Archive - News Article
March 30th, 2011
COLUMBIA CITY — Linbeth Doggendorf’s voice was barely audible as she gushed about the daughter she lost more than a year ago.
Her testimony could barely be heard in a courtroom with bad acoustics, compounded by her soft-spoken nature and muffled further by the sobs of friends and family.
“It’s turned our world upside down,” she said. “Nothing is the same. Everything’s not right anymore.”
COLUMBIA CITY — A second arrest was made this week in connection with the explosion of a suspected meth lab in a rural Whitley County mobile home park that killed a woman in December of last year.
Joshua B. Angus, 25, of Fort Wayne was arrested and charged Monday with four counts stemming from the Dec. 3, 2010 explosion that killed 24-year-old Alecia Stine at Miami Village Trailer Park on Old Trail Road east of Columbia City.
A second man, Wade Burns, was charged in February.
COESSE — For someone who bets on horses, the odds of twin foals being born alive and healthy to a healthy mare are staggeringly slim. Most websites say 1 in 10,000 are twin pregnancies and only 9 percent of those are carried to term.
But in Coesse’s Conley and Koontz Equine Hospital, a 16-year-old Paint/Pinto mare named Lil’ Miss Boutique, “Tiki,” beat those odds, delivering a colt and a filly over the weekend.
March 29th
COLUMBIA CITY — A second arrest has been made in connection with the explosion of a suspected meth lab in a rural Whitley County mobile home park that killed a woman in December of last year.
Joshua B. Angus, 25, of Fort Wayne was arrested and charged Monday with four counts stemming from the Dec. 3, 2010 explosion that killed 24-year-old Alecia Stine at Miami Village Trailer Park on Old Trail Road east of Columbia City.
A second man, Wade Burns, was charged in February.
March 28th
COLUMBIA CITY — The floor of the walk-in cooler at the county jail needs a sprucing up, according to the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputy Marcus Gatton appeared before the Whitley County Commissioners last week to report on needed repairs to the cooler’s floor, which is part of the jail’s original 1986 construction.
“Back in January, the jail received a health warning,” said Gatton.
“We have three months to rectify it.”
According to Gatton, the floor of the walk-in cooler is rusty and uncleanable.
COLUMBIA CITY — The Columbia City Police Department is hoping to get a new K-9 vehicle.
Officer Tim Pittenger and Chief Mike Petersen addressed the Columbia City Board of Works and Safety Friday afternoon about the need to replace the current Ford Expedition with a new model.
Pittenger presented the board with a list of pros and cons between replacing the existing vehicle with another sport utility vehicle and changing gears to a Dodge Charger.
“All the equipment that I have in my 2005 Expedition would be able to be put right into a 2011 Expedition,” Pittenger said.
COLUMBIA CITY — Whitley County Consolidated School Corporation’s Board of School Trustees were treated to a comprehensive presentation on science as it’s taught to elementary school students corporation-wide.
At the board’s regular school board meeting March 21, a contingent of science teachers representing several elementary schools in the district, gave a slide show and presentation called Science in the WCCS Elementary Schools.
Nancy Bridegam started the presentation off by discussing textbooks and the curriculum.
COLUMBIA CITY — For several years now, the members of FFA have been trying to relay the idea that the organization is not just about being a farmer any more.
Last week’s presentation to the Whitley County Consolidated School Corporation’s Board of School Trustees was no exception.
Following opening ceremonies conducted by the group’s parliamentary procedure team, members of the organization made a presentation called “Who Are We?”
COLUMBIA CITY — Whitley County made changes to its sewer regulations to keep up with state law and health department officials briefed the county’s commissioners on the changes this week.
Scott Wagner with the Whitley County Health Department presented an update on the changes last week at the regular meeting of the Whitley County Board of Commissioners.
“This state law regarding residential septic systems was changed and became effective on January first of this year,” Wagner said.
“Because the state law changed, I needed to update the county ordinance to reflect this change.”
COLUMBIA CITY — Emotions ran high from everyone involved prior to the expected century-long sentencing of an 18-year-old who admitted to killing a 14-year-old Whitley County girl in March of 2010.
“I still don’t know how this could happen in our community,” said Whitley Circuit Court Judge James Heuer after hearing testimony from both the prosecution and the defense in the sentencing hearing of Joshua M. Wright.
Wright pleaded guilty but mentally ill in court last month and agreed to a combined sentence for four crimes of 100 years.
