The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/62292
The Press-Dispatch City Council takes steps toward ADA compliance and the purchase of the Integra Bank building Council gave formal ap- proval to an ordinance for the Stellar Grant appli- cation, approved making an offer to purchase the old Integra Bank Build- ing and took another step in the process for compli- ance with the Americans with Disabilities Act dur- ing its second meeting for the month of April on Mon- day night. The Stellar Grant Com- The Petersburg City By Mike Johansen mittee made a site visit to Petersburg last Wednesday to hear its proposal. Peters- burg is one of seven final- ists for two Stellar Grants. The City Council passed a motion to formally accept the grant and establish the spending for the $10,000 for the planning portion for Stellar. City Councilman John Melhiser thanked all ,those involved including May- or Jon Craig for all of their efforts and time put into making the Stellar Grant presentation. He said they all did a great job, Mayor Craig said he posal contains funds for that purchase and the Pe- tersburg offer would be contingent on the award- ing of the grant to the city. Notification should come in mid-May. This move is being made to keep the building from going to auction and possi- bly being sold to someone else at auction. The Stellar Grant would remodel the building for use locally for Project lead the Way inven- tors and for local groups and offices. It also could be used in part by the county for offices. No price or of- fer amount was announced. The mayor was granted would like to take this one step further in securing the former Integra Bank building at the corner of Main and Eighth Street. He said he has been working with the real estate agent from Newburgh handling this for the Federal Depos- it Insurance Corporation, who took over the building when Old National Bank decided not to keep the Pe- tersburg branch open. The FDIC is selling the build- ing, but the mayor said he had not been able to con- tact an FDIC official about the possible purchase of the building. The Stellar Grant pro- got the initial look at the first ordinance it will need to adopt in the near future regarding a special Com- pliance Committee and the process to be used for com- plaints about accessibility within the city for disabled persons. The City Council will have to adopt this Ordi- nance plus adopt a plan to work on compliance within the city. The ordinance was modeled after one that was adopted by Mount Vernon. However, the mayor felt some changes needed to be made and they need to look at other ordinances before making a final decision. Bernard Lochmueller is a consultant hired to help the city reach compliance with step one of the ADA regula- tions. They will have other items for the City Council to consider in the near fu- ture. The City Council will also be appointing an ADA Advisory Council that re- ports to the Board of Pub- lic Works and Safety. City Clerk-Treasurer The City Council also will be installing anoth- er 200 amp electric line at Hornady Park for the La- bor Day Celebration as re- quested by the committee. The cost will be around $7,000. They are working with Duke Energy to bring down that cost if they can. The City Council also Tammy Selby said the city has received two checks from the state for its por- tion from tax funds not distributed by the State Department of Revenue. They received $5,517.36 for 2010 and $2,343.65 for 2012. Those funds will be added to the city income for the year. The mayor said they in advance of doing their work. The Petersburg Water Board approved going with Tri State Inc. for fencing around the well field gen- erator. They had the low- est of two quotes at a cost of $4,364. They received a bill from Reynolds Inc. for $1,824.75 for repairing the water main near the Caseys Gen- eral Store construction site. They will be gather- ing the other related costs and working with Duke En- ergy for reimbursement of the costs for the leak. The Board of Public Wednesday, April 18, 2012 A-9 cussed trash pickup around town and the prob- lem with using city staff for that job which takes them away from the many other tasks they have. The Board decided to Works and Safety and the city are still working with Prides Creek over its sewer bill and what might be done to mediate sewer costs for the park in the future. One idea is to put in a sewer us- age meter, but preliminary prices are around $10,000. There are water line leaks and the park is seeking re- lief on its sewer bills dur- ing the lead time. Other things are being looked at that could benefit the park as far as sewer service and costs are concerned. The Board also dis- the courthouse. It is owned and operated by Angela Carter. Silk Designs of- fers silk flowers, saddles, memorial arrangements, wreaths, flags, tapestries, throws, as well as pictures and frames. They are open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Carter said they can be reached any day at 789-3046 and 354-2173. Above, Carter and Alycia Church of the Pike County Chamber of Com- merce participate in a ribbon cutting celebrating Silk Designs opening. Silk Designs opened last week at 816 E. Main st., Petersburg across from Silk Designs opens 90.8% of all Pike County third grade students passed IREAD-3 passed a redistricting or- dinance that essentially leaves the precincts with- in the town the same as they have been. They made some changes, but were told by the Federal Gov- ernment they did not meet the standards and decided to have the precincts re- main the same for the next 10 years. The City Council got the authority to make an of- fer in case one needs to be made prior to official word on the Stellar Grant win- ners. However, he would not make it final until the city learns of the grant de- cision. first look at a proposal go- ing through Planning and Zoning right now to change fees for building permits, setting fees for various services and various proj- ect sizes. The proposal will be fine tuned and come back to the City Council for action once it has gone through the proper steps with the Planning and Zon- ing Commission. Current- ly the only fee is $12.50. The new fees will include a higher fee for those who do not get building permits go with a Spring Clean-up time from April 23 through April 30. Residents can pile brush and limbs, up to two inches thick, in front of their homes and city staff would pick up the debris. They will have to contact city hall to get on the list providing their address to have it picked up. The city will not pick up debris at other times except during the spring clean-up time and after severe storms. Information should be available at City Hall in the near future and residents may notify city hall for pickup of debris between April 23 and April 30. Corporation learned last week that 90.8% of all Pike County third grade stu- dents passed IREAD-3, the state's new reading test. Third graders must pass in order to advance to fourth grade. Of the 131 students who took IREAD-3 119 reg- istered a passing score. On- ly 12 Pike County students, or 9.2%, failed IREAD-3. "We are extremely happy The Pike County School with our third-grade read- ers," said Dr. Michael Har- ding, Assistant Superinten- dent for Instruction for the Pike County School Corpo- ration. "While Indiana av- erages have not been re- leased, I'm confident Pike County will again be one of the better-scoring school districts in Indiana. Our teachers were very serious about preparing their third graders to take IREAD-3, Vot and it appears their efforts have paid off again with out- standing scores. The IDOE developed the IREAD-3 test to see if students were ready to learn fourth grade material. I think these re- sults substantiate the fact that almost all Pike County students going through our primary grade programs at Otwell, Winslow and Pe- tersburg schools come out ready for fourth grade ma- terial." Scores for individual schools and the district on IREAD-3 were: Otwell 25 of 25 passing (100%); Winslow 31 of 36 passing (86.1%); Pe- tersburg Elementary 63 of 70 passing (90%); and the Pike County School Cor- poration 119 of 131 passing (90.8%). "Our task now is to begin pass, getting them ready for their June 15, 2012 retest," said Harding. "We want to try to attain a 100% pass rate for all students here in Pike County, regular educa- tion and special education, if we can. This would be an outstanding achievement to attain this level of success." Pike County elementa- ry school officials will send student reports home to third-grade parents this week. Teachers and admin- istrators at each elementa- ry school are now review- ing student test results, and preparing a plan to help those who failed IREAD-3 to do better on the retest this summer, which will be conducted Friday, June 15. 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