Stories from Thursday, May 12, 2016

CLOVERDALE -- A relatively minor traffic stop of a westbound car on Interstate 70 in Putnam County Thursday afternoon has resulted in multiple illegal drugs and associated materials being confiscated by Indiana State Police officers. At 2:10 p.m., ISP Trooper Yan Dravigne stopped a 2002 Honda passenger car for an unsafe lane movement and following too closely near the 46-mile marker of I-70, five miles east of Cloverdale...

Jennalee Butts, 75, of Greencastle, peacefully passed away at her favorite spot, home, on Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Born Aug. 5, 1940 in Vigo County, she was the daughter of LeRoy O. and Inez H. (Carlin) Moore. She was a 1958 graduate of Greencastle High School...

Susanne Michelle (Davis) Sullivan, 43, Pittsboro, passed away on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis. She was born in Indianapolis on Nov. 4, 1972 to Roy and Susan Jane (Carson) Davis. A 1991 graduate of Bethesda Christian School, she attended IUPUI...

BRAZIL -- The Brazil Concert Band will begin its 159th year of continuous music on Tuesday, May 17 at 7 p.m. in the Northview High School band room. The band will also rehearse at Northview on May 24 and then on to the band's home, the Forest Park bandshell, May 31 for the summer...

BRIDGETON -- The Bridgeton Art and Wine Fair is set for Saturday, May 14 from 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. Several artists will be located in the 1878 Barn and in the Waterfall View Barn at the Mill. Wine tasting will be offered by Buck Creek Winery and live music will be featured from noon until 5 p.m...

While not exactly as infamous as the old storm report of "trees were blown down that had never been blown down before," the Greencastle Park Board heard that a dozen trees are facing their ultimate demise at Robe-Ann Park. It wasn't just the hail damage from the recent May 1 storm that sealed the fate of the dozen trees, 10 of which are of the ash variety...

The Area 30 Career Center has entered a partnership with Vincennes University to provide students a "university in a career center high school" starting next year. "Our initial goal is to get students college-ready and to provide them with a year of college credits," Interim Director Chad Nunley said. "We're looking to add to our current options."...

The following people were recently booked into the Putnam County Jail: -- On Friday at 11:45 a.m., Loreese Christopher Cross, 27, Detroit, was lodged at the jail on charges of credit card fraud, counterfeit report and document forgery. -- On Friday at 11:50 a.m., Deandre Anthony Currie, 20, Detroit, was booked into the jail on charges of credit card fraud, counterfeit report forgery and false informing...

The following cases were filed in Putnam County courts recently. Stefon Rankin Woods, 21, Columbus, Ohio, Level 5 felony assisting a criminal, Level 6 felony possession of cocaine Andrew J. Knight, 29, Terre Haute, Level 6 felony theft and Level 6 felony theft with habitual offender enhancement...

Mill Pond Health Campus is going to help feed the hungry with its annual Independence from Hunger Food Drive. This year Mill Pond is inviting businesses to participate by collecting food from May 9 until Monday, June 6. As Mill Pond representative will come to participating businesses and pick up the food on June 6...

With the long-awaited South Street project under way to create a new east-west corridor between Zinc Mill Road and Bloomington Street, Greencastle city officials are focused on what's next. And with the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) issuing a call-out for project proposals carrying a construction timetable of 2021-22, city officials offered an easy answer to that question...

For the second time in three months, a situation at the Putnam County Courthouse has required swift, decisive police action -- inside one of the third-floor courtrooms. On Wednesday afternoon the scene was Superior Court where a defendant charged with voluntary manslaughter was making his initial hearing and suddenly seemed to realize the dire circumstances in which he finds himself. With that realization, chaos ensued (see story, page 1A)...

To the Editor: In a time when the world seems to be falling apart, compassion, kindness and respect seem to be a thing of the past, I saw another example recently of why I love living in this county. I was traveling on U.S. 231 North yesterday (Monday) afternoon and got behind a funeral procession just north of Greencastle. It happened to be a long procession with Greencastle City Police escorts helping avoid accidents, so I knew why people were behaving ... they saw police cars...

To the Editor: I was reading in the May 2 Banner Graphic (in a Putnam County Museum item) that 50 years ago Paul Mason was campaigning for sheriff as a Democrat. He was my husband, Sheriff Kenneth J. Knauer's first deputy for eight years. We lived in the old jail on West Washington Street. I was the matron...

To the Editor: Thank you for printing the old picture of me as a freshman at the University of Minnesota (Milestones Page, April 30). When the picture was taken, the temperature was minus seven degrees. At that time, news was printed in the newspaper -- no TV, and not much radio...

To the Editor: On behalf of the Putnam County Board of Realtors, I would like to thank everyone that attended our bingo event on Saturday, April 23. Our devoted bingo players braved the extra traffic at the fairgrounds in hopes of big wins, and not wanting to disappoint our crowd, we gave away thousands in bingo and pull tab prizes. Although no one broke out in a hip hop or tango, there were many excited shouts of "Bingo!" throughout the night...

We may not know who our next president is going to be, but here's one thing that's almost certain: he or she will take office with roughly half of the electorate unhappy and mistrustful. The notion that the president speaks for a broad coalition of Americans who are willing to set aside their differences on behalf of a compelling new vision for the country? It's vanished...

The South Putnam Eagles' softball team finished its conference regular season coming up one run short on Thursday evening, falling to the Northview Knights 8-7 in eight innings as they completed the suspended game from Wednesday night. The Eagles are now 10-9-1 heading into today's Western Indiana Conference crossover game at Brown County. The Eagles finished WIC Western Division play at 1-4...

South Putnam graduate Klayton Vittetow, a second-year member of the Vincennes University men's track and field team, will compete in the NJCAA national meet next week in the 400-meter hurdles. The meet is held May 17-19 in Levelland, Texas. Vittetow, a 2014 South Putnam High School graduate, is VU's sole 400-meter hurdler and had several season highlights this spring...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. --The 10th-ranked Rhodes College men's golf team remains in 11th place after shooting a 310 (+22) for a three-round score of 922 (+62) on Thursday morning at the Division III NCAA Golf Championship at Midvale Country Club. Sophomore Alec Davis of Greencastle shot an 80 (+8) on Thursday, fourth best on the team...

Consistency throughout the lineup helped the Greencastle boys' golf team to capture the Putnam County championship by eight strokes over North Putnam at Clover Meadows on Thursday. The event was halted for 30 minutes due to a rain delay, but several good scores were still turned in on the wet course...

Today is Friday the 13th on the calendar, but everyone involved with Western Indiana Conference athletics should have already used up their allotment of bad luck this week. Numerous weather-related issues -- both actual and predicted -- have caused some events to have been moved three times already this week...

Zoning Ordinance 06-2016 received unanimous approval of its first reading Tuesday alongside explanations by the board in efforts to calm residents' concerns. Having fully passed at the town's recent planning commission meeting, these zoning resolutions are being misinterpreted by many, Councilwoman Cook said at Roachdale's monthly public meeting...