“Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain.”
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Since 1882 ~ Successor to The Poseyville News and The New Harmony Times • New Harmony, IN Posey County’s locally-owned newspaper
Tuesday July 3, 2012
$1.00
Volume 132 Edition 27
Hope withers with heat, drought By Valerie Werkmeister This year’s early spring made for high hopes for area farmers. The mild winter, the early, warm temperatures and the rainfall at just the right times seemed to be the perfect combination for bumper crop conditions. That was…until the month of June came without rain. As the days stretched into weeks without rain, the prospects of that bumper crop melted in the searing heat. June ended with triple-digit temps and weather forecasters say to expect more of the same through the end of the week. A week ago, area farmers still had hopes of getting at least 100 bushels per acre. This week, they will be lucky to see 50 bushels per acre, says northern Posey County and Gibson County farmer Rick Ziliak. “It’s looking very bleak,” he said. He, as well as other famers, hoped the irrigated corn on land closer to the Wabash River wouldn’t be affected as much. As the heat continues, it’s just cooking the little bit of corn that is there. Frank Bender explained how the pollination process for the corn is stressed. There are fewer and smaller kernels that will produce a significantly less yield. “We had a beautiful and smooth spring. I finished planting in April,” Bender said. Different soil types make a difTwo-year-old Kyla Frizzell, of Owensville, finds her own way to fight the heat during the last night of Bible School at the Christian ference too. Crops on non-irrigated and sand-based soils are likely to Church just east of Poseyville. Photo by Dave Pearce
Posey tax sale is win-win It was a win-win for Posey County officials and its citizens. In May, Posey County offered a live sale on properties with delinquent taxes for the first time ever. A live sale was conducted at the Hovey House on May 22. For some property owners, the prospect of having their property sold during a tax sale prompted them to come in and pay the delinquent taxes. In all, there were 24 properties that were sold out of a total of 47 properties offered.
Kiwanis golf scheduled Poseyville Kiwanis will be holding it’s annual golf scramble on the last Saturday in July. If you would like to take part check out the web page or contact a member.
Farmer’s market change The Poseyville Farmers’ Market has changed locations to 35 S. Church St. The market will continue to be held on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. until October 27. Call 673-4018 for more information.
PC Fair Talent Show Posey County 4-H Fair youth talent contest will be July 11 at 7 p.m. at the community center. Junior Divison is ages 12 and under. Senior Divison is ages from 13- 21. There are 13 categories to choose from. For an entry form information contact Katie at 812-431-0329 or go to www.poseycountyfair.com Entry forms must be postmarked by July 6, 2012.
St. Matthew Social The St. Matthew Social will be on July 8, 2012 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 4th and Mulberry in Mount Vernon. There will be a fried chicken and pork chop dinner from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. in the air conditioned cafeteria. Carryouts available.
NP 30th Class Reunion North Posey Class of 1982 will hold a 30th Reunion on Sat., Aug. 11 from 7 p.m. - 11 p.m. at RiRa’s on Evansville’s Riverfront one block west of Casino Aztar. Cost is $27.50 per person. RSVP and questions please contact Robb Webb at rob_webb@floridalift. com, Jerri (Hill) Hatfield at j.hatfield@insightbb.com
suffer most. Conditions have steadily worsened and the question on everyone’s mind is “When will it rain?” If anyone can accurately answer that, they would be a hero, especially if they said it would be within the next few days. Recently the Purdue University Agronomy Specialists provided the Ag & Natural Resource Educators with an update on the impact of drought on crops around the state. Here is some of the information that they had to share. Thus far the corn has been hanging on amazingly well, except in some of the counties where the drought is most severe and on the sandier soils. There has been some delay in silk emergence in regions where the drought is more severe. When looking at the corn, one of the first symptoms of water stress is the rolling of the leaves to reduce transpiration in the afternoon. If you go back the next day in the morning, the leaves will be unrolled and look better. That type of stress does not indicate severe yield loss. Once you see the symptoms get worse (leaves do not unroll), is when the drought stress is more severe. If it stays dry and temperatures increase, the impact of the drought will be more severe. This year’s soybean plants are putting more energy into root development than on above ground plant growth. Some of the worse looking fields right now are those that were planted in mid-May and
Statement issued by town board on agreement By Dave Pearce A few weeks ago, the New Harmony Town Council and North Posey School Board came to a mutual agreement on what could be done with the abandoned New Harmony School building. This week, through New Harmony Town Baord member Karen Walker issued the following prepared statement from the New Harmony Town Board. “The New Harmony School Corporation has transferred the New Harmony school building and the surrounding school property to
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Firefighters from around the area spray foam on a stack of new railroad ties last Tuesday morning on Leonard Road in Mount Vernon. Photo by Zach Straw. See more of the set on our Facebook page.
All hands are on board for 2012-13 school year By Pam Robinson Superintendent Tom Kopatich reported at the June 26 meeting of the Mount Vernon School Board that all employees for the Metropolitan School District, or MSD, of Mount Vernon are set to be in place by July 2, the first board meeting of July. Any exceptions will result from “the domino effect,” when a current MSD of Mount Vernon employee vacates a position to fill an advertised position. The board confirmed the employment of the following individuals: Stacy Culley as teacher assistant/detention center at the junior high; Nathan Ellis as assistant high school football coach; Sarah Hall as junior high cheerleader sponsor (half stipend), Meghann Herrenbruck as teacher assistant/remediation, Title 1 at West; Rachel Lockhart as junior high special education teacher; Amy Rutledge as teacher assistant/detention at the high school; Jacquelyn Wagner as teacher assistant/remediation, Title 1 at West; Robert Walker as teacher assistant/ remediation at Marrs and Travis Wolfe as 6th grade teacher at the junior high. “The domino effect” caused the board to accept the resignation from Stacey Culley, effective immediately, as a food service worker.
In other business: The board adopted revised Policy 404.01 Responsible Technology Use. This policy will be of special interest to 6th grade iPad users this fall. The board set bonds for all persons responsible for school district funds. Current bonds expire June 30, 2012. The board voted to contract with AdTec in the amount of $3,750 to file for Universal Service Fund discounts for the funding year 20132014. Superintendent Tom Kopatich announced that the IRead summer school went very well. One of the six students scheduled to attend the class moved, so five students completed their work and have already taken the IRead exam again. A number of students received recognition for achievement in sports. In baseball, Troy Paris and Aaron Roberts made Big 8 All Conference, and Troy Paris was selected as the District P Player of the Year. In boys’ golf, Trevor Grant was named as a regional qualified and to the Big 8 All Conference. In girls’ softball, Amy Seifert claimed three titles—Big 8 All Conference Champion, All District and NorthSouth All Star Indiana Elite. In girls’ tennis, Claire Schroeder and Jenna Riedford were named to Big 8 All Conference, Claire Schroeder made All District and Jenna
Riedford and Audrey Summers were named to Academic All State. In boys’ track and field, Mount Vernon rules as Big 8 Conference Team Champion with the following Big 8 All Conference competitors: 1800 meter relay—Michael Cannato, Ryan Dick, Adam Hoehn and Jon Hoehn; 3200 meter relay— Ryan Dick, Jon Hoehn, Sage Irons and Collin Knight; high hurdles— Austin Guthrie. In addition, Ryan Dick and Ethan VanZant were boys’ track and field Academic All State and Jon Hoehn was a regional
Retrospective ................. A4 Legals.............................. B5 Classifieds .................. B6-7
qualifier in boys’ track and field. In girls’ track and field, the following young women participated: in 1600 meter relay, Ellen Foster, Erika McCormick, Abby Randall and Lauren Stemple; in 3200 meter relay, Erika McCormick, Megan Randall, Lauren Stemple and Toni Waddell; in 400 meter relay, Ellen Foster, Abby Randall, Kellen Ray and Lauren Stemple; in high jump, Ellen Foster; and in the 800 meter run, Erika McCormick. Erika
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Ellison promoted to sergeant Last week, Indiana State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell, Ph.D, promoted Senior Trooper Kevin Ellison to the rank of Sergeant to serve as a District Squad Leader at Evansville. Ellison is a native of Mount Vernon and a 1992 graduate of Mount Vernon High School. He later attended Eastern Illinois University where he received a degree in Biology. He graduated from the Indiana State Police Academy in December 1998 and was assigned to the Connersville District. Ellison transferred to the Evansville District in 2000 and primarily patrolled Posey County until he transferred to the Com-
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didn’t really have adequate moisture when planted and immediately after planting. Overall fields planted before mid-May are in good shape. Soybean plants have the ability to recover from this dry period and still yield well if we get moisture later in the season. So far most of the yield losses that have occurred are in fields where farmers did not get a good plant population. One thing to note is that this year, it will probably not be uncommon to see soybean plants under stress flowering at the V3 to V4 growth stages instead of R1 or R2. It might be hard to control lambsquarter and marestail this year if it gets to be four inches or more in height and under drought stress. If you see that you have lambsquarter or marestail in your soybeans then you need to apply a post emergent herbicide. It is suggested that under this year’s conditions that you use the maximum rate and an adjuvant package designed for high temperatures and stress as noted by the herbicide label. You should also be on the lookout this year for spider mites in soybeans. Dry weather conditions can bring on spider mite damage fairly quickly. Initial scouting for this problem can be done by looking for soybean leaves turning a rust color. If you see rust color leaves, then you should place a piece of white paper below the leaf and shake the leaf. If tiny reddish or orange mites fall into the paper, you have a spider mite problem.
Kevin Ellison
mercial Vehicle Enforcement Division in 2010. Ellison and his wife, Karen, reside in Posey County with their two children.
Go to www.poseycountynews.com Community ........... A5 Social ...................... A6 Deaths.................... A3 Sports ................... B2-4 School.................... A8 Bus/Ag.................... A9
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