Stories from Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Raising a family is challenging, even under the best circumstances. For those with special needs children, however, the emotional -- and financial -- stakes are raised dramatically. Medical bills and specialized care often far outweigh normal costs...

Church to host yard sale The Bloomfield First Christian Church High School Youth Group will host a yard sale April 10 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the church (corner of Spring and Jefferson Sts.) All proceeds from the yard sale will go toward the youth mission trip in August. The youth are traveling to Logan, W.V. to paint and repair houses and also help with a Bible school for underprivileged kids...

The recent Marsh Madness bird festival in Linton was featured in the past week on a television segment of the show "Across Indiana", which is featured on Public Broadcast Stations (PBS) across the state. Click on the following link to watch the segment featuring Greene County's growing tourist attraction -- Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area...

Greene County Council member Rae Della Cravens reported Monday afternoon that a committee charged with looking into the long-standing problem of keeping plat map splits current has conducted its initial meeting. Cravens said the committee, which includes area abstractors and a representative from WTH Technologies, Inc. of Indianapolis met March 18 and discussed paper flow problems that may be behind a backlog of more than 1,850 land splits that have not been completed...

Adrian Kiglies, one of the founding partners of Dealer Auction Access, Inc., the company that recently purchased the former Charles Industries building in Jasonville and also owns buildings and businesses in Linton and Bloomfield, says the company will not be a large local employer...

LITTLE CINCINNATI -- The Eastern Greene High School girls softball team will be looking for its first win in two years when they begin the 2010 season. They will have to do it with 13 freshmen, six projected to start, on a roster of 20. "Our first goal is to win a game," said Eastern Greene coach Gina Ingram, who is starting her sixth season in charge of the Lady Thunderbirds. "We went 0-15 last year...

After finishing last year as state runner-up in Class 2A, the Linton-Stockton softball team, which is preseason ranked No. 2. has even loftier goals in 2010. "We are pretty excited about this season," said Lady Miner coach Jill Flater. "Even though we lost two starters (Izzy Carpenter and Taneal Church) and four seniors to graduation, we have a lot of experience coming back...

Coach Brad McKinney begins his 11th season in charge of Linton-Stockton with more questions than answers about the upcoming 2010 high school girls tennis season. "To be honest, I don't know," McKinney said of trying to put seven healthy players on the court at one time. "We have to try and figure out who's healthy on the day of a match and go from there...

One thing comes to mind when you look over the rosters of the Linton-Stockton boys and girls track teams -- numbers. With 25 boys and 17 girls coach Aaron Lynn will certainly have his pick of the litter when it comes to chasing points up and down this year's schedule...

JASONVILLE -- With only 11 runners, the Shakamak boys track and field team will have to find their points where they can get them. But fortunately for coach Mark Messmer, he's got a pretty good idea where those points lie. "We're small as pretty much every year," Messmer said. "But we're going to do all right in some areas. We're going to have some high spots."...

It's been several months since a burglar alarm went off in the Solsberry MiniMart in the middle of the night. Detective Christopher McDonald of the Greene County Sheriff's Department, and other officers, responded to the scene on August 12 after the alarm was reported at 4:27 a.m. and found the window on the left side of the door was broken out. The thieves took cigarettes and lottery tickets...

JASONVILLE -- The numbers are up for the Shakamak Lady Lakers track and field which is a good thing for coach Zack Whitkanack. The only drawback to that -- the majority are sophomores and freshmen. But that isn't keeping Whitkanack from being optimistic about the year...

LINTON POLICE DEPARTMENT ACTIVITY LOG The Linton Police Department's activity log for Monday included one incident of fraud, one follow-up investigation, three requests for information only, two accidents with property damage, one funeral escort, one lost and found, one medical/illness, one animal complaint, one welfare check/concern and five traffic stops...

The Bloomfield Board of School Trustees discussed, then tabled action Tuesday night on a proposed calendar for next school year that includes eight weather-related make-up days. The key sticking point on the routine passage of the calendar was the times of a new 'Meet Your Teacher Open House' and not the three additional snow days -- which also has two potential make-up days on Saturdays...