The Press-Dispatch
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Stellar Focus Vision Driven Petersburg, Indiana SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE • SECTION D SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE • SECTION E net Have you checked out the NETedition? See exclusive video of this week's Easter egg hunts, wrecks and more! Five sections 58 pages Nine inserts 75¢ Volume 144 Number 15 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-340) Wednesday, April 11, 2012 Winslow to add $3 hydrant fee on water bills $3 a month fee on all water customers dur- ing their Monday night meeting. The new fee is for fi re hydrant rental. Winslow Town Council voted to impose a By Andy Heuring Council president David Tisdale read from a letter to the council that in the town's 2011 audit it was noted the Town of Win- slow shall pay the Water Utility hydrant rental. He read that according to the au- dit the Town of Winslow had not been col- lecting the service charge. Even though in 2005 a Town Ordinance states the per an- num charge per fi re hydrant is $446.95 or roughly $1 per Winslow water customers. The letter stated Indiana law allows mu- Try it at www.pressdispatch.net/edition. Just click "Subscribe Now" to sign-up for FREE. nicipalities to recover public fi re protection costs paid to a publicly owned water utility by adopting an ordinance that provides in the basic rates of all customers of the utility. According to the letter the Indiana Asso- ciation of Cities and Towns recommended a $3 per customer fee will generate about $11,281 per month and about $15,660 per year. ci a $ ness windows along Main St. Above, Mildred Thomas, 91, and Colin Craig paint curbs on Seventh St. Thomas said, "My son asked me if I was going to help and I said, 'What can I do?' So here I am." The volunteers worked all morn- ing and part of the afternoon cleaning Main St. prior to the Stellar Communities Project selection committee making their visit to Petersburg on Wednesday. About 40 people volunteered Saturday in downtown Petersburg to paint curbs, sweep the sidewalks and wash busi- Stellar teamwork clean-up this instead of a rate study that would like- ly raise the water rates. "We have only had two rate increases in the last 15 years," said Tisdale. "We are going to pass this and try to save the customers from a water rate in- crease," said Tisdale. th ly Tisdale said the council was considering Continued on page 2 Redistricting adds third State Representative to county voting in a new district for State Represen- tative and several voters will be in a new vot- ing place on May 8 when they go to the polls for the primary election. You may not have moved but unless you live in Clay, Madison, Logan or Jefferson Township you are now in a different State Representative District. For the last 10 years Pike County was Most of the voters in Pike County will be By Andy Heuring divided between Districts 63 and 64. Now the eight southern precincts in Pike County have been moved to District 75 and Repub- lican Ron Bacon is now their State Repre- sentative. The precincts that have moved to Dist. 75 are Lockhart, Washington 2, Mar- ion, Monroe, Patoka 1, Patoka 2 and Win- slow. District 63 and 64 also saw changes. District 63 used to have most of Pike request for ditcher, delays purchase of ambulance County council denies funding of a new ambulance, and voted against funding the pur- chase of a ditching machine dur- ing their Tuesday morning meet- ing. Councilmen voted 4-3 against County councilmen delayed By Andy Heuring ditch. But it uses less manpower because truck drivers aren't need- ed to haul the dirt away. It expels the dirt into the fi eld. In previous meetings, a repre- an additional request of $48,000 from the Rainy Day Fund to pur- chase a ditch digger. The vote came after about 15 minutes of discussion. Councilmen Greg Mangin, Randy Harris and Den- nis Bishop voted 3-0 to approve it, with Myreon Krohn, Joe Sutton, Greg Willis and Max Elliott vot- ing against it. Highway Superintendent Bob- by Joe Morton was asked if the county's tractors would work with the machine and what percentage of roads it would work on. Morton said all three of the county's tractors were big enough to operate the machine. He said it would work on about 65 percent of the county's roads. "It will work on almost everywhere except if the road has high, steep banks on both sides. "Do we have an operator to run Morton said, "No, all it is, is a trac- tor driver." He said you need one person to sentative from the machine's com- pany said it will greatly reduce the cost of ditching in the county be- cause it uses less people and goes several times faster than excavat- ing machines. Krohn said they wouldn't be County and all of the southern precincts, but that has changed. District 63 has been shifted north and now includes all of Peters- burg, which used to be in District 64. The precincts of Jefferson 1 and 2, Washington 3, and Washington 1. District 64 now is only Clay, Logan and Madison precincts. In the previous election all of Petersburg and all three Washington precincts were in District 64. of are in the voting places. Earlier this year Pike County Clerk Shir- Other changes voters need to be aware ley Van Meter announced she had worked out a contract with the Gospel Center Church on Illinois St. to host all four Peters- burg precincts. They had voted at the Pres- byterian Church, Free Methodist Church and VFW. Van Meter said not only did that Continued on page 2 able to use it when crops are ma- tured. "I have no doubt this is a good machine in the right situation. My concern is we bought two ditch- ing machines in the last year," said Councilman Sutton. Council president Greg Wil- "There are certain places you can't use the ditcher. The excava- tors do a great job, they just don't do it fast enough," said Morton. "We have a lot of equipment it?" asked councilman Greg Man- gin. "Yeah, if we hire one." Then operate it and another to go along in front of it, marking culverts and cleaning other objects out of the PUBLISHING PIKE Local ........A1-10 Obituaries ......A3 Sports ........B1-4 lis asked, "If this machine is pur- chased, does it mean you can do away with one of those two ma- chines?" "No not at all," said Morton. a crash Monday morning when it crossed the centerline and hit a semi-truck, according to In- diana State Police. Kline had to be extricated and was fl own to St. Mary's Hospital with se- rious injuries. The truck Jeffrey Kline, 51, of Ferdinand was driving east on Highway 64 was destroyed in Two injured when pickup hits semi needs out there. Is this the most important thing?" said council- man Max Elliott. "I'm sure it is a great machine, day morning when a pickup truck went left of center and crashed in- to a semi-truck hauling coal on Highway 64 just east of Highway 257. Jeffrey Kline, 51, of Ferdinand, A two-people were injured Mon- but I just worry about having all our money in ditching machines," said Sutton. Mangin said if the county could truck continued down the side of the road, overturning about 100 yards from the impact. Kline's pickup spun backwards get their ditches established they would save money on maintaining Continued on page 2 WHAT'S INSIDE: Classifi eds ...B9-11 Church .......C1-6 Opinion ..........C2 History ...........C7 Home .......D1-14 Stellar .......E1-14 was driving a pickup truck east on Highway 64 when he went left of center for an unknown reason and hit a Freightliner tractor-trail- er being driven by Carl J. Boswell, 50, of Utica, Kentucky, according to Indiana State Police. Police said Boswell tried to avoid the collision by swerving to the side of the road but couldn't avoid the impact. His NEWS TIPS: Phone: ........................354-8500 Fax: ............................354-2014 E-Mail .editor@pressdispatch.net and came to reset in the east- bound lane. It took about 30 min- utes for Patoka Township's Res- cue 5 to extricate him. He was fl own by air ambulance head. Mike Gray, who lives near the crash scene said he was out working with his dogs when he heard a loud crash. He said there was no tire noise prior to the crash. Gray said he checked on the truck driver who was clos- est to him and Boswell was able to talk to him, but then collapsed after saying he didn't remember what happened. Gray said Kline was able to say to St. Mary's Hospital with seri- ous injuries. Boswell had a large cut on his his name was Jeff. State Trooper Ryan Conrad is investigating the accident and said the investigation is continu- ing. by the Pike County Sheriff's De- partment and Patoka Township and Spurgeon Fire Departments. He was assisted at the scene CONNECT WITH US: Facebook .... facebook.com/pressdispatch Twitter ......... twitter.com/pressdispatch E-Mail .......... news@pressdispatch.net