Stories from Wednesday, April 29, 2009

To the Editor: The actions of our federal government are like a family where the children keep hitting on their parents for more spending money, and the parents fill out one of the checks that come with their credit card bill where they can obtain more cash, but their income does not increase...

To the Banner Graphic: Last month when Gov. Daniels spoke to the Greencastle Kiwanis, he expressed concern that the huge influx of federal stimulus dollars that Indiana will soon receive will lead us to "fall off a cliff" in two years when the money runs out. The governor is especially concerned about the $1.3 billion earmarked for education. Fortunately, House Bill 1669, which was authored by Rep. Nancy Michael and has now passed both House and Senate unanimously, offers one solution...

To the Editor: We would like to thank everyone that came to the Bon Ton Diner on Saturday, April 25 to help raise funds for Stuart Owen. We were very pleased with the success and know that comes from such a caring community. We have seen from the beginning of this venture that local residents are very compassionate, and we appreciate your help in making this such a success...

To the Editor: Those of us who live in or near Greencastle can easily forget that our Historic Downtown District is a unique part of our heritage that requires our attention and support so that it can be preserved and passed along to our children and grandchildren to enjoy...

In 1884, a DePauw student named John Reasoner was asked to check out a cave system by the U.S. Geologic Survey. He recruited another sophomore and one of his professors to accompany him into the cave that was rumored to run under Blackstock stadium beneath the DePauw University campus...

The Greencastle NAACP honored a number of local residents at its 45th annual Freedom Fund Dinner last Thursday at Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church. Charity Pankratz was honored with the branch's President's Award, while the "Patriots for Peace" were honored as Citizens of the Year...

The Greater Greencastle Chamber of Commerce and the Greencastle Civic League have named May 30 as Cleanup Day for Greencastle citizens. They are looking for volunteers to help spruce up the area. People will gather at city hall at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 30 and then be assigned to groups to clean up the downtown square and surrounding areas...

North Putnam High School will host an "At Risk Behavior" meeting today at 7 p.m. in the school's cafeteria. The meeting is for anyone interested or concerned with community teens and at risk behaviors such as smoking, drinking alcohol or teen pregnancy...

The DePauw University Band will present its final concert of the year with four School of Music students leading the music as guest conductors. The ensemble's "Student Conductors' Concert" will be presented on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium of the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts. The event is free and open to the public...

The Putnam County Assessor's office has announced the start of its reassessment process. They will be visiting all properties in Putnam County to verify information is accurate. Data collecting personnel will be working in all the townships in the county...

The Cloverdale and North Putnam boys' golf teams battled, along with Eminence, Monday at Clover Meadows. The host Clovers won with a score of 179, followed by North Putnam's 213, while the Eels fielded an incomplete team. Chris Arnold led Cloverdale with his low round of 39, with teammate Keith Hathorn scoring a 44 to follow. Sam Jordan carded a 47, with Ryan Book scoring a 49 and Mike Wellington and Gary Williams adding a pair of 52s...

ROACHDALE -- Cameron Chestnut proved Monday night that he is more than just a base runner -- he's a slugger too. Chestnut cranked two first-pitch home runs over the left field fence for the Eagles. The first came in the top of the fifth when he lunged at Mitchell Crum's curveball, jacking it deep over the fence, giving the Eagles a 4-3 lead. ...

The Greencastle softball team defeated the Class 2A eighth-ranked Speedway Sparkplugs 4-2 Monday. Cassie Alspaugh and Sierra Patterson both went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Skyanna White was 1-for-3 with two RBIs in the win. Mallory Miller pitched a complete game, allowing two runs on seven hits and collected three strikeouts...

The South Putnam girls' tennis team dropped a close match to Southmont 3-2 Monday. The Eagles' two wins came in its singles matches. "Coming into this match, I knew it would be a close, competitive contest," South Putnam head coach Johnnie Briones said. "The rain may have slowed us down a little, but we need to step up our game every single night."...

TERRE HAUTE -- South Putnam graduate Shannan Egold captured a collegiate title Friday at Rose Hulman during the outdoor HCAC conference meet. She was the 10K conference champion and ran with a time of 4:51 She also took sixth place Saturday in the 5k with a time of 20:45...

ROCKVILLE -- The North Putnam boys' track team defeated Rockville 84-39 Monday evening. The Cougars scored 11 first-place finishes, along with four second-place finishes. Seth Vondersaar won the discus with a distance of 143-feet-11-inches and Josh Keyt was victorious in the shot put with a throw of 45-feet-7-inches. P.J. Enders and Jake Smerage finished second in the high jump and long jump, respectively...

The Greencastle girls' tennis team came up short against Speedway, losing 3-2 Monday. After capturing the first set 6-4, GHS No. 1 singles player Katie Collins scored the win when Alya Heffern forfeited the match. At No. 2 singles, Kate Babington fell in straight sets 0-6, 0-6, while Katie Farris went down 2-6 and 1-6 in No. 3 singles action...

CLOVERDALE -- At the beginning of the season, there were three Clovers who were the talk of the team: Brooke Gray, James Hinton and Elizabeth Cheatham. They still are. Cloverdale won both meets. The boys won with a score of 83 points while North Central finished second with 57. Baptist finished third with 15 points. The girls won with 72 points while North Central finished second wih 60 and Baptist came in third with two points....

ROACHDALE -- In a matchup that had many fans circling April 27 on their calendars went down at North Putnam Monday. The undefeated, No. 14 ranked South Putnam Eagles defeated North Putnam 12-0. With dark storm clouds overhead and unforgiving winds rattling the chain links and fans alike, the Eagles came out early and showed why the words "sectional title" are on the lips of South Putnam fans...