The Press-Dispatch
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75¢ Wednesday, November 11, 2015 Volume 147 Number 45 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) Three sections 30 pages Two inserts Local ........ A1-12 Obituaries....... A3 Veterans ......... A5 Shopping ....A6-7 Sports .........B1-4 Classifi eds .... B8-9 Church ........C1-3 Opinion .......C4-5 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 Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 A6-7 A5 Salute to Veterans pping sh Continued on page 11 Veterans Day activities in area By Andy Heuring Petersburg VFW will have a day-long schedule of events on Veterans Day. They will have ceremonies at all three elemen- tary schools, the Otwell Veteran Memori- al, Amber Manor Care Center and Golden Living Center. At 2 p.m., a complimentary meal will be provided for veterans by Hewitt Construc- tion at the VFW in Petersburg. They will have an honor guard that in- cludes seven riflemen, two buglers and flag bearers. The schedule for Wednesday, Novem- ber 11 is: 9 a.m. Petersburg Elementary; 9:50 a.m. Winslow Elementary; 10 :30 a.m. Otwell Elementary; 11 a.m. Otwell Veterans Memorial 1:10 p.m. Amber Manor; and 1:35 p.m. Golden Living Center. Veterans Day was originally known as Armistice Day in honor of the armistice be- tween the Allies of World War I and Ger- many, signed at Compiègne, France. It is remembered for being signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. A year later, President Woodrow Wilson said, "To us in America, the reflections of Armi- stice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the coun- try's service and with gratitude for the vic- tory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportu- nity it has given America to show her sym- pathy with peace and justice in the coun- cils of the nations…" Armistice Day was established as a na- tional holiday in 1938. However in 1954, fol- lowing World War II and the Korean War, it was changed to Veterans Day to honor the veterans of all wars. VETERANS DAY PROGRAM AT PCHS WEDNESDAY, NOV. 11 Pike Central High School will be conduct- ing a Veterans Day Program on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 9 a.m. in the high school gym. The high school swing choir and the high school band will both be performing. All veterans are welcome to attend. Contact the high school office at 812-354- 8478, ext. 302 with your service informa- tion so it can be read at the program. I-69 to Bloomington opening this year By Alden Heuring The Indiana Department of Transpor- tation (INDOT) has good news for Hoo- sier fans and parents of Hoosiers: the I-69 corridor between Crane and Bloomington should be open by the end of the year. "At this point, we're primarily complet- ing paving along the 27-mile corridor," IN- DOT spokesman Will Wingfield said. "The first paving began last year in the southern part of the corridor. There was an extreme amount of soil that needed to be moved." That "extreme amount of soil," Wingfield said, was one of the big challenges in get- ting the Crane - Bloomington corridor, al- so known as Section 4, ready. "We had to move 25 million cubic yards of dirt," he said. "The terrain of the area was also challenging, and many contrac- tors had to build access roads to get to the road. The wet construction seasons in 2012, 2013 and 2014 were challenging, too. That was when we were doing a lot of that earth- moving, and of course, when it rains you've often got to wait a few days to start moving dirt. Then if it rains again while you're wait- ing, the clock starts over." However, INDOT is now confident the corridor will start accepting traffic before the new year. "We don't have an exact date, but we do expect to open it by the end of this year," Wingfield said. "It's dependent on weath- er, equipment, personnel; and these things just aren't in everyone's control." The 27-mile stretch of interstate will have four exits. The southernmost will be the ex- it that already exists at State Road 231 near Crane. The next exit, Wingfield said, will let out at State Road 45 in eastern Greene County. The third exit will connect with an extended portion of State Road 445 at the Greene/Monroe county line, and the north- ernmost exit will connect to State Road 37 just south of Bloomington. "Once it does open to traffic, there will be some continuing construction on the me- dians and shoulders," Wingfield said. "In Bloomington, on State Road 37, construc- tion is underway for Section 5 between Bloomington and Martinsville. The con- tractors are building overpasses and in- terchanges, and widening what will soon be the interstate." Work of a different sort is also under- way on Section 6, which will be the last I- By Ed Cahill Parents have until midnight on Friday, Nov. 13, if they want to request that the Indi- ana Department of Education rescore their child's ISTEP exam. In prior years, the Pike County School Corporation was responsible for submit- ting parental requests for rescores. Begin- ning this year, however, parents are being required to submit the requests themselves during a five-day rescore window, which of- ficially began on Monday, Nov. 9. "We are sending a reminder call to par- ents, that they should be able to get in and see their child's scores," Pike Coun- ty Schools Superintendent Suzanne Blake said. "If they have any questions about how to access it, or about the information they're seeing, we're encouraging them to call the school. We'll try to be as helpful as we can with helping the parents understand that information." Blake said that, typically, rescores are requested if a child's score fell just shy of passing. "Especially with the open-ended ques- tions, if somebody else reads it, is there a chance the child would pass? " Blake said. "Or on the multiple-choice questions, is there a stray mark somewhere they count- ed as an error versus accurately counting the response? Sometimes it's just a matter of reviewing the submission and asking the state to take another look at it." Blake cautioned parents that it is project- ed that a new ISTEP assessment that was administered for the first time last spring Parents can request ISTEP rescores until November 13 By Andy Heuring A 31-year-old man was discovered dead in his rural Petersburg home last Thurs- day evening. Darrin Dillon, of 278 S. SR 57, Peters- burg, was found by friends. Indiana State Police Detective Tobias Odom said two of Dillon's friends had got- ten worried about him because they had not heard from him since October 20. Det. Odom said they had sent him texts and email but didn't get a response. So Thurs- day evening, they went to his house and found him dead. They called 911. Odom said an autopsy report will not be available for several days, but the death doesn't appear to suspicious. He said there were no signs of wounds, no sign of entry into the house, no signs of struggles and no notes. "I haven't found anything that would indicate a suicide or anything suspicious. It is just strange you would find a 31-year- old dead," said Odom. Suicide unlikely in Darren Dillon death New culvert on CR 325 W. Culverts were put in place on CR 325 W., south of Cart Road. A large pipe culvert failed and was replaced with con- crete box culverts. Each of the seven sections was 18 by 6 by 10 and weighed 44,000 lbs. Above: crews set one of the last sections, while contractors and County Highway Department employees Kevin Robinson, Roger Ham, Josh Byrd and Chad Stoll help line it up before setting it in place. It was completed Monday morning. Contributed photo By Andy Heuring Petersburg resident Brooks Yon did two tours with the Indiana National Guard serv- ing in Iraq and Bosnia and spent 13 years in either the National Guard or Army. He was 17 when he first signed up for the National Guard. "My parents had to sign me in." "It was the only thing I ever saw myself doing. I wanted to get in so bad, I couldn't wait to graduate from high school and then get into the Army. So I signed up and that got me in," said Yon. He paused, then said, "In hind sight, I should have waited." Brooks is the third generation of Yons to be in the military. His grandfather was in the 82nd Airborne and his father, Jerry, was in the Navy. Yon found out his signing up for the Na- tional Guard prevented him from being able to do the things he wanted to do. Yon also found out it could be nearly as hard to get in as it was to get out. He had knee surgery the year before he signed up and then he had outpatient sur- gery for an ingrown toe nail shortly before he was supposed to begin basic training. "I didn't have a doctors release so they kicked me out. They discharged me and I had to re-sign." Instead of going to basic training be- tween his junior and senior years, he final- ly went to Ft. Benning, Ga., in February of 1993, almost a full-year after graduating high school. At basic training, he learned infantry training as a tow gunner, mount- ed on top of a hummer anti-armor. He completed basic training and came back to southern Indiana, where he com- pleted his commitment with the National Guard. He then decided he wanted to go to the regular Army. Yon again had trouble going through the medicals because of his knees. "The doc- tor said, 'Your knees are shot.' I told him I had already gone through basic training." He started to change his mind, then said, "They never should have let you in, in the first place. I just grabbed that form and spun it around and showed him he was the one who had signed it the first time." So Yon was back in. "I really wanted in- fantry, that job was denied to me because of prior service. The closest I could get was artillery." He was trained on a Multi- ple Launch Rocket System. "It looked really cool on the video. Trust me, it wasn't," said Yon. He said learning the artillery way of do- ing things was much different than his in- fantry training. Yon was sent to Babenhausen, Germa- ny. "It was a little base out in the middle of nowhere." He said it was completely different than what he had heard about bases in Germany during the Cold War, which had just ended a few years earlier. Brooks Yon did tours in Iraq and Bosnia; spent 13 years in military Brooks Yon, Paul Collier and Kenny Zimmerman, all from Pike County, sit on a Humvee while on a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia with the Indiana National Guard.