The winter storm event that was expected to hit our WBDC listening area has arrived.

The storm dropped a round of sleet and freezing rain overnight with the precipitation changing over to all snow in the early morning hours.

The storm has caused all school districts in Dubois, Daviess, Martin, Pike, and Spencer Counties to cancel class today. Additionally, Indiana Furniture employees were on a two hour delay this morning and several other events such as the Loogootee Christmas Stroll and Santa’s visit to Birdseye were postponed and rescheduled. All government offices in Dubois County are also closed today as a result of the storm.

With all of the precipitation that is continuing to fall, road crews have been hard at work trying to get the roads ready for travel. Jasper street commissioner Raymie Eckerle says the sleet began to accumulate on the streets just before 2 am this morning and all plow trucks were out at work by 3 am and have been salting intersections as part of their work.

Eckerle says the work of the plow crews is instrumental in keeping the streets clear:

Eckerle says they are hoping to get treated salt down tonight to keep roadways from re-freezing and they are hoping for sunshine tomorrow to melt snow and ice off of the roadways.

Meanwhile Dubois County Highway Superintendent Steve Berg says his crews have also been hard at work since early this morning. He says keeping up with the storm will be key as we head throughout the day:

From a state standpoint, more than 600 salt trucks were sent out onto the roadways last night and early this morning by the Indiana Department of Transportation to treat roadways. INDOT spokeswoman Cher Elliott says the trucks will work as long as needed to get the roads back into good condition:

Now a winter storm warning remains in effect until 1 am eastern time tomorrow morning for Dubois, Crawford, Orange, and Perry Counties locally. The weather service called for 8 inches of new snowfall accumulation throughout the day today, though they said the snow was likely to end before 5 pm this evening.

Additionally, both Jasper and Huntingburg closed up their city offices early today. All non-emergency departments in Jasper were closed effective at noon today. Those departments included City Hall, Municipal Utilities Office, Park Department, Arnold Habig Community Center, and the Arts Department. Arts officials will make a separate announcement about their weekend schedule soon.

Meanwhile, The City of Huntingburg declared a snow emergency earlier this afternoon. City officials cited the accumulation of snow and ice on the streets that made the streets difficult to drive on. As a result of the emergency, numerous city streets designated as ‘snow routes’ were immediately restricted. City hall, the utility office, and transit system were closed down at 1 pm today. City officials are urging residents to stay home and off of the streets so that the street department can clean and treat them as necessary. A second storm is expected to hit our area on Sunday according to the National Weather Service. That storm will likely bring another round of freezing rain, sleet, and snow with it.

An Orange County man is behind bars on felony charges following a six hour standoff with police last night and into this morning.

Indiana State Police say at about 11:20 last night, Orange County Sheriff’s deputies received a call concerning a possible domestic disturbance with shots fired in the 2600 block of West County Road 525 South near Paoli. Officers arrived at the scene at about 11:30 last night, where they discovered that 54-year-old David Coleman of Paoli had fired multiple gunshots at family members, driving them out of the house.

Coleman then barricaded himself in the home and did not cooperate with officers at the scene. During the standoff, the Indiana State Police Emergency Response and Hostage Crisis Negotiation Teams sent officers to the scene to try and communicate with Coleman. Police issued search and arrest warrants for Coleman at about 3:35 this morning. Police finally convinced Coleman to step out of the home at 5:10 this morning and he was taken into custody.

Coleman was lodged in the Orange County Jail, where he is being held on preliminary charges. He is charged with a Class A felony for attempted murder and a Class C felony for criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Paoli and French Lick Police Departments also assisted.

The Dubois County Sheriff’s Department needs your help to find the driver involved in a hit-and-run accident.

Deputies say Adam Zehr of Birdseye was westbound along Schnellville Road at 5:30 yesterday morning when he saw an eastbound vehicle that was driving left of center. Deputies say the vehicle hit the left side of Zehr’s car and then left the scene without stopping. Zehr’s car sustained about 1 thousand dollars worth of damage.

Deputies are looking for a small blue pickup truck, possibly a Ford Ranger or Chevy S-10. Anyone who has any information is asked to call the Dubois County Sheriff’s Department at 482-3522. All callers may remain anonymous.

A stricter policy on overdue materials is set to take effect at your local library.

Last night, the Dubois County Contractual and Jasper Public Library boards both approved adding small claims court as another course of action. Under the new stipulation, someone that has overdue materials and has not responded to any of the three written/email notices given will receive a form letter and be given another 30 days to return the materials. If there is no response to the letter or the materials are not brought back, the person would then be sued in small claims court.

Library board attorney Bill Shaneyfelt says the new element of the policy was put into place due to a total of 65 thousand dollars in outstanding fines:

Now the changes will go into effect on January 1st. However, the library board also decided at last night’s meeting to give an amnesty period. Starting tomorrow and running through New Year’s Eve, folks with overdue materials may return those materials or put them in the book drop at the Jasper, Ferdinand, Dubois, or Birdseye libraries and the associated late fines will be waived. The waiver of fines will be in effect during the December 7th through 31st time frame ONLY. Fees for lost and/or damaged items as well as collection agency fees will NOT be waived.

Also last night, the board formally approved changes to the health insurance plan. The plan, which will be for full-time library employees only, will now exist as a stipend. Both boards agreed that a 7.1 percent stipend would be appropriate for employees for health insurance.

Shaneyfelt says the change in policy came after concerns about avoiding violations of the new Affordable Care Act. He says it also made sense financially for the library:

In final notes, the boards were informed that the Birdseye library did receive a 15 thousand dollar planning grant through Indiana Region 15 that they had applied for earlier this year. The grant will be used to conduct a study that would determine if the current Birdseye library (which is located in the old town hall building) could be expanded or if a new library building would be necessary. The two boards also approved next year’s salary resolution. That resolution calls for a 2 percent increase in salaries in addition to any applicable step increases for an employee based off of years of experience.

Jasper based Kimball International has announced the appointment of Kimberly Ryan to the company’s board of directors.

Ryan’s appointment will enhance the board’s strategic skillset as well as partially fill a void left by the death of board member “Hank” Bowman earlier this year. The formal appointment will be made at the next regularly scheduled board meeting on Feb. 18.

She was selected following a national search in partnership with Cook Associates Inc. of Chicago.

Ryan is president of Batesville Casket Co. She joined Batesville in 1989 as a staff accountant and has steadily progressed through a number of positions within the Hillenbrand family of companies in finance, operations, logistics, information technology and division leadership. She has been a senior executive of the company since 2003 and has a consistent record of achieving objectives in areas such as streamlining information systems and improving cost structures and waste reductions, all while maintaining market position and financial strength.

TDI Brands has opened a new showroom in The Gardens at AmericasMart in Atlanta.

The permanent showroom contains merchandising displays, examples of store layouts and a collection of gardening accents and accessories.

The space, mainly showcasing products from the Tierra Garden division, is positioned directly next to TDI Brands’ established Stone Age Creations showroom. Between the two showrooms, the majority of products offered by TDI Brands and its divisions are on display.