The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/619413
A-2 Front Wednesday, December 23, 2015 The Press-Dispatch METH BUST Continued from page 1 North Newton • Jasper Mon-Fri 9-8, Sat 9-7 Sun 11-4 Ben Franklin Crafts Excludes Saddles & Cones 50% OFF All sales final A L L C H R I S T M A S D E C O R DEC. 23 THRU DEC. 31 Open Christmas Eve 9am-3pm Open Christmas Eve until Noon Closed Friday, December 25 Marge's Shop 716 Main St. 812-354-9372 Petersburg Mon.-Thurs. 9-5; Fri. 9-6; Sat. 9-5 "When you care enough to send the very best" HALF PRICE • Beginn ing Saturday D ec. 26 • • 50- 7 5 % O ff K ee psa ke Or na m e nts • • All Christm as Gif W rap & A ccessories • • Select Holiday & Everyday Item s • • Boxed C hrist mas Cards • SALE After-Christmas • Ji m Shore Figurines - BUY 1, GET 1 HAL F P R ICE! • 204 E. 3rd St. • Jasper 812-482-3757 www.AdventuresRecreation.com Like us on: ONE DAY CLEARANCE ONE DAY ONLY • Saturday, December 26 25% OFF ALL NORTH FACE JACKETS & FLEECE WINSLOW Continued from page 1 ways," council member Dave Tisdale said. "Let's let the new council do it (re- name the center)." A fter swearing in as a member of the council, Ter- ry Strobel noted that the new town council would need to find a new animal control officer. "Since I'm going to be one of the new town board mem- bers, I have to resign from animal control. So Decem- ber 31 will be my last day," Strobel said. "I've been do- ing this for seven years, and I'd keep doing it, but I can't." "They call that double dipping, don't they? " Dick Brewster said. "We'll have to decide on a new one." Dick Brewster and Beth Bennett presented the retir- ing council members, Don Bolin and Dave Tisdale, with clocks to commemorate their time serving the town. "We have sitting to my left, this big ugly one on the end (Dave Tisdale). He's served on the Winslow Town Council 26 years," Dick Brewster said. "This second ugly one who always comes in a stupid hat has served for 12 years... I'm going to miss you two." OTHER BUSINESS • Fire Chief Jason Bot- toms reported the depart- ment had elected officers for 2016. The town council will vote on whether to approve the officers during the Jan- uary meeting. Bottoms also said he'd like to start having the fire department check hydrants. "It ought to be every three months, at a bare mini- mum," he said. "Anything the fire department can do to help that move along, I'd love to do it. I've got sever- al guys that'll love to help, whether they know it or not." Bottoms said right now the town has 97 hydrants, and two are confirmed to be out of order. • Eddie Boyd disputed with the town council over the installation of water meters for Boyd on Collins Street. "I want to know again why I can't get water meters over on Collins Street," Boyd said. "I've got an agreement from the city where they ap- proved putting them in on the 12th." Dick Brewster said the town couldn't install the me- ters without receiving more information from Boyd, un- der county and state regu- lations. Boyd said he'd pro- vided all the necessary in- formation. The dispute was left unresolved. • The council voted 3-0 to name the park by the river "Heuring-Tisdale Riverside Park." Arvle Wade, who was present at the meeting, sug- gested the name. "I think that'd be a good move if everyone's agree- able to doing it," Dick Brew- ster said. "Half the time you don't know which park you're talking about here in town, since we've got that park and the ball park." • The town paid claims to- taling $47,910.13. The next regular meeting of the Winslow Town Coun- cil will begin at 7 p.m. Janu- ary 11, 2016. Retiring town council members Don Bolin (left) and Dave Tisdale receive commemorative clocks for their years of service on the Winslow Town Council. Alden Heuring photo. New council members Terry Strobel (center right) and Greg Simmons (center left) prepare to swear the oath of office as town clerk-treasurer Beth Bennett (left) and town council president Dick Brewster (right) assist them. Alden Heuring photo. By Andy Heuring A Petersburg man's shoot- ing death has been ruled a suicide. Jade Travis Owen Hale, 35, of 401 Locust St., Apt 4, Petersburg, died of a gun- shot wound to the head Tuesday morning. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Baumgart said a co- worker of Hale's had stopped at Hale's apartment to pick him up for work shortly af- ter 7 a.m. He went inside and found Hale on the couch. Baumgart said the co- worker ran next door, knocked on the door and told a neighbor, who called police. Chief Baumgart said police responded to the scene and found Hale as the co-worker described. Shooting death ruled suicide By Andy Heuring County Commissioners deeded Pike County Part- ners for Progress a parcel of ground intended to be used as a site for the Elmer Buch- ta Entrepreneur & Technol- ogy Center during their last 2015 meeting on Monday. Pike County purchased the property a year ago from the Indiana Department of Transportation. INDOT had deemed the land as surplus property after the comple- tion of I-69. It is located just south of I-69 on the west side of Highway 61. Joe Dedman,of Pike Part- ners for Progress, an entity of the Pike County Growth Council, said they wanted the property as a location for Buchta Entrepreneur & Technology Center. He said INDOT has a process they go through to sell surplus property. It starts by INDOT offering the property first to counties and cities. Dedman said the Growth Council was concerned if they waited until it was avail- able to them, the property might have sold to some- one else. So they developed a plan to have Pike County purchase the land and the Pike Partners for Progress paid for it. When the county ap- proved deeding the proper- ty to Pike Partners for Prog- ress, it finally completed se- curing the ground for the center. "It is the step that puts writing on paper that we are moving forward and this will happen. Within two years, we hope to com- plete the center and have it open to support young peo- ple and our entrepreneurs," said Ashley Willis, executive director of the Pike County Growth Council. FRANK ROPP REAPPOINTED TO LIBRARY BOARD Commissioners voted 3- 0 to re-appoint Frank Ropp to the Pike County Library Board. "Currently, Frank Ropp serves on the library board. He said he is willing to con- tinue," said Commissioner Brian Davis. Ropp was approved for a second four-year term. MEETING TIMES CHANGED FOR 2016 Meeting times will change for 2016. They will continue to meet on the first and third Mondays of the month, ex- cept when there is a Monday holiday. One those Monday holidays, the meeting will be moved to Tuesday. Another change is switch- ing back to the first meeting of the month being in the morning and the second meeting of the month being in the evening. The meet- ing time has also changed. Both the morning and eve- ning start times have been moved back 30 minutes. In 2016, the morning meetings will start at 9 a.m. and the evening meetings will start at 7:30 p.m. Also, the second meeting of July has been removed. Commissioners also set the official holidays for courthouse employees. There will be 13 holidays in 2016. Those will be New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, President's Day, Good Friday, Memori- al Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Because Christmas Eve and Christ- mas Day fall on Saturday and Sunday, courthouse em- ployees will be given Friday, December 23 and Monday, December 26 off and New Year's Eve will be celebrat- ed on Friday, January 30 in- stead of January 31. In other business, the commissioners voted to re- lease bonds from Triad Min- ing, LLC on two roads. The first bond was one dating back to October 5, 2004, on CR 500 W. and permission for them to cross CR 100 S. The second was a Tri- ad bond dating to August 19, 2002, for permission to use CR 700 W. as a haul road. The commissioners passed resolutions 2015 -13 and 2015 -12, which releases the bonds. Ashley Wills gave com- missioners a copy of the Growth Council's Econom- ic Development Strategic Plan and their Annual Plan of Work for 2016. She gave them a brief summary of the plans. "I think you are moving in the right direction," said Commissioner Nelson. "If there is anything you need from us, let us know," said Commissioner Davis. The next commissioners' meeting will be at 9 a.m. Monday, January 4 in the courthouse auditorium. Commissioners deed land to be used for Tech Center were the only two residents of the center. Shepherd said the center takes people sent there by the court system. They live in the downstairs of the church, attend class- es three times a week and church on Wednesday night, Sunday morning and Sun- day night. "That is what hurts so bad, when you do every- thing you can do to help someone, and then they go and do something like that. It hurts bad," said Shepherd. Pike County Prosecu- tor Darrin McDonald said, "They tear down opportuni- ties not only for themselves, but for other people, too." McDonald said battling illegal drug problems has been made much tougher by the state legislature relax- ing drug offense sentencing. "The state wants us to reha- bilitate everyone. It is nice to think we can, but a large percentage of the people in this type of program are people who just are not sin- cere about trying to change their lives," said McDonald. "This (arrest) is a state- ment on the process of trying to rehabilitate peo- ple, because most people in these programs want to do drugs. More than once I have felt like I want to throw my hands up and say no more," said McDonald. "I will be talking to Bob (Shepherd) and Chris Hughes. We will try to put some controls in place to create some structures into place so this can't happen again. I hate to say can't hap- pen, because it will happen again. . . This is just a real- ity of drug rehab," said Mc- Donald. Shepherd said he isn't sure what the future for the program will hold. "I think we will be alright. I know we can have classes. It helps a lot of people who come off the streets, not just the peo- ple the courts send here." Shepherd said he had been in charge of the pro- gram for six years. He said their success rate is about 50 -50. "It shocked me as much as anyone. Some you can help and some you can't. It seems like the ones you re- ally, really work hard and try with are the ones who end up stabbing you in the back." He added, "I knew from the beginning you aren't going to help everyone who comes in here. We do the best we can with them. If they decide they don't want to be helped, nothing we can do. I tell everyone who comes in here, if you want help, you can get it. If not, you are wasting my time, your time and God's time. They can fool me, but they can't fool God," said Shep- herd. Shepherd said today he got a phone call from a for- mer resident at the Light- house Recovery Center. "He said if it wasn't for the center, me and the Lord, he wouldn't be alive today. Those are people you keep doing this for. We can't give up just because we had one or two bad apples."