May 31, 2016 - The Posey County News

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SINCE 1882 Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times POSEY COUNTY’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NEWSPAPER

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Volume 136 Edition 22

McDaniel now full time in NH By Lois Mittino Gray New Harmony Town Councilman Gary Watson announced that new Town Marshal Caleb McDaniel will graduate from the police academy on May 27 and full-time police coverage will begin Memorial Day weekend. Watson also warned the audience at the May 17 Town Council meeting that, “People need to start practicing stopping at stop signs again as Caleb will be watching for that in town.” It is a busy time of year with New Harmony School alumni back for reunion festivities and the state park filled with holiday campers. Councilman David Flanders reported that flags are on veteran’s graves at Maple Hill Cemetery on May 22 for the Memorial Day holiday and a new 4 foot by 6 foot flag was purchased for the veteran’s memorial there. Citizens will be receiving a letter requesting donations for cemetery improvements in the mail. In legal matters, Ordinance 2016-5 was passed to establish a special distribution fund for $24,000 in county LOIT funds (Local Option Income Tax). Salary Ordinance 2016-6 passed with raises for town employees after some discussion. Department heads, such as for water, can make no less than $18 an hour with a maximum cap of $25 an hour, up from $22.95 per hour. The four hourly maintenance employees

will see a $1.00 an hour increase from $10.75. Part time office employee Becky Harvey will be paid six hours work for ten holiday days and eight vacation days annually at a rate of $14 per hour. Council President Alvin Blaylock explained that an ordinance on off road vehicle usage in town is being prepared for next meeting. “Wording will be updated to exclude ATV’s and side by side utility vehicles from being on the streets. They will not be allowed. Also, the ordinance allows only four passenger golf carts to be used, but we will expand that to allow for the larger golf carts.” In other council action: • Town Maintenance Supervisor Bob Grider reported that the Illinois Congress Commission requires that the town put an overpressure release protection valve on the high pressure natural gas line by December, 2016. “If I put it by the bridge, the site is often flooded and I can only get to it once a month. If I can put it here at our regulator station in town, I can check it every day,” he explained. Grider had a bid from the USDI company to put in all valves and repair seepage leaks in lines for $36,212.75. Grider said this company was reliable and the one he

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Class of 2016 Secretary Kameron Denning, left, and Historian Lauren Evans, right, take a moment to smile for the camera during the Mount Vernon High School Graduation Ceremony held Friday evening. Photo by Zach Straw

Love of tradition accents Vogel home

Carol Rodgers and Janet Peach will spend Tuesday, May 31, 2016 among friends, family, and co-workers saying goodbye after a combined 30 years of service to Community State Bank. Photo by Pam Robinson

CSB veterans reflect as retirement is near By Pam Robinson In honor of their dedicated service, Janet Peach and Carol Rodgers are mingling with customers and co-workers today at their branches of Community State Bank, or CSB, during retirement open houses. Longtime Owensville resident Peach has worked at CSB, most recently at the St. Wendel branch, for the past 24 years. Recently moving to Wadesville from her established home in Poseyville, Rodgers has worked at CSB’s Poseyville branch for the past six years. The two women reflected recently on industry changes in banking service over the past couple of decades and their appreciation of the way CSB has remained a truly community bank while keeping pace with technology. Since their initial training as tellers, including two weeks learning basic principles of bookkeeping, Peach and Rodgers have embraced ever-developing technology without losing sight of CSB’s purpose: to serve the needs of real people, their customers. “We once did things manually,” Peach says, the 24-year CSB veteran teller and loan representative. “We’ve gone to ATM, debit card, online banking, mobile banking. It has just mushroomed and grown quickly. We also used to see more customers in the bank coming to deposit their

paychecks. Now with more companies using direct deposit for their payroll and a lot of them preferring an (employee) account to put payroll in, that has taken some of our foot traffic away.” After working for only six years at CSB, Rodgers has seen the trend of fewer walk-ins at the bank. “Customers aren’t in as much because a lot of stuff is automatic now,” she comments. “It’s going to keep changing, too, with all the apps on phones. You know, we have a CSB app on our phones to look everything up. For young people, they do everything online or through the app and have direct pay. The younger people love doing that. Older people are who like to really come in more.” Peach and Rodgers agree they miss seeing as many walk-in customers as they once did. Peach adds, “In Atlanta, my son has been charged to talk to a teller at his bank. I believe the charge was $10. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’m glad we don’t have that here.” Competition among banks draws on technology for advertising as well. From her work in deposit operations and advertising coordination at CSB, Rodgers can state, “The Web page is so important. Ours is getting ready to be updated to be more in-depth. Peo-

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Briefly

Hoosier Salon Gallery to Open New Exhibit on June 4 A new exhibit opens Friday, June 4, at the Hoosier Salon New Harmony Gallery, 507 Church Street. A reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Featured this month are Indiana artists Rhonda Bontrager, Barbara Borries and Robert Pote. Mick and Barbara McConnell are the exhibit sponsors and Charles and Sally Huck are reception sponsors. The exhibit will be on display through July 10. Open Thursday through Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m., the Hoosier Salon New Harmony Gallery provides an opportunity for individuals to view and purchase original art by Indiana artists. For more information, contact Gallery Director Maggie Rapp at 812-459-9851 or maggierapp@sbcglobal.net.

$1.00

(USPS SPS 4 439-500) 3 9 5 00

By Pam Robinson As part of the Women’s Fund of Posey County’s 2016 Vintage Home Tour, Dr. Gordon and Gayle Vogel will host their first tour of the Keck House, which they purchased in the summer of 1984 along with the corner lot known as the Leonard place. The Keck House has been opened for tour only one other time—during the Epsilon Sigma Alpha house tour in 1972. Just four years later, in 1976, the Keck family’s matriarch, Lena Highman Keck, was laid to rest near her husband, Grover, who had preceded her in death nearly four decades earlier. The early Americanstyle home the Kecks built in 1932 at 712 Walnut has remained untarnished by time and its new owners. Gordon and Gayle Vogel renovated the house with painting, wallpaper and a kitchen upgrade during October and November 1984, right before they moved there in December 1984. They refinished the original oak floors in 1984 as well. The living and dining rooms were originally carpeted, but changed to oak in 2005. Likewise, the upstairs guest bath required extensive renovation in 1984. The original double garage remains connected to the house via the breezeway. Another one car garage was added in 1986. Soon afterward, in 1988, the pool and pool house

Gordon and Gayle Vogel pose in the entryway to their early American-style home built by Grover and Lena Highman Keck in 1937. They stand beside one of the original Christian doors, so called for featuring a cross and open Bible, retained throughout the house. Their reflection is captured in the built-in shelved mirror originating from Lena Keck’s mother’s home. Photo by Pam Robinson were added, where Jackie Meyer and Lynn Culley taught swim lessons to Mount Vernon youth for 17 years. Even with these changes, however, the Vogels have maintained the original house structure except for the removal of the wall between the kitchen and breakfast nook. The

doors throughout the house are the original six panel doors, sometimes called Christian doors, made from birch with their original walnut finish. All the original ductwork remains with updated heat, and the owners can boast the house was the

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On May 25, Posey County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a report of car verses semi crash with injuries on State Road 69 near the intersection of Church Street in New Harmony. When deputies arrived at 1:11 p.m., they found a 2016 Jeep Wrangler driven by 55-year-old Donald Douthitt, of Carmi, Illinois, had collided with a 2013 Freightliner operated by Robert Willis of Decatur, Illinois. The crash investigation revealed that Douthitt failed to stop at the Church Street intersection, putting the Jeep into the path of the semi-tractor. Douthitt and a female passenger were transported from the scene by ambulance for injuries sustained in the crash. The crash was investigated by Posey County Sheriff’s Deputies Middleton and Denning. Assistance was provided by New Harmony Fire Department and Posey County EMS. Photo by Dave Pearce

Phosphorus mandate faces MV By Lois Mittino Gray A public hearing for Mount Vernon’s Phosphorus Removal Project (PRP) took center stage at the May 26 Board of Public Works meeting. Bryan Wallace, an Environmental Scientist with Lochmueller Engineering, gave a power point presentation on the project. A state mandate requires the city to remove the majority of phosphorus from the wastewater treatment plant effluent before it is discharged into the Ohio River by January 1, 2019. Phosphorus is a nutrient that is a natural part of aquatic ecosystems. Wallace explained that too much of this element harms water quality, food resources, and habitat. Overabundance of the nutrient results in algal blooms

which leads to oxygen deficiency as the algae decomposes. He said the main cause of concern nationally is the huge hypoxic zone (dead zone) now forming in the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi River. “The dissolved oxygen level is at zero there and it is getting to be about the size of Rhode Island,” he warned. Because Indiana waters contribute to this, the city has to remove phosphorus. The engineering firm proposes to remove the element through the addition of alum. This will include a chemical feed building, upgrades to the sludge processing system, additional side piping, electrical and

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