The Press-Dispatch
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Local ........ A1-12 Sports .........B1-9 Classifi eds B10-13 Church ........C1-4 School..........C5-7 History ........... C8 Home Life........C1-8 Obituaries........C7-8 Opinion .... 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 HEROIN on page 2 $ 1 Four sections Five inserts 46 pages Wednesday, January 31, 2018 Volume 148 Number 5 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) Third segment of a four-part series Cook escapes hell and heroin addiction McFarland injured in crash An Owensboro, Ky., man suffered back injuries when the semi-truck he was driving crashed on I-69 at about 2:15 a.m. Wednesday, January 24. Gerald L. McFarland, 46, of Owensboro, was driving south on I-69, near the 48-mile marker, when he heard a noise and the truck started pulling hard to the left, according to Pike County Deputy Sheriff Mike Willis. Wil- lis said the truck went off the left side of road into the median, then rolled over two or three times and came to rest on its wheels. The crash tore the trailer filled with coal off the truck, causing it to spill its load. McFarland was trapped in the truck and had to be extricated. Deputy Willis said McFar- land complained of back and leg pain. He was taken by ambulance to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville. The truck and trailer, owned by James Osmer of Oakland City, was a total loss. Traffic in the passing lane was closed from 2 a.m. until about 9 a.m. Both lanes were closed for about 40 minutes. The Petersburg Fire Department assisted with extrication. They also sprayed down the highway on Wednesday afternoon. Deputy Willis said they waited until later in the day, when temperatures were warmer, to prevent freezing on the highway. Jeff Nelson photo In weeks one and two, Craig Cook explained how a trip to visit college buddies in Arizona got him started on heroin, how he fled Ari- zona to get away from it but walked straight back into it. Then after get- ting clean for a short time, a guy rode up and put heroin in his hand. He overdosed in San Francisco and fell unconscious into the hallway of a hotel. "While unconscious, they put me on enough machines to keep my body alive," said Cook. "The next thing I know, I'm not in my body. I was like in this jelly stuff. I couldn't move, I couldn't blink." Cook explained he was sus- pended in a gray jelly-like sub- stance and he couldn't move out of it. He said he could see other bodies in the same place. "The only thing I can think about it is an absolute absence of mercy," said Cook. "You can try to think about something good, try to eat or sleep or whatever your coping mechanism is. But there was no coping. I was just left with what- ever things were horrible," said Cook. "I had memories of making fun of this girl, and the dirty looks I gave her and the pain from doing that. The thoughts would come, and guilt and pain would return to me and there was no escape from it." Cook calls it his hell experi- ence. "I don't know how long it lasted. At some point, a thought came in- to my head. It was not like the rest of them. It was, 'can anyone just take this from me? '" "I began to think that with all the other thoughts and try to get out and I was trapped. I thought, I'm never going to get out of here. It is forever." "All of a sudden, it switched and I was running. I came out of that cell, and I was running through briers and thorns toward light, and it was tearing my skin. There was this little shack in the woods and it had a little light in the shack. As I stared at that, it became the light above me in my hospital bed. I had been there for three days," said Cook. "I immediately gave my life to Jesus. When I regained conscious- ness, I said 'I'm sorry, I give you my life.'" He said, "There wasn't' any- thing other than I had a sense I was going to be okay. I had a sense I wasn't in that place anymore." Cook knows not only was he de- livered from that place he thinks was hell, he was also delivered from his heroin addiction, with- out any of the things that normal- ly go with heroin use. He is still alive, which is more than he can say for several of his heroin-day friends. Two of his close friends from those days are dead. He sur- vived without getting HIV, Hepati- tis or other horrible diseases and he isn't in jail. Cook said there isn't a formu- la for making it out of heroin. "I had a good family. They never quit on me. I began a relationship with God, as fragile as it was," said Cook. His deliverance wasn't one step, where he accepted the Lord as his Saviour and everything was in- stantly okay. "It has just been a process. There has been ups and downs, and I just kind of resolved in the face of God, I just wouldn't quit. I had a life to clean up and fix, and a lot of things to atone for person- ally. I had to believe I had been set free and take the Lord at his word. I just kind of turned my back on it (addiction) and started to walk forward. I can remember pull- ing out the Bible and it had been years," said Cook. He began to immerse himself in scriptures and teachings about God. "Especially after being in Hell, I know that all of this would not happen, just for me to continue to use drugs. I felt I had purpose and it was far greater than stick- ing needles in my arm and hurt- ing everyone who came into my path," said Cook. So he returned to Indiana from California and he lived with his parents. He started not just read- ing the Bible, but also started watching Christian networks like TBN and EWTN. "I would just watch everything and try to learn." One verse really struck him. "I remember reading the verse, 'I be- lieve and help my unbelief.' I re- member the day I read that, that is exactly how I felt." Cook now says, "Faith is an ha- bitual agreement with God's as- sessment of reality." He explains, "Even faith is about hearing. When you have un- belief, you are seeing things your By Andy Heuring As the deadline approaches, election filings continue to trick- le in. The deadline to file for a lo- cal office is noon Friday, February 9 in the Clerk's Office. A new name added to the list is Shawn McGillem for the Repub- lican nomination for District 2 County Council. So far, he will vie with Charles Lemond on the Re- publican side for the nomination to the seat Greg Mangin has held for two terms. Mangin said he ac- cepted a job at Crane and isn't al- lowed to run for office. Absent from the filing is Dis- trict 2 Commissioner Brian Davis, who has held the seat for the last two terms, but hasn't announced if he will seek re-election. So far, no one from either party has filed for the position. Pike Circuit Court Judge Jeff Bi- esterveld filed to seek re-election to another six-year term. Below are filings as of Tuesday: Jody Lynn Hoover (D) for Au- ditor; Lida Ann Robinson (D) for Re- corder; Kent E. Johnson (D) and Brad- ley K. Jenkins (D) for Sheriff Mike Goodpaster (R) for As- sessor; COUNTY COUNCIL Randall J. Harris, Jr. (R) and Daren Cook (D) for County Coun- cil Dist. 1; Charles Lemond (R) and Shawn McGillem (R) for Council District 2; Max Elliott (R) Council Dist. 3; Travis Troutman (R) Council Dist. 4; DEMOCRAT PRECINCT COMMITTEEMAN Matthew Todd Fulk (D) Mad- ison Twp.; TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE John Davidson (R) Clay; Angela S. O'Neal (D) Lockhart; Becky J. Steinhart (R) Marion; Sandra Barrett (D) Monroe; Joe Melhiser (R) Patoka; Carol Sue Sutton (R) Madison; Shirley Shafer (D) Logan; Marie Boyd (R) Washington; TOWNSHIP ADVISORY BOARD Charles M. Meyer (D), Belva B. Luker (D), William Caldemeyer (D) Lockhart; Elaine Barrett (D), Rita Wil- liams (D) and Ivan V. Mason, Jr. (D) Monroe; Tracy M. Evans (R) and Greg- ory Gray (D) Marion; Danny DeJarnett (D) Patoka; STATE REPRESENTATIVE Ron Bacon (R) Dist. 75 John Hurley (D) Dist. 75 Matt Hostettler (R) Dist. 64 Ken Beckerman (R) Dist. 64 Bruce Ungethiem (R) Dist. 64 STATE SENATOR Mark Messmer (R) Dist. 48 US SENATOR Mike Braun (R) Joseph Donnelly (D) Andrew Horning (R) Mark Hurt (R) Luke Messer (R) Todd Rokita (R) Andrew Takami (R) More candidates file for election as Feb. 9 deadline approaches By Andy Heuring Main Street, Petersburg should be lit within days, depending on weather. Crews from Service Electric Co., of Chattanooga, Tenn., started last week installing the poles and on Tuesday, began installing the actual lights. Peters- burg Mayor R.C. Klipsch empha- sized the wooden light poles are only temporary. He said he has heard a few comments about the wooden poles. Five light poles were blown down in November and when Duke crews inspected them, they decided the poles' bases had de- teriorated until they were unsafe. The poles had been in place at least since the 1950s. So they re- moved 23 poles remaining, except for the seven new light poles that had been put up by the Downtown Terrace Apartments, Home Sav- ings Bank and Parsifal. Peters- burg is in the process of an In- diana Department of Transpor- tation Main St. Streetscape proj- ect. It will change out all of the light poles, including putting their wiring underground, building new sidewalks and curbs. How- ever, that project will not start until 2021. Klipsch said Petersburg looked at several options for replacing the poles until 2021. He said they had the option of metal poles, howev- er, they would take longer to in- stall, cost more and Petersburg would not have been able to put their Christmas decorations on them. Consequently, the city council decided to go with the less expen- sive wooden poles. "It wasn't just all cost. It was also a safety issue and trying to expedite the lights. The darkness has really been a safety issue," said Klipsch. Klipsch said the new light fix- tures being installed will be LED lights that are brighter and more efficient than the previous lights. Jeff Schmidt, foreman for Ser- vice Electric, said they would be doing a turnkey job on the lights."When we leave here, they will be completed," said Schmidt. He said Duke called them off an- other project to come to Peters- burg and get the new poles and lights installed. Main Street light poles in place Street lights to be illuminated soon Crew members for Service Electric of Chattanooga, Ten- nessee set a wooden light pole in place at the corner of Main St. and Seventh St. The poles are temporary replacements for the poles that had been in place since the 1950s and were deemed unsafe. These poles will be replaced in 2021 when Petersburg begins a Streetscape project for which they re- ceived a grant that will pay 80 percent of the cost.