The Press-Dispatch
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C9-10 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 See SCHOOL on page 2 See COUNCIL on page 2 See R APE on page 2 42 pages Four sections • Four inserts Wednesday, December 20, 2017 Volume 148 Number 51 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE Letters to Santa from Pike County Children Meeting Mrs. Claus at Peter Brenton Cabin $1 Pancake seriously injured Saturday Spurgeon Fire Chief and Pike County EMT Donnie Pancake was seriously injured early Sat- urday evening when he ran into a guardrail and embankment near Oatsville. Pike County Deputy Sheriff Paul Collier said Pancake, 51, of 10267 S. SR 61, Oakland City, was driving his 2001 Ford F350 pickup truck west on CR 125 S. when he swerved to miss a deer as he entered a 90-degree turn at the intersection of CR 375 W. Collier said Pan- cake failed to negotiate the turn, crashed through a guardrail and went down about a 15-foot embankment, slamming into ground and bringing the truck to a halt. Deputy Collier said Pancake was trapped in the vehicle and suffered injuries to his face from striking the steering wheel. Pancake had to be extricated from the vehicle and was transported to the hospital by Pike County EMS. As of Tuesday, Pancake was still in the hospital. By Andy Heuring A Petersburg teen was arrested early Sunday morning on a charge of rape after a friend said he drove her to a remote location and raped her Saturday evening. Kyle J. Woods, 19, of 4626 E. CR 750 N., Petersburg, was ar- rested by Pike County Deputy Sheriff Buck Seger following an interview. Deputy Seger, in a probable cause affidavit, said at 7:45 p.m. Saturday, he was requested to meet a woman at the Pike Coun- ty Sheriff's Department. In the affidavit presented in Pike Circuit Court, the woman said she was a friend of Woods. She told police Woods had called her and wanted her to go to Princ- eton with him. She said he picked her up and then drove her to Oats- ville to an old wash plant in a coal mine. They got out and walked around, eventually climbing sev- eral steps in the wash plant to nearly the top. Then Woods began staring at her and picked her up, and she kissed him "in a friendly manner," but then he started grop- ing her. She claimed she told him they couldn't do this because he had a girlfriend, but he carried her to a corner of the building and began ripping her clothes off. She said she continued to tell him she didn't want to do this. According to the affidavit, she said Woods told her his girlfriend had cheated on him so he was do- ing the same thing. A fter he finished, she said they Petersburg teen charged with rape By Andy Heuring Petersburg's Main St. will apparently re- main dark until after the first of the year and city officials issued a warning to resi- dents about burn barrels in the city limits during their Monday meeting. "You may have noticed we don't have street lights," quipped Petersburg Mayor R.C. Klipsch. He told city councilmen the had contacted Duke officials and had spo- ken with the vice-president of Duke about the lights. Klipsch said he was told the de- lay was due to materials. He said they not only didn't have the poles available yet, they also don't have the lighting fixtures in stock. "They are also learning it isn't go- ing to be as easy as they thought. They will need to so some site work as well," said Klipsch. "At the end of the day, it will be the be- ginning of the year before we have lights," said Klipsch. Several council members said they are asked daily about the street lights. A wind storm early this year caused five light poles to fall over. When crews inspected the poles, they found the bases were extreme- ly deteriorated and crews immediately be- gan removing the old poles. Petersburg had seven new poles and are in the process of a new Streetscape program to redo Main St. with new poles. However, that isn't sched- uled until 2021. Until then, Petersburg is going to lease wood poles and lights. BURN BARREL WARNING ISSUED BY CITY Klipsch and Police Chief Chuck Baumgart issued a warning to residents about burn barrels in the city. "We are having some problem with peo- ple burning trash in the city," said Mayor Klipsch. He said a check of the city's burn ordi- nance says people can burn yard waste in an approved container. "No where does it say you can burn household trash in your burn barrel," said Mayor Klipsch. He said they are getting several com- plaints about burn barrels being used to burn household trash. "I want to make it very clear, you can not be burning trash in your backyard burn barrel," said Klipsch. Baumgart said there is a $50 fine for each violation. "Your neighbors don't want to smell your trash." He added that household trash puts off toxic fumes. "You don't want to be breathing it. It is toxic," said Petersburg Fire Chief Ross El- more. Baumgart asked residents to report peo- ple burning household waste to the police immediately. He said they will respond and take care of the matter. "If you call immedi- ately when you see it, we can respond and do something about it. If you wait a cou- ple hours until it is gone, it makes it much harder for us to deal with," said Baumgart. He also warned that when police re- spond, there will likely be a fine issued, plus they will call the fire department to put out the fire. Consequently, the home- owner will be charged a response fee by the fire department. COUNCIL DEFINES GAS STATION IN ZONING ORDINANCE Council members voted 4-0 to approve additional language to their zoning defi- nition of a "gas station." Councilman Fran Lewis was not in attendance. "Our definition of a gas station proba- It will be 2018 before Petersburg has street lights Approval by state received Tuesday afternoon By Ed Cahill Pike County School Board on Dec. 12 vot- ed 3-1 to file a Notice of Intent to Reclaim the former Otwell Elementary School building to start an Alternative to Suspension (ATS) pro- gram for students in grades 6 -12 and an al- ternative education program for students in grades 9 -12 in January. The Otwell Elementary building was placed on the Department of Education's un- used building list in August 2016 and desig- nated as "unavailable," giving the school cor- poration up to two years to reclaim it for class- room instruction. According to the Notice of Intent to Re- claim that was submitted to the school board for its approval, the date of reclamation for the building is Jan. 3, 2018, with classroom in- struction scheduled to begin on Jan. 8, 2018. "The Pike County School Corporation plans to start an Alternative to Suspension (ATS) program in January 2018," the notice states. "The program will allow students who need to be removed from the school setting an opportunity to continue working on school assignments. The ATS program will be used in lieu of Out of School Suspension (OSS). Students may be assigned to the ATS pro- gram for 1 to 10 days as necessary in com- pliance with our student discipline code. The ATS program will utilize a section of the former Otwell Elementary School build- ing. Students will be transported to and from the building by bus. Lunch will be provid- ed for the students at the building. The ATS program will serve students in grades 6 -12." The notice also states that the school cor- poration plans to house the PCSC Learning Center at the former elementary school build- OES building to be used for alternative school Early copy deadlines due to Holidays Due to the Christmas hol- iday, copy deadlines will be moved up. News and adver- tising should be submitted by 5 p.m. on Friday to insure publication in the Dec. 27 edi- tion. The deadline for classi- fied advertising will still be noon Tuesday. The staff thanks you in ad- vance for all your help with these deadlines. PES Christmas Program Petersburg Elementary School students in grades three, four and five performed a Christmas program last Thursday. Above are top row: Charleigh Pancake, Jacob Smitson and Addison Grubb; front row: Elle Readle, Kayla LaMoar and Brayden Wilson sing out during the third grade program. See more photos in next week's edition of The Press-Dispatch.