Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times
LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1882
E, “OUR LIBERTIES WE PRIZ L MAINTAIN.” AND OUR RIGHTS WE WIL Posey County’s ONLY Locally Owned Newspaper.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Body discovered here By Lois Mittino Gray The body of an unidentified human male was found floating in a log jam near Mink Island in the Wabash River in Harmonie State Park about 6:30 p.m. Saturday night. Sources outside of law enforcement have indicated the body could be that of missing New Harmony man Richard Little. Nate Axton, an avid outdoorsman who resides near the location, was fishing in the river when he noticed a foul smell emanating from the area. He thought it was perhaps a dead deer floating in the jam, and upon approach saw the discolored remains and wondered if it was a pig. Then he saw two black shoes. Backing off, Axton called the sheriff’s department with the report of a possible human corpse in the river. Posey County Sheriff Greg Oeth and the Black Township Fire and Rescue responded and a boat dropped Deputy Sheriff Bill Denning up at the tip of the island. “Deputy Denning was able to walk in to the jam and verify that it was indeed a human body,” Oeth said. “The boat went back to the park dock and picked up the coroner and necessary supplies, while Denning stayed with the dead man to secure the body and
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Volume 135 Edition 19 Posey County Sheriff’s Deputies were notified at 7:05 a.m. on Thursday, May 7, of an overturned semi-tractor trailer on State Road 62 east, just west of the St. Philip Road intersection. The driver lost control of the 2008 Western Star semi-tractor, as he approached the intersection. The vehicle traveled across the emergency lane and overturned on a shallow embankment on the south side of the highway. The trailer was loaded with grain. The driver, Ronald Koester, 59, of Boonville, sustained minor injuries but was not transported to the hospital. The Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the Marrs Township Fire Department and the Posey County EMS. Photo by Zach Straw
make sure it did not get caught up in the current.” After being pronounced dead, the man was taken to the Vanderburgh County Morgue where an autopsy is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Monday, May 11. Due to the state of decomposition and length of time in the water, Oeth surmised that the procedure will take several hours. “We do not suspect foul play at this time, but we will know more after the autopsy,” said Posey County Coroner Jay Price. Oeth indicated that it was important to get the remains to a sterile environment (the morgue) where closer investigations and an autopsy could be done. Oeth said that even the race of the remains could not be determined at the scene. On Sunday afternoon, Oeth indicated that his department was in the process of obtaining dental records to help with potential identification of the male. He indicated that so far, records only from the immediate area was being pursued. The sheriff indicated he wishes to thank all units who helped out with the investigation, including Black Township Fire and Rescue, the New Harmony Volunteer Fire Department, and the Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officers.
Students at North Elementary School in Poseyville pose for a picture with State Representative Wendy Macnamara during her visit to the school last Friday, May 8. Photo by Valerie Werkmeister. See pages A2 for Farmersville Pictures.
North, Farmersville elementaries are Blue Ribbon schools By Valerie Werkmeister It’s not every day that an important state official visits your school. But, it’s also not every day that a state official gets to visit two important elementary schools poised on the verge of fame. On Friday, State Representative Wendy McNamara had the honor of presenting a state resolution to both North Elementary School (NES) in Poseyville and Farmersville Elementary School near Mount Vernon. Both schools were nominated to win a national award designation as Blue Ribbon Schools. To the students, it’s just a fun day in which they were encouraged to wear blue and take a school-wide picture outside on a beautiful spring day. Of course, to the teachers and administrators, it means much more. Perhaps NES Principal Terri Waugaman explained it best by stating it’s like winning
the Super Bowl among schools. Each year, the U.S. Department of Education seeks out schools that are doing exemplary work with its students joined by community support. According to their website, “the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes public and private elementary, middle, and high schools based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. The National Blue Ribbon School award affirms the hard work of students, educators, families, and communities in creating safe and welcoming schools where students master challenging content.” Just to be nominated is an astounding achievement. McNamara stated the honor is not bestowed upon many schools. Only eight schools within the state of Indiana have been
nominated. Posey County has the honor of two elementary schools being nominated. The Indiana General Assembly entered the resolution on March 5, recognizing both schools. Following the nomination, each school was asked to complete a rigorous questionnaire about its school, programs and community. The information was turned in the end of March. Winners will be announced in September. For now, each school is floating on Cloud Nine from their nominations. Both schools, along with North Elementary and North Posey Junior and Senior High, have also been recently named as 2013-2014 Indiana Four-Star Schools by the Indiana Department of Education. The designation is achieved by its students ranking in the top 25th percentile in two ISTEP categories. They also must have earned an “A” in the state’s accountability system.
Work on new gyms to begin on June 1 By Valerie Werkmeister Thanks to a unanimous vote by North Posey School Board members, North Elementary (NE) and South Terrace Elementary Schools (STES) will each have new gymnasiums next year. Work will begin after school is out of session for the summer on June 1, and will be completed around Christmas time. It is anticipated it will be ready for use January 4, 2016. Each gym will be large enough
for a full-size basketball court, bleachers, office space, and storage space, changing rooms for boys and girls and a concession stand. The gyms will have a separate entrance from the outside as well as an internal connection through a corridor. The price tag for each school is approximately $1.8 million dollars. That does not include the cost of bleachers at $49,941; four goals at a cost of $23,355 or a scoreboard at
a cost of $11,717. Those additional items will hopefully be added purchases once the determination of soft costs is added. Superintendent Dr. Todd Camp summarized other projects that have already been approved by the board at each school. The energy efficiency projects at each building and the improvements at the junior high and high school building which include a complete renovation to the shared media center, up-
‘Friends’ to help build HSP pavilion Peter Nowotony stands in the spot where he plans to put the herb garden outside the Red Geranium Restaurant. Photo by Lois Mittino Gray
Nowotony to lead RGE By Lois Mittino Gray Peter Nowotony excitedly points out why the bales of straw sit outside the front door of the Red Geranium Restaurant’s kitchen. “In this outside area, I am putting in my herb garden so the cook can just walk out the door and pick them fresh. Fresh is always best in cooking,” he noted. “This is one of my special projects I want to do very soon.” Peter, the amiable new General Manager of Red Geranium Enterprises, knows all about good cooking as he has worked in this field in
22 different countries. Austrian by birth, he received his culinary and confectionary certification from the Culinary Institute in Vienna. Cooking in many kitchens afterwards, he worked up to Executive Chef, until his last stint in the kitchen in 1972 at the Sheraton Kingston, Jamaica. From there, he became interested in the business end of food service and attended Cornell University to earn a degree in management. He worked at many resort properties, culminating in his last job as General Manager of The Somerset Resort on Grace Bay on the island
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By Lois Mittino Gray Would you like to buy a brick to help cover a cookie? The inspiration for the latest park improveends of ment project sponsored by the Friends oup Harmonie State Park support group is a cookie. Not a crumbly melt in your mouth kind of cookie, but instead, one made of solid wood. The ‘tree cookie’ is a cross section from the trunk of Indiana’s largest Black Oak that grew in the front of the park, until it met its demise in a storm a few years ago. The Friends saved the huge slab of wood to make a display andd count the rings of the old tree in an interpretive exhibit, but it needs too be sheltered from the elements. While discussing the need for a display covering, the Friends group thought out of the box and decided to include it as part of a bigger project.
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The group plans to raise money and build an Outdoor Education Pavilion for group activities and naturalist programs. Plans call for a 30-foot by 50-foot structure with a partial brick wall all around it and the tree cookie will be built into the front wall. “This will provide prov much needed space for larger educa educational programs than the existing Natu Center can hold as well as Nature m many other events put on by FHSP an the campground hosts,” exand p plained Eddie Knapp. Knapp is an a active volunteer and was president o the FHSP group at the time of of t project’s inception. the The pavilion will have electric an water and will be built in the and wo woods directly to the right and behind the Nature Center. “We expect t be around $43,000. We have costs to raised almost half of that amount from grants and the sale of bricks looks very promising,” said Fred Hirsch, current president of the FHSP group. About 80
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