The Press-Dispatch
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NEWS TIPS Phone: ���������������������812-354-8500 Email ����� editor@pressdispatch�net INSIDE Local ����������������� A1-8 Obituaries ������������A6-7 Sports �����������������B1-4 History �������������������B5 Home Life ������������C1-8 East Gibson������������ C3 School ���������������� C4-5 Opinion ������������� C6-7 Church �������������� D1-3 Classifieds ���������� D4-6 Christmas ������������E-F USPS 604-34012 $1.00 28 PAGES Four SECTIoNS Two INSErTS PETErSBurG, IN 47567-0068 wEdNESdAy, dECEmBEr 29, 2021 PIKE PUBLISHING VoLumE 151, NumBEr 52 See REVIEW on page 3 See SCOUTS on page 2 See STURGEONS on page 2 The following is a review of the year's news highlights in the first four months of 2019 for Pike County. Highlights of 2021 will be divided into two sections to be published in this week's and the next week's issues. JANUARY • Scott Jenkins is elected President of the Petersburg City Council by a 3-0 vote. He re- placed Gary Leavitt. • The Elmer Buchta Entrepreneur and Technology Center is completed and the Pike County Economic Development Corp. and Ex- ecutive Director Ashley Willis begin to move into the new facility. • Shawn Watson, 33, of Oakland City, was seriously injured in a crash on Highway 61 in Campbelltown on Monday, January 4. • Brad Hadley's pickup truck was destroyed on New Year's Eve when he was driving on CR 300 N. He said it started smoking, so he pulled over and there were flames when he opened the hood. • The Salvation Army Red Kettle campaign raised a record $7,429 since they began ring- ing at two locations in Petersburg. • Pike Central's wrestling team won the Slam Super Six invitation. Pike Central's Jack- son Stuckey was 5 -0 in the meet, with Jon Can- non, Isaiah Greer, Griffin Boyd, Skylar Shel- ton and Cody Davis all going 4-1 in the invi- tational. • COVID vaccines are given in Pike Coun- ty for the first time at the Pike County Health Department. • The Winslow Town Council votes 2-1 to sign a contract with the Patoka Fire Depart- ment to provide fire protection for the Town of Winslow. Josh Popp and Debra Lamb vot- ed for the actions and Richard Brewster vot- ed against it. • Corbin Dixon was sworn in as Clerk-Trea- surer of Winslow. He replaced Stacy McCand- less, who resigned. • Daugherity Auction Vendor mall opened in the former Radio Shack building in Peters- burg. • Two men escaped police after driving 155 mph on I-64, then more than 100 mph through the town of Holland and eventually fled their vehicle in Pike County. State Police terminat- ed the chase after the vehicle they were chas- ing nearly hit an oncoming vehicle in Holland. About 30 minutes later, police got a call that a vehicle had been parked in a driveway on Highway 61, near the Pike-Dubois county line. When police searched the vehicle, they found 155 pounds of marijuana and more than $ 3,700 in Mexican cash. Police searched the area for hours, including with a helicopter. Police then arrested Ezequiel Ruboi Garcia, 24, of Granite City, Ill. Police said they believe Garcia was hired to come and pick up the two people who had abandoned the car. • The Pike County School Board accept- ed a bid of just more than $1 million to do ex- tensive repairs to the Pike Central swimming pool. It included repair work to steel support posts, a new liner, air handling system and new tile on the walls. • Jason Williams, 33, of Oakland City, was arrested on charges of child solicitation of a child less than 16 years-old after he had a "highly sexualized" conversation with an un- dercover police officer, who Williams thought was a 14-year-old girl, and then made arrange- ments to meet her and drove to Petersburg to meet her at Huck's. • IPL, now AES Indianapolis, donated $55,000 to Somebody's Place to purchase a new box truck. • The first snowfall of the winter hit at about 5 p.m. on Friday, January 15. • Dollar General opens a new store in Ar- thur. Year in review: a recap of top stories in 2021 Warm weather park play Warm December weather allowed a good time to engage in outdoor activities. Mason Harris walked over to the park in the nice weather. He would slide down occasionally with his phone in hand. Other times he would just sit at the top of the slide and do social media. Temperatures were near record high as it approached 70 degrees on Monday afternoon. By Andy Heuring A Petersburg man and his wife decided to so something instead of just worrying about the people of Kentucky. When a tornado crashed through Kentucky, leveling towns and small communities, Mark and Cassandra Sturgeon called a friend of theirs who lived near the tor- nado devastated area. He told them it was bad and people needed help to get food. They start- ed loading up their horse trailer, which includ- ed a living quarters for people. "I took two big Blackstone grills, a BBQ grill and two turkey fryers," said Mark Sturgeon. They let people know they were going to the area and people brought them lots of food. Sturgeon said they originally were going to go to Bremen, Ky., but when they got to Bre- men, they found someone else was already set up there and feeding people. So they called the mayor of Dawson Springs. "He said, 'come on down.'" "It is so unorganized, there is no organiza- tion whatsoever," said Sturgeon. When they got to Dawson Springs on Sun- day night after the tornado had hit late Fri- day, early Saturday, a small church in Dawson Springs welcomed them with open arms. So early Monday morning, the Sturgeons got set up and started making hamburgers and hot dogs at about 9:30 a.m. Hungry people from all over the community started lining up to get food. "Some of them had not had any warm food since Friday night when the tornado hit," said Sturgeon. He said there was no electrici- ty and most only had canned good or dry food that they had stored where they could get their hands on it. Others had nothing. "It was a lot worse than we expected," said Sturgeon. Mark lived just south of Petersburg when the 1990 tornado hit Petersburg. "It was just a COVID 'strike team' coming to Pike County on Jan. 5 Sturgeons cook for tornado victims, workers Houchin injured in crash An Otwell woman faces charges after she suffered leg injuries from hitting a utility pole last week. Amy L. Houchin, 48, of 2185 E. Liberty St., Otwell, faces a charge of operating a vehicle while in- toxicated. At about 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 23, Houchin was driving west on CR 200 N. She told Pike County Deputy Sheriff Buck Seger she looked to the side and ran off the road in a turn, hitting the utility pole. Deputy Seger said she showed signs of impairment. Houchin was tak- en to Memorial Hospital by Pike County EMS, where a blood sample was taken and she was treat- ed for a leg injury. Seger said the blood test showed she was under the influence of benzodiazepines, opiates and marijuana. By Andy Heuring A Buffalo Trace Council Scouting official explained why they are now proposing sell- ing the Old Ben Scout Reservation in Pike County. John Harding, Scout Executive of the Buf- falo Trace Council, recently talked about how they got to the point of selling Old Ben. Harding explained the Boy Scouts of Amer- ica had filed for bankruptcy due to the mas- sive sex abuse scandal. The Buffalo Trace Council had not filed for bankruptcy. He said at the end of 2019, during the pro- cess of bankruptcy, the court ordered the Boy Scouts to contact 95 percent of all the men in America to see if they had been abused as a child. When they did that, more than 80,000 claims were filed against the Boy Scouts. "It was devastating," said Harding. "It was all across the country." Harding said the Boy Scouts have taken the position they would not challenge any of the claims. Instead, they would support the vic- tims with a trust fund. "There were enough lawsuits taking place that it took us to the brink of existence. So they came away from that with two objec- tives. Support the victims and continue the existence of the Boy Scouts." Harding said now they wanted to stress Scouting is a safe program. He said a youth protection policy was put in place and that 90 percent of the abuse allegations come from before 1987. Some of the things instituted include us- ing a buddy system for taking a merit badge. "Kids don't go out alone. . . We do background checks on volunteers, almost like a resume. Also, all leaders are required to do a train- ing program. They also work to educate young Scouts on how to protect themselves and things that should be reported. Scout official tells why Old Ben Scout camp is to be sold By Andy Heuring A COVID strike team is being sent to Pike County next week to do COVID testing. They will be at the Petersburg Little League baseball fields on Illinois St., from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., starting Wednesday, January 5 until Saturday, January 8. The team will only be doing testing at the Lit- tle League fields. A few months ago, a strike team was at the same site and gave vaccines, as well as testing. However, Pam Cosby, with the Pike County Health Department, said next week they will only be giving COVID tests. Also, Pike County's testing site at the Moose parking lot in Petersburg will be closed on the days the strike team is in town. Cosby said people do not have to pre-register to be tested by the strike team. Pike's numbers in the last week have dropped dramatically; howev- er, some of that maybe due to the lack of testing over the Christmas holiday. There were only 35 new cas- es reported in the county from De- cember 21-27. In the previous seven days to December 21, there were 83 new cases in Pike County. Statewide, the number of new cas- es was up slightly. This week, be- tween Dec. 21 and 27, there were three days with more than 5,200 cases, with a peak on Dec. 27, when 5,813 new cases were reported. New deaths in Indiana remained high, as they ranged from a high of 43 on December 22 to a low of 23 on December 24. Hospitalizations, af- ter taking a small downturn, started trending upwards again. There were 2,940 in the hospital on December 21, that fell to 2,911 on Dec. 23, but then started climbing and hit a peak of 2,058 on December 27, which matched the total for December 14. The state's seven-day, all-test pos- itivity rate was at 13.8 percent as of Tuesday. In Pike County, that rate fell to 15.7. It has been at 20 percent in recent weeks. There were only 12.8 percent of the state's ICU beds available as of Tuesday, and 38.7 percent of the ICU beds in the state are being used for COVID patients. Meanwhile, 63.8 percent of the state ventilators are now available, with 15.9 percent of them in use for COVID patients.