The Plymouth City Council was presented a resolution this week that updates a policy from 2004 when the EMS and fire services combined and those employees join the 1977 pension fund.
City Attorney Sean Surrisi said the resolution focuses on civilian paramedics and their specific retirement fund.
The Town of Culver’s website will be getting a facelift.
The Culver Town Council approved a quote from Satellite Software to update the town’s website.
The quote of $1,859 will allow the company to reformat the website to a WordPress template. Clerk-Treasurer Karen Heim, Town Manager Jonathan Leist and Park Superintendent Anna Campbell will be trained on how to use the program to easily update the site.
Kyle Coffman was recently announced as this year’s District 2 Assistant Principal of the Year. He holds that title at the Plymouth Community High School. He was nominated by his peers in the district which includes La Porte, St. Joseph, Elkhart, Starke, Marshall, Kosciusko, Pulaski and Fulton Counties.
The distinction is awarded by the Indiana Association of School Principals.
Any transactions that require a visit to a Bureau of Motor Vehicles branch need to be done before the Memorial Day weekend.
All BMV branches will be closed from Saturday, May 27 through Monday, May 29 in observance of Memorial Day.
Branches will reopen with regular business hours on Tuesday, May 30.
The finalists for the 2017 Stellar Communities Designation Program were announced early Thursday morning.
The Town of Culver was selected a finalist for the second consecutive year. Finalist communities are divided into two different categories based on population for the designation award. Culver will be placed into Division 2 which is for communities that have a population of 5,999 or less. Culver will compete against the Town of Churubusco in Whitley County and the City of Union City in Randolph County.
The State Road 17 repaving project on Michigan Street is ahead of schedule.
The crew from Walsh and Kelly, Inc. is working on the milling and paving project that is anticipated to be complete two weeks from Monday’s start date. Rain dates are built into the paving schedule so it should wrap up on time.
A Republican caucus is set to elect a new sheriff of Kosciusko County.
Former Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine was forced to step down from his duties as a law enforcement officer after pleading guilty in a plea agreement with the state to a felony charge of intimidating a police officer. He was sentenced on Tuesday to a year of reporting probation and 250 hours of community service. As part of the terms in his plea agreement, he cannot own a firearm. Rovenstine must also participate in an Offender Victim Reconciliation Program as an attempt to mend fences with the victim, Warsaw Police Detective Paul Heaton.
Plymouth City Engineer Rick Gaul presented the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety members with a proposed Memorandum of Understanding from the Plymouth Community School Corporation concerning the financial guarantee that deals with drainage at the football field.
The school is applying an astroturf surface on the high school football field beginning in June. Gaul explained that the plans call for a proper draining into the city’s system with the alternate type of surface.
The Town of Bremen is now focusing on work on the property at the corner of State Roads 106 and 331. The corner lot once housed a gas station.
Bremen Director of Operations Trend Weldy said preliminary plans call for the demolition and clean-up of the property.
“We’re getting ready to tear out the pumps, tanks, canopy, and the building to get rid of that eyesore,” said Weldy. “We’re going to have a conversation with the state about widening the corners there on highways 106 and 331 so semis can turn easier. We’re going to approach them if they want to work on that corner.”
The Culver EMS staff is busy interviewing candidates for the full-time position available in the department. Three candidates have expressed interest in the paramedic position.
EMS Director Kathy Hart will set up an interview session with the town council members in the next couple of weeks in order to get the paramedic position filled.
Today is the day to help many nonprofit organizations with an endowment fund through the Marshall County Community Foundation.
In today’s Marshall County Match Madness event, new and existing endowment funds within the Marshall County Community Foundation are eligible for a 10 percent match with up to $50,000 matching dollars total. Donations of any size will be taken for any endowment fund.
The Culver Town Council opened their public meeting last night to members of the community to discuss opinions on the proposed workforce housing development project on Jefferson Street. The building would include 24 apartments with one, two or three bedrooms. A two-bedroom apartment rent pricing example was estimated at $850 a month. If the town wins the Stellar Communities designation, there would be funding available for Phase 2 which includes a second apartment building for income-based housing.
While Warsaw Police Detective Paul Heaton was satisfied with the sentence of former Kosciusko County Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine, the scars of the two-year ordeal still remain.
The felony charge to which Rovenstine pleaded guilty, intimidation of a law enforcement officer, was the direct result of a conversation between Rovenstine and Detective Heaton. In Heaton’s testimony given during Rovenstine’s sentencing hearing in Kosciuscko Circuit Court Tuesday morning he said that he was doing due diligence on an investigation on inmate Kevin Bronson and another defendant, Mark Soto. Information during the proceedings revealed that Heaton’s investigation also included the fact that Rovenstine was allowing Bronson special privileges such as unrecorded phone calls and other actions not commonly awarded to other inmates. When that came to the former sheriff’s attention, Rovenstine blocked Heaton’s access to the jail.
Funding for a footbridge to be built near the South Gateway Project was approved by the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety Monday night.
The $300,000 footbridge will cross the Yellow River on the south portion of the property near S. Michigan Street and Lake Street in Plymouth. The city’s share would be $90,000 which would come out of the city monetary gift fund which yields the proceeds of the sale of TechFarm property. The money is split between Vanco Development and the City of Plymouth.
The Argos Town Council met in special session Monday night to discuss repairs to the EMS building on 121 S. First Street.
Clerk-Treasurer Lisa Mullaney told MAX 98.3 FM News that mold was found inside the walls. Some of the affected drywall has been ripped out and now it needs replaced, along with other repairs. The town will collect bids to complete the construction.
Six nurses were honored on Sunday during the annual Nursing Professional Pinning Ceremony at Ancilla College.
According to Dr. Ann Fitzgerald, Director of Nursing and Health Sciences at Ancilla College, the pin the nurses receive represents the hard work, dedication, professionalism, and ministry of each graduate who identifies with Ancilla College and the profession of nursing.
Kosciuscko County Sheriff C. Aaron Rovenstine was sentenced on one count of intimidation of a law enforcement officer as a Level 6 Felony as agreed upon in a plea agreement with the state. He admitted to intimidating Warsaw Police Officer Paul Heaton over the phone on Aug. 14, 2015 concerning an investigating of an inmate in the jail. Continue reading
Kosciusko County Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine will be sentenced today at 9 a.m. in the Justice Building.
Rovenstine pleaded guilty in a plea agreement to a charge of intimidation of a law enforcement officer, a Level 6 felony. The plea was made during his trial in early April. Nine additional charges were dropped as a result of Rovenstine’s plea.
The Plymouth City Council members approved an ordinance that could help entice employees to apply for firefighter positions.
City Attorney Sean Surrisi presented a document for approval Monday night that would fix the salaries for fire personnel as well as police officers and appointed officers and employees.
The Culver Town Council will hold a public input session tonight to gather opinions on the proposed Sand Hill Farms workforce housing project. Public comment will be taken at 6:30 p.m. prior to the start of tonight’s regular meeting agenda.
Town Manager Jonathan Leist explained that the project has been in the town’s comprehensive plan since the plan’s adoption in 2014. The lack of housing was identified as one of the main issues in the plan. Leist said a committee was formed to look into the project. It is part of this year’s Stellar Communities grant application. Culver town officials should know Wednesday, May 24 if Culver is a finalist in the application process.
