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theREGISTER THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2014
188TH YEAR
S-D super: hard decisions loom for board
Fire & Iron
By Erika Schmidt Russell Editor
By Chandra L. Mattingly Staff Reporter
erussell@registerpublications.com
All it takes is one spark for a fire to start. And the results of that spark could be seen in and around Dearborn Saturday, Aug. 16. Large groups of men and women on motorcycles in and around Dearborn County and Harrison, Ohio, are a regular occurrence. The group riding through the area Saturday, Aug. 16, was a blend of local folks and people from out of town, who all had one common denominator. Fire & Iron is a motorcycle club dedicated to two things, their love of motorcycles and being firefighters. Well, mostly firefighters, since some of them are first responders/emergency medical technicians/ paramedics. They even let a few police officers join up, but they’re generally police officers who are also firefighters, which is common in places like Dearborn County and other communities dependent on volunteer firefighters.
cmattingly@registerpublications.com
See FIRE, Page 6A
PHOTOS BY E.S. & B. RUSSELL/The Register
Above: Jeff Wright, fire chief in West Point, Ky., near Fort Knox, and a member of Fire & Iron Station 33, checks out the Aurora Fire Department’s 1949 truck. Below: Fire & Iron Station 56 President John Payne is with Aurora Fire Chief Jeff Lane in the AFD fire bay Saturday, Aug. 16.
Above: Fire & Iron members from points north, south, east and west ride into the Aurora Fire Department Aug. 16. Below: Members get ready for a group picture with AirCare at the AFD helipad, the only one of its kind in Southeastern Indiana.
S-DIS teachers face ICY challenge Staff Report Is it hot enough to welcome a chill? At Sunman-Dearborn Intermediate School, 26 staff members will take the cold water/ice challenge Friday, Aug. 22, said SDIS Music Teacher Jeannie Herman. “The students will be raising money for ALS by buying tickets for $1 to be able to have a chance of dumping a huge bucket of ice water onto the teacher of their choice!” said Herman. ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Herman said they expect this event to be a huge fund raiser and lots of fun for the kids and the staff. The event will begin at 2 p.m. at the St. Leon school, and is a response to the challenge of the school's “awesome” principal, Christina Vennemeier, said Hermon. Vennemeier is one of the 26 who will be participating in the challenge.
Special Crimes Unit will get $509,000 new headquarters in L’burg By Erika Schmidt Russell Editor erussell@registerpublications.com
After hearing an explanation about where the money is coming from to build a new structure for the Dearborn County Special Crimes Unit the Lwrenceburg Board of Works unanimously awarded a bid to Maxwell Construction for the new building. BOW member and city councilman Aaron Cook was concerned the city would be footing the bill for the $509,000 building based on the wording of the resolution he had received as part of his council packet. Special Crimes Unit Coordinator Tom McKay said the city put $200,000 for the building into its budget last year,
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and the SCU would be paying ty Commissioners also passed the difference out of money a resolution regarding the it received from building. seized funds from CommisFind it online sioner Shane criminal cases. While the city A copy of the City of McHenry abwill technically L’burg resolution can stained from the own the building be viewed online at vote Tuesday, near the city ga- thedcregister.com. A Aug. 19, noting rage at the end copy of the county res- he had previousof West Center olution was not made ly been involved Street, the SCU available by press time with the SCU is paying for it. after multiple requests. as a Dearborn All of the County Sheriff’s money will be detective. put into escrow, said McKay. In the resolution read by “Well if they’re paying for county attorney Andy Bauit, then I’m OK with it,” said dendistel the SCU will pay for Cook. the building on city property Council passed the resolu- and lease it from the city. tion for the new SCU building The motion passed with with a 3-1 vote. Councilman commissioners Art Little and Mike Lawrence voted against Kevin Lynch voting for it. it, and councilwoman Jane Assistant editor Denise FrePope was not at the meeting. itag Burdette contributed to Meanwhile, Dearborn Coun- this story.
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The official count won't come until mid-September, but enrollment in Sunman-Dearborn schools as of Thursday, Aug. 14, was down considerably, interim superintendent Dr. John E. Williams told the school board at its regular monthly meeting. “We have 3,740.5 students today. Last year at the ADM count … was 3,870. That's 129 ½ students less this year than we had last year,” he said. The “half stu- “You can see the dent” results trend from the state counting each is not kindergarten up, it is student as a half student, he down. explained. … Attendance numbers re- This is main fluid, not a good sign for with the official count not the corporation.” till the second Friday in Sep- Dr. John E. Williams S-D Superintendent tember, said Williams. “But it gives us a general trend of how things are going. … I would hope this gives some alarm,” he said. In addition, while East Central High School has graduated classes over over 300 in past years, once one looks at sixth grade and below, class sizes drop below 300. “You can see the trend is not up, it is down. … This is not a good sign for the corporation,” he said. The board needs to be pro-active, said Williams, suggesting a board work session to discuss the trend and how to deal with it. The administrators will offer alternatives, including “out of the box” ideas, but the board will have to make some hard decisions. “We won't come up with a solution in one night; it will take us awhile to get there,” he said. The process has to be public, and no final decisions will be made in work sessions. “The rumor mill will go ballistic,” he added, and suggested information be posted on the corporation's website, the media be kept informed, and perhaps public meetings held “so people can hear accurate information.” Meanwhile, the school board will work through the fall on its superintendent search process, with postings in January and applications reviewed in February, said board president Jeff Lyness. “Dr. Williams will stay on board through that process,” probably through July 1, 2015, added Lyness.
$1.5 M savings
In other monetary-related business, the board approved refunding its 2005 bond issue, which refinanced the original bond issue for the intermediate school and work at Sunman Elementary. “There's a potential of at least a million and a half savings,” said Damian Maggos, senior vice president of George K. Baum and Company investment bankers. In what he called an easy process, the corporation will be looking at a savings of $270,000 per year, starting in January 2016, with a small amount of savings realized in 2015. His company will return in October to discuss what the savings will be used for, he said. “We're going to address the needs at all of the buildings,” said S-D Director of Financial Services Charles Blake. Because the state has “handicapped” the schools' cumulative capital project fund, the corporation otherwise is unable to keep up with maintenance on its buildings. There will be a public hearing, he said.
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