The Worthington Times

The White River Valley School will be getting a new service to help them contact parents in cases of natural, weather, or man-made disasters, and at any other time when the school needs to notify parents, teachers and staff of delay, cancellation or early dismissal  - here's a link to the story on the GCDW website. 

On old Worthington patrol car has been donated to the Greene County Sheriff's Department Reserves.

Another patrol vehicle to help keep the county's reserve force on the road should be welcomed at the Sheriff's Department where Greene County Sheriff Terry Pierce has said it's difficult to keep their fleet running on a tight budget.

At the April meeting of the Worthington Town Council, Worthington Town Marshal Dennis Conaway said the Sheriff's Reserves help the Worthington Police Department out a lot and he asked the council members to consider giving the car to the reserve force now that the Worthington Police Department has a new car in service.

The car, originally a gift to the WPD by an anonymous donor, is a 1999 Crown Victoria.  

Councilman Malcolm Stahl made the motion to give the vehicle to the reserves and it was approved unanimously.

Conaway said the car would be delivered immediately - hopefully later that same evening.

The White River Valley Board of School Trustees will meet at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15 in the Administrative Center of the WRV High School in Switz City, Indiana.

The board's regular monthly meeting is usually on the third Thursday of the month but the April meeting has been moved to Tuesday evening.

The meeting is open to the public.

The board will also hold an executive session at 7 p.m. to discuss personnel matters - that meeting is not open to the public. 

Worthington-Jefferson Township Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief Michael McCafferty  gave the following activity (for the preceding month) report for the WJVFD to the Town Council at their regular monthly meeting in April: 18 fire and EMS runs, one of which was for a fire.

McCafferty said a first responder class is currently in progress and some local firefighters are enrolled.

"We've been pretty short on manpower during the daytime, but we have three from the WJVFD taking the class," said McCafferty.

McCafferty said he's looking forward to them completing their training so more personnel will be available to make runs during the day when several WJVFD firefighters are at work and out of town.  

Worthington Town Marshal D. W. Conaway gave the following activity (for the preceding month) report for the Worthington Police Department to the Town Council at their regular monthly meeting in April: two charges of intimidation, two incidents of battery with injury, one incident of criminal mischief, one incident of public intoxication, one incident of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, one warrant served, one incident of theft of fuel - drive-off, and one incident involving breaking and entering and resisting law enforcement. Nine uniform traffic citations were issued. Officers completed 28 man-hours of training.

The Worthington-Jefferson Township Volunteer Fire Department has a couple of new computers and they're going to get internet access into the station. 

The WJVFD got the computers free-of-charge from Greene County Emergency Management - through a Department of Homeland Security program.

At the April meeting of the Worthington Town Council, President Hal Harp told the council members that the WJVFD is now in need of Internet access.

Fire Chief Michael McCafferty said the computers and Internet access is necessary for the WJVFD to take care of their business, get information, file reports, etc.

After some discussion, the Council voted to provide Internet access to the fire department and approved the installation of new cables in the Municipal Building to provide the access into the fire station.

The era of free trash dumping during the first full week of May is over in Worthington, at least for this year.

Residents will likely be doing some spring cleaning around their properties, like always, but they'll have to find another way to get rid of their trash - the Town will not be providing free dumpsters as they have in the past.  

The tradition of a "Pride Week in Worthington" began early in the 1990s as a way to encourage community spring cleaning. It was sponsored by the Worthington Town Council. During the first full week of May, the Town provided dumpsters where residents could dispose of all kinds of trash at no charge. Many years, they also provided a pickup service for those who did not have a way to move larger items to the dump site. From tires to old appliances, broken tables, ugly couches and plain old garbage, the Town accepted almost any kind of trash people wanted to dump.

The cost to the Town was around $2,000 when it first started but that figure grew to $4,000, then $6,000, then $8,000. The rates the town paid kept going up as did the amount of trash being dumped.

Last year, the town disposed of 14 huge 40-yard dumpsters worth of trash plus a large number of appliances, old tires and other items.

At the April meeting of the Town Council, the cost of sponsoring the free service this year was estimated at close to $10,000.

Council President Hal Harp commented, "We simply can't afford it this year," and the vote was unanimous to avoid this expense in 2008.

Whether the Town decides to provide the service again at some point in a future year is anybody's guess.  For now, the Greene County Recycling Center, located south of the Lighthouse, provides options for getting rid of things that won't fit into the weekly trash bin.

Worthington, Indiana made the New York Times!

Our little hometown was mentioned in an article by Nina Bernstein called "Still Trying to Bring Their Fallen Heroes Home." The story was published on February 3, 2008 and it might have appeared on the front page of the regional edition.

The story is about identifying and returning the World War II unknown soldiers, sailors, marines and others home, finally, after all these years. In the middle, the author mentions Alfred Livingston's return and burial in the Worthington Cemetery last summer....

Last year a sailor killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941, and buried as an unknown in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, was exhumed, identified as Alfred E. Livingston, and reburied in Worthington, Ind., his hometown.  

Read it and enjoy Alfred's and Worthington's moment in the NYT now because (I could be mistaken) I believe stories on that site are available to the public for a limited time before they move into the archives where one must pay an access fee to read - don't know how long they leave the stories up for free.

Here's a link to the story:

"Still Trying to Bring Their Fallen Heroes Home"
on the New York Times website

It will be some time before construction crews arrive in Worthington to start work on the upcoming Worthington Streetscape Project but on Monday, Town Street Superintendent David Dyer got a head start on the prep work that must be done to get ready.  

With beautiful skies, 70 degree temperatures and a new-to-us front loader with a back hoe, Dyer started removing the concrete chunks of sidewalk and the pool surrounding the fountain on the Triangle.

The Streetscape Project, sometimes called the Downtown Renovation Project, will be funded through a grant from INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation) but the Town must provide some matching funds. To help meet the match, the Town can provide labor which counts the same as cash. Part of their match will be this preparation work David is doing on the Triangle.

Town Council President Hal Harp was on the Triangle working with David on Monday.