The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/644238
A-2 Front Wednesday, Februar y 24, 2016 The Press-Dispatch KITCHEN REMODELS BATHROOM REMODELS DOORS & WINDOWS FLOORING 2001 E. BROADWAY, PRINCETON Phone: 812-385-3479 Fax: 812-385-4201 Hours: Mon.-Fri. 7-6, Sat. 7-5 Sun. Closed Web: FandMBuilding.com Email: Sales@FandMBuilding.com BUILDING and HOME SUPPLIES, INC . F M & Experience Makes the Difference Follow us on Facebook! GET THE BEST RETURN FOR YOUR MONEY We can help add value to your home 8)&/:063-*'&$)"/(&4 :063*/463"/$&10-*$*&4 4)06-%%05)&4".& 0-*$*&4 .& them, he saw Dersch and Brumfield, both in the driv- er's seat, engaged in sexu- al activity and Besing was in the passenger's seat. Cpl. Wright said when he turned on his flashing emergency lights, Brumfield immedi- ately jumped into the back seat. Norrick was in the oth- er vehicle, a white Dodge, about 15 feet away, accord- ing to Cpl. Wright. Wright said he asked them for their identifica- tion and told them to keep their hands in view. While they were getting their IDs, Wright said he noticed a plastic bag on the dash of the black Ford Focus being driv- en by Dersch. "It was appar- ent to me the bag was crystal meth," said Wright. He asked Dersch about the bag and he responded, "What bag? " Wright then pointed to the bag on the dash. He said, "Dersch's head dropped and he said softly, 'meth.'" Pike County Deputy Mike Willis arrived and assisted with the arrest. Wright said he removed the plastic bag from the dash of the car and when Dersch was removed from the car, police noticed a plastic bag of prescription pills in his seat. Cpl. Wright said the bag on the dash field tested pos- itive for methamphetamine and weighed more than 14 grams. He said there were 17 Klonopin pills and one Lo- razepam pill in the bag in the driver's seat. Cpl. Wright said they questioned all four and found they all knew the drugs were there, and ad- mitted they had done drugs. During a search of the vehicles, Wright said in the black Ford they found a pre- scription pill bottle with 23 hydrocodone pills in it that were prescribed to another person, and a glass smoking pipe with a white residue in it that field tested positive for meth. In the white Dodge, police located three burnt synthet- ic marijuana cigarettes and a clear glass smoking pipe with a residue that field test- ed positive for meth. All four were then trans- ported to the Pike County Jail. Cpl. Wright said when Norrick was being booked in and searched by the female staff, they found a clear plas- tic baggie containing crys- tal meth and another con- taining synthetic marijuana in a body cavity. All four are being held in the Pike County Jail with- out bond until it is deter- mined when and what lev- el of charges will be filed, which will determine the bond amount. METH BUST Continued from page 1 ZONING Continued from page 1 CHARTER Continued from page 1 of them still aren't working," he said. "If you see one not working, call us and let us know which one and where it is so we can get it fixed." • City Services Superin- tendent Brian Davis report- ed the sewer plant's grind- er was pulled out of the sys- tem recently for repairs, but is irreparable. Davis said he would be receiving a price soon on a replacement grinder. Following that meeting, Marra said that a recom- mendation would be made whether or not to proceed with a public hearing. "If we look at it and it doesn't cut mustard, why waste all these people's time? " Marra asked rhetor- ically. "On the other side, people believe because you've got a public hearing, you are going to get a char- ter. That's not necessarily true, either. We listen to the public. We listen to the feed- back of the community." While Ball State Uni- versity's Office of Charter Schools makes recommen- dations as to which propos- al or proposals to approve, Marra noted that Ball State University's president makes the final decision as to any schools that are rec- ommended for a charter ap- proval. Over the past three years, Ball State University has ap- proved only one of 14 char- ter school applications. Ten charter school applications were not approved and three were withdrawn. "We've only approved about 23 percent of all ap- plications since we've been here," Marra said. "The other side thinks we just ap- prove these things, and we don't." Marra said that Ball State University had issued char- ters to 42 schools when he started; after deciding not to renew charters for sev- en schools in 2012 and two more in 2015, that number is currently down to 27. "We want a quality char- ter school," Marra said. "Good services for kids is what we're looking for." During last week's news conference, Rhodes was asked what factors Ball State University should consider when weighing whether or not to approve the Friends of Otwell's charter school ap- plication. "I think the biggest thing is the timeliness with which we reacted," Rhodes replied. "I know it may seem differ- ent to you, but this has been almost a snap-of-the-finger kind of reaction, and yet our product's a very quality product." "The other thing that has impressed them is the num- ber of supporting elements that we have," Rhodes con- tinued. "There's a number of agencies and people, in- dividuals, who have provid- ed work behind the scenes. And I'll just be honest with you – the ISTEP scores didn't hurt us any. We're do- ing what needs to be done." Houtsch said that the Friends of Otwell initial- ly tried to work with the Pike County School Corpo- ration's Board of Trustees to keep Otwell Elementary School open past the 2015 - 16 school year, but decided to pursue a charter school after their efforts were re- buffed. "Back in November, we went to a meeting and talk- ed with them," Houtsch said. "A fter that meeting, I thought we got a very clear message from them, and from that point forward, we just went full steam ahead as best we could, as hard as we could, to get this application ready to go." "We tried to make the situation work," Rhodes said. "There will be voices here in the county that will say, well, we didn't try very hard. There'll be voices in the county that will say we didn't try enough, or at all. But the bottom line is that we feel like that we made ev- ery fair effort to open chan- nels of communication and to enter into negotiations." "It wouldn't be fair to the school board for us to identi- fy what all was said and what exchanges went on," Rhodes continued. "Let's just say the two organizations did not agree. We could not find common ground. Essential- ly, we were forced into this situation. The bottom line – the county school board left us. We didn't leave them. And we're taking steps that we feel that we have to take to protect not only our chil- dren, but also our town." By Andy Heuring Winslow Town Council- men discussed ways to de- crease sewer bills for wa- ter customers in summer months and made changes to the employee handbook policy to eliminate three paid holidays during their Monday night meeting. Council president Greg Simmons said giving sew- er customers a break on sewer bills during sum- mer months "is some- thing we are looking into." "I know in the summertime people fill pools, wash cars and spray their kids with hoses in the yard, and that water doesn't go through the sewer system," said Council- man Terry Strobel. "I don't see why we can't give them a break," said Strobel. Brewster said currently they allow people to fill their pools. Then the amount of water usage for that month that is over their normal wa- ter bills is subtracted from their sewer bill. "That just helps people with pools. We need to help everyone," said Strobel. "Let me get this straight," asked Councilman Rich- ard Brewster. "We are go- ing to take January, Febru- ary and March to get an av- erage and then adjust this for May, June and July. The difference is then consid- ered washing cars and fill- ing pools or spraying kids? " "I'm not saying we are go- ing to give it away, but give them a break. Since we have been on the board, we are figuring out ways to save money. We were spending way too much on chemicals and spending too much on lots of things, and we aren't doing that now. We are figur- ing out ways to cut spending and that will provide ways to do things like this," said Strobel. "I like the concept, but we have to figure out a way to do it," said Brewster. No action was taken on the matter, but councilmen agreed to revisit it at their next meeting. Councilmen voted 3-0 to make several changes to the employee handbook. They eliminated the paid holi- days of Election Day, Presi- dents Day and the Friday af- ter Thanksgiving. They al- so eliminated the position of Leadman and added the po- sition of Street Supervisor and put in a six-point disci- pline system. An employee gets one point for missing a day of work and a half-point for being late. They get a point back after six months. In other business, the council was informed their income survey was complet- ed. According to the sur- vey, 59.8 percent of the res- idents in Winslow have low to moderate income. Na- than Held, of Indiana Re- gion 15 Planning, said this qualified Winslow for plan- ning study grants. He said the town would have to pay a match for the grants, but the $5,000 fee to Region 15 to administer the grant would qualify as their match. Councilmen voted 3-0 to submit a letter. Held said submitting a letter did not commit the town, but would result in a site visit from the Office of Community and Rural A ffairs. Councilmen also talk- ed with the Scott Belamor, president of the Winslow Sports League, which over- sees summer baseball. "I understand you want to charge us for water" said Be- lamore. He said they have nu- merous expenses, such as $560 for electricity at the snack shack, $72 a month for trash, $416 a month for mowing and about $1,200 a year for rock and dirt. He added they volunteer to paint and, repair and maintain the facilities. "It is a service to the youth of Winslow." Strobel said he learned earlier Monday the town used to let people do work to pay off their water bills. But they had to stop doing that because of their bonds to pay for the water plant and distribution system don't al- low it. Brewster said the town had agreed in 2010 to not charge the Winslow Sports League for water if they took care of the mowing. Strobel said he wanted to look into if it was legal for the town to not charge the Sports League for water. Jason Bottoms asked if they could use the Commu- nity Center gym to practice during the early season in cool wet weather. "We lost three or four weeks last year to wet weather," said Bottoms. Community Center Di- rector Henry Nelson said if they didn't need heat, he didn't have a problem with them using it for free. Bottoms, who is Fire Chief, also asked if the town and fire department could work together to test and map all of the fire hydrants. He said it would be helpful to know which ones work. Council President Sim- mons suggested they wait a few weeks until temper- atures warm up so they won't be putting water on the streets to freeze. Councilmen voted to pay claims which totaled $16,928.01. The next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Mon- day, March 14 at the Win- slow Community Center. Winslow ponders sewer bill reduction, drops three paid holidays Minniear hits utility pole A Petersburg man escaped injury Saturday evening when he ran off the road and hit a utility pole just north of Petersburg on Highway 57. Robert Minniear, 85, of Washington, was driving north on Highway 57 when he had a dizzy spell and ran off the road, according to State Trooper Brock Buchanan. It happened about 6 p.m. just north of Twin Oaks Church Road. A Petersburg man was ar- rested for drunken driving after police stopped him for riding a four-wheeler on city streets Sunday afternoon. Bernard Church, 48, of 1406 Spruce St., Petersburg, was stopped by Police Cpl. Scott Wright at about 1 p.m. Sunday near Spruce and 11th streets. State Trooper John Davis said Church's li- cense had been suspended and he failed field sobriety tests. Church was taken to the Pike County Jail, where he refused a chemical test and it was determined he was wanted on a warrant from Knox County. He was preliminarily charged with operating a ve- hicle while intoxicated (re- fusal). By Andy Heuring A speeding stop on High- way 64 at about 10 p.m. Sat- urday led to a rural Winslow woman being charged with dealing in methamphet- amine. Heather Lee McCarty, 40, of 44 N. SR 61, Winslow, was arrested on preliminary charges of operating a vehi- cle while intoxicated, (refus- al); possession of metham- phetamine; dealing in meth- amphetamine; possession of syringes; trafficking; pos- session of a controlled sub- stance; resisting law en- forcement; and battery on law enforcement. Pike County Deputy Dal- las Killian said he stopped McCarty for driving 70 mph on Highway 64. When he talked with McCarty, he said he noticed she was "ner- vous and was talking very fast, and making short quick movements, and her pupils appeared very constricted." She then failed field sobri- ety tests. Deputy Killian, in his re- port, stated when he start- ed to place her in handcuffs, she resisted. Then when he transported her to the hos- pital for chemical tests, she started asking questions about if she would have to keep the handcuffs on. She eventually refused to take the chemical test and was transported to the Pike County Jail. Once at the jail, she was taken to booking, where jail staff Margie Wright attempt- ed to process McCarty, but she refused to take her jack- et off. In his report, Deputy Killian stated he went into the booking area to assist jailer Wright and McCar- ty continued to resist, and pulled away while they were placing her in handcuffs, in- juring Jailer Wright's arm. Deputy Killian's report states during the alterca- tion, McCarty pulled a black cloth bag from her jacket pocket and threw it on the floor. According to Deputy Killian, the bag contained: seven syringes, five indi- vidually wrapped corner baggies containing a white crystal-like substance, which field tested positive for meth, a digital scale, a spoon with white residue, cotton swabs, a glasses case, and 20 morphine pills in a pill bottle labeled for hy- drocodone with McCarty's name on it. Speeding leads to meth arrest A truck stolen in January was recovered by police last week in Petersburg. Marvin Goodrid report- ed his black 1998 Chevrolet pickup truck stolen on Jan- uary 3. Pike County Deputy Brad Jenkins said Goodrid spotted the vehicle on Knox Road near a cabin last week and called police. Howev- er, when Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Baumgart ar- rived a few minutes later, the truck had been moved. Baumgart later located it on Cherry St. and it was recov- ered. Deputy Jenkins said po- lice have a suspect in the theft and charges are pend- ing further investigation. Goodrid's stolen truck recovered Church arrested for OVWI Sunday