Clinton County Daily News

Camp Cullom’s lodge now has a new look after the recent installation of its new sloped  roof.  The lodge was having problems with its flat roof and was able to cure the problem with a new metal roof.  A Clinton County Community Foundation  grant was primarily responsible for funding of the project with some additional help from the Frankfort Lions Club and the Mulberry Community Club.

Camp Cullom Board Member Kathy Smith helped co-ordinate the project installed by Crews Roofing from Clinton County.

Camp Cullom is a 92 acre camp located between Jefferson and Mulberry owned by the children of Clinton County.

The lodge is used for everything from Boy and Girl Scout Camperees to Weddings, Science Academy and Astronomy Meetings to family reunions.  The lodge has recently undergone a “renaissance” over the last few years including a new kitchen, bathroom renovations and a renovated shower area downstairs.

Camp Cullom is a Clinton County United Way Agency.

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WILO, Shine 99 and Clinton County Daily Daily News has learned that the new Jimmy John’s on the west side of Frankfort opens this week.

Joseph Bookwalter, local manager, said that the store will be ready for the October 17th opening. Fresh bread was baking this morning for the opening.  The first sandwich for the Frankfort outlet will be sold today.

Jimmy John’s is located at 1640 West State Road 28 in Frankfort.

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) announces the I-65 northbound on-ramp at State Road 43 will close overnight beginning Monday, October 23 (Exit 178), weather permitting. The closure is for the contractor to perform deck patching on the I-65 Bridge over S.R. 43. With this work the right lane of the interstate will be closed. The closures are expected to last from approximately 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. and continue through Monday, October 30.

The detour will take motorists on S.R. 43 north to State Road 18 and back to I-65.

Rieth-Riley Construction Co. was awarded the $1.3 million contract for bridge maintenance and repair at various locations throughout the Crawfordsville District.

Stay Informed

Motorists can learn about highway work zones and other traffic alerts at indot.carsprogram.org, 1-800-261-ROAD (7623) or 511 from a mobile phone.

The students in the Community Schools of Frankfort will have some exciting things to look forward to in the coming months, thanks to teachers going above and beyond to apply for a teacher grant to enhance the learning experience in their classrooms.

“Each year I look forward to the unique ideas the teachers request. The focus seems to always center around literacy, and that is true again this year. While the focus is similar, the requests vary so the students will have several different methods to learn from throughout their time in the school system because many of these grants can be used again year after year,” Frankfort Education Foundation President Ali Mullen said.

The grants awarded were:

• My Frankfort High School — Becky Cesare;
• Giving the Gift of Words — Sarah Claton;
• Firing Up Hot Dog Pride Readers — Lesley Miller & Kristen Horrell;
• Who Grew My Soup? Using the School Garden to Become a Citizen Scientist — Amy Smith;
• Whimsical World of Kindergarten Writing — Rebecca Vessels; and
• Digital Reading for Today’s Learners — Krista Perdue.

Updates on how the grants are impacting the classrooms will be available at the end of the year. Congratulations to those awarded. As a reminder applications are due Oct 1st of each year and can be found on the Frankfort Education Foundation website, http://frankforteducationfoundation.org/apply-for-grant/

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn. on December 14, 2012 became a focal point for a new movement to begin in the United States.

Teresa Williams, who is a trauma registrar and outreach coordinator for IU Health, said the president put together a committee called the Hartford Consensus to see if any of those deaths were preventable. She said two things came out of that committee.

“They found that a lot of the deaths were preventable,” said Williams. “There were arm and leg wounds that could be stopped with direct pressure, wound packing and/or tourniquets. The next thing they had to do was see if the civilian people were willing to help out in an emergency situation because as good as our fire departments, our EMS and our police are, it takes time. By the time they make the sure the scene is safe and the time they got to the victims, a lot of them bleed to death unnecessarily because people didn’t know how to stop life-threatening bleeding.”

A total of 20 children ages six and seven died along with six adult staff members at Sandy Hook. Combine that with the recent shootings at The Pulse nightclub in Orlando and a country music concert in Las Vegas, the need to find a way to help out in these situations has become extremely critical.

Enter Stop the Bleed, which is being initiated nationwide in response to incidents of shootings and penetrating trauma. IU Health Frankfort Hospital is offering two free Stop the Bleed classes on Monday, October 23 from 1-2 p.m. and Thursday, October 26 from 6-7 p.m. Both classes will be in the IU Health Frankfort Hospital boardroom.

“Stop the Bleed is set up for civilian. It’s not set up basically for the medical provider,” said Williams. “It’s very simple. You’ll come to class. It’s an hour-long presentation. It’s has hands-on where we practice packing a mannequin that has wounds. You practice actually packing the wounds, applying direct pressure. You learn how to put a tourniquet on, where to put in on and why you’re putting it on.”

Williams said these classes is for all age groups, including teenagers.

“We’re putting it out there for the teenage kids,” said Williams. “They learn CPR and unfortunately in today’s world it’s very important they need to learn how to stop life-threatening bleeding.”

Williams said most people don’t think these kinds of things will happen in our community. However, this class is not just for mass shootings.

“Stop the Bleed and controlling life-threatening bleeding can be used at home,” said Williams. “You have chainsaw accidents, workshop accidents with table saws. It can be used in industry with industrial machines. It comes in handy for just basic knowledge.”

For more information about the Stop the Bleed classes, contact Williams at 765-838-5119 or by email at twill24@iuhealth.org. Class size is limited.

The Clinton County Commissioners on Friday approved two companies to do three demolitions of properties in the county.

Commissioners President Scott Shoemaker said Ridenour was awarded two bids totaling $10,000 for the properties at 6374 East County Road 500 North and 2720 West County Road 550 North in Cambria. Howe Construction was the low bid at $9,000 on the property at 135 North McClurg Street in Scircleville.

Shoemaker said the next step will be to figure out what to do with the Colfax Manson Elevator property.

Shoemaker said they are going to work the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) to try and secure a grant to remove the elevator. He said bid to remove the elevator have ranged anywhere from $80,000 to $200,000.

Carol Price has been involved in just about every public relations and philanthropic endeavor in Frankfort and Clinton County. Come next month, she has decided to give up her work in both Healthy Communities of Clinton County Coalition and the United Way.

“I am retiring,” said Price Saturday at the Octoberfest event in Kirklin. “There are a lot of great younger people who can do this work really, really well. I feel like we have a great coalition going on in our community — lots of leadership and lots of people who believe in health for our community.”

Price said Lorra Archibald will take over at Healthy Communities while Carolina Booth will assume the director position at the United Way. She was the Executive Director for Healthy Communities and she was the interim director at United Way.

“I am not going anywhere,” said Price. “I’m still going to be a Clinton County resident and a Frankfort resident. I’m still going to be there for them to call or if they have an issue. I’ll still be a good connector and I promised Lorra I’d still help write a grant or two.”

Price will retire from Healthy Communities on November 1 and from the United Way on November 15.

The Kirklin Christian Church Preschool students continued on their mission Saturday at the Kirklin Octoberfest event to aid a Houston preschool that was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey last month.

The youngsters, under the direction of Preschool Director Debbie Kouns, had a lemonade stand during the celebration. Their goal was to raise enough funds to purchase the educational items the teacher at the Houston Preschool had on her Amazon wishlist.

According to Kouns, they earned $550 from the lemonade stand. In addition, the Kirklin Christian Church ladies group, Sisters in Service, took a collection and matched it with funds from their treasury and presented the preschool group with an additional $450 which made a grand total of $1,000 going to the Houston preschool.

Kouns said the effort was through a preschool group called Pre-K Pages that is headquartered in Dallas. Kouns added the funds will be sent to a temporary location until they can find a more permanent space.

Kouns went on to say that this project will not only assist a teacher, students and families that were devastated by the horrible flooding, it make the KCC Preschool students more aware of the world around them and the act of kindness, generosity and empathy.

Funds were collected from those visiting the stand on a freewill donation basis.

Healthy Communities of Clinton County Coalition unveiled one of three new county bike routes as nearly 20 riders took an 11-mile bike ride on the route in Kirklin Saturday.

“This was our big kickoff event as now have the signs in now for all six bike routes,” said Healthy Communities Director of Operations Lorra Archibald.”There are three in the county and three in the city of Frankfort. This is the first one we have the signs up for and we wanted to do something with the Octoberfest here in Kirklin.”

Archibald said they are not sure which route will next for them to dedicate.

“If we don’t get anymore big events in for each route this fall, we will start those in the spring,” said Archibald. “We will probably do it on a Saturday morning and get people used to riding the routes in our county.”

Besides Kirklin, which is officially 11.07 miles, the other two county routes are the Colfax-Manson Loop, which measures 13.50 miles and the Frankfort Library Past Clinton Prairie, which is 17.90 miles. The three routes in the city of Frankfort are Library Maish Loop (3.71 miles), YMCA Past TPA Park and Back (5.57 miles) and Green Blue (3 miles).

You can find these and other routes at www.healthyclintoncounty.org.

92 Acres at Camp Cullom Friday night and  Saturday turned into one giant science laboratory.  Approximately 40 5th graders selected by their teachers from Rossville, Frankfort, Clinton Central and Clinton Prairie participated in the Academy.

The goal of the Camp Cullom Academy of Science is to spark and fan a burning love for Science among area students.  Judging from curious questioning and a few “Wow”s here and there, this goal was accomplished.

The Camp Cullom Science Experience started Friday night at the Camp Cullom Prairie Grass Observatory and Nature Center under starry skies.  Students learned about the size of the Milky Way galaxy compared to our solar system, took a slide show tour to the edge of the known universe and back and peaked into a large 16″ telescope as Observatory Trustee Andy Schilling showed them Saturn and the impressive M15 Globular Cluster of Stars. Students got to hold a meteorite from space in the palm of thier hand and view the computer and paper star charts astronomers use to find thier way around the heavens. The evening included a laser guided constellation talk from Observatory Director Russ Kaspar.

Saturday was packed with more discoveries. The definition of Science and the Scientific Method were discussed.  Greg McCauley CEO of the Link Observatory Space Science Institute gave a talk on “Mission to Mars–Mandkind’s Journey to the Red Planet”.  His presentation included a 3-D flyover of Mars.

George Wyncott guided students though a basic rocketry class followed up by the opportunity for each student to initiate  a rocket launch complete with a parachute recovery. Each student was able to keep the launced rocket.

Camp Cullom provides three types of habitats just waiting to be discovered.  Students were guided through the Prairie Grass, Small Stream Ecosystem and Woodlands Ecosystem. Robert Suseland, Wildlife Biologist, Jay Beugly, Fisheries Bioligist and Jeff Swackhamer, Forester helped with this module.

A favorite for the students is a study of bubbles that can be coaxed to grow larger than 2 or 3 students put together.  Retired Science Teacher Mike Bever led the “Bubbleology” module.

A new addition to the line up last year is a class that deals with the properties and importance of DNA, the code of life in every living organism. Charity Woodard led the students in a lab that extracted DNA from Strawberries and Bananas.

The Camp Cullom Academy of Science this year was chaired by Leah Harden, supported and sponsored by the Camp Cullom Board of Directors.  Leah Harden has been the director for the last several years and co-ordinates and plans over a period of several months to lead the team to pull off the “Day of Discovery” for area 5th graders. “It’s an amazing event and (all at) no cost to them” said Harden.

How does one help in the wake of recent tragic events? Do you know how to save a life?

Stop the Bleed is a nationwide initiative in response to incidents of shootings and penetrating trauma. Unfortunately in previous attacks, students and citizens lost their lives because of uncontrolled bleeding.

IU Health Arnett has been hosting Stop the Bleed training events in our local schools for the past year. Stop the Bleed trains people to pack wounds, apply direct pressure and apply tourniquets as needed. It is a goal to have Stop the Bleed kits at locations where AEDS are found, in schools and public places.

IU Health Frankfort Hospital will be offering two free Stop the Bleed classes on Monday, Oct. 23, from 1-2 p.m. and Thursday, Oct. 26, from 6-7 p.m. Both classes will be held at the IU Health Frankfort Hospital boardroom.

Class size is limited. Please contact Teresa Williams at 765-838-5119 or email at twill24@iuhealth.org.

Clinton County Central Dispatch has announced that Washington Street from Columbia Street to Main Street will be closed today for the Oktoberfest celebration going in downtown Frankfort. Also, Main Street from Washington Street to the railroad tracks will also be closed today for the same event.

The Indiana State Police Department held an awards and recognition ceremony in Indianapolis Friday. Eleven people from around the state, were honored for their dedication to service, bravery, devotion to the department and the citizens of Indiana. Two local troopers, Sergeant Rich Kelly and Trooper Dustin Rutledge were recognized with the Indiana State Police Silver Star Award.

The Indiana State Police Silver Star is awarded to a police employee who performed in a distinguished manner beyond reasonable expectations. The act was intelligently performed and was one of personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous that it clearly distinguished the employee but did not have the risk of serious injury or loss of life to the recipient.

Sergeant Rich Kelly, a 23 year veteran of the Indiana State Police, received the Indiana State Police Silver Star Award for his actions on June 6, 2017, while on a family vacation in Florida. Kelly and his family were enjoying a day at the beach in Navarre Beach, Florida, when a group of adults and children entered the ocean despite flags indicating dangerous sea conditions and marine life.

A few minutes later, as the Kelly family was preparing to leave the beach, Kelly’s wife noticed two boys, approximately 10-years-of-age, in the water yelling for help. The boys were approximately 200 yards off shore and no one in their group heard their pleas for help. Kelly grabbed a flotation device, from a vacant lifeguard stand, and entered the water to retrieve the boys. As Sergeant Kelly was swimming towards the boys, his wife made contact with two local sheriff’s deputies who contacted a water rescue team.

While swimming to the boys, Kelly encountered surf estimated at approximately six feet which pushed the trooper underwater, causing him to fear that he might drown. After resurfacing, Kelly was able to grab one of the boys. Due to the very rough surf conditions, Kelly could not see the second boy.. He swam back to shore with the first boy. Sergeant Kelly was too exhausted to go back for the second boy. He was giving the flotation device to a male adult, in the boys’ group, when a firemen on a jet ski arrived and retrieved the second boy.

Sergeant Kelly is assigned to the Indiana State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division. He resides in Clinton County with his family.

Trooper Dustin Rutledge, a two and a half year veteran of the Indiana State Police, received the Indiana State Police Silver Star for his actions on July 7, 2017. On that date, Rutledge responded to the dispatch of a partially submerged car on a rural Wabash County road. When Rutledge arrived, he found a Chevrolet Cobalt, partially submerged in rushing water, and occupied by 60 year-old Daniel Winters. There had been heavy downpours of rain in the area, which caused the nearby Paw Paw Creek to flood and contribute to the rushing water and flooding.

Trooper Rutledge entered the rushing water, armed with life jackets, provided by a conservation officer. Other first responders had secured a safety line to a fire truck and to Trooper Rutledge. Firefighters, a conservation officer, and Wabash County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Ryggs manned the safety line while Trooper Rutledge made his way through the water to the Cobalt.

When Rutledge arrived at the car, he saw water up to the steering wheel. While speaking with Winters, Rutledge quickly realized the man was cold and his manual dexterity was poor. Winters’ arms and legs were weak. Rutledge was able to put a life jacket on Winters and secure him to a safety line. While Rutledge was pulling Winters from the Cobalt, the safety line secured to Winters broke. Winters was unable to stand, so Trooper Rutledge had to drag him to dry land. Ryggs, and firefighters assisted in getting Winters to a fire truck. Winters was treated and released at the scene by Roann paramedics.

Trooper Rutledge is assigned to the Indiana State Police Peru Post. He lives and patrols primarily in Wabash County.

Trooper Rutledge and Sergeant Kelly are both natives of Frankfort.

“These officers’ actions and dedication to duty are in keeping with the finest traditions of law enforcement,” stated Major Ed Schroder, commander of the Indiana State Police North Zone. “Their actions reflect great credit upon themselves and the Indiana State Police”

Clinton County Treasurer Carol Bartley has released information about the fall due date for taxes in addition to information on the tax sale that was held Wednesday in the Commissioners Meeting Room of the Clinton County Courthouse.

The due date for the second installment of property taxes is November 13, 2017. The typical due date for fall taxes is November 10, but due to the courthouse being closed on Friday, November 10, for observation of the Veteran’s Day holiday, the due date will be extended to Monday, November 13, 2017.

In order to avoid the long lines of taxpayers that will pay that week, Bartley is urging individuals to consider paying their taxes early. The Treasurer accepts cash, check, credit/debit card in the office during normal office hours of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 8 a.m. to noon.

Individuals may also pay online at clintonco.com, or by phone at 1-866-480-8552 with our new lower convenience fee of 2.5 percent. Payments with coupon only will also be accepted at First Financial Bank in Rossville. There is also a drop box located on the north side of the Courthouse Square.

In regards to the tax sale, Clinton County held the annual fall tax sale on Wednesday, October 11. There were 67 parcels offered for sale with delinquent taxes of $129,019.77. Forty-nine parcels were sold bringing in a total of $570,412.39 with $106,655.17 going toward the delinquent taxes and $464,757.22 in overbids.

The remaining 18 unsold parcels will again be available for sale in March 2018 at the Commissioners’s Certificate Sale.

Frankfort Middle School has released its first quarter honor roll list. The following are the names of individuals who had All A’s as well as making the A/B honor roll:

All A’s

6th Grade — Ethen Barker, Braelynn Bolin, Elizabeth Bucio, Jocelyn Cazares, Collin Frye, Jasmine Galves,  Eli Grasham, Jackson Hoyer, Noemi Juarez-Baltierra, Jazmin Lozano-Barragan, Julian Luz, Angela Mechling, Izael Meza, Elizabeth Pierce, Des-Ray Plowman, Cameron Queen, Edith Regalado-Lopez, Kira Riley, Ariana Sierra, Jose Silva Lopez, LeeAnn Ticen, Evan Vickary, Edwin Wainscott, Tiffanie Zheng.

7th Grade — Jessica Adams, Anna Beardsley, Jonathan Bright, Hannah Brittain, Madison Dunn, Lexus Foust, Angelina Gavrikova, Hailey Godbey, Rafael Gomez, Trey Haynes, Marihan Hernandez, Lydia Hicks, Nereida Lopez Chavez, Heather Massengill, Fabiola Mendez, Mason O’Brien, Isaiah Patton, Angel Perez, Lorena Perez, Emma Pillion, Daniel Pritchett, Marco Reyes, Adamaris Rosales, Anahi Saavedra, Miguel Santiago, Israel Santillan, Maricruz Santos-Cervantes, Erika Stephenson, Payne Terry, Payton Teter, Carleigh Williams.

8th Grade — Alayna Barton, Josue Bautista Ventura, Abigail Bautista, Hayden Brown, Ashley Campos-Hernandez, Payton Carney, Erwin Castillo, Lizbeth Contreras, Everett Dick, Breanna Eaker, Markus Ford, Jordan Frazier, Bianca Garcia, Charlie Garcia, Diana Garcia-Garcia, Mia Hernandez, Odessa Hibbard, Logan Hundley, Emily Hurless, Taylor Knox, Syanne Lashbrook, Nicole Martin, Daniel Olivas, Kiyomi Perkins, Luke Schwartz, Mary-Jeanne Smith, Carter Wilson.

A-B Honor Roll

6th Grade — Elizabeth Abbott, Ariana Adams-Delgado, Jonathan Aguilera-Martinez, Lily Alaniz-Cruz, Gabrielle Allen, Jasmin Alvarenga, Noe Angeles, Gabriel Aquino, Gabby Arreola, Isabelle Bacon, Marcos Baker, Alondra Barrera-Campos, Isaac Barrios-Gamboa, Kiarra Bazan, Kamron Belcher, Garek Birge, Caleb Boggs, Paige Butcher, Lupita Carapia Cortes, Jade Carbajal, Ashley Cardoza, Lia Carreras Lantigua, Marcelino Cervantes, Gabriella Cervantez, Felysiti Chumley, Alexis Coffman, Stephen Colby, Layni  Cottrell, Aadyn Crick, David Cruz, Kolby Dehn, Julio Espinosa-Lopez, Alexander Estrada, Anthony Figueroa, Natalie Garcia-Hernandez, Autumn Graves, Vanessa Guardado, Guadalupe Guido-Alanis, Mario Guijosa, Gael Hernandez, Natalia Hernandez, Angel Hernandez-Cruz, Jennifer Hernandez-Gomez, Isaac Hernandez-Martinez, Jose Hernandez-Reyes, Juan Hernandez-Sandoval, Gabriella Hill, Aidan Howe, Tristan Howe, Aidan Hudspith, Maysa Isenberg, Kate Kimbowa, Kye Kirby, Haylee Knox, Kaden Lauer, Yazmin Lemus, Michelle Lopez, Vilma Lopez, Oscar Lopez-Alanis, Mitzie Lopez. Crystal Lopez-Valdez, Dezirie Martin, Kimberlyn Martinez, Brody McKinzie, Amiya McQueen, Ariana Meacham, Emily Mejia-Cruz, Cesar Mendoza, Gisselle Miranda, Alysia Munoz, Jorge Navarro-Cervantes, Joshua Ortiz, Mya Ortiz, Jessica Palomino-Figueroa, Estrella Pineda-Pozos, Josue Pozos, Gerardo Ramirez-Hernandez, Riley Ramsey, Christian Rascon-Hernandez, Alexis Reed-Gill, Tonny Regalado-Lopez, Julio Rivero, Carly Roberts, Mary Roberts, Pauline Rosillo, Carter Ruiz, Madison Sain, Daphne Santos, Jocelyn Seward, kash Shafer, Destiny Slaven, Derrick Sommers, Yadiel Soto Arvelo, Eeson Stark, harmony Stingley, Jayce Strode, Fabian Tejeda, Bethzy Valdes, Johanna Valdes, Jason Valles Hernandez, Jada Vessels,  Nadia Wessel, Douglas Wood, Conner Wright.

7th Grade — Maria Arizmendi, Chloe Bell, Jakob Burns, Madyson Cook, Jenefer Del Toro, Kylie Field, Malaki Gallichan, Evelyn Garcia, Lizbeth Garcia, Jenny Garcia-Cruz, Trevor Gerrard, Christopher Gil-Guijosa,Yuliana Guijosa Silva, Abril Hernandez, Lilly Holston, Nelson Honore, Nathan Hurless,  Mauro Lopez-Carrillo, Mia Lucio, Alyssa Marshall, Esmeralda Martell, Roger Mejia, Daniela Mendez Millan, Areli Mendieta-Santos, Elijah Oldham, Jazzlyn Oppelt, Quentcy Perry, Emily Pitman, Andrew Ragan, Mirka Ramirez, Emily Ramos, Kevin Ramos, Justin Reyes, Nevaeh Rimmer, Edward Roberts, Lisbet Ruiz, Kristofer Russell, Diego Saavedra-Serrano, Andres Santos, Kara Schwartz, Ashley Secundino, Emily Shepherd, Lillette Sheridan, Jayden Skinner, Breanna Stogsdill, Alex Taylor,  Felipe Tovar, Liliana Vazquez. Jalyn Vessels, Dora Villarreal, Hailey Wiles.

8th Grade — Morgan Adamson, Carina Alanis, Lesley Alanis, Melina Alanis-Moreno, Ariel Alquezada, Ashley Armas Alanis, Daniella Arnold, Samantha Bojorquez, Conner Boone, Chase Burnette, Juan Campos, Madison Carroll, Tyanna Clark,  Isabella Colby, Ethan Cook, Yessenia Corro, Jacob Craig, Christian Cruz, Payton Dubree, Kyra Eldridge, Jaelyn Ervin, Jonathan Flores-Martinez, Noah Ford, Daniel Garcia Dillon Gephart, Ruth Gomez, Trinity Gray, Miracle Haflett, Jade Hardesty, Brayden Hathaway, Matthew Haynes, Daimon Henry, Arianna Hill, Dylan Hylton-Hillock, Steven Kauffman, Westin Laverty, Kyle Lee, Pedro Lopez-Hernandez, Damian Lopez, Jazmen Lopez-O’Brien, Kevin Lopez-Perez, Iris Madera,  Mario Maldonado, Tarah Martinez, Elias Martinez-Beard, Trenton McPhearson, Lucas Medina, Edwin Mejia Mora, David Mendoza, Denise Mendoza, Jasmine Mendoza, Sam Michael, Mauricio Mora Santos, Melissa Navarrete-Salazar, Austin Newton, Antonio Nicacio, Eryka Pillion, Karim Quinones, Celeste Ramirez Santos, Oliva Ramos, Sonya Ray, Ella Riegle, Dayahna Roa, Edwin Roman, Alexa Romero Sanchez, Marrah Rose, Taryn Ruiz, Lizbeth Saavedra Valdez, Roxanna Sanchez, Huriel Sandoval-Cruz, Yesenia Santillan, Hjavenn Shafer, Emilee Shipley, Kailey Smith, Deacon Spencer, Vanessa Tejeda, Rigoberto Tovar-Guijosa, Yobani Trenando Alanis, Hugo Vasquez, Braxton Wood.

Inside INdiana Business is reporting Governor Eric Holcomb has announced Indiana will be the 25th state to opt into a nationwide public broadband network deployment plan. The FirstNet initiative allows AT&T to install infrastructure at no cost to the state, giving public safety workers and first responders access to high-speed, wireless communication infrastructure.

Holcomb says the network will “help those on the front lines coordinate better and faster to serve and protect our citizens and communities.”

FirstNet was established in 2012 by federal law. AT&T will build the infrastructure at no cost, and local public safety and first responder agencies will pay subscription fees to access the network. Indiana Integrated Public Safety Commission  Executive Director David Vice says the state has conducted “unprecedented effort” to work with public safety leaders to make sure the program is right for the state.

Other states that have opted into the network include: Virginia, Wyoming, Arkansas, Kentucky, Iowa, New Jersey, West Virginia, New Mexico, Michigan, Maine, Montana, Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska, Tennessee, Nebraska, Maryland, Texas, Minnesota, Alabama, Idaho and Louisiana.

Would your budding artist like to be a part of Friends Fine Art Exhibition and Sale? The Friends of the Frankfort Library and the Art Show Committee would like to give young artists an opportunity to learn about being a working artist, including displaying and selling their artwork. Their pieces will be displayed outside of the Children’s Department and will be for sale during the Friends Art Show, Nov. 10-12.

A portion of each sale will go to the Friends of the Library. Angela Barnes, Suncrest Elementary Art Teacher, will teach an intro to acrylics class for students in grades 3-8 on Sat. Oct. 14 from 10 a.m.- noon. Each student will create an acrylic painting on a 9” x 12” canvas. The work the students create will be entered into the November Art Show, with the artist’s permission. This class is free, but space is limited. Please register online at myfcpl.org/calendar, in person at the library, or by calling 765-654-8746.

Barnes has taught a painting class the last three summers at the Purdue Learning Network. She attended University of Evansville where she received her undergraduate degree in Fine arts. She went on to get her teaching license through Indiana Wesleyan and Purdue University.

The Community Schools of Frankfort Board of Education approved their 2018 budget Tuesday night

“The board approved our budget numbers and our preliminary tax rates,” said Community Schools of Frankfort Superintendent Don DeWeese. “Those budget numbers are high and our rates are high.”

The district adopted budget is $33,568,677 with $23,446,939 being in the general fund. The adopted tax levy is $11,224,894 and the adopted tax rate is 2.2097.

DeWeese added once the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) sends the budget back to the district for revisions, they will have until the end of the year to get it fixed.

“In the next four to six weeks, they (the DLGF) will return everything to us,” said DeWeese. “That will be our final budget numbers and then we will know exactly how our dollars are going to lay out for 2018.”

In other news, the board approved a resolution to lease 70 laptop computers for Frankfort Middle School as part of their 1 to 1 initiative. The high school will start this initiative in January with the middle school hopefully starting the following year. The main goal for this decision was to make sure that the middle school teachers are comfortable with the laptops.

The board also began a discussion regarding random drug testing. Assistant Superintendent Joel McKinney said he would bring a revised policy next month for the board to look at.