The Press-Dispatch

SPECTACULAR SEE A-12 Wednesday, February 3, 2021 PIKE PUBLISHING VOLuMe 151, nuMber 5 NEWS TIPS Phone: ���������������������812-354-8500 Email ����� editor@pressdispatch�net INSIDE Local ��������������A1-A12 Obituaries ���������������A5 History �������������������A6 Church �������������� A7-9 School ����������������A10 East Gibson���������� A11 Sports �����������������B1-5 Opinion ������������� B6-7 Classifieds ���������B8-10 Legal Notices �����B9-10 Home Life �������� B11-12 USPS 604-34012 $1.00 24 PaGes TWO seCTIOns Three InserTs PeTersburG, In 47567-0068 Mother-daughter snow fun Katie VanMeter pulls her daughter, Kinze, through a field near her house last Thursday after- noon. Between two and three inches of snow fell last Wednesday night and early Thursday morn- ing. School was cancelled Thursday and Friday. Weather forecasters are predicting this is going to be the coldest weather since 2019, as temperatures are supposed to plunge Saturday evening from a daytime high of 24 to an overnight low of 10 on Sunday morning, then not rise above 14 degrees on Sunday, and fall to five degrees on Monday morning. By Andy Heuring County commissioners expressed "alarm" over road conditions being blamed for last Friday's school clos- ing during their Monday morning meeting. "When I heard the mes- sage, I was alarmed," said Cole- man. He added, "I know what the roads looked like. I was not in favor of the schools being closed. Later that night, school board president Steve Potter apologized to the Coun- ty Highway Department and said the school did not in any way mean to disparage the county." Commissioner Coleman said he called school board member Chris McKinney and was told McKinney had opposed the school closing. Coleman said he also called other school board members and got vary- ing opinions about the closure. "We all know from noon to 5:30 p.m., the sun had burned off all the snow and ice on the road and not on- ly did it melt, it dried up. . . I want to make it clear, the alarm call that went out that the roads were not suf- ficient is false. I think it is unfair," said Coleman about road conditions being blamed for the school closing. Commissioner Mark Flint asked Chris McKinney, who attended the commissioners' meeting, when McKinney found out about the school closing. McKinney said he was just speak- ing on his behalf, not representing the school board. "I got a call from the board presi- dent. He said he and the super had been talking and due to the road conditions, they were probably go- ing to cancel school (on Friday) and the scheduled school board meet- ing (on Thursday night). I told the president and superintendent I didn't agree with that," said McKinney. Josh Byrd, the County Highway Superintendent, asked McKinney if the school was still using snow routes. McKinney said he didn't know, but in the past, they had used snow routes. Byrd said, in the past, he had com- munication with the school corpo- ration. He said when they had snow routes, they would try to get out and get those routes done and it helped him plan the routes they needed to get done. McKinney said he would try to find out about the snow routes. That night, the school board met and McKinney told the school board he had attended the commissioners' meeting. He said he was asked about snow routes and told the commissioners he would ask about them. "Todd, are we still doing snow routes? " McKinney asked School Transportation Director Todd Har- ker. "We haven't done them since I have been here," said Harker. "The county said they would be School, county agree to communicate better By Andy Heuring The Pike County School Board heard parent concerns about their COVID policies and voted to ap- prove a new lease agreement for school buses during a special meet- ing late Monday night. "The biggest question I have is why do the Pike County schools not follow CDC guidelines? I agree with getting kids back into schools if it can be done in a safe way," said Chris Young. "I feel kids aren't safe. They are not six feet apart," said Young. He said between his three kids in Pike County schools, they have been quarantined 11 times. "My feeling is why can't we fol- low CDC guidelines with testing on days five, six or seven, and return on day seven with a negative test," said Young, who is Pike County's Direc- tor of EMS. "If you are worried about kids' mental health, academics and social well being, holding them out extra time when they don't need to be, it's not right," said Young. He added he had contacted six different corpo- rations that follow the policy he de- scribed on quarantines. Young said his daughter was out for 14 days, went back to school for two days and then was forced to quarantine again for 14 days. He said one of them had a ques- tion on a lesson. They emailed the school and was told by the teacher to go back and review the lesson from the previous day. "My kids weren't in class. My kids are good students, but they are still struggling. The sooner they get back to school in class, the better." Young said the quarantine guide- lines they received late this fall were developed in August. He said he and his wife both work in the health field and see it changing constantly. "We have to move forward and fig- ure out how to deal with this. My personal feeling is temperatures are very important." Young also asked why they can't keep kids six feet apart. "I know we have a lot of kids in school, but what other brainstorm- ing ideas do we have? He suggested spreading the kids out using the auditorium and the now closed Otwell School building. "My kids want to go to school, but they are afraid of going be- cause they don't want to get quaran- tined. They aren't getting anything out of this school year. Give it some School board hears parents' concerns on COVID policies By Andy Heuring A fire destroyed the house of an elderly woman who died last Fri- day, nine days after she was taken by ambulance to the hospital and her granddaughter was arrested on a charge of neglect. Early Saturday morning, Mary Deffendall's house at 877 S. Coun- ty Road 500 W., Petersburg, burned down. The fire was noticed by a per- son driving by at about 8:36 a.m. Sat- urday. Petersburg and Patoka fire de- partments responded and battled the fire for several hours. Petersburg Fire Chief Ross El- more said he could not comment on the cause of the fire and that it was under investigation by the Indiana State Fire Marshal. Police had served a search war- rant on the residence on January 20. While searching the house for items stolen from Jarod Willis' residence earlier in the month, the police lo- cated three flat screen televisions matching the descriptions of ones stolen from Jarrod Willis. Accord- ing to police records, they also re- covered a sawed off shotgun. While in the residence, police discovered Mary Deffendall near- ly unconscious. According the af- fidavit, Deffendall was laying in a bed in filth, covered by flies, bare- ly breathing and unable to speak. She was taken by ambulance from the residence she shared with her granddaughter, Sara Deffendall. She died on Friday. Sara was taken into custody at the time on charges of neglect of a de- pendent resulting in serious bodily injury, a level 3 felony; resisting law enforcement, a class A misdemean- or; battery, no injury, victim is a pub- House fire under investigation; burglary charges added By Andy Heuring Pike County's COVID numbers are continuing to trend in the right direction. The seven-day positivity rate on Tuesday according the Indi- ana Department of Health Depart- ment was at 10.42 percent, which is low enough for Pike County to move to an orange risk level if the numbers stay below 15 percent on Wednesday. Pike County had been in the red zone for several weeks. The determination to change a coun- ty's level is done each Wednesday. Indiana announced on Tuesday that those 65 and older are now eli- gible to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The general population of those 80 and older started three weeks ago on January 13. Since then, there have been 1589 first shots given to Pike County residents. Last week the number of people getting the first of two shots of the vaccine topped the number of pos- itive cases. In Pike County the total num- ber of positives for COVID is 1232, which is up 85 from last week. How- ever there were no new cases report- ed on Tuesday. Also there were no new deaths. The last COVID death was on December 31, 2020. This is the lon- gest period without a death in Pike County since the 38 days between the first death report on August 21 and the second on September 30. Pike County Health Nurse Amy Gladish, who is now in quarantine herself, sent a message to county commissioners during their meet- ing Monday morning that 283 peo- ple had gotten their second dose of the vaccine. She also said the number of active cases was at 61. Statewide the number of new cas- es is dropping steadily. There were 4341 reported on January 1, 2862 on January 27 and 1564 on Feb. 1. Deaths are on a similar trend. There were 31 deaths reported on January 29, 18 on January 31 and 11 on February 1. Hospitalizations fell to 1,624 on February 1. On January 25 there were 1976 and January 4 there were 2907. County moves to orange risk level as COVID-19 cases continue to decline A fire destroyed Mary Deffendoll's house on Saturday morning. The fire was spotted by Jacob Newberg who was driving by and saw the flames at the back of the house at 877 S. CR500W, Petersburg. It was paged at 8:36 a.m. Petersburg Fire Chief Ross Elmore said the Indiana State Fire Marshal was contacted and is investigating the fire. See COMMUNICATE on page 2 See FIRE on page 2 See SCHOOL on page 2

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