The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1460754
C-6 Wednesday, March 16, 2022 The Press-Dispatch EAST GIBSON LOUIE CAMPBELL Sales Professional lcampbell@sfaulknerauto.com CALL OR TEXT 812-899-6267 @LouieYourCarGuy HWY. 64 W. PRINCETON Looking for a Great Deal On Your Next Vehicle? Pike County K-9 Bleck visits local schools Pike County Deputy Sheriff Buck Seger visited Otwell Miller Academy on Tuesday as part of the D.A.R.E. Program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) for fifth grade students. The program teaches kids skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and vio- lence. "This is an extension of the D.A.R.E. Program," Rich Padgett, Principal of Otwell Miller said. "Officer McKinney (Pike County Deputy Jason McKinney) comes in weekly for our D.A.R.E. Program. They brought K-9 Bleck to see our fifth graders, and I thought it would be good for all the students to see him." Right: Pike County K-9 Bleck, gets lots of love and petting from students in preschool through second grade at Otwell Miller Academy on Tuesday, March 10, when he visited the school as part of the D.A.R.E. Program for fifth grade students. Basketball Awards Wood Memorial High School hosted their basketball awards banquet on Thursday, March 10. This is the in- augural year under new Head Coach Brian Schoonover. Award winners were: Reese Morton: Kiwanis Mental Attitude Award; Owen Day: Best Defensive Player, and Most Rebounds; Jon Walker: Coaches Award; Joey Cargal: Coaches Award; and Alton Falls: Leading Scorer, Best Free Throw Per- centage, All Conference. Schwomeyer top-five at Marshall Invitational Vincennes University freshman Pax- ton Schwomeyer, of Oakland City, began his 2022 Spring golf season with an im- pressive top-five finish at the Ron Mar- shall Spring Invitational, hosted at Goose Pond Lake Golf Course in Scottsboro, Ala. earlier this week. Schwomeyer and his teammates helped the Trailblazers post a third-place team finish in the two-day tournament. The opening day of the tournament saw the field play 36 -holes. A fter the first two rounds of golf, Schwomeyer found himself in a tie for the top-spot on the leaderboard, after a first round 76 and a second round one-over 73. The field returned to the course Tues- day morning for the final round of the tournament. Schwomeyer dropped a few spots down the leaderboard from his top position, finishing with a fifth-place fin- ish, with a final round 80. The Trailblazers, as a team, earned a third-place finish, finishing one shot bet- ter than Rend Lake College, who will be hosting the next tournament VU will be competing in this season. TEAM RESULTS 1) John A. Logan 909; 2) Snead State (A)915; 3) VINCENNES 964; 4) Rend Lake 965; 5) Grand Rapids 968; 6) Northeast Alabama 1001; 7) Snead State (B)1007. Individual results: Paxton Schwomey- er (T5) – 76, 73, 80 – 229. EMS looks to raise part-time clerical pay By Janice Barniak EMS Director David Pond asked Gibson County Coun- cil to consider a 50 cent raise for his part-time clerk of five to seven years. He said he wrote it into his budget to pay her $13 an hour but recently learned she makes $12.50, the same as other part-time employees. Pay raises are generally awarded by the council as a specific amount given to all employees, not on a case-by- case basis, and all part-tim- ers were raised to $12.50 last year. He said raising her pay would be better than train- ing someone new to do the billing. The council asked for the request in writing, and agreed to get them that. O'Neal: EMS in trouble Tony O'Neal, manager of War- rick County EMS, spoke to Gibson County Council about the State of EMS last week. • Warrick has three positions they have trouble filling • Posey County is down by five people • Perry County is not operating two trucks for lack of people Council discusses tax for EMS raises By Janice Barniak Gibson County Council looked at how to fund a 2022 pay raise for EMS employ- ees, suggesting it be pulled from the approximately $ 6.5 million the county will re- ceive in American Rescue Plan funds. According to Council- man Jeremy Overton, he researched if EMS pay in- creases could be an ex- pense the county could cov- er with money they received through the CARES Act, and his research says 'no.' While it can be used to cover hazard pay, it cannot be used for an across-the- board award to EMS em- ployees, it has to be on a case-by-case basis and doc- umented March 1 of last year through Dec. 31, 2021. EMS employees are asking to be paid for all 24 hours of their 24-hour shifts, whereas currently they get paid for 16 hours. EMS Director David Pond has said many can make much more money some- where else and are plan- ning to leave. He's said the pay structure makes it diffi- cult to hire. The council has discussed passing a public safety tax but even if passed before Oct. 31, the tax wouldn't take effect until Janu- ary of 2023. If passed, one- tenth of a per- cent tax would yield roughly a half million dol- lars. The council would need the support of area cities and towns, however. Each city or town has a percentage of the vote by population on the income tax council. The county has roughly a 46 percent vote. So the county voting in favor, plus, for example, the city of Princeton would be enough to pass the tax, but the county plus only Fort Branch, for example, would not quite be enough, though Fort Branch and Oakland City support together would do it. "So we would need the support of municipalities," Overton said. "It doesn't solve the 2022 problem." He said the American Rescue Plan funds can be used to fund premium pay, up to $13 an hour over As COVID slows, health dept. looks at school vax By Janice Barniak SG Star-Times Editor editor@sgstartimes.com Cases of COVID-19 are down, Health Dept. Director Diane Hornby told Gibson County Council, and the de- partment is looking at hiring a school liaison nurse to do school-related vaccinations. "Everything has slowed down tremendously. That's a good thing," Hornby said, adding they plan to cut back on the health department test- ing site after spring break. Meanwhile she's met with the schools and the depart- ment will switch a nurse cur- rently working on COVID-19 to being the school liaison nurse, who can host mobile clinics to bring vaccines to the school for those who need them. The health department has long offered school-spe- cific vaccines, for example, the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) shots. Gibson County Council- man Craig Pflug said they'd like to see the plan in writing. Hornby also said the state is sharing information indicating they will be taking on a lot of the septic responsibilities currently administered by the health department, for example, sanitary sewer permits. "Haubstadt is trying to ex- pand," she said, adding the clay soil in Haubstadt pres- ents a sewer challenge. She added many people want to move to Haubstadt. "When you grow in Owensville there's so much sand they do not have so much trouble with septic, but you have septic trouble in Haubstadt because you have clay. So that's going to continue." "You're talking like a soil scientist," said Pflug. "I've had a lot of training in the last few weeks," Horn- by said.