“Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain.” Since 1882 ~ Successor to The Poseyville News and The New Harmony Times • New Harmony, IN Posey County’s locally-owned newspaper
Band Alums sought
All Mount Vernon band members and band booster alumni. The current Mount Vernon Band Boosters are compiling an alumni directory of all new and old members. If you would like to keep up with the band, please send your name and email address to mvhsboosters@ gmail.com.
Parkinson’s Walk set
The Sixth Annual Stomp Out Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Walk will be on October 15, 2011. The event will be held at The Communities of Solarbron. Registration starts at 8 a.m. with the walk beginning at 10 a.m. The event will be rain or shine and the walking course is 2 miles. For more information email stompoutpd@yahoo. com; call 812-499-6677; or check out the web site at www.stompoutparkinsons.com. This event will support the Parkinson Foundation.
Harmonie craft show
Harmonie State Park’s fine arts and craft show October 15, 2011. Needed craft and food vendors also craft demonstrators welcome. For more info contact the park office at 812-682-4821.
Logo contest ongoing
The New Harmony Bicentennial Commission is hosting a logo design contest for the celebration of New Harmony’s Bicentennial in 2014. Only one entry may be submitted per artist, each logo must include the phrase “New Harmony Bicentennial” and “1814-2014,” and must be an original design. More information and contest rules are available at www.usi.edu/nhgallery and www.hoosiersalon.org/ newharmony.html. For a list of area businesses where applications can be picked up, call 812-682-3156. Artwork will be judged based on artistic merit, creativity, and relevance to the history of New Harmony. Completed applications, along with logo design, must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. on October 1, 2011. Applications may be mailed to the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, P.O. Box 627, New Harmony, IN, 47631, or delivered in person to 506 Main Street in New Harmony.
Neighborhood Watch set
Neighborhood Watch meeting for Poseyville will be Wed., Oct. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Poseyville Community Center.
Wadesville Fire open house
The Wadesville Fire Department will host an Open House on Saturday, October 15, 2011 from Noon - 5pm at our station located at 4200 Princeton Street in Wadesville. Please join us at our station for Fire Station and Fire Truck Tours, Fire Truck Rides, Gear Demonstrations, Kids Activities, Food and more.
Halloween Parade set
The Posey County Junior Women’s Club will have their annual “Halloween Parade” at the Poseyville Community Center. The parade will be Sunday, October 30th at 1 p.m. Registration is at 12:45. Judges will select their favorites for: Scariest, Funniest, Most Original and Best Overall and best of all..... Cash Prizes for awards. Children, adults and families are encouraged to participate.
Family Matters connects
Family Matters of Posey County will hold Posey County Community Connect on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at St. Peter United Methodist Church, 2800 S. St. Philip Road, Mount Vernon, IN. We are collaborating with IMPACT Health Care Ministries who will be holding a Community Health Fair. Both events will be from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Health screenings will be available as well as access to other community services and resources, including Medicaid, food stamps, and TANF applications. Call Beth at (812) 838-6875 to reserve space or for more information.
ThePCN
Tuesday October 11, 2011
$1.00
(USPS 439-500)
Volume 131 Edition 42
Griffin Post Office on chocking block By Valerie Werkmeister The fate of the Griffin Post Office is undecided, according to postal officials who conducted a public meeting at the Griffin Ruritan Building on October 3. About 30 Griffin residents asked questions and expressed concerns over the possible closure. A postmaster from Wheatcroft, Ky., Sandra Mosley, addressed the residents citing the reason for the public meeting was to listen to their concerns and explain the study process. Griffin is one of 131 other post offices on a list to determine whether they can remain open or be forced to close due to hard-time economics. In a nutshell, Mosley stated the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is broke. She stated the USPS loses approximately $24 million per day and approximately $8 to $10 billion per year. She added that there has been a 20 percent decline in the amount of first class mail being sent and in four years it is expected to rise to a 70 percent
County Clerk looks for ways to stop theft of Genealogy records-Posey
By Valerie Werkmeister Theft of records in the Posey County Genealogy Department brings a whole new meaning to identity theft. Posey County Commissioners heard from Genealogy Department Clerk, Betty Postletheweight, during their October 4, meeting that a few changes are needed to help minimize record thefts. Postletheweight along with genealogy department employee, Connie Conrad, explained that visitors are stealing old stamps dating back to the 1800’s from records. Old stamps are valuable to collectors and many that are stolen are found for sale on internet auction websites such as ebay. Conrad stated they have found folded records with plugs missing as thieves used an exacto knife to cut through the layers of paper to extract the stamp. Conrad added that she has heard many stamp collectors no longer buy stolen stamps, but that the practice does still happen. Both women lamented that records they know were in place at the beginning of the year are now missing. To help curb theft, Postletheweight proposed changing the hours the department is open. Many other area genealogy departments limit their hours or operate by appointment only. She proposed that the office will only be open for research, under Conrad’s guidance, on Mondays and Fridays from 12 -4. They will also use a sign-in sheet and request a photo ID. They would also like to encourage visitors to call ahead to schedule appointments. Information and appointment requests can also be sent to poseygenealogy@poseycounty.gov. Postletheweight explained that it is not their intent to deny access to the records, they just need to enact a better system of controls over the information they have. They will provide plenty of notice to the public before the new hours become effective. A discussion also ensued over the organization, Family Search, and their request to copy information. Postletheweight explained the organization is connected to the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS). Once they copy the records, they make the information available for genealogy searches online or sell the information. She explained there is a fear among other counties who have agreed to LDS copying the records that the county will no longer have control. In essence, LDS has placed a type of copyright status on the information. Attorney Adam Farrar believed this is a far-fetched notion and that the county would never lose its right to use its own records. More information would
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Inside this issue... Retrospective ................. A4 Legals............................... B7 Classifieds ................. B8-10
decline. Retail volume mail is down 14 percent. Mosley also cited that a one-cent increase in gas prices cost the postal service $8 million. Why? The answer is simple. The world has switched to electronic services to keep up with fast-paced society demands. People use e-mail and social networking websites such as Facebook to keep in contact with one another. “People don’t send the amount of mail they used to. The average family gets one personal letter every seven weeks,” Mosley said. According to Mosley, there are a number of things the postal service has done in an effort to cut costs. Districts have been consolidated, personnel have not been re-hired when postal employees retire and routes have been adjusted to the workload. The postmaster general’s salary has been frozen for the past few years. But, with losses in the millions and billions, these measures are not enough. Post offices on the potential chopping block are those that re-
ported less than $27,500 in revenue. In 2007, Griffin earned $20,000 and that number declined to $18,000 in 2010. According to Mosley, if the Griffin Post Office is closed, there will be a 10year savings of $570,000 to the USPS. If it does close, the options that are left for Griffin residents include going to a village post office unit (VPU), or a rural route service in which mail is delivered to residents’ mailboxes by a rural carrier. A VPU is a local business that would offer postal products. Mosley stated that Griffin is in a good position for residents to keep their current address since a rural carrier route is already established. Mosley noted that the Depot Diner might be a potential location for a VPU. Many residents objected citing the lack of space and the hours of operation would be a hindrance to that option. Mosley stated that some communities were able
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Posey Sheriff’s Dept. finds stolen copper By Dave Pearce The Posey County sheriff’s department is at it again. On Wednesday morning, the sheriff’s department recovered about 1000 pounds of stolen copper. According to Posey County Sheriff Greg Oeth, Jail Commander Mark Pharr was “doing what he is supposed to do.” “We have a system here in the jail whereby we can monitor outgoing calls,” Oeth said. “Mark Pharr intercepted a little information and then with all the copper thefts that we have had in the area, mainly last year, we are constantly on the lookout for things like this.” Oeth said that increases in the prices of salvage metals have gone up so much that his officers must now constantly be on the lookout for things of this nature. “Just as an example, in the last two or three weeks, some people actually went out and picked up a tractor on a low-boy trailer,” Oeth said. “The Indiana State Police recovered that over at one of the salvage yards where it was sold for scrap.” Oeth said that detective Tom Latham has been routinely checking area salvage yards as stolen items continue to show up more and more as scrap in the tri-state. “As a result of that, we are finding other things,” Oeth said. “With the information that Mark Pharr intercepted yesterday which was ‘go Posey County Sheriff’s Department Tom Latham and Posey move the copper before they find County Sheriff Greg Oeth look over the more than 1000 pounds of it,’ Tom just happened to be not too copper they discovered as a result of monitoring outgoing calls from Continued on Page A11 the Posey County Jail. Photo by Dave Pearce
Jeff-Jackson Dinner draws crowd to hear Gregg By Dave Pearce Indiana gubernatorial candidate John Gregg was the featured speaker at the annual Posey County JeffersonJackson Day Dinner held Wednesday evening at the Mount Vernon Junior High School cafeteria. Gregg touted the uniting of the two political parties at a state level to help fight the problems, particularly the economic ones, in the state. “The no ‘Democratic’ problems and there are no ‘Democratic’ solutions and there are no ‘Republican’ problems and ‘Republican’ solutions,” Gregg told the crowd of about 125 that gathered at the school. “There are just problems.” Gregg stressed that with the problems come “opportunities,” and he sees the state as having a lot of
“opportunities.” “We need to lay all the bickering aside and work on solving the problems,” Gregg said. Gregg said that the last legislative session should have been about jobs but that it wasn’t. “There was fighting over logistics and past elections and that doesn’t solve any of the problems,” the Vincennes resident said. He went on to highlight the many things that Indiana has to offer including its location as “the crossroads of America,” He touted the state’s water and waterways and maritime centers as well as the state’s supply of coal.
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Mount Vernon Mayor John Tucker, left, enjoys the food at the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner held this week at the Mount Vernon Junior High School. At right, gubernatorail candidate John Gregg is the featured speaker. Photos by Dave Pearce
Go to www.poseycountynews.com Community ........... A5 Social ...................... A6 Deaths ................... A3 Sports .................. B1-6 School.................... A9 Bus./Ag .................. A8
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