The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, July 28, 2021 C-5 EAST GIBSON Submit East Gibson news items: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: egnews@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Mo Dix installed as national VP of Psi Iota Xi Zeta Gamma Chapter of Psi Iota Xi met on Tuesday, June 1 for initiation and their June Social. President Mar- gie Beal initiated Raven Rob- inson into the chapter. Fol- lowing the ceremony, mem- bers enjoyed a delicious meal catered by Kimm Beck Ca- tering. Plans were made for the upcoming National Con- vention held in Louisville, Ky., on June 25 -27. According to the report of the group, 305 registered members from 98 chapters were in attendance. With ma- ny chapters having to make changes to the fundraising, the chapters were still able to give $560,031.90 to many projects in the fields of art, music, literature, and speech and hearing. Those attending from Ze- ta Gamma were Sandy Birch, Jackie Bent, new member Raven Robinson, and Mo Dix, the National Secretary. Dix was later installed as the National Vice-President. Zeta Gamma will be busy planning for their Nation- al Convention when Dix be- comes National President in 2022. Chapter members will also be busy with their an- nual fundraisers of cheese- balls and Father/Daughter Dance. Dates for these will follow later. Dix's theme for her con- vention is Growing With Our Sisters Since 1897. Her con- vention will be at the Double Tree Hotel and Convention Center on June 23-25, 2023. The Press-Dispatch 812-354-8500 | www.pressdispatch.net *By enrolling in the Birthday Club, you agree to have your name, town and birth- day, or the person's name and town and birthday of whom you are enrolling, printed in e Press-Dispatch on the week in which the birthday occurs. Joining is easy! Visit pressdispatch.net/birthday or send your full name, address, city, state, zip code, phone number and birthdate to birthdayclub@pressdispatch.net.* Each week, a list of birthdays will be published in the paper! You could win a FREE PRIZE from area businesses and a three-month subscription to e Press-Dispatch. MUST RE-ENROLL EVERY YEAR! Join the One WINNER is drawn at the end of each month County discusses additional $6M in recovery funds By Janice Barniak A new county committee will discuss how to spend an additional $ 6 million from the American Recovery Act over the next two years, commis- sioners decided in last week's council meeting, but they'd like to have a public hearing in ap- proximately 30 days to discuss what the public would like to see done with the money, and to let the public know the guidelines projects would need to follow. The committee will include County Commissioner Warren Fleetwood, County Auditor Mike Watkins, County Council President Jeremy Overton and County Attorney Jason Spin- dler. The funds are intended to replace losses caused by COVID-19, and projects can in- clude infrastructure, cyberse- curity, health services, environ- mental remediation, provisions for first responders and more. Weddings, vacations contribute to COVID in Gibson County By Janice Barniak Gibson County spent last week at a 19.86 percent positivity rate, put- ting it solidly in the orange advisory category, at either the highest or sec- ond highest positive case rate in the state, depending on the days. "That's not where you want to be, at number one," said Health Dept. Di- rector Diane Hornby. Those numbers were flagged by the Indiana Department of Health, however, as being due to congre- gate settings. Hornby said that's on- ly partly what she called a "little bit of an outbreak" of six to seven people in nursing homes. Other outbreaks have been due to large weddings and people traveling. In January, the county had 811 COVID cases, then 144 in February, March 197, April 126, May 63, and in June, the county was down to 38, but now, Hornby said, there have been 112 cases between July 1-July 19. "It's in our community," she said. Meeting with school superinten- dents, they discussed whether chil- dren will wear masks returning to school this fall — children under 12 have not had the opportunity to be vaccinated, and the CDC currently recommends all unvaccinated people should still wear their masks. The health department has had calls about public service workers and whether they should quarantine if they're both an essential worker and have been exposed. Unvaccinat- ed people do need to quarantine for seven days, Hornby said, and should be distancing and wearing a mask for the full 14 days after exposure. "Our responsibility as a commu- nity is to make sure public service workers are vaccinated," Hornby said, adding that would include first responders. Right now, if a worker is unvaccinated, the county no longer has COVID pay, so workers would be expected to use sick and person- al time off. "As a public service worker, it's our duty and responsibility to take care of public," Hornby said. "It is their duty to get vaccinated. As commissioners, I really want you to encourage them to get vacci- nated...We're going up, we're go- ing to start to see deaths again." She said luckily vaccinated people have not been getting sick to the point of being hospitalized the way unvaccinated people have. Wednesdays are vaccination days at the health department. The reason the vaccinations are all done on the same day is because opening a vial of vaccines means having six hours to use all the doses in the bottle or throwing them away. As for where to get tested now that the health department's testing site at the fairgrounds has closed, she said healthcare providers have COVID testing sites, such as Dea- coness for example. Of the state's $100,000 allotment to run COVID testing, Hornby said approximately $50,000 is left, and she could get another site staffed, but would not want it to be at the health department, where it would be happening in the same area where children are currently getting back- to-school vaccines. Another diffi- culty is the stigma associated with a testing site. "People are uncomfortable going into a room where people have been tested," Hornby said. The benefit to having a site, how- ever, is offering free testing. "So many people don't have the money," she said. "Is there a genuine need? " asked Commissioner Warren Fleetwood. Commissioner Kenneth Mont- gomery made the motion to re-open free testing. "All these people are on vacation with Toyota shut down," he said. "We need to take care of ourselves and each other," said Fleetwood. By Janice Barniak What does Santa do in the off-season? Glendale San- ta Charles Stover, leader of the non-profit Santa with a Cause, spends the off season doing the same thing he does at Christmas—raising money for children. He hoped to raise $1,000 at the first Christmas in July event. A day-long Christmas in July event in Lafayette Park brought live music, food, games, vendors, face-painting and more, exactly six months before the Christmas season. "I've been the Glendale San- ta six years, but this is my first year as a non-profit," he said. Getting the official status al- lowed companies to make tax-deductible contributions to the charity that gives un- derprivileged children Christ- mas presents each year. He also raises money for children with medical needs. At the Christmas in July event, the family of Oliver "Ollie" Fagan accepted donations to support his leukemia fight. Ol- iver, 4, wasn't at the event be- cause he's in the Riley Chil- dren's Hospital awaiting a bone marrow transplant. "We're hoping the bone transplant—well, we're hop- ing," said aunt Mary Luken- bill, who was selling shirts with her husband, Greg. "His mom will be at the hospital the next four months." "We wanna get money for Oliver 'cuz for his 'kemia," said Oliver's young cousin, Kadence Lukenbill, who was helping to sell shirts in the park. CHRISTMAS IN JULY SUPPORTS LOCAL CHILDREN Glendale Santa Charles Stover gives a shout out asking locals to support Oliver "Ollie" Fagan, who is fighting leukemia, at the Lafayette Park fundrais- er Saturday. Oliver Fagan awaits a bone marrow transplant at Riley Children's Hos- pital. Bridge volunteer resigns By Janice Barniak Gibson County Commis- sioners updated volunteer Marilyn West on local bridg- es in their meeting July 20, saying that the camera com- pany had come out to edu- cate, explain and fine tune the cameras they have on lo- cal historic bridges. In a previous meeting, West expressed frustration that she, as a volunteer, had taken on the responsibility of bridge care with, at least this year, minimal support from the commissioners, and her health is now preventing her from doing all the mow- ing, painting and other work she previously did for local bridges. Commissioners have since looked at getting her supplies, but West resigned Tuesday. "As a volunteer, I'm re- signing. If I care more about these two bridges than any- body else — you're my com- missioners. You take care of it," said West. Commissioners suggested that if she no longer could do physical work, maybe there was another way to keep her involved because of how much she cared for the bridges. Gwen and Evie Igel came to Christmas in July with mom Hannah Igel Saturday in Princeton. Annie West sold food at the Christmas in July event in the park July 24, exactly six months before the Glendale Santa gives his gifts to underprivileged chil- dren. Francisco Elementary open house is August 3 Francisco Elementa- ry School will host an open house on August 3 from 5 to 6p.m. This will be an infor- mal "come and go" as you select anytime during that hour to drop by and meet your child's teacher, see his or her classroom and leave your child's supplies. A cafeteria representa- tive will be available to an- swer any questions or con- cerns about lunch. Student lunches will be at no charge again this year for every stu- dent, but applications must be completed for textbook assistance. Online registration will begin on Tuesday, August 3. We look forward to having you join us.