The Press-Dispatch
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Local ........ A1-12 Sports .........B1-7 Classifi eds .. B8-10 Church ........C1-3 Home Life........C4-8 Obituaries........... C9 Opinion .. C10-11 School.... C12-13 East Gibson .. C14 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 PRIMARIES on page 3 See ACADEMY on page 8 See SHERIFF on page 3 See CHASE on page 2 Three sections 36 pages Eight inserts Wednesday, May 9, 2018 Volume 148 Number 19 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) $ 1 Kent Johnson Democrat Sheriff Candidate Frank Coleman Republican Sheriff Candidate Heath Scraper Democrat Commissioner Candidate Jon Craig Republican Co. Council Candidate Max Elliott Republican Co. Council Candidate By Andy Heuring A Terre Haute man, who said he was "just out for a drive," led po- lice on a 115 mph chase through three counties early Friday morn- ing. Christopher Wayne Nelson, 34, of 213 Terravista Dr., Terra Haute, was arrested on charges of resist- ing law enforcement, a level 6 felo- ny; driving while suspended (pri- or) and reckless driving at about 2 a.m. Friday. It all started at about 1:15 a.m. when Petersburg Police Cpl. Jar- ed Simmons said he noticed a green car with a silver fender on it pull into the Huck's parking lot. Then he saw the driver walk out to Main St. and look up and down the street "like he was look- ing for someone." A fter the driv- er returned to his vehicle, Cpl. Simmons said he noticed the car go south on First St., so he drove that direction and eventually saw it headed back north on First St. It then turned back onto Main St. and hit 80 mph in a 45 zone. According to Simmons' report, while trying to catch up to Nelson, he clocked Nelson doing 90 mph on Highway 57 near Cart Road at the top of Bell's Hill. Simmons' report stated even though he turned on his emer- gency flashing lights, the vehi- cle he was following didn't slow down and was now driving about 100 mph. Pike County Deputy Sheriff Ja- son McKinney heard the pursuit and went west on Highway 64 to put out stop sticks on Highway 57. Cpl. Simmons said Nelson be- gan to slow down as they got near Oakland City and slowed to about Wild car chase begins in Petersburg Otwell Miller Academy school board runs out of 'Friends' Remaining Friends of Otwell representatives resign their seats Miller escapes serious injury A rural Petersburg teen escaped serious injury Tuesday morning when she crashed her 2002 Jeep Liberty into a ditch west of Petersburg, near the community of Bowman. Kassandra Miller, 18, was driving east on Highway 56 on a stretch of road recently chipped and sealed when an oncoming vehicle crowded the centerline, according to Pike County Sheriff's Sgt. Dallas Killian. Killian said Miller moved to the side and dropped off the road. He said she overcorrected to the left, then overcorrected to the right, crashing into the ditch. "It looks like the vehicle rolled over, but there was no damage on the top of it. So she either spun 360 or rolled it, but be- cause it was in a ditch line, can't tell which," said Sgt. Killian. By Ed Cahill The Otwell Miller Academy school board is running out of Friends – Friends of Ot- well Elementary, Ltd., that is. During its regular monthly meeting on Monday, May 7, the Otwell Miller Acade- my school board voted to accept the resig- nations of its finance committee chairper- son, Michelle Durcholz, who also serves as the charter school's treasurer, and its sec- retary, Emily Willis. Durcholz and Willis were two of three school board members who were appoint- ed by Friends of Otwell Elementary, Ltd. Friends of Otwell Elementary's third ap- pointee, Michael Houtsch, resigned from the school board last fall and was never re- placed. In a letter addressed to the Otwell Miller Academy school board dated Monday, May 7, Durcholz wrote that her resignation will be effective May 31, 2018. "When I was asked to join the efforts of the Otwell Miller Academy charter school, it was always my intention to serve only un- til the end of the first school year of the charter," Durcholz wrote. Durcholz added that she was also re- signing from the Friends of Otwell El- ementary's board of directors, which would also be effective as of May 31. "I hope my contributions to these two organizations have been positive and use- ful during the length of my service," Dur- cholz wrote. "I am grateful for having had the opportunity to serve and contribute to this community in an impactful manner, and I offer my best wishes for continued success." In her letter of resignation, dated Friday, May 4, Willis announced her intention to resign "effective for the 2018/2019 school year or as soon as my position on the School Board can be replaced." "I plan to continue to support and help Otwell Miller Academy in any way that I can," Willis wrote. "Thank you for the op- portunity to serve on this board, and I offer my best wishes for its continued success." During Monday night's meeting, Wil- lis stated that the remaining school board members "need to be thinking about fill- ing those spots." However, Lou Fort, one of two parent rep- resentatives on the school board, replied petersburg yard sale city wide This Saturday 43 sales map on A-6 By Andy Heuring Max Elliott, Jon Craig and Heath Scrap- er won their contested primary races Tuesday night. Elliott, a two-term incumbent Republi- can held off a strong challenge from Jim Johns in their County Council District 3 race. Elliott won 229 to 176 carrying 56 percent of the vote in precincts of Win- slow, Patoka 1 and Patoka 2. "If anything, I will stand on the fact that we ran a clean race and we won cleanly. I was happy about that," said Elliott. He admitted it was closer than he hoped it would be. Johns won the first precinct to report, which was Patoka 2, by a vote of 94 to 81. But it was a short-lived lead. The results for Winslow were printed out just 22 sec- onds after Patoka 2. Elliott won Winslow 57 to 30. Five minutes later the final pre- cinct, Patoka 1 was announced. Elliott won Patoka 1, which is his home precinct, 91 to 52 for the final total of 229 to 176. Johns had hammered away during his campaign on government waste, saying the county was spending too much money for the Emergency Medical Service and Health Insurance for employees. Elliott countered that Pike County has an excel- lent ambulance service and there are lot of positives going on the county. "I think the county is running in the right direction and a lot of things are working out well for us. I think that helped me. There are a lot of positive things in the county and hopefully people want to By Ed Cahill DEMOCRATIC SHERIFF'S RACE Kent Johnson may have won the Dem- ocratic primary for Pike County Sheriff by 158 votes – out of a total of 1,502 cast – on Tuesday, May 8, but even he admit- ted that it was quite a horse race. "It was close," said Johnson, who has been employed by the Pike County Sher- iff's Department for 14 years, including the last five years as Chief Deputy. "Ex- actly like I expected." Johnson won nine of Pike County's 18 precincts and received 587 votes, or 39.08 percent of the total cast. Fellow sheriff's deputy Brad Jenkins won five precincts and received 486 votes, or 32.35 percent of the total cast. Former FBI agent John Bellamy won four precincts and received 429 votes, or 28.56 percent of the total cast. Bellamy built up an early 125 -vote lead in the first four precincts – Lockhart, Monroe, Patoka 2 and Winslow precincts – to be counted, receiving a total of 216 votes to 91 for Jenkins and 90 for Johnson. Jenkins began cutting into Bellamy's lead when he outpolled both of his oppo- nents in the next three precincts – Clay, Patoka 1 and Logan – to report, where he received a total of 73 votes while Bel- lamy and Johnson each received a total of 41 votes. However, Johnson, trailing Bellamy by 126 votes and Jenkins by 33 votes, won Johnson, Coleman to vie for Sheriff Elliott, Scraper, Craig win primaries