The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/378625
news brieFs Open House at Petersburg Elementary The Petersburg Elementary will be having an Open House, Thursday, Sept. 11 from 6 -7 p.m. Golden living Center Car Show Friday, Sept 12 The Golden Living Center is sponsoring a car show at their location on Pike Ave., starting at 6 p.m. Friday, September 12. Along with the Timeless Clas- sics cars, there will be conces- sions, music and giveaways, in- cluding Indianapolis Colts tick- ets, Indiana University tickets and concert tickets. Delinquent property tax sale is Oct. 10 The annual Pike County Property Tax Sale is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, October 10 in the Pike County courthouse auditorium. Properties with delinquent taxes against them will be sold by the county in the sale. A list of the properties that have not been redeemed are listed on page C-3. Guest Speaker: LT. Governor SUe eLLSPerMAn and local legislators. Plus highlights from 8th District Rep. LARRY BUCSHON AnnUAL Dinner Pike County Republican Central Committee Tuesday, Sept. 23 6:30pm eDT IPL Communication Building in Petersburg Doors open at 6pm • Meet & greet at 6:30pm Dinner at 7pm TickeTS: dinner is limited to 200. reserve now! cALL $ 25 $ 500 SinGLe PreMiUM TAbLe of 8 PUrCHAse tiCKets At BoYd reAltY or PetersBUrG HArdwAre Mark Flint ........... 789-6397 Angie Davis ........ 789-6159 Eric Smith ......... 766-0302 Jeff Harting ....... 789-3677 Robin Smith .......... 583-0961 Carol Sue Sutton ... 354-8893 Bids opened for I-69 sewer project By Ed Cahill Blankenberger Brothers, Inc., of Cynthiana, was the apparent low bidder after Petersburg officials opened sealed bids on Thursday, Sept. 4, for a project that will extend sewer service along Hwy. 61 to the Interstate 69 interchange. The total base bid submitted by Blanken- berger Brothers, Inc., was $ 627,565, almost $40,000 lower than the second-lowest total base bid of $ 665,333 submitted by Koberstein Contractors, Inc., of Princeton. The project includes the installation of ap- proximately 1,253 linear feet of eight-inch gravity sewer line, 5,920 linear feet of six-inch force main, manholes, air release valves "and assorted appurtenances," along with two lift stations, according to a bid advertisement pre- pared by the city's engineering firm, Midwest- ern Engineers, Inc., of Loogootee. Also submitting bids for the project were: • Atlas Excavating, of West Lafayette, which submitted a total base bid of $1,126,308; • Deig Bros. Construction, of Evansville, which submitted a total base bid of $746,521; • Graves Plumbing Co., Inc., of Switz City, which submitted a total base bid of $717,717; • Infrastructure Systems, Inc., of Orleans, which submitted a total base bid of $758,102. After opening and reading each of the bids, Brian Bullock, of Midwestern Engineers, Inc., recommended that the city's Board of Pub- lic Works and Safety take the bids under ad- visement. "We'll present a recommendation at the next board meeting," Bullock said. A motion by Mayor Frank Coleman to accept Bullock's recommendation, which was second- ed by board member John Melhiser, was ap- proved by a 3-0 vote, with board member Fran Lewis also voting aye. After the board voted to adjourn, all three board members, along with Bullock, remained in their seats and continued to discuss the proj- ect. "We'll come back with a recommendation," Bullock said, after describing each of the alter- nate bids that were included in the bid package. "As far as the contractors, it looks like, taking everything into consideration, Blankenberger is still probably going to be the low." "I don't think we have any issues with work- ing with any of them," Bullock added. "We've not done a lot of work with them. They do a lot of INDOT-type projects." "They're a well-known company," Coleman said. Melhiser subsequently asked if a special meeting of the city's public works and safe- ty board would be called to discuss Bullock's recommendation. "We'll take it up at our next meeting," Cole- man said. "I thought we can have another meeting and we can talk about this," Melhiser said. After noting that the next scheduled meet- ing for the Board of Public Works and Safety was Monday, Sept. 15, Lewis said that a special meeting would have to be scheduled no later than Thursday, Sept. 11, since she was going to be out of town on Friday, Sept. 12. Bullock said that the later the special meet- ing could be set, the better. "It gives you more time," Melhiser said. "Yeah," Bullock replied. "I was thinking we'd get some estimates for the upgrade of the lift station." "We may not even do anything then at our next council meeting," Coleman said. "I think we need to take our time," Melhis- er said. Lewis, however, said that, in her opinion, the project should not be delayed. "If we don't do it on the 15, it'll be Oct. 6 be- fore we'd make that decision then," Lewis said. "Which pushes it back three more weeks." "I know what you're saying," Melhiser said. "But what's the hurry now? " "Are you serious? " Lewis replied. "What's three weeks? " Melhiser asked. "That's the whole point of this whole proj- ect," Lewis answered. "It's been pushed back and pushed back and pushed back. First of all, we waited forever for the (county) council to appropriate that money." "I'm ready to get rolling with it, just be- cause I think we need to show some progress out there to the community and to all the sur- rounding vendors that are looking," Lewis add- ed. "I know there's a lot of vendors that are looking." Coleman noted that the original timeline for the project indicated that the sewer line would be operational by February. "We may be a month behind that now, just because of the easements and stuff like that," Coleman said. "I'm just saying, I'd like to sit down with Bri- an and look at his recommendations and, if I have any questions, or we discuss anything - like adding, subtracting - that would be good before we enter a public meeting," Melhiser said. "That's all I'm saying." Bullock suggested that the board give him time to come up with a recommendation. "I can get with the mayor and he can touch base with you guys and see where we are," Bullock said. "If we can have it before the next meeting, make sure everyone's comfortable, then we can do it." "That'd be okay, John? " Lewis asked. "Yeah," Melhiser replied. "That's fine." "I hate to delay it, too, but we need to get the right information," Coleman said. "Just email me with your final results," Mel- hiser told Bullock. "If I have any questions, I can contact you." Beginning Monday, September 8, weath- er permitting, Indiana Department of Trans- portation crews will chip and seal State Road 61 from the south end of Monroe City to West River Road near Petersburg. Once this work is completed, crews will move to S.R. 241 from the S.R. 61 north junction in Monroe City and to S.R. 550 near Wheatland. INDOT is seal coating three state high- way sections while through traffic is avoid- ing the areas near the S.R. 61 reconstruction in Monroe City and the S.R. 550 bridge deck overlay near Wheatland. Chip-sealed high- ways will remain open for traffic that is lo- cal or detoured. Loose stone will be on the highway tempo- rarily during the initial cure of the asphalt. INDOT strongly urges drivers to slow down and allow additional space between vehicles to avoid stone chips from damaging wind- shields or paint on auto bodies. During this time, traffic is encouraged to use alternate routes such as U.S. 50 and S.R. 57. Once the seal coat has cured, crews will sweep the highway to clear away loose stone and apply a light application of dark asphalt material to lock in remaining stone. Later this fall, INDOT will close and seal coat S.R. 550 between U.S. 41 and Brucev- ille. INDOT will provide schedule updates. indot justiFies seaL coating INDOT states, "After years of heavy traffic and winter freeze-thaw cycles, small cracks develop in our highways. If left untreated, moisture seeps into these cracks and form potholes when the water freezes and expands. As the name implies, a chip-seal treatment seals off the cracks. The stone chips provide improved traction for stopping, especially during winter. National research has shown that every $1 used to preserve our pavements saves $ 6 to $14 in future, more disruptive re- pairs." INDOT currently seal coating State Road 61 Two more men arrested on child solicitation charges By Andy Heuring Two more men have been arrest- ed on child solicitation charges. David Allen Penfold, 24, of He- bron, was arrested at about 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 7 when he arrived at an arranged meeting place with a bag of Kit Kat® candy bars and two boxes of condoms in his possession. Petersburg Police Sgt. Chad Mc- Clellan said Penfold had been talk- ing to the decoy, who was posing as a 14-year-old girl for about three months. On Thursday, he agreed to meet the decoy and drove about four hours to Petersburg. Sgt. McClellan said the last text from Penfold said Penfold was about five minutes from the meet- ing place. "One of the things that came up in the online conversations was that the decoy liked Kit Kats. When we arrested him, he had a bag of Kit Kats® and two boxes of condoms," said McClellan. Donald L. Buzzard, 27, of 405 S. 13th St., Vincennes, was arrested on two counts of child solicitation, both class C felonies. According to a probable cause affidavit, Buzzard had contacted a volunteer with the Perverted Jus- tice Organization, who was pos- ing as a 14-year-old girl in April of this year. Buzzard's contact infor- mation was then forwarded to Sgt. McClellan and he began continu- ing to pose as a 14-year-old girl sending Buzzard a phone number to text him. According to the affidavit, "al- most immediately" after giving Buzzard contact information, the decoy began repeatedly getting texts that were sexually explicit, even though the person he was tex- ting had been identified to him as a 14-year-old girl. The affidavit states Buzzard "continues to text the decoy on a daily basis at the time of this re- port." McClellan said Buzzard never drove to Petersburg, but committed child solicitation in his texts. Even- tually a warrant was issued for him and Buzzard was arrested by Vin- cennes Police on the Pike County warrant in August. Safer intersection in Winslow County Highway crews built up Union St. at the intersection with Highway 61 in Winslow to make it a safer approach for semi-trucks. ADM Growmark paid for the material and the highway department did the paving work. Trucks had been using an alternate route and other city streets to avoid the intersection. A-4 Wednesday, September 10, 2014 The Press-Dispatch