T
P C N SINCE 1882 Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times POSEY COUNTY’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NEWSPAPER
Volume 139 Edition 3
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
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NH trash rate hike expected to be OK’d in morning meeting By Lois Mittino Gray Today’s January 15, 8:30 a.m. morning meeting of the New Harmony Town Council will likely address several issues that were tabled at the December meeting. Items such as raising trash collection fees and selling the old school and South Street Properties, just to name a few. Also on the agenda is also routine beginning of the year actions such as election of officers, hiring the town attorney, designating department heads and setting meeting times and dates. Council President Alvin Blaylock stated at the December meeting that an increase in the monthly fee for trash collection will be necessary. Current fees are no longer sufficient to cover the town’s contract with Advanced
Disposal. There has not been an increase since 2010 when the monthly rate was set at eight dollars. Blaylock recommended a $2 a month increase. Wanting to look into the question further, Councilman Roger Wade made and Councilman David Flanders seconded a motion that the proposed trash increase be tabled until the January meeting. Also tabled in December was the advertised sale of the old school property and the South Street residential lots. President Blaylock reported the town received two bids on the school property. One bid is for the entire property for $80,000. The second bid is for the school building
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‘Wish list’ awaits NPSB members While mothers Sarah Cannon and Elizabeth Williams of Mount Vernon watched their children from the top of Hedges Hill, Luke Williams, six-years-old, and Liam Cannon, eightyears-old, start creating their own snowman. Portions of Posey County received as much as six inches of snow on Friday evening but rain on Saturday had washed away most of the snow by Saturday evening. Photo by Peg Heckman
By Dave Pearce Members of the North Posey School Board along with school administrators met this week in a “work session.” The board and administration got a sneak peek at a list of items each of the four North Posey schools would have on their dream list. “Every two or three years, we will do a big capital projects list,” North Posey School Supt. Dr. Todd Camp explained. “It’s a case where we ask building principals to compile a list of projects with the idea “if money were no object, what would you want for your building. We have been working on this for about two or three months. Some of the things will never be looked at and some of it will.”
Camp explained that the last time the big year for capital improvements came around, the gymnasiums at North Elementary and South Terrace were a big part of the outcome. Camp explained that three or four years ago, one of the bond issues expired and was never replaced and another bond issue is set to be paid off in the coming few years. “There are a lot of things on the lists that were submitted,” Camp said. “There were things like moving the sixth grade or adding on to the cafeteria or putting a turf on the football field or reworking the bleachers or build-
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Lesson in Internet Safety presented to MV school board By Lois Mittino Gray The January 7, annual reorganization meeting of the Mount Vernon School Board kicked off with Certificates of Election presented to District Two Representative Thomas Clowers, Third District Representative Mark Isaac, and First District Representative Kathy Weinzapfel. Oaths of office were administered to the three by Loren Evans, Notary Public. Board Members Isaac and Weinzapfel are incumbents, while Clowers was newly-elected to serve in the position. Isaac was elected Board President and after accepting the honor, he conducted the election of other officers, as well as the business meeting. Joe Rutledge will serve as Vice-President and Beth McFadin Higgins was elected Secretary. The new board set regular meeting dates for the first and third Monday of each month at 5:45 p.m. in the Mount Vernon Junior High School library. School board salaries will re-
main $2000 annually, with $112 for the second regular meeting of each month, and $62 for any special meetings. Business mileage reimbursement at 46 cents per mile also remains the same as last year. The board reappointed the law firm of VanHaaften and Farrar to serve as legal counsel for the school corporation for 2019. The hourly rate will remain at $175 per hour. Billing will be done monthly with all charges to be paid off in 30 days. Kim Morton was reappointed Treasurer and Loren Evans will continue as Deputy Treasurer. A resolution was adopted allowing the two to use signature stamps and signature images on checks when conducting board business and in the School Lunch Extracurricular Account. These stamps will remain secure in the Office of the Superintendent. Another resolution named the persons who
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Loren Evans, Notary Public, administers the oath of office to school board members Kathy Weinzapfel, Thomas Clowers, and Mark Isaac at their first meeting of the school year. Photo by Lois Mittino Gray
Posey spends nearly $4 million on 58 miles in 2018 By Lois Mittino Gray Election of new officers and appointments to county positions were the highlights of the January 8, morning meeting of the Posey County Commissioners at the Hovey House. Longtime Commissioner Carl Schmitz was unanimously elected President, while newly-elected Commissioner Randy Thornburg was tapped to serve as Commission Vice President. Schmitz’ first official action of the year was to appoint Joseph Harrison as the Commission Attorney for 2019. Meeting dates will remain the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 9 a.m. The two exceptions voted on at the meeting are Wednesday, May 8, 2019, and Wednesday, November 6, 2019, due to the fact that county offices must be closed during elections.
Briefly Robinson Township Trustee Board Meeting January 21, 2019, 1 p.m. 10799 SR 66 Wadesville Come and See Saint Wendel Saint Wendel Catholic School January 31, 5 - 7 p.m. 4725 Saint Wendel-Cynthiana Road, Wadesville Be a Light in the Darkness Small Town Safety in the Era of Active Shooters February 13, 6 p.m. Saint Stephens, 512 Granary, NH Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl for Kids’ Sake March 17 Posey Lanes, Mount Vernon
More information on these and other events inside today’s Posey County News
(USPS 439-500)
The contract to rebuild Bridge Number 102 in the county was awarded to Jerry Chastain Jr., with a low bid of $296,186.36 for the project. Schmitz presented the Harshaw Trane service contract for the air conditioning system, due for renewal in March of this year. The contract pricing proposal is for 2019: $3,069, for
2020: $3,161, and for 2021: $3,256. Upon discussion, there was confusion as to whether it was for all three buildings or just the Courthouse, as it was never specified. Commissioner Jay Price made a motion to table this contract until further questions could be answered and that action passed unanimously. A long list of annual appoint-
ments were tackled next. The following were given one year terms: Keith Weedman, ABC Board; Commissioner Carl Schmitz, Area Plan Board; Mark Seib, Board of Zoning Appeals; and Marsha Droege, Carol Redman, Ed Battieger, Vicki Peerman, Judy Heber, Mary Rhoades, and Nancy Hoehn to the ADA Compliance Board. One year appoint-
ments were also given to Billy Butler and Don Oeth to the Board of Review, Jeff Woodford, Ed Battieger, Jeff Greenwell, Mindy Bourne and Adam Knight to the Coliseum Board and Randy Thornburg to the Child Protection Team. One year terms went to Ronald Ei-
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Finding your perfect match Posey woman finds siblings after 50 years of wondering By Lois Mittino Gray “They found me.” They were three simple words posted to a Facebook Page late at night on October 14, 2018. Three poignant words written by Karen Hufnagel on her deceased mother’s page on the day that rocked her world. Just hours earlier, the Mount Vernon woman learned, after over 50 years of wondering, who her mother was. On that day, Karen was contacted by two brothers she didn’t even know she had, who had been searching for her for over 20 years. Finally, they found her. The remarkable story of this reunion begins with an Ancestry DNA kit Karen submitted for analysis in September. She was notified it would be weeks before she had any results. Karen, raised in the Dogtown area of Vanderburgh County by the Winiger family, always knew she was adopted as an infant, but was never released any information by Catholic Charities who arranged it. She was curious what she might find out from her DNA. On the quiet Sunday afternoon, her husband’s phone rang. “We didn’t recognize the number and so didn’t answer it thinking it was a robocall. Then mine rang from the same number, so I answered. It was a woman from Boonville named Dana Miller, who likes puzzles
and helps people search for kin. She told me that she thought she could put me in touch with two brothers, after looking at their Ancestry.com files. I was startled to hear this and wary of it all,
Karen Hufnagel
thinking it was a scam. Phone numbers can be purchased on the Internet. I know people can mess with your heartstrings, thinking it’s funny to do so,” Karen recalled as she recounted the story. “So I decided to call Ancestry.com directly. I thought my account might have been hacked. A kind woman working there told me she would take a look. She was quiet for a while reading and finally she said, ‘Karen, this is not a hoax or con. Your sample was processed on October 5 and there is such a close DNA match that these are your brothers.” “Then it was my turn to not say anything. ‘Karen, are you there? Are you OK? I understand your shock,” she said. She told me where to go to see the entire matching DNA. I was freaked out by it all at first,” she continued. “I was bamboozled.” Almost simultaneously, three emails arrived that day at about the same time. One from Dana explaining things, a short one from Kevin Cundiff in Florida saying “There’s a good chance I’m your younger brother” and a longer one with information from older brother Bryan Cundiff from California. Bryan’s letter began, “May I start off by saying that we were very surprised and happy at
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