Monday, April 29, 2024
OUTDOOR EDUCATION
Shelbyville High School students lead stations for Hendricks Elementary third-graders in the Ecology Lab on Friday. The SHS students, in Mr. Jack Schoaf’s and Mr. Chris Lux’s classes, taught mini-lessons on plant and animal life in the lab. | photos by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS
Forest Hill Officials Provide Update, Preview Coming Community Day
Forest Hill Cemetery has come a long way since the first Community Day seven years ago, when over 30 volunteers tidied up the 78 acres by weed-eating and sweeping off headstones. With this year’s clean-up set for Saturday, May 11, 8 a.m. to noon, board members Carrie Ridgeway and Brent Sandman reflected on the local resting place’s recent progress.
“Forest Hill Cemetery means a lot to me,” Sandman, an owner of Sandman Brothers, said. “I have all my family, including my grandparents on both sides, buried here. A lot of our former employees are also buried there.”
Ridgeway started spending time in the cemetery after her granddaughter died in August 2018. She noticed improvements were needed in groundskeeping.
“I guess I took my grief and my passion for wanting things to be better, and put it to use in a way that could make a positive impact, and help us head a different direction than what (the cemetery was) heading,” Ridgeway said.
Around that same time, long-time Forest Hill advocate Dep Ewing attempted to persuade Sandman to become involved with the board.
“There was some talk around town that the cemetery wasn’t up to the standards of everyone’s expectations,” Sandman recalled. “So, I went out and evaluated it, and found that they had a lot of valid points.”
In 2022, following Ewing’s passing, both Ridgeway and Sandman were asked to join the board of directors. They and their fellow board members have been part of a whirlwind of changes ever since.
A new superintendent was hired, over $100,000 was spent last year in maintenance and improvements with another approximate $100,000 on the table for the next phase, and the board meets monthly now instead of twice a year, as it once did.
“We’ve had a lot of great feedback from the three funeral homes here in town saying they can’t believe how many improvements have been made,” Sandman said. “And people are noticing, and taking pride in their areas.”
The flurry of recent improvements has been thanks to grants and the Forest Hills Safe Trails Fund set up at Blue River Community Foundation. (Forest Hill, established in 1884, is the county’s oldest not-for-profit.)
“We had to really re-establish our credibility and our sincerity and show that we were really serious about what we were going to do,” Ridgeway said.
A $36,000 grant from the Foundation followed, and other BRCF and private donations to the Fund have helped repave numerous cemetery roads, which had not been maintained in some 30 years.
“There were a lot of deep ruts and holes,” Ridgeway said. “The paving company started in the back so that heavy equipment isn’t damaging new pavement, and they’ve been very helpful, taking leftover pavement from each phase and filling in the worst holes until we get to that phase.”
The recent focus has been on tree trimming, some of which require a crane to do the job. With the grounds much improved, this year’s Community Day will include some of the regular tasks, as well as scraping steps, repairing section markers and power washing mausoleums.
“I don't know that too many of those families are still left around, so we want to remove all the algae and try to remove some of the vines,” Ridgeway said of the mausoleums.
Volunteers are needed to pick up debris, and weed-eaters and blowers are always needed.
“They’ll be something for everybody to do,” she said.
Officials will be on site for those in need of certified volunteer or community service hours.
Ridgeway also noted the cemetery is enforcing long-standing decoration rules to allow mowers and weed-eaters to operate effectively. However, decorations are permitted on Memorial Day weekend, provided they are picked up by the following week.
As the cemetery establishes processes, including working hand-in-hand with those in charge of the adjacent St. Joseph Cemetery, several residents have reached out to Forest Hill for ideas on improving the many small cemeteries throughout the county.
“We’re sharing ideas within the community,” Sandman said. “We have a lot of good things going on.”
He encouraged those wishing to contribute to contact the Blue River Community Foundation. “Or if you haven’t been out, stop in and say hi.”
NOTEBOOK:
NATIONAL NEWS: The New York City Council voted to give ride-hailing companies the green light to put video ads in the back of Ubers and Lyfts, which had previously been banned. They did this given direct opposition from the Taxi and Limousine Commission, and requires that at least 25 percent of the revenue from the ads goes to drivers. The law requires screens to have a volume control or off switch, which makes sense given the city’s experience with Taxi TV in the backs of yellow cabs over the past 15 years. Taxi TV is controversial, with 31 percent of respondents saying that Taxi TV being annoying is the single worst part of the taxi experience. The ad market for back-of-vehicle space could be impressive; while there are just 9,000 active, licensed taxis in New York, there are 100,000 ride-share drivers. (Wall Street Journal/Numlock)
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This Day in Shelby County History
2014: Molly Madden and Alton Anspaugh were named Lady and Lord Mayor at Shelbyville High School’s May Festival, an event started in 1923 by Lela Rimstidt McKeand.
2004: The Zinser family sold The Chicken Inn to Dave and Rosalie Hardin. The Zinsers had been serving their special-recipe chicken in Shelbyville since 1947. Raymond and Mary Ann Zinser opened the Chicken & Steak Inn with Raymond’s sister, Pauline Kremer and her husband, Carl. Martin Zinser and Tom Kremer took over the family business and operated it until 1983. The building was then leased to Waffle House, and Martin Zinser opened the Chicken Inn later that year in downtown Shelbyville at the corner of Jackson and Harrison streets. Zinser’s wife, Tami, got involved in the business in 1991. The restaurant moved to its current location, 541 E. Hendricks St., in 1995. After working at Chicken Inn for 27 years, Martin decided to sell to focus more on his banquet hall, Occasions.
1994: A local dispatcher at the jail inadvertently entered the wrong code sequence, setting off the tornado warning sirens. “It was an ‘oops,’ but at least it was an oops where we had the sirens and didn’t need it,” Sheriff’s Capt. Tom Debaun said. A tornado watch had been in effect, but not a warning.
1984: Shelbyville Police Department Det. Capt. Robert Williams was re-elected president of the Police League of Indiana. Williams had previously served as Shelbyville Police Chief.
1974: Sandra Kay Hardesty, 17, of Marietta, died in a freak accident when a colt she and her step-father were attempting to break reared its head, striking the girl in the face. Hardesty died from a skull fracture and massive brain injury. She was the daughter of James and Lorene (Ash) Hardesty, and was a member of the National Honor Society at Southwestern High School. She attended First Church of the Nazarene in Shelbyville. Survivors included her two sisters, Patricia Sandefur and Linda Hardesty.
Mayor Jerry Higgins, Don Collins and local teacher James Slater led a fundraising bicycle ride to benefit those with disabilities.
1964: Mary Eichelsdorfer, 65, who had been overcome by smoke in her room at the Carriage Court Apartments, 203 N. Tompkins St., was in fair condition at Major Hospital after being saved in an unbelievably complex series of telephone calls during the fire. Mary had been on the phone with her daughter-in-law, who was in Kentucky, when Mary mentioned something about a fire before abruptly hanging up. That began a series of phone calls. The daughter-in-law called the home of Mr. and Mrs. Arland next door. A babysitter answered but said she couldn’t leave the Arland children. Instead, the babysitter called John Wetnight, who called John Hall, who lived just across the court. Mrs. Hall checked the apartment to find the smoke, and Mr. Hall called the fire department. The daughter-in-law also called Mrs. Krebs, who lived nearby and rushed to the apartment to help rescue Mary, who had been burned and was suffering from smoke inhalation. An electric hot pad had been the source of the fire.
Jim Matchett’s speech on Civil Rights was deemed the best at the Shelbyville Toastmasters Club. Other speakers were Bob Sawyer, Don Wickizer Jr. and George Lorenz.
1954: The 28 students of W.S. Major school’s 4-B class got an unexpected ride back to classes on top of the big city fire truck after they finished a visit to the fire station and library. Mrs. Frieda Chappell and Miss Pearl Ray organized the tour.
All city fire equipment rushed to the southeast section of Public Square after an alarm box was pulled there. There was no fire. “Apparently, someone had brazenly turned in a false alarm in broad daylight from the heart of the downtown business section and escaped,” The Shelbyville News said.
1944: The J.L. Reece Canning Company of Shelbyville received a federal contract for the bailing of used clothing to be sent to the destitute and homeless in European countries. The clothing had been donated by families throughout the region. It was then cleaned and fumigated and sent to Reece to be bailed before being transported overseas.
1934: The foundation and basement were completed on the new Fountaintown Methodist Episcopal church. The lot, which had been donated by a local businessman, was a short distance east of the old State Road 9 intersection and north of U.S. Road 52. The auditorium would seat 250.
Hendricks school classes taught by Mrs. McMullen, Mrs. Gehres, Mrs. Fleming and Mrs. Tolen would be traveling to Indianapolis to visit the children’s museum, the war memorial and Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Once the buses were full, students would ride in private cars. “There will be competent drivers for all the cars,” The Republican said. Students had proposed installing a museum at the school, prompting the trip.
1924: A crew of magazine subscription solicitors in Shelbyville were rounded up by officers and ordered to leave. The solicitors had been collecting money in advance, which was against city ordinance.
Rev. Ulysses S. Johnson, pastor of the Baptist church in Waldron since 1921, was acquited on arson charges of burning the church. “After the verdict of ‘not guilty’ had been announced, there was a wild demonstration in the court room,” The Republican said. “Men and women stood up and cheered and clapped their hands, and cheered some more. Judge Harry C. Morrison pounded his gavel furiously for a few minutes, but finally abandoned his attempt to restore quiet and permitted the large crowd to proceed with the demonstration.” Johnson promptly submitted his resignation from the church, effective in July.
1914: The Bates school, three miles east of Shelbyville on the Cynthiana pike, closed for the summer. Clayton Martz was in charge of the school. More than 100 attended the last day banquet.
OBITUARIES
None today