The Press-Dispatch
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Letters to Santa from Local Children and Good Tidings from Area Businesses inside. 75¢ Four sections 42 pages Six inserts Wednesday, December 25, 2013 Volume 145 Number 52 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-340) Christmas rescued from floodwaters By Andy Heuring A Velpen man was rescued from the bank of Flat Creek while clinging to a small tree and vines. He had been there nearly three hours before rescuers could reach him. Michael Christmas, 30, is a lucky man and he knows it. "I thought I was done for," said Christmas. "I was thinking I'm not going to get to see my family at Christmas." Saturday evening, he was riding his new four-wheeler home from work at Buchta Trucking. He was riding down CR 900 E., about a mile south of Highway 56. When he got near Flat Creek, he rode into some water. "I knew I couldn't make it through the water because the road dips down quite "I thought I was done for." Michael Christmas Mabel McCrary displays a $1,000 check she received from Shopko to help fund her Prayer Bear charity. Each year, she and her friends send Build A Bears to children at Riley's Hospital in Indianapolis. Mabel's Prayer Bears keep giving and receiving Mabel McCrary, a second grader at Winslow Elementary School received a $1,000 check from Shopko's Santa for her Prayer Bears charity. Three years ago, Mabel McCrary, who was preparing for her sixth birthday, decided she had so many toys she didn't need anymore. Instead, she asked for people to give her Build a Bears® so she could give them to kids at Riley's Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. Mabel, the daughter of Deb and Jody McCrary, spent much of her first three years at Riley's and still goes at least once every two months for check-ups. She has generated more than 600 bears that have been given to the heart unit of Riley's. The first year she received donations and made up nearly 190 bears. The next year they put together 227 bears. So many, they had to get a large box trailer to load the bears into to take to Indianapolis. "We have started doing it differently," said Deb. She said last year she helped the staff load the bears into a small storage closet as they waited to be handed out to heart patients. McCrary said now she takes a van load of bears up whenever she and Mabel go for an appointment. She said her van can hold about 60 bears and her mother's van can hold about 105. How- ever, Mabel doesn't like them to be loaded that full. "Every time we went around a corner, bears would fall on Mabel." By doing it this way, she said it makes it easier for the hospital to store the bears and it also allows them to make more seasonal bears. The charity has grown so much, she now has an account set up at German American Bank in Petersburg for Mabel's Prayer Bears. Deb said each time they get a load of bears made up and ready to go to Indianapolis, they take them to their church, Mt. Pisgah General Baptist Church, where they are prayed over before they are delivered to Riley's. Nash charged with arson after Sept. fire By Andy Heuring A Petersburg man was arrested on charges of arson and insurance fraud last week. Kennenth T. Nash, 56, of 612 S. Sixth St., Petersburg, was arrested in connection to his house trailer fire on September 17. According to a probable cause affidavit, the fire occurred about 30 minutes after Nash had been told to get his house trailer off another person's property. The affidavit says about 30 minutes later they got the fire call. Indiana State Deputy Fire Marshal Investigator Matt Wells said he was called by the Petersburg Fire Department to investigate the cause of the fire. "I conducted a scene examination at the mobile home and it was determined that the fire originated on the stove top," wrote Wells in the affidavit. He continued that Nash stated he "must have left the stove on when he left the home to go out of town." Investigator Wells said upon further investigation he found out Randy Harris, the owner of the property, had talked with Nash and told him he had to move the trailer immediately. Harris had purchased the property where the trailer was located several months earlier. On December 18, Wells interviewed Nash again. According to the affidavit Wells said Nash admitted he lied about talking to Harris on the day of the fire because he thought it would raise suspicion about the cause of the fire. The affidavit also states Nash admitted, "he intentionally set the pot on the stove with cooking oil in it and intentionally left the burner on in an attempt to start a fire in the mobile home in order to collect the insurance money prior to leaving the mobile home." According to the affidavit, Nash was paid $8,335 by Progressive Insurance as a result of his insurance claim. a bit there near the bridge," said Christmas. So he attempted to back up and turn around. It was dark and while he was turning around his rear while dropped off the road causing the four-wheeler to start floating. Christmas fell off the four-wheeler into deep, swiftly moving water. Because of the current, he couldn't get back to the road and was washed down the stream. He was wearing rain gear and a heavy Carhartt coat, as well as heavy boots. "At times the water was so deep I couldn't touch bottom." He said his boots washed off while he was floating toward the stream of Flat Creek. "I could see the reflectors on the bridge from the headlights on my four-wheeler." Christmas said he was able to make it to a high spot on the banks of the Flat Creek about 20 feet from the bridge. There he was able to get ahold of brush, briar vines and small trees to pull himself from the water onto the creek bank. "I took off both my coats because they were filled with water and were so heavy I couldn't pull myself up." When he first got there, the water was only at his feet. But it was still raining hard and the water continued to climb. "I thought if I could get to the bridge, I could get on the road and walk to a house Continued on page 2 New Year's edition to be published early The New Year's Day issue of The PressDispatch will be published one day early, due to the holiday falling on Wednesday. The office will be open until 5 p.m. on New Year's Eve, and will be open all day Saturday, Dec. 28. New Year's deadlines Advertising Noon Saturday News Noon Monday Classifieds Noon Monday On News Stands and by Mail Tuesday Morning Year in Review: a look at news highlights from 2013 January • The year of 2013 started with several inches of snow on the ground left over from a Christmas Eve snow storm that dropped six to 10 inches of snow and was the largest snow since 2004 to hit the area. • Petersburg Mayor Jon Craig announced he was resigning effective January 25 to become Deputy Director of the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. He had been mayor for nine years. • Pike County Commissioners replaced Pike County Highway Department Superintendent Bobby Joe Morton with his former assistant Roger Ham. Josh Byrd was hired to fill Ham's position as assistant superintendent. • Andrew Clark was named the Petersburg Elementary School Spelling Bee champion. • Abby Skelton was named the Otwell Elementary spelling bee champion. • Matthew Barrett was named the Winslow Elementary spelling bee champion. PIKE PUBLISHING • Jon A. Robling, 55, of 3592 W. CR 75 S., and Heather L. Wilson, 38, of the same address, were arrested on charges of manufacturing meth and possession of meth. • Pike Central's wrestling team won the Forest Park Invitational, edging out Vincennes Lincoln by a tiebreaker for the win. • Ernest and Marilee Hume, of Winslow, were seriously injured in a traffic accident in Oakland City, when a driver ran a stop sign and hit them as they drove on Highway 64. • Dennis Iafrate's house, just east of Petersburg, on Highway 356, was destroyed by a morning fire on Monday, January 21. • IPL announced a $511 million mercury reduction control project at their Petersburg power plant. • Demolition of the Silver Dollar Saloon started. The building that collapsed two years earlier was razed and removed, along with Randy Harris' buildings that housed Harris Real Estate and Sweet Stuff. The clean-up made way for the new multiple WHAT'S INSIDE: Local ..........A1-8 Classifieds ..B9-11 History ...........C9 Obituaries ......A3 Church .......C1-6 Christmas .D1-14 Sports ........B1-7 Opinion..........C2 purpose building to be constructed that will house a Good Samaritan urgent care facility and 40-unit senior housing development. • The Pike County Center for Women's Ministries started to help women who need help getting through a crisis or just someone to listen to them. • Pike Central's boys' swim team won their second consecutive Pocket Athletic Conference Championship, winning eight individual events and beating second place Tell City by more than 115 points. • Jerry Alvey, 54, of Velpen, was killed in a chain reaction accident. It started when Joan Pritt, 77, of Velpen, drove into the side of a semi-truck driven by Leonard Gogel, 48, of Birdseye. The collision caused the semi-trailer to slide sideways, and Alvey, who was in a Ford Mustang, drove under the trailer. • Pike County Schools Superintendent announced the school corporation was $6 million in the red after it had been running deficits since 2009. NEWS TIPS: Phone:.................812-354-8500 Fax: .....................812-354-2014 E-Mail . editor@pressdispatch.net • Six people announced they were officially seeking the position of Petersburg Mayor following Jon Craig's resignation. They were: Don Wyatt, Lisa DeJarnettPunturi, R. C. Klipsch, Ron Gladish, Gary Leavitt and Frank Coleman. • A Friday morning ice storm wreaked havoc on Pike County roads as more than 30 accidents were reported in a few hours time following the ice storm. February • County commissioners request $750,000 from EDIT funds to be used to pave roads in Pike County. • Frank Coleman, a retired Indiana State Policeman, was elected Mayor of Petersburg by a Republican caucus to take over for Jon Craig, who resigned a month earlier. • A Pike Central 285 pound wrestler qualified for the semi-state by placing second in the Castle Regional. Continued on page 2 CONNECT WITH US: NETedition ... pressdispatch.net/edition Facebook .... facebook.com/pressdispatch E-Mail .......... news@pressdispatch.net