Thursday, July 3, 2025

Jul 03, 2025

STARS, STRIPES & SLICES

Greek’s Pizzeria on S. Harrison St. is decked out for the Fourth of July. | photo by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS

ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: FULL CANOPY REAL ESTATE

NOTEBOOK:

Building permits pulled in Shelbyville last month included a $1.2 million remodel of 2549 East State Road 44 by Ollie’s Bargain Outlet; a new carport at 800 W. Mausoleum Road for Ryobi; installation of 24 intellibraces at 1712 Culbertson Road; five new homes; new subsurface drain at 2120 Graham Drive N.; construction of a new Dunkin’ restaurant at 1650 N. Riley Highway; a new deck/patio at 2002 Oak Leaf Way; remodel of 1816 East State Road 44 for a new hair salon; and remodeling 34 and 36 East Washington St.
There will be no trash or recycling collection on Friday, July 4. Friday’s trash will be collected on Monday, July 7, and Friday’s recyclables will be collected the following week. All city offices will be closed on Friday. The Shelby County Recycle Center and Transfer Station will be closed Friday, but will reopen on Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Waldron Freedom Fest is tomorrow and Saturday, July 4 and 5. Events on Friday include food and vendors open from 4 p.m. to dusk, a hay bale throwing competition at 6 p.m., live entertainment at 7 p.m. and powder puff football at 8:30 p.m. Saturday’s events include the Mohawk Trail Walk/Run, 8 a.m.; car show, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; food and retail vendors, 11:30 a.m. - dusk; parade at 2 p.m.; live entertainment, 3:30 - 10:15 p.m.; Shelby County Community Choir, 3:30 p.m.; and fireworks at 10:15 p.m., among numerous other events.
A Community Input Session for Accelerate Rural Indiana (ARI) and READI 2.0 will be held Monday, July 15, 5 - 6:30 p.m., at the Intelliplex Conference Center. The event will provide updates on ARI and READI 2.0 progress, celebrate local arts and culture assets, and invite residents to help shape placemaking priorities for the region. Community members are encouraged to provide feedback via a survey (access here).
Student registration at Shelbyville Central Schools opens online Monday, July 21. Help Sessions for all schools will be held at Shelbyville Middle School on Monday and Tuesday, July 21 and 22, noon to 7 p.m.
The Shelbyville Police Department is looking to hire a Patrol Officer. Details here…
HOOSIER NEWS: Gov. Mike Braun was given slightly more expansive authority this year to explore tolling Indiana’s interstate highways. Braun said existing resources — almost solely reliant on fuel taxes — aren’t enough to help Indiana’s transportation network grow. Braun called fuel taxes a diminishing resource. States are expected to collect less in gas taxes as cars become more fuel efficient and hybrid and electric vehicles become more common. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith recently posted on social media his opposition to tolling. Braun said tolling has to be part of the road funding conversation. (Indiana Public Radio)
NATIONAL NEWS: A new study out of Cornell found that 47 percent of U.S. grandchildren live within 10 miles of a grandparent. A total of 21 percent of grandchildren live within one and five miles, while fully 13 percent live within a mile of the grandparents. That last number is the same figure as the number of grandchildren who live 500 miles or more away. (Cornell University/Numlock)
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EDITORIAL: Graffiti Letdown at the Livery - A Historic Disappointment

A view of continued demolition on W. Broadway as of yesterday shows graffiti, which is humorously referenced in the following piece by George Young. | photo by JOHN WALKER

by GEORGE YOUNG

I knew this day was coming. I had prepared myself. But still, as the walls of the Old Livery on Broadway came tumbling down, I found myself deeply disappointed by what lay beneath.

My great-grandfather, John F. Young, ran that livery at the turn of the 20th century with blistered hands, muck-stained boots, and a horsewhip tucked firmly in his belt. The man survived two devastating barn fires, a lightning strike, and a mule-related incident so scandalous it’s still whispered about in the darker corners of Shelby County.

And for what? To have his legacy backdrop a few pitiful tags, a shaky “420,” and what appeared to be either a cartoon butterfly or a melted bat? The graffiti looked like someone handed a can of Krylon to a raccoon on a sugar bender and told it to express itself.

I stared at the wall for 10 minutes, searching for some hidden meaning, some rebellious spark. Nothing. Just the wind and, somewhere in the distance, the faint, mournful bleat of a kazoo playing “Dust in the Wind”.

This wasn’t art. This was the visual equivalent of texting “K” to the past. Where was the ambition? The satire? The paint-fueled poetry of rebellion? Not even a half-hearted “YOLO” in neon pink. No Boone’s Farm nostalgia. Not a single nod to “The Big Lebowski”, despite a collapsing beam practically begging for a scrawled “The Dude Abides.” Even a humble “Kilroy Was Here” would’ve shown a whisper of cultural memory.

But instead? Nothing. Just a hollow whimper from the soul of the current generation. Where was the rage? The romantic nihilism? The existential angst in bubble letters? Not even a knockoff Banksy rat wearing a MAGA hat.

Somewhere in the Great Hayloft in the Sky, my great-grandfather is surely shaking his translucent head and muttering, “Kids these days... at least we carved our obscenities into trees with conviction.”

I’m not mad. I’m just creatively betrayed. No people bowed. No prophets spoke. And not a single inspired phrase was written on the livery walls.

SHS Courier Archive Highlights

November 12, 1952, Part II

Out of 190 freshmen, 25 had made the honor roll (13%); 31 of 165 sophomores made the honor roll (19%); 18 out of 144 juniors (13%); and 25 of 111 seniors (23%). (Editor’s Note: Out of curiosity, I looked at recent honor roll lists of a few area schools and compared them to school enrollments. Of the schools I reviewed, just under half of the student population made the honor roll in the selected term.)
A newt had escaped Miss McDonald’s class “in order to attend Doc Barnett’s health class.” Kenneth Means had brought the newt to school after finding it in a cave near Bedford. Miss McDonald had also received a toad and a turtle, which she released in the river.
Donna Sue Hageman was the fastest typist in the school, at 77 words per minute.
An article covered the alma maters of the faculty. Mr. Barnett, Mr. Chesser, Mr. Hinshaw, Miss Keith, Miss Kinsley, Mr. Kuhn, Miss McDonald, Mr. Page, Miss Rhodes and Mrs. Simpson were all SHS grads.
New members were inducted into the S-Club in a candlelight service in the girls’ gym. New members were Bill Amos, Rich Applas, Ronnie Arehart, Ronnie Biddle, Tom Boyle, Phil Brown, Jim Deupree, Wayland Fowl, Mick Hinshaw, John Kehoe, Bill Kremer, Jim Law, Bill Latshaw, Keith McLeod, Richard Moorhead, Bob Mullen, Hal O’Dell, Sandy Sirkus, Jim Spindler, Tom Taylor, Bryan Toll and Dick Trueb.

ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: MAJOR HEALTH PARTNERS

This Day in Shelby County History

News around Shelbyville and the surrounding area as reported on or about this date in history. Selections are curated by The Addison Times from Shelby County Public Library Genealogy Department materials.

2005: A Franklin woman was arrested for burglarizing numerous churches, including some in Shelby County. She admitted to stealing to buy drugs.

1995: The Shelbyville News reviewed the beginning of the Waldron Fourth of July celebration, started 43 years prior. Paul and Mary Stafford and Mark and Katherine Rick had planned the first display for July 4, 1952. The first celebration was part of a community entertainment package that included free outdoor movies shown on the side of a former lawn equipment warehouse building at 105 W. Washington St. The old screen was still there. Mary Stafford, 73, had served as the public address announcer for the celebration for many years.

1985: Members of the Southwestern Spartanettes attended an Indiana State University Sparkette Camp. The Spartenettes were Paige Parmer, Cassie Weaver, Amy Rash and Kim Fish.

1975: Godfathers Pinball Emporium & Peanut Arcade in the Belaire Shopping Center held a Summer Spectacular that included an air hockey tournament and a pinball wizard contest.

Joe Landwerlen of J&L Tool & Machine had invented, patented and began producing a new boat float device. The float was used on the bilge drain holes of power boats which sealed the hole when the boat stopped moving.

Candidates for Junior Fireman at the upcoming Flat Rock Firemen’s Festival were Ricky Schonfeld, Kevin Phelps, Dennis Coulston, J.R. Coulston, Scott Phelps and Tim Collins.

1965: George Kepley opened a five-acre pond just north of I-74. The spring-fed pond was one of two in an 11-acre area that had been scooped out for highway fill. Kepley stocked fish in one of them.

Funeral services were held in West Virginia for Rev. John Albert Rayl, 75, a former pastor of Apostolic Tabernacle in Shelbyville from 1937 into the 1940s. Rayl, a minister for 51 years, had been a member of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World Church, and spent much of his ministry traveling by horseback and buggies in the mountains of West Virginia.

1955: Construction neared completion on a new women’s building at the fairgrounds. The all-brick structure, which faced north atop the hill just inside the fairgrounds gates, was much larger than the old frame building it replaced.

1945: The Shelby County Holiness Association was sponsoring nightly revival services at the corner of Pike and Hendricks streets. Evangelist C.L. Wireman from Florida and singers Gilbert and Vera Rushford of Terre Haute led the services.

1935: Councilman J. Edward Evans introduced the subject of daylight saving time for the Shelbyville Common Council. City Attorney Ralph Adams said the city already had a DST ordinance, but due to “general unpopularity,” it had not been enforced.

City Council passed an ordinance permitting the use of wooden shingles in construction of new buildings outside the fire limits of Shelbyville. A 1928 ordinance had prohibited the use of wood shingles city-wide, but the new ordinance only prohibited them in the fire district, which extended from Tompkins east to Hamilton St. and from Mechanic south to Polk.

1925: Fred Kennedy, president of Kennedy Car Liner, announced plans to build a men’s two-story hotel on East Washington St., which would cost about $25,000. The hotel would be located on the old Swain property, near the Star Mill and the Big Four railroad. The hotel would have 40 rooms and a basement. The basement would include a dining room and kitchen. Shower baths would be located in one section of the basement.

1915: The State Board of Health banned common drinking cups at schools. Moving forward, students must have individual cups. “The lads who got down on their knees a hundred times to drink out of the creek, a tile ditch or a hole scooped out of the sand with his hands will hardly appreciate the individual drinking cup. Yet in these days of dense population, the cup has become a necessity,” The Republican said. The common towel and common pencil were also banned. Pencils borrowed from the teacher must remain with the student, the state decreed.

ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: Freeman Family Funeral Homes & Crematory

OBITUARIES

Roger Owen Palmer, 83, of Shelbyville passed away on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, at his home. He was born on August 9, 1941, in Decatur, Illinois, the son of Glen W. and Maud L. (Owen) Palmer. On Jun 5, 1965, he married his wife of 60 years, Sheila Roberts, and she survives. In addition to Sheila, Roger is survived by his daughter, Shari Gabbard and husband, Scott, of Morristown; son, Rikk Palmer and wife, Stephanie, of Cordova, Tennessee; identical twin brother, Russell Palmer and wife, Janet, of Celina, Ohio; brother, Joe Palmer and wife, Carol, of Holt, Michigan; sister, Glenda Wright and husband, Bill, of California; grandchildren, Abigail, Austin and Amelia “Emmy”; and nieces and nephews, Kris, Elaine, Tony, Steve, Teresa, Amy, Andy, Brian, Eric and Julie. He was preceded in death by his parents; son, Philip Palmer; step-mother, Margaret Palmer; and sister, Millie Havens.

In 1959, Roger graduated from Center Grove High School. He obtained his Bachelors and Masters degrees from Ball State University, and completed the driver education instructor coarse at Butler University. Roger was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church, where he sang in the choir, went on mission trips, and served as a deacon and elder. He taught at New Salem School in Rushville, Blackford County School in Hartford City, and retired from Shelbyville High School in 2005, after 31 years of service. Roger taught chemistry, physics, math and science. Roger enjoyed being a Boy Scout Leader for Troop No. 223, gardening, and going fishing with his twin brother and brother-in-law. He was a talented guitarist and enjoyed giving guitar lessons. Roger also enjoyed playing guitar with the “Over the Hill gang” at various nursing homes and in the Shrine Orchestra.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, July 5, 2025, at the First Presbyterian Church, 124 W. Broadway St., in Shelbyville. The funeral service will follow at noon, with Rev. Gretchen Schneider officiating. Interment will be at Forest Hill Cemetery in Shelbyville. Services have been entrusted to Freeman Family Funeral Homes and Crematory, 819 S. Harrison St. in Shelbyville. Memorial contributions may be made to the First Presbyterian Church Choir or Boy Scout Troop No. 223, 1513 Counselor Row, Shelbyville, Indiana 46176. Online condolences may be shared with Roger’s family at www.freemanfamilyfuneralhomes.com.

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