JUNE 7, 2016 • PAGE A9
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Candice Schmitt, Alan Schmitt, Dennis Schmitt, Shawn McClellan, Lydia McClellan, Landen McClellan, and Ashley Wade enjoy the car show portion of the Grillin’ Enjoying the Grill and Chill at St. Wendel on Saturday evening are Jim and Mary Straub, and Chillin’ at St. Wendel on Saturday evening. Photo by Dave Pearce Sarah Paul and George Titzer, and Rosie and Harold Neuman. Photo by Dave Pearce
‘Scout’ continued from Page A1 Eagle Award. He chose the bridge project with a suggestion from then town Councilwoman Linda Warrum. A design was developed and materials were gathered to get started. The steel girders for the base of the bridge were donated by TMI Contractors of Mount Vernon. All lumber was donated by Phil Etienne and Timber Harvest. Evansville Bolt and Nut donated all hardware used for the project. “At least three other donors are waiting in the wings to donate sealer and any other things as needed to finish up,” said Leigh Ann Latshaw, Cade’s mother, who was helping out that day. Cade, who will be a senior at Mount Vernon High School next year, must com-
plete all requirements for Eagle before his eighteenth birthday. “This will be finished in plenty of time because I have such good workers here to help me. I just point the other scouts in the right direction and they just take it and run,” he said. “I am pretty lucky to have them and my scoutmasters, Tim and Todd Wiley to help. And I couldn’t have done it without my dad, Derek and people who work with him. I am very grateful.” The aspiring Eagle candidate started his trail to the award in second grade as a Wolf scout, then on to Bear, then Webelos. “I loved those Pinewood Derbies in the early years,” he reminisced. He became a full-
fledged boy scout at the end of fifth grade and began earning over thirty merit badges, many of them required for the Eagle honor. Highlights for him include the 2014 summer camping trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico and the freezing cold winter camping at the Northern Tier in Ely, Minnesota. He’s been sailing in Florida with the scouts and overnight camping at least “one or two times a month.” Cade feels that scouting teaches many life lessons as well as practical ones. “You realize someone has to do the dishes on camping trips and step up once in a while to get the work done. You realize that somebody might as well be me and show leader-
ship,” he explained. After completion of the bridge project with railings and sealant, Latshaw will have to prepare a packet documenting all work and get it approved by the district Eagle Review Committee. He will be presented his award medal, scarf, certificate and mother’s pin at a ceremony in the late summer or fall. Cade’s last scouting effort will be to “look around to help my brother Danner find a good Eagle project to do.” Danner nodded in agreement as he worked alongside his brother on the bridge. “He’s taken charge pretty well on this. Next it will be me,” Danner predicted with pride.
‘Arrests’ continued from Page A1 Substance, one a Level 6 felony, the other a Level 5 felony. Antjuan D. Rollins, 35, also of Mount Vernon. Rollins faces
Chief Deputy Tom Latham fills out the necessary paperwork from the bust. Photo by Dave Pearce
counts of Dealing in a Synthetic Drug or Synthetic Drug look-alike Substance and Conspiracy to commit Dealing in a Synthetic Drug or Synthetic Drug look-alike Substance, both Level 6 offenses. Beth A. Parrish, 36, also of Mount Vernon. Parrish faces three charges of Dealing in Methamphetamine, all Level 4 felonies. Tyler L. Wunderlich, 21, of Evansville. He faces one count of Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Level 5 felony. Harold W. Shahan, Jr., 47, of Mount Vernon. He faces two counts of Dealing in a Schedule II Controlled Substance as well as two counts of Maintaining a Common Nuisance. Laterio L. Gibson, 25, also of Mount Vernon. Gibson faces charges of Dealing in Methamphetamine, Attempted Dealing in Methamphetamine, and Conspiracy to Commit Dealing in Methamphetamine. The first count is a Level 5 felony while the other two are Level 4 felonies. Oeth said they arrested an ad-
ditional three people through spinoff cases, which they knew could happen during the drug raid. “We have been plagued for many years with methamphetamine manufacturing of almost epidemic proportion,” Oeth said. “I think we have done very well in locating and identifying the individuals who were involved in that. We have made those arrests and as a result of those, that activity has substantially subsided. But unfortunately what you see is when you concentrate your efforts on one particular issue in illegal drug activity, something else is ushered in very quickly to take its place. So what we are seeing now is heroin and this synthetic marijuana. And prescriptions drugs have always been a well-hidden part of the illegal drug trade. It is by far the number one drug addiction problem that we have.” While Oeth says the drug problem is far from over in Posey County, he believes the county is in a better position than it was six or seven years ago.
“These investigations began in January and here it is June and we are just making the arrests,” Oeth said. “It’s kind of a misconception in the community sometimes that when people call in and report sus-
picious drug activity, they don’t see immediate results. But it takes some time to work the cases and get them to the place where the prosecutor has the basis to get the warrants made.”
Jennifer Hanmore is escorted to the vehicle by ISP Officer Toni Walden during this week’s drug raid. Photo by Dave Pearce
‘Nuisance’ continued from Page A1 do this carefully and correctly – there are a lot of ‘What Ifs’ here.” Laird described himself as a small landlord with not many rentals who is opposed to the ordinance as written. He added that he is all for cleaning up the town, but landlords are forced to carry out a punishment and nuisance tenants are more of a law enforcement issue. The formal name of the proposal is the Ordinance Addressing Chronic Problem Real Estate Properties within the City of Mount Vernon. Councilwoman Brittaney Johnson started the ball rolling by making the motion to pass it on second reading, but stated in discussion that she has hesitation with it after talking with Police Chief Tony Alldredge. Chief Alldredge presented data collected in 2015 on runs to the Southwind Apartment complex. Johnson noted only 23 cases were drawn on 247 complaints with 19 arrests made. Of that, only 11 incidents would have met the criteria outlined in this ordinance. She pointed out this seems very time consuming for police to which Alldredge agreed. “Would anything change from the ordinance? Are we just putting extra work on our police department? she queried. “Would any and every nuisance property make the list?” Another discussion strand concerned who was most responsible for correcting nuisance behavior: the landlord or the tenant? Councilman Larry Williams said that both the tenant and the landlord are responsible for bad behavior. Why fine just the landlord? Councilman Brian Jeffries urged that bad tenants should be evicted by the
landlord. Mayor Bill Curtis stated the new manager at Southwind has indicated she has stepped up evictions, and that in the past year, calls to the police have gone down some. Councilwoman Johnson agreed that is progress, but Councilwoman Higgins added that they will just start over in a different part of town. Attorney Higgins stated if eviction is filed, there is a 90 day period to get that resolved. Resident Randy Adams feels that landlords should bear some of the responsibility for nuisance tenants and get them out of a place. He cited specific recent examples in his neighborhood of police inaction, landlord negligence and thievery committed by youths. Mayor Curtis reminded Adams that neighbors need to work with police on many of those issues. Kyle Haney discussed his concerns about the five calls per unit rule in the ordinance. “What if there is a huge fight in the parking lot? There is no way to attribute that to any one unit,” he asked. Councilwoman Johnson replied, “exactly,” acknowledging problems with it. Haney also told council members about problems with his mother’s robbery as no one was held responsible and crime problems in general in the city. “Mount Vernon needs to be safe,” he remarked. Christy Davis observed that crime is costing the city a lot of resources and wondered if the city needed to raise taxes to handle crime? Councilman Jeffries reminded her that the ordinance is not about raising money, but having the landlord take caution with who they rent to and facing possible fines. Davis stated they may need to have an anonymous tip
line here. Nancy Sexton questioned Chief Alldredge about consequences for kids who are caught vandalizing. Alldredge stated if they know about it, and there are witnesses, they take statements. If they are juveniles, they are released to their parents and they file a report in the courts. Sexton said she witnesses vandalism in Riverbend Park and there never seems to be any consequences for the offenders, most under 18. Linda Young introduced herself as a landlord since 1974 with seven commercial units. She added that landlords don’t really know folks until they are already in a unit. She believes that three calls should be enough for eviction and the process should be faster. The main reason people are evicted is for non-payment of rent. By the time that happens, the landlords miss at least two months’ rent. “Now the ordinance wants to fine the landlord as well. Council needs to think this all the way through. It involves people and tenants have rights, too,” she remarked. “It is hard to be community minded and charitable.” In other council action: • Sewer Chairman Williams stated he would like to give an ‘atta boy’ to the sewer department employees for all of their hard work on the recent manhole collapse at Lower New Harmony Road and Emmick. It was decided afterwards that the city needs to work out some road closing procedures and they will meet to discuss it. 4th District Councilwoman Johnson stated that collapse was in her district and she would like to thank the sewer department for their quick response, too. • An ordinance passed on
first reading to amend the city salary ordinance for 2016 for positions with the Motor Vehicle Highway Department, Fire Department and the Park and Recreation Department. Changes in the highway department portion only remove names from certain positions, the fire department change allows on-call hours to be paid quarterly instead of annually and the parks and recreation changes cover salary increases by the Parks Board that were originally approved at budget time. • Another ordinance that passed on first reading was one recommended by the Board of Works at its earlier that afternoon meeting. It will get the city in compliance with its NPDES sewage treatment permit • Attorney Higgins explained that to meet a requirement from the State Board of Accounts, the city must adopt internal control standards by the end of June. Everyone who handles money will have to be trained by December 31, 2016. She said this is very involved and there is a lot of accountability, work, and time involved. It passed on first reading unanimously. • A Resolution of Temporary Loan passed and will be numbered 16-9 to transfer $200,000 from COIT funds into the General Fund to get the city through to the end of the month. The amount will be put back into the fund as soon as tax settlement money is received. • Councilwoman-atLarge Higgins reported on the Cabelas fishing tournament held here over the weekend with 45 teams in attendance from nine states. Mount Vernon put a good foot forward and she heard a lot of good comments. Cabela’s plans to come back
to Mount Vernon next year. Mayor Curtis added the 4 Seasons hotel was full and Mr. Schelhorn indicated Hawg ‘N Sauce did a good business as well. • Acting as the Water Utility Board, two work orders brought to the board by Water Superintendent Chuck Gray were approved. The first one is for work already completed on the water loss audit and infrastructure needs survey, in the amount of $5,000. Gray stated he has the first draft of the water loss audit and it came in at 16.5 percent. The best it could be is 12 percent. He told the board that, when he started work there, it was up around 55-65 percent. The second work order deals with the water distribution/system mapping in the amount of $27,100.
Mayor Curtis stated this will also be an update to the GIS that the city can model itself. • Attorney Higgins said the city has some outstanding BAN’s issued a year ago for water tower work and construction at the treatment plant. At that time, Umbaugh and Associates conducted a rate study and it was decided to go forward with temporary financing (BAN’s). Now it is time to turn the temporary into permanent financing or extend the BAN’s. Umbaugh recommends an extension on the BAN’s for one year. This will give them time to get a truer read on the rates as they stand now. • Councilman Jeffries reminded everyone that school is out, please be mindful of the kids.