The South Gibson Star-Times serves the towns of Haubstadt, Owensville and Fort Branch.
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1464965
A-4 Tuesday, April 19, 2022 South Gibson Star-Times POLITICAL Fundraiser SAT., APRIL 23 • 4 TO 7 P.M. AT FORT BRANCH VFW BILL TULEY FOR COMMISSIONER Paid for by candidate MEET THE CANDIDATE! Ham & Potato Salad I am a lifelong Gibson County resident. While attending Indiana University, I met and married my lovely wife, Rena. We have been married for 40 years and raised three sons: Jacob, Robert and Michael. All of our sons and their families are Gibson County residents. Rena and I enjoy being with our grandchildren, camping, scuba diving, bee keeping and walking the trails around our home. EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS ★ Bachelor's Degree from IU Kelly School of Business. ★ Owned and operated a successful construction business for 17 years. ★ Chemistry Teacher for 28 years. BOB BOB SCHLETER SCHLETER County Council, District 3 County Council, District 3 Elect Paid for by Bob Schleter for County Council District 3 1. Keep Gibson County ZONE FREE! 2. Consistent personal property tax abatement policies 3. Fair wages for all first responders and county employees I ask for I ask for your vote your vote on May 3 on May 3 WE WILL ACCEPT • Paint • Household Chemicals/ Pesticides • Sealers/Adhesives • Batteries • Oil/Grease • Light Bulbs • Electronics (Limit Of 3 For Televisions) • Residential Propane Tanks • Medications/Sharps • Regular Recyclables Gibson County Household Hazardous Waste & Recycling Day Saturday, April 30 8am-Noon Toyota Family Medical Center Lot South Maple Tree Drive, Princeton Sponsored with Toyota We reserve the right to refuse any items. Burns: A listener who shows up for you REPUBLICAN By Janice Barniak SG Star-Times Editor editor@sgstartimes.com When asked about what's important to him, Commissioner candidate Nick Burns immediately lists his two nieces, and when talking about what he can do for the coun- ty he talks about work ethic and an ability to listen. Burns has been at Enterprise Prod- ucts since 2004 and never missed a day of work that entire time; he also grad- uated Princeton Community High School in 2001 hav- ing never missed a day of school, even back to kindergar- ten. "I'd have never made that in the COVID era," he jokes. "No, I just take pride in lit- tle stuff like that. If I can walk, if I can get there, I go." Some people know Burns as a Princ- eton City Councilman, Elks member, through his non-profit HOPE, which pro- vides equipment like sports cleats to chil- dren in need through New Image Fitness, the gym he owns, which is also beside his supplement business New Image Nutri- tion. He's been a small business owner for 12 years. The non-profit is for all of Gibson Coun- ty. "Everything I do is for Gibson County as a whole. Kids all around need some- thing," he said. If parents can't afford for their children to play sports, they partner with Upward to help provide scholarships, but because of COVID, that program was paused the last few years. "We didn't want to ask people for money during that. We're just trying to let people breathe right now, and get through this," he said. Burns serves on the Lyles Station Board, the Deaconess Gibson Board, and on the CEO program board that aims to help local students start small businesses. "I want to see the whole county grow. I want to bridge the gap between the coun- ty council and commissioners. They don't communicate like they should. In business, you've got to go through adversities and work through it no matter what," he said. "When someone has criti- cism you flip it to a positive, and strive to do better things." He said in his generation, he sees a lot of people moving away, and he wants to support growth in the county, especially in the East Gibson area. He sees businesses open, and strug- gle for a year before closing, which isn't a trend he wants for the county. To that end, he wants to encourage lo- cals to spend money locally. "I want to show that we are growing." He said as commissioner he would lis- ten and value the input of young people to get creative ideas about what the county can do to keep people post-high school. "We always hear we don't have enough stuff to do, which we don't; I think the YM- CA will help," he said. He also points to initiatives he's been involved in planning, like the Father-Daughter Dance and Moth- er-Son Date Night as outreach to families. As far as economic development he said he would support infrastructure, like sew- er lines, and other necessities businesses need to locate in the area. "Kind of like, if you build it they will come," he said. Tuley: No-zoning central to platform REPUBLICAN By Janice Barniak SG Star-Times Editor editor@sgstartimes.com Republican Bill Tuley said he's running for commissioner on a no-zoning platform he plans to combine with his experience as a county employee and familiarity with union contracts to bring well-rounded qualifications to the position. He said "no zon- ing" constituents would approach him to ask him to run for commis- sioner. "I was actually asked from all quad- rants of the county if I would consider running. I'd be vis- iting a farm somewhere, and they'd say 'You ought to do it.'" He said he's not a band-wagon no-zoner, but that he's always felt strongly against it. "We don't need this. I don't need to jump through a bunch of hoops. We don't need county-wide zoning," he said. As for developments moving into the county, he said those can be controlled by the subdivision ordinance. Tuley is a former food inspector, and in that post he visited all the county schools twice a year. "I met a lot of super good people, and made a lot of friends," he said. In 8.5 years, he said he only had to close three establishments, and one of those decided to close on their own because of being non-compliant. He said that's how he would plan to handle people trying to meet county ordinances. "I was the help-along type," he said, ex- plaining that if he found issues, he would help people correct the issue, and then come back to ensure they did the right thing, in essence, he would help them learn by doing. The food inspection job taught him he liked small businesses. "I love working with mom and pops, I saw it a lot that the turnover is mostly in franchises, unless it's a manager," he said. Tuley was a union CSX employee for 38 years, before retiring in 2008, an experi- ence he said he can use when it's time to negotiation contracts with employees. "Our county employees are the lowest paid of any county touching Gibson," he said. He said the county's problems keep- ing employees are tied to their pay. He said if that means supporting the safety tax to get funds, he would support it in an effort to pay people what their worth, and he sees the pay and contract negotia- tions as something the council and com- missioners should work more closely to- gether on, with the council having input on the contracts. "I think it should be a joint effort," he said. As for other large county projects, he thinks the way the jail project is current- ly being run has cut the project budget in half of the original estimate, and he wants to continue that trend, although he said they're going to be dealing with inflation on lumber and steel, so some costs will be going up. "The number one priority is getting it done, to get out from under the fines and penalties," said Tuley. As for zoning, he doesn't see it as a dead issue. "It depends on the upcoming elections, if the right people are elected in two years, it could raise its ugly head again," he said. He said he'd like to see more housing County Commissioners race COFFEE with the CANDIDATES Nick Burns Bill Tuley Hughes: Listen first, then decide DEMOCRAT By Janice Barniak SG Star-Times Editor editor@sgstartimes.com Lifelong Princeton resident Tim Hughes said his strength as a candidate is in not having a predetermined agenda coming into office; instead he said he'll listen to his constituents about what they want and carry their wishes through. As a Democratic candi- date, in the primary he won't face oppo- sition, but will take on whichever of the three Republicans win the primary. He doesn't have a zoning position, or a plan for how to tackle council-com- missioner relationships, or an opinion on the Southern Hills Subdivision—and he wants to become educated on the budget before he decides whether the county can afford raises for employees without rais- ing taxes. "It's really not about me, to start with. It's going to be about the voters and what they want. I'm a common sense type per- son. If it makes sense, I'm going to do it that way. If it doesn't make sense, I'm not going to do it that way. It's not about me. I'm just going to listen," he said. "Maybe the employees are feeling like they need more money. We have to figure out how we're going to pay for this stuff, because, you know, when you can go to Walmart and make 16 -17 bucks an hour and you've got guys working for the city or county making the same, things are probably go- ing to have to change one way or the oth- er here." Hughes grew up on a small farm west of Princeton, graduated Princeton High School, studied computer programming at Vincennes University and worked at Pittsburgh Plate Glass for 23 years be- fore he started Tim's Awesome Barbe- cue business. Small business owners meet a lot of peo- ple, he said, and that means he hears peo- ple views. Being a business owner also gives him insight on economic development, and he said he'd love to see more industry move in—within reason. "There's not enough people to support many more jobs in this area. If you get too many jobs in an area, what happens is, you don't have enough people. People are go- ing to pay a lot more money—you run busi- nesses off because they can't pay the high- er wage because you've got too many jobs. We need to attract more people," he said. While lowering property taxes on busi- nesses might help, when you lower tax- es you have to cut something else in the county's budget. "I'm pretty young at this. I'm not go- ing to go in there bullheaded thinking I know everything," he said. "Sometimes new blood makes a difference. I can be a fair person, that's all I can be." Hughes said he doesn't make up his mind until he sees all sides of a situation, but his passions are helping people, in- cluding feeding people who can't afford it through his restaurant. He volunteers with Lyles Station, but said a small business owner doesn't have a lot of time for hobbies, as a lot of time is invested in the business. He gets excited talking about his next business project, is going to be a 30 foot food truck called "Over The Top Cafe and Catering," which will sell food from the truck and do ca- tering. Tim Hughes See HUGHES on page 5 See BURNS on page 5 'Key' to county is fiscal common sense REPUBLICAN By Janice Barniak SG Star-Times Editor editor@sgstartimes.com Incumbent Republican Commissioner Mary Key wants to see through import- ant county projects, including building up- grades, American Rescue Fund projects and the YMCA com- ing to Gibson Coun- ty, while bringing fiscal conservatism and home-based sense to the board. "I still feel like I'm a valuable mem- ber and over all the years I've worked in the county, we've moved forward. I want to see Gibson County move for- ward. You can do that in other sectors but this is the sector I am in," she said. She said as commissioner, she would want to improve communications with the county council while negotiating con- tracts. "We have to make sure we can afford to do these things," she said. "Yes, we wish we could give them the moon, but we can't. We have to be realistic. I want them to have good fair wages like every- body else. We do have wonderful insur- ance. The main thing is we have to keep communication open between the employ- ees, the commissioners and the council. We can all have a wish list, but we need to know if we can afford that wish list." As the county looks at challenges like how to pay employees more, Key said the important thing for the county is that, like a home, commissioners can't spend mon- ey they don't have. "We have lost employees to different counties that pay more. But you have to fit it all within the budget. You can't spend money we don't have. We can't spend mon- ey we might be getting. We have been very diligent with the budget. But all things considered, it comes back to the com- missioners and council have to talk," she said. She added the commissioners see ev- ery department, and the same challenges people have at home, commissioners see at a larger scale, whether it's the price of "home improvements" like county build- ing costs rising down to even simple clean- ing supplies that have to be on every coun- ty ambulance. "Anything you have at your home, we think about at the county. Food? We have the jail we have to supply food to. So in- stead of thinking of the cost of a dozen eggs we're thinking of the costs of so many more, and dealing with the supply shortages, like everybody. Do I have to deal with it myself, no, but if they have a problem, and it involves money we may step in. These are things you have to think about," she said. Key brings a background of having served on the hospital board, the YMCA board, the tourism board, as non-voting chamber member, and is a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church. She and her son are still heavily in- volved in farming and the agricultural community. She has a teaching degree, which she used as a substitute, though most of her working life was spent sup- porting the family farm. When asked about zoning, she said she did not plan to take up the issue again. "Zoning at this time is a dead issue," she said. "There has been a lot of miscommu- nication—to me right now, I would say for Gibson County zoning is a dead issue for a long time." Mary Key See KEY on page 5 See TULEY on page 5 Life Milestones made free CALL: 812-753-3553 Put a free photo with write up on your Family and Class Reunions.