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Friday, February 24, 2017 Page 1
February 2017
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Business & Agriculture
Page 2 Friday, February 24, 2017
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HJ file photos
Left: Little Ras-kel’s owner Brooke Johnson cuts the ribbon alongside members of the White County Economic Development Corporation, the Monticello Chamber of Commerce, Little Ras-kel’s staff, children in the day care program and their parents in September 2016.
New and growing businesses further White Co. economic development By Chay Reigle news@thehj.com As county officials continue their efforts to make White County a welcoming place to do business, small shops and restaurants have continued popping up to add new products and services to the community marketplace. Little Ras-kel’s is one locally owned business that made a big investment in the city of Monticello last year by purchasing a commercial building on North Main Street. Little Ras-kel’s owner Brooke Johnson already operates three child care homes, but in September 2016 she took her business a step further by opening LIttle Ras-kel’s Learning Center. Little Ras-kel’s Learning Center, located at 1121 N. Main St., is Johnson’s first child care facility. She decided to open the building in order to fulfill a need in the community that she said was larger than what a home could fulfill. The facility contains several learning stations for different age groups, and the building is equipped with a fully stocked kitchen to provide meals and snacks to the children through a USDA-regulated food program. “It’s been great,” Johnson said. “We’ve kept busy, and we’ve done some renovating to the building so that we can utilize it better for square footage and numbers as far as children and state guidelines go.” While the facility was initially only equipped to care for ages 3 to 5, Johnson is now utilizing more of the building and is pursuing a license that will allow Little Ras-kel’s to care for children up to 13 years old. Children of all age groups will continue to be taught a curriculum that integrates education, social and emotional development and faith, Johnson said. Johnson is also hoping to continue growing her business and she is excited to see what happens next. “We’re looking to our next growth phase, and we’re not 100 percent sure what it looks like, but we know that’s going to be coming down the pipe pretty quickly,” she said. Sharon McKinley used to work a corporate day job, but now she’s another member of the community who has chosen to invest in White County by opening her own small business. Reclaim Dames, which opened at 128 N. Main St. last July, offers vintage, “upcycled” and farmhouse furniture and decor. McKinley said she had been creating these items in her spare time, and eventually she decided it was time to quit her 25-year career as a legal assistant in order to start a new venture as her own boss. Since then, McKinley had said the community has been there to support her. “The community’s been great. Very welcoming and a lot of positive feedback,” she said. Reclaim Dames now offers an upholstery service and a furniture painting service for anyone looking to have their home furniture spruced up and beautified. “That has been keeping me busy as well, and that was a void that I think needed filling in the community as well,”
HJ file photo
Reclaim Dames opened on North Main Street in Monticello in the summer of 2016. McKinley said. “Things are going great.” Additionally, McKinley has rearranged the layout of her store and continues to add new stock regularly. She is also hoping to start offering painting classes to the community within the next year. “It’s gone very well. I’m looking forward to another good year,” she said. While Reclaim Dames offers a new style to the county, Susan Crisp is bringing new tastes to the town of Reynolds. Beaks & Fins opened its doors to the public in December 2016. The new restaurant offers broasted chicken, fish and more, and co-owner Randy Elizalde believes his broasted food is the best in the area. In addition to offering delicious meals to the whole family, Beaks & Fins has also added a full lounge and bar to the restaurant, which is located at 207 E. 2nd St. in Reynolds. “Things are going well,” Crisp said. “We’re trying to get the word out that we can do large parties...but we’ve been really busy and everybody’s been awesome.” Crisp said she would like to thank the community for sticking with her since the start. “They’ve supported us. We had our mistakes in the beginning, but they all stuck with it and helped us, so everybody’s been great,” she said.
Johnson, McKinley and Crisp are just a few of the entrepreneurs in the area that have begun a new venture in the past year. A few of the other openings in 2016 include Public House in Wolcott, Tori Lynn Photography and Deals and Steals in Monticello; Betty’s Quilting in Burnettsville; and the Carroll White REMC and Wabash Valley Power partnership to open the Liberty III gas landfill in the county.
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Business & Agriculture
CAFO issue sees resolution in county after months of debate
mHerald Journal thehj.com
By Daniel Thompson editor@thehj.com
Over the past few years in White County, concerning agriculture there have been few more contentious issues than confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). While the issue has been a source of passionate debate nationwide, in White County things started to come to a boiling point in the fall of 2015, when residents of Monon Township began to fight against a CAFO proposal submitted by Gary and Connie Rice on their property off of County Road 300 in the township. This opposition was never more evident than at the Oct. 13, 2015, hearing scheduled for the proposal and conducted by the White County Area Plan Commission, where nearly 300 people showed up, mostly representing a subdivision in the area of the Rices’ property. This caused the APC to postpone the hearing until January in order to find a bigger venue to accommodate everyone involved. From that point, pressure was put on the White County Board of Commissioners to change the White County zoning ordinance to address CAFOs and, more specifically, the setbacks that the county had set for CAFOs to be located away from waterways and residences. This was quite a task for the commissioners, as they not only had to ensure that property owners were protected, but also had to make sure that whatever changes were made to the White County zoning ordinance concerning CAFOs did not limit the growth of the county’s farms. From January to April, there was a near constant battle over CAFOs, with Monon Township resident Bonnie Woods informing the commissioners that several wells in Monon Township had tested positive for high levels of E. coli and blaming it on hog operations in the area and insults and heated debates erupting at a good amount of the meetings, public hearings and any conversation on the subject. Finally, on Feb. 29, 2016, the county commissioners introduced their proposed changes to the zoning ordinance, which would create a 1.5-mile buffer zone between CAFOs and waterways, as well as setbacks for CAFOs from subdivisions. This, in turn, while satisfying the residents of Monon Township, also upset the farmers of White County, who took time during a March public hearing to address the APC as a group, breaking down the importance of farming in the community, the safety regulations that they have to abide by and to ask that the setbacks be changed, while also arguing that the revisions to the zoning ordinance limited protections for farmers and the possibility for future CAFOs in White County. Just when it seemed that the issue would not have a happy conclusion for either side, with passions flaring more and more in each public meeting, the commissioners took the input of both sides to heart and, in April 2016, amended the changes in order to keep the setbacks for the residences and waterways, while also adding language in the
ordinance that made it so that anyone who builds a residential structure out in the country near a CAFO would forfeit their rights to setbacks and language that grandfathered in all existing CAFOs, as well as allowing them to expand as long as they didn’t expand closer to the 1.5 mile setback. At that time, White County Commissioners Chairman John Heimlich, though admitting that the changes were not perfect, stated that they were the product of the best efforts of the commissioners to ensure that both sides were able to thrive in White County. “Is this perfect? Probably not,“ Heimlich said. “We’ve spent a lot of time trying to get it as close as we can, but nothing’s perfect. And that’s why there is the amendment procedure in the law. For now, this is the best we can do.” Since that time, the debate surrounding CAFOs has died down quite a bit, and both sides seem to be pleased with the compromise that the commissioners reached in the zoning ordinance, especially White County Farm Bureau President Jeff Demerly, who recently called the situation a “win-win”. “At the end of the day, when you can come out with this kind of change that promotes economic growth that at the same time protects the residents of the urban and rural communities, that’s a win-win,” he said. “The Farm Bureau is an organization that recognizes good leadership and good policy, and we appreciated all of the people involved in White County in their efforts in protecting agriculture.”
Friday, February 24, 2017 Page 3
HJ file photos
Above: Farmers Gary and Greg Rice stand in the field of their property off CR 300 East where the CAFO building that sparked the debate would have been placed on their land in October 2016. Below: Members of the public look over the maps of where the setbacks proposed in March 2016 would sit around the Tippecanoe River, Lake Shafer, Lake Freeman and the Big Monon.
Business & Agriculture
Page 4 Friday, February 24, 2017
Herald Journal thehj.comH
2016 White County Ribbon Cuttings
HJ file photos
Carroll White REMC CEO Randy Price (center left) and Wabash Valley Power CEO Jay Bartlett (center right) cut the ribbon at a dedication ceremony at the Liberty III Landfill Gas Power Plant in October 2016.
The Family Health Clinic of Wolcott cut the ribbon on its new medical care facility in the western part of White County in August 2016.
Above: The Legacy at White Oak Health Campus celebrates its opening in March 2016. Below: Beaks & Fins’ new offerings were officially welcomed to the Reynolds community in December 2016.
Tori Lynn Photography celebrated its new studio with the help of community leaders and members of the community in November 2016.
mHerald Journal thehj.com
Health & Education
Friday, February 24, 2017 Page 5
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HJ file photo
Purdue partnership secures health care for western White County The Family Health Clinic of Wolcott opened in June 2016.
By Chay Reigle news@thehj.com
Collaboration between White County agencies and the Purdue University School of Nursing and North Central Nursing Clinics has led to the establishment of a health clinic in Wolcott that provides primary health care for families residing in the western part of the county. Before the Family Health Clinic of Wolcott opened its doors in June 2016, area residents had to travel to the other side of White County or even outside the county to receive health care for themselves and their families. Dr. Shields, the last established physician in the Wolcott area, had retired in spring 2014. Jim Layman, executive director of Purdue’s North Central Nursing Clinics, said members of the community approached him about providing health care to the area during a Community Foundation of White County - meeting in 2014. “Those conversations just slowly took shape to where the community kind of rallied around the idea, and the school corporation and the (Remington Wolcott Community Development Corporation), they put their heads together and tried to come up with a plan to find a primary care provider,” Layman said. The RWCDC then partnered with Carroll White REMC to purchase the doctor’s office that was formerly owned by Dr. Shields, and they then allowed Purdue University to lease the building for its clinic. “Lo and behold, it turned out to be a great community HJ file photo partnership from top to bottom,” Layman said. “What we wanted to do is take our experience in rural communities Following the opening of the Family Health Clinic of Wolcott, representatives, such as North in north-central Indiana and create a fourth site there in Central Nursing Clinics Director of Operations Suzan Overholser (left), took to local festivals in Wolcott, and so far it’s been off to a great start.” In addition to the Family Health Clinic of Wolcott, order to inform residents of the various services that would be available right in Wolcott. Purdue also operates clinics in the rural areas of Monon, which point an established obstetrician will take over to raise awareness and to market our efforts,” Layman said. prepare the mother for delivery. “I think yes, we’re on target, but we see a bright future Delphi and Burlington. The Family Health Clinic of Wolcott now also partici- and we do get regular comments from the community of The Wolcott clinic began accepting its first patients last summer with one nurse practitioner, one medical pates in the Breast and Cervical Cancer Program through thanks and appreciation for filling the void that was left assistant and one office employee on hand. Since then the Greater Lafayette YWCA, which provides uninsured when the physician retired.” The Family Health Clinic of Wolcott is currently Purdue has added a full-time registered nurse, a pediatric and underinsured women with a free annual screening for accepting new patients. The clinic is open Monday nurse practitioner that comes twice a week and a wom- breast and cervical cancer. “We’re very fortunate to be a participant in that pro- through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Friday en’s health nurse practitioner that comes once a week. from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. “The idea was primary care for the whole family,” said gram,” Layman said. In the eight months since the clinic has opened, the To learn more about the clinic, call 219-747-2067 or Suzan Overholser, director of operations for Purdue’s North Central Nursing Clinics. “Primary, preventative, staff have been busy caring for patients on a daily basis. visit familyhconline.com. Today, the clinic averages about 125 patients a month “We express our sincere thanks to the community, acute care from birth to death.” the county and the RWCDC that helped us make this a Overholser said she was particularly happy about from the surrounding area. “I think we’re on target with our expectations. As reality,” Layman said. “It was a true team effort and a the addition of the women’s health nurse practitioner, which serves as a midwife for expecting mothers from Suzan mentioned, there’s still additional capacity, but partnership, and we’re very grateful for the opportunity.” the beginning of pregnancy until about 36 weeks, after as expected it takes a year or two for the community to
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Health & Education
Legacy at White Oak providing much-needed care in Monticello Page 6 Friday, February 24, 2017
Herald Journal thehj.comH
By Chay Reigle news@thehj.com
White Oak Health Campus’s Legacy wing has stayed full since it opened nearly a year ago with a passionate staff that is specially trained to treat residents living in the new area. The Legacy at White Oak, which opened in March 2016, serves as a dedicated memory care neighborhood by providing assisted living care for people with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other conditions that affects one’s memory. Legacy Director Tammy Shirels said the need for dedicated memory care in the area has been great, as evidenced by nearly all 35 available rooms staying occupied since the wing’s opening. Shirels said the Legacy at White Oak provides an open space for residents that is calm and safe, and trained staff are always on hand to assist the residents with any needs as well as helping them stay active and engaged every day. “They are busy, so we are busy,” Shirels said. “We have adapted our number of staff, and our staff continues to have little to no turnover. I think in the last year we’ve maybe had just a couple of folks move to another area in our campus. Most of the folks are the ones that opened up with us or have decided to come onboard as new hires and have dedicated themselves to memory care.” Overall, morale has been great, and the residents are happy, Shirels said. In fact, Trilogy Health Services, which operates White Oak, recognized the Legacy at White Oak as its number one memory care unit after it had only been opened for just seven months. The company’s rating was based on survey results from more than 70 percent of families that have residents living at White Oak, and the recognition is made even more significant because White Oak is just one of 100 facilities owned by Trilogy Health throughout Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan. “Our customers’ families do those surveys and so we were voted number one in all of Trilogy, which was never heard of for a brand new opened building, so it’s something we’re very proud of,” Shirels said. The Legacy at White Oak also has a growing adult day care service, which allows caregivers to drop their loved ones off at White Oak during the day when they cannot provide care. “When they’re here, they’re just like our residents. They eat with us, they have naps with us, they participate in activities with us, and then whenever whatever was going on with their loved one ends, they just come and pick them up,” Shirels said. About six area residents regularly make use
HJ file photo s
Above: Esther Baer attempts to find a particular piece of clothing in a cluttered pile of clothes during a simulated dementia tour at the Legacy at White Oak. Below: The Legacy at White Oak was named number one in customer service by parent company Trilogy Health Services in 2016. of the Legacy at White Oak’s day care service, according to Shirels. In addition to providing care for area residents, the Legacy at White Oak has also been active in educating the community about what it’s like to suffer from dementia. During the 2016 Mile in My Shoes Day for Disability Awareness Month in March, White Oak participated by setting up a “virtual dementia tour” to give people a firsthand experience of dementia. Those who participated in the experience put on gloves lined with rubber to simulate the loss of sensation in the fingertips, wore shoes with spiked inserts to simulate neuropathy and wore modified goggles and headphones to simulate macular degeneration and the unpleasant sounds that can distract a dementia patient. The participants were then led into a residential room at White Oak and asked to perform seemingly simple tasks that quickly became difficult to complete in the dark and unorganized room. “I’ve had some nurses say, ‘I’ve worked in nursing for 25, 30 years and I never had a clue it was like this,” Shirels said about the program. “It’s just an eye-opening experience.”
mHerald Journal thehj.com
Health & Education
Friday, February 24, 2017 Page 7
HJ file photo
County school program to graduate students with job skills and pride The PRIDE program was unveiled to local community leaders and businesses in summer 2016.
By Chay Reigle news@thehj.com
PRIDE of White County is continuing to develop at all four White County school corporations with the help of a grant the schools received in December 2016. The Indiana Department of Workforce Development awarded $35,000 to Twin Lakes, North White, TriCounty and Frontier to continue implementing the PRIDE program, which was unveiled to the public last summer. PRIDE, which stands for persistence, respectfulness, initiative, dependability and efficiency, is a certification program that awards students who complete it with a “Career Readiness Work Ethic Certification.” The program has been simultaneously implemented by all four county schools in order to better prepare students for life after high school and to get them ready to enter the local workforce. Students who hope to graduate with PRIDE certification must maintain a GPA of 2.0 or higher, have nearly perfect attendance, volunteer for several hours of community service and have three school staff members sign a letter stating that the student holds the qualities and values that are expected of PRIDE graduates. Several local businesses and organizations have offered incentives to students who earn a certificate,
such as guaranteeing them an interview, giving them preference for open jobs and internships, and starting them off at a higher pay scale versus an entry-level employee without the certification. A portion of the $35,000 grant is being used to create a professional conference featuring a keynote speaker and several seminars for approximately 330 White County seniors planning to graduate next spring. The event will supplement the PRIDE program by bringing in local employers to speak to students about the “soft skills”—attributes such as basic math and literacy skills as well as values such as trustworthiness and dependability that are universally desired by employers. “Soft skills, when you look at the academic aspect of it, can they use math in the workplace for measuring, computing, that sort of thing. Then with their language arts skills, can they read documents in order to survive in the workplace, read and write documents,” said Tri-County Superintendent Dr. Kathy Goad. “But more than that, the soft skills mean are you self-driven or do you need direction all the time? Do you attend regularly? Because 98 percent is what most of our employers expect of our workers. Are you willing to take direction? Do you understand following rules in the workplace?” The grant is also being used to compensate PRIDE of White County coordinators for each school and to help fund field trips to local businesses.
Goad stated that all students will be encouraged to participate in the workshop and enroll in the PRIDE program no matter what their plans are for after high school. “What we hope to focus on is all of our students because whether they go to college or they go to the workforce immediately, or they get some type of training in between, they all need the soft skills that our employers are looking for, whether that’s in a classroom at the college level or whether it’s in a factory at the local level,” she said. Because the White County schools are part of just a handful of districts implementing the program, PRIDE of White County will be responsible for hosting other school corporations looking to know more about offering a work ethic certificate to their students. “The governor is really looking for this program to go into every school corporation in the state of Indiana, so one of the things that we’ll be responsible for doing since we received this is hosting other schools to visit our programs and sharing that with them,” Goad said. Goad is currently looking for additional area businesses to partner with PRIDE of White County. To learn more about becoming a partner, contact the Tri-County School Corporation at 219-279-2418.
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Health & Education
Career counselor helps give White County students direction Page 8 Friday, February 24, 2017
By Daniel Thompson editor@thehj.com
Much of the efforts in education throughout the years has been focused on what comes after high school. In years past, the driving force has been to prepare students for furthering their education in college before they graduate with a degree and join the workforce in their desired career. Though this has been the formula and the focus for many schools, superintendents of the White County school corporations, along with White County officials, realized that the trajectory of students has changed. While many still go on to a postsecondary education, there are a significant number of graduating students that join the workforce right out of high school that also need help and guidance in shaping their futures. It was this realization and identifying this lack of guidance that led the superintendent of White County schools to push the county to create a career counselor position. And on Nov. 21, 2016, North White Superintendent Dr. Teresa Gremaux came to the White County Commissioners and White County Council in order to seek a financial partnership in order to create a career counselor position for the four schools, with the counselor to spend one day at each school each week, with a fifth day to be spent on planning or a repeat visit to one of the four schools. It was determined that the job of the career counselor would be to plan and implement outreach services in conjunction with school corporations, industry representatives, post-secondary institutions and economic development representatives, and the purpose of the position would be to decrease the high school dropout rate, improve academic outcomes and prepare students for college and/or career opportunites. Following Gremaux’s presentation, the commissioners and council unanimously approved the position, as well as $50,000 to fund it. According to White County Economic Development Organization President Randy Mitchell, the counselor position has addressed one of the issues that has bothered him for some time, that being the lack of support for students not taking the traditional college path after high school. “There are 38 percent (of students) that
are going to graduate and are not going to go to college, and that keeps me awake at night,” Mitchell said. For Mitchell and White County Councilman Casey Crabb, the county committing to funding the counselor position will potentially serve as a turning point for some students in White County and the opportunities that the county can offer. “For a county to hire specifically a person to come in to work with that age group and those kids that are not going to a four-year school and have them try to help guide in the employment process and the hiring process and trying to work with those kids, I think that’s a wonderful, progressive thing that we’re trying to do instead of doing nothing and just letting the kids float around out there,” Crabb said. The position also takes some pressure off of guidance counselors, who are bogged down with helping students fill out scholarship and college applications. “Some of our previous programs have failed because we said, ‘Oh, well this will be really good. Our guidance counselors at the school will be able to sit down and present these programs to these kids,’” Mitchell said. “Well, guess what, the schools now probably have one and a half guidance counselors per school, and what do you think they’re engaged in? They’re trying to help the students fill out their college applications and/or apply for scholarships. I call them the forgotten 38 percent. Nobody is doing anything. They just graduate. So this person is specifically serving the role of a guidance counselor for that 38 percent. He’s not going to be talking to kids that are going to college. He’s going to be talking about what are these kids going to do when they graduate.” Mitchell is also pleased at the frequency in which the counselor will be with students at each of the school corporations. “I think to get that attention where that counselor will be in each high school one day a week at a minimum will be really good. We’ll be able to get him with these students and help them along,” Mitchell said. In Mitchell’s view, having the career counselor in White County schools not only strengthens the support for all of the students of White County, but it also
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strengthens the county itself by showing students different jobs, different careers that are available to them right here in their hometowns. “That’s what we’re trying to do,” Mitchell said. “We’re just trying to connect dots here. This is just a dot; that’s a dot. And try to, at the end of the day, really maybe get something really suc-
cessful going here. Because things are going good, but we have some weaknesses and this is what we’re trying to do. And it all ties into economic development. You can put almost any subject under economic development, because it pertains to people working, people being happy in the workforce and things like that.”
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Communities & Government
Friday, February 24, 2017 Page 9
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Community Mentoring Program helps mold students into citizens Mike Godlove (right) is the founder of the Community Mentoring Program and has been active in recruiting mentors since its inception.
By Chay Reigle news@thehj.com
What started out as a small program at a single elementary school has now quadrupled in size and spread to three school corporations in White County. The Community Mentoring Program began at the start of 2016 through a pilot program at Meadowlawn Elementary in Monticello. Today, the mentoring program has more than 80 mentors at Meadowlawn Elementary, Oaklawn Elementary, Roosevelt Middle School, Tri-County Intermediate and North White Elementary. Children enrolled in the program are paired with an adult from the community who they meet for lunch at school once a week. The founder of the local program, Mike Godlove, believes that children will greatly benefit by regularly meeting with their mentors, who serve
as a constant positive influence in the children’s lives. While some mentor programs may focus on at-risk youth, the goal of the Community Mentoring Program is to look for potential and empower children from all walks of life. “We may have some at-risk students involved, but we are asking teachers to recommend students that they believe have untapped potential,” Godlove said about the program. “We want to help students recognize and build upon their interests, talents and abilities by pairing them with adults who might share those interests or can at least help encourage students as they explore their options.” According to Godlove and the Indiana Youth Institute, students who regularly meet with a mentor are 52 percent less likely than their peers to skip school, 37 percent less likely to skip class, 46 percent less likely to use drugs, 27 percent less likely to use alcohol and
32 percent less likely to hit someone. The Community Mentoring Program is always looking for adults from the community to become mentors. There are no specific requirements to join aside from a background check, and Godlove believes that a great mentor can come from a wide variety of careers and interests. “If you have two ears to listen and a heart to encourage a child, likely you would make a great mentor,” Godlove said. “This is not a program about helping them with their homework; it is all about building friendships and helping children create a vision for their life.” To learn more about the program or to inquire about becoming a mentor, contact Godlove at 765-5439181. Donations can be designated to the Community Mentoring Program at the Tecumseh Area Partnership, located at 976 Mezzanine Drive #B in Lafayette, postal code 47905.
Monticello Parks Department helps environment and community By Chay Reigle news@thehj.com The Monticello Parks Department has spent much of 2016 and the start of 2017 introducing native species to the area and improving the parks to better accommodate people with disabilities. Toward the end of 2015, members of the community gathered together to dedicate a butterfly memorial in the Altherr Nature Park to Liz Oilar, a former Monticello clerk-treasurer who met an untimely end due to brain cancer. The memorial features a tranquil waterfall at the entrance of the park complete with a statue and plaque that pays tribute to the woman whose life was intertwined with the life of her city. Oilar, a founding member of the Mayor’s Advisory Council for the ADA, was also passionate about assisting people with disabilities. In order to continue her legacy, several local entities, including the Monticello Parks and Recreation Department, purchased “Liz’s Lift,” a portable wheelchair lift and ramp system that is available for use by White County residents. “She was a strong lady,” Parks Department Superintendent Mitch Billue said at the dedication ceremony. “She was very strong-willed, and I did view her as kind of a big sister…I’ll always remember her strength.” Billue and his crew have continued supporting people with disabilities since then by working to install ADA-compliant equipment in Monticello City Park. More recently, Billue met with CDC Resources client Karson Hall to talk about how the trails in the parks could be improved for people with disabilities as well. Hall and Billue examined the different gravel surfaces at the parks and examined how different wheelchairs with varying tire widths might experience traveling on the trails. Billue found that accessing the trails with a disability might be harder than he ever thought. “It’s really, truly difficult. I really thought it would be easier,” he said. “We’re going to try to find ways to make it more accessible.” Billue added that not only could they work to help people with disabilities, but they could also better preserve the land by making the ground more stable along the way. The Monticello Parks Department has continued preserving the land by celebrating the completion of the “Fifty Trees of Indiana” project in November 2016. The three-year project has introduced a total of 50 species of trees common to Indiana in Monticello City Park. Billue said he decided to start the project in order to diversify the park’s flora as a way to keep the area stable in case a problem occurs with a dominant species of tree in the park. When he joined back in the 1990s, he discovered that 75 percent of the trees in the upper
HJ file photo
Above: Monticello Parks Department Superintendent Mitch Billue (left) and parks department members Aaron Goffe (center) and Bill Reynolds (right) plant a jack pine tree in the Monticello City Park. Below: The butterfly garden in Altherr Nature Park is dedicated to former Monticello Clerk-Treasurer Liz Oilar. area of the park were all white oaks. “Could you imagine what it would be like if something happened to all those trees?” he said. “So that put it in my mind that we need to plant different species, different oaks, different hickory, just a variety so that it would kind of create a healthier environment for the canopy within the park.” In December last year, the parks department and other Monticello officials gathered at the amphitheater in the Altherr Nature Park to bury a time capsule for future generations to discover in 2065. Items in the capsule include letters from local officials as well as an Indiana bicentennial flag. While the world waits for the time when the capsule can finally be unearthed, Billue and the rest of the parks department plan to continue improving ADA accessibility of the parks, preserving the local flora and working toward planting a total of 101 species of trees throughout the city.
Communities & Government
ADA council continues improving city accessibility Page 10 Friday, February 24, 2017
Herald Journal thehj.comH
By Chay Reigle news@thehj.com
The Monticello Mayor ’s Advisory Council for the ADA has been striving for years to improve the conditions in the city of Monticello for people with disabilities, an initiative that Mayor Ken Houston and ADA Coordinator Cathy Gross have continued to make a priority in 2016 and into 2017. In 2016, the city again officially declared the month of March to be Disability Awareness Month. Throughout the month, the city held public events to support people with disabilities, educate members of the public and even invite the community to try to experience what it’s like to live with a disability. After the city raised the Disability Awareness Month banner at the courthouse gazebo, April Hurley, founder of Wheels of Hope, kicked off the month with an evening of music and dancing for people with special needs and those affiliated with people with special needs. The seventh annual Wheels of Hope Freedom Dance brought a large crowd to the Burnettsville Bee Hive, where participants could dance and enjoy themselves in a safe environment without fear of being judged by others. Later in the month, more than a hundred people showed up to a disability awareness night at Twin Lakes High School to watch the Lafayette Spinners play an exhibition match before the Monticello Police Department took on the Monticello Fire Department in a game of wheelchair basketball. While some of the officers thought playing in a wheelchair wouldn’t be so hard, they quickly learned that they underestimated the strength it takes to move, pass and shoot from the confines of a chair. “It’s definitely harder because you have to learn to control the chair and the ball, and you have to dribble,” said Lafayette Spinners member Terry Niccum, who has been playing ball from his chair for over three decades. “You have to learn to stop with the ball. It’s definitely harder.” A number of organizations such as White County Adult Education, the Autism Society of Indiana, the Childcare Resource Network and the Purdue University White County Extension Office held booths at the game to provide information to area residents. The 2016 Disability Awareness Month concluded with the annual “Mile in My
HJ file photo
Community officials raise the banner at the Monticello courthouse gazebo for Disability Awareness Month in March 2016. Pictured, from left: Lisa Terry, CDC Resources communications specialist; Ken Houston, mayor of Monticello; Onias Taruwinga, CDC Resources executive director; Terry Burns, Monticello Street Department official; Cathy Gross, ADA Coordinator; Joe Maxson, Monticello street department; and Tom Adams, Mayor’s Advisory Council for the ADA board member. Shoes Day,” which challenged all members of the community to try to live a typical day while simulating a disability, such as by putting your arm in a sling, wearing soundproof headphones or spending the day in a wheelchair. The weekday finished with a followup forum featuring a panel of people with disabilities who shared their experiences with those who participated in the event. “It was very enlightening and educational,” said Diane Bunnell, who stepped into the life of somebody living with dementia by taking a “virtual dementia tour” at White Oak Health campus. Lori Cheever, a member of the Mayor’s Advisory Council for the ADA, wore earplugs all day to simulate deafness. “I would not want to live with a hearing
HJ file photo
Participants of “Mile in My Shoes Day” listen to Melissa Draper (center) share her personal story of living with cerebral palsy at White Oak Health Campus in March 2016.
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impairment and not be able to hear,” she said at the forum. “It would be really hard.” Other events for Disability Awareness Month included the “Art is for Everyone” gallery, which featured artwork from people with disabilities, and a convocation at Twin Lakes High School with former Paralympics champion Frank Epperson serving as the keynote speaker. Today, the Mayor’s Advisory Council for the ADA is partnering with other area organizations to put on “Behind the Curtain,” the city’s first all-inclusive theatrical production featuring people with disabilities who live in the area. The production will include one-act play “Once Upon a Playground” as well as a mixture of skits and other entertainment. “The sky’s the limit here,” ADA
Coordinator Cathy Gross said about the production. “We want people to engage and have fun and learn that we all have issues and concerns and disabilities, and at some point we’ll probably all have a disability, and we want to focus on our likenesses and not our differences.” “Behind the Curtain” is set premiere this spring at the Altherr Nature Park amphitheater. The ADA council is currently gearing up to host another Disability Awareness Month for March. Planned events include story hours and displays at the MonticelloUnion Township Public Library, an art contest and banner display, an awards ceremony and a mayoral proclamation from Ken Houston.
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