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SINCE 1882 Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times POSEY COUNTY’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NEWSPAPER
Volume 137 Edition 14
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Sewer district formation on the horizon By Valerie Werkmeister The formation of a new entity could determine the legacy of current Posey County leaders. Following a long joint meeting of the Posey County Council and Commissioners last week, the commissioners took the first steps towards the formation of the Southwest Indiana Regional Sewer District. It would replace the current Wadesville-Blairsville Regional Sewer District (WBRSD). The importance of this new entity has far-reaching and long-standing
effects for Posey County’s future growth. A Little Backstory The WBRSD was created in 2006 with the mission of finding a way to collect and treat sanitary sewage for some 400 rooftops with the communities of Wadesville and Blairsville. Much of the ground in Posey County is not sufficient for the use of septic systems. Last summer, Dr. Dwayne Ackerman, President of the WBRSD discussed the problem of raw sewage and contamination near South Terrace Elementary School. “Last year, the Posey County Health De-
partment’s Administrator, Denny Schaeffer, tested 40 different sites, and every single site of ground water is contaminated. It is amazing we haven’t had more people getting sick,” said Ackerman during a July 2016 commissioner’s meeting. At that time, Ackerman was pleading with government officials to make a financial commitment with a local 45 percent match to a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency that dated back to 2009. The EPA had granted over $485,000 to go towards the creation of a treatment facil-
ity. The county council failed to support the measure and the funds were sent back to the EPA. It should be noted that the expense for the 400 homes and businesses to support a treatment system was too great of a burden. The estimated $12 million cost would have meant each homeowner or business owner would have paid nearly $400 per month. The project had been stalled for years due to cost issues. Last year’s attempt to fund
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Council hears phosphorus report Wade insists on having fail coverage in writing
From left to right are pictured the new Best One Tire team: Keith Phillips, Austin Seibert, Store Manager Josh Wilcher, Rayetta Brown, David Brink, and Kyle Wilcher. Photo by Pam Robinson
By Pam Robinson New Harmony Town Council received a report last Tuesday morning from Eric Parsley with Commonwealth Engineers of Evansville regarding the phosphorus removal project at the sewer plant. Parsley reported most issues had been addressed after a walkthrough with PPMI Contractors last week to “button up” open work from October 2016. The main issue still being resolved is the clogging in the lines, causing a slow feed rate. Parsley said the clogging is most likely due to a combination of the chemical being pumped through the lines and glue found in the joints of the lines. As a result, a new
chemical will be introduced with a viscosity similar to water. Parsley addressed also the size of the pumps and their effectiveness. He said the current pumps were never intended to digest a tank all the way down. By contrast, the previously used land application for dewatering could empty the tank all the way down. The pumps used now are capable of pumping at least 30,000 gallons out of that tank, Parsley said—enough to do what’s needed on a regular basis. He added larger pumps would have cost more, and a flood plain permit would have been required. Noted were the two pay applications submitted to council: one for final payment and one for final retainage payment. Parsley emphasized no change
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Best One Tire reopens Traffic stop leads to arrest of two today with ceremony By Pam Robinson Best One Tire and Service, owned by Southern Indiana Tire, celebrates its return to Mount Vernon with a ribbon cutting today at 1:30 p.m. Ceremonies will take place at the extensively renovated building at its familiar old location, 1328 East Fourth Street, across from Arby’s. President Bruce Piper will stand with Store Manager Josh Wilcher alongside local officials to mark the grand opening. A “soft” opening was held at the store this past Saturday and yesterday. Store hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday. “We’re happy as can be to be back,” Wilcher stated. “We’ve had nothing but support from the community.” He added the highest praise for Rodney Shephard, a well-known Mount Vernon contractor, whose Shephard Services, Inc., com-
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Briefly PC Council on Aging: Deaconess Mobile Breast Center April 6, 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. 611 West Eighth Street, MV MVJHS: Musical April 7, 7 p.m. 701 Tile Factory Road, MV St. Philips Church: Men’s Club Fish Fry April 7, 5-7 p.m. 3500 St. Phillips Road, MV Willow Tree: Italian Dinner April 8, 5 p.m. Holy Angels Community Center, NH Alexandrian Public Library: Book Sale April 8, 9 a.m. 115 West Fifth Street, MV First Baptist Church: Spaghetti Dinner April 29, 4-6 p.m. East Tavern Street, NH More information on these and other events inside today’s Posey County News
See our special Easter Section in today’ paper for Service and Hunt information.
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(USPS SPS SP S 439 4 439-500) 39 500 5 00
Special to the News On March 30, 2017, at 9:29 p.m., Deputy Jennifer Loesch conducted a traffic stop on a White 2009 Chevy Malibu near the intersection of Hart Street and Water Street in Princeton. During a roadside investigation Deputy Loesch discovered that the driver, 30-year-old Brian Dillard of rural Poseyville, was operating the vehicle without a valid license. At the end of the investigation Dillard and 32-year-old Tiffine Pfingston of Cynthiana were taken into custody and transported to the Gibson County Jail. At the Gibson County Jail Dillard and Pfingston were charged with Possession of Methamphetamines. Both individ-
Tiffine Pfingston uals remain in custody on a $750 bond. Assisting Deputy Loesch in her
Brian Dillard investigation were Princeton Officers Jason Swan and Matthew Perry.
Humanities grants awarded to area communities By Dave Pearce Jasper, Vincennes and New Harmony were three of 17 communities who will benefit from Indiana Humanities grants awarded this week. Indiana Humanities awarded nearly $30,000 to support humanities-based programming throughout Indiana and more funding opportunities are still available. Projects ranging from teacher workshops incorporating Indiana’s historic Buffalo Trace into lesson plans, Saturday-morning book
classes centered on social justice, a future presidents summer camp and more have received funding from Indiana Humanities. Public media, local libraries, small museums and other nonprofit organizations from South Bend to Batesville will receive Humanities Initiative Grants totaling $29,901 for projects that will intertwine history, literature, art history and world religions with opportunities for public dialogue and conversation. “Funding a wide range of thoughtful and cre-
Website issues lead county to move site to new server Cost of upkeep nearly cut in half By Valerie Werkmeister Troubles with the Posey County government website have prompted Posey County Commissioners to act. During their meeting, last Tuesday, March 21, Posey County Auditor Sara Beth Meighen explained the current site is hosted by Bob Price at a cost of $6,000 per year. Price has not returned phone calls for assistance by county employees or its IT administrator, Automated Office Solutions. The decision was made to copy the current website contents and move it to a new server hosted by Ryan Wagner of Visual Rush. Meighen stated they wanted to have a back-up copy of the contents before they notified Price the county would be terminating their
contract with him. The commissioners agreed to pay Wagner’s fee of $845 to move the content and an additional $275 each month to host the site on his server. The total fee for the remainder of 2017 is $3,320 and $3,300 each year after. “That is half the cost we are paying now,” Meighen said. Brittaney Johnson, the new Posey County Economic Development Director provided a brief overview of directives she is working towards. She stated the organization is taking a new focus on educating the youth and the Posey County community of the opportunities here. Encouraging people to stay in the county for not only manufacturing jobs, but also engineering opportunities will help population growth. She also noted that as plans for
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ative programming that exposes so many Hoosiers to the depth and breadth of the humanities is core to our mission,” said Keira Amstutz, president and CEO of Indiana Humanities. “We are encouraged, every year, by the types of programs that we are able to support and the opportunity to touch the lives of residents all over Indiana.” New in 2016, Indiana Humanities introduced
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Special delivery!
Abel Scott Cole, born to Posey County News reporter Brandon Cole and his wife Tammy of Mount Vernon, made his appearance at 2:19 p.m. on March 31. Abel weighed in at 7 pounds, 6 ounces and was 20 and-one-fourth-inches long. He’s also welcomed by his sister, Alexis Cole and grandparents, Eddie and Trisha Cole of Henderson, Ky., and Daniel and Cindy Moore of Evansville.