The Dubois County Community Foundation has opened its application process for this year’s competitive grants cycle.

Over 90 thousand dollars are set to be awarded to local non-profits this year. Susan McGovern with the Dubois County Community Foundation says the grant cycle is a way to identify projects that will have the greatest impact in the area:

The Grants Committee will review and consider all of the proposals submitted and make their recommendations to the foundation’s Board of Directors. The evaluation process is based on the feasibility of a project, the soundness of its implementation plan, the viability of long-term financing for a project, and the fulfillment of community need.

The deadline for submission of proposals is July 1st. For more information, call the Dubois County Community Foundation at 482-5295 or go to dccommunityfoundation.org to find a preliminary proposal form.

As a reminder, if you previously ordered a rain barrel through the SWCD rain barrel sale and have not picked it up yet, it is ready for you at the SWCD office. To make arrangements to pick up your barrel, call 482-1171 extension 3.

Extra barrels are still available for purchase. Kits including the 55 gallon barrel, a downspout diverter, and a base cost $70. The 55 gallon barrel alone is $25.

For questions or to order a barrel, call Mike Smith at 482-1171 or by email at msmithswcd@gmail.com. Supplies are limited.

As a reminder, the City of Huntingburg is planning an electrical outage in the Washington Street area next week to upgrade circuits.

The outage is set for 9 am next Thursday, May 30th. The outage is expected to last for roughly 1 to 2 hours. Some of the areas that will likely be affected by the outage include Washington Street from Fourth Street to Orchard Ridge, First Street one block to the east and west of Washington Street, First Avenue one block to the east and the west of Washington Street and Second Street one block to the west of Washington Street.

Anyone with questions is asked to contact Jon Reutepohler at 683-5102.

This Friday Jasper High School will be holding commencement exercises for the JHS Class of 2013 and the brand new Jasper High School Gymnasium is ready for the occasion.

Yesterday afternoon clerk of the works for the new gym construction project Scott Stenftenagel told the Greater Jasper Consolidated School Board the facility is now finished at least to the point where it will be ready for Friday’s evening’s events.

Stenftenagel says some finishing touches will need to be completed on the new facility after this weekend’s commencement including polishing of the concrete floors on both the lower and upper level. Glass for display cases are yet to be installed and areas that need painting among other miscellaneous items to be complete.

The new facility of course replaces the former Jasper High School gym who’s roof collapsed on the morning of May 2, 2011, after days of heavy rain caused water to build up on the 34-year old building’s roof.

Almost a year to the day of the roof collapse the Greater Jasper School Board approved plans and gave the go ahead for the construction of the new gym. Greater Jasper Superintendant Dr. Tracy Lorey says the last two years have produced plenty of blood sweat and tears poured into the project.

Meanwhile Stenftenagel says the project itself has been a learning experience and was grateful of the hard work done by all.

Stenfetenagel says the gym is expected to be officially completed by July 1st.

GRADUATION PLANS

Now for those planning on attending Friday night’s graduation ceremony, parking will be available on every side of Jasper High School with the exception of the south side of the gym where construction companies still have trailers and other equiptment in place.

Folks can use any entrance to the gym where JHS staff will be available for assistance.
Lower level seating is open only to ticket holders in which graduating students were given seven tickets for family members and friends.

The upper level will be open to those without a ticket, however school officials kindly ask that attendance be limited to family, friends and supporters of the graduates.

An open house for the public will be held at a later date.

HACKER’S FINAL MEETING

Yesterday’s Greater Jasper School Board meeting was also the final meeting for outgoing Assistant Superintendant Bob Hacker.

Hacker was hired on May 1st as the new Superintendant of the White River Valley School District in Greene County.

Hacker has served the Greater Jasper School system for the past four years first as principal of Jasper High School from 2009 till 2012 before moving into the assistant superintendent position upon the retirement of previous assistant superintendent Mike Hile.

At the conclusion of last night’s meeting the board thanked Hacker for his service to the corporation and the community.

Board Vice-President Bernie Vogler who’s worked closely with Hacker on numerous school projects the last four years credited Hacker saying he worked hard and dedicated himself towards the well being of students since his arrival.

A 1982 graduate of Franklin Central High School, Hacker earned his bachelors degree from Franklin College before obtaining his masters from IUPUI.

Before arriving in Jasper, the 48-year old Hacker was principal of South Decatur Junior-Senior High School in Greensburg, assistant principal, and athletic director at South Decatur and Belmont Middle School in Decatur and a classroom language arts teacher at Beech Grove Middle School. He has spent a total of 27 years in education.

Hacker plans to move to Greene County where he will begin his new job July 1st.

The Greater Jasper School board is now in seach for Hacker’s replacement and hopes to make a selection in the coming months.

The Town of Holland recieved a Community Development Block Grant for the town’s wastewater rehabilitation project.

But in order to obtain the grant funding, last night the Holland Town Council passed a resoulution authorizing the town to borrow 67-thousand dollars in matching funds from German American Bank.

The town plans to use the town’s equipment and vehicles as collateral for the loan with GAB.

In the resoulution the council appointed Clerk Treasurer and fiscal officer Ray Schuetter and town board president Tom Thacker the authority to sign any and all documents necessary to recieve funds for the loan in order to obtain the local matching funds needed for the Community Development Block Grant.

The project will upgrade mains and fix a situation involving a lift station on Kentucky Street that occasionally overflows during heavy rains.

Last night, the Dubois County Council made a verbal commitment to give $33,500 to help pay costs for a current part-time maintenence employee for the county corrections center as well as for needed repairs and maintenence.

During the meeting, Dubois County Director of Community Corrections J.P. Weisheit told the council that for most of the ten years that the corrections center’s current location has been open, funding has not been a problem. However, that has changed within the last year or so as collections revenue has been on a sharp decline.

According to numbers presented to the council by Weisheit, the corrections center is currently seeing 7 to 9 thousand dollars in revenue lost every month due to the lack of collections.

Weisheit says the collection rates were high enough for several years, but due to lack of payment of those collections in the last year or two, that has changed:

Weisheit says the county corrections center has garnished the wages of those in the program that aren’t paying to try to collect, but the corrections center has increasingly wound up second or third in line behind child support or other garnishments that a person on work release has had against their wages.

He says the corrections center has applied for an additional 150 thousand dollar grant from the Indiana Department of Corrections to help the center. The center currently gets $400,000 per year from the Indiana Department of Corrections, but Weisheit says more money is becoming available due to a new rule requiring counties to keep certain level felons at home.

He says the additional money, if the Department of Corrections gives that money, would help offset a lot of costs mainly related to health insurance for those in the corrections facility:

Weisheit told the council that the county corrections center hopes to hear an answer on the additional funding in a week or two. The center, with 102 beds, is the sixth largest corrections center in the state of Indiana.

Also, the council held a discussion amongst members about the recent decision by the county commissioners to delay any work towards building a second access road to Dubois County Park for emergency purposes.
County Council president Greg Kendall says the delay came about due to multiple issues surrounding the road and its construction needing to be resolved before any decision can be made on moving forward with the project.

The Jasper City Council chambers were nearly at full capacity last night for the monthly utility service board meeting.

The main point of focus of this meeting fell on the Beaver Lake Spillway Report. Brian McKenna, the head engineer from Christopher B. Burke Engineering, was present to report on the concerns and differences of opinion surrounding the water level fluctuations of Beaver Lake. In McKenna’s report, all indications according to his measurements of the existing spillway are that the water level is very close, within an inch of the old spillway. This report puzzled the people that have lived on the lake for decades.

As Utility Board President Wayne Schuetter explains, there are many theories as to why the lake levels seem much lower:

Schuetter says a possible solution would be to dredge Beaver Lake, but he said that would cost a considerable amount of money.

Towards the end of last night’s meeting, Schuetter addressed the council and those from the public in attendance concerning the situation with the Jasper Clean Energy Center Project. In a statement made by Schuetter during last night’s meeting, he said “The city’s decision to lease the power plant to Twisted Oak Corporation to develop the Jasper Clean Energy Project continues to be a topic of discussion and misinformation, including the information being disseminated by the group opposing the project.”

Schuetter’s comments stemmed from a recent report released by co-authors Dr. Kristin Shrader-Frechette and B.N. Kunycky of the University of Notre Dame, which included several errors as identified by the City of Jasper. Schuetter says this meeting was an appropriate time to bring the controversy to light:

Schuetter ended the meeting by stating that the Utility Service Board and the City of Jasper will continue to focus on the facts and doing their necessary due diligence concerning this important project. He also said the Jasper community is encouraged to do their own
due diligence on this issue.