Stories from Tuesday, May 31, 2016

In special sesson Wednesday afternoon, the Greencastle Board of Public Works and Safety placed veteran Greencastle Police Det. Randy Seipel on unpaid administrative leave. The change in status is immediate and will continue until the outcome of Seipel's criminal proceedings in Hendricks County...

CATARACT FALLS -- A 32-year-old Clay County woman was pronounced dead Monday after she did not resurface while swimming at the Cataract Falls. Witnesses say the victim, Autumn McCreery, of Brazil, was swimming when she disappeared beneath the surface...

PUTNAMVILLE -- Mother Nature won round one at Lincoln Park Speedway Saturday night with a heavy late afternoon shower that dampened the early evening. However, Joe Spiker and the LPS track crew worked diligently for a couple of hours to get the track and racing shape...

ROACHDALE -- Coaches of high school team sports are understandably sad whenever their teams are eliminated from state tournament play. Parents of high school athletes are also understandably sad when the team of one of their children -- especially a senior -- sees the season come to an end...

Robert Kelley Minar, 64, of Waseca, Minn., died at his home on the morning of Friday, May 27, 2016. Born in Greencastle on Nov. 24, 1951, Robert was the son of Dr. Edwin Jr. and Anne (Kelley) Minar. He graduated from high school in Greencastle before continuing on to Vincennes University...

Herschel DeVere Polter, 83, of Indianapolis, passed away on May 30, 2016. He was born May 7, 1933 to Walter and Cora (Zelner) Polter in Indianapolis. He graduated from Warren Central High School. In 1951 and attended University of Indianapolis, formally Indiana Central...

Putnam County Playhouse will open its 55th season with a production of the musical version of "Little Women." Based on the famous novel by Louisa May Alcott, it will be presented Thursday, Friday and Saturday, June 2-4 and again Wednesday-Saturday, June 8-11 at the Hazel Day Longden Theatre off Round Barn Road in Greencastle...

Jose "Dr. Joe" Vieira, 93, passed away peacefully on Sunday, May 29, 2016, surrounded by his family. He was born in Divisa Nova, MG, Brasil, on March 21, 1923. Dr. Joe attended medical school in Rio de Janiero, came to the USA in 1949 to do his internship in West Virginia, followed by his residency at Methodist Hospital in Peoria, Ill., where he met Doris Conley, of Princeton, Ill, an operating room nurse...

Melvin "M.R." Berry, 67, Bellmore, died at 7:10 a.m. Monday, May 30, 2016 at his residence. Born May 10, 1949 in Clinton, Ind., he was the son of Melvin R. Berry Sr. and Marceil Harney Berry Chapman. He married Donna Gerrish on Sept. 19, 1974. He previously worked at Parke County REMC, retired from farming and retired from truck-driving for Stanley J. Clark and Walmart, where he earned several safety awards...

Terry L. Bland, 62, of Poland, passed away at 6:50 a.m. on Saturday, May 28, 2016 at his residence. Born March 13, 1954 in Linton, he was the son of Donald and Ida Carol (Bland) Nield. He was retired as a carpenter for Wilhelm Construction. He was a member of the Baptist Church in Cunot and the Eagles Lodge...

A Friday night traffic stop rapidly went from bad to worse for a 45-year-old Greencastle woman. Already stopped on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, Cynthia D. Hayden backed her 1972 Chevrolet Camaro into vehicle of the deputy who had stopped her...

PUTNAMVILLE -- Abundant Life Baptist Church will take advantage of its location along the Historic National Road and take part in the U.S. 40 Yard Sale on Friday and Saturday, June 3 and 4. Abundant Life Baptist is located at the intersection of U.S. 40 and State Road 243 in Putnamville...

The Greencastle Arts Council will host its second annual "Blank Canvas" event on Friday, June 3 at 2 W. Washington St. The 6-8 p.m. event, featuring works by Putnam County artists, is an opportunity for community members to share why the arts are personally meaningful, and an invitation to contribute to a vision for a thriving arts presence. Additionally, this creative and interactive evening will celebrate and capture the community's vision of public art...

CLOVERDALE --Greencastle and South Putnam competed in a match play event at Clover Meadows on Tuesday, departing from the traditional stroke play format. Players from each team were paired against each other, similar to the format of a tennis match, and the match was decided by the number of individual matchups each team won...

One of the most unexpected surprises of my new job to this point has been the joy of covering a lot of track and field competitions, something which I cannot always say was the case. I was raised a softball, baseball, basketball and football guy, and while I never played or coached football I fully grasp the intricacies of it...

Six Putnam County athletes have been selected to participate in the inaugural Wabash Valley Officials Association North-South All-Star Basketball Games on June 11 at Terre Haute North. South Putnam graduates Jessica Modglin and Josh Stewart along with recent Greencastle graduate Paige Bragg will be competing in the games along with juniors-to-be Colin York of Greencastle, Jalen Moore of Cloverdale and Treyton Smith of North Putnam...

Peer pressure is normally a bad thing for adolescents, but Nick Blundell has that concept to thank as he heads to Bloomington on Saturday for the IHSAA state track finals. "I was in fifth grade, and all my friends were talking about cross country because they were doing it," recalls Blundell, honored last month as the male winner of the Greencastle Chamber of Commerce/Teachers Credit Union "Putnam County Senior Student Athlete Award...

Under a hot sun with temperatures in the mid-80s, a mother cat and a litter of kittens were unceremoniously dropped off in a cage Friday at the Putnam County Animal Shelter without food or water. A shelter spokesman noted that the condition of cat and kittens seems to be improving, they were in poor condition. In addition, they were forced to cope with "unnecessary trauma."...

Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan Joining his former bandmates onstage, Steve St. Pierre (left) trades licks with War Radio guitarist and singer Joel Everson Tuesday during ParkFest at Robe-Ann Park. The eight-week free summer concert series conducted by the Greencastle Civic League kicked off with War Radio and friends, as well as family night featuring Big Bounce Fun House Rentals. The action continues at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 7 with tunes from Gus Moon and Bridge 19...

As a group that has to account for every dollar the county spends, the Putnam County Council acted a bit out of character at its most recent meeting. The council approved eight new security positions without certainty of where the money will come from...