The Press-Dispatch
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P a N I C P a N I C Located on the square in Jasper 812.482.3200 Mon.-Fri. 10am-5:30pm, Sat. 10am-4pm Follow us on JUST Fine Clothing and Shoes • Unique Home Decor • Accessories • Gifts SAVE 50% ON OUTERWEAR Now ru Christmas Eve! SAVE 35% STOREWIDE ru Christmas Eve! sale Pop-UpStore Open Christmas Eve 9am-1pm A-4 Wednesday, December 22, 2021 The Press-Dispatch Down Congratulations Addison! We are so proud of you! Love, Your Family SALE 716 Main St. Petersburg • 812-354-9372 /margeshallmark HOLIDAY HOURS: Monday-Saturday 9-6 KEEPSAKE ORNAMENTS 50% OFF GOOD SELECTION BUY ONE GET ONE FREE BEGINNING MONDAY, DEC. 27 Just Arrived H A L F PRICE Hallmark Seasonal Gi Wrap A Gi From Aunt Bethany $ 19 99 Christmas After Many Select Hallmark Items Purdue Clover Ag HUME CELEBRATES 95TH BIRTHDAY Friends and family gath- ered recently at the Winslow G.B. Church to celebrate the birthday of Marilee Hume, who turned 95 on November 19. She is a lifelong member of the Winslow G.B. Church, where she has taught all age levels of Sunday school, di- rected plays and led the church choir. She still plays piano and organ. Hume is well known for her community involvement and philanthropy, generously sup- porting and donating to many local causes. Although approaching the century mark, her friends de- scribe her as still an enthu- siastic storyteller, who stays abreast of current events, fol- lows community happenings, and always has entertaining stories to tell, along with a few jokes to bring smiles and laughter to the day. Long-awaited progress Bob Miles and Shane Buchanan pick up the road closed signs Friday morning from Poplar St. Crews were out most of Friday morning taking up the road closed signs. They were placed on both sides of Highway 61 at each intersection from Highway 57 to Seventh St. While Phase I of the Highway 61 rehab project has been com- pleted, Phase II will start in about two weeks. It will run from where Seventh St. intersections with Highway 61 to Harvest Ln. The detour around it will be White River Ave. to Harvest Ln. Petersburg Mayor R.C. Klipsch stressed the semi-trucks will not be able to get through the detour. He said they will get stuck due to tight turns and won't be able to get out of Meadowbrook. Birthdays Timeless Classics donates to Somebody's Place The Timeless Classics Car Club donated $500 each month in November and December to Somebody's Place. Above: Jack Sanders presents a check to Patty Gwaltney, with Somebody's Place volunteers Nancy Garrision, Luzell Carter and Brent Cook. COVID numbers trending down slightly By Andy Heuring COVID numbers in Pike County and Indiana are high, but locally, they appear to be trending down from last week's peak. Pike County Health Nurse Amy Gladish said the number of active cases in the county were 107 on Monday, and while that is high, it is down from 133 ac- tive cases a week earlier. In the last seven days in Pike County, there were 83 new cases, with a peak of 23 on Dec. 16 and just five on Dec. 19. In the seven days prior, from December 7 to 13, there were 111 new cases in Pike County, with three days in row, from the 11th, 12th and 13th, with 21 or more new cases. There have been a total of 2,716 cases in Pike County. Gladish said some of that number is people who have had it more than once. Statewide, the numbers are trending similarly. On December 15, there were 5,450 new cases in Indiana. It began trending down over the next four days, dropping to 5,149 on the 16th, 5,010 on the 17th and 2,516 on the 19th, before jumping up to 2,789 on the 20th. Deaths in Indiana hit a peak of 54 on December 14, then started down, with the totals on consecutive days being 45, 46, 28, 33, 37 and 11. The last death in Pike County was on November 27. There have been a total of 45 deaths in the county. Hospitalizations also start- ed declining for the first time in two months. They were at 3,058 on the 14th, and over the next six days, the num- bers were 3,029, 3,052, 3,003, 2,987, 2,971 and 3002. COVID numbers in the Pike County Schools is also dropping. During the week of December 6 -10, there were nine cases in Petersburg Ele- mentary and five at Pike Cen- tral, with Winslow and PC middle School both having three cases. Those numbers dropped for the week of De- cember 13-17 to three or less cases at Winslow, Petersburg and the high school, and none in the middle school. Pam Cosby, with the Pike County Health Dept., said Pike County's testing site at the Petersburg Moose parking lot will have nor- mal hours, except for the next two Saturdays, when it will be closed due Christmas and New Year's. The hours the next two weeks for the testing center are Monday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday 3 to 6 p.m. and Thursday 9 to 1 p.m. Cosby said people wanting to be tested should not come to the Health Dept. offices on Walnut St., but instead go to the Moose parking lot, stay in the car and observe the signs. Anyone wanting to sched- ule a vaccine should call the Health Dept. at 812-354- 8797. By Andy Heuring County Commissioners were told the construction of the Ratts 1 solar farm is be- ing delayed due to supply problems. Nikki Jeffers, with Averon, gave the commis- sioners an update on the proj- ect. Construction on a sub- station where the solar farm will hook into transmission lines is underway. However, Jeffers said they are having trouble getting solar panels. She said they have completed their leases with all the land- owners. "They will receive payments from here on out," said Jeffers. However, she said they are going to delay the start of construction on the solar panel fields until they have a better idea when they will be able to get panels. She said they have told the farm- ers in the area to proceed with farming for the 2022 season. "We are trying to look at other panel suppliers to see if we can get them from some- where else. Don't know if we will know where we are un- til late January or February," said Jeffers. She said because of the de- lay, they may need to extend their road usage agreements. "I know there is no crystal ball, but in a nutshell, are we looking at about a year's de- lay? " asked Commissioner president Mark Flint. Jeffers said they wouldn't know until January or Febru- ary. "I don't think we have a problem with extending it, but until you know more, I don't think we are there yet," said Flint about extending the agreement. Jeffers also said they have addressed all the road con- ditions affected by their con- struction. "We have given a list of roads to Josh (Byrd, Pike County Highway Super- intendent) that need more rock or have cracks in them." A representative of Char- ter Communications, which owns Spectrum, told the com- missioners they were going to add broadband service in the county to 1,658 new address- es, in mostly rural areas of the county. The largest concentra- tion of those will be near Spur- geon and Coe, in the White Oak and Sulphur Springs ar- ea, and near the Union and Bowman areas. She said they will have 1,000 mbps down and 540 mbps up speeds. She asked the county for a letter of support for the proj- ect. In other business, the com- missioners approved the one bid the county received for a new ambulance from Amer- ican Response Vehicles for $229,406.82. EMS Director Chris Young said it is to re- place an ambulance that was wrecked. He said the insur- ance settlement was going to pay all but about $ 90,000 of the $229,000. The commissioners also approved extensions on sev- eral roads in the southern part of Pike County for TRI- AD mining operations. Those roads included a 3,960 -ft. sec- tion of Meridian, near the St. Paul Lutheran Church Ceme- tery; a 2,200 -ft. section of CR 1200 ; a 6,000 -ft. section of CR 1300 S.; 8,800 ft. of CR 1100 S.; 5,280 ft. of Meridian Road; and 2,640 ft. of 1175 S. All of the agreements are currently in effect. The commissioners agreed to extend the agree- ments for two years. Commissioners updated on Ratts 1 solar project