The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1338229
SEE B-4 SEE A-12 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SEE B-4 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 Homecoming Homecoming Pike Central Pike Central Sweetheart Spectacular Wednesday, February 10, 2021 PIKE PUBLISHING VOLuMe 151, nuMber 6 NEWS TIPS Phone: ���������������������812-354-8500 Email ����� editor@pressdispatch�net INSIDE Local ��������������A1-A12 History �������������������A5 Obituaries ������������A6-7 East Gibson������������ A7 Church ������������ A8-10 School ����������������A11 Sports �����������������B1-4 Opinion �������������B5-6 Classifieds �����������B7-9 Legal Notices ������ B8-9 Home Life �������� B10-12 USPS 604-34012 $1.00 24 PaGes TWO seCTIOns FOur InserTs PeTersburG, In 47567-0068 By Andy Heuring Winslow appointed a member to their park board and voted to start meeting twice a month instead of once a month during the Monday evening meeting. Debra Lamb suggested the board starting meeting twice a month. She and council president Josh Popp said they were having issues show up af- ter their first meeting of the month that needed to be addressed before their next meeting. Lamb and Popp both said they were getting phone calls about util- ity shut-offs that needed to be ad- dressed. "I think one meeting a month takes too long to accomplish anything," said Lamb. She also said she hoped their meetings wouldn't be so long, be- cause they were having to take care of so many things meeting just once a month. Winslow met twice a month until about seven years ago when they switched to just one meet- ing a month. Brewster said until after April 15, he was going to have trouble attend- ing two meetings a year. Popp suggested they meet on the fourth Monday of the month and deal with utilities and shut-offs in that meeting. Popp and Lamb voted to add a sec- ond meeting. "I will be there if I can," said Brew- ster. Council men also appointed Lac- ey Lee to the park board in a split vote. Lamb and Popp voted for Lee. "I think we have a problem of hav- ing two very qualified individuals who want to be on it. We typically can't find one," said Brewster. Lamb said Lee is a pre-K teach- er in Washington with a college de- gree, as well as sales and marketing experience. She said Lee reached out to Lamb about being on the board. "She has a lot to offer, " said Brew- ster. But he said the other candi- date Jacob Hilderbrand had differ- ent things to offer. Brewster said Hilderbrand had access to a bucket truck and had offered to help them repair the roof and gutters on the Community Center. "If we don't take care of those things, we are going to lose that building," said Brewster. In other business, Brewster asked about the inventory of items from the now defunct Winslow Fire De- partment. Popp said he had com- piled an inventory on it. "There are 12 sets of turnout gear, but I didn't find hardly any radios," said Popp. He suggested they donate one of the trucks to the Pike Central High School fire study class. He then sug- gested the other trucks be sold. He also said the air tanks could prob- ably be sold to area departments. "There is a department in Gibson County who wants to buy them." "I like the idea of giving that truck to Pike Central's fire class," said Brewster. He suggested they give Winslow council to begin meeting fortnightly By Andy Heuring The numbers continue to get better for Pike County and Indiana on COVID. "Everything is going really well," said Pike County Health Nurse Amy Gladish on Tues- day morning as she updated the county coun- cil. "Our numbers continue to fall. We have 46 active cases. It is phenomenal," said Gladish. She said Pike County was downgraded to level orange last week and could soon fall to yellow or blue. On Tuesday, Pike County's seven-day pos- itivity all test rate fell to 4.6 percent. It was more than 10 percent just last week. Each week, each county's advisory level is recon- sidered. Pike County was lowered to orange from red last Wednesday, which means its two-week level had been below 15 percent. If it remains below 10 percent for two weeks, it could drop to yellow and if it remains below five percent, it could go to blue. Pike County has had 1,258 cases of COVID to date. There were no new cases reported on Monday. The 1,258 total is only 26 new cases since last Monday, when there was a total of 1,232 cases. The week prior saw a jump of 85 cases. There were 61 active cases last week. Pike County had three deaths added this week; however, those did not occur recent- ly. Gladish said the Indiana Department of Health did an audit of COVID deaths in In- diana and found 1,507 "historical deaths throughout the state" that hadn't been on the map. Three of those were in Pike County. The last recorded death in Pike County was on December 31, 2020. The number of new cases in Indiana is al- so continuing to fall. In early January and late December, new cases were averaging about 4,000 a day. That has dropped to less than 2,000 in the last week. The number of new deaths has been on a similar trend. On January 1, 2021, the sev- en-day average of new deaths was 94. That has dropped to 25 on February 8. Hospitalizations have fallen to the lowest level since October 11, 2020, when there were 1,238. They peaked at 3,441 on December 1 and since have fallen steadily to 1,265 on Feb- ruary 8. Another example of how things have changed in the last month are the number of Intensive Care Units available in Indiana. About a month ago, there were less than 10 percent of the state's ICU units available. This week 37.6 of the ICUs and 79 percent of the ventilators are available. Vaccinations in Pike County continue to in- crease. As of Tuesday, there were 2,110 peo- COVID cases continue to show rapid drop By Andy Heuring A Washington woman was injured when a drunken driver, with a three times the legal limit for blood alcohol, going the wrong way on I-69 crashed head-on into her late Saturday night during a snow storm. Jenifer Pena, 20, of 6526 S. CR 585 W., Hunt- ingburg, was arrested on charges of illegal consumption of an alcoholic beverage, oper- ating a vehicle while intoxicated, endanger- ing a person, and operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Petersburg Police Officer Bryce Manning said at about 10 :30 p.m., he was working a traf- fic stop at 10th and Main St. when he saw the white Dodge Charger stopped in the middle of Main St. and Highway 61, facing south on Main St. with a green light. He said he saw it then back up and drive south on Highway 61. Manning said he finished the traffic stop and turned south on Highway 61 to follow the ve- hicle. He said it appeared to be going faster than the speed limit. Manning said he was several blocks be- hind the vehicle. "I was just topping Prides Creek Hill when she turned onto I-69." Man- ning said he saw the Charger go over the by- pass and turn south onto the northbound I-69 exit ramp, meant for northbound cars to exit I-69 to Highway 61. Manning said he turned on his emergen- cy lights and went south in the southbound lane of I-69. He said he saw two northbound vehicles narrowly miss Pena's southbound Charger before she crashed into Courtney D. Oakes, 23, of Bloomfield. According to Officer Manning's report, Oakes told him she was driving north in the right lane when she saw Pena headed towards her in the same lane. Oakes said she tried to change lanes to avoid Pena, but they collided. Oakes was trapped in her car, which spun to the right and came to rest mostly in the passing lane. She was extricated by emergen- cy personnel and taken to the hospital by Pike County EMS, complaining of head, neck, back and leg pain. In a probable cause affidavit, Officer Man- ning said when he got to the scene of the crash, he found Pena sitting in the driver's seat talking on her cellphone, stating she had just been in an accident. Manning then went to Oakes' vehicle and checked on her. She was able to talk to him, but was trapped in her car. Manning then returned to Pena's car, and she told him she wasn't injured. She first said she was going to Petersburg, but then said she was driving to Newburgh. Manning said when he asked if she knew which way she was going, she replied, she was "going straight." He said when he asked Pena which lane she was in, she didn't know. Manning said he could smell the odor of al- Woman injured in crash with I-69 wrong-way driver Emergency personnel work to extricate Courtney Oakes, 23, of Bloomfield, from her vehicle Saturday night. Oakes was hit head-on by Jenifer Pena, 20, of Hunting- burg, who was driving south in the northbound lane with a blood alcohol content three times the Indiana legal limit, according to police. On the right is Pena's Dodge Charger against the concrete siding of a bridge on I-69. See WINSLOW on page 2 See COVID on page 5 See CR ASH on page 5 Hornady Park was a happening place Hornady Park was a happening place Tuesday afternoon as kids and parents went to the park to take advantage of the nearly four inches of snow that fell on the area and cancelled school in Pike County. Above: Kellcyn Riker, Aubrey Sturgeon, Ainsley Hayes and Tory Wyatt crammed onto one sled, with Aubrey McCandless and Kenley Power on another, and Emily Riker and Ava Sturgeon on individual sleds. Also sledding the same area was Landon Keith, Chris Nicholson, Trevor Keith and Levi Keith. It was the latest blast of winter to hit the area as the snow moved in at about 6 p.m. Monday and continued until early morning.