North Harrison superintendent Dr. Lance Richards issued a statement today with plans to return to in-person learning on Monday:
Starting Friday, January 12th, North Harrison Community Schools will transition to remote learning:
Parents, Guardians, Students and Staff:
This is an email we had hoped we would not have to send at any point this year.
The North Harrison Community Schools are transitioning to eLearning starting tomorrow, Friday, January 14th. We will be in eLearning all next week. We will return to in person learning on Monday, January 24th. This decision was not made easily as we recognize the enormous impact this has on our entire school community. Once we realized the challenges we were facing, we wanted to send this information as soon as we could so that families could prepare.
As the day has progressed, it has become obvious that we will not be able to adequately staff our buildings tomorrow and into next week. That is compounded by the fact that in just the last 24 hours we have seen our highest levels of quarantines and positive cases. Simply put, we are rapidly trending the wrong way. If you follow our Covid dashboard you have noted that we have largely been holding our own in terms of Covid numbers for most of the year. If you have monitored it over the last 24 hours you will have seen that our quarantines are dramatically increasing and our overall positivity is up significantly.
We plan to keep our offices open to assist families and staff through the week. We will run our Prosser buses for those students that attend there. We will have food distribution for everyone. A different email will be sent in regards to signing up for food. We will bring it to you if you can't come and get it.
We appreciate everyone's flexibility and understanding. Our school community has been terrific. This is not something we wanted to do.
Please remember that we are not in school on Monday. More info will be sent from each building to clarify our path forward.
Sincerely,
Dr. Lance Richards
Superintendent
North Harrison Community Schools
As of now, there are currently 45 active student cases, 9 staff, and 209 individuals quarantined: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b8w2NbhYcOEm1gyDiquscCJ2vHRo7bmRgn5iuJyzzz0/edit#gid=0
As of Wednesday, January 12th, South Harrison Community Schools currently has 42 active student cases, 12 adult, and 159 individuals quarantined:
After a lengthy discussion between Harrison County Sheriff Nick Smith and the council, an agreement was made to provide funding for new vehicles at the Sheriff’s Department.
The council voted to take $200,000 out of public safety and $50,000 out of riverboat to achieve this.
nate adams- reporter
The Corydon Town Council meeting on January 4th started with an election. Having decided to step aside as president, Les Rhoads nominated Hope Schneider to be his replacement. She was elected by the council with no other nominations. Paul Hamann to continue as VP.
Planning for the Urban Trail continues. As part of the grant process for INDOT there will be a presentation for them this Thursday (not open to the public). Public meetings will follow later in the process.
The county appears willing to lend a helping hand by taking over responsibility for the slab bridge on Mulberry Street. The council gave permission to move forward with planning.
The council approved $43,000 for a new dump truck to replace an aging piece of equipment for the street department. None of the potential suppliers could give a delivery date but they are hoping for 6 months to a year.
Town Manager Scott Flickner then gave a preview of things to come. He is working with Baker Tilly, the town’s financial consultant, on a sustainable plan to provide compensation for on-call employees in the water, sewer & street departments, and to create a rotating schedule for those employees. Currently department supervisors are expected to be on call and are the only employees ever on call. While the current supervisors are apparently ok with the current situation, Mr Flickner doesn’t see the same willingness to sacrifice time with family from younger employees. Corydon is one of very few similarly sized municipalities without a rotating schedule.
He also has a wishlist of things he would like to do with American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds including “premium pay for essential workers” (NOT a bonus). He is working with outside counsel to ensure the funds are distributed according to law. No one wants to have to refund the funding. This will be discussed in greater depth at the next meeting on January 18th.
Last night’s school board meeting featured an update to covid guidelines from superintendent Eastridge. Skip to the 54:00 mark to hear those updates:
Bruce Cunningham of South Harrison Water returned to follow-up on an original request made in October 2021 regarding new water lines in Harrison Township. Cunningham is asking for a $500,000 loan for this project. The commissioners expressed concern about the council’s reception to the request. They voted to table it for the time being.
Today’s meeting also featured all the board appointments by commissioners for 2022:
Alcohol Beverage Board: Joe Shireman
Alternative Education Center: Jim Heitkemper
Blue River Regional Water Board: Dwight Clunie
Zoning Appeals: Maynard Crawford
Chamber of Commerce: Nelson Stepro
HC Community Services: Charlie Crawford
Conservation Committee: Darrell Voelker, one additional appointment tabled
Economic Development: Daniel Shireman, Charlie Crawford
Economic Development Commission: Charlie Crawford, Jim Heitkemper, Nelson Stepro
Family and Children: Jim Heitkemper
Health Board: Chris Byrd
Heth Washington Fire District: Rebecca Reed, Bill Spithe
Lifelong Learning: Jennie Capelle
Organization of Disabilities: Nelson Stepro, Charlie Crawford
Palmyra Fire District: Kim Frederick
Plan Commission: Charlie Crawford, Gary Reed, Phil Williams
PT BOA Board: Larry Shickles, Carolyn Lowe, Patricia Badger Byrd, Steve Anderson (alternate)
Regional Ten Workforce Board: Jim Heitkemper
Regional Sewer District: Tom Tucker
River Hills: Jim Heitkemper
Solid Waste: Nelson Stepro, Jim Heitkemper, Charlie Crawford
Tourism Board: Michael Wiseman, Scott Fluhr
Webster Township Fire District: Melissa McPhillips
Miltown/Whiskey Run Fire District 4: Bill Booth, Jerry Harmon
Harrison Township Fire District: Matt Kitterman
CLICK HERE FOR A full list of appointments made in 2021
The Harrison Township Advisory Board discussed the future of the HC Parks superpass program, a new public restroom at the farmer’s market, a possible open door violation, and more at last night’s meeting:
Their next meeting will be Thursday, January 20th 7:00pm at the Harrison County Government Center.
Wednesday’s Harrison County Parks Board meeting included, among other items, a discussion on new branding for the Indian Creek Trail. Superintendent Larry Shickles also gave the board a report out on the Christmas hayrides for 2021.
Shickles also gave some more information regarding the Parks Department’s hayride refund policy at the 34:42 mark on our audio recording:
At yesterday’s commissioners meeting, Harrison County resident and Harrison County Planning Commission board member Larry Ott publicly addressed a recent change of zoning on a property directly north of the Amazon distribution center currently under construction.
He asked them not to approve the zoning change so that a buffer of dense trees remains intact, but the commissioners went ahead and approved the change.
CLICK HERE AND SKIP TO 44:50 to watch this discussion
Nate adams - Reporter
In a meeting on Monday, November 22, the county council considered a proposal from Sheriff Nick Smith & Auditor Chad Shireman to allow the Sheriff Dept & Emergency Services to payout employees for accrued vacation hours beyond what they could carry over into next year. It is hoped that this will allow a little more scheduling flexibility so that employees can in some way take the benefits awarded to them without forcing the Sheriff Department to pay another employee overtime for them to do so. This will likely save the department money. They will vote to adopt the final language at the next meeting on December 3rd.
Harrison County Parks superintendent Larry Schickles was on hand to request funding to proceed on the Morvin's Landing. He requested $68,700 to replace money previously transferred away from the project, which will be directed towards installing electricity & lighting. He also requested $77,654 from the Morvin's Landing lease fund to begin permitting and acquire hardware for a boat dock. His tentative estimate of total costs for the dock is in excess of $155,000 based on numbers he provided to the council. He will return to request additional funds after the new year. Votes for both will be on the agenda for the 12-13 meeting.
Shickles’ presentation starts at 14:00 mark in the meeting video, click here to watch.
The council approved a $250,000 five year loan to the Harrison County Regional Sewer District so that they could install the new force main for the New Salisbury area. The HCRSD now has funding to complete all of their current expansion plans in that area. Councilman Nix has already identified areas where the RSD should expand access following their current round of expansion. He also broached the idea of the RSD giving over all of this not-yet built infrastructure to the not-yet incorporated town of New Salisbury so that New Salisbury could direct future expansion.
The council approved $25,000 for the commissioners to begin the incorporation process for New Salisbury. This will involve doing initial surveys of the area and polling residents for interest. Council members Schultz and Castetter sought assurance that the public would be involved in this process and councilman Hussung seemed to think it would be in the county's best interest to absorb the large upfront. In a conversation about the known level of interest in the New Salisbury community, Commissioner Charlie Crawford responded:
"I think one of the big challenges is for the Commissioners, or the individuals that are going out there talking with them, to be salesmen and convince them it's in their best interest..."
To watch this discussion, click here and skip to 1:17:00 in the meeting video
Last night the board also voted to send Shickles on to the county council to ask that recently approved funds from the county and the Town of Corydon be put into a special non-reverting fund specifically for the Christmas Village.
These funds totaling $15,000 were originally approved on the condition that they would revert if gone unused.
Skip to 5:00 in the audio recording to listen to this request:
Nate Adams - Reporter
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.
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.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.