The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/327705
75¢ Wednesday, June 11, 2014 Volume 146 Number 29 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) Three sections 30 pages Two inserts Local ........A1-10 Obituaries ...... A3 Reunions ....... A9 Sports ........B1-4 Classifi eds ..B9-11 Church .......C1-8 Opinion .......... C2 History ........... C7 WHAT'S INSIDE: CONNECT WITH US: NetEdition .... pressdispatch.net/edition Facebook .... facebook.com/pressdispatch E-Mail .......... news@pressdispatch.net Phone: .................812-354-8500 Fax: .....................812-354-2014 E-Mail . editor@pressdispatch.net NEWS TIPS: PIKE PUBLISHING Historic Baseball Trail Hodges' mural By Ed Cahill What began as a class project to at- tract tourists and locals alike to sig- nificant baseball landmarks along the Interstate 64 corridor – includ- ing the Gil Hodges mural located at the intersection of Main and 9th streets in Petersburg – has resulted in what organizers have named the Heartland Historic Baseball Trail. The Heartland Historic Baseball Trail also includes the Indiana Base- ball Hall of Fame in Jasper, Gil Hodg- es Field in Princeton, Bosse Field in Evansville, and League Stadium in Huntingburg, as well as the Louis- ville Slugger Museum & Factory in downtown Louisville. According to Jessica Lindau- er, sales and marketing director at the Dubois County Visitors Cen- ter, the Heartland Historic Base- ball Trail came to fruition through her involvement with "Connect with Southern Indiana," a leadership pro- gram sponsored by the University of Southern Indiana. "For that program, you have to work on a project," Lindauer said. "So I talked to my boss (Dubois County Tourism Commission exec- utive director Kevin Manley) about what could we do tourism-related for this region of the state, and this was his idea. So I took it to the class." Subsequently, Lindauer and two other members of the Connect with Southern Indiana class – Arnie Tem- pel, facilities project manager at Kimball International, and Andy Ro- bling, senior biopharmaceutical rep with Amgen Pharmaceuticals – be- gan working on the project in 2012. Huntingburg's League Stadi- um and Evansville's Bosse Field, where scenes for the 1992 movie "A League of Their Own," starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madon- na, Rosie O'Donnell and Lori Pet- ty were filmed, were quickly identi- fied as trail sites, as was the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame. "We kind of researched the region to see what other attractions there were, and Andy is actually from Pe- tersburg, so he knew about the Gil Hodges mural, and then the Gil Hodges Field was something what we kind of found online," Lindauer said. "Through work, I know the ex- ecutive director at the Gibson Coun- ty CVB so he kind of gave me all the Hear and selected as a destination on See MUR AL on the back page From left to right: Petersburg May- or Frank Coleman, Jasper Mayor Ter- ry Seitz, Jessica Lindauer, of the Du- bois County Visitors Center, Hunting- burg Mayor Denny Spinner and Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame Executive Direc- tor Ray Howard participate in a dedica- tion ceremony for the Heartland Histor- ic Baseball Trail. Ed Cahill photo A-2 Wednesday, June 11, 2014 The Press-Dispatch School board freezes some salaries, reduces administrators' pay By Ed Cahill The Pike County School Corporation's Board of Trustees voted to freeze the sal- aries of non-certified staff for the 2014- 15 school year during its regular monthly meeting on Monday, June 10. According to the recommendation by Pike County Schools Superintendent Su- zanne Blake, the salary freeze would in- clude non-certified staff with "start-up" dates of June 1, July 1 or Aug. 1. "There were some provisions that still had 'increment' in their language," Blake told the school board. "Basically, we're say- ing no (increment)." The school board also voted to accept Blake's recommendation that administra- tive salaries be reduced by three percent for the 2014-15 school year. "Can we get an understanding who are the administrators that we're speaking about? " school board member David Waltz asked. "It'll be your building principals," Blake replied. "It'll be assistant principals, al- though those positions are vacant current- ly. The technology director. Support ser- vices is open so that would be a new agree- ment as we enter into it." "So, primarily, it's your building princi- pals and tech director, because all the oth- er administrative positions are currently open," Blake added. (The resignation of Pike Central High School assistant principal and athletic di- By Andy Heuring A plastic interlocking barri- er will be used to block traffic at the White River on Highway 257 between Otwell and Washington. Earlier this year, INDOT met with Pike and Dubois County of- ficials about installing more re- strictive barriers at the location that floods. In December, an Illi- nois woman drowned after the car she was riding in tried to cross the flooded highway and the ve- hicle was swept away by the fast moving current. Her husband was rescued, but her body was not lo- cated until months later. It was the latest of numerous ve- hicles that have been swept off the road into flood waters at that loca- tion, despite road closed barriers that have been placed on High- way 257. "We are excited about this new system and are confident it will limit the number of people taking unnecessary risks," said Rusty Fowler, Vincennes. "I'm hoping these are going to be the answer we need to close off the road," said Pike County Sher- iff Jeremy Britton. Britton and Daviess County Sheriff Jerry Harbstriet, along with other emergency personnel from Pike and Daviess counties, had requested a permanent gate that could be opened and closed. However, INDOT expressed con- cern at that time a permanent structure on the side of the road would present a hazard. "The state's concern is when they (permanent gates) aren't closed, it is an object in the right- of-way someone can strike," said Britton. He added, "These (the new barriers) are portable enough they can get the whole road blocked in a short amount of time. I'm anxious to see how they work," added Britton. He said he met with INDOT last week to view the barriers. Britton said they are heavy plas- New barriers to be placed on Hwy. 257 Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 By Andy Heuring Four men from as far away as Cincinnati, Ohio, to Lawrenceville, Ill., have been ar- rested for child solicitation after they con- tacted a Petersburg police officer online posing as a 14-year-old girl. Three of the men traveled to Peters- burg and were arrested as they attempt- ed to make contact with the person they thought was a 14-year-old girl. Instead, it was Petersburg Police Sgt. Chad McClel- lan. "I guess it started because we want- ed to work some cases proactively, instead of reactive," said Sgt. McCellan. "There wasn't any one specific case that caused us to start this. We have done enough of these over the years where kids were con- tacted. It was nice to do this to get the bad guy without a child being hurt." McClellan, a 15 -year veteran of the Pe- tersburg Police Department, said he got the idea, did some online research and talked with officers from other areas to see what they were doing, and then got started. "It didn't take very long at all, we had people hit the very first day. There are peo- ple sitting there waiting on someone to talk to. . . Some places (social media sites), I swear all there is, is pedophiles waiting for some kid to stumble into the site," said Mc- Clellan. He urged parents to keep a close eye on what their children are looking at on the internet and who they are texting. McClel- lan said most of the people would chat with him and then want to have a phone num- ber so they could text him. He said some of them gave him detailed instruction on how to delete their internet browser history and cookies, as well as their texts, and they wanted to know who sees the child's phone. "They were always wanting me to cover up Continued on page 4 Four arrested for child solicitation EMS building funding fails following high bids By Andy Heuring A request for $ 350,000 to build a new EMS Building died for lack of a motion to approve funding during the county coun- cil's Tuesday meeting. The request had been tabled from the previous meeting. Since that meeting, the county commis- sioners had opened bids for the proposed building and they ranged from $ 699,000 to $741,000, which is roughly twice the esti- mated $ 350,000. "At the last meeting, I said if the bids came in a little high, we had plenty of time to appropriate more monday. But I didn't mean another $ 350,000," said County Councilman Greg Mangin. "Does anyone want to make a motion for an additional appropriation? " asked Coun- cil President Greg Willis. "Let it die," said Councilman Dennis Bishop. Following the meeting, Bishop said, "It looks like we are back to square one." The commissioners last week took the EMS Building bids under advisement af- ter opening them and learning they were roughly double what the DLZ architect had estimated. "I'm flabbergasted," said Com- missioner Ryan Coleman, echoing similar responses from Commissioners Jeff Nelson and Brian Davis. The commissioners purchased a lot on Il- linois St. for $25,000 for the building. John Melhiser has proposed a "partial trade" of his Main St. building next to the Pike County Jail for the Illinois St. lot. He sent an email to all of the county commis- sioners and county councilmen last week, but has not attended a commissioner's meeting to talk with them about it yet. In other business, the council declined an additional appropriation request of $15,000 for the Truck and Tractor Repair fund. Continued on page 4 Water line repair Petersburg City Services Manager Gary McCandless uses a sledge ham- mer in an effort to fix a broken copper water line on Fifth St., between Main and Poplar sts. McCandless said they had the line fixed by Tuesday evening.