T
P C N SINCE 1882 Successor to The Poseyville News & New Harmony Times POSEY COUNTY’S ONLY LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED NEWSPAPER
Volume 138 Edition 37
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
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A large crowd packed the Working Men’s Institute Thursday night for the monthly meeting of the New Harmony Town Plan and Historic Preservation Commission. A Dollar General Store permit application was the big topic of discussion. Photo by Lois Mittino Gray
New Harmony Commission OKs Dollar General permit Many turned out to voice concerns over hot topic By Lois Mittino Gray An audience of about 150 people filled folding chairs, wedged into windowsills and sat on the steps Thursday night, September 6 at the Working Men’s Institute to attend the monthly meeting of the New Harmony Town Plan and Historic Preservation Commission. The hot topic generating such a large response was a permit application to build a Dollar General Store on Church Street/ Highway 66, on the east edge of the town. Wilson’s General Store formerly occupied the site. The permit was granted after a lengthy discussion by those present. Commission meetings are usually held the first Thursday of each month in the Town Hall. Speculation ran rampant that this would be a huge turnout, so the venue was changed to the Room for the Dissemination of Useful Knowledge in the local library. Commission Chair-
man David Flanders called the meeting to order at 5 p.m. and conducted routine business before the permit discussion. The Commission consists of Town Council President Alvin Blaylock, Annette Buckland, Jo Briant, Town Marshall Aaron Straub, and new-appointee Allen Hatch, John Jeffery is also a member and was unable to be present due to out-of-town travel. Chairman Flanders turned the meeting over to Patrick J. Moone, Engineering Manager for Farnsworth Group of Champaign, Ill. His firm designed the proposed building and developed the plans submitted for the permit. With charts and diagrams in hand, Moone explained that the developer he represented, O’Brien LLC, proposes to construct a 9100 square foot building on the 1.5 acre site, with 30 parking spaces. The building will face Highway 66, sitting one third of the way back,with parking in front, with seed and sod landscaping, and will have one access drive to the highway. Moone said the four things to look at in the design
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Amelia Hite, five, of Poseyville was named River Days Festival Little Miss and Eli Hines, six, of Mount Vernon was honored as the River Days Little Mister. The winners received a trophy, banner, and a $50 money order from First Bank. Three judges selected them after private interviews on Tuesday and stage interviews on Friday evening at the Riverfront. Amelia is the daughter of Michael and Sara Hite and Eli is the son of Matt and Whitney Hines. Eli said, “Now I get to ride in a cool car.” Photo by Lois Mittino Gray
County cracking down on property nuisances By Lois Mittino Gray Due to longtime complaints and continuing weedy conditions, the Posey County Commissioners put some teeth into their promise to control excessive growth by passing ordinance 2018-09-05-01 regulating weeds and rank vegetation. The legal document was prepared by County Attorney Trent Van Haaften who explained that the ordinance will solve
the currently-existing problem of property owners getting a weed nuisance notice in June, cleaning it up, and then letting it all grow back by August. A whole new violation notice has to be sent out once again. The new ordinance defines excessive weed growth as anything over eighteen inches and rank vegetation
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Tropical delights Local backyard banana trees faring quite well By Lois Mittino Gray Yes, we have some bananas. We have some bananas today. Are you singing the song now in your head? New Harmony residents Rose and Ken Back have ripening bananas and over twenty of the tropical trees in their back yard at the corner of Church and Second Streets. Several of the towering ones, over twenty foot tall, are enough to make you cry out, “Day-o, Day-o, Come Mister Tally Man, tally me banana!” The back patio just looks like something out of a tropical paradise. The amazing thing is that the retired couple moved to New Harmony just four years ago, Ken and Rose Backs show off the banana flower with young fruit formbringing only three trees from their former home near the ing on it. Photo by Lois Mittino Gray Evansville Airport, with them. “The bananas sure have
Take Note The River Days parade that was cancelled Saturday evening has been rescheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, September 15. Registration begins at 5 p.m., at the high school football parking lot.
Briefly Kunstfest September 15 - 16, 2018 New Harmony Autumnfest September 29 - 30, 2018 Poseyville
More information on these and other events inside today’s Posey County News
(USPS 439-500)
done well here in New Harmony. I water them quite a bit and give them a little fertilizer and they really took off. Maybe it’s the sandy soil, too,” Ken explained. “They are protected here in the backyard with the fence, so they don’t get whipped around a lot by the wind.” “He waters his bananas, even before my tomatoes,” Rose added with a smile. She says the plants are not bothered by any insect pests. Ken recounted a discovery he made while at the old house. “One day we left the water on by mistake. Just a trickle, but it ran 8-10 hours on a banana tree we had. The next day, that tree started to make the fruit stalk. I
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Local sports official prefers to spend his time helping kids By Pam Robinson Only one activity captivates Mount Vernon native Joe Rutledge more than sports: helping kids. In fact, the son of Jerry and Susan Rutledge uses his sports officiating and enthusiasm to build relationships with kids and provide them with a positive role model. “I love sports. I love the interaction with the kids. That’s the draw,” he says. “You don’t do it for money. Everything I’m involved in all centers around kids.” The third-generation sports official builds on the steps of his Grandpa Jess Rutledge and Dad Jerry Rutledge in calling games. His grandpa and dad umpired baseball games, but Joe officiates for football,
basketball, and baseball. He has served 22 years as a football official; 19 years as a baseball umpire; and 10 years as a basketball referee. He stays current with all State of Indiana licensing requirements to participate during season play and post-season tournaments. He travels from here in southwestern Indiana as far as Indianapolis to keep a full officiating schedule. Posey County sports fans have undoubtedly seen his calls at North Posey and Mount Vernon games. So far, he says, local fans have supported his efforts.
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Joe Rutledge