DIVISION 2

Best News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure/Category 1

Suzzi Romines, Osgood Journal (Versailles)

Lauren Hill: ‘Best day ever’

November 2, 2014 will long be remembered as an important day for pediatric cancer awareness and for the life and legacy of 19-year-old Lauren Hill of Greendale.

Lauren, diagnosed with DIPG (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma) in November of 2013 was recently informed after a follow up MRI confirmed what she felt inside; her tumor had grown, and instead of the possible two years survival time she was initially given, she was told she had just weeks to live.

Lauren had just one wish, to feel well enough to play in her first collegiate basketball game. This wish was granted with the combined efforts of Mount St. Joseph staff, Xavier University, Hiram College, her medical team, and the NCAA that granted the game to be moved up two weeks due to Lauren’s health.

The team’s opener against the Hiram College Terriers was played at the Cintas Center, the large facility offered by Xavier University to accommodate the sold out crowd of 10,250 fans, a far larger number than the average 129 spectators that the MSJ ladies basketball team has often played for.

Many from Ripley County followed Lauren’s story as local teams had played against her when she was at Lawrenceburg High School. Two busloads of Jac-Cen-Del students and families were spotted at the Xavier parking lot for the Sunday game.

Lauren and the team entered the court to the boisterous sound of fans from near and far; a crowd of thousands from her hometown of Greendale/Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and even busloads of local fans from Jac-Cen-Del, Switzerland County, and beyond. The noise and lights compounded the headaches associated with DIPG, so Lauren warmed up wearing sunglasses and earplugs, even used headphones throughout the game.

The teams were announced in big time style with cheerleaders and mascots, her high school band playing the school song, and basketball and other celebrities in the front row. The crowd gave her a welcoming cheer as they witnessed a special moment in time; Lauren’s dream coming true. First year head coach Dan Benjamin didn’t just put her in; she started the game.

Within the first 17 seconds following tip off, the ball was passed to Lauren and with her non-dominate left hand, she scored the first two points. She was then taken out of the game and watched and cheered her teammates being subbed in and out. At halftime, the score was 28 – 25, Mount Saint Joseph University with the lead.

During half-time Brad Johansen of Channel 12 News, along with Keith Desserich, Founder of The Cure Starts Now, who lost his daughter Elena seven years ago to DIPG, introduced the half-time presentations. Lauren was presented the Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award by Pat Summitt herself, former Tennessee head coach. This award is usually reserved for a player or coach of one of the Final Four women’s collegiate teams. Other surprises included the announcement that Walgreen’s will make a match for the first $10,000 in donations received by texting 88588 to 4thecure.

Coach Stephanie White of the WNBA Indiana Fever also pledged $5,000 from their organization to The Cure Starts Now. WNBA players Elena Della Donne, Skylar Diggins, and Tamika Catchings were in attendance to support Lauren Hill, along with Fred Jackson of the Buffalo Bills who came for this memorable game.

Johansen also announced that 220, #22 jerseys from around the country were sent to Lauren. She kept a few, but the rest she signed and requested that they be auctioned off to continue to raise money for pediatric brain cancer research. One other important announcement was that every year, the American Sports Network pledged to broadcast an annual Lauren Hill game in upcoming basketball seasons.

With just 10 minutes into the last half, Hiram College was leading 43 – 42 and Lauren Hill was not on the bench, possibly due to the headaches and nausea she experiences, and unquestionably a much deserving rest from so much attention and excitement.

But keeping Lauren Hill away would prove to be impossible. She came back among her teammates with pink sunglasses and headphones on and cheered on her team. With just one minute to go, Lauren took off her sunglasses and earplugs, adjusted her kneepads, and the chant “We Want Lauren” filled the stands.

A timeout was called and near the 25 second mark, Lauren made her second appearance in the game. The ball was passed to Hill who missed the layup on her first shot, was rebounded by #24 Tara Dennis who passed to Hill, who then used her right hand and sealed the deal for the final basket of the game. The final score: Mount St. Joseph Lions 66 – 55. Lauren Hill, 4 points.

The postgame ceremony included Lauren being presented the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award by Jean Dell, Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Women’s Sports Association, who stated their group has never been more proud to present to such a deserving recipient. The total from the day’s fundraising efforts was announced and between donations and item sales, The Cure Starts Now will receive more than $40,000 to put towards DIPG research.

Lauren was handed the microphone to speak at both halftime and postgame, and then afterwards at the press conference. She thanked everyone for their continued support and for striving to find a cure for DIPG even after she is no longer with us.

She had said in the press conference that it felt awesome making those two baskets, especially the second basket as she was strong enough to make it with her dominate right hand, the side of her body that’s been most affected with loss of feeling and coordination due to the growing brain tumor. Lauren also noted through the tears that she hoped she

made her parents proud… and to celebrate this day, she just wanted to go home and be with her family.

It will be unlikely that anyone associated with Lauren and DIPG will fail to recall this occasion, what Lauren’s taught others about never giving up and following dreams, and the many ways so many people came together to make this young girl’s wish come true.

And no one will ever forget the moment, at the end of the game when MSJ freshman Lauren Hill stood in the middle of center court with tears in her eyes and with 10,000 fans surrounding her, and said, “Today has been the best day that I ever had.”

For more information on DIPG and to donate to fight pediatric cancer, go to the-curestartsnow.org, and read Lauren’s journey in the Oct. 28 edition of the Osgood Journal.

Best News Coverage With No Deadline Pressure/Category 2

Ben Skirvin, Brown County Democrat (Nashville)

Drained: Intricacies of septic condemnation confuse, frustrate residents

Seventeen days before Christmas 2008, at the order of the Brown County Health Department, Brown County Water Utility shut off service to the Hayworth household.

On Aug. 13, 2008, Lowell Hayworth and his wife, Amanda, had bought a new mobile home to replace an existing dwelling at 7143 Oak Ridge Road.

On Aug. 15, environmental health specialist John Kennard appeared on their property with a stop-work order alleging that removing and replacing the mobile home was illegal without an additional septic permit from the health department.

And so started a six-year legal battle, which continues to this day.

West of the Hayworth property, on a plot northeast of Lake Lemon in the mostly abandoned, flood-damaged hamlet of Trevlac, sits the meeting hall for a now-defunct American Legion post.

The owner, Daniel Smith, faces jail time after being convicted of two counts of failure to vacate a condemned property – a Class B misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 180 days in jail.

County health officials alleged he was living there after the property had been condemned. Investigative notes say sewage was leaking into the basement of a nearby property.

Smith’s Aug. 13 trial was the culmination of a decade of legal battles sparked by a condemnation letter Kennard signed.

Documents released by the Brown County Health Department as part of a September 2012 public records request show 20 other properties in Brown County have been condemned in the past five years, although it’s unclear how many of those were for failed septic systems.

Kennard claims to have had as many as 160 open septic investigations at one time. He said he currently is reviewing about 100.

How does it happen?

The process by which properties get condemned for septic failure has been questioned and debated in recent years by several property owners, attorneys and health department representatives like Kennard.

Even area counties don’t agree on a specific procedure.

The circumstances under which a health department employee can enter a property is one point of debate.

Link Fulp, Bartholomew County assistant director of environmental health, said his office will enter property uninvited only in order to get permission from the owner to conduct an inspection.

Monroe County Health Department septic inspector Randy Raines said he will enter property to conduct an inspection without getting a warrant or permission only if no other option exists.

At least two sections of state law – regular and administrative code – discuss the investigatory powers of health officers.

In short, a health officer or a designee can enter a property at any reasonable time to determine compliance with health laws – with the permission of the owner.

But if the officer or designee does not need permission if he or she has a court order; if an emergency condition exists that could result in a greater public health threat or individual health risk; if the place is public or in plain view; or if the owner has requested a license of some sort through the health department.

Brown County Clerk Beth Mulry could not produce any warrant requests from the Brown County Health Department regarding the Smith or Hayworth cases. In her eight years in office, she said the health department has never requested a warrant.

‘We’re selective’

The attorney for the Hayworth family holds a file of photographs of Kennard entering their property on numerous occasions, as evidenced by changes in weather and time stamps. “No trespassing” signs are posted along the roadside edge of the property.

“We never gave him permission to enter our property,” Amanda Hayworth said. “We never saw a court order.”

Kennard was granted permission to enter once, she clarified, under the supervision of her lawyer. That visit was to observe a septic system inspection conducted by Ed Brown.

“At one point, he would stop here every three or four days,” Amanda Hayworth said about Kennard. “We found out from neighbors that he was walking around while we weren’t here.”

A single search warrant was mentioned by police officers during Smith’s trial. However, it was not introduced as evidence by the prosecutor or the defense. It was requested by the prosecutor in association with an arrest warrant for failure to vacate a condemned dwelling.

Officers attempted to serve it July 18, 2013, eight years after the initial complaint was levied against Smith.

The name of the person who filed the initial complaint was not included in the investigative notes.

Other curiosities exist in those notes related to the Smith case. In an entry dated Oct. 31, 2011, either Kennard or the health department’s other investigator, April Reeves, claimed that during a drive-by inspection, insulation and drywall installation in progress was observed inside the former Legion building.

The property is gated, and the building is set back at least 15 feet from the road, according to photos entered into evidence. Nashville Police Officer Paul Henderson testified to needing a bolt cutter to open the gate to the property.

On four occasions in the investigative log in 2012, a health department employee entered the Smith property to the extent of recording readings on the electric meter and entering the building while Smith was not present.

None of these entries notes that permission was obtained, a warrant or court order was issued, an imminent health hazard was recorded or a permit was requested.

Procedures, however, have recently changed, Kennard said.

He said he now obtains search warrants through the county prosecutor whenever he sets out to conduct an investigation.

“The average citizen thinks I’ve got nothing to do on a Thursday afternoon, so I’m gonna go pillage and plunder,” Kennard said.

“If I knock on the door and the property owner says I can’t enter, I get a search warrant. We’re selective when we decide to proceed. I can’t just arbitrarily pick someone.”

Prosecutor Jim Oliver said per Indiana code and local policy, a search warrant is required only when investigating criminal charges, such as failure to vacate. If the health department is investigating civil matters like compliance or public safety, then no warrant is required.

Who can sign?

Questions about procedure extend beyond when or how to enter a property.

On May 5, 2006, Kennard sent the order to Smith to vacate his property.

It was not signed by any officer of any court nor by then-County Attorney Kurt Young, then-Brown County Health Officer Paul Page or any member of the Brown County Board of Health.

“All they (Brown County Health Department) had to do was issue an order?” public defender Andy Szakaly asked. “That’s part of my problem. How can I defend this case without approaching the validity of the order itself?”

During the Smith trial, Szakaly said, the court would not allow him to present evidence attacking the way the condemnation order was issued. Judge Judith Stewart ruled that Smith missed his opportunity by failing to file suit against the health department within the time limit specified in the order.

Szakaly said the condemnation letter did not specify the procedure for challenging the order.

“It’s like Miranda rights,” he said. “How can Daniel Smith be expected to know his rights if he was never informed what those rights are?”

Szakaly plans to appeal the convictions against Smith on those grounds.

Raines said all condemnations in Monroe County require a court order and a hearing at which the owner is given a chance to object.

Fulp said his office almost never condemns property because of septic failure, as condemnations fail to address the health hazard and may make the situation worse when the property is later neglected.

More signature issues

Signatures are a point of contention in the Hayworth case, too.

Kennard’s signature is the only one on several enforcement actions against the Hayworths, including an Oct. 28, 2008, water disconnection order and an Aug. 29, 2011, condemnation order.

While Monroe and Bartholomew county officials disagree on whether a court order is required to condemn a property, both agree authority is not granted directly to the environmental health specialist.

Fulp said all condemnation orders issued in Bartholomew County are conducted under the authority of the local health officer, under advisement of the county attorney.

A county ordinance from 1995 granted condemnation power to agents of the health officer, Kennard said.

Kennard said the decision to attach his name, rather than then-health officer Page’s, to condemnation orders came out of meetings among himself, Page, prosecutor Oliver and former county attorney Young.

For at least part of the period covering the Smith and Hayworth cases, Page was suffering from late-stage terminal cancer.

Kennard said the local policy has recently changed on the sign-off procedure, too.

The prosecutor’s office has never pursued condemnation charges against anyone owning property that was condemned solely on Kennard’s authority. For example, Smith was charged based on incidents related to condemnation orders that Page signed.

Records and memories

Health department recordkeeping questions have surfaced as well.

Kennard claimed to have identified surface evidence of a septic failure sometime between Aug. 13, 2008, and Sept. 8, 2008. He identifies the location as the southeast corner of the property. He said he discovered it “probably” by seeing and smelling sewage, although he could not recall exactly when or where.

Four septic inspectors, two of whom are licensed with the health department, have since provided inspection reports that found no septic system in that area. The reports say the septic system is 20 to 30 yards away, largely on the opposite side of the house.

Pictures show Kennard was present at one of these inspections, and court documents show that results of the other inspections were forwarded to his office.

Yet, Kennard testified under oath as recently as 2013 to having evidence of surface leakage in the southeast corner of the property. When asked to provide evidence of this failure, he was able to recall that a soil sample had been taken, but he was unable to produce the results or remember what they were.

Last week, he continued to maintain that the Hayworths were once operating an illegal septic system. He contends that portions of a separate failing system were covered over in order to mask noncompliance.

However, in Kennard’s opinion, this is irrelevant, because he believes, failing or otherwise, the existing 1,000-gallon septic tank is too small for the home.

Septic inspectors Marvin “Junior” Cody and Ed Brown, in separate phone interviews, confirmed that the tank was 1,000 gallons, but both said that was more than sufficient for a house that size. Neither could recall any evidence of septic failure at the property.

In limbo

Along State Road 135 South, another property sits vacant. This one is not yet condemned, although no one is allowed to live there.

“I used to defend John (Kennard),” property owner Susan Showalter said. “We worked together teaching environmentally friendly septic practices. I’m the last person to pollute.”

She said Kennard appeared on her rental property after receiving a complaint from a tenant about a failing septic system. According to Showalter, he found standing water in a hole downhill from the dwelling. Based on this, Kennard declared the septic system to be failing.

Kennard disagrees. He said it wasn’t just water.

“There is a 4-foot (expletive) hole in her back yard,” Kennard said. “We can drive out there and look at it.”

That disagreement kicked off correspondence between health department employees and Showalter that demonstrates how confusing interactions with the agency can be.

In an email dated Nov. 22, 2011, environmental health specialist Reeves told Showalter that she could use an alternative septic method called “pump and haul.” An alarm notifies property owners when the septic tank is full, so a contractor can pump the tank.

As evidenced by receipts from Reed Excavating, Showalter immediately implemented this method.

On Feb. 8, 2012, Kennard testified against Showalter in a small-claims hearing related to a rental disagreement. He claimed that Showalter’s septic system was failing and that she had ignored all orders to rectify the situation.

“She had not paid her bill, so the alarm had been removed,” Kennard said.

Showalter said payment was delayed when the bill was misplaced in a file related to the case. Receipts show that the issue was resolved within a few days of the hearing.

A month later, an email from Reeves said Showalter could return to using the pump and haul method, but per an order from Kennard, she had to totally replace her septic system immediately.

Showalter responded with a request for a specific timeline. About a month later, she sent another message demanding a response. An email from Reeves then stated that Kennard will no longer allow the pump-and-haul method.

The property has been vacant since 2010.

According to the final email in the series, as long as it is not occupied and Showalter does nothing, it will not be officially condemned.

She said the health department has refused to approve proposed changes to the property.

The Hayworths remain in a similarly confusing situation. The family sued the health department, demanding a reversal of the condemnation order.

On June 24, 2013, Judge Joseph Meek ruled that the family had no standing to bring suit because the county had not actually taken the land nor deprived the family of its value.

However, the health department has since contacted the family about leaving the house. The Hayworths have once again filed suit.

Since Aug. 15, 2011, the family has spent more than $20,000 in legal fees and inspection costs.

All they really want to do is live in their home, Amanda Hayworth said.

“We’ll spend every dollar that we have fighting this,” Lowell Hayworth said.

Best Ongoing News Coverage/Category 3

Suzannah Couch & Sara Clifford, Brown County Democrat (Nashville)

Hannah Wilson murder

8:01 p.m. UPDATE: 

Indiana State Police released the following statement this evening:

Information and investigative leads are still being gathered as this investigation is still active. Investigators and the Brown County Prosecutor’s Office encourage anyone with information related to Hannah Wilson’s activities prior to being reported missing to call the Indiana State Police Bloomington Post at (812) 332-4411.

As this case continues to be reviewed and evidence continues to be collected, no new information will be released related to the details of Hannah’s murder, or what led to the arrest of Mr. Messel.

Once the investigation is complete and the Brown County prosecutor has the facts of the case in their entirety, a probable cause affidavit will be submitted to the Brown County Prosecutor’s Office.

While members of the Indiana State Police and the Brown County Prosecutor’s Office understand the level of public interest associated with this heinous crime, it is of vital importance to not compromise this fluid investigation with the release of information that could prove harmful to the judicial process.

The Indiana State Police continue to stress the filing of criminal charges is only the beginning of the process and that Mr. Messel is presumed innocent until and unless guilt is proven in court.

2:22 p.m. UPDATE: 

An autopsy Saturday morning showed that Hannah N. Wilson died of blunt force trauma to the back of the head, Brown County Coroner Earl Piper said.

A woman driving on Plum Creek Road Friday morning saw Wilson’s body face-down in a vacant lot at State Road 45 and Plum Creek. A call to the Brown County Sheriff’s Department reporting the body came in at 8:30 a.m., according to dispatch logs.

Wilson had been dead for 10 hours or less when she was found, Piper said. She was wearing pants, a blouse and lace-up tennis shoes.

Piper said no weapons were found at the crime scene.

Wilson was reported missing Friday afternoon, the Indiana State Police reported.

The IU senior and member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority was from Fishers. 

Daniel E. Messel, 49, Bloomington, was booked into the Brown County jail Friday night on a preliminary charge of murder. He was arrested at a home on Ison Road in Bloomington. 

Online records show Messel has been in the court system since 1993. He was convicted of battery in 1993; leaving the scene of the accident and operating a vehicle while intoxicated, both in 1994; and battery by means of a deadly weapon and battery resulting in serious bodily injury in 1995.

A battery resulting in bodily injury charge was filed against him in August 2006, but was later amended to disorderly conduct.

It is unclear at this point how Messel and Wilson came into contact. 

10:45 p.m. UPDATE:

The body found near Plum Creek Road this morning is that of 22-year-old Hannah N. Wilson, a current student at Indiana University Bloomington. 

Police have arrested Daniel E. Messel, 49, Bloomington, on a preliminary charge of murder. 

Wilson was reported missing Friday afternoon, the Indiana State Police reported in a press release at 10:24 p.m. She was from Fishers.

“The Monroe County prosecutor’s office, along with the Brown County prosecutor and the Brown County coroner, are also involved in the investigation that continues at this time,” the ISP’s release said. “This is the only information that will be released at this time.” 

ORIGINAL STORY:

Indiana State Police are investigating a death in Brown County.

A body was discovered in the Needmore area Friday, Coroner Earl Piper confirmed.

Piper will not release any details until a forensic autopsy is completed Saturday morning.

A forensic autopsy is conducted “when you are suspecting something other than a natural cause of death,” he said.

He said the body was found “not in an enclosed structure.”

Indiana State Police Public Information Officer Sgt. Curt Durnil confirmed the state police were investigating the matter, but would not release any other details.

Any other information released at this time could “hinder the investigation,” he said.

Best General Commentary/Category 4

Joe Awad, The Journal-Press (Aurora)

We belong in the thick of it

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of griev-ances.

Wow! The newspaper ran a letter to the editor last week. It was political and it was, of all things, in an election year. OMG!

So I’m confronted by someone who challenges the decision. Mind you, the letter runs nearly 50 days before the election, and the response will receive equal treatment, right down to placement and headline size.

Fanning the flames

A newspaper doing what a newspaper is empowered to do by the First Amendment, doing what it should to responsibly fan the flames of debate, doing what the Founding Fathers would fervently applaud might be confusing in these days of pseudo-media, but get use to it.

It’s an opinion page, and with that reality comes insightful, candid comment, and stupid, superficial ones.

I am not the arbiter of political views, but I am the gatekeeper of what goes on the opinion page.

That letter was within the bounds. Far better than the half-backed loaded questions one often finds on social media pages. You know the kind: guilty by suggestion!

You decide if you agree with the two political candidates. You decide about the response that will appear in The Register Thursday.

No one is going to lay down in this searing election year, and we are going to be right in the middle of it because that is what the press’ role is in an open society.

As for policy, I have embedded it in this column; to the right ladies and gentlemen. It is based on many years of experience, comparisons to other newspapers’ policies, and suggestions from folks inside and outside journalistic circles.

Someone else remarked the letter last week was printed to sell newspapers. Don’t mind at all if it helps, but my motivation runs much deeper.

Throughout my journalistic career, I have treated editorial pages with as much liberty as possible.

They should not be feature pages, although there is room for occasional levity.

The tangible world

Before the glut of social media, Register Publications ran candid letters routinely. Letters these days, however, are rare because, frankly, it is easier to sit at a computer and fire off some condemning comment that is full of baloney.

With that said, keep in mind that I respect social media’s role in society. As I recently wrote, the traditional press and the many forms of contemporary media are better off working together.

That way we can shine a brighter light on the people who make decisions that impact our lives.

And as Forrest Gump said in his succinct and insightful way: That’s all I got to say about that.

Best Editorial Writer/Category 5

Alan Stewart, The Corydon Democrat

Plenty of failure to go around

Three-time Pro Bowl and 2012 Super Bowl champion running back Ray Rice failed earlier this year when he hit his future wife not once, but twice, the second of which caused his fiancée to hit her head on a handrail, knocking her out.

The Baltimore Ravens failed when they backed Rice and said he was still “their guy.”

Following the release of video of the incident by the website TMZ, the Ravens, earlier this week, terminated Rice’s contract.

The National Football League and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, failed by initially giving Rice only a two-day suspension, which was increased to an indefinite suspension only after the latest video surfaced.

Even yesterday (Tuesday), Rice’s victim failed. She’s furious, not at the person who left her lying on the floor of an Atlantic City elevator then dragged her limp body out. No, she’s upset at you, me and the media for the outcry.

“I woke up this morning feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I’m mourning the death of my closest friend,” Janay Rice said on the social media site Instagram. “No one knows the pain that the media and unwanted options (sic) from the public has caused my family. To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret every day is a horrible day.”

Furthermore, during a May 23 press conference where Ray Rice spoke about the incident, Janay Rice apologized for her “role” in that night.

Seriously?

Short of protecting his life, Ray Rice shouldn’t have ever laid a finger on Janay. Ever. Period. End of story. And Janay Rice, short of assaulting her husband, shouldn’t apologize for anything.

Statistics show that two in five women in Indiana have experienced some type of domestic violence in their lifetime. In Indiana, from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013, there were 58 domestic-violence homicides, including one in Harrison County. In the years prior, there were 63, 62 (one in Harrison County), 63 and 55.

Let that soak in for a moment: more than 300 people are dead in the past five years because of domestic violence.

Nationally, more than half of domestic-violence victims say they were first stalked before age 25, and 27 percent of female victims experienced significant short- or long-term impacts, such as post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and injury.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. How great – and appropriate – would it be for the NFL to move past this current embarrassment and embrace a movement to wear purple in the same way the NFL honors breast-cancer awareness by wearing pink gloves, socks, shoes and the like? Granted, it won’t fix everything, but it’s a start. And don’t just do it for this year. Stand up against domestic violence perpetually.

During the May 23 press conference, Ray Rice said, “Failure is not getting knocked down. It’s not getting up.”

On Feb. 15, an unconscious Janay Rice couldn’t get up. And that’s where Ray Rice failed. It shouldn’t have taken a video for everyone to believe it, nor react to it. For that, most of us have failed.

Best Business/Economic News Coverage/Category 6

Kevin Lilly, Brown County Democrat (Nashville)

Zoning rules revision needed

The year the Beatles came to America and Ford started producing the Mustang: 1964. That’s also the last time the ordinance that governs Brown County’s zoning was overhauled.

To say the local zoning rules need a revision is an understatement, according to most members of the Brown County Board of Zoning Appeals.

“We’ve got to get it rewritten,” board member Peggy Thompson said.

The five-member board handles certain zoning matters. Their decisions on proposed developments can alter a neighborhood or even the entire county.

Importance of zoning

Zoning rules group similar land uses together and are supposed to prevent incompatible uses, such as a hog farm operating next door to a school or a large concentration of homes.

Of course, exceptions are permitted by ordinance, and requests for those exceptions are voted on by the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Board members consider proposals such as operating a business in a residential area weighed against neighbors’ concerns. They must determine if the use fits and whether surrounding landowners will be permanently injured by, say, a drop in property value.

In considering what are known as special exceptions, the county’s comprehensive plan states, “Zoning and regulations that accompany zoning need to follow thought out, deliberate planning. If this happens, the delicate balance between private property rights and the impact on individuals, neighborhoods and communities can be obtained with the spirit of fairness.”

The Brown County Comprehensive Plan is a guide the board uses. It was revised by the planning commission in 2011 and approved in 2012.

The zoning ordinance is what allows the board to enforce the ideas in the comprehensive plan.

Jane Gore, who has been on the board less than a year, stressed the importance of striking a balance between petitioner and neighbors.

“We definitely have to take that into consideration because we’re a tight-knit community, and we want our neighborhoods to be happy with our decisions, too; but we also want to be fair to economic development and all those kind of issues that this county also needs,” she said.

Gore added that there is often a lot of pressure on board members in making such decisions.

Recent struggles

In recent months, board members have been complaining about the current zoning ordinance. President Lamond Martin calls the 103-page ordinance “old and antiquated.” As a result, the board members often are turned into the “bad guys,” he said.

“It needs some revision. It needs a lot of work to be done on it,” said Martin, who has served on the board for at least eight years.

One of the most glaring issues the board has faced lately has been the definition of terms referenced in the ordinance.

There is no definition of a private recreational development, but people can apply for one in certain residential areas by filing for a special exception.

There is a definition for a public camp, but eight-year board member John Dillberger said it lacks substance needed to properly guide the board.

“‘Public camp’ means an area of land used or designed to be used to accommodate two or more camping parties, including cabins, tents or other camping outfits, but not including a traveler trailer park,” the ordinance reads.

Dillberger wants to see clarification on the types of activities allowed in a public camp.

In May and August, the board denied two petitions for special exceptions, one for a public camp and the other for a private recreational development. In both requests, members said the potential harm to surrounding landowners outweighed the possible economic benefits.

Planning Commission Director David Woods acknowledged that “private recreational development” does need to be defined, but he does not want the ordinance to be definition-heavy.

He used the examples of an airport or a grocery store, neither of which is defined in the current ordinance.

“You don’t need definitions for everything you put in there, but there are some things that probably need to be cleaned up in that regard,” he said.

‘Things have changed’

Not having these key terms clearly defined forces the board to rely upon what has happened in the past. As Dillberger noted recently, the confusing nature of the ordinance and any inconsistencies in voting on similar requests can lead to lawsuits.

“It opens us up to legal challenges we don’t need to be open to,” he said.

Another issue in the current ordinance is signs. The current rules are complicated and need to be clarified, Woods said.

Martin said he has talked about a need for a zoning ordinance update with the Area Plan Commission and county commissioners for years, but little has been done. Both panels have a say in amending the ordinance.

The last change he recalls is when tourist homes were added to the ordinance. He considers that type of business a natural fit for Brown County, but before, there had been no provision to deal with them.

Martin said additional changes have occurred over the years. He talked about demographics and annexations by the town.

“Things have changed considerably,” he said. “That ordinance is just too antiquated to work with.”

A new zoning ordinance would include the input of many people, from professionals such as real estate agents and attorneys and from private individuals. The ordinance would be produced by a professional planner at the direction of the people of Brown County.

Road to revision

Woods said the process to revise the ordinance has begun. The next step is bringing a request for proposals before the Area Plan Commission. He expects that to happen at that board’s Sept. 23 meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. in the County Office Building.

While waiting for bids to come in, the planning commission will form a committee of local residents. Woods said the committee likely would be made up of plan commission and zoning board members, a real estate agent, an attorney, a farmer, a Cordry-Sweetwater resident and residents of each township.

The committee will review the bids and pick a professional planner to handle the revision. Woods said the process will involve a series of meetings, including hearings to accept public input.

The new ordinance will go before the plan commission, which can vote a positive or negative recommendation or make no recommendation.

The county commissioners have the final say, and they do not have to side with the commission’s recommendation.

Woods said this will be a lengthy process. He estimates two years from start to finish.

He said $20,000 has been budgeted for this year and for 2015 and 2016. He hopes the $60,000 total will cover it.

Questions remain about whether to change the classifications of zoning. Currently, the options are residence districts R1 and R2, FR (forest reserve), LR (lake residence), general business (GB), accommodation business (AB) and industrial.

“I don’t know that making it more difficult is going to help. We don’t need in Brown County, in my opinion, a Cadillac zoning ordinance, but we do need some changes to it,” Woods said. “We just need something that is going to protect the citizens of Brown County while fitting reasonable development.”

In the meantime

While progressing through a revision, the zoning ordinance can be amended. Woods used the example of cellphone towers. In 1964, those types of towers did not exist. Now there is a section in the ordinance for them.

Dillberger requested that Woods research a definition for “private recreational development.” Woods said he would have a report for the Sept. 23 plan commission meeting.

Scott Rudd, the town of Nashville’s manager/economic development director, agreed with addressing the ordinance now instead of waiting for a complete overhaul. Rudd, who is also the county’s former planning commission director, repeatedly witnessed people struggle to clear hurdles created by the zoning ordinance. If that process is hindering local business from expanding, those hurdles should be removed, he said.

“What I’m looking at is just a mini adjustment. That might be an amendment to the ordinance to do what we think we want to have happen, to do what you need to do to grow your business in the town and the county so that people can earn gainful employment. I’m a fan of looking at a piece of it and trying to improve that from my perspective,” Rudd said.

Best Short Feature Story/Category 8

Mary Mattingly, The Versailles Republican

Shooting victim forgives

Niki Davis’ “perfect life” turned upside down on July 20. That’s when the man she describes as her soul mate, the man her 10 year old son called Dad, turned a gun on her, and her 16 year old niece who was living with them, and then on himself.

She is still in shock over what happened, and over her loss. “I loved him. He was the love of my life,” she said her blue eyes welling with tears.

Niki is not angry or bitter, revengeful or pitiful. She is sad. She misses him. She also misses Carlin, her niece. And she misses her life as she knew it.

Niki, 33, is from Holton, one of five children of Cindy and Wayne Vansodol. She attended South Ripley schools in the late ‘90s. She met Robert Harmon through work. He became her boyfriend and she and her children lived with him for over five years.

The petite mother has come home after this tragedy to be loved and cared for by her family, her church, the Holton Christian Church, and her community. With scars from ear to ear, a swollen jaw, a mouth she can barely open, she is determined to go forward.

Those are the physical challenges, but the emotional scars will take much longer to heal.

She is adamant, “I do not want this shooting to define me or my two kids. I want to be happy, and I want my kids to be happy.”

The Holton Christian Church is putting love into action, embracing the little girl the 60 or so members watched grow up, to help her once again be self-sufficient and independent. They have organized a benefit on Oct. 18 to show Niki her hometown support.

Her story

Robert Harmon, 48, never raised a hand to her, never called her a name. Yet Niki doesn’t know why he used two guns and shot her four times, three in the head.

Nor does she understand why he shot Carlin, her niece she had guardianship over and who had lived with them for over a year and was just four days from getting her driver’s permit.

“That’s why I don’t feel it was really Robert. He never showed any violence to me,” Niki said.

She realizes it’s a miracle she is alive.

The murder-suicide happened in Trimble County, Ky., just over the bridge in Madison, and not far from her hometown of Holton.

It stunned the community where Robert Harmon grew up. He was a prominent businessman, a vice president of a North Vernon industry. The two lived in his well-kept, brick two-story home with her two children, Kaylee Hill, 14 and Andrew Harmon-Dobbs, 10, and Carlin. He treated her children as his own, she said. Andrew called him dad.

“We were close. Carlin completed our family. … I lived a wonderful life. I had a great man. I had great kids. I had the perfect life.”

She acknowledges they had some relationship issues. He could be insecure and controlling, but nothing of recent that would trigger this type of reaction, Niki said. Her own family loved and respected him, she said. They were there the night before the criminal act, making plans for the family reunion.

Niki acknowledged he had over 100 guns but was always respectful of their power.

THAT NIGHT

Niki was asleep on the couch and Carlin on the recliner after watching a movie together. She saw and heard him shoot himself, but didn’t know she was shot.

“I stood up. I felt something was wrong. I remember looking at Robert. He wasn’t dead. I layed beside him. I was so shocked. I remember seeing his face…and watching him suffer.”

She adds, “Some people said he must have snapped. That he lost it. I don’t know.”

Unable to talk because of her facial injuries, she pounded on the kitchen wall and her teenage daughter came downstairs. She immediately went into action, grabbed a sheet to make a tourniquet around her neck, and called 911. Niki is amazed at her daughter’s focus. Kaylee told her later she knew what to do by watching “Grey’s Anatomy. “ The ambulance came 20 minutes later, and that was when Robert took his last breath. She did not know then that Carlin was fatally shot.

Niki was conscious, despite suffering a stroke. She knew the paramedic, Will McCoy.

“He and Kaylee saved my life. I told him I was going to die in front of my daughter and he promised me I wouldn’t. He kept me conscious. He didn’t leave my side. He was my guardian angel,” she said.

There was something more powerful in that ambulance than fancy equipment and trained professionals. She cries at the memory.

“I had lost so much faith in God when my sister (Kathleen Davis) died 10 years ago (of cancer). But I had never felt the power of God’s love in my life. I did then. Somehow I knew I was going to be ok. I had this sigh of relief. I knew I was going to go back to my kids.”

A tracheotomy was performed so she could breathe. She was put in a medically induced coma for several days. Surgeons worked long to replace her jaw with titanium. She can’t open her mouth large enough to see her teeth.

Niki believes it’s a miracle she is alive, that one bullet just missed her spine. The doctors were wonderful, she says, and said one doctor cried when she returned for a follow up visit because she didn’t think she would live.

“They saved me. God had their hands.”

RECOVERY

Family is everything. That’s one thing she is reminded over and over. Her sister Linda Vansodol never left her side at the hospital and has been there to remove her bandages, puree her food, drive her wherever she needed to be for the past 2½ months.

Linda had the paperwork for Medicaid the day after she was admitted. Niki is beyond grateful, and cries just thinking of her love.

“I never knew I was so loved. From the people in Bedford to Holton. Of course you expect your parents to love you, but to give up things just for me and my kids. And my sister. I can’t say enough.”

The kids are enrolled at Jac-Cen-Del and doing better than she expected despite the trauma. Kaylee doesn’t like to talk about it, but Andrew does. He slept through the act. “He couldn’t grasp it was Robert. He said, ‘Mom it wasn’t Robert. That wasn’t my dad.’”

They have yet to retrieve their personal belongings, and left that early morning without shoes on their feet. It may be sometime before they can get items due to legal issues.

Meanwhile, Niki has forgiven Robert.

“I felt I had so much love and the love of God has let me forgive him. I know what he did was wrong, but like Andrew said, that wasn’t Robert. There’s no way.”

The physical healing is underway, but the emotional part will take longer. She wishes she could take away her kids’ loss of Carlin, who Niki describes as “remarkable” and loved by so many people in Kentucky, Cincinnati and Holton. Everyday she looks in the mirror the scars remind her of another life.

She is grateful to her church and members for their warm welcome back.

“The elders just hugged me and opened their arms to me,” she said.

Rev. Bob McCreary said he is impressed with Niki when she returned to church, not looking like the person they remembered. “We were blown away by the courage of Niki to do that.”

One of the good things that has resulted is from the tragedy is she knows now that God never left her side, and that her kids are feeling the love of God and church. Her kids willingly come to church, open up their Bibles, sing church songs.

The church wants to help her, hence the benefit. And whether they raise $1,000 or $100,000 McCreary knows it will take more than things to heal the young woman and her family.

“This is a marathon. This is not something that will be fixed tomorrow. Keeping God at the center of your life will be the key to finding peace.”

It took a tragedy for Niki to understand that, but with the support of her family and church, and God’s love, she and her family begin the long road to healing.

Van to be auctioned at Davis benefit

Holton Christian Church has organized a benefit to help Niki Davis with associated medical costs and other personal items lost as a result of the July 20 murder-suicide tragedy.

A van will be auctioned as part of the benefit. It’s a 2002 Ford E150 van, donated by a church neighbor, with a Kelly Blue Book value of $3500. Rev. Bob McCreary says it would be great for a family, a church youth group, day care.

The benefit will be held on Saturday, Oct. 18 at the Holton Community Building. There will be a silent auction with a handmade king-sized quilt raffle, cake walk, food and more. There will be three bluegrass bands beginning at 6 p.m. It will last until 9 p.m.

Many businesses and individuals have donated items, and if others would like to do so, contact McCreary at 812 363 4502. He also says they could use more volunteers and more cakes! Napoleon State Bank has set up an account in Niki Davis’ name for those who would like to donate.

Best Profile Feature/Category 9

Ben Kibbey, Brown County Democrat (Nashville)

‘Can’t replace people like that’

People who knew Billy Ray Salmon talk about his love and his wit – about a man who spoke little and made it count when he did.

They tell stories about things he did that made them laugh, and they laugh to themselves about stories they aren’t sure if they should tell.

No one remembers anyone not liking him, and that is the first thing most people will say.

Salmon, who died April 15 at age 88, was known for giving, whether it was candy, his time or just a hard time.

A word that comes up often is “ornery.”

Retired local Realtor Ruth Jarrett remembers a property sale they worked on together. They forgot to take the tax out at the closing, and Jarrett ended up paying back the $14 to the buyer when the tax bill came.

“I called up Billy Ray, and I said, ‘Billy Ray, I went over and paid that,’ and I said, ‘I want my $7 back.’ He said, ‘Well, you’ll never get it from me.’

“Every time I’d see him, I’d say, ‘You owe me $7,’ and he’d say, ‘Never gonna pay that.’ And one time I went in the office, and it was on my desk in an envelope – two years later.”

Salmon’s granddaughter, Shelli Altemeyer, remembered when a fire broke out in her kitchen when he was visiting her home in Atlanta. When Salmon came down to see what the fuss was, the firefighters tried to usher him out of the house.

“He pulls up a bar stool and sits down and starts haggling with the firemen,” Altemeyer said. “‘Well, you guys look much different from all the fireman calendars that all the girls are buying,’ and on and on.”

“They kept saying, ‘Sir, you have to leave,’ and he would just haggle and haggle at them,” she said. “It was a pretty serious fire, and he just kept, just breezing right along.”

Salmon was a regular visitor to Brown County Treasurer Mary Smith’s office. When she was newly elected, he showed up with a nameplate and claimed a desk for himself.

After that, “We always knew Tuesday was Billy Ray Day,” Smith said.

“He would bring those Lifesaver mints in, and we’d have our plant up there on the table, and he’d dump all of his trash into the plant because it annoyed Andi (Bond). One day, he just brought this huge bag full of the wrappers and dumped it into the plant,” Smith said.

“He was just a sweet old man. “‘Ornery,’ for sure, is the word.”

Keeping them in line

Salmon became a grandfather figure Smith could turn to.

“Usually it would be, ‘You just don’t need to worry about what they think,’” she said.

As a girl, now-Brown County Commissioner Diana Biddle remembers her mother letting her stay at Salmon’s real estate office and spending hours with him and “the lady in his life,” Madalyn Boruff.

“He was one of those people where I knew – him and Madalyn both – that I knew if I was in trouble and felt like I couldn’t go to my parents, I knew I could go to them,” Biddle said.

Looking toward the spot at the end of the head table where Salmon sat to record meetings, commissioners President Dave Anderson remembered how Salmon sat quietly and took everything in.

However, Salmon reprimanded him after one meeting.

“I got a little annoyed at (former county commissioner) John (Kennard) and spoke out a little harshly, maybe a little more so than I should have, and Billy came over after the meeting and said, ‘Like to see you guys get along now,’” Anderson said.

“He’d give you a finger shake,” Anderson said, imitating the motion.

“He was probably one of the nicest, greatest senses of humor, and knew where everybody in this county was buried, and why they were buried,” Kennard said. “He always paid attention; he always listened.”

But Salmon would usually wait until after a meeting to call out one of the commissioners.

“You know, I’d see him here in the halls or hanging around the treasurer’s office, and he would make a comment about, ‘Well, this is what you were talking about,’ or ‘This is what you were saying,’” Kennard said. “You had to be on your toes with him, that’s all there is to it.”

In 2012, in recognition of his 30 years of doing just that, the commissioners renamed the meeting room in the County Office Building the Salmon Room.

Salmon started coming to commissioners meetings and recording them after David Critser took his seat as a commissioner in 1981, when they still met in a small room in the courthouse. Even after the county began recording them, Salmon kept coming and sitting at the head table. He even had a name card.

“But he never interrupted or gave a comment or anything like that; he was just there,” Critser said.

Amy Kelso met Salmon when she started attending meetings as a local resident. She later was elected commissioner.

Salmon would tease her, holding up the Brown County Democrat – one of the three or four papers he read each day – and saying, “I don’t see your name in here; you must be behaving yourself.”

Though they often disagreed or got under one another’s skin – sometimes on purpose – that never meant they could not get along.

“We both held the perspective that, we’re a community 365 days out of the year,” Kelso said. “And I think it’s a lesson that we need now and to never let go of.”

A trusted friend

Andy Rogers was friends with Salmon for decades – long enough that he’s not sure how they first met. They often worked together in real estate and shared a common connection in being from Bloomington, as well as having served in the military.

Rogers was a World War II Navy veteran and active in the American Legion and veterans activities.

The two had a falling out in the recent past, but Rogers was able to see Salmon one last time the day before he died.

“He was just one of those kind of people. He was a character; you can’t replace people like that,” Rogers said.

Rick Patrick met Salmon around 2005, shortly before Boruff died of leukemia.

He said he remembers sitting with him on his porch and Salmon hollering and waving at everyone who passed. If you didn’t wave back, you were in trouble, but if you waved back the next day, all was forgiven, Patrick said.

Sometimes, he would get into a bit of a fighting mood, Patrick said.

“He’d say, ‘Go outside and practice falling down, and then I’ll get to you.’

“You never were 100 percent sure if he was joking or not,” Patrick said. “He’d get that little dig in there.”

Salmon liked to add an “e” to the ends of words and names. He called Patrick’s wife, Dena, “Denie,” and invited them over for “some dead chickie” for dinner.

Dena Patrick met Salmon when she moved into the neighborhood. She was passing by one day, and Salmon and Madalyn invited her onto their porch.

“They said, ‘Hey, you look like you got a story. Come on up here and sit down,’” she said. “It got to be an everyday thing. Billy was kind of like a dad to me the last 12 years.”

“His biggest joke was, I would ask, ‘Billy, are you in the witness protection program?’ and he’d say, ‘Well, I’m in the witless protection program.’”

Dr. Tim Alward’s office was one of Salmon’s regular hangouts. He would sit for hours in the waiting room, entertaining patients and receptionist Tammy Jaynes.

He never took the easy route for comedy.

“He didn’t like vulgarity. He never used it,” Alward said.

“He wouldn’t complain much, and he would inject humor into almost everything,” Alward said. “He was diplomatic and well-informed.”

Diplomatic, in the sense of the old definition, Rick Patrick said: “A diplomat is somebody who could tell you to go to hell and make you look forward to the trip, and that was pretty much him,” Patrick said.

Everything he gave

Salmon often brought lunch with him to Alward’s office – for everyone.

“He didn’t have a lot to give in terms of money, but he would do those little things,” Alward said.

He also brought bags of candy to hand out at commissioners meetings and bags of cookies to the treasurer’s office.

“He had a great big tub of candy at his back door, and every time you’d come to visit him or leave, he’d grab a handful of candy and give it to you – or he’d have it in his pocket,” Altemeyer said.

And Salmon loved Halloween.

“I would have to say that some of my best memories are of his annual Halloween parties,” Smith said.

Salmon kept a tabulation each year of how many trick-or-treaters came to his door, and he would know how much it was up or down from year to year.

Smith said Salmon’s love for his family always stood out.

“He never missed a birthday party,” Altemeyer said. “He spent the night with us every Christmas Eve.”

From those visits, Altemeyer said he remembers the police scanner that Salmon always had on and the spittoon that he would bring with him – though she still isn’t certain if he brought the spittoon to use or just to be “ornery.”

There is no doubt he loved to entertain those he cared for.

“It was really cool, as a granddaughter, to go to the local parades, and he was the Shriner clown,” Altemeyer said. “And it was so cool to be with your friends and have the clown come up and do the entertainment, and I’d be like, ‘That’s my grandpa.’”

Salmon’s son, Glen, said he and his brothers, Ray and Barry, took their love of the outdoors from their dad. While the other kids their age were inside, starting at age 3 or 4, those boys were at Lake Lemon.

A love of the outdoors wasn’t the only thing he passed to his sons.

“The last several years, when I was spending a lot more time with Dad, I realized how much of his nuances, his speaking, his wit, his humor have become very much a part of me,” Glen Salmon said.

His father found a way to connect with all different kinds of people and formed bonds everywhere he went.

Though he knows a lot of people miss him – himself included – he chooses to focus on the full life his father lived, the differences he made and the lives he touched in different ways.

“What else do we want out of this life?” Glen Salmon said.

“We’re not here forever. We’re here as long as the good Lord lets us be here, and if you can look back and think you made a difference on this world, well – rest in peace, Billy Ray, and thank you for all you gave me.”

Best In-Depth Feature or Feature Package/Category 10

Suzannah Couch, Brown County Democrat (Nashville)

Bye bye blackboard

“I challenge you to a rematch!” one student yelled to another in Kirk Wrightsman’s English 10 class.

No, they weren’t playing a video game during free time in class but taking a quiz about John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” on Kahoot, an online system that uses games as quizzes.

Kahoot is just one program Wrightsman uses in his English 10 and remediation classes.

Laptops are permanently housed in his classroom because he also uses Moodle. That’s where all his classroom information and materials are stored for students to access each class period.

Using different types of technology in the classroom is a way for the district to compare and contrast devices when it comes time to pick one for the entire district to use and for students to take home.

“We’re slowly moving towards what kind of device we would want to deploy if we were to go one-to-one and how the different devices work in different disciplines,” said Deborah Harman, director of student learning at Brown County Schools. “We’re really doing this very methodically.”

Increased use of technology in schools, such as iPads in high school math classes or laptops used by grade-schoolers, is part of Brown County Schools’ plan to ensure students are up-to-date on skills they will need in and out of the classroom.

“Teachers integrate programs into their curriculum really at their own discretion,” Harman said about technology use district-wide.

Wrightsman said his students are adapting to the increasing use of technology in school.

“It’s a learning process for everybody. I think they’re adapting very well to it,” he said. “Some are a little more reluctant than others, but they have to understand that what we’re trying to do here is develop 21st century skills that they’re going to use in the workplace and beyond Brown County.”

Harman said she also has noticed a difference in how students handle some new learning tools.

“It looks like they’ve been doing it forever,” she said. “It wasn’t like that the first day, obviously.”

“I truly believe that if public education is going to meet the needs of kids, they’re all going to be digital natives. This is just a new frontier,” she said. “No one has the answer to doing it. But what we’re trying to do is step out and at least engage in some thoughtful, logical steps.”

‘Vital tool for some’

Wrightsman said using online resources and gadgets in the classroom keeps a flow going that students are already in all day. A lot of the kids, before they go to school and when they go home, are immersed in technology.

“If they come to school and they just sit here and don’t use it, I think they maybe get bored,” he said.

Matthew Childers, a senior at BCHS, likes using an iPad in his Algebra II class with teacher Paige Burton.

Teachers first received iPads last November so they could practice and work with them before the students received them.

This is the first full year of iPads being used in designated math classes at BCHS.

“I feel that it is a vital tool for some. Others find it complicated,” Childers said. “But for me, personally, I find it very resourceful.”

He said the iPad helps him to be more organized. “It’s better than keeping a bunch of papers around,” he said.

The iPads also help math teachers meet standards, Harman said. Indiana passed its own educational standards in July, moving away from the Common Core standards set for the entire nation.

Because of this, BCHS has had difficulty finding textbooks for math classes that meet the new standards, Harman said. Teachers have to work to put together their own resources for classes that are not Advanced Placement or college-affiliated classes.

Starting slowly

Students can access these resources using their iPads or any other technology that can connect to Canvas, the online learning management system used in the math department. Before Canvas, students used binders in each class, Harman said.

Technology use in school does not mean the end to textbooks and paper, though.

Students in Koressel’s Algebra II class use iPads daily to take notes and complete class assignments.

The students cannot take the iPads home for homework, so Koressel prints out assignments, or students can use an online storage system such as Google Drive or Dropbox that can be accessed from any device to get their homework and print it out.

To assign homework, Koressel will display a QR Code (Quick Response Code) from the Bright Link projector in the room. The students can scan the code on their iPads and get their assignment. The projector allows for teachers and students to interact on the board together from their devices.

In the beginning, it was a slow start, Koressel said about iPad use. Then, the class worked its way up to using more difficult apps.

“It’s become more of a routine and they’re much more comfortable with it now than they were,” he said.

Harman said in some instances, she thinks technology is better than pencil and paper in the classroom.

“Being able to visualize math in a dynamic environment like an iPad screen where the equation can actually move – it is not as static. Paper and pencil are static,” she said.

Next steps

The district recently invited parents to a meeting about iPad and technology use at Brown County High School. Harman said other informational meetings about technology use have been conducted in the other school buildings as well.

The meeting at the high school was to show parents how their children will learn from an iPad.

“People think of an iPad as a way to get on the Internet or Facebook, but they don’t necessarily look at it as a learning tool,” she said.

Recently, the Indiana Department of Education complimented the district on how it has handled incorporating technology into schools, Harman said. The department liked that Brown County Schools did not immediately allow students to take iPads home.

Harman said that won’t happen until students have a handle on the directions to give for using the device, because parents might not be able to help.

“It’s not like a book for a kindergartner, where you can send a book and Mom reads to the child,” she said. “Until the kid learns to read, Mom and Dad can read to the child. This is a little bit different.

“ Harman said the district plans to apply for a grant from the Department of Education that would pay for a company to do an assessment of its technology needs to see what it’s using and what next steps should be in implementing technology in its buildings.

The outside consulting group would look at districts similar to Brown County when considering which step they should take next, whether it be implementing iPads or Chrome Books for students to use at home and in class.

“We need to look at small, rural districts,” Harman said. “That’s who we are. It doesn’t really matter what IPS (Indianapolis Public Schools) is doing.”

Best Sports Event Coverage/Category 11

Ross Schulz, The Corydon Democrat

Sam’s best not enough

If only high school football had instant replay.

As the clock ticked down under 10 seconds Friday night in Ramsey, with the home team ahead 38-35, Salem hurriedly lined up at the 9-yard line and got the snap off before the clock hit 0:00.

And just as he had done all game, quarterback Jordan McNeely faked an option hand-off before finding a hole himself and taking it all the way to the goal line where he was stood up and dropped by North Harrison defenders.

Game over.

But who won?

After a few seconds of waiting, both sides figuring they had just secured a Mid-Southern Conference win, an official signaled touchdown and the celebration was on for the visiting Lions.

While most of the fans and players wearing royal blue and white thought McNeely was stopped short, officials told North Harrison representatives a fumble occurred and Salem recovered it in the end zone to end the wild, 41-38 contest.

The loss put a damper on junior running back Sam Best’s school-record performance of 371 yards rushing.

“I did what I had to for the team,” Best said. “We gave it our all ... but that’s the way it goes.” Best said the Cougars’ offensive line was spectacular opening up holes for him.

“This is going to sound bad, but it’s not really that huge of a deal to me,” Best said of his big night, which was announced as an unofficial school record in the fourth quarter. “I wouldn’t be nothing without my teammates.”

Bryan Schroeder held the previous single-game record after piling up 367 yards as a sophomore in 2005 against Paoli on only carries.

North Harrison coach Mark Williamson was not surprised by Best’s video- game like numbers.

“I’ve been around him too long; I know what he’s about,” he said. “He’s got the mentality of an athlete. He believes in what we’re doing, both in the weight room and on the field.”

Best also played the majority of the game on the defensive side of the ball as linebacker.

The loss dropped North Harrison to 0-2, both home conference losses, and improved Salem to 2-1, 1-1 MSC.

“Hats off to Salem,” Williamson said. “We kept pounding them, and they kept coming back. We needed this game, and Salem needed this game. And it showed by how hard they played.”

After a three-and-out to start the game by the North Harrison offense, neither team could stop the other as McNeely and Best provided the fireworks.

McNeely scored first, on a 12-yard run, with 8:05 remaining the first quarter. North Harrison responded with a long scoring drive, covering more than eight minutes, that ended with a Jack Phelps touchdown to knot the game at 7. The drive also included runs from Best and Austin Nevil, and Phelps connected through the air with Nevil for a big fourth-down conversion.

Salem wasted no time responding, as McNeely scored on the next play from scrimmage. It took North Harrison all of 21 seconds to respond with a Best 26-yard touchdown run, but Phelps’ extra-point try was off, and Salem had a 14-13 lead.

It took a little longer for Salem to answer the next time as McNeely scored on a 10-yard run with 8:23 remaining in the half.

Going into the season, Williamson said he thought McNeely was the best player in the conference. McNeely did everything he could Friday night to prove his opposing coach right.

“He was the real deal,” Williamson said. “He broke tackles; he runs their offense perfectly.”

Best quickly answered McNeely’s score with a 67- yard scamper up the right side, where he found a hole and ran away from the Lions’ defenders. Trying to make up for the missed extra point, North Harrison went for two and failed, leaving the score at 21-19.

North Harrison finally got a stop on defense with Austin Reynolds breaking up two consecutive McNeely passes in the end zone. Best again broke free on the right side of the line for an 83-yard touchdown to give the Cougars the lead, 25-21, and all of the momentum, after another failed two-point conversion attempt with just more than a minute remaining.

Cougars defensive back Lee Manwaring made sure the momentum stayed with his team as he picked off a McNeely pass near midfield along the out-of-bounds line. With 27 seconds remaining, Williamson elected to take a knee and head to halftime with the lead.

In a game full of big plays, the biggest one may have come on Salem’s first drive after the break. Looking to build on the end-of-half momentum, North Harrison had Salem backed up with a fourth-and-14 at the Cougars’ 32. That’s when McNeely rolled to the left and launched a perfectly spiraled throw that Christian Lamb was able to catch up to in the end zone for a touchdown.

The connection looked like a play meant for Saturday football, not Friday night.

After the extra point, Salem was back in front, 28-25.

North Harrison then went on one of its long, bruising, clock-eating drives on the ground. It ended six minutes later with Best collecting his fourth and final touchdown with two minutes-plus remaining in the third quarter.

On the ensuing kick-off, North Harrison stripped the ball from the return man and had an excellent opportunity to jump on the ball and secure possession inside the Lions’ red zone, but Salem eventually recovered the slippery pigskin on its own 2-yard line. After a couple of first downs, the North Harrison defense held to give the Cougars the ball and the lead. But the Cougars’ drive stalled after a long Best run was called back for a holding call (on the opposite side of the run).

Salem regained the lead (35-31) on a halfback pass to a wide-open Lamb for a 36- yard touchdown with 7:06 remaining in the game.

North Harrison took over looking to complete the game-winning drive by eating up the clock with the ground game. The Cougars did so, behind Best, Phelps and Nevil, but scored a little quicker than Williamson wanted when Phelps took it in with 2:24 remaining, leaving plenty of time for Salem to complete the thrilling and controversial ending.

The teams matched each other with six touchdowns, but the difference came in the extra-point category where Salem was a perfect five-for-five (no attempt was needed on the game-winning score with no time remaining).

North Harrison only connected on two extra- point attempts (missed two and failed on two two-point conversions). North Harrison finished with 429 yards rushing to Salem’s 311. Salem also had 162 yards through the air.

It doesn’t get any easier for the Cougars in the next couple of weeks, as North Harrison will hit the road for back-to-back games against conference heavyweights Charlestown and Brownstown.

“We’ve invested too much; we’re not going to roll over,” Williamson said. “They know we’re getting better. We’ve just got to go play ... keep pounding. There’s no other choice.”

Best Sports News or Feature Coverage/Category 12

Jim Buchberger, The Journal-Press (Aurora)

Today we play for 22

Bill Snyder, then the Lawrenceburg High School girls varsity basketball coach, shrugged when asked about a lanky 5’10” freshman named Lauren Hill around the start of the 2010-11 season.

“Heck, I’m going to play her,” said the longtime successful southeastern Indiana hoops coach, whose task at the time was to turn around an LHS program that was nearing 30-straight losing seasons.

Snyder went on to praise the shy, quiet, eager freshman, for her coachability and how much she obviously loved playing the game.

Sunday afternoon – going up against the thick of the NFL season – that unassuming freshman from Greendale played her first (and don’t say last) college basketball game for Mount St. Joseph University.

In front of a sold-out house of 10,250 vocal supporters at Xavier University’s Cintas Center. Including Basketball Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt.

“Today we play for 22,” said MSJ president Tony Aretz, drawing one of many approving roars from the packed house.

It all took a little doing.

Sunday’s game – quite safe to call a peak moment in Lawrenceburg sports history – was moved forward from Nov. 15 by special NCAA permission. Then moved from the Mount’s compact Harrington Center to Cintas, as ticket demand skyrocketed. FoxSports Ohio carried the game live.

By now, the nation and the world surely knows that Lauren, almost exactly a year ago, just prior to the start of her senior season at LHS, was diagnosed with an inoperable form of brain cancer called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma.

Doctors have given her until December, although Hill isn’t having any of it. Some less-sensitive media sources billed Sunday’s celebration as Lauren’s “first and last game.”

“I mean, don’t we have a game next week?” she cracked, inducing laughs at her press conference.

Hill’s fighting spirit came through. “I don’t want it to be my last game and I don’t plan on it being my last game. If I can’t play, I’m still going to try to be there with my team to support them. Because they’ve always been there to support me.”

Instead of folding, the Hill family, friends and supporters all over the world, recent responses came from Finland, took to social media to increase awareness of the disease and to promote research.

A 19-year old freshman again at Mount St. Joseph, a small NCAA Division III school in nearby Delhi, Lauren Hill started for the Lady Lions in Sunday’s 66-55 win over Hiram College.

She scored the game’s first basket, a left-handed layup that brought the house down – and caused even some of her Hiram opponents to choke back tears. It was a lefty tribute to the #Layup4Lauren initiative, a YouTube sensation that has gripped the nation.

Country music star Garth Brooks went viral earlier last weekend, performing the feat (five spins to induce dizziness, followed by a layup attempt with one’s non-dominant hand).

After her well-rehearsed opening bucket, Hill was subbed for, watching most of the game from the Lions’ bench, wearing sunglasses and headphones, bright lights and noise give her headaches these days.

Lauren also scored the game’s final two points, with her weakened right arm, after new Mount coach Dan Benjamin called time out with 30 seconds left and put her back in the lineup. She missed her first attempt that time, but teammate Tara Dennis rebounded and fed Hill again.

“The first basket was awesome,” Hill told the media throng that attended. “I was happy I made it on the first try. The second basket was even more awesome, because I did it with my right hand, which is the one I’ve been having difficulties with. And I was strong enough to get it up there.

“My second shot was just as sweet.”

In between, Lawrenceburg’s bravest athlete accepted a couple of “small” awards. The U.S. Basketball Writers’ Association saw fit to break precedent, honoring Hill now – instead of at the NCAA Division I Women’s Final Four – with the Pat Summitt Most Courageous Player award.

That brought the former University of Tennessee Lady Vols legend namesake to town – Summitt herself is battling Alzheimer’s disease – to honor Hill in person.

Also seated courtside were former UT and WNBA star Tamika Catchings and celebrities ranging from Buffalo Bills running back Fred Jackson, Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White and WNBA players Elena Delle Donne, Shavonte Zellous and DeLisha Milton-Jones.

Milton-Jones, a two-time Olympic gold medal winner now playing for the Atlanta Dream, brought those medals in order to place them around Hill’s neck after the game.

Cincinnati Bengals player Devon Still, a close supporter of Hill whose 4-year old daughter Leah is battling pediatric cancer, left a videotaped message. So did quarterback Andy Dalton and tackle Andrew Whitworth, a little preoccupied with the Jacksonville Jaguars across town at Paul Brown Stadium at the time.

Other celebs unable to attend, but voicing their support via social media, were Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, former WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes and USA women’s soccer superstar Mia Hamm. Hamm’s U-8 girls team dedicated its next game to Hill, in fact.

Lawrenceburg’s own Olympic medalist, freestyle skier Nick Goepper, was last seen on YouTube, lending his support and crooning a version of Katy Perry’s anthem “Roar.”

After the game, Hill was presented the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award from the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Women’s Sports Association, appropriately presented by former MSJ coach Jean Dowell.

“We have been honoring athletes for the last 20 years but never have we been more proud or honored to make a presentation,” Dowell said. “Lauren, we love you, we admire and we are cheering for you. You have touched all our hearts.”

Maybe Rita Kirchgassner, a Lawrenceburg High School guidance counselor, said it best. Heading for her car in the Cintas parking lot, she said: “How could you watch this and not feel that your life has been changed?”

Best Sports Columnist/Category 13

Sharon Hamilton, The North Vernon Sun

Coach resigns

I couldn’t help but think “here we go again” when I learned that JCHS head football coach Dustin Roller had resigned. His reasoning behind leaving is that he’s interested in getting involved in the administrative part of education.

It seems we are having issues keeping coaches, no matter what the sport. A key element in a successful program, at least in my book, is longevity of coaching. You can’t be successful if every five years you have a new coach come in and implement his or her ideas in how they want the program to run.

It seems that just as they get everyone on board with what they are wanting to do, the coach leaves either to move on to another school or to leave coaching all together.

On the flip side of that is you also can’t be successful if you have a coach who has been here forever and isn’t very good at what they do. If, after five years, you don’t see improvements happening within the program I think it is up to the school board to step in and say “Ok, we’ve given you more than a fair shot at this and we have not seen the improvements we were looking for so your services as a coach are no longer needed.”

If the school board and JCHS administrators set very specific standards as to what they are looking for when it comes to improvements on a team, they will have a legitimate way to grade the coach and decide whether or not they should be retained.

If a coach is not retained or if they opt to quit coaching, I also think they should voluntarily step away from their teaching positions. Do you have any idea how many former coaches there are at JCHS who are holding down teaching positions that they got only because they were hired as a coach?

I’m not saying you should give a job to someone because they are a coach, I’m saying we should have a variety of openings in different teaching areas so that when a coach is hired, they can be offered a teaching position. I realize this makes double the workload for the administrator at JCHS because they have to find someone who they believe would be a good coach and they have to find someone who will also be a good teacher.

While usually the two go hand-in-hand, there are times this isn’t the case.

So the work will begin on finding a new head foot- ball coach at JCHS . . . again. I hope we find someone who is enthusiastic and wants to move to this area. It is never easy finding someone willing to uproot his or her entire lives and move to Jennings County.

If I were going to interview prospective coaches one of the first things I want to know is what type of work their spouse does. If it isn’t something that is available around here that should be a red flag because eventually, the spouse is going to be looking for work. I’d also ask for a time commitment.

How long do they see themselves in this high school? The answer I would be looking for is, as long as it takes to make it successful.

Then, I’d hold them to it.