Stories from Monday, January 18, 2021

The Wednesday before Christmas break started just like any other for South Putnam High School senior, Brady Robinson. He was sitting in anatomy class, studying for finals, which had started that day, and talking about college with his brother. That is when guidance counselor Brian Gardner came in to pull him out of class to take a picture for a big grant the FFA had won...

A number of parking changes are in progress for downtown Greencastle, the City Council learned at its recent January meeting. The parking issue arose after Councilman Dave Murray asked City Attorney Laurie Hardwick if she could bring an amended parking ordinance to the February meeting for the Council’s scrutiny...

The new year continues to be dominated by COVID-19 and its impacts being felt by families across the community. Buzzi Unicem recently stepped up to help and made a $25,000 donation to the United Way of Putnam County. The gift is being invested in the United Way’s COVID-19 Community Relief Fund, which helps support the immediate needs of Putnam County residents who have been affected by the health and economic consequences of the pandemic...

Greencastle’s girls and South Putnam’s boys repeated as Putnam County champions Saturday at the Putnam County Swim Meet. The event was held at Greencastle in a modified format which saw the girls’ meet run a complete program in the morning, a break before both the boys’ and girls’ diving competition and the boys’ program in the afternoon...

ROACHDALE -- Meeting a week earlier than usual, the North Putnam School Board convened last Thursday to reorganize and welcome new members Rachel Mandeville and Eric Oliver. The board’s leadership saw a change with Travis Lambermont taking over as president from Ron Spencer. The board’s vice presidency, previously filled by Dustin Osborn, went to Mark Hoke. Mandeville, who defeated Osborn in the November election, was voted as secretary...

For only the third time in his 26 years on the Greencastle City Council -- and second year in a row -- Mark Hammer will serve as Council president in 2021. Hammer, a Republican, received the unanimous backing of the seven-member Council at its January meeting Thursday night. In fact, his re-election serves to underscore the bipartisan nature of the Council as Democrat Adam Cohen made the motion to select Hammer, which was seconded by fellow Democrat Dave Murray...

We are fortunate in our congressional district to have companies and organizations that provide immeasurable contributions to our communities and our state. I acknowledge and respect the great work in philanthropy, economic development and employment opportunities for Hoosiers that these community partners deliver...

Mrs. Wilma “Jean” Kennedy Baer, 91, passed away Jan. 14, 2021 at Ashe Memorial Hospital, Jefferson, N.C. She was born on Oct. 2, 1929 in Putnam County to the late Goldie Lawrence and Clovia Pearl Sutherlin Kennedy. She moved from Frankfort to Lake Panasoffkee, Fla., in 1993, and then to Mocksville, N.C., in 2007. From there, she moved to West Jefferson, N.C. While in Mocksville, she was a member of Blaise Baptist Church, and joined Bald Mountain Baptist in West Jefferson once she moved there...

Latanya Renee Beaman, 45, of Coatesville, passed away Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021 at her residence surrounded by her family. Latanya was born in Greencastle on Sept. 7, 1975, the daughter of Donald and Carol (Short) Phelps. She was a graduate of South Putnam High School...

The Greencastle Virtual Music Festival continues Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. with “Smooth Transitions,” a variety-show program of folk, classical and original American music celebrating the diversity of American music and what is hoped will have been a smooth transition of power during the Presidential Inauguration earlier in the day...

On Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., Gobin Church in Greencastle will join other churches in cities and towns across the country in a national moment of unity and remembrance of the lives lost in Putnam County to the COVID-19 pandemic. The church bell will ring 47 times, once for each Putnam County resident who has died...

There’s a new Marshall in town and he’s cleaning up Putnam County. Tyler and Danielle Marshall recently purchased and took over operations at Service Master of Greencastle. After 32 years with ServiceMaster, Ed Lattanzio has hung up his holster of cleaning tools. The Marshalls, both Putnam county natives, assumed ownership Aug. 1 and more recently moved the operation to 1001 Bloomington St., the complex at the southeast corner of Bloomington Street and Veterans Highway...

SAWs (Servants of Work), a mission of the Greencastle Presbyterian Church, which provides improved home access to disabled residents of Putnam County, has completed its 12th year of service to the community. In its dozen years of providing help to those who have difficulty accessing their homes, Saws has built 213 ramps...

Every two seconds, someone in the United States requires a blood transfusion. It takes a lot of blood to fulfill that need. Although there is an average of 15.7 million donations a year, supply is still low. It is estimated that 38 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood, but less than 10 percent actually does. With the need for blood seemingly going up each year, it is vitally important for people to generously donate blood...

To the Editor: Supporters of President Donald Trump are being told to accept that Joe Biden, a candidate that could not entice more than 20 people to attend his rallies, but yet he somehow gardened the most votes in history. We are supposed to accept that Biden won the presidency, while carrying only 16 percent of counties, the lowest in history — yet in some of those counties Biden received more votes than eligible voters...

To the Editor: James Richard Baird, as a representative of the Fourth District, has violated his oath of office to the Constitution of the United States of America. He voted to deny the count of millions of legal and legitimate votes. His vote was a clear-cut effort to overthrow the election of the president of the United States. He has trashed our democracy...

The following cases were filed in Putnam County courts recently. Julia A. Kasprick, 33, Lockeford, Calif., Level 5 felony dealing in marijuana at least 10 pounds, Level 5 felony conspiracy to deal in marijuana at least 10 pounds, Class B misdemeanor possession of marijuana...

One person was booked in the Putnam County Jail on Thursday. • At 11:30 a.m. James W. Mowery, 35, Quincy, was lodged at the jail for possession of methamphetamine. Putnam County sheriff’s deputies investigated three recent property-damage crashes. • At 8:48 p.m. Thursday, Breyton D. Alsup, 25, New Ross, was westbound on U.S. 36 in a 2008 Chevrolet Equinox when he hit a deer...

After two wins to start the 2021 portion of the schedule, Cloverdale dropped a pair of games over the weekend, falling at Cascade 62-57 in overtime Friday night before a 65-48 loss to 2A No. 7 Parke Heritage Saturday evening.. The Clovers led early against the Cadets, taking a 18-16 lead into halftime before an offensive explosion from the hosts in the third quarter, tallying 23 points to take a 39-34 lead into the fourth quarter...

CLOVERDALE — Watching Northview’s offense Monday night at Cloverdale was like watching a stuck spigot turn on. It took a while to get turned on but once it did, a torrent of points came out as the Knights started off the game 19-0 on the way to a 61-38 win over the Clovers in WIC girls’ basketball play...

ELLETTSVILLE – Greencastle landed five individual champions as part of a fourth-place finish at the WIC Wrestling Meet Saturday at Edgewood. Cooper Robinson (106), Chase Carrington (138), Logan Carrington (152), Brach Carrington (195) and Zayden Bight (220) took home individual titles but couldn’t propel the Tiger Cubs to the top of the leaderboard as Owen Valley edged out West Vigo 216-214 for the team title with Edgewood third...

The North Putnam Cougars travelled to Monrovia to play in the Branch McCracken Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday night. Monrovia is one of the toughest places to play in West Central Indiana and to make it tougher, the Cougars were coming off an emotional and exhausting conference victory on Friday night against Greencastle and it showed…...