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P C N SINCE 1882 Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times POSEY COUNTY’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NEWSPAPER
Volume 140 Edition 41
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
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Posey County to remain open despite Covid increase By Trisha L. Lopez Posey County Commissioner Carl Schmitz said that despite the rapid increase in Covid-19 cases in the county in recent weeks, the county would remain open. Posey County Health Nurse Martye Fitts, via telephone, updated Posey County commissioners about the status of Covid-19 cases at the commissioners meeting on Tuesday,
Oct. 6 at the Hovey House. She said the county had 133 active positive cases, bringing the county total to 449 cases as of that morning. She said that Posey County schools had reported a total of 37 positive cases since the beginning of the school year in August. She said that 19 of the current positive cases were residents and six were staff members from the Mount Vernon Nursing and Rehabili-
tation Center. “Not an overly positive report. We knew it was going to sooner or later be an issue. We survived really well for a long time. All I can tell everybody is to be careful,” Schmitz said. He said that despite the increase in cases, “we can’t completely shut the county down again. There’s no way we can.” Other issues covered at the meet-
ing: The need for work on Lamont and Bluff roads was discussed. Schmitz said that the Indiana Department of Transportation has opened up grant applications through 2026. He advised that the application for those funds would be due in November and that it would cost $3,000 to hire a firm to put together the application. Schmitz said, “that would open up
that area of the port for industrial development.” “It’s really more than just the port. It could be a really good area for a lot of other businesses,” Jenna Richardt of the Posey County Economic Development Partnership added. Highway Superintendent Steve Schenk said that Bluff Road would
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‘Trick-or-Treat’ plan(s) proposed By Lois Mittino Gray Mount Vernon High School students Amber Allyn, Jenna Veatch, and Destiny Morgan, along with their teacher/ club sponsor Alicia Schmidt, appeared before the October 8, meeting of the Mount Vernon Board of Works to request closing some city streets for a Halloween ‘Trunk or Treat.’ After discussion about COVID-19 concerns, board members approved the street closures for the city event, as long as it is changed to a drive through, not a walk-through, as originally proposed by the students. The group effort is slated for Halloween, October 31 from 3 to 7 p.m. FFA Club President Allyn began her presentation stating a similar event was held last year at the school on a smaller scale. They now have more clubs and organizations, including FCCLA, Booster Club, Art Club, 4-H, National Honor Society, and even some local merchants, wanting to participate. “We’ve been thinking of ways to safely trick or treat during the pandemic. Kids may not understand about the virus and they want their candy. We’d like to help control it safely, so we made a list of requirements to do it,” Allyn explained. She enumerated the rules list as: all participants must wear a mask; there will be hand sanitizer available at all cars and booths; and all candy must be individually wrapped with pre-made treat bags sitting on tables. They would enforce maintaining social distancing six feet apart
by waiting until each group moves on to the next car or booth to keep lines moving. The information will be posted on Facebook and students ask those who plan on attending to RSVP. The students asked to block College from Second to Third Street for the event, leading off from the Fire and Police Public Safety Building, which is having its annual candy giveaway. “We have 15 cars involved so far. If we get more cars, we would like to open it up on Second Street as well, from College to Main, making an ‘L’ shape,” Allyn continued. “Wow. I’m impressed. You’ve obviously put a lot of thought into this and I feel it would be a good thing,” expressed Board member David Dodd. Board member Andy Hoehn agreed, as did Mayor Bill Curtis. The Mayor noted he had some concerns. “There have been 20 new cases of COVID last night. In talks with the County Health Department earlier in the week, I learned they are meeting with the State on ways to handle social events and limit them. They feel these larger events are contributing to the rise. There is already an event planned by the city for Halloween, and it sounds as if they are anticipating a large number of kids. With 15 cars to walk around in this event, that sounds like a lot of kids too close to one
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Jeremy Brock and Shonnah Adams brought out their Halloween helmets for a bike ride Sunday afternoon in New Harmony. Photo by Dave Pearce
Minors with BB gun face charges By Trisha L. Lopez It wasn’t long after midnight in the wee hours of Thursday morning. The moon provided a sliver of light and the air was a crisp 60 degrees, signalling the subtle shift from the warmth of summer to the beginning of autumn. Four people lurked about on slumbering Sunset Drive in Mount Vernon’s Lawrence Subdivision. They were looking in cars parked in driveways. Two vigilant homeowners looked outside at just the right time to see the shadowed figures. They called the police. Nothing was stolen. No one was Sisters Lauren and Maddie Kissel housesit their neighbor’s home, plants hurt. No property was damaged that and animals this week in New Harmony. The girls enjoy helping their night. The suspects, two children and two friends and neighbors when they have the chance. Photo by Dave Pearce
young adults whose names are not being released because of their ages, fled the scene. They were found by police on Kennedy Drive. One, a minor, carried what a police officer on the scene described as a very realistic-looking BB gun in the waistband of his pants. The suspects were lucky. The police officer was lucky. The neighborhood was lucky. If that child had made the decision to brandish the BB gun at the officers attempting to apprehend them or the homeowners that witnessed their actions, the night might not have ended quietly with the four suspects under arrest and awaiting misdemeanor charges. “If they had reached for that gun,
(police officers) have to make a decision not only for ourselves, but for the entire community,” Mount Vernon Police Officer Caleb McDaniel, who was on the scene that night, said. “It’s a lot going through your mind in split seconds. It’s too late to decide if it’s a BB gun or a real gun. Is this the right time and the right place for the right reason right now? You have to go through a lot of things very quickly. It’s very scary and I’m glad that it turned out the way that it did.” Other police officers have found themselves in situations that weren’t as fortunate.
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MV has 51 seeking piece of Small Business Grant pie By Lois Mittino Gray Members of the Mount Vernon Common Council discussed an eclectic mix of topics at their October 7, meeting, including COVID Small Business Grant recipients, not lowering speed limits in ‘Birdland,’ Halloween candy giveaway, and even, whether to paint a thin blue line inside the yellow lines down Main Street to show support for local police. Mayor Bill Curtis announced that 51 applications submitted for the COVID-19 Small Business Grant were sent to the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) in Indianapolis. That organization is the source of the $250,000 grant money and vetted the Mount Vernon ap-
plicants, with some submitting supplemental information. Councilwoman Jillian Brothers asked what information was required. The Mayor explained things like how long a business has been in operation, the number of part and full-time employees, a written statement on the effect COVID had on the business, a best case effort statement to employ low income persons, and to do an annual report for two years as required by OCRA. From there, the applications will go to a Local Committee made up of four persons, including Jenna Richardt, Executive Director of the Posey County Economic Development Partnership. The Partnership oversees the grant in the
county and Richardt said OCRA requests that the committee member’s names remain confidential, until after the grant money is awarded. The committee will make recommendations to the Council how to apportion the money, but the final decision is actually up to a vote of Council members at the next meeting. Brothers asked if a certain amount of businesses will be approved. Curtis replied there are two ways they can go about it: 1) they can take the first 24 who applied (they are time-stamped) and give them $10,000 each; or 2) divide the money equally among the applicants who were approved by OCRA. Some of the funds will be used to administer
the grant. The Mayor said he needed an authorization at the meeting that night to sign an agreement with the Southwest Indiana Economic Development Coalition to do the processing work on the grant. City Attorney Beth Higgins announced that, before Council takes any action or any vote, anyone who owns a business that made application for the grant is not permitted to vote or participate in discussion. Councilman Andy Hoehn and Councilwoman Dana Baldwin both recused themselves for this reason and the vote passed to authorize the agreement. Baldwin asked her fellow councilors to vote
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Oh, I believe there are angels among us... Heart for community, flexibility, resilience have spurred Hudson’s life, career By Trisha L. Lopez “Women are angels. When someone breaks our wings, we simply continue to fly...on a broomstick. We’re flexible like that.” Real estate agent and community leader Michelle Hudson has a printed sign with this quote hanging on the
(USPS 439-500)
wall behind her desk at Shrode Real Estate in Mount Vernon. Hudson “continues to fly” herself. “That’s kind of me,” Hudson said. “A little of everything.” After 42 years in Mount Vernon, Hudson has weathered the twists and turns of raising children as a single parent, a career change, launching a successful four-county coalition and playing a hands-on leadership role in several local not-for-profit organizations in Southwest Indiana. “Someday I’m going to write a book about my experiences, because I’ve got some real doozies,” Hudson said with a soft laugh, her eyes dancing over her mask as she set back in her chair. Hudson moved to Mount Vernon from a little town in Illinois with her
then-husband who worked for General Electric in Evansville. She soon found herself divorced with children to raise and a life to build in a new area. She eventually remarried and she and husband, Hank, have four children and nine grandchildren between them. Her husband retired from practicing law about 11 years ago. She went to work in real estate after the previous owner of Shrode told her she’d be a perfect fit. “He just kept hounding me. He said ‘Michelle, you’d just be great,” she said. “I have a degree in psychology and a finance background. I’d worked in a law office before, specifically with real estate law. He asked if I’d ever sold anything. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been very competitive like at school when we’d have to
sell magazines or candy or whatever. I don’t think from first to eighth grade I ever got beat. I even beat out eighth graders because I had to sell the most. I had that competitive sales background that I hadn’t thought about for years.” “I was just like OK....yeah.” She still vividly recalls her first sale almost 35 years ago. “They were an older couple, John and Edie. They were just delightful. I had that house listed for three years before it sold. They didn’t want to come down off of the price. I remember it was $39,900. It was a big house. Granted, that was 35 years ago…” Hudson said. “But they stayed with me. They would go around and tell
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M. Michelle Hudson