This Copy Reserved Especially For:
Obits ................................ A3 Opinion............................. A6 Jump ................................. A7 Sports ............................ B1-4
T
Social .................................B5 Retro ..................................B6 School/Business ................B7 Church ..............................B8
Legals .......................... B9-10 Court News ...................B9-11 Business Dir ....................B11 Classifieds .......................B12
P C N SINCE 1882 Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times POSEY COUNTY’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NEWSPAPER
Volume 140 Edition 39
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
$1.00
Anti-harrassment policy presented to NPS Board By Lynda Baker It was announced at the September meeting of the North Posey School Board that Assistant Superintendent Mike Galvin has located property in Posey County and would be finalizing his move to the area the following weekend. The Board approved the distribution of the $4,500 stipend stipulated for moving expenses in Galvin’s contract with the district. There was a discussion regarding a 20 percent increase in the health insurance expense for the corporation. NegoPosey County farmer Travis Beuligmann unloads beans into the semi as farmers raced on Sunday af- tiations with the contract committee of ternoon to beat the expected Monday morning rain. Rain, however brief, gave farmers a short reprieve administrators and teachers resulted in before cooler temperatures were expected to be the rule the remainder of the week. Photo by Dave Pearce adjustments which reduced the expense
by 22 percent. Since this is a recurring expense for the district, concern was expressed regarding the same in the 2021 budget, which has already been set. The expense will need to be revisited during next year’s negotiations. Another insurance carrier has been found and Dr. Camp felt that the plan the committee had agreed upon was the best possible scenario at this time. The plan was submitted to the Board for review. Galvin added that, “there were a lot of hard conversations.” As the afternoon pre-K program at South Terrace Elementary could not
Continued on Page A7
Mount Vernon School Board presents $29 million budget By Lois Mittino Gray The September 21, meeting of the Mount Vernon School Board opened with the public hearing for its 2021 budgets for next year. Citizens were provided an opportunity to comment on the advertised numbers and tax rates, totaling $29,168,078. No comments were made in person or in writing to the office. The board will now adopt the budgets at its next meeting on Monday, October 5. Budget details and figures will be summarized in this newspaper after the adoption.
Dr. Charles Seifert, Director of Buildings, Grounds and Maintenance, gave the board an update on facility plans for the next three years. He presented a thick document called ‘Facilities and Equipment Plan 2021-2022-2023’ to them. The general statements list the corporation as employing 160 certified personnel and 221 noncertified staff members. Projected student enrollments for the highlighted three years hover around 1,900 to 1,950 students, down from the present figure over 2,000. Running a school district is a multimil-
lion dollar operation. All five district schools together have an estimated current value of $96,421,200. This includes current values for Farmersville Elementary at $8,629,600, Marrs Elementary at $8,742,700, and West Elementary at $10,086,800. Mount Vernon Junior High School is valued at $25,171,600, and Mount Vernon High School is valued at $43,790,500. The four remaining facilities operated by the district total $12,367,700 in value. The quartet are: Administrative Office, $851,100; Booker T. Washington, $414,200; Bus/Maintenance
Building, $510,600; and Hedges Central Building, $10,591,800. Seifert’s plan addressed needed general maintenance and repairs for all of these nine district structures in those three years, with an additional timeline on what has been done in each. Many of these timelines go as far back as the 1960’s. He cited two current concerns as the repair of the Marrs Elementary water line break and taking down the building destroyed by fire
Continued on Page A7
Myriad of projects, concerns meet MV Board of Works By Lois Mittino Gray The Mount Vernon Board of Works met on September 24 to discuss storm sirens and water projects, a dearth of demolition bids, crow conversations, and a big question for many city residents. So is the city going to have the popular Halloween haunted house and candy giveaway at the Public Safety Building this year? Because it has been asked so often, Mayor Bill Curtis brought the question up for discussion under New Business. “I know the department plans to hand out packaged candy safely and with social distancing, but I don’t know the status of the haunted house,” he told the board.
Utilities Superintendent Chuck Gray, who started the innovative spook houses in the building a few years ago, replied his crew had no plans to do one now due to the pandemic. “If you want to have one though, we would only need a month to get it together,” he speculated. “As we are all aware, the governor has moved the state to Stage 5 of reopening, and the haunted house is a fun thing for the kids, but it is in really close quarters. Given the situation, I suggest we do not go forward with it this year,” Curtis remarked, Board member Andy Hoehn agreed and observed, “Maybe next year we can do it again. Having it now would really put
Top dog... The Town of Cynthiana is excited to announce that K9 Jagger and his handler, James Harrington have been chosen as the top American Police Canine Association small Department K9 team of the year. This is based on overall performance in drug seizures and apprehensions in their category. This is a great honor and we are very proud of this team. Jagger is the pup of Kodiak, Harrington’s retired police K9, and Layla belonging to Wade and Lindsay Maddox. Harrington is the Cynthiana Town Marshal, leading efforts to make the community a safer place to live. Photo submitted
stress on the city insurance carrier, too.” Board member David Dodd agreed and added, “Yes to the candy, no to the haunted house.” Fire Chief Wes Dixon gave the board an update on his progress working with a vendor to narrow down quotes for the city’s storm sirens, with the possibility of adding a sixth siren on the east side of town. It has been determined that the current sirens cannot be heard around the Hawg N’ Sauce and Expressway Autos area, which are now within the city limits. He brought in a quote for $65,556, which includes an upgrade
Continued on Page A7
Posey buildings to see progress By Lois Mittino Gray After a moment of silence for former County Clerk Donna Butler, the Posey County Commissioners ‘ramped up’ their efforts to make things better for all county residents at their September 15, meeting at the Hovey House. They unanimously approved a motion to add electric upgrades to the already-approved handicap ramp into the Coliseum building. This will allow easier ingress for everyone into the county courts and offices in winter, as the electric ramp will melt all snow and ice. The ramp is to be completed by the end of the year and paid for with COVID-19 funds. Posey County Commission President Carl Schmitz said the upgrades will add about $95,000 to the total cost of the project, putting the estimates at a little over $300,000 when the bids are opened in Oc-
tober. Lochmueller Engineering said the upgrade will involve five new transformers and circuits. Before approving the total package to go out for bid, all councilmen agreed they would go with the engineering firm’s original design approved at an earlier meeting. The councilors listened respectfully as city resident Judy Heberer asked to speak on the design as a “citizen interested in preserving our wonderful buildings downtown. I would like the façade preserved and make it look more pleasant to the eye.” She asked them to consider an alternate design, not prepared by the engineers, that would look similar to the one on the Main Street side of the Court House. She said it would not be a blocked view and it would look more authentic and histor-
Continued on Page A7
Kavanaugh comes back home Former student turned teacher offers unique insights By Lois Mittino Gray Imagine strolling the same halls in high school that you walked as a teen, while hobnobbing with your former teachers as peers. Teachers, who may have once given out ‘teacher’s dirty looks’ now share laughs with Audrey Kavanaugh in the staff lounge at Mount Vernon High School. “It was a weird feeling at first, but I’m getting used to it. My principal, Kyle Jones, was Coach Jones
(USPS 439-500)
to me and was my eighth grade math teacher. Bernie Riedford, Rick Jesch, and Vicki Rueger are all instructors of mine that are still on staff. I just love this school,” the MVHS Class of 2000 alumnus said. Kavanaugh is a first year Art teacher at the school. Her class load assignment is three sections of Digital Art and two sections of Photography I/II, with a lunch duty. She actually started in the position back in March, just before everything had to shut down, replacing Stephanie Sharber who resigned mid-year to do counseling work at EVSC. She also helps the ‘other’ Art teacher, Kendra Glaser, with the Art Guild. Interestingly, Kavanaugh did not take any art classes when in high school. She started taking them in college at the University of Southern Indiana, while working toward an advertising and graphics degree. “I really enjoyed them and ended up having an art minor to go with my first degree. I wanted to teach art so
I went back to earn a degree in Art Education in 2013,” she explained. While learning the fine art of teaching art, she especially thrived on 3-D Art excelling at ceramics and woodworking. “My grandfather, Bill Schisler, had a workshop and I was his assistant.” Her grandmother is Glenda Schisler and her mother is Cindy Schisler Miller. Kavanaugh was employed with the Evansville School District and assigned to Washington Middle School in August of 2014. She continued there until her transfer to her alma mater last year. “Working on my first degree at USI, I learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, since those are the most used today in advertising and magazine layouts. My students in Digital Art are now learning to use them and draw in colors and effects,” she remarked. Photography is a side passion of the young educator and she has a prize old camera collection. She
now uses a modern high-end Canon Rebel camera, but concedes that today’s cameras in cell phones can do the job well, too. Her photography students mainly work from cell phone cameras and they are learning all kinds of techniques, such as time lapse photos, restoring old photos and colorizing black and whites, and putting themselves into several frames at once. One physical feature of Kavanaugh’s that is eye-catching is her extraordinary height. She is six foot, one inch tall. She says it has never been a problem for her, unless you count how hard it is to get pants long enough for her legs. Kavanaugh is aware that looking over her students’ shoulder while they work on a computer screen or phone does put her in close proximity with the student, but she is very careful of COVID safety. “I wear my mask at all times when I am at close distance most of the day and I do try to keep all my students safe
Audrey Kavanaugh distances apart. COVID is not preying on my mind. We are taking necessary precautions and I feel very safe here,” she said with confidence.