Thursday, January 25, 2024
HIT PARADE
submitted by JACK BOYCE
WSVL AM-FM broadcasts from a flat semi-trailer bed on E. Broadway, in front of the Farmers National Bank lot, during the 1972 Shelby County Sesquicentennial parade. Those identified in the photo include WSVL broadcaster Jack Boyce, Farmers employee Jim Skinner and county official Janet Miller.
A selection of Sesquicentennial photos will be included in the inaugural Addison Times Magazine, sent to supporters next week. The issue will have a local government focus, with exclusive articles and pictures. The magazine will be mailed to supporters of at least $5 a month or $60 a year. Click below to support free local news.
Group Works to Develop Center for Numerous Non-profit Organizations
Navigating Shelby County’s 200-plus non-profits is a challenge for both supporters and those in need of services. But Healthy Shelby County, now a standalone non-profit organization, is working to connect others by bringing them under one literal roof.
“Our goal is to create an alliance of organizations,” Stephen Black, Healthy Shelby County President and MHP Director of Behavioral Health & Social Determinants of Health, said.
Black heads up Healthy Shelby County (HSC), which has formed a board that includes Tim Barrick, Greg Gerline and LaTisha Idlewine. The primary goal of HSC, originated by MHP over a decade ago, is to develop a nonprofit center, modeling an approach used increasingly throughout the state and country.
MHP officials are pleased to see the initiative expand. “That’s always been the mission of the hospital, to help improve the health of the community outside our walls,” Black said.
The concept received a $25,000 boost from a Wortman Family Foundation Fund grant and a $7,500 contribution from the Beaty/C-Tech Fund, both administered by Blue River Community Foundation, last year, which was used to hire Non-profit Centers Network to work with community members on developing a plan. The organization identified the following needs and opportunities for resource sharing:
A co-location of social services-oriented community based organizations would reduce on average an organization’s overhead costs by $15,000 per year, maximizing supporters’ donations.
A Non-profit Center would allow like-minded organizations to streamline referrals and collaboration opportunities.
Allow for a more coordinated approach to resolving complex and systemic challenges, such as transportation, housing and food access.
Centralize food pantry operations. While several local food pantries already partner with Gleaners, there is a greater need for efficiency, cold storage and enhanced services for those homebound. Currently, local pantries turn away pallets of meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables due to lack of storage. An NPC would increase cold storage capacity in the county by hundreds of square feet.
An industrial kitchen that could be used by multiple food access oriented organizations in the county.
A computer lab and internet connection for those applying for jobs and IDs and similar tasks.
About a dozen organizations have already expressed interest in participating in a local NPC, Black said. A fund has been established at the Blue River Community Foundation, and Black is on the speaking circuit with local service clubs. Healthy Shelby County is working on a state grant for additional funds partnering with ARI to apply for READI 2.0 funding. The organization is also collaborating with the Blue River Community Foundation to apply for funding through the Lilly Endowment Inc. GIFT VIII opportunity.
“Our goal is to create an organization that helps others become their healthiest self, and in doing so improves the health of the entire community,” he said.
NOTEBOOK:
A record 20 Shelby County students have applied to participate in the Sister City cultural exchange trip to Japan this summer. Shelbyville Common Council member Linda Sanders said she was pleased to see the interest. “It just says a lot for the school system, our Japanese program and our exchange teacher,” Sanders said. “The enthusiasm and the exposure that our students are getting is just phenomenal.” A committee is in the process of reviewing the applications.
The Shelbyville Common Council last night approved on first reading a 10-year tax abatement for new equipment at Plastic Moldings Company, LLC, 1451 S. Miller Ave. Council president Mike Johnson said the company is not expanding real estate, only replacing old equipment.
In other action, the council approved adding a fifth seat to the Shelbyville Aviation Commission. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a tie vote, but it’s always best to have an odd number of voting members, and the statute allowed us to increase this,” Mayor Scott Furgeson said. Jordan Caldwell has been appointed to the new seat.
City Council also approved meeting the first and third Monday of each month, 6 p.m., moving forward, including meeting on President’s Day. January meetings had been moved due to holidays.
NATIONAL NEWS: As cash goes out of style, one bill stands supreme: the $100 U.S. banknote. Six years ago, the number of $100 bills in circulation for the first time overtook the number of $1 bills in circulation, a credit to the $100 bill as an internationally respected and easily transferrable unit of currency. As of the end of 2022, there were 18.5 billion $100 bills in the world, and then they went ahead and printed another 1.5 billion bills in 2023 again. Of the total value of all existing currency in circulation, 80 percent of them were $100 bills. (Mother Jones / Numlock)
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The first quarterly Addison Times print magazine is set to mail next week. This edition is centered on exclusive local government articles, with never-before-seen photos of the 1972 Sesquicentennial celebration included. The magazine will be mailed to supporters of at least $5 a month or $60 a year. Please click below or send a check to The Addison Times, 54 W. Broadway St., Suite 13, Shelbyville, IN, 46176. Thank you to each donor who makes The Addison Times possible! - Kristiaan Rawlings, editor
This Day in Shelby County History
2014: Congressman Luke Messer filed to run for re-election to represent Indiana’s 6th Congressional District. Messer had been elected by his peers as the Republican Freshman Class President. He was first elected in 2012.
2004: Local police said they would no longer enforce the state’s curfew law following a challenge by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union. Police Chief John West said about 75 to 100 juveniles were arrested each year by the Shelbyville Police Department.
1994: City Hall was locked for the first time since it opened in 1928. With the police department moving to the new building, city officials realized they didn’t have keys to lock the front door, which actually didn’t even have a lock on it. Mayor Bob Williams called locksmith Vincent Hall. Until he could resolve the matter, the front doors were chained and padlocked.
1984: Myrtle Bellman, 89, was rescued from a house fire by Larry Wilcox, 26. (Bellman, who was employed at Bogeman's Milinery Shop for 30 years, had also worked in the Shelbyville High School cafeteria.) Her home near State Road 44 about a mile west of Smithland Road sustained major damage. Marietta volunteer firemen Dan Scott, Morris Pile and Bill Tennell fought the fire.
Shelbyville firemen fought a fire on the Knauf Fiber Glass shipping dock. A newspaper photo showed Capt. George Landwerlen, Lt. John Coulston and fireman Kurt Lockridge on the scene.
1974: The Evangelical United Church of Christ on Columbus Road held a mortgage burning. The site had been purchased and construction started in 1964 following a fire at its former location on Pike and Franklin Streets. A pitch-in dinner was held and Mr. and Mrs. Max Robinson showed pictures of the former church and new church at various stages of construction.
A newspaper ad for Ed’s Schwinn Cyclery, 37 E. Washington St., encouraged customers to “Help the Fuel Crisis - Ride a Bicycle.”
Claude B. Smith, Noble Township Elementary School principal, was named among the “Who’s Who in American Education” by the Academy of American Educators publication.
1964: Dwain Alexander, co-chairman of the Jaycee committee which picked Shelby County’s three outstanding young farmers, presented plaques to Paul Hawn, Kent Kaster and Albert Callahan.
National note: The first heart transplant occurred, in Mississippi, and lasted one hour before stopping in the body of a dying man. Although not deemed a major success, the donor heart did establish a regular beat in the body of the patient.
1954: Sheriff Robert “Bob” Meltzer, Democrat, announced he was running for re-election. Meltzer, a native of Union Township, was a World War II veteran.
1944: A presentation of 100 war photographs was displayed at Paul Cross Gym. The pictures, advertised as an opportunity to see war bond dollars in action, showed “the ruthlessness of modern total war.” Army equipment would also be on hand for display. A special session was held for school children before it was open to the public.
1934: A murdered infant’s body was found beside Brandywine Creek, about six miles northwest of Shelbyville. The sons of Virgil Schultz and Virgil Harrell, nearby farmers, had discovered the body. A couple of days had passed because there was a miscommunication about who would notify Sheriff Elisha Crosby. By the time Police Chief Charles Goebel and Prosecutor Emerson Brunner were notified and arrived at the scene, the body was gone, although evidence remained.
1924: Five-year-old Mary Keith, of Kent, Ohio, traveled to Boggstown (unaccompanied) to see her ill grandfather, William Keith, and grandmother. Mary was met in Indianapolis by an aunt and taken to Boggstown. Mary said she wasn’t “a bit afraid,” The Republican said.
1914: The Shelby County Council completed the annual budget, allocating $17,600 for county roads (approximately $540,000 in today’s money), which included maintaining 47 gravel roads. A request to appropriate $4,500 for an additional span to the Cutsinger bridge near the Johncon County line was not granted. County Commissioners had asked to relocate a public highway in Jackson Township, but the council refused.
OBITUARIES
None today