The Press-Dispatch
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Local ...........A1-8 Sports .........B1-6 Classifi eds .... B7-9 Church ........C1-4 East Gibson .... C5 School.........C6-7 Home Life....D1-5 Obituaries....... D6 Opinion .......C7-8 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 $ 1 Four sections Four inserts 34 pages Wednesday, August 30, 2017 Volume 148 Number 35 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) See CAPTURE on page 2 See ACADEMY on page 2 See JAPAN on page 3 By Andy Heuring A Petersburg man escaped from the Pike County Jail Friday evening for about six minutes and was captured about eight blocks away at his mother's house. Aron Albrecht, 27, of 210 S. Ninth St., Petersburg, has been charged with escape, theft and resisting police. "It wasn't anything that was preplanned. It was just something he did spontaneous- ly," said Pike County Sheriff Jeremy Brit- ton. He said Albrecht and another inmate were being transferred from the outdoor recreation area into the sally port. Sheriff Britton said when the guard turned to lock the sally port door behind them, Albrecht noticed the garage type doors were partial- ly raised. He said jail trustees had been in the sally port washing cars earlier and the doors had been raised about four feet. Albrecht bolted under the door and took off through the neighborhood heading south toward Sycamore St. Jailer Jason Wil- lis chased after him and the second inmate stayed put. Indiana State Troopers John Da- vis and Corey Risley, Petersburg Police Sgt. Chad McClellan and Cpl. Jared Simmons, as well as Sheriff's Deputies Mike Willis and Jason McKinney were in the area and immediately began a search. They also re- quested a K-9 unit from Washington. In a probable cause affidavit, Sheriff's Sgt. Dallas Killian said when he arrived in the area, Sgt. McClellan had seen Al- brecht near 701 E. Goodlet St. and attempt- ed to stop him, but Albrecht grabbed a bi- cycle and was fleeing on the bike into the driveway and yard of 701 E. Goodlet St. un- til McClellan chased him toward a fence. Police said Albrecht abandoned the bike and jumped the fence. He then headed to- ward Highway 61. McClellan notified the VIDEO NetEdition Exclusive The Petersburg Fire Department will have an open house from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at their new fire department building on Illinois St. There will be a dedication ser- vice, with Petersburg Mayor R. C. Klipsch speaking. Refreshments will be served. Petersburg Fire Dept. dedication is Sunday Inmate captured six minutes after escaping from jail By Andy Heuring An unlit license plate led to a Winslow woman being arrested on a charge of deal- ing methamphetamine early Saturday morning. Mary Jo Petry, 27, of 6523 E. CR 250, Winslow, was arrested on preliminary charges of dealing in methamphetamine, at least 10 grams, a level 4 felony, posses- sion of meth at least 10 grams and posses- sion of marijuana. Petersburg Police Cpl. Jared Simmons said he and Pike County Reserve Deputy Jacob Claridge stopped a car at Casey's in Petersburg that had no license plate light. Cpl. Simmons said Deputy Claridge ap- proached the driver and he talked with the passenger, Petry. He said while talking with Petry, he noticed she was "extremely fidgety. . . had rapid speech and her pupils were not reactive to light." Simmons said these are symptoms of meth intoxication. Claridge spoke with the driver, Devin McNabb, of Ferdinand, and found his li- cense was suspended. McNabb gave police permission to search the vehicle. When they did, Sim- mons' report states they found a digital scale with a crystal-like substance on it in a makeup pouch in a purse on the passen- ger side floor board. Cpl. Simmons said the crystal substance field tested positive for meth. In a glasses case, Cpl. Simmons said they found a smoking device with residue and a plastic bag containing a crystal-like substance that also field tested positive for meth. He said they found a tin container with about 8.79 grams of the crystal substance and two other containers with small plas- tic bags of the crystal substance, all field testing positive for math. He said they also found two separate "wads" of cash. One was $130 including a $50 bill and $20 bills, and a separate wad totaling $135 of $5, $10 and $20 bills. Simmons' report stated, "When I locate money packaged in this manner with the amount of suspected meth, I associate this as the earnings from selling the product." When police questioned Petry, she told them "she had a problem" and McNabb didn't know what she had in her purse. Cpl. Simmons said all of the crystal sub- stance weighed about 10.68 grams. Unlit plate leads to felony meth charges By Andy Heuring A Winslow couple had a close call Mon- day night when their electrical box caught fire. Bill and Betty Cochren were watching television at about 10 :30 p.m. Monday night when they heard a roaring noise and their lights flickered. A few minutes later, they heard the roaring noise again and this time their lights went off. Bill said he went out and checked their electrical meter on the outside of the house, but didn't see anything. When he came back in the house, Betty said she had no- ticed smoke in the basement. Their son-in-law, Gene Bolin, who lives next door, saw what he thought was lights on in the basement. He checked on it and found it was a fire instead of lights. He got Bill and Betty out of the house and was able to extinguish the fire. Daniel Shelton, of the Patoka Fire De- partment, said they were notified at 11 p.m. of the fire. When they arrived, Bolin had al- ready extinguished the fire. Shelton said they used a thermal imager to check the house and also disconnected their electri- cal service. "We just thank the Lord. He took care of us. We could have been in bed. I think the noise would have woke me up, but you nev- er know," said Cochren. He also thanked the fire department. "They were pretty nice to us and I appreci- ate how quickly they got to us. Gene already had the fire out, but they took their fans and cleared the smoke out," said Cochren. Basement fire extinguished by neighbor During an emergency meeting on Sat- urday, Aug. 26, the Otwell Miller Academy School Board voted to delay moving class- es into its newly built facility until Wednes- day, Aug. 30. According to Elisabeth Luff, who serves as legal counsel for the OMA school board, the emergency meeting was held at the Ot- well Miller Academy building to evaluate whether or not to begin holding classes in the new building on Monday, Aug. 28. "Saturday's meeting was due to the state Miller Academy move postponed to Wednesday Fire destroys building at Azalea Path An intense fire destroyed a woodworking shop at the Azalea Path last Thursday. It was dispatched at 12:39 p.m. when a family reported a bad fire. Beverly Knight said they didn't notice the fire until it was burning intensely. The Union Fire Department arrived first, but ran out of water until Hazelton-White River arrived and was able to pull wa- ter from a nearby lake to supply water. Petersburg, Patoka of Pike County and Patoka-White River of Gibson County all assisted with the fire. Petersburg Assistant Chief Ross Elmore said two Petersburg firemen were able to save a file cabinet with a lot of doc- uments they needed. "They were pretty happy about that, but that was about all we were able to save. It was fully in- volved when we got there," said Elmore. Black smoke was visible from several miles away. Firemen were on the scene for about three hours battling the in- tense blaze, which was contained to that building despite being in a thick wooded area. The cause of the fire was unknown. Family members said the electrical panel was at the back of the building, which is the general area the fire is believed to have started. Drastic methods Clarie Neal climbs on the back of her yellow lab during the Amber Manor dog show last week, trying to get him to sit for her. He barely noticed, but eventual- ly did sit for her. They were one of several participants in the annual dog show. Delegation intends to encourage investment in state By Andy Heuring A sign of just how far Pike County Eco- nomic Development has come in the last few years is a recent invitation. Pike County Economic Development Council's vice-president John Manda- bach, of Bowman Family Holdings and So- lar Sources, has been invited to travel with Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb on an eight day trip to Japan to meet with business and economic development officials from that country. Governor Holcomb will lead a delega- tion of business leaders and economic de- velopment officials to Japan, the state's larg- est foreign investor, to strengthen relation- ships and encourage continued investment and trade. "The cultural and economic ties between Indiana and Japan are storied and strong," Governor Holcomb said. "With more than 280 Japanese businesses operating in Indi- ana today, the state's relationship with Ja- pan is crucial to our economy and to sup- porting Hoosier jobs across the state. I look forward to advancing these partnerships as we work together to take Indiana to the next level." "This is something we have never had the opportunity before to go on, an inter- national marketing sales trip. It is a great opportunity to market our assets and me- ga site we have," said Pike EDC executive director Ashley Willis. "I'm grateful and honored for the oppor- tunity to represent Pike County and our me- ga site and southwest Indiana," said Mand- abach. "Our goal is to support the governor and start relationship building. If those two things are accomplished, I think it will be a success," said Mandabach. "It is an incredible opportunity. I'm ex- cited and looking forward to it. From a per- sonal standpoint, learning more about the culture of Japan, and meeting and starting new relationships is exciting, as is interact- Mandabach to visit Japan with governor