Archive - Feb 4, 2011 - News Article
By
BECKY HAND and RUTH STANLEY
During a Level 1 snow emergency, most of the population is asked to stay home. The few who keep us informed and safe during the situation, or who work to open the roads again, often work very long hours.
Cathy Broxon-Ball, director of the Emergency Management Administration/Department of Homeland Security was at her post from 7 a.m. Tuesday until 11 a.m. Thursday, sleeping on a portable military cot in her office, all to help keep residents of Whitley County safe and aware of conditions.
COLUMBIA CITY — The Fort Wayne man and former state excise officer accused of staging the break-in of an Indiana State Excise Police evidence room in Columbia City is scheduled for a pre-trial conference Feb. 15, according to the Whitley County Prosecutor’s Office.
Aaron M. Bishop, 34, was arrested Nov. 24 and charged with theft and official misconduct in connection with the Aug. 4 break-in.
Bishop has been free on $8,000 bond since shortly after his arrest.
COLUMBIA CITY — The head of Whitley County’s public transportation system will seek money from the Whitley County Council next week.
Jackie Hake, executive director of Whitley County Transit is asking for her organization’s annual allotment of money from the County Economic Development Income Tax — an infusion of $20,000 as part of a local match with the Indiana Department of Transportation.
“These funds have gone a long way to support this growing program as we are starting our fifth year of public transportation,” said Hake in a letter to council president Kim Wheeler.
COLUMBIA CITY — The Columbia City Board of Works and Safety approved on Friday a work shutdown by Bowen Engineering Corporation on the city’s Equal-ization Basin and Interceptor Sewer Project which was originally slated to be completed May 1.
The shutdown is primarily due to frigid temperatures.
But the recent discovery of contaminated soil at one of the locations and the subsequent delays caused by Indiana Department of Environmental Management intervention also plays a factor.
COLUMBIA CITY — The 2011 budget for Whitley County’s chapter of Drug-Free Indiana will find its way in front of the Whitley County Council Tuesday.
The program’s coordinator, Nancy Prickett, presented the proposed budget to the Whitley County Board of Commissioners Jan. 18.
“The funds available for distribution in 2011 are $45,000 said Prickett in a letter submitted to the commissioners and made available for the council’s Tuesday meeting.
Prickett announced the money would be distributed for prevention/education, treatment, justice and administrative costs.
COLUMBIA CITY — Whitley County Consolidated School Corporation’s Board of School Trustees will roll up its sleeves and get to work Monday on several issues including the various school handbooks and the corporation’s budget.
In its regular meeting Monday, slated to begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Marshall Community Building, board members will hear a presentation on the district handbooks for the primary, middle and high schools.
COLUMBIA CITY — A company that began construction of a new manufacturing facility here in Whitley County last year is going to get a boost from the state.
Triad Metals International, which broke ground on a 165,000 square-foot distribution facility in the Rail Connect Business Park east of Columbia City last fall, will receive a $250,000 Community Economic Development Program Grant.
The announcement was made earlier this week in a statement from Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman and came less than a week after Whitley County learned it would lose an industry that received such a grant last year.
According to Emergency Management Director Cathy Broxon-Ball, the Level 2 snow emergency that the county has been operating under since Thursday morning has been dropped.
