The Press-Dispatch
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Chargers defeat the Hatchets SPORTS B1 Homecoming Pike central Fall A7 NEWS TIPS Phone: ���������������������812-354-8500 Email ����� editor@pressdispatch�net INSIDE Local ������������������A1-7 Winslow Fest ����A5-6 Sports �����������������B1-7 Obituaries ���������������B8 Home Life ������������C1-8 East Gibson������������ C3 School �������������������� C4 History ������������������� C5 Opinion ������������� C6-7 Church �������������� D1-3 Classifieds ���������� D4-8 USPS 604-34012 $1.00 32 PAGES Four SECTIoNS Four INSErTS PETErSBurG, IN 47567-0068 WEdNESdAy, SEPTEmBEr 22, 2021 PIKE PUBLISHING VoLumE 151, NumBEr 38 COVID numbers begin to decline School passes new COVID policy Masks optional, no quarantine to 3 feet, live stream instruction available See SCHOOL on page 8 See COUNCIL on page 2 See COVID on page 2 By Andy Heuring The 10th Annual Spurgeon Fall Festival is set for this weekend. It will have a movie night, Saturday breakfast, music and a kara- oke contest, and a community church service in the park. Friday, Sept. 24 It begins on Friday with movies in the park at 7:30 p.m. It will be a kid movie first, followed by a family-friendly movie. They will be serv- ing burgers, hot dogs, popcorn and chips. Pri- or to the movies, there will be music. Saturday, Sept. 25 On Saturday, for a free-will donation, they will have a pancakes and sausage, and biscuits and gravy breakfast at the fire station at 7:30 a.m. until they run out. The 14th Annual Pike County Tractor drive will start at the fire station at 10 a.m. Music is scheduled to start at noon, with BBQ sandwiches and chips, along with burg- ers, hot dogs and chips. The New Liberty Church will be serving a pulled pork meal with baked beans, cole- slaw and desert. A line-up of musical performances starts at noon with Tony Rothrock, followed by Matt Sullivan, Sutin Arnold and Greg Peters, then Two Cent Road and Joe Nobody. A karaoke lip sync contest is set for between acts. The winner will be announced at the end of the day with a $50 prize for the winner. Sunday, Sept. 26 A community-wide church service in the park begins at 11 a.m., with New Liberty Church pastor Gary Pancake leading the ser- vice. Spurgeon Fire Department will serve a spa- ghetti dinner with garlic bread, dessert and drink for $10, following the church service. PIKE COUNTY TRACTOR DRIVE The 14th Annual Pike County Tractor Drive is scheduled for Saturday, September 25. It will start at the Spurgeon Fire Department and tour parts of Pike, Gibson and Warrick counties. The Spurgeon Fire Department is having a pancake and sausage breakfast for a free-will donation prior to the tractor drive. Registration for the drive starts at 9:30 a.m. and the drive will begin at 10 :30 a.m. They will have lunch at the Lynnville Com- munity Center/Fire Department. Cost for the lunch is $10 and is being prepared by the Pike County Young Farmers. For more information, call Dave Yager 812- 483-9532, Jim Lamey 812-789 -2688, Ross El- more 812-582-2628 or Matt Perry 812-629 - 0242. PIKE HEALTH AND BUSINESS EXPO The Pike County Health and Business Expo is set for Thursday, October 7, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. outside the courthouse on Eighth St. Nu- merous businesses and organizations will be set up. Most will be handing out swag. Cost for a booth to members is $50 for Pike Coun- ty Chamber of Commerce members and $75 for non-members until September 27, when that increases by $10. There will be a performance by Silly Safa- ri, which is an animal-based informative com- edy routine. Area festivals, events continue into October Company wants reduction of solar farm buffer zone By Andy Heuring A request to amend an agreement between the county and Arevon Energy, the company building the Ratts 1 Solar Farm, was tabled by the County Council on a unanimous vote Tuesday morning. Nikki Jeffers, Project Manager for Arevon Energy, said the amendment "is to establish what can and can't be within that 200 feet setback." She said they were proposing un- derground collection areas, access roads and fencing be allowed with- in the 200 -foot buffer zone. "We consider this no different than what is already in the vicini- ty," said Jeffers. She stated they had intended to is- sue a full construction notice by the beginning of October, but have now delayed that to the end of the month to allow farmers in the area to get their crops harvested. The original agreement called for no panels to be any closer than 300 feet to a foundation of a residence, but underground collection areas, access roads and fencing have a buffer zone of 200 feet. The amend- ments were asking for certain areas to reduce that to 100 feet. She said due to the topography of specific areas, they wanted to go in- side the 200 -foot buffer zone. Council president Jon Craig asked Jeffers to explain how the negotia- tion and the amendment had pro- gressed. Jeffers said the initial person who negotiated with county officials and local residents verbally agreed to not go inside the 200 -foot buffer zone with panels. She said that per- son was no longer with the compa- ny and had not relayed the verbal agreement to Arevon officials. She added they are not in viola- tion of that agreement but they need the amendments to help meet mile- stones in their energy contract. "My understanding was there was to be nothing within the foundation of a home, between 200 feet, noth- Amendment request by Arevon tabled by county Winslow Light-up Parade Greg Gerber drives an antique fire truck for the American Legion during the Winslow Light-up Parade on Saturday night. The parade is always a big hit and culminates the Winslow Fall Festival, which this year coincided with Clog the Patoka and the Winslow High School Alumni Reunion. Chargers celebrate win against the Hatchets After the win against the Washington Hatchets on Friday, September 18, the student section came down from the stands. In their whiteout attire, they ran through a silly string tunnel to get to the foot- ball team and celebrate their win with them on the field. The Chargers won by a score of 24-12, win- ning them the elusive Burgundy and Gold Trophy back from Washington, after not having it since 2004. Matthew Haycraft photo By Andy Heuring COVID numbers remain high in Pike Coun- ty, but they are starting to fall. In the previous two weeks, Pike County had the highest posi- tivity rate in Indiana, at 22.9 percent. They al- so had 142 active cases last week. Pike Coun- ty Health Nurse Amy Gladish said the num- ber of active cases had dropped to 92 on Tues- day morning. The seven-day, all-tests positivity number fell from 22 percent on Monday to 16.3 percent on Tuesday, according to Indiana's De- partment of Health website. On Sunday, the 39th death in Pike County due to COVID was reported. It is the fourth COVID death in a 15 -day period. Pike Coun- ty had gone from March 10 to August 7 with no deaths. The number of new cases has fallen. On Sep- tember 8, there were 43 new cases, and at least 17 a day, except one day last week. Recently, 74 new cases were recorded. Twenty-four of those were on September 14. Since then, no more than 11 have been recorded, with only four re- corded on September 19. Statewide, new case numbers have fallen similarly. There were 4,331 recorded on Sep- tember 16. The next three days, that number fell by about 800 cases a day to 1,917 on Sept. 19. It then rose to 2,673 on Sept. 20. Hospitalizations have steadily fallen during the last week. On Sept. 14, there were 2,527 people hospitalized with COVID in Indiana. That number fell everyday through Sept. 19, when the number was 2,432. But on Septem- ber 20, it jumped to 2,477. Gladish said 4,551 people were fully vacci- nated in Pike County, which is about 46 percent of the population over 12 years of age. She said more people are getting the vaccine By Andy Heuring Pike County School Board voted to pass a wide-ranging measure that makes masks op- tion, only quarantines for contact less than three feet, has options for early return and re- quires livestreaming for those on quarantine. It was passed by a 4-0 vote of the board, with Howard Knight not able to attend the meeting. The vote came after nearly 90 minutes of discussion, including discussion amongst the board members and numerous people speak- ing out against the masks. The measure only lasts until September 30, when it has to be re-evaluated. As of Tues- day evening, a special meeting had not been scheduled, but board members said they ex- pected one to be scheduled before Septem- ber 30. "I am here tonight on behalf of myself and other concerned citizens due to a sense of ur- gency over the current attacks on freedoms