access to court facilities should be limited to attorneys and parties required to attend emergency, in-person hear- ings and individuals seeking emergency protective orders. Supreme Court suspends jury trials until March By Andy Heuring A Jasper man was arrest- ed for possession of meth and marijuana after being stopped for driving 95 mph on I-69 on Saturday, December 6. Quinlan DeAndre James, 23, of 271 Baden Strasse Apt. 7, Jasper, was arrested by State Trooper John Davis. Davis said he was on I- 69 when he saw a car driv- ing north at 95 mph, pass- ing another vehicle. When he stopped James, he noticed the smell of marijuana. James said the car was his wife's and they didn't have the registration. Davis also found James' license was suspended. Trooper Davis' report states marijuana was found in James' jacket. In the car, police found a Star Wars tin with three small baggies in it. They contained a razor blade, three empty pill casings and a "crystal-like substance with 3.3 written on it." The substance field tested posi- tive for meth. Davis' report states Pike County Deputy Sheriff Jared Simmons said it "looked like it was mixed with some sort of other drug. " Sim- mons thought it was "Molly," which is a mixture of meth and ecstasy. Davis' report states James admitted to the marijuana, but said he didn't know the tin was in there. The report states "he didn't want to say" who it might have belonged to. Traffic stop leads to pot, meth arrest Moose hosts drive by North Pole The Moose Lodge in Petersburg had a big day on Sunday with their Santa's Post Office event. Children received a bag of goodies when they dropped their letters to Santa at the Moose parking lot. Lodge members delivered a little bit of Christmas spirit when most seasonal happen- ings have been cancelled. The event attracted more then 100 children who dropped off letters to Santa between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., accord- ing to Greg Peters.