“Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain.”
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Since 1882 ~ Successor to The Poseyville News and The New Harmony Times • New Harmony, IN
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Posey County’s locally-owned newspaper
$1.00
Volume 133 Edition 1
Blizzard of 2012 puts Posey in Emergency State By Valerie Werkmeister The blizzard of 2012 came a day late to make it in time for a white Christmas, but it still made quite an impression once it did arrive. Posey County residents, as well as most of the tristate area, woke up the day after Christmas to substantial snowfall. Many reported as much as nine and one-half to ten inches of snowfall. Areas in Evansville received just slightly less in the six to seven-inch range. On Friday evening, Mother Nature added another four to six inches over the area, just for good measure. While the snow came at an ideal time for those enjoying Christmas break from school or time off from work, it still made travel difficult for those who had to get out. Police officers and other first responders were deluged with calls for help from people stranded in vehicles that had become stuck in the snow. Conditions were severe enough for Posey County to declare a state of emergency that remained in effect until Thursday, December 27, at noon. All county government offices were closed and citizens were encouraged to only travel if abso-
lutely necessary. To make matters worse, Poseyville residents lost power around 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. It was the second time this month residents endured a power outage in cold weather. The first outage was caused due to an accident at the substation north of town and lasted more than 12 hours. Duke Energy reported 1,344 customers were without power for more than four hours Wednesday. Fortunately, the power was restored around 6 p.m.that evening. Vectren only reported 58 customers without power Wednesday. When customers experience a power outage, they are encouraged to report it to their electric utility company directly. It is often difficult for utility companies to restore power quickly during snowstorms of this size and magnitude. A few other common sense tips that will help in preparing for emergency situations is to stock a minimum of three days food and water for each member of the household, including
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Laura Newman couldn’t wait to get her camera out and begin taking artistic photos of the Blizzards of 2012. Photo courtesy of Laura Newman
Mount Vernon celebrates present, brighter future
Members of Mount Vernon City Council and Parks and Recreation held a special Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to celebrate the opening of the new Riverfront Park. Immediately after the ribbon cutting ceremony, an honorary ground-breaking was held for the residential/commercial project, The Landing. Photo by Zach Straw.
Special to the News Thursday’s wind didn’t prevent the City of Mount Vernon from celebrating its recently completed riverfront park with a ribbon cutting and dedication. Immediately following, officials looked forward to things to come with ground-breaking ceremonies for its $8 million residential/commercial project, The Landing. City officials participated in the ceremonies along with key figures from architect Myzak & Palmer, developer Flahery & Collins, investment partners First Merchants Bank and Fifth Third Bank as well as local stakeholders 21st Century Leadership of Posey County Ltd. and the Posey County Economic Development Partnership. “The completion of the park and the construction of The Landing mark a new era in the revitalization of our downtown and are, without question, the most exciting and newsworthy events for our city center in the last decade,” commented Mount Vernon Mayor John Tucker. Residents of and visitors to Mount Vernon may now enjoy a trail, the riverfront performance theater, interactive fountains, and an overlook with a magnificent view of the Ohio River. Across the street from the park, The Landing is expected to be completed late 2013.
MVJHS meets goal to stock food pantry, shaves heads By Pam Robinson Mount Vernon Junior High School, or MVJHS, students and staff met at 8:05 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 20, to celebrate the success of their canned food drive for the Mount Vernon Food Pantry. The students had been driven by the promise that School Superintendent Tom Kopatich, MVJHS Principal Kyle Jones, MVJHS Assistant Principal Jerad Shockley and MVJHS Wrestling Coach Tim Alcorn would all shave their heads if 6,000 canned food items were brought for the food pantry. MVJHS students collected nearly 10,000 canned food items. While popular music played and students cheered, all eyes focused on the center of the main gym as hairdressers from Green Duck Hair Salon in Mount Vernon worked their magic. Certainly, the shiny-headed administrators had to take notice of the breezy weather on Thursday, but all were good sports and happy to lose their hair for such a worthy cause.
In the end, all were outfitted with Santa hats and strutted in front of the uproarious assembly to the beat of “Gangnam Style.” “I’m very proud of the junior high and what they were able to accomplish. The students collected around 4,000 cans for the food pantry last year, and they more than doubled that amount this year. We may have pretty close to 10,000 cans to give to our Mount Vernon Food Pantry. You hear a lot in the media and news about worldwide hunger, and we do want to help and pray. But sometimes we forget about our community. As I said during the student assembly this morning, you may have some classmates who need the bare necessities with food. With your help, people in our community and county will have food for a while,” Supt. Kopatich commented. “We had a lot of fun. If cutting our hair will allow us to bring in 10,000 cans to our food pantry, it’s a good thing.”
Superintendent Tom Kopatich is all smiles, as the hairstylists of The Green Duck shave MVJHS Principal Kyle Jones, MVJHS Assistant Principal Jerad Shockley, MVJHS Wrestling Coach Tim Alcorn, and his head. Photo by Zach Straw. See more photos of this set on The Posey County News’ Facebook page.
Bill and Beverly Tucker are ‘playing for keeps’ with antique marble collection Mount Vernon business owner Bill Tucker recalls vividly how he and his wife Beverly started collecting vintage marbles. As his mother was spring cleaning, she ran across an old shoebox. When she picked it up to toss it, it was heavy. The next time Bill came to visit her, she asked, “Son, do you remember playing marbles when you were young?” Then, she handed him the shoebox filled with the very marbles he owned as a kid. Although those marbles, dating back to the 1950’s, didn’t have much monetary value, they prompted Bill to go to books and Web sites and start reading about collectible marbles. “They’re in-
teresting, and they’re fun to find,” he says. Over the past 20 years since his mother found the marbles collected in his youth, Bill has purchased hundreds of marbles. The owner of Tucker’s Sporting Goods has them locked away in a couple of dozen felt-lined cases, opened only to special visitors. He lifts the lid on the oldest and the biggest (about 2” round) handmade marbles first—the sulphides, or figure marbles, made in Germany—dating back to the 1890s. Most of Bill and Beverly’s translucent glass sulphides contain animal figures, but Bill says they may contain numbers or people, including U.S. Presidents. He purchased
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his first sulphide in New Harmony. Generally speaking, Bill says, the bigger the sulphide, the more valuable it is. He adds, though, that condition is everything, just as when you purchase any merchandise. The fewer chips or nicks in the glass, the more money it will fetch from collectors. Bill and Beverly declined an offer of $10,000 for one case of sulphides. A little later, Bill brings out a case of small (about 1/4” round) handmade marbles, also dating from the 1890’s—many of them, Point Township residents Bill and Beverly Tucker sit next to vinthe eye-catching lutz marbles. tage marble bags of particular interest to marble collectors. Their Lutz marbles refer to any marble own collection of antique handmade marbles is locked away in casThe Tuckers started collecting antique marbles about 20 years Continued on Page A3 es. ago. Photo by Pam Robinson
Inside this issue... Retrospective ................... A4 Community ........... A5 Social ...................... A6 Legals ................................ B7 Deaths ................ A3 Sports .................. B1-4 Classifieds ..................... B5-6 Church .................. A6 Bus/Ag .................... A7
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