SINCE 1882 Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times POSEY COUNTY’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NEWSPAPER
Tuesday, May 6, 2016
Volume 136 Edition 18
Property owners could feel nuisance ordinance effects By Lois Mittino Gray The Chronic Problem Real Properties Ordinance, commonly called the ‘Nuisance Ordinance’ was the hot topic of discussion at the April 28 meeting of the Mount Vernon Common Council. Many Mount Vernon citizens attended to listen, and in some cases, offer constructive comments to city officials. After lengthy exchange of ideas, Councilman Andy Hoehn decided to withdraw his motion to pass the ordinance’s first reading and bring it up once again at the next meeting. In the interim, all agreed with Mayor Bill Curtis that they would need to iron out details and definitions and talk to Fair Housing about its guidelines to avoid some pitfalls. “These issues won’t be solved tonight,” the mayor observed. What is the nuisance ordinance trying to address? The council finds that excessive calls to police for problem areas, trouble spots, or high-activity areas place an undue burden on public safety resources, which may result in decreased public safety services being provided to other geographic areas of Mount Vernon. Neighbors around the Eighth and Ninth Street and James Street area have been asking for help with their high activity neighborhood for several years now. North Posey prom king Ross Bender celebrates with newlycrowned prom queen Celeste Hill. Photo by Dave Pearce
East sewer bid granted By Lois Mittino Gray With his radiant family looking on, new Police Chief Tony Alldredge was administered the oath of office by Clerk-Treasurer Christi Sitzman to begin the April 28 meeting of the Mount Vernon Board of Public Works and Safety. He was congratulated by the board after his swearing-in ceremony. Alldredge immediately launched into his first report to the board with several items. He proposed three changes to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), which were required by Old National Insurance, the city’s insurance carrier. The first one deals with hostage situations. In response to a hostage situation, an officer will notify his supervisor and Chief of Police immediately. The supervisor will contact an outside agency for assistance since the department does not have a response team or negotiator in place. Officers will secure the scene until the response team and negotiator arrive and turn it over to them. The second deals with positional asphyxiation and other medical situations. Police will call dispatch to send medical help and perform medical duties until they arrive, since they are all trained first responders and CPR certified. The third is that the police department does not use volunteers in any capacity at this time. The three new SOPs were accepted by the board. Alldredge also requested a
change in rank structure. Currently, all detectives have the rank of sergeant. He would like to separate that into two sergeants, and one detective that would not need to have the sergeant rank. Alldredge asked to change the procedure for promotions of ranking officers, too. He said the current system is pretty lengthy and he would like promotions to be at the discretion of the chief and approval of the Board of Works. Mayor Bill Curtis has reviewed the procedure currently in use and feels it is too much for a department the size of the Mount Vernon Police Department so the change was accepted. The new chief said he spoke with Kyle Vallad, number one on the new hiring list, who has found other employment and will be removed from the list. In the legal portion of the agenda, the bid on the East Side Gravity Flow Sewer Project was awarded to the Peyronnin Company of Evansville. It was the lowest bidder at $653,348.44. Seven bids were opened at the last meeting and the award was tabled until reviews were conducted by the Lochmueller Group from the engineering standpoint and by Attorney Beth Higgins from the legal perspective. All bidders met the legal requirements. Peyronnin was given permission to proceed at any time on the long-
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Briefly 2016 Spring Property Tax Deadline set for May 10 Posey County treasurer Justin White has announced that you may pay property taxes at any Old National Banking center in Posey or Vanderburgh counties until May 10, 2016. You may also pay your taxes in person, by mail, online at www.poseycountytax.com or via the drop box located at the corner of Third and Walnut streets. NPHS Honors Program to be held May 12, 2016 North Posey High School 2016 Honors Program will be held on Thursday, May 12, 2016, at 8 a.m. in the main gym. St. Wendel Catholic Church schedules Annual Rummage Sale St. Wendel Catholic Church will hold their Fourth Annual Rummage Sale Friday, May 13 from 4-7 p.m. and Saturday, May 14 from 7 a.m. to noon. $3 bag sale begins at 10 a.m. Cash only Poseyville Memorial Day ceremony planned for May 30 A Memorial Day Service will be held Monday, May 30 at 9:45 a.m. at the Poseyville Community Center. MSDNP gymnasium renovations complete, ribbon cuttings announced MSD of NP is proud to announce that our new elementary gymnasiums have been completed. MSD of North Posey County School Board and Administration would like to invite the community to join us for a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 9, 2016. The ceremony will begin at South Terrace Elementary School gym at 4:15 p.m. The School Board will then travel to the North Elementary gym at 5 p.m to complete the ribbon cutting ceremony. National Day of Prayer event scheduled for May 5 There will be a National Day of Prayer Service hosted by the New Harmony Ministerial Association on Thursday, May 5 2016, at 6:30 p.m., at the Roofless Church. Please bring lawn chairs. All are welcome. Cynthiana Alumni 102nd Annual Meeting planned The Cynthiana Alumni Association invites members, guests and 2016 graduates to the 102nd Annual Meeting at the Cynthiana Community Center on Saturday, May 7, 2016. A ‘meet and greet’ social time will begin at 11 a.m. Lunch will be served at noon. Cost per person for the meal is $10 and annual dues are $5.
$1.00
(USPS SPS 4 439-500) 3 9 5 00
A chronic problem property is defined as one that has no less than five valid complaints in ninety calendar days for any criminal offense. Discussion involved the definition of a valid complaint. Do the police have to file a written report? Can it be just a phone call? What if someone calls in a false report to try to get rid of neighbors they dislike? Will a landlord have to evict a chronic? Who will be responsible for sending letters out informing of the ordinance to all landlords and homeowners? Hoehn stated the police won’t get there while the incident is going on. That is the issue and the reason for the term chronic. But, at the same time, everyone knows that something happened. He added the police department has a $1 Million budget, which broken down is about $125 an hour for the year. “Certain areas have over 300 calls, requiring two officers, or $250 a pop. That’s $75,000. They are essentially taking the police force away from the rest of the city. That’s what is going on here,” Hoehn commented. Councilman Larry Williams asked for audience feedback. Pamela Hawes, manager at The Landing,
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‘Home that love built’ to be open By Dave Pearce ”A house is made of brick and stone. A home is made of love alone.” There must be a ton of love involved with the home of Mike and Carol Collier-Smith at 319 East Third Street in Mount Vernon. The home will be featured on the Posey County Community Foundation Women’s Fund Vintage Home Tour set for Saturday, June 4, 2106, from noon until 5 p.m. The home has not known a stranger since the marriage of the Smiths in 1994. It has taken massive amounts of love to bring the home back to its original luster. But when love is involved, the Smiths agree that it’s really not work. It’s more a labor of love. “We have done it together,” Carol said while smiling lovingly at husband Mike. “We have come up with some ideas and Mike is great with woodwork.” While the pair has worked tirelessly over the years, Mike as a supervisor at Vectren and Carol as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at ECHO Community Health Care, Inc., they have always found time for friends and family. And somehow, they have found time to renovate nearly every inch of their Posey County Home.
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Mike and Carol Collier-Smith stand inside their Third Street home that will be on display at the Vintage Home Tour on June 4. Photo by Dave Pearce
Study says Posey is good SS choice Special to the News In their second annual study, SmartAsset, a New York financial technology company, determines the places in America where Social Security goes furthest. The study analyzes Social Security income, cost of living data, and taxes across all counties to determine where people are getting the most mileage out of Social Security. Posey County cracked the list at number six, making their second consecutive appearance in the study’s top 10. Contemplating where to spend
Rank
County
Cost of Living
Annual SS
SS Taxed?
SS Goes Furthest Index
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Pike, IN Pulaski, IN Johnson, IN Warren, IN Spencer, IN Posey, IN Steuben, IN Whitley, IN Lagrange, IN Jay, IN
$16,793 $16,504 $18,169 $17,216 $16,234 $17,912 $17,218 $17,558 $16,821 $16,641
$19,752 $18,926 $20,468 $19,468 $18,464 $20,133 $19,298 $19,637 $18,879 $18,678
No No No No No No No No No No
94.77 91.27 90.47 90.17 90.02 89.96 89.04 89.03 88.90 88.76
your retirement years? While it’s certainly advisable to have some
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Historian celebrates Indy’s 100th By Lois Mittino Gray Imagine what it must be like to give a talk in all 92 Indiana counties in just a few months’ time. Donald C. Davidson has accepted that challenge as the official Indianapolis Motor Speedway historian and plans to meet that goal by May 10. He plans to have a meaningful program in every county to celebrate the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 Race on Sunday, May 29. To check off Posey County from his list, Davidson spoke to a group of about fifteen interested persons at New Harmony’s Working Men’s Institute on Friday, April
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Indianapolis Motor Speedway historian Donald Davidson presents an autographed copy of his book on the history of the Indianapolis 500 race to Working Men’s Institute Director Ryan Rocicki. Photo by Lois Mittino Gray