The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/908566
A-2 Front Wednesday, November 29, 2017 The Press-Dispatch ZONING Continued from page 1 VEALE Continued from page 1 Toy Train Show Saturday, December 9 Noon to 4 p.m. EST Gospel Center Church Community Center 420 East Illinois Street, Petersburg, Indiana Sponsored by: Pike Collision Contact: Don Richardson • 812-582-2021 • pikecollisiontrainshow@gmail.com Facebook Page: Indiana Southern Model Railroaders FREE TO THE PUBLIC Looking for people with Train Layouts, RR Memorabilia, and Train Collections that would like to share them at our upcoming 5th Annual Toy Train Show. NO FEE TO DISPLAY. Bring your children for a photograph with a Christmas theme! 201 S. 7th St., Petersburg • 812-354-8793 Mon.-Fri. 9am to 5pm • Sat. 9am-12pm Offer effective through Saturday, December 9, 2017 Christmas Open House Saturday, December 2 9am to 5pm Select Ornaments Half Price! Available through Christmas Storewide 20% Off Prides Creek Golf Course renovation Major renovations to the Prides Creek Golf Course clubhouse, including a metal roof, wraparound decking and railing, are the improvements to the structure that can be seen from outside the building. Mike Voyles has been busy overseeing the rehab work, which also includes siding and a roof over the decks. Volyes said, "The roof is nearly completed and the crew is working on the deck and siding, but will be pulled off for another job for a little while. We hope to have it completed before the bad weather. We can get both the exterior and interior completed now since the course is closed for the winter." Mayor R.C. Klipsch commented, "It's been 25 years and we needed a roof. It was rehab the exterior or build new and a new building would be expensive. The roof should be done shortly and with good weath- er, the rest of the work will be completed soon. It's a good sized building. We keep the carts underneath." He added there was going to be some improvements inside the clubhouse as well. James Capozella photo school lead to more prob- lems for him. But after about 48 hours at the HYCA, he learned to have respect for authority. "A cadre was like a drill sgt. in the military. They are with you constantly, yell- ing at you. There are three or four women in your face. I was kind of laughing at them. I didn't have respect for them at first." But that changed. "It was very physical and verbal. If they ask you a question, the whole group had to say 'Sir, yes sir.'" "If you didn't say that or you just said 'yeah,' it was done." The consequences were significant. "It was called a smoke session, multiple push-ups, running and working out in place until you can't do it any more. They wanted you to know you have to leave there with respect. It was like any military program." He said part of the suc- cess of the program was based on the participants seeing their physical fitness improving. That gave them a taste of success. "HYCA isn't like a deten- tion center where they lock you in a room with a stain- less toilet. They are all ex- military. They come in and take their time to help you." He said being successful in the little things, like be- ing able to do the workouts, which he said were extreme- ly hard at first, was a first step for him. "When I got there, I hadn't really been success- ful at anything. The most success I had was making all As and Bs in middle school." "I just didn't care. I had not been interested. I was going down a path that, I probably would be sitting in jail now," said Veale. He said because of the work they did with him, he had to respect them. As he developed respect for them, he started having respect for himself and ev- erything continued to build on itself. He said they had awards and gave people All-Star standing. "If you showed the cadre you did good work when you went out to do community service work, they looked at your work ethic and the way you are at physical training. You are trying instead of going through the motions. Schooling, they know you are studying and working hard on it. Once they real- ized you were kind of like an all-star, they put you in hon- or platoon. You could go on a field trip and you could eat and talk." "It was a cool program to get into. It was a privilege you had to work to get." Through HYCA, he worked on preparing for his GED. He took the test for it and didn't know until grad- uation from HYCA he had passed the GED. "I was more excited about getting through the pro- gram than getting my GED. I was told by cadre it is actu- ally harder than basic train- ing." Veale took advantage of the training. What he learned, he applied to his life. But it wasn't easy. Short- ly after getting out of HYCA with a GED he got a job, but he was in a serious vehicle accident and couldn't work. "I couldn't work for almost two months. I had just start- ed this job and had no mon- ey. I was like 'what am I go- ing to do. I have no money, credit card bill, rent, water bill,'" said Veale. "Due to the things I learned at HYCA, 'impro- vise, adapt and overcome,' I was able to slow things down and think it through, figure it out and do what you have to do," said Veale. He did things like went out to job interviews with a concussion. He was able to land a job at Vuteq, became team leader and now works for INDOT, has been able to buy a car and lives on his own. He also now mentoring a kid who is headed down a similar path to him before HYCA. "I want to make sure I'm here to motivate him." By Andy Heuring Main Street has been dark for more than a week and it will probably remain that way for a while. Petersburg Mayor R.C. Klipsch said he talked with Duke Energy officials Tues- day morning about the city's options to replace all of their aged light poles that have been removed. Five poles fell on Saturday, November 18 in some strong winds and crashed to the street. Lucki- ly no one was injured. When crews from Duke Energy, who owns the poles and leases them to Peters- burg, inspected the fallen poles, they determined the poles needed to be removed. They removed the lights and then began removing the poles. The poles were installed prior to 1951 and had exten- sive rust damage to the large metal rods that held them in place. Earlier this summer, three poles fell in the 800 block of Main St. when a de- livery truck's trailer box got caught on a decorative flag. Klipsch said Petersburg had been making plans to replace those three poles with aluminum poles. How- ever, he said that was with just three poles. Now the to- tal is more than 20 poles to replace. Making the decision harder for Petersburg is they have a Streetscape grant awarded that will re- do Main St. Included in that are new poles to match the ones in front of the Main St. Terrace Apts., First Feder- al Bank and Parsifal. How- ever, those poles are expen- sive and have to be wired un- derground. Consequently, it would require a lot of con- crete and excavation work, along with the electrical work and cost of the poles. Klipsch said those poles cost, without the excavation work, between $10,000 and $12,000 each. The Streetscape grant isn't scheduled until 2020 - 21. Klipsch said he is trying to see if there is any way to expedite the Streetscape grant, but he thinks that is doubtful. Another problem is Duke Energy doesn't offer the pole that is already in place at seven locations. So they are left with the options of wood poles and or aluminum poles. Klipsch said they are now trying to get figures from Duke Ener- gy about the costs of their options. "They are working on some proposals," said Klipsch. He said they will proba- bly use LED lights, which will be brighter and more efficient than the previous lights. However, they will be studying their options on other choices. Klipsch said he is working with both Duke Energy and the Indiana Department of Transportation on the situ- ation. He "There is no timeframe. That is what I'm concerned about. Most important thing is public safety. . . We have people at night crossing the road in the dark and it is dan- gerous. I'm sure they (Duke and INDOT) recognize that, so they are working on it. I will just keep working on it until we get a definite an- swer," said Klipsch. Still no date for city street light replacment has not been discussed in re- cent years. However in Gib- son County it is a hotly de- bated topic. Their commis- sioners are in the process of reviewing a plan that is be- ing developed. Numerous protest signs are visible in Gibson County. "What I want to empha- size is that zoning is up to local communities. It's what they want to protect and what they want to al- low," Gerhart-Fritz said to Pike Publishing, in an inter- view after the Farm Bureau meeting wrapped up. "It can be used to protect things." She added taxes are based on land use, not zoning, and existing uses are required to be grandfathered in. "(Taxes are) not going to change unless you change what you're doing," she said. "If you're legally operating, you can continue. It only af- fects new development or major additions." She said the same goes for water and sewer sources. "If you're already func- tioning on well and septic, you can stay on that. Unless, say, you're system failed and the health department came in; that's not really a zoning problem, though," she said. Gerhart-Fritz said if she were a farmer knowing ev- erything she does about zoning, she would be sure to call the planning com- mittee and be sure that the land is zoned for agricultur- al use. If part would be incor- rectly zoned, she would let the committee know so that when the final map would be adopted, everything would be correct—even though, again, all current uses would be grandfathered in. "You have to participate because they're not going to be able to call everybody, but typically they're going to be reasonable if you're not changing your use," she said, elaborating that she meant that a person cur- rently doing agriculture who thought they might want an industrial designation for some potential, uncertain fu- ture project might have diffi- culty convincing a planning board that they should have that zoning because it isn't a current use. A copy of K.K.'s power- point presentation is avail- able at the Pike County Farm Bureau Office in Pe- tersburg. K.K. Gerhart-Fritz talks to Farm Bureau mem- bers from Pike and Gibson counties Nov. 21, an- swering their zoning questions. Ken Meyer, Karen Dupont, William Chesser and Jim Minnis were some of the 59 people attending the zoning meeting last Tuesday.