The South Gibson Star-Times serves the towns of Haubstadt, Owensville and Fort Branch.
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1480912
Local Tuesday, October 5, 2022 South Gibson Star-Times A-7 812-867-6978 www.scottyslawn.com YOUR LOCAL SOURCE FOR 1111 E Warrenton Rd. Haubstadt, IN 47639 with approved credit 500 HOUR 3 YEAR NON-COMMERCIAL WARRANTY 0% financing for 60 months 812-867-6978 www.scottyslawn.com YOUR LOCAL SOURCE FOR 1111 E Warrenton Rd. Haubstadt, IN 47639 with approved credit 500 HOUR 3 YEAR NON-COMMERCIAL WARRANTY 0% financing for 60 months VANOVEN Continued from page 1 KNOWLES Continued from page 1 There is no denying it. Students face a lot of change and stress as they navigate their high school years. Seniors, in particular, face an overwhelming amount of stress and decisions about the future. As soon as you become a senior, the ques- tions begin and people start asking, "What are your plans after high school? " "Do you plan on going to college? " "What are you going to study in college? " These questions are great conversation starters and a way to get to know some- one better, but they can also be very overwhelming for a high school senior. It's hard to know what you want to do with your life when you're just 18 years old. There are many ways to help support kids through- out their senior year. Help- ing students identify positive coping skills can be benefi- cial when they are experienc- ing stress. We spend a lot of time preparing students for their academic futures, but we also want to prepare them emotionally and socially. Building on emotional regu- lation and distress tolerance strengthens skills they can carry into adulthood. Another way to help seniors navigate the last year of high school is to encour- age the pursuit of interests and talents. Parents and educators can invite profes- sionals in different fields of study to discuss the possi- bility of job shadowing or interning, and they can help students establish realistic career goals. One of the biggest ways to show support for seniors is to encourage them every step of the way. When I meet with high school students who are unsure about what to do after graduation, I always reassure them it is okay be undecided about the future. I encounter some students who are not interested in going to college. I often remind these students that all jobs are important and necessary. Personally, I started college as an undecided major, and I think it was the best choice for me. It even- tually led me to discover the field of social work. I would always panic a little when one of my friends announced their plans for after gradua- tion while I was still unsure about what college to attend or which major to choose. I think it's good to remind seniors that it's okay to take extra time when making important decisions. A lot of pressure is put on seniors to figure out their career paths, and I believe the best way to guide them is to support their career choices and encourage them to do what they think feels right (while being realistic). Overall, helping students navigate their senior year is not always an easy task, but having support systems in place and encouragement from family and friends is a step in the right direction. Leah Lottes, LSW, is a Youth First Social Worker at Barr-Reeve Elemen- tary School and Barr-Reeve Middle/High School in Daviess County. Youth First By Leah Lottes Supporting seniors Vanoven first ran for sher- iff four years ago, on the same platform of building bridges, which he reiterated in the spring when he ran in the primary. "It's a metaphor for vision. Vision is the bridge, from where you are to what could be," he said. Over time he said he's refined his position and made a concentrated effort to be a leader and show up in the community. Vanoven, a Princeton High School alumnus who majored in religious studies at Oakland City University, became a reserve in 2001, transitioned to full-time deputy, trained in ground fighting, pepperball, and Taser instruction, and has 21 years in the department. He's a Senior Instructor with the Indiana Law Enforce- ment Academy, commander and founding member of the cell extraction team, was deputy of the year twice, and, in 2006, was awarded the Merit Award, only given to him and George Ballard thus far in the Gibson County Sher- iff's Office history. Vanoven said part of reach- ing the community is reaching and rehabilitating the offend- ers in the community. "Those at 112 E. Emerson, the people in the jail, we want to help them to get better, not bitter. To overcome what led them to be incarcerated." He would look for funding to get drug and alcohol treat- ment in the jail and bring back programs to the jail, bring programs back to jail includ- ing having the Gideons come back to the jail. "If you have a problem with a volunteer, you replace the volunteer, not the organization if the organization is getting results," he said. He said the jail is the biggest liability of any sheriff. "If you think of the jail as a bus, you need the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus," he said, adding that under him the jail would offer humane, firm, fair and consistent treat- ment of inmates. "There will be no rogue offi- cers or any injustice in jail or on the road," said Vanoven. He said if he's elected, he'll build a bridge of civility with the employees of Gibson County with "excellence" as the watch word. In that vein he'd be encour- aging best practices and stan- dards, helping officers do their best as they recruit and maintain staff. "Recruitment and retention has been a struggle through- out the nation, but locally we also are having our own staff- ing crisis." he said. Excellence would mean lifting officers up by provid- ing leadership, training, and opportunities to move up or specialize within the organi- zation. "People ask, 'Why train people when they're going to leave? ' Because if we don't train them they're going to stay. I'd rather train them and have them leave the program, because when anyone gets better everyone gets better." He said deputies know that he'll work with them to fix issues they bring to his atten- tion, that he'll continue to respond to calls and answer questions. "You can pay someone $50 an hour but if they think they're not valued, they're going to leave," he said. That said, he added he would still advocate for better wages to the Gibson County Council—with Princ- eton hiring at $7,000 more and local industries prom- ising untrained employees $19 an hour on billboards up and down US -41, it does take more wages to keep employ- ees, and the sheriff's office wants to recruit and retain professionals. He said he wants to form a committee of the road depu- ties so they can look at stan- dard operating procedures and suggest changes Vano- ven can take to the merit board. For example, many military veterans come home with tattoos that disqualify them for employment with the Gibson County Sheriff's Office, and the department has a very strict facial hair policy. "It's a morale thing to the officer, anything that doesn't affect safety, I'm on board with that," he said. He wants to bring back the reserve program, Citizen's Academy, bolster the school resource officer program, and bring back the canine officer program. He said multi-generational low-income with high addic- tion has become a local curse. For residents in this atmo- sphere, soft skills like taking out a loan, creating a checking account, and understanding how to pay bills every month can be a game changer. For families in generational addiction, he said working with partner organization so that those families learn those soft skills and have at least one adult who can become a leader in that family is key. "They can change their world and change Gibson County," he said. "Jail can be that place where people say that's where my life changed, where I got sober, where life changed for me. People's lives can be changed by coming to the Sheriff's Office." He has a countdown time on his phone, ticking down the minutes until the polls close Nov. 8. When asked what he would tell people if he won, he said it would be simple. "There's a new sheriff in town. There will be change." cer and at least one canine officer if not more. He'd put a local representative on the Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force, which he said would help determine where the drugs are coming from. Arresting at the lowest among users doesn't pack the punch of arresting deal- ers or distributors. "You're always going to have the users...A lot of people I talk to agree with that," he said. "A lot of people are concerned about fentenyl and drug problems." Knowles has 37 years in law enforcement, through the Sheriff's Office as a detective sergeant, in US Marshall Service, and as Gibson County Chief Deputy Coroner. He had the first county canine officer and was the county's first search and rescue diver. He was a found- ing member of the Drug Enforcement Task Force for southern Indiana. He's a member of VFW Post 2714, a past president in the FOP, a past president of Sommer- fest Inc, and helped start Shop with a Cop. He said he would strongly support anti-drug education in the schools and the DARE programs. Knowles said attacking the drug problem will lead to lower crime overall. Drug problems for example, lead to home break-ins, shoplift- ing and theft. "It just keeps escalating," he said. Another change he'd like to make is to take the dispatch communications center out of the jail. "It's a security problem. If something happened in the jail and an inmate got out they could eliminate commu- nications to the outside." Compounding the likeli- hood of a problem is that the county is low on jailers. "The communications center should not even be in the jail. It should be in a sepa- rate building," he said. He said another thing people tell him is they would like to see more officers on the roads, and part of that would be retaining officers. "We need to be hiring. Get the salary up for them— because the city (of Prince- ton) has taken five officers the county trained and spent money on," said Knowles. "You got to treat them with respect and let them know they're doing a good job. The main thing for keep- ing them, is they need to be happy where they're at. Morale needs to be up. But you can't blame somebody if they can go to another department and get $10,000 more a year." He said he'd communicate well with employees, adding it's a two way street. He said he'd look for addi- tional funding federally and would fundraise in the community for the drug dogs. "The dog I had, no county money was spent on it. It was all donations," he said. "We could come up with the money for a dog or two." He said if an officer ever had to be investigated, it would be done outside the department by the Indiana State Police. "If a serious accusation is brought, the sheriff is there to support his officers. If it's serious it shouldn't be the sheriff and his department investigating, it should be another agency." He added just because there's an accusation, the sheriff should not do anything that would under- mine the his officer's right to a fair investigation. He said he'd be careful taking actions to make sure noth- ing he did would make the public assume he believed the officer was guilty. Knowles has been married to his wife Cricket for 41 years, and they have two children and five grandchil- dren. "People should be voting for the most qualified. Vote for the person and not the party," he said.