SINCE 1882 Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times POSEY COUNTY’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NEWSPAPER
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Volume 137 Edition 1
County fathers indicate Midwest is on the horizon By Valerie Werkmeister Posey County Commissioners and Council members met for the final time in a joint meeting session following the council meeting on December 12. They heard updates on two long-standing projects that have seen little movement. Commissioner president Carl Schmitz announced Midwest Fertilizer is finally fully funded and ready to proceed, although bonds set to be refunded in February will need to be rolled over. Council member Tom Schneider expressed his surprise the bonds would be
renewed again if the company has the necessary funds to proceed with the project. Schmitz stated the company “still has a few more things to do” and that a groundbreaking ceremony would hopefully take place sometime in the spring. He felt the project looks very positive. Dan Barton, a publisher of an online monthly news journal in New Harmony, addressed county officials about the closed New Harmony bridge. He read a statement citing his concerns over the rapid deterioration of the town due to the bridge’s closure.
He added it is also the primary concern of many New Harmony residents. Barton stated engineering reports he has read indicate the bridge can be restored and reused and is preferred over razing and rebuilding the structure. This would also be more cost effective than building a new structure. Barton suggested that funds to pay for the project may be available through Indiana’s regional cities initiative. He indicated that New Harmony resident and business owner Laura Arneburg is currently working with
Greg Wathen of the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana in regards to receiving funds to restore the bridge. Barton also stated Indiana Landmarks Association has allocated $65,000 to fund a new bridge study that is set to begin in January by VS Engineering, Inc., in Indianapolis. Their work is set to be complete in June 2017. A new idea for help restoring the bridge comes by way of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Barton explained an innovative
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New marshal Straub welcomes challenges of small town officer By Pam Robinson since then for Industrial Transport Services, Mount Vernon native Max Aaron Straub a national transport company based in Mount is the newly appointed Town Marshal for the Vernon, as a dispatcher. Town of New Harmony. Known as Aaron by In spite of the delay in realizing his career his family and friends, he can dream, Straub remains enthusiremember vividly when he astic and expresses pride in his knew he wanted to become a new position as New Harmony law enforcement officer. Town Marshal, effective January As a result of MVHS Ca1, 2017. reer Day, the Indiana State “I want to thank the Town Police set up a ride-along for Council for giving me this opStraub with local state troopportunity,” he said. “I want them ers. “It was exciting,” he reto know they made the right calls. “I knew after that [my choice. I look forward to serving career choice].” the community.” He adds, “I’m M. Aaron Straub The Mount Vernon High in this position for the long term. School, or MVHS, all-state I want to make a career out of it.” wide receiver has sprinted on a winding The tall dark-haired 24-year-old is clear path, however, to accomplish his goal. He about his primary goal as New Harmony attended the University of Southern Indi- Town Marshal. “New Harmony is a tightana after graduating with the MVHS Class knit community. Everybody knows everyof 2011. While at USI, he studied sociology Continued on Page A3 with a focus on criminology. He has worked
Jim and Judy Alsop chose to stay in New Harmony to celebrate the New Year with friends on Saturday evening. Photo submitted
Local McDonald’s ‘rock’ to retire Tuesday at only 92
Sybil Johnson will end her 23-year career at the Mount Vernon McDonalds today, on Tuesday, January 3, 2017. Photo by Lois Mittino Gray
By Lois Mittino Gray Sibyl Johnson can recall exactly where she was 23 years ago on September 21, 1993. “It was opening day of the brand new McDonalds in Mount Vernon and I was working the lobby and greeting our first customers. I put my application in just the day before and the restaurant was a mess, but that day it was all ready to go. There I was starting a new job, a 69-year-old widow, on the date of my wedding anniversary.” She parlayed that new job into a remarkable 23-year career working under the golden arches. She plans to fill her last drink order on Tuesday, January 3 during her 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. shift and then hang up her uniform for the last time. The sprightly 92-year-old will be honored with a retirement cake, flowers, cards and a plaque for her years of faithful service at that time by her co-workers, according to Store Manager Lauren Boggs. “Sybil is the ‘Rock of McDonalds’ as far as I’m concerned. I’ve known her the past 12 years and seeing her in action gives our younger employees hope and encouragement in their jobs. She opened with this store and knows about everything. Customers see her aged happy face working in the drive- thru and they think it’s wonderful,” Boggs said. Starting out as full time, the ‘Rock’ slowly cut down to three days of two-hour shifts, then two days, as she aged. She thrives on action and works with two others in a small space to take care of drive-thru
drinks. “Sure we crash into each other at times, but I have my own way of doing things and my lids are in a set place that I can reach,” she explained. Working the drive-thru is great fun and she enjoys thinking of her many regular customers who come daily and always seem to order the same thing. They run the gamut from the man who never smiled and orders two cones to the dog owners who come through to buy their pet an ice cream treat. “One young man came through and told us that he has traveled a lot and we are the fastest and friendliest McDonalds,” she said proudly. Johnson is a Mount Vernon native who was born and raised in Pointe Township. She and her husband, Joe, who passed away in 1978, are the parents of six children. Five are still living and three of them currently reside in the Mount Vernon area: Lisa Miller, Lonnie Moore and Jeff Johnson. Daughter Brenda Hicks lives in Ohio and Kathy Cox resides in Tennessee. The retiree may travel to see the out of state daughters now that she will have free time. “She is such an excellent cook because she had to feed all of us kids, she’s probably the best in Mount Vernon,” Miller said. Her daughter reminisced about growing up in the bottoms near the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers and having to take a boat to school during Spring floods. “We even had to ride through the water
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New $35 million contract will bring 120 jobs to Posey Special to the News BWX Technologies, Inc., announced this week that its subsidiary BWXT Nuclear Operations Group, Inc., has received two competitively bid awards (development and fabrication) under a single contract for Virginia Payload Module (VPM) launch tubes. The contract was awarded by General Dynamics Electric Boat to support the Virginia-class submarine program and is worth approximately $35 million. BWXT is located in
Briefly Posey Health Board meets January 10 The Posey County Board of Health will meet Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 6 p.m. at the Coliseum, Room 20, Mount Vernon, Ind. For questions, please contact the Health Department, 812838-1328. Talk To a Lawyer Clinic opens Jan. 5 The first telephone clinic for individuals to receive free legal advice is scheduled for Thursday, January 5, 2017. Between the hours of 4:30 p.m. CST and 7 p.m. CST, volunteer attorneys will be available to talk to the general public regarding questions concerning Indiana law. This service is provided the first Thursday of every month and is sponsored by Volunteer Lawyer Program of Southwestern Indiana, Evansville Bar Foundation and Indiana Bar Foundation. The telephone numbers are: 812-6184845 and 888-594-3449.
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(USPS SPS 4 439-500) 3 9 5 00
Mount Vernon. The VPM will comprise four large-diameter payload tubes in a new hull section to be inserted in Virginia-class submarines. Work has already begun for development efforts and qualification of the processes required to manufacture these payload tubes. BWXT expects to complete the development by 2019. Fabrication of a quantity of first-of-a-kind VPM payload tubes will begin in 2017 with
delivery of the first tube scheduled in 2019. The fabrication portion of the contract represents 75 percent of the tube production work available at this time. The work will be conducted at BWXT’s Mount Vernon, Ind., manufacturing facility, the same site where launch tubes are being manufactured for Columbia-class (formerly known as Ohio Replacement Program) submarines. The company is in the process of adding approximately 120 new jobs at
Mount Vernon to support this and other new manufacturing activities. “We are excited to begin Virginia Payload Module fabrication work as we have been investing in our facilities to meet the needs of Electric Boat and the U.S. Navy in preparation for such an opportunity,” said Peyton S. (Sandy) Baker, President and Chief Executive Officer of BWXT. “This opportunity
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Schneider to lead PC community corrections growth By Pam Robinson Mount Vernon resident Matt Schneider, Director of Posey County Community Corrections, or PCCC, is excited about the approval of his budget request for adding new staff in 2018 to his current three-member team. The county jail renovation should be completed that year, and PCCC staff will move into new, rent-free offices there. The offices were set aside so PCCC can assume the responsibility of managing the county’s work release program. In addition to Schneider, PCCC now employs Case Manager Sydnie Pease and Field Officer Rusty Jordan. In 2018, PCCC staff will jump to ten with the hiring of another case manager and six new correctional officers (jailers), Schneider said. In a recent interview, he discussed his crime prevention philosophy and how PCCC’s program puts it action. “Crime doesn’t just exist in a vacuum. It’s always because,” Schneider emphasized. “The because might be employment related or an active addiction relation.
There might be housing issues going on that we don’t know about. When we find those [reasons] and target them, we minimize that person’s chance of getting in trouble again.” The USI graduate has reinforced such wisdom working in the trenches at Posey County Community Corrections. He joined the organization about a month after it started in January 2009 as a field officer/case manager. He brought with him previous experience in electronic monitoring at a private house arrest company, enabling him to set up the house arrest program at his new place of employment. When a resignation opened the PCCC Director’s position this past February, he served as Interim Director for six months and gained more invaluable experience to prepare him for the board’s official Director designation this August. Posey County Community Corrections has provided a “diversionary program to sen-
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Mount Vernon resident Matt Schneider, Director of Posey County Community Corrections. Photo by Pam Robinson