Stories from Friday, May 26, 2017

A special meeting of the Cloverdale Redevelopment Commission and the Cloverdale Redevelopment Authority will take place May 31 at 1 p.m. in the Cloverdale Town Hall to award a bid for the Stardust Road construction project. Public welcome.

CLINTON - Just a day after Southmont eliminated Cloverdale from the softball sectional tournament, the Mounties did the same to the Clovers in baseball with an 11-1 win on Wednesday in the opening game of the Class 2A South Vermillion sectional. The Mounties scored two runs in the second on the first of eight Clover errors, and added three more in the third on a two-run single by Risty Bullerdick and an RBI single by Austin Manion...

Even though Greencastle lost to Northview in the sectional championship match last week, the Tiger Cubs’ No. 1 doubles team of Lydia Trout and Nicole Newgent was able to continue playing and captured the individual doubles sectional championship. The Cubs will play in the Kokomo regional on June 3 against the survivor from Carroll (Fort Wayne)...

Jed Fajt completed his Greencastle High School tennis career last fall as one of the most successful players in program history. Fajt went 12-7 last fall at No. 1 singles to surpass 50 career victories, and helped the Tiger Cubs to their third straight sectional title and first-ever Western Indiana Conference crown...

BLOOMINGTON — A journalist was the first person to say the phrase to the young man: “State finalist Kieffer Vittetow.” The South Putnam senior was asked how those words sounded. “Pretty good,” Vittetow said Thursday evening, after finishing second in the 1,600-meter run by just .34 of a second behind Bloomington South’s Jack Gillard and fulfilling a lifetime dream of qualifying for the state finals...

Rodney James "Jim" Staggers, 61, of Lady Lake, Fla., born Oct. 9, 1955 in Brownsville, Pa., passed away peacefully at home after a lengthy illness on May 18, 2017. He was preceded in death by his parents, Glenn and Mary Louise (Roule) Staggers, and brother, Gary...

Mary Ann Mendel, 89, of Bainbridge, passed away Wednesday, May 24, 2017. Mary Ann was born Oct. 22, 1927 in Indianapolis, the daughter of the late Stephen and Clara Wood. She enjoyed sewing, crocheting and entering her crafts in the Putnam County Fair...

The Coworx Staffing team is the winner of the 2017 Greater Greencastle Chamber of Commerce Golf Scramble at Clover Meadows Golf Course. Team members are (from left) Jerry Wallace, Greg Thomas, Dianna Love and Mike Hanlon. Coworx Staffing shot a 20-under-par score to capture the recent annual scramble event.

North Putnam’s baseball team will take on Southmont at 11 a.m. Monday in the first semifinal game of the Class 2A South Vermillion Sectional. The Cougars (11-13) drew a first-round bye and are the lone Putnam County team still alive in baseball or softball...

Jackie Scanland played a variety of roles for the Greencastle football team last fall. He played tight end on offense, linebacker on defense and also served as the team’s punter. Franklin College hopes Scanland can help its program as much as he did the Tiger Cubs, and signed the 6-0, 192-pounder to a letter of intent earlier this month...

The next time Elijah Williams picks up a hammer for track and field competition, it will be the first time he ever does. Unfamiliarity with the event not offered as a high school option did not deter Hanover College from signing the Greencastle senior shot put specialist to compete for its program starting next winter...

LAURA MONNETT has joined First Financial Bank as banking center manager of the Greencastle Banking Center, 101 Warren Drive. Her experience includes 15 years in banking and eight years in branch management with banks in Gainesville, Fla. She is a registered NMLS (Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System) agent and a 1999 graduate of DePauw University with a bachelor’s degree in economics...

Castlemakers, a makerspace in Greencastle, received 10 Chromebooks for its CoderDojo programming club. Techpoint Foundation for Youth gave the 10 laptops to improve CoderDojo activity access for students who cannot bring their own hardware. Castlemakers started the CoderDojo last October for Putnam and surrounding county youth aged 7-17. The club is part of the more than 1,000 sites worldwide that the CoderDojo Foundation in Dublin, Ireland, supports...

Beta Theta Pi fraternity at DePauw University has been supporting the community for years with its Llama Drop fundraising efforts. In 2016, the fraternity gave $700 to Greencastle Middle School Music Boosters, to which they recently added a $500 donation for a two-year total of $1,200.

Mr. and Mrs. John Joseph Mathis Jr., formerly of Brazil and Greencastle, will be celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary on Saturday, June 3, at a party in Mission, Texas, hosted by their children. Mr. Mathis is the son of the late John J. Mathis Sr., and Nellie R. (Cunningham) Mathis of Harmony. Mrs. Mathis is the daughter of the late Orville M. and Mildred E. (Kirkling) Albright of Knightsville...

REELSVILLE — The Dick Huffman Covered Bridge in Washington Township will be temporarily closed beginning next week. The Putnam County Highway Department announced the closure of the historic bridge is to take place on or after Wednesday, May 30 and last about five days...

Putnam County Public Library May 29-June 3 Monday, May 29 • Library closed for Memorial Day Tuesday, May 30 •Advanced Word Processing, 12-2 p.m.: Discusses the more advanced features of modern word processing software. • Community Help Desk, 4-7 p.m.: Computer technician available to diagnose and help repair electronics. Most repairs made in 20 minutes or referred to a professional...

County Jail Four people were booked in the Putnam County Jail recently. Friday • At 11:46 p.m. Megan Ann Bass, 31, Greencastle, was lodged at the jail on a local warrant. • At 1:08 a.m. David Allen Burns, 41, Terre Haute, was taken into custody on an out-of-county traffic warrant...

I’ve seen it all in a small town, Had myself a ball in small town ... Residents of small towns like Bainbridge, Cloverdale, Roachdale and Russellville really don’t need “Small Town” Hoosier balladeer John Mellencamp to document their feelings about small towns...

The 23rd season of ParkFest, conducted by the Greencastle Civic League, is set to kick off on Tuesday, May 30 with the music of Mike Van Rensselaer. The event is set to take place at 6:30 p.m. at Shelter No. 1 at Robe-Ann Park. The season opens with family night, which includes the kid-friendly set of folk tunes from Van Rensselaer. As always for his Parkfest performances, the retired Greencastle Middle School teacher will invite youngsters to join him in singing a children’s song...

The Putnam County Public Library has recently benefited from the generosity of several local organizations. Jeff McCall of the Putnam County Community Foundation presented more than $50,000 in endowment funds to the library during the PCPL board’s regular meeting on Wednesday...

Too much of a good thing? That’s one way of looking at the startling new unemployment figures revealed for Putnam County and Indiana as a whole. Latest figures released by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development show Putnam County with a 2.7 percent unemployment rate for April. That’s a significant drop from March when after Putnam posted a 4.1 percent mark...

The graduating class of 2017 from Greencastle High School saw a McAnally Center packed with family, friends, teachers and fellow students Friday. The class, 116-strong, was led throughout the 2016-17 school year by Class President Nathan Gobert (top) and valedictorians (below, from left) Whitney Weinschenk, Nicholas Seaman and Kelly Hansen. ...