The Press-Dispatch
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Four sections 34 pages Five inserts A Salute to Pike County Farmers SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE THIS ISSUE 75ยข Volume 144 Number 12 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-340) Wednesday, March 21, 2012 City must be ADA compliant in 2012 By Mike Johansen The Petersburg City Council took the fi rst step toward becoming ADA compliant by agreeing to work with a consultant to meet the fi rst of four phases required to meet the national standards. Workers keep an eye on pumpers being used to pull water away from the hole created by the water line break Tuesday afternoon. Line break leaves Petersburg without water By Andy Heuring Petersburg lost water pressure Tuesday afternoon when a 10-inch water main was broken, and will be on a boil order until at least Friday morning. Pressure was re- stored at about 7 p.m. Tuesday. City Services Manager Gary McCand- less said a construction crew at the Casey's store cut a water line along Fourth St. be- tween Main St. and the railroad tracks. He said the valve in that area would not seat well enough to stop water pressure at the break. "We tried our best to maintain News briefs Easter Egg Hunt in Otwell The Otwell Community Center is sponsoring an Easter Egg Hunt on April 7 at the Otwell Community Center. It will go on rain or shine. In good weather it will be outside with children up to 10 years old being divided into three groups. It will be in the gym if it rains or grounds are to wet. The Easter Egg Hunt begins at noon. Tractors for Trenton will be helping with the event. There will be prizes in some eggs with candy in other eggs. Also the Easter Bunny will be there for pictures. Spruce Street to be open The City of Petersburg has again opened Spruce Street just off High- way 61 for local traffi c. It had been closed while construction work was going on in the area with the canal having work done and their being utility work completed to rebury sewer and water lines for future construction. The bridge on Highway 61 is to be rebuilt, but the Indiana De- partment of Transportation has run into a couple of problems that are delaying the fi nal work on the bridge. Once they are solved, Spruce Street will be shut down again during the highway work. The street is open temporarily for traffi c. It will not be repaved un- til after all of the work in the area is completed. Blood drive April 1 at St. John Lutheran An American Red Cross blood drive has been scheduled for Sun- day, April 1 at the St. John's Luther- an Church near Otwell from 8 a.m. until noon. Its address is 6438 W. CR580N, Otwell. water pressure on the west side of town, but we just couldn't isolate the leak quick- ly enough," said Mayor Jon Craig He explained a 10-inch line carries so much capacity it depletes the water tower reservoir quickly. Because of old valves, they weren't able to shut them down be- fore the water drained out. However because Reynolds is in Peters- burg doing new water line work, they were able to bring in specialized equipment to make the repair quicker than the city could have without their help. Craig said the water outage affected parts of Otwell and Pike-Gibson territo- ries. He said those customers need to con- tact their utility company to fi nd out if they are part of the boil order. He also said if your water pressure was affected by the outage you are probably part of the boil order. "We have to have two consecutive pos- itive water tests and the fi rst one we can take is tomorrow (Wednesday). If the fi rst two are approved it will be Friday morning before the boil order is lifted. Plaza added to Stellar Community project By Andy Heuring One of the latest changes in Petersburg quick moving and constantly changing Stellar Com- munity project plan is a plaza to be created on Eighth St. between the courthouse and former Integra Bank. Petersburg Mayor Jon Craig said as Peters- burg's team of consultants talked with the three agencies involved in the Stellar program they learned more about Stellar's priorities. He said one big emphasis is they want a "big impact in a small visible area instead of making several small impacts in a wide area of the community." Craig said this has lead them to quickly rethink and retool their project. Originally the plan called for a senior hous- Continued on page 2 Warren gets 16 years on meth-related charges By Andy Heuring A rural Petersburg man was sentenced to 16 years in prison last Friday in Pike Circuit Court. Noah Shane Warren, 38, of 1126 S. CR250W, Petersburg was found guilty in early February of manufacturing meth, a class B felony; possession of two or more precursors, a class D felony; pos- session of paraphernalia, a class A misdemeanor and neglect of a child, a class D felony. Pike County Deputy Prosecutor Noah Shafer said following the trial, Warren admitted to be- ing a habitual substance offender, because of two previous unrelated substance abuse convictions. Warren was arrested on October 16, 2010 at Continued on page 2 Because the City of Petersburg actually has more than 50 employees counting the fi re department, police department and city staff, they must meet all of the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements for cities and towns. Cities were actually supposed to be ADA compliant by the late 1990s, but that compliance was not enforced until recently. The federal government has now required cit- ies with more than 50 employees to be ADA compliant starting this year. Because Peters- burg is a fi nalist for a Stellar Grant which will use federal dollars, they must show they are taking positive steps forward to meet the re- quirement to receive the grants, up to $20 mil- lion, as part of the program. Judy Thoman from Bernardin Lochmuel- ler appeared before the City Council Monday night to go over their proposal to meet the fi rst standard of the four for the city to become ADA compliant. Their proposal comes at a cost of up to $7,800 to complete the fi rst sec- tion of the ADA requirements. They will take the money from the Rainy Day Fund and will have to do an additional appropriation change because this is not in the current budget. Thoman said the city will need to obtain four "milestones" to meet all of the ADA re- quirements. Their proposal is to help cities meet the fi rst of the four milestones of which there are four parts. The City Council took the fi rst two steps toward meeting the fi rst portion of the ADA requirement that cities have to complete by the end of the year. The council appointed new Building Inspec- tor R.C. Klipsch to be the ADA coordinator for the city. The second action was to approve spend- ing up to the $7,800 fi gure on the proposal by Bernardin Lochmueller to complete the fi rst stage. They decided to go ahead because they will need to meet these standards to be eligible for the Stellar Grants and because the city will have to be compliant even if they Continued on page 2 Oliver meets the Artful Dodger Oliver (Aaron Keepes), left, and the Artful Dodger (Nick Baker) kick their heals while singing "Consider Yourself" after just meeting. The two were part of Pike Central's spring musical, "Oliver." Additional photos can be found on page A-4. County requests funds for ambulance, ditcher, Stellar By Andy Heuring Pike County Commissioners agreed to pay a $178,000 claim for debris removal from the South Fork of the Patoka River, buy a $176,000 ambulance, a $48,000 ditch- ing machine and voted to request $50,000 a year for three years as a match to the Stel- lar Community grant request during their Monday night meeting. County Commissioners voted 3-0 to ap- prove a $178,000 payment to Deig Bros. for WHAT'S INSIDE: PUBLISHING PIKE Local ........A1-10 Obituaries ......A3 Healthy PC ....A9 Sports ........B1-4 Classifi eds ...B9-11 Church .......C1-6 Opinion ..........C2 History ...........C7 Ag Week .....D1-4 debris removal from the South Fork of the Patoka River. Roger Kottlowski of Com- monwealth Engineering told the commis- sioners Deig Bros. had completed every- thing they were contracted to do for that part of the project. Two weeks ago commissioners tabled payment to Deig Bros. after Gary Hunt complained two of fi ve beaver dams had not been removed from the stream. Hunt and other residents of the area along Highway NEWS TIPS: Phone: ........................354-8500 Fax: ............................354-2014 E-Mail .editor@pressdispatch.net 64 attended numerous meetings complain- ing about the permanent fl ooding along the area in previous years. The county received a $300,000 federal grant to remove debris from the South Fork Patoka in three locations. Kottlowski said they couldn't remove all of the debris, only debris that was blocking water fl ow. They also said federal guide- lines wouldn't allow them to touch the stream bed. CONNECT WITH US: Facebook .... facebook.com/pressdispatch Twitter ......... twitter.com/pressdispatch E-Mail .......... news@pressdispatch.net