Nate Adams - Reporter

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CLICK HERE AND SKIP TO 55:22 TO WATCH THIS EXCHANGE

The regional sewer district (RSD) has asked for $250,000 to expand their pipes as part of the plan to expand service to the recent developments and future developments near New Salisbury. They would be able to repay this as a loan in a five year term.

Councilman Nix mentioned several times thoughout the meeting that he would like to see it as a grant, but with additional oversight stipulations attached. In his view, the Commissioners should have some additional sway on the board to encourage certain, unspecified expansion plans in the New Salisbury area.

However, the council & commissioners collectively appoint five out of the nine board members. The council has previously requested that the RSD request permission from their governing agencies to change the term of their appointments so that they can install new people. It seems that RSD is unwilling to make this change. Of note is Councilman Nix's suggestion that the council can have their appointments removed.

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Nate Adams - Reporter

Click here and skip to 1:32:11 to watch Nick Smith’s presentation

Sheriff Smith presented a request for new radios desperately needed for the county. The council would very much like for the Harrison County Community Foundation (HCCF) to help with some of the costs, but despite three years of planning and research no request has yet been submitted to HCCF.

It is unclear that HCCF, acting in their required timelines, will be able to participate in funding given the emergency timeline believed necessary by the Sheriff. At a price tag of $2,216,053.95, they hope to have the new radio system fully deployed in about six months.

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On Wednesday, November 3rd, the Harrison County Health Board met and discussed multiple agenda items including pediatric COVID vaccinations, annual reports, and emergency procedures.

LISTEN TO OUR AUDIO RECORDING HERE:

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Superintendent Mark Eastridge provided the board with some COVID-19 updates and the board heard multiple concerns from the public at last night’s South Harrison School Board meeting.

Multiple individuals expressed concern for the lack of funding and upgrades for athletic facilities at SHCSC, particularly the locker rooms.

Skip to 18:30 in our recording to hear their comments:

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Last night the Harrison County Parks Board discussed moving the start of their Merry Country Christmas hayrides from the Wright Center to Bicentennial Park in downtown Corydon.

Listen here for details on the new walking bridge to Indiana Creek Trail via Chestnut Street, work at Morvin’s Landing, pickleball courts, and the upcoming Christmas events:

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To see the council's vote, click here and skip to 17:05 in the meeting video

Last the Harrison County council voted on an additional request of $7500 out of riverboat funds from the Harrison County Parks Department. Councilman Kyle Nix made the motion to deny the funds out of riverboat and to approve it out of Harrison County Parks & Rec general fund. Ross Schulz seconded and it was approved by six councilmembers, one being absent.

This request of $7500 is half of the $15,000 needed to start an annual Christmas market in downtown Corydon. Last week the Town of Corydon approved the $7500 for this project.

Click here to listen to the Corydon Town Council's vote and an in-depth discussion of the project

Listen to hear to October 13th’s meeting of the Harrison County Sheriff's Merit Board meeting:

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CLICK HERE AND SKIP TO 16:50 to watch this presentation

The Harrison County Parks Department has asked the county council for $7500 out of riverboat funds to pay for a potential Christmas market in downtown Corydon.

The proposed plan for the market is to be open three weekends, starting the Friday after Thanksgiving with up to 20 vendors. Parks superintendent Larry Shickles explained that

"we're going through the motions to get everything done so that in case we can get everything rolling, we would be good to go, but there is a possibility that it would not happen and the money would revert."

The Parks plans to request an additional $7500 from the Town of Corydon to fund the project.

Last night the Harrison County Parks Board heard plans for a German Christmas market from superintendent Larry Shickles. This event requires an initial investment of $15,000 split between the Parks Department and the Corydon Town Council. Goal for this year is 20 vendors with ultimate goal of 30 vendors.

Skip to 7:00 into our recording to hear details:

Harrison Township is under agreement with the state board of accounts to spend $800,000 of their cash reserves. The township should only keep two years of its annual budget in reserve, but Harrison currently has more than four years worth.

The advisory board has held two meetings recently that discuss this surplus and how it can be spent.

If you live in Harrison Township, we highly recommend listening to our audio recordings of these meetings:

To watch the Vote and discussion, click here and skip to 32:00

Last night the county council approved an additional request of $328,207 to cover a shortfall within the Harrison County Hospital’s EMS department.

Several other additional requests were approved in this meeting. The council also heard requests from the Harrison County Highway Department and the Sheriff’s Department.

The Corydon Town Council held a meeting Friday, September 10th. Amongst other things, the council discussed a new possible location for the proposed skatepark in downtown Corydon:

Notes by Ashley Black

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CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS MEETING

The North Harrison Community School Board met with three different meetings on the agenda for September 9, 2021. The 2022 budget hearing meeting began at 7:05pm with all school board members present.

Dr. Lance Richards presented how and why the administration calculates the proposed budgets in each of the tax levy funds. The budget will be made public via Gateway, which is an Indiana portal for government units. This can be found https://budgetnotices.in.gov/Unit_View.aspx?unit_id=929.

Once the presentation concluded, the board president ended the budget hearing and called to order the regular meeting of the board (minute 22:20), which included the adoption of the agenda, approvals for the August 2021 meeting minutes, claims, payrolls and the bank reconciliation. There were no school presentations this month, and there was one staff member who stood up to speak during the participation portion. Their comments related to teacher compensation, and they were asked to speak during the third and final meeting of the evening, which was the public hearing regarding collective bargaining.

School board and superintendent comments can be found at minute mark 32:20.

The public hearing regarding collective bargaining was called to order and Dr. Richards went over the timeline of the bargaining regarding teacher compensation. Kelly Book, a science teacher at North Harrison High School, shared frustrations about the pay scale levels.

Go to minute mark 45:40 for full comments.

A handful of parents spoke up against and in support of South Harrison’s recent mask mandate at tonight’s school board meeting.

Tamzen Edwards, a parent representing the South Harrison chapter of Our Kids, Our Choice” stated that she “"cannot continue to allow my children's liberties to be trampled upon."

After hearing from several impassioned individuals, the board insisted they will not vote to ovverule superintendent Mark Eastridge’s guidance and that the mask mandate still stands. Board member Diana Sailor addressed the speakers, stating:

"I really agree with a lot of your statements, but we gotta do what we gotta do to get through this year."

To hear Dr. Eastridge’s covid update and the following public comments, skip to 02:40 in our recording:

Before the Labor Day weekend, both South Harrison and North Harrison schools released updated covid guidance for Fall 2021.

Lanesville Community Schools last updated their covid guidance on July 29th, 2021 and that document can be found here.

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South Harrison Community School Corporation

COVID Guidance - Fall 2021 (updated 9/2/21) Click here to view on corporation website

Masks are now REQUIRED for all students and staff when inside school buildings:

Masks

● Masks are required to be worn by all students and staff in the buildings and on school buses. ○ This includes after care programs within our buildings.

○ Masks must cover both the nose and mouth.

● Mask-free time will be provided when students are safely 6 feet apart.

Track and Isolate Positive Cases:

● Individuals who test positive for COVID-19 must stay home for 10 days following the onset of symptoms or a positive test result and must be 24 hours fever free without fever reducing medications and symptoms improved before returning from isolation.

Close Contacts and Quarantine Info:

● If masked, no quarantines for asymptomatic with self-monitoring.

○ Parents need to monitor students for symptoms and not send a symptomatic child to school. ○ We ask all staff to monitor students in the classroom as well.

● Students who do not follow the mask requirement or are repeatedly asked to put their mask back on, will be subject to being quarantined.

● Anywhere where a student can’t be masked, (lunch room, band, choir unless masked) close contacts would still result in quarantines.

● Vaccinated and asymptomatic students do not need to quarantine but must monitor for symptoms. ● When students and staff are masked, they will only be identified as a close contact if the individual is within 3 feet of a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more within a 24-hour period. Close contacts will be notified regardless of quarantine status.

● If not masked, the 6 ft quarantine rule applies.

Temporary Virtual Instruction for Students During Quarantine

Students who are quarantined due to COVID-19 will continue to receive instruction.

● K-6 students will receive daily math and ELA instruction through Google Meet.

● 7-12 students will log into Google Meet for each class period.

● Temporary Virtual Instruction is only available for students who are quarantined.

● Temporary Virtual Instruction will begin 24 hours after the quarantine begins.

Symptomatic Students or Staff

● May return with an alternate diagnosis from a medical professional, or

● May return with a negative test result (Rapid or PCR), or

● Quarantine for 10 days (see instructions for temporary virtual instruction).

○ AND must be symptom free (sudden onset of a cough, sudden shortness of breath, sudden onset of loss of taste and smell (not lingering)).

● Students who call in with COVID symptoms will be marked temporary virtual.

Cleaning

● Schools will continue with cleaning, sanitizing, and hygiene protocols.

Assigned Seating and Cohorting

● Students will have assigned seating in the classrooms and cafeteria.

Additional Considerations

● The superintendent of each district has the authority to adjust all guidelines in consultation with the Harrison County Health Department or the Indiana Department of Health.

● Currently, the best way to ensure a normal school environment for our students is for every eligible person to be vaccinated. A high vaccination rate offers the best protection against variants and the best opportunity for ending this pandemic.

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NORTH HARRISON COMMUNTIY SCHOOl corporation

covid guidance for fall 2021 (updated 09/03/2021)

Masks are not required at North Harrison Community School Corporation:

Parents, Guardians, Students, and Staff:

Just a few quick notes to share with you as we head into the long weekend.  

We have added a new link under the quick links on our home page for those who may be interested in subbing in any capacity.  Just click on the "I Want to Sub" link, and you will find all of the information on how to serve as a substitute in our classrooms and cafeterias, as well as how to get your bus license. 

We are going to make some changes to our dashboard next week to provide more information to everyone.  We will be including quarantine information so that everyone can see the numbers impacted.  It is very important to note that this will be all students out on quarantine due to contact tracing.  This will not just be school related quarantines.  This will include those that had family and other community based exposures.  There are times when the outside contact tracing has impacted our overall quarantine numbers dramatically.  If you have been following our dashboard you will see the numbers regarding our active Covid cases.  The numbers for the high school have improved significantly.  Once the individual can return to school we remove them from the count.  We make every effort to update that information daily to reflect those that are returning and any new cases that have been reported to us.  

We have shared in our updates that our main goal has been to return to full in-person instruction.  We want to keep our schools open and our students in the classroom with their teachers.  The message we have received is that our school community wants this as well.  If you have positive cases in your family please reach out to our school nurses for guidance.  If your kids are sick they have to stay home.  We see cases that have involved sick kids coming to school​ that have led to others having to quarantine.​  These kind of exposures can reverse our progress in an instant.  

We continue to strongly recommend masks for everyone in accordance with IDOH guidelines.  If your child continues to consistently wear a mask at school, then it is unlikely that they will be contact traced.   The governor also has issued additional guidance that removes the three foot rule if the students are masked.  This will help keep more kids in school.  In those instances, we will contact you if there is a potential exposure and work with you to monitor the situation.  We will do our very best to manage the distancing and exposure minutes that the IDOH guidance outlines to accommodate everyone.  Please note that our data continues to indicate that few if any of our mask wearers have come up positive. 

​We know that t​his has not been perfect.  ​​We appreciate your continued patience and understanding.  Any future changes will be determined by the data that we see in our buildings.  This​​ is our new normal for the time being.    

As a reminder, federal regulations for public transportation require face coverings on school buses for all students and staff.  This federal mandate has been extended until January of 2022.  This does greatly diminish the contact tracing on buses. 

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend.  

Sincerely,

Dr. Lance Richards
Superintendent — North Harrison Community Schools

Within a a few months, Lanesville will be home to a 280,000 sq ft warehouse dedicated to the sorting and distribution of goods. On Thursday, September 2nd, the Harrison County Planning Commission approved plans from developer Ambrose Property Group to build the facility and they will break ground very soon. Ambrose Property Group is building with a client lined up to lease the property and is not able to reveal the company’s identity due to an NDA.

Ambrose insists that this building will be the “first of its kind in Indiana" with an emphasis on automation and robotics. Their client intends to have two shifts with 216 employees working first, 132 working the second.

The facility will be located at the corner of Pete Schickel Way and Crandall-Lanesville Rd. The plans include extensive landscaping, sound barriers, lighting regulations, and retention ponds to reduce the impact to the neighboring homes.

Several residents spoke up during the meeting, expressing concerns about the project. One resident insisting that:

"We don't know our neighbor is...we can't oppose it because we don't know who we are opposing...we don't know if it's Amazon, we don't know who."

To better understand this project and its implications, we recommend you watch the following video of the vote and listen to the meeting audio in full:

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CLICK HERE AND SKIP TO 1:28:00 to watch this discussion

Last night the county council discussed a letter they received from the Harrison County Health Department after voting to deny funding for new positions in 2022.

Councilmember Kyle Nix read aloud the last line of the letter — a strong point of view from the HC Health Department:

“We cannot continue to do this without adequate support in terms of number of staff and compensation. The health department will have no choice but to make hard decisions as to the level and quality of services it will be able to provide.”

The health department insists that they are understaffed and overworked and in need of the additional positions. The council discussed the letter at length, but did not express any interest in reversing the decision.

We recommend you watch the discussion to learn more.

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OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM NORTH HARRISON SUPERINTENDENT - FRIDAY, AUGUST 27th:

Parents, Guardians, Students, and Staff:

This year our main goal has been to return to full in-person instruction. We want to keep our schools open and our students in the classroom with direct instruction from their teachers. The message we have received is that our school community wants this as well. The one thing that everyone agrees on is that we all want our schools open and our students in school. No parent or educator wants a repeat of last year. With the help and understanding of our entire school community, we have been able to keep our schools open and allow the vast majority of our families to send their children to school every day.

The North Harrison School Board had asked that K-8 mask up for two weeks ending today. As a district, we have stated our intention from the start to examine the data as it relates to our school community and to track the numbers in our specific schools. We did have some early challenges. Our high school numbers did increase and have fallen back. As you know, the numbers at our other buildings went up at the start of the year. At this point they have returned to much lower levels.

Starting Monday, August 30th, we are going to revert to a Parent Choice Option for masking K-8 with some important qualifiers. We continue to strongly recommend masks for everyone. For our purposes a face shield is also acceptable. It is important for all parents to note that if your child continues to consistently wear a mask at school, then it is unlikely that they will be contact traced. That bears repeating; if your child continues to wear a mask at school they will not be contact traced unless there is an unusual circumstance. We will do our very best to manage the distancing and exposure minutes that the IDOH guidance outlines to accommodate everyone. Many more students are electing to wear masks at the high school and this has led to reduced contact tracing. Our data indicates that few if any of our mask wearers have come up positive. While that is not particularly scientific, it is encouraging.

This will not be perfect. We believe we can make this work. However, everything will be determined by the data that we see in our buildings. It is our new normal.

Our school community must stay together in order to keep our schools open and our kids in school. Please do not send sick kids to school. If you have positive cases in your home, your kids have to stay home. Many of the cases we have had to process and trace have involved sick kids coming to school. Sick kids coming to school could be our undoing. We want to make this work for everyone, but everyone has to do their part.

As a reminder, federal regulations for public transportation require face coverings on school buses for all students and staff. This federal mandate has been extended until January of 2022. This does greatly diminish the contact tracing on buses.

We ask for your grace, patience, and understanding as we navigate this challenging time.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lance Richards

Superintendent

North Harrison Community Schools

Graylin Porter - Reporter

Last night the Parks Department voted to raise 2022 rates for modern camping at Buffalo Trace.

This increase is due to a clerical error. When putting up the rates for the Pal-Wow festival, the Parks Department entered them in wrong and and all camping sites were sold out before they realized the error. Rather than fix the rate going forward, it will now be increased to $48. Skip to 37:50 in our audio recording of the meeting to hear details

Also, the board voted to close the Indian Creek Trail between Rothrock and Valley View Bridges for the following dates and times:

Daytime closure: November 12th - November 15th (will be open 5pm -dark)
FULLTIME CLOSURE: Nov 22 - Dec 22 (gates on Rothrock & Valley View bridges locked to prevent trail traffic)

This is the annual closure due to the Parks' Christmas hayride events. To hear the vote & discussion on the bridge closure, skip to 1:08:00 in our recording.

Skip to 1:09:35 to hear an update about the Parks Department's move in The Wright Center, which accordingly to superintendent Larry Shickles is "way behind schedule."

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CLICK here and skip to 40:30 in the meeting video to watch his presentation and the council's questions

Last night's county council meeting featured an annual report and additional request from Harrison County Hospital CFO Chuck Wiley. Wiley presented a request of $328,207 to cover a shortfall.

EMS manager Joe Squire also mentioned that larger buildings will be needed in the next 5-10 years.

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