The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/578458
A-2 Front Wednesday, September 30, 2015 The Press-Dispatch Collection site at Petersburg Little League Field, Illinois Street The site will accept bulky items such as furniture, appliances, carpet, wood, scrap metal and other debris that does not fit into household trash bags. No hazardous waste will be accepted. No paints, oils, batteries, computers, TVs or Freon, and no tires will be accepted. This event is for residents inside Pe- tersburg city limits only. Valid pho- to I.D. may be necessary to prove residency. Volunteers for Clean-Up Days may call City Hall to make arrangements. O c t o b e r 9 & 1 0 F r i d ay & S a t u r d ay Site open: Friday: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Saturday: 8 a.m. - Noon Seniors over 65, residents with disabilities or other special circumstances may request curbside pick-up. Call 812-354-8511 in ad- vance to make arrangements. FA L L C L E A N - U P DAYS Petersburg C I T Y O F PIKE COUNTY For more information, call the Pike County Solid Waste Management District at 812-354-2924 Pike County Solid Waste Management District together with Advanced Disposal will be conducting a Fall Clean-Up at the Blackfoot Landfill • Pike County Residents Only • (must show proof of residency at entrance) • NO commercial• • NO household hazardous waste will be accepted • (paints, chemicals, computers, etc.) FREE— • Recycling of appliances, including those with Freon. washers, dryers, stoves, refrigerators, etc. • Disposal of up to 4 tires. $1.00 charge for each tire thereafter. passenger truck and car tires only • Disposal of furniture and other bulky items. couches, chairs, tables, etc. Friday, Oct. 2 8am - 4pm Saturday, Oct. 3 8am - Noon Blackfoot Landfill • on State Rd. 64, 2.3 miles East of Arthur Junction FALL CLEAN-UP NO TELEVISIONS!! Pregnant... or think you are? Call:1-877-257-1084 or Locally Call: 1-812-354-2814 • Free pregnancy testing • Free counseling and info. on pregnancy options. • Confi dential counseling for women & men who are suff ering from post-abortion syndrome. • Residential Care • Health and assistance referrals. • Training and education. • Assistance in getting baby and maternity clothes washpcc@sbcglobal.net www.washingtonpregnancycenter.com The District 2 council seat has incumbent Republican John Melhiser being chal- lenged by Democrat Sandy McBeth. For the District 3 council seat, Democrat incumbent Bertis Jenkins is being chal- lenged by Republican Gary Evans. Five term incumbent Democrat Fran Lewis is be- ing challenged by Repub- lican Rick Ross for the at- large seat. Gary L. Leavitt (R) in District 1, Democrat Brian VanMeter in District 4 and Clerk-treasure Tammy L. Selby (D) are all unopposed. penditures without their ap- proval. We think it is time for to go one step further. Stop re- placing people when they leave county employment, much as the school corpo- ration has done for sever- al years. This would create a net decrease in the num- ber of employees. Obvious- ly, certain positions must be filled, and if multiple em- ployees leave an office, that has to be addressed. In the 1980s and 1990s, the county council fought to reduce extra clerical fund- ings in the various depart- ment budgets. The depart- ments then countered this by staffing their offices suf- ficiently to meet peak times of the year with full-time em- ployees. Each department has peak times when their staff is nearly overwhelmed and other times of the year they could do with fewer em- ployees. We would like to see two strategies employed by the county. First, cross-train employees so they could sea- sonally move from office to office as workloads shift. Second, require council approval to fill vacated po- sitions. A combination of small amounts of extra-clerical funds and cross-trained employees could reduce the number of full-time employ- ees and the burden to tax- payers. Another cost-cutting mea- sure could be implemented by the county commission- ers on new purchases of large equipment. It has become common practice to have a vendor write the specifications for equipment on which they are bidding. What comes with this is specifications that often are either exclu- sive to the particular vendor or near-exclusive. Recently a vendor, dur- ing a council meeting stat- ed, "It is a game." He admit- ted that writing the specs all but secured the project for his company. It also adds considerable expense for the county. While the practice of hav- ing a vendor who can give you examples of specs for a piece of equipment can be a good benchmark, depart- ment heads need to take those specification recom- mendations from more than one vendor, and remove the parts that create exclusive advantages for one brand. The bottom line is coun- ty councilmen are looking at roughly doubling the coun- ty income tax rate. Since the early 1990s, Pike County collected 0.4 percent on the EDIT. The proposed 0.25 percent Public Safety LOIT on top of the 0.1 percent in- crease earlier this month would be an increase of 0.35 percent in one month. Pike County taxpayers who got a $10 per $10,000 of taxable income increase will see an additional $25 per $10,000 of taxable in- come increase if the Public Safety LOIT is passed. Taxpayers in resound- ingly defeated a school ref- erendum by 2-1 margins. It wasn't because they don't want good schools. They want things fixed. Increasing revenues won't guarantee better public ser- vice. It will guarantee gov- ernment growth. They have already in- creased income taxes by $250,000 this year. Make some changes that will pro- duce real savings and see where we are next year. Then we may not need to do the full 0.25 percent. Implementing two income tax increases that near- ly doubles the current rate seems drastic. Continued from page 1 ELECTION Continued from page 1 DRASTIC feet to more than 14,000 square feet. We have never done anything of this mag- nitude before. People are very excited about it," said Bishop. "Do It Best does a good job of price shopping against the big stores. We are now getting studies on them. I don't want to say we will be competitive because that sounds like a cop out, but we will be right there with them on price," said Bishop. "It is exciting, but there is a lot of work ahead." He added they plan to be open at the new location un- til 7 p.m. weekdays and Sat- urday afternoons. "We are determined not to be open on Sunday," said Bishop. While Petersburg Hard- ware is leaving Main St., Petersburg, three new busi- ness are moving onto it. FASHION REWIND Fashion Rewind hopes to open this weekend at the corner of Eighth and Main streets in the former Studio 603 building. "We are shoot- ing for this Saturday and the latest this coming Monday," said owner Lynn Koksal. "We have clothing for the whole family, sizes from in- fants to plus sizing, both men's and women's cloth- ing, both consignment and resale. Brands you know, styles you love and prices you can afford," said Koksal. She said she was out driv- ing around different towns and thought Petersburg was a nice looking town. She saw the new building and efforts to rebuild downtown. "I saw the building and I loved the way it looked," said Koksal. She said she also saw there was a need for a cloth- ing store in Petersburg. She is planning on hav- ing hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and probably 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. MIKEL GRAPHICS Mikel Graphics is in the process of moving to the for- mer Petersburg Police Sta- tion at the corner of Seventh and Main streets. They specialize in T- shirts, but also do yard signs, banners and car stick- ers. Courtney Mikel said and her husband A.J. have been in the business for about eight years. She said they are shooting to open at the Main St. loca- tion by mid-November. BAKERY/CAFE Also, a new bakery/sand- wich shop plans to open in late November in the former Citizens State Bank building on the corner of Seventh and Main streets. Randy Harris said the yet- to-be-named restaurant will feature baked goods, sand- wiches, soups and salads. He said he has a chef who will operate the restaurant in the old bank building. He also plans to move Harris Real Estate into the build- ing as well. "We would love to be open by December," said Harris. He said it isn't going to be a copy of Sweet Stuff, but will be similar. "Stacy ( Wheatley) had a good idea. She just got wore out doing it. I think when she quit, it left a void in town that need- ed to be filled." Harris said he will have office space available in the building for rent for a start- up profession. "We have room for a couple of more," said Harris. Continued from page 1 BUSINESS Art Festival winners The Winslow Community Festival hosted an art contest for fourth and fifth grade Winslow Elementa- ry students on Saturday. The students turned in their artistic rendering of areas of the River Deck. The drawings were displayed at the Carhart Building during the festival. Awards were given for Best Mes- sage, Best Depiction of the Deck and Best of Show in each grade level. The winners received a trophy and a cash prize. Shown with their art work and prizes are, front row: Fourth Graders Olivia Miller – Best of Show; Chesney Mathias – Best Depiction of Deck; and Ozzy Nicholson – Best Message. Back row: Fifth Grad- ers Emily Bise – Best Depiction of Deck; Tessa Vinnedge – Best Message; and Reygan Fenwick – Best of Show. By Andy Heuring The Chamber of Com- merce Business Expo and Halloween at Prides Creek will offer a variety of things to do in Pike County the next two weeks. Chamber of Commerce Business Expo Oct. 1 The Pike County Cham- ber of Commerce Annu- al Business Expo is sched- uled for Thursday, October 1 at the Otwell Community Center. It will run from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. and there is no admission. "We have 33 business- es, everything from travel agents to heating and air- condition firms to banks to purse sales participating," said Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Leslie Tegmeyer. She said they will have several drawings that in- clude golf passes and a barn quilt giveaway. They will have good eats at several of the participating business- es, including Lynda Kina- man's famous bread pud- ding and the original Frost- op recipe coneys. Nearly all of the 33 ven- dors will have some type of giveaway or contest. "Our main focus is just to say 'hey, look at what all we have here in Pike County," said Teg- meyer. The Press-Dispatch will also be at the Chamber of Commerce Expo taking subscriptions for the annu- al October Bargain Period, which allows customers to save $ 3 off any one year sub- scription. In addition, Mon- ica Sinclair, who writes the Monica's Meals in Minutes column, will be there giving away samples of some of the recipes readers have seen in the paper. Halloween in Prides Creek set for October 10 Prides Creek's annual Halloween celebration is set for Saturday, October 10. It will start Saturday morning with pumpkin decorating and other crafts beginning at 10 a.m. at Shelterhouse number 1, which is nearest the beach. They will have trick or treating hours from 1 to 3 p.m. during which no vehi- cle traffic will be allowed in the park. A golf cart parade is scheduled for 4 p.m. and will begin near the beach park- ing lot. A wiener roast is scheduled for 6 p.m., along with hayrides. A Haunted Trail is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Business Expo 2015 Thursday in Otwell Correction: The cost to taxpayers of a new proposed Public Safe- ty Local Option Income Tax was incorrectly stated on two income categories. The correct cost of the new 0.25 percent income tax would be $100 for those with taxable income of $40,000, $150 for $ 60,000, $200 for $ 80,000 and $250 for $100,000 of tax- able income.