The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1322401
B-2 Wednesday, December 23, 2020 The Press-Dispatch Two Dubois teens injured in crash A Jasper teen ran off the road into a ditch line and demolished the Vincent Christian Church sign before hit- ting a utility pole, snapping it in two, and then rolling over. Matthew T. Crew, 17, of 2826 N. Portersville Rd., Lot 2, Jasper, complained of neck pain. His passenger, Jose D. Chavarria, 18, of 109 E. 17th St., Apt 64, Huntingburg, complained of lower leg pain. Pike County Deputy Sheriff Mike Willis said Crew told him he had smoked marijuana two hours before the 3:32 a.m. crash Thursday, December 17. It happened near CR 825 E. on Highway 56. Deputy Willis said Crew also said he thought he was in Ferdinand. Willis said the investigation is ongoing, pending test results for alcohol and drug screenings on Crew. PUZZLED ABOUT WHAT TO READ? ..and you will have your solution. subscribe to 812-354-8500 BLACK Continued from page 1 bel. She said Pike County is one of very few counties that hav- en't already done this. According to the contract, it will cost the county $275 a month for storage and about $5 a month per each addition- al 10 gigabytes of additional storage. Gumbel said there aren't many systems that do this. "I think they are the best out there." She said the contract calls for a 90 -day escape clause if they decide they don't like how it is working. Gumbel said, about six months ago, they started try- ing to get the transfer books and plat books in the auditor's office digitized. Commissioner Ryan Cole- man asked how long it would take to digitize all the plat books. Gumbel said her of- fice has scanned 13 books out of more than 200. She said the user fee on the plat books is funding the scanning of the old plat books. Her request of $7,600 was approved by a 3-0 vote. In other business, the com- missioners approved request- ing an additional appropri- ation of $529,200 from the County Economic Develop- ment Income Tax fund for the rehabilitation of CR 350 N. This road is being upgraded to handle industrial traffic. The $529,200 is the county's por- tion of project. They received a multi-million dollar grant for the remainder of the project. Pike County committed to the project earlier this year. The commissioners also ap- proved $10,612 from the CED- IT for renovating Bridge 30, lo- cated on County Road 300 N. The commissioners tabled two requests. They tabled a request from the Indiana De- partment of Transportation for the county to sign off on IN- DOT's re-rocking of an unof- ficial detour route on County Roads 1275 E., 25 S., 175 W., 473 S. and 100 W., that were used while State Road 64 was closed due to bridge work this summer. The Commissioners voted to wait until they had a com- pleted invoice for eight loads of rock before they signed the agreement. Commissioners also ta- bled a request from the Lake Helmerich Property Owners Association for an exchange of data layers with the county's GIS mapping system. Commissioner Assistant Kristi Dischinger said typi- cally groups requesting da- ta exchange pay the coun- ty $750. Instead, the Lake Helmerich group wanted to exchange some of their data layers with the county instead. Dischinger said she talked with WTH, which manag- es the county's GIS systems. They said this was a common request. Commissioner Mark Flint said the Helmerich group said they wanted to exchange their service area boundaries and easement's layer. Commissioner Coleman said that would be a valuable layer because one of the big- gest problems the county deals with is easement bound- aries. Commissioner Jeff Nel- son said he read the agree- ment and it seemed vague and didn't specify which lay- ers would be exchanged. "I don't want to delay any- thing, but I would like to get some clarification," said Nel- son. The commissioners voted 3-0 to table the request. In other business, the commissioners approved a frost ordinance that places a 10 -ton weight limit on numer- ous roads from January 1 to March 31. The next commissioners' meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Monday, January 4. 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Whether you're looking for a quick replacement or the benefits of an advanced, high-efficiency system, Carrier has the solution to fit your budget and comfort needs. ©Carrier Corporation 12/2016. HIGH EFFICIENCY COMFORT YOUR WAY PH: 812-743-2382 HEATING & AIR-CONDITIONING LLC Serving the area since 1950. Perry ' s Perry ' s 303 Breckinridge Rd, Monroe City Email: perryshvac@gmail.com Craig Perry Vance Perry Chase Perry Fire Chief Ross Elmore said their runs were similar. "Ear- ly on, we didn't get any runs, now the numbers have really picked up." "A lot of ours have been on top of each other. We will be on one call and get another while we are still out on the first run," said Elmore. Both Baumgart and Elmore said they would have reports on exactly how many runs they made during 2020 in ear- ly January. Elmore said the water de- partment is continuing to in- stall their new water meters and transmitters. Klipsch said they have been installing a few each month and paying for them as they go. He said it would have been a $500,000 project if they had someone else do it for them. The me- ters cost $220 each, with a lit- tle more than 1,400 meters in Petersburg, which is more than $ 300,000. Elmore said they are down to manually reading only about 300 meters this month. When all the new me- ters and transmitters are in- stalled, they hope to be able to get the monthly readings without leaving City Hall. Al- so, they will be able to moni- tor if someone has a sudden in- crease in water usage. It will issue a warning so the city can contact the homeowner. Elmore said he has been in discussion with the transmit- ter company on where to place the antennas. He said they are trying to position them so they can pick up the most meters. In other business, the coun- cil voted to allow the Police Dept. to give out-of-service long guns to officers if they want them. Chief Baumgart said several of them are un- usable. Councilman John Melhis- er asked if it was legal to do this. City attorney Brian Ma- honey said since the guns had very little value, they could. Baumgart said they had very little value, other than senti- mental value to the officers who used them. Councilman Gary Leavitt brought up a pothole on Ninth St. He said he hits it every time he pulls onto Ninth St. "I think it is where you located a valve in front of the car wash," said Leavitt. "No, it is where we looked for a valve. We didn't find it. We will fill that in," said Klipsch. The next Petersburg City Council meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday, January 4. RESIGN Continued from page 1 • Successfully passing a background check. Experience • Microsoft Office: 3 years (Preferred) • Customer Service: 1 year (Preferred) • Keystone: 1 year (Pre- ferred) How to Apply The position will be open until filled; however, first con- sideration will be given to ap- plicants that apply within the first 14 days. Submit electronic applica- tion along with resume and cover letter to http://townof- winslowin.com/about-us.pml. the weekly metrics, which has Pike County at about a 10 per- cent positivity rate. However, if you use the Advisory rating, Pike County is still in the red or level 3, which is the most re- strictive level. Gladish said once a county hits that level, it stays there for two weeks. She is hoping the county's positivity level will continue in the range it is in, so next week they can drop to 2.5 percent. Pike County's active cases are at 107 as of Monday. To- tal cases climbed to 812 as of 4 p.m. Tuesday, December 22. That is exactly 100 new cases since last Tuesday. There have been no new deaths in the last week. The last COVID death recorded in Pike County was Decem- ber 10. So far in Pike County, there have been 23 deaths, with 65 percent of them being people over 80 years old. The ages of 60 -69 and 70 -79 have both had 17.4 percent of the deaths in Pike County. Statewide, the number of cases surged following Thanksgiving to a high of 8,439 new cases on Decem- ber 2. That number has de- clined to 3,729 on December 21. Deaths statewide peaked at 88 on December 9. That has fallen to 52 on December 20 and 26 on December 21. Hospitalizations statewide peaked at 3,460 on November 30. It fell below 3,000 for the first time on December 19 at 2,932, before increasing back to 3,064 on December 21. Locally, Gladish said the turnaround time on testing at the Petersburg site has been reduced. She said they are now back to getting results in 48 to 72 hours. Gladish urged people to stay patient while waiting on the vaccines to arrive. She also said if anyone was having symptoms, they should stay away from Christmas gatherings. "We have several people with sinus congestion or pressure thinking it is just seasonal stuff. But they have tested positive," said Gladish. COVID Continued from page 1 By Andy Heuring The Town of Spurgeon just got a $700,000 check in the mail. The money from the Indiana Office of Communi- ty and Rural A ffairs will go toward a new sewer collec- tion system. It, along with a $ 3.1 million grant from the USDA's Rural Development, a $515,000 loan, as well as a $ 30,000 grant from the Indi- ana Finance Authority Envi- ronmental Program will total $4,345 million in funding for the new system. This project will construct a new wastewater collection system, since no system cur- rently exists. The town will in- stall 71 grinder pump stations to serve one or more house- holds, and then connect more than 19,000 linear feet of force main lines throughout the town. The collection system will then connect to a main owned by the Town of Lynn- ville, which will then provide treatment. Spurgeon Clerk-Treasur- er Dorothy Julian said Spur- geon had been working on this project since she took of- fice in 2007. "They were doing the first studies back then." The preliminary timeline on the project is in February 2021 the permitting should be completed and the project will then go to bid in the spring. "We are moving forward and pretty excited," said Ju- lian about the project. She said they hope in Spring of 2022, the system will be up and run- ning. She said it will be about 94 households and the number of pumps may expand to 78. Spurgeon has contracted with Lynnville to treat the wastewa- ter collected by the system. Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and the Indiana Office of Com- munity and Rural A ffairs an- nounced last week that Spur- geon was one of 12 rural Hoo- sier communities that will re- ceive more than $ 8 million in federal grant funding to im- prove water infrastructure. "These grants are vital to Indiana's economic success as these projects should improve the quality of life in these rural communities," Crouch said. "Collaborations between fed- eral, state and local partners as they invest in the state's wa- ter infrastructure is a win for Hoosiers as we work toward a stronger Indiana." The State of Indiana dis- tributes Community Devel- opment Block Grant funds to rural communities, which as- sist units of local government with various community proj- ects such as: infrastructure improvement, downtown re- vitalization, public facilities and economic development. "Ensuring rural communi- ties have the necessary infra- structure in place has never been more crucial as we con- tinue to cope with COVID-19," said Denny Spinner, executive director of OCR A. "Indiana's rural communities must have a foundation to build on to en- able them to be on the road to recovery, and water projects such as these are essential as leaders focus on the health and safety needs of their res- idents. This is another exam- ple of state and local leader- ship coming together to im- prove the quality of life for Hoosiers across the state." Spurgeon gets $700,000 grant