The Press-Dispatch
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75¢ Wednesday, December 16, 2015 Volume 147 Number 50 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) Three sections 34 pages Six inserts Local ........ A1-12 Obituaries....... A3 Sports .........B1-2 Classifi eds .. B9-11 Church ........C1-3 Shopping ....C4-5 Opinion .......C6-7 History ........... C9 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 See CALENDAR on page 2 Pike school calendar set for next year By Ed Cahill The Pike County School Corporation's Board of Trustees approved the school cal- endar for the 2016 -17 school year during its regular monthly meeting on Monday, Dec. 14. The 2016 -17 school year will begin with a teacher work day on Monday, Aug. 4, 2016, with the following day – Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2016 – designated as the first day for stu- dents, Pike County Schools Superintendent Suzanne Blake announced. In addition to the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016, and a two-week Christmas break from Thursday, Dec. 22, 2016, through Monday, Jan. 2, 2017, Blake said that fall break will again be a full week – from Monday, Oct. 24, 2016, through Fri- day, Oct. 28, 2016 – and the Thanksgiving break will begin on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016, with classes resuming on Monday, Nov. 28, 2016. Blake also announced that spring break is again scheduled for two weeks beginning Monday, March 20, 2017 and continuing through Friday, March 31, 2017. "But, whereas this year we said the sec- ond week would be the snow days, the com- mittee is suggesting we do the first week for snow days, and start at the beginning," Blake said. "So, let's say we have three snow days. We could use the 20th, 21st and 22nd (as make-up days) and that Thursday and Friday would be spring break and then you'd have the next full week." Blake noted that Good Friday – Friday, April 14, 2017 – would also be a holiday. The last day of classes is set for Wednes- day, May 24, 2017, although Thursday, May 25, 2017, Friday, May 26, 2017, Tues- day, May 30, 2017, and Wednesday, May 31, 2017, are designated as snow days. "They placed two snow days after Memo- rial Day, but if you look just at before Me- morial Day, you have at least seven built-in days," Blake said. "And then you have the option of extending past Memorial Day." Parent/teacher conferences are sched- uled for Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016, Blake add- ed. "I believe, from the discussion, we could continue to do what we have done the last couple of years with, like, a noon to evening time," Blake said. "It's very similar to last year's," board vice president Chris McKinney said. "We do start slightly earlier than the Du- bois County schools, but in terms of the number of days, we're getting in 89 days be- fore Christmas," Blake said. "The biggest difference is the fact that we're doing a full week (for fall break). Some of the Dubois County schools are doing Friday-Monday, Highway 257 near Velpen will be closed on Monday, December 21 for railroad cross- ing repairs, according to the Indiana De- partment of Transportation. The closing will be between Highways 56 and 64 while Norfolk Southern Rail- road crews make repairs to a crossing in the area. The repair is expected to begin at 8 a.m. on Dec. 21 and end near mid-day on Dec. 22, depending upon weather con- ditions. During that time, the closure will be in place around the clock. The official detour for the route follows S.R. 64, S.R. 61 and S.R. 56. INDOT urges drivers to slow down and stay alert near crews. Hwy 257 near Velpen to be closed Monday Pike Central's precision machining class, being offered to students in Pike and sur- rounding counties, can open the door to starting salaries from $ 35,000 to $45,000, which can quickly climb to $75,000 and 100,000 a year, according to Jerry Black- erby, who owns S and J Precision, Inc. in New Albany. High school graduates who go through the precision machining class- es have a very high chance of employment soon after graduation. "We give the students a good founda- tion to start on," said machining instruc- tor Mark Scott. Scott said the class teaches manual ma- chining, such as lathes, surface grinders, vertical milling machines and drill press- es, as well as CNC, which stands for Com- puter Numerical Control. Scott said there are two years available at the high school level, with more advanced stages of it available from Vincennes Uni- versity. High school students in Pike, Dubois and East Gibson school corporations are eligi- ble to take the courses that are in coopera- tion with Vincennes University. Students have to plan their schedules in advance because each year, the program is taught over three consecutive periods. "The first year class is taught in the first three morning periods and the advanced second year course is taught in the three periods after lunch. It is available to only juniors and seniors," said Scott Scott stated students can go directly into employment from the high school program, but they encourage students to continue with the program at Vincennes Universi- ty. He said students completing the college portion of the program have much higher earning potential. "Most of those complet- ing the VU courses have a starting range of between $40,000 and $50,000. But the sky is the limit for more experienced machin- ists. It can easily go to six figures." "Students just need a good basic under- standing of math skills. About like any other occupation, you need to be interest- ed, with a passion for it, and enjoy mak- By Andy Heuring County councilmen voted to move $279,000 from the reassessment tax levy into the general fund and reduced the gen- eral fund for 2016 by $1.1 million in a spe- cial council meeting Tuesday morning. It is a similar move to last year when the council moved more than $400,000 from the park and recreation, reassessment, as well as election and registration. Auditor Ron Wilson told councilmen be- cause they created a public safety fund and approved a new Public Safety income tax, they could reduce the general fund by $1.1 million. Wilson said they put funding for the EMS into both the general fund and new public safety budget that will be fund- ed by the income tax. Because income tax will now fund much of the public safety bud- get, the funding for it in the general fund won't be needed. Councilmen reviewed the various tax lev- ies in the 2016 budget and decided to take the whole amount generated for the reas- sessment budget in 2016 and move that to the general fund. The reassessment fund has a cash bal- ance of $ 658,000 and the budget for 2016 is only $217,250. Council president Greg Wil- lis said reassessment basically had enough money to fund its budget for almost three years. The county's general fund receives a dis- tribution every six months. In the last two years, the council has had to request an ear- ly distribution to make their payroll. Auditor Wilson said this December the distribution arrived about two weeks ear- ly. Because of that, he said they wouldn't have to request an early distribution. How- ever, he said if it had arrived at the normal time, the general fund would have gone in- to the red. This prompted the council to look at mov- ing funds from reassessment. Originally, Wilson suggested they move $179,000. "This just seems arbitrary," said Coun- cilman Greg Mangin. Dennis Bishop asked Assessor Mike Goodpaster if he was comfortable with that move. "In reality, yes, I don't like the idea of taking from the reassessment fund to have a $500,000 cushion, but I'm not a council- man," said Goodpaster. He said the coun- cil did the same thing last year. "I hope you don't have to continue to do that." Councilman Mangin suggested they See COUNCIL on page 2 County council juggles funds in specially-called meeting Sports section judged state's best for non-daily newspapers The Press-Dispatch won the award for the Best Sports Section, non-daily publi- cations, in the Hoosier State Press Associ- ation's Better Newspaper Contest. Sports Editor Ed Cahill accepted his award for Best Sports Section on Decem- ber 5 in Indianapolis. Cahill took first place in the category. The judges stated: Al- though no color in the section, there are a ton of photos highlighting high school and youth sports that really engage the reader throughout. Cahill also placed third in the category of Best Sports New or Feature Coverage for the story Gil Hodges: A hall of fame life. The judges commented: A good story within a story about an athlete and the pain an author took to note the hall of fame life. Otwell Nativity scene Otwell has a new lighted Nativity scene at the Veterans Memorial. Dor- othy Traylor said the Jefferson Township Ruritan had decided to get some new lights this year because their displays were starting to get worn out and in disrepair. She said the Ruritan had voted to spend about $2,500 on new decorations. But then she got a catalog from a decoration company adver- tising 33 percent off all decorations. She decided to take the catalog around town and see if she could get contributions. She was able to get more than $10,000 in donations. The town was able buy more than expected. Traylor said they were able to also purchase the Nativity scene. Precision machining classes offered at PC See MACHINING on page 6 Train show a hit at Hollywalk Haden Gilmur and his father Jason watch closely as a model train goes by on one of several train sets at the Holly- walk Train Show. Five different participants set up train sets, while Don and Lori Richardson had several train sets including a Lego® train, a Thomas the Train set and O to N gauge trains. See other related photos on page A-9.