Banner Graphic, Volume 15, Number 174, Greencastle, Putnam County, 22 March 1985 — Page 1

Doll, dog and cat in tow, 10-year-old runaway takes family caron wild ride

By BARBARACARHART Banner-Graphic Staff Writer It used to be that running away required only the simple tools of juvenile impulse -- the clothes on your back and the dimes in your pocket. But a 10-year-old rural Greencastle girl, who told police she was worried about having bad grades at school, decided Thursday that taking the family car would be a better idea. What ensued was a series of fender-bending, tail light-smashing events that left the owners of four vehicles parked in downtown Greencastle shaking their heads. BECAUSE OF HER AGE, the girl’s identity is being withheld. The case has been turned over to Putnam County Juvenile Probation Officer Christine Jones and the county prosecutor, according to Trooper Erwin Faulk of the Indiana State Police. “She was quiet and she was upset and scared,” Faulk told the

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Bell rings last time at Belle Union School

By LARRY GIBBS Banner-Graphic Publisher A -year odyssey by the South Putnam Community School Corp. began to culminate Thursday when the 60-year-old Belle Union School building echoed with the voices of children for the last time. The nearly 170 students at Belle Union did not attend classes Friday, giving them a one-day headstart on spring vacation so that teachers could begin transferring classroom supplies to the new Central Elementary School adjacent to South Putnam Junior-Senior High School. Supplies were loaded onto a school bus early Friday and teachers spent the remainder of the day unloading and preparing their rooms in the new building. PRINCIPAL BRUCE BERNHARDT will supervise the transfer of desks and other equipment while students are out of school next week so that Central Elementary is ready to receive pupils when classes resume April 1. A public dedication of the $3.2 million building is planned for Sunday, May 5. The days of the old Belle Union School, however, are numbered. Fillmore contractor Steve Cooper is expected to begin demolishing the structure on or before April 3, as soon as the school corporation has removed all salvageable materials. Once that is completed, the only surviving remnants of the Jefferson Township landmark will be 2,000 bricks Cooper has promised to save

Looks like a wet weekend

Tonight mild with a 50 per cent chance of light rain. Low around 40. East wind 10 mph. Saturday a 70 per cent chance of light rain. High around 50. Extended Forecast Sunday through Tuesday: Chance of rain Sunday, turning fair Monday with increasine cloudiness Tuesday. Highs from the mid 40s in the north to the low and mid 50s in the south.

Banner Graphic Greencastle, Putnam County, Friday, March 22,1985, Vol. 15 No. 174 25 Cents

for the Belle Union High School Alumni Association. Closing of the Belle Union School and completion of Central Elementary mark the final chapter of an effort that began on Sept. 4,1979, when the five-member school board announced its intention to begin gathering information to support construction of an elementary school. At that time, the board was thinking in terms of a new school adjacent to the junior-senior high to replace both Belle Union and Fillmore schools, while remodeling Reelsville Elementary for continued use. OVER THE FOLLOWING Vk years, the scope of the project changed three times. In February 1980, the board members voted unanimously to merge Belle Union and Fillmore schools into a new facility to be built between the two communities along U.S. 40 east of Mt. Meridian. The board even went so far as to name the unbuilt school “South Putnam East Elementary” while renaming Reelsville “South Putnam West Elementary," a name change that subsequently was scrapped. The proposed Belle Union-Fillmore consolidation proceeded to the development of preliminary site drawings by James Associates, an Indianapolis architectural and engineering firm, while the school board moved to acquire 10 acres on the southwest corner of the intersection of U.S. 40 and County Road 725 E. LATE IN 1981, HOWEVER, the eastside merger plan was shelved after the State Board of Health said the

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Banner-Graphic Friday, describing the girl’s mood after her apprehension at the intersection of U.S. 231 and Doc James Road Thursday morning. The little girl drove away from her home near the junction of U.S. 231 and U.S. 40 shortly before 9 a.m. Thursday with her prized possessions - her dog, cat, and Cabbage Patch doll - in tow after writing a note telling her parents what she was about to do. According to the police report, the girl and her entourage escaped the entire episode uninjured. WADING THROUGH A STACK of accident reports and assorted case documents, Faulk said he still isn’t finished with the necessary paperwork recording the chain of events Thursday morning. Piecing together the girl’s path of travel, Faulk said she ran into her first obstacle on East Washington Street in Greencastle when she sideswiped a 1984 Mercury owned by Ernest Shonkwiler as it was parked in front of Home Laundry. The

Buses delivered students to the Belle Union Elementary School for the last time Thursday and pupils, students and faculty gathered for a group photo marking the building's final day of service. When they return from spring vacation on Monday, April 1, they'll report to the South Putnam School Corporation's new Central Elementary School. Julie Hacker (right) paid a nostalgic tribute to her school by wearing the cheerleader sweater her mother, Juanita Salsman Hacker, wore as a high school student at Belle Union. High school students were transferred to Fillmore in 1965, four years before Belle Union, Fillmore and Reelsville merged into South Putnam High School. (Banner-Graphic photos by Bob Frazier)

'Glass Menagerie' opens Playhouse season

The 23rd season of Putnam County Playhouse will feature four varied productions, beginning with “The Glass Menagerie” in mid-June, it was announced today. The Playhouse currently is beginning its finance drive and letters are being sent to potential contributors. “OUR 1985 MEMBERSHIP categories will remain unchanged,” PCP president Vicki Parker said. “Your generous membership contributions in the past have

collision knocked off the driver’s side mirror. Continuing west on Washington Street, the girl turned north onto Indiana Street, striking two vehicles parked in front of The Bike Shop on the east side of the courthouse square. One of the vehicles was a 1970 Voikswagon, owned by Putnam County Clerk Sharon Hammond; the other, a 1984 Datsun-Nissan truck owned by Steve Flint, was shoved about three feet. A fourth car struck by the 10-year-old belongs to Loretta Purcell, a state driving examiner who was administering driving tests out of the local license branch. Mrs. Purcell first spotted the girl as she was sitting in a car waiting to take a license renewal applicant on a driving test. “SHE OBSERVED THE LITTLE GIRL and saw a man who looked like he was attempting to stop her,” Faulk recalled. By that time, Greencastle Police Sgt. Carol Boggess, State Police Sgt. Tom Strader and Trooper Gary Salsman were aler-

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groundwater supply was not sufficient. On Dec. 7, 1981, the school board voted unanimously again, this time to merge all three elementaries - Belle Union, Fillmore and Reelsville- into a single new facility adjacent to the junior-senior high. That idea lasted until March 1982, when Dr. William Wilkersdn of Indiana University, a recognized expert on public school finance, said the total elementary consolidation would more than double property tax rates in Marion, Jefferson, Warren and Washington townships. Finally, on July 12,1982, the school board approved the present plan, voting 5-0 for a proposal to replace only Belle Union School with the $3.2 million Central Elementary. Preliminary designs were approved the following November in the first in a series of steps that led to the actual start of construction last spring. THE 32,500-SQUARE-FOOT building was financed by Indiana School Finance Corp. of Carmel, a private holding company that will retain title to the structure until South Putnam School Corp. completes semi-annual lease-rental payments over a 20-year period. Total payback at a 10.75 interest rate will be about $7.9 million, based on the current schedule. Although the school board has indicated that it intends to maintain a three-elementary alignment for several years, Central Elementary is designed to permit expansion to eventually house the corporation’s entire elementary population.

given Putnam County Playhouse the financial support needed to flourish, while providing Putnam and surrounding counties with quality entertainment.” All gifts to Putnam County Playhouse are tax-deductible. Membership categories are: Member, $lO and over; parton, S2O and over; friend, SSO and over; donor, SIOO and over, and guarantor, maximum liability, $l5O. Guarantors are asked to make a contribution of at least SSO at the outset of the season and to pledge an

ted to the situation and joined in the attempt to apprehend the girl’s car. “I was notified by Strader,” Faulk explained, “who told me there was a gold car striking a number of other vehicles.” After hitting Mrs. Purcell’s car, Faulk said, the girl maneuvered her vehicle over an unknown route until she was traveling south on U.S. 231 in the direction of her home. “I GOT BEHIND HER, trying to stop the vehicle and Tom Strader tried to nudge her over,” Faulk said. “She was having a hard time getting the vehicle to stop. ” Visibly shaken and upset, the girl was taken to the Greencastle Police Department where officers tried to ease her fears. “We kept kidding her,” Faulk added, “that we might have to take her doll to the hospital. ” A detailed report of the extent of damage to the vehicles involved was not completed.

Operation Life board adds its blessing to central dispatch plan

By BECKY IGO Banner-Graphic Area News Editor The Putnam County Operation Life Board of Directors Wednesday night became the third governing unit to approve the county-designed plan aimed at combining communications services for the ambulance service, sheriff’s department and, hopefully, the city police. The plan, approved earlier this week by the county commissioners and county council, will next be presented to the Greencastle City Council. “BASICALLY, MOST OF the comments were the same that you’ve heard before,” OL Director John Bachmann told the Ban-ner-Graphic. OL board members Byron Snyder and David Bray will serve on a oroposed central dispatch advisory board, joining Commissioner Gene Beck and County Councilman Dick Asbell on that panel. The proposed plan, compiled by Commissioner John Carson with input from other officials, calls for central dispatch to be operated from the Putnam County Jail. Sheriff Gerry Hoffa has agreed to allow his personal office to serve as the base. With the four jailers currently there, Hoffa and Bachmann determined it will take only two more employee! to provide 24-hour communications coverage. Those two salaries total approximately $23,500, including benefits. ACCORDING TO CARSON, it will cost only $9,000 to $15,000 to implement a central dispatch plan. That does depend, however, on whether the county decides to lease or purchase the IDACS computer equipment, which allows authorized personnel access to vehicle information, etc. Bachmann indicated he is pleased with the newest plan and found the OL Board more at ease with the latest proposal. “Even though I helped to write the last one last summer,” Bachmann pointed out, “I feel this one makes more sense. “Of course,” he added, “I would have liked to have seen central dispatch moved to OL. We all (the city police, sheriff’s department and OL) would have liked that. But it can really be justified more at the jail.” Although Bachmann does not deny a dispatcher’s responsibilities are great, the combined communications operation will result in jobs that can be better “justified,” Bachman said. “QUITE HONESTLY, it will add to their roles,” he began. “When you are a dispatcher, you will have times when you’re busy and others when you are not. When you’re busy, you’re really busy. When you’re not, I imagine it’s like at OL. You may have time to do other things. “If central dispatch is at the jail, there are a bunch of jobs that can probably be done during the slower times,” Bachmann determined. “So it just makes sense that the operation goes there.” Probably the best thing about the latest proposal is that the paging situation has been resolved for OL, according to Bachmann. OL Board members were concerned about past plans because there were no provisions made to continue the

additional maximum of SIOO should a loss be incurred at season’s end. Going into its third season in the Hazel Day Longden Theater on Round Barn Road, the amateur theater group will also offer “H.M.S. Pinafore” on July 12-13,18-20; “Never Too Late” on Aug. 8-9, 15-17, and “Anything Goes” to close the season on Sept. 6-7,12-14. The season-opening “Glass Menagerie” is scheduled for June 14-15,20-22. INFORMATION ON SEASON tickets

Clean sweep starts Monday Greencastle Street Commissioner Jim Wright will begin his spring cleaning Monday with a clean sweep of city streets. The street department will be sweeping streets between 8 a m. and 4 p.m. starting Monday. Cooperation is asked from those who normally park in affected areas. The street-cleaning project will begin south from Washington Street to Berry Street, Wright said It will then progress west from Bloomington Street to Jackson Street (including Jackson).

ambulance service’s for-profit paging service. OL receives approximately SIO,OOO per year from that paging service, Bachmann said. If the paging revenue is eliminated in some way, it means OL would have to approach the county to make up that amount. "WE HAVE SETTLED that matter,” the OL director pointed out. “I think there was a problem before because one attorney said the county could operate it for us, and another attorney said it could not be done by the city,” Bachmann noted, referring to times when city-county control was being discussed. “Paging is a needed service here and it is an emergency service too,” Bachmann maintained. “There are several doctors who use it and there are some businesses. But it does serve the community. ” What is proposed in the new plan is for dispatchers to answer paging service calls on a separate line at the jail from the emergency calls coming in. However, OL would still take care of the paging service paperwork such as billing, Bachmann said. “There would be no advantage to getting rid of it,” the director said of paging. “Gerry (Hoffa) and I feel we have worked it out. We haven’t discussed in detail what kind of phone service we will put in to take care of both, but it can be done.” As did the commissioners and county council, Bachmann and the OL Board expressed a desire to include the city in the latest central dispatch plan. “Physically implementing a system will depend on who’s going to play,” he pointed out. “IF JUST THE SHERIFF’S department and OL go in together, it will take about six weeks to install the radio system. That is after everything has been approved, it has gone through the boards and everything is agreed upon. “Even after everything is approved, all the equipment will have to be ordered and, unfortunately, that will probably drag things out.” If the city decides to take part, less time will be needed to begin central dispatch operations, according to Bachmann, because the city has all the necessary Col. 2, back page, this section

will be announced in the near future. Casting and rehearsal information will also be the subject of future announcements. Serving on the Playhouse Board of Directors for 1985 with president Parker are: Jim Poor, vice president; Jack Earles, secretary; Don Holley, treasurer, and Sally Bartlett, Ann Cooper, Debbie Gannon, Linda Gjesvold, Ladonna Kelly, Mike Mitchell, Jo Anne Pope, Evelyn Robbins, Larry Wilson and Carroll Burdsall