SINCE 1882 Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times POSEY COUNTY’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NEWSPAPER
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Volume 136 Edition 21
Major drug arrest made in rural Posey County home By Dave Pearce A traffic stop in Evansville set into motion a chain of events that landed a rural Stewartsville man in the Posey County Jail on $500,000 cash bond. Evansville residents Gabriel Apple, Kiersten Caudill and David Calloway were accused of having drugs in a car. That led to the arrest of the Posey County pair. Upon securing a search warrant, two pounds of synthetic marijuana were found in the car along with a small amount of heroin. A subsequent search of Apple’s residence resulted in over eight pounds of the synthetic marijuana being found. During that search, detectives
found a package that had been sent from China and delivered to the rural Posey County address. According to police records, Brian McCurry and Allyson Hudnall, a married couple whose address McMurry is officially listed as New Harmony, were arrested late Thursday evening. Because of the myriad of items, including assault rifles, found in the McMurry home, and McMurry’s past convictions, Posey County Circuit County Judge Brent Almond set bail for McMurry at $500,000 Cash Only bond.
Hudnall bonded out over the weekend. McMurry has had five drug-related convictions in Indiana since 2009. When arrested, McMurry was reported carrying some $4,600 in cash while Hudnall Hudnall had $6,000 on her person at the time of her arrest. A confidential informant told members of the Evansville Drug Task force they had purchased a quantity of the chemicals used to make synthetic marijuana from McMurry in the Posey County home for $6,000. Street value of the
Area residents want answers on MV bypass By Valerie Werkmeister It was standing room only with approximately 80 people attending last Tuesday’s Posey County Commissioner’s meeting. Most were there to learn more or voice their concerns regarding the Mount Vernon bypass project that will connect Indiana State Road 69 with Indiana State Road 62 west of Mount Vernon. The project is to facilitate the building of a $2.5 billion fertilizer plant just west of the city. Surveyors from American Structure Point are in the process of mapping out areas that will ultimately determine the exact route the bypass will take. Property owners had recently received letters informing them they may notice individuals on their property as the surveying process continues. Attorney Rick Hall of Indianapolis-based law firm Barnes and Thornburg, LLP, explained the specific route had not yet been determined. A wider area than is necessary has been mapped out and surveyors are now trying to collect data to dial in the route. The exact path the bypass will take is the source of much anxiety for area property owners. Hall and commissioner attorney Jacob Weis explained the purpose of the meeting and subsequent public hearing was to pass a resolution to expand the TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Allocation Area in Black Township to create an Economic Improvement Area. The original district area was established a few years ago. By
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processed drug is believed to be $70 per ounce and $40 per half-ounce. Posey County Drug Task Force’s Kenneth Rose indicated that because of information received from a joint investigation between the Posey County and the Evansville-Vanderburgh Drug Task Forces, enough evidence was available for a search warrant to be issued for the home, located near Stewartsville. “Besides guns and dope and over $225,000, we seized several vehicles and other motorized equipment and ATVs and trailers,” Rose said of the Stewartsville find. “This was probably the
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Upgrades to continue at North Posey By Valerie Werkmeister MSD of North Posey is about to embark on another major renovation at two schools this summer. During a special meeting held last Wednesday, May 18, school board members approved a plan to completely renovate the art room at the high school and the cafeteria/ multi-purpose room and library space at North Elementary School. Bids from Danco, Arc Construction and Empire Contractors were previously opened the day prior to the special meeting. Superintendent Dr. Todd Camp reviewed those bids with board members and recommended approval of Danco’s base bid of $550,000 and project alternate one that encompasses the library portion of the renovation at a cost of $147,000. Alternate bids two, three and four for new windows, a new ceiling in the NES cafeteria and a store front look to the front of the art room with clear glass were taken under advisement. Dr. Camp requested permission to be given the authority to make changes as necessary with the projects in order to keep them moving forward. The board obliged his request. Camp stated that aside from one wall being moved in the art room, the space is virtually the same as when it was added in 1959. The number one purpose to renovate the space is to improve the ventilation system. Currently, a fine North Posey honor student Max Wright, left, and 2016 class valedictorian Jarrod white dust is noticeable when students work on Koester, right, come out of graduation ceremonies with diplomas in hand at the concluContinued on Page A3 sion of Friday night’s North Posey High School graduation. Photo by Dave Pearce
(K)night home shines on Ladies’ Foundation Home Tour
Curt and Boni Knight have agreed to open their historic home for visitors during the Community Foundation’s Vintage Home Tour in early June. Photo by Pam Robinson By Pam Robinson Mount Vernon residents Curt and Boni Knight aptly dubbed their home, to be featured in the June 4 Vintage Home Tour, ‘Villa Notte,’ or ‘Night House.’ Obviously, the name is a play
on words since the Knight family lives there. Otherwise, the name is aptly chosen for the multitude of late afternoon and evening activities the Knights have hosted for nearly 40 years. Hundreds of Mount Vernon High School ju-
Briefly Poseyville Memorial Day ceremony planned for May 30 The Poseyville American Legion Post 278 Memorial Day Service will be held Monday, May 30 at 10 a.m. at the monument in the corner of the Poseyville Cemetery. A cross for each Cemetery that Post 278 Honors will be on display at the Poseyville Cemetery.
American Legion Post 370 Memorial Day Schedule The Legion Color Guard will be at Maple Hill at 9 a.m., Griffin at 9:45 a.m., Bethsada at 10:15 a.m., Stewartsville at 10:45 a.m. and New Harmony Town Hall at 11:30 a.m.
BMV Announces Memorial Day Hours Kent Abernathy, Commissioner of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), announced today that all BMV license branches will be closed Saturday, May 28 through Monday, May 30 in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. All branches will resume their regularly scheduled business hours on Tuesday, May 31. For a complete list of branch locations and hours, visit myBMV.com.
$1.00
(USPS SPS 4 439-500) 3 9 5 00
niors and seniors have appreciated the beautiful backyard garden, best-known for priceless prom pictures, before Curt retired from his highly acclaimed professional photography business in 1999. All planted by the Knights, the wealth of trees, shrubs and flowers provide natural seclusion from the adjacent streets in the Historic District. Needless to say, this ‘secret’ backyard has provided special entertainment for Curt and Boni’s three children and now their three grandchildren. A treehouse dubbed Fort Knight stirred the imaginative play of the children and their friends as youth. Finally, it succumbed to its last stand and has been replaced by a potting shed to turn out plantings to keep up the family’s privacy. Filled with meandering brick and stone paths and seating around a built-in brick fire pit or at a slab table, the backyard creates a garden, just off the kitchen and columned back porch, patterned after the Southern architecture and gardens, say, in Savannah, Georgia. Her mom, her only brother and sister-in-law, her only daughter and two of her grandchildren make their home in Savannah. Her own garden lets Boni keep a little down South with her.
When pesky Southern Indiana mosquitoes and buffalo gnats drive Curt and Boni’s family and friends inside, they all can continue their conversation in their festive kitchen, the focal point of their home’s interior. Phillip Wells renovated the kitchen in 2000 according to Boni’s creative vision. The grandson of the Knights’ neighbors across the street, Wells knocked out and added walls and large windows to create a Tuscan kitchen, complete with a butler’s pantry and guest bath. The walls, the tile, the marble dining island and another sturdy, solid wood dining table, the hutch and dinnerware, you name it—all delight the eye with the vibrant earth and sky hues of a hillside kissed by the Tuscan sun. Southerners especially might admire the Tuscan kitchen and perhaps reflect on the similarity between Southern and Italian customs. As in the South, so in Italy, relationships are formed and nurtured with food, drink, and talk shared around the kitchen table. A hidden feature of the kitchen is the Knight family time capsule. It was buried in one of the kitchen walls as they were built.
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Black Lodge home to local flavor By Lois Mittino Gray Amanda and Marc Chevalier originally intended for New Harmony’s newest business Black Lodge Coffee Roasters, to be strictly a wholesale operation, not open for public perusal. “After we started moving in, people came by and said they couldn’t wait to come in and have a great coffee, so we had to rethink and restructure our plan,” explained Amanda, as she busily worked on updating the company mail-order website. The couple has installed their large roasting machine and its accompanying equipment in the former old Cooper Shop on the corner of Church and Brewery streets. To accommodate drop-in customers, the owners have added simple
wooden tables and chairs with wooden cabinetry by local artisan Curt Schmitt. Peonies adorn the tables in the red black and white motif of the large room. New Harmony Potter Tony Treadway dropped off a baker’s dozen of handmade ceramic mugs to fill with the steaming brew. A large glass case on the counter shows off the fresh baked goods of the day, which can change weekly. Amanda loves to bake and the day’s special when I visited was banana nut and cinnamon swirl breads. But it’s the black brew that is the main attraction here and Black Lodge offers beans from six countries of single origin. They are Brazilian, Sumatran, Columbian, Guatemalan regular
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Amanda Chevalier of Black Lodge Coffee. Photo by Z. Straw