SINCE 1882 Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times POSEY COUNTY’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NEWSPAPER
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Volume 136 Edition 25
Posey hopes abatements continue to attract business By Valerie Werkmeister What should the Posey County Council do if a business or corporation doesn’t meet all the criteria it agreed to meet for a renewal on its tax abatement request? That was one of the topics discussed at last week’s council meeting. A representative from Cargill appeared before the council to discuss its annual compliance request. Employee and administrative turnover had caused the company to miss out on last year’s abatement. This will be its fifth year to request the abatement that originally allowed the company to take a 70 percent
abatement over a seven-year period if it met the following two stipulations: the company agreed to spend a $7.5 million on real estate improvements and maintain 25 employees at its Mount Vernon site. While the company made good on its promise to spend $7.5 million, it actually spent over that amount at $9.5 million. However, the glitch came when the council learned it only retained 19 employees and not the 25 as it had previously agreed. Cargill’s representative said that a major company restructuring sent several administrative positions to its company based in St. Louis.
Some council members seemed uneasy about the low number of employees maintained at the local site. Council member Tom Schneider wondered if the council should have its document read that if the criteria isn’t met then the abatement should be suspended. Dave Pearce also voiced his opinion that if all the criteria were not met, then the company is out of compliance. Council president Bob Gentil felt that since the company had spent more money that it initially thought it would do, it helped correct the balance in the shortfall of employees. Council attorney Beth McFadin Higgins
clarified that wording is currently in place to allow the council to either approve or rescind the abatement if it chose to do so. In the end, a majority of council members approved the renewal for the company with Pearce giving the only opposing vote. The council also stated it would form a sub-committee to discuss the matter in case of future occurrences with other companies. Guy Jackson of BWXT had his turn in front of the council to request a tax abatement. He stated the company hopes to lure
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MSDMV makes upgrades By Lois Mittino Gray A summer improvement to district facilities was the main topic of discussion at the Mount Vernon School Board meeting of June 6. “There are three main projects we will focus on this summer,” School Superintendent Tom Kopatich explained. “Let’s knock on wood that we won’t be delayed by wet weather.” Right now, new grass seed is being planted on the soccer field and the whole renovation should be complete by start of the season in August. Work on the tennis court improvements has just begun, which will include resurfacing and drainage improvement, lights and fencing. A third project authorized use of the Capital Projects Emergency Fund money, not to exceed $80,000, to replace a collapsed sewer line at West Elementary School. Work is being done right now to remove the flooring by the cafeteria and install the new pipe sections inside the building. Lesser projects will include painting inside buildings and on the parking lots and lighting improvements. School Board President Mark Isaac commented that the new LED lights put in on the Administration Building and at Marrs Elementary really ‘pop’ out at night and look good. Board member Clarence Nelson inquired if there was a study completed on how much is saved by switching to LED lighting. Director of Business Loren Evans replied that the engineers did do a study, but he did not remember the figures offhand. Kopatich said he will get the analysis figures to Nelson,
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Open House to honor Saltzman’s retirement Marshal Doug Saltzman is retiring after 33 years of service to the town of Poseyville. An Open House will be held in his honor on Friday, June 24 from 2 - 6 p.m. at the Poseyville Community Center. Please stop in to wish him well and share your memories.
Brittlebank Pool hosts first family night of season Brittlebank Pool’s first family night of the season will be held Friday, June 24 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Swim price is $3 with four-year-old and under being free. For more information call the pool at 812-838-4586.
‘War Room’ to be shown at MVCC Mount Vernon Community Church, 1800 West Fourth Street, will be showing the movie ‘War Room’ on Saturday, June 25, starting at 8:30 p.m. ‘War Room’ was released in December 2015. The movie will be shown free of charge, outside between MVCC and Young Life building. Free drinks and popcorn will be provided. All you need to bring is a lawn chair or blanket.
Posey County Historical Society to meet The Posey County Historical Society will meet Saturday, June 25 at 10 a.m. in the Training Room at the Police and Fire Station in Mount Vernon. Special guest Mike Linderman of Angel Mounds will be the featured speaker. His subject will be ‘Indiana’s State Parks.’ Indiana’s state park system was begun in its centennial year, 1916. Friends and members are welcome.
$1.00
(USPS SPS 4 439-500) 3 9 5 00
who is very interested in seeing them. The board adopted an internal controls policy 500.09 to prevent and detect fraud, financial impropriety, and fiscal irregularities within the corporation as mandated by state law. The board also discussed a revised policy 500.07 on credit card use by district employees. Kopatich is the only person who actually carries a district card. The other three cards are checked out in the administration office for travel or event expenses. In other board action: • In personnel matters, the board hired James E. Cox and Jamie Lueder as high school teacher assistants in Special Education. Nathaniel Groeninger will replace Jared Conville as the assistant high school baseball coach. The resignations of Cox and Lueder were accepted from their former positions as well as those from food service worker Stacy Ross and junior high school Student Council Sponsor Toni Robinson. In athletics, resignations from John Schelhorn as assistant high school basketball coach and from Aja Sexton, head coach high school girls’ track, were accepted, effective immediately. • The retirement of Mary Sallee as a bus driver was accepted. She retired at the end of this school year after fifteen years of driving for the district. • Eight staff members were given approval to travel to summer workshops/seminars or with students. Dana Taylor will be traveling with the choral group Angelus to
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North Posey Red’s Jacob Newman slides into home during this week’s game where his team earned their first place finish in the Babe Ruth League. Photo by Dave Pearce
NP teachers learning By Valerie Werkmeister What do teachers do during the summer? North Posey teachers recently attended the 4-C’s conference with Mount Vernon teachers and learned a few new technology programs they hope will make learning fun for their students this Fall. Shalane Niemier and Amy Moore delivered a presentation to school board members during their meeting last Monday, June 13, about Google Cardboard. It is a small cardboard device that is similar in style to an old View Master toy. With the addition of the Cardboard app to a smart phone and the device secured inside the cardboard, users can look inside to see a virtual reality demonstration. School board members were each given a device and instructed how to use Google Cardboard. Though confined to a droll board room, they were magically transported to the likes of the Arctic, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, and museum displays around the world. Moore and Niemier were excited about the potential applications the device could have in the classroom. They explained that while teaching a specific unit from the textbook, the use of Google Cardboard will allow the students the ability to see sights firsthand rather than just through pictures in a textbook. It provides a real-life experience via the app. Parents will pay slightly higher fees in the fall for their children to Doris Bland, left, and Patricia Frankland, right, enjoyed lunch at the Red Wagon in Poseyville this past Wednesday at a meeting of six Continued on Page A12 chapters of The Red Hat Ladies. Photo by Theresa Bratcher
Mount Vernon’s Cox credited with saving life By Brandon Cole When we think of heroes, many things come to mind. Some picture capes or larger-than-life athletes. For one little girl at Brittlebank Swimming Pool, it was a 17-year-old Mount Vernon youth. Dominick Cox noticed a seven-year old girl struggling to keep her head above water at Brittlebank Swimming Pool on Tuesday. Cox was close by as the little girl began to go under. “Everything happened so fast,” said Gina Schaefer-Carey of St. Phillips. “I walked in with six children and bought the tickets. There was some wait time, because it was lightning that day. We had to wait for a while, but then we bought the tickets. The lifeguards are trying to get into their chairs. Kids are rushing all around. We tell our kids to go to the bench that they are going to put on life jackets.” One of the older children, (Dylan) told Carey that he didn’t need a life jacket and asked if he could jump in the pool. “I said yes,” said Carey. “I don’t know if at that point ‘DeDe’ (DeAndra Fischer, of Mt. Carmel, Ill.) thought she could jump in too or what. All I know is, I saw Dominick coming out of the
water with my granddaughter. Apparently she went under two or three times. He beat the lifeguards to her. It was like no one knew what was happening until Dominick had her in his arms and coming out of the water with her.” Fischer was only in about 3.5 feet of water, but she is not much taller than three feet. Carey was still putting life jackets on the other kids when Cox brought Fisher back to Carey. Shock and relief took over the grandma. Carey had nothing but nice things to say about Cox. “Dominick is an exceptional young man,” said Carey. “We crossed paths several times throughout the day and he even went above and beyond. It was ridiculous. I went to buy all the grandbabies something to eat at the concession and they could not break a $100 bill. And Dominick gets up and pays for it. I told him, you don’t owe me, I owe you.” Later in the day, Carey’s daughter arrived at the pool. “My daughter shows up and I told her to give him (Cox) $20. She was surprised and asked,
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Dominick Cox