Archive - News Article
April 22nd, 2011
COLUMBIA CITY — Columbia City water superintendent Mike Dear reported Friday morning that a water main break earlier this week near the Blue River may have spilled 10 million gallons of water before it could be repaired.
In an area near the river and Radio Road where on-going sewer line installations have been under way for some time, Dear said he was driving by such a site on Monday when “I spotted water coming out of a culvert pipe that normally wouldn’t have water coming out of it.”
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April 21st
COLUMBIA CITY — A recent move by Gov. Mitch Daniels to appease bristled educators is being scrutinized by not only school system bean-counters, but criticized by at least one legislator as being fiscally irresponsible.
Daniels announced last week he had squeezed enough money out of the state budget with cutbacks that he could reintroduce $150 million back into K-12 budgets for use, as he put it, to fully fund all-day kindergarten.
COLUMBIA CITY — At recent Whitley County Plan Commission meetings, residents interested in the issues being addressed struggled to hear speakers.
Occasionally, feedback would screech into the ears of attendees and recurring issues with the sound system, at times, seemed to upstage the topics at hand.
Earlier this week, the Whitley County Commissioners heard three solutions to the problem with the county’s sound system.
Joel Moss of TCSI offered three solutions to various sound system problems in the Whitley County Government Center.
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COLUMBIA CITY — A discrepancy discovered by officials with the Indiana State Board of Accounts threw a monkey wrench into a long-standing deal regarding the mowing of a portion of Whitley County-owned land.
Thorncreek Township Trustee Gene Heckman had been mowing the county park on Fish Hatchery Road.
Earlier this week Heckman appeared before the Whitley County Board of Commissioners and reported that when this long-standing arrangement became known to state officials, it raised eyebrows.
COLUMBIA CITY — Excited students and their families filed into the Peabody Public Library auditorium Wednesday evening to hear the results of the PBS KIDS GO! writing contest and the Peabody Public Library writers contest, new this year, added for the 4th and 5th graders.
COLUMBIA CITY — Leadership Whitley County, in its 10th year in existence, celebrated this milestone at the graduation dinner Tuesday evening at Eagle’s Nest Event Center.
Director Kelley Sheiss has led the servant leadership program throughout its existence with eight-month-long journeys for participants to develop a spirit of servanthood, while finding their place to contribute to their community in leadership roles.
“We’re the lowest overhead non-profit in Whitley County,” said Sheiss, describing their lack of a building or office but adding how they are “mighty in people.”
April 20th
COLUMBIA CITY — Whitley County Consolidated School Corporation Superintendent Dr. Patricia O’Connor spoke Monday at the regular board meeting about criteria for a teacher having a full-time contract.
O’Connor was addressing the school board and the audience in response to continued pressure from patrons either directly involved with or affiliated with the school corporation’s band program.
At issue with band members and parents is the part-time status of corporation band director Helen Foster.
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COLUMBIA CITY — School board member Tim Bloom peered over his glasses Monday night at a collection of local teachers who attended the regular meeting of the Whitley County Consolidated School Corporation’s Board of School Trustees.
The board, minus two members, was preparing to vote on the elimination of 27 positions from the school system’s payroll, a move sparked by a slumping economy and the subsequent budget shortfalls at public schools statewide.
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April 19th
COLUMBIA CITY — Michelle Ball, a teacher at Pierceton Elementary School, retraced the footsteps of Anne Frank and her family, thanks to a Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowship Grant that she received last year.
Ball spent 47 days in Europe last summer. She traveled throughout Germany, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, visiting places where Frank spent her life, and learning Jewish history dating back to the 12th century. She deepened her experiences there to further understand what makes the Holocaust such a tragic human event, as well as a distinct genocide.
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