Stories from Saturday, February 5, 2011

Cloverdale United Methodist Church will again be hosting Financial Peace University money management program beginning Feb. 20 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. This is a 13-week study aimed at turning your finances around dramatically. Pat Ireland will lead the study...

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) certified Putnam County's 2011 budget order and tax rates on Jan. 28, paving the way for on-time property tax bills for the second year in a row. The budget certification puts the county in a position to have taxes due on May 10. Putnam County was the 66th county in the state to receive its 2011 budget order and tax rates...

An eagle sits by its nest in a tree northwest of Greencastle.

GREENCASTLE -- Carol Emery started the Choices program for Putnam County fifth-graders with a simple concept. "In life, you make choices, and they have positive or negative consequences," she said. The retired South Putnam counselor began the program about a decade ago with fifth-graders from the three South Putnam elementary schools. ...

FILLMORE -- With the town freshly recovered from winter storm power outages, the Fillmore Town Council met Thursday night. John Buchanan of the utilities department said things were going well with snow and ice removal, as well as with all utility systems, some of which had been down during power outages...

GREENCASTLE -- The winter weather continues to change the Putnam County sports landscape. The girls sectional swimming finals will run as scheduled today, with diving beginning at 9 a.m. and swim finals to begin at 1 p.m. The South Putnam girls basketball game against North Putnam will take place today, with junior varsity tipping at 2 p.m...

The Belle Union Youth League will be holding its signups at Central Elementary Feb 12 and 19 from 9 a.m. to noon. There will be an evening signup on Feb. 19 from 5 to 7 p.m.

The Greencastle girls fastpitch signups will take place Feb 12 and 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Arby's in Greencastle.

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- There was a big crowd on hand as the girls swimming sectional got under way. Greencastle, North Putnam and South Putnam all competed in in the prelims of the Crawfordsville Sectional Friday. The Tiger Cubs got off to a strong start as they took the top qualifying position in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:00.6. The Eagles were also off to a good start as their team placed fifth, allowing them a spot in the finals...

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- The Greencastle girls' swim team placed four swimmers in the IHSAA State Finals, as the medley relay team took the sectional championship. The team of Sydney Cassida, Emily Wheeler, Melanie Bittles and Sydney Terry opened the meet with 1:58.68, besting second-place Seeger by 7 seconds...

MOORESVILLE -- When the dust settled at the 2011 Mooresville wrestling regional, six Putnam County wrestlers will be moving on to the Evansville Semi-State next Saturday. Cloverdale senior Donnie Helterbrand was crowned champion in the 145-weight class after dominating Monrovia's Dalton Clements in the final. Also headed to semi-state from Cloverdale will be Shawn Shipp (112), Jeremy Boldman (119) and Matt Hall (160)...