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NEW WALKING TRAIL TO OPEN AT ST. MARY’S EPWORTH CROSSING

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Join us as we open a brand new walking trail for the community. The new walking trail at Epworth Crossing will serve as an entry point to the Warrick Wellness Trail. Ample parking is provided near the trail head for community members to come and enjoy the trail for walking, running or bicycling.

Thursday, October 22
10:00 a.m.

St. Mary’s Epworth Crossing
(100 Epworth Crossing Newburgh, IN 47630)

St. Mary’s is pleased to be a part of this project in collaboration with Warrick Wellness Pathways, a not-for-profit group of volunteers working with area officials and corporate donors to improve the quality of life for our community’s residents and visitors. This project is also a great way to address the need identified in our Community Health Needs Assessment to provide more “walkable” communities and build environments to increase physical activity.

Swimming and diving travels to Missouri State

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With their opening weekend in the books, the University of Evansville swimming and diving teams head to Missouri State for a 4 p.m. meet on Friday in Springfield.

 

“We are looking forward to continuing our season and competing against a great team,” head coach Rickey Perkins said.  “Our teams had a good start last weekend and we hope for more improvement this week.  Missouri State is a great team and will be a good reference point for where we are at.”

 

Friday’s meet will be a short format and will be a change of pace from last weekend.  In Saturday’s opener versus Southern Illinois, the Aces had a format that featured all relays.  Sunday’s Butler Quad Meet was a long format.

 

Courtney Coverdale had a stellar weekend on the boards to open the season.  She earned decisive victories in the 1 and 3 meter dives at the Butler Quad Meet.  Michaela Kent also had a strong weekend, swimming a 54.39 in the 100 free to take second place.

 

On the men’s side, Dan O’Brien was in the zone, teaming up with Kent, Troy Burger and Mackenzie Harris to take top honors in the mixed 200 medley relay against the Salukis.  His team also earned a second in the 100 fly relay in the opener.

 

Rep. Bacon will host series of town hall meetings

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tate Rep. Ron Bacon (R-Chandler) will host a series of town hall meetings throughout October.


9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10

Victoria National Golf Club
2000 Victoria National Blvd.
Newburgh

 

6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14

Boonville-Warrick County Library
611 West Main St.
Boonville

 

6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20

Winslow Community Center
411 East Porter St.
Winslow

 

Bacon will be available to discuss issues which constituents would like to see addressed during the upcoming legislative session. He encourages all interested and concerned members of the community to attend.

 

A complete list of town hall meetings can also be found at in.gov/h75. For media inquiries, please contact Courtney Bearsch at 317-234-9006 or email Courtney.Bearsch@iga.in.gov.

CONNECTING COPS AND KIDS

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According to Jason Cullun of the EPD  the group called “Connecting Cops and Kids”  and the local EPD sponsored “Cops Connecting with Kids”  have different names but also different missions.  Please take time and review the attached overview of a national training program called “Connecting Cops & Kids”.  We hope this nationally proven program will be discussed during the current Mayoral campaign debates as a possible tool to improve community relations in the 3rd, 2nd and 4th political Wards of Evansville!

Overview of the “Cops and  Kids” Training Program Enhances Community Policing Efforts And Public Safety

The YEF Institute and the Fred Rogers Company have partnered to connect cities with a no-cost training program that enhances community policing efforts and public safety by improving police interactions with children and teens.

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) is supporting a series of local training sessions in communities across the nation.  We are interested in hearing from local law enforcement officials if they are using or considering to implement this seemly worthy community policing  program.

 The Fred Rogers Company, well known as the nonprofit organization responsible for the creation of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, has produced “One On One: Connecting Cops & Kids,” a video-based professional development training for police and community support agencies. Its goal is to help officers increase their effectiveness when interacting with children and teens.

The day-long training is designed to raise officers’ awareness of the tremendous impact their presence has on children, and show how basic knowledge of children’s development can enhance an officer’s impact, safety and ability to achieve law enforcement goals.

The program’s strong reception by police in the Pittsburgh area, where the training was piloted extensively, resulted in a COPS Office grant for a national rollout of the training available to selected police departments at no cost. Earlier this year, the YEF Institute assisted the Fred Rogers Company in soliciting applications for this training from cities across the country.

Trainings have taken place with police departments and social service agency partners in eight cities, as well as the National Community Policing Conference hosted by the COPS Office in August 2011 in Washington, D.C. Selected sites have included:

  • Brunswick, Ohio;
  • Fort Worth, Texas;
  • Gadsden, Ala.;
  • Glendale, Ariz.;
  • Nashville, Tenn.;
  • Thornton, Colo.;
  • Tukwila, Wash.; and
  • Youngstown, Ohio.

In many instances, officers from other applying cities are travelling to these sites to learn how to conduct the Cops & Kids training for their own police departments. Additional trainings are also being scheduled in 2012 in the following cities and towns that applied:

  • Albany, N.Y.
  • Buffalo, N.Y.
  • Cleveland, Ohio
  • Memphis, Tenn.
  • Newark, N.J.
  • Rock Hill, S.C.
  • Sacramento Area, Calif.
  • Richmond, Calif.
  • River Rouge, Mich.
  • Virginia Beach, Va.
  • West Valley City, Utah
  • Wellington, Fla.

If your city did not submit an application earlier this year, but is interested in the training, please contact Mark Meyers at the Fred Rogers Company atmeyers@fredrogers.org.

The Cops & Kids Training Program
Children are almost always present when police officers perform their duties. Encounters with police can make a profound impact on children. Children also can make officers’ work much easier or harder and considerably safer or more dangerous.

The Connecting Cops & Kids training program builds on expertise both in child development and the day-to-day reality of police work, having been developed by the Fred Rogers Company in collaboration with the Boston, New Haven, and Pittsburgh police departments, the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence and the Child Witness to Violence Project. Cops & Kids combines personal narratives and film footage of actual, non-scripted situations involving New Haven police officers interacting with children or responding to calls involving children, from friendly encounters to intense conflicts.

The Fred Rogers Company first produced the Cops & Kids training five years ago with support from the Heinz Endowments and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

“We developed Cops & Kids to help build less adversarial and more collaborative relationships among police officers and children and families. An effort that increases everyone’s safety in this way is as important today as ever,” said Fred Rogers Company President and Pittsburgh Public Schools Board Member William H. Isler.

“This training opens officers’ eyes to the ways that kids can be allies when it comes to fighting crime,” said Thomas Klawinski, Detective Sargeant for the New Kensington, Pa., Police Department. “It causes officers to look at juveniles not as a problem, but as a wealth of information. If they trust you, they’re going to help you. It also teaches officers that other agencies in the community-which we sometimes think of as roadblocks-can be great assets and partners.”

“No police officer should graduate from the Academy without this training,” said Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., Police Chief Darrel Stephens.

Using a flexible curriculum, the Connecting Cops & Kids program:

  • Helps police officers build trust in communities they are sworn to serve and promote greater cooperation and reporting of criminal activity;
  • Increases their safety and effectiveness while on patrol and as first responders;
  • Promotes greater preparedness to help children who are in trouble and prevent further victimization
  • Improves the perception of officers as role models for children;
  • Strengthens partnerships with social service agencies that work with the same youth officers encounter on a daily basis; and
  • Enhances officers’ community policing skills and ability to improve public safety.

At the heart of the program is a series of professionally-produced documentary videos that serve as jumping-off points for discussions. Training topics include:

  • Kids: How They See Police-understanding how children’s perceptions of police change as they grow older, connecting with kids in age-appropriate ways, using positive interactions to increase safety and job effectiveness;
  • Weighing Options-providing initial support to children exposed to violent or criminal behavior, exploring options for responding to children in trouble, using officer authority to help children at risk;
  • Children and Trauma-recognizing situations that are traumatic for children, understanding how children experience and react to trauma, responding appropriately to traumatized children; and
  • Partners in Crisis-getting acquainted and building working partnerships with the local social service agencies that support and advocate for children and families exposed to violence.

Hundreds of officers, from veterans to new recruits, have enhanced their community oriented policing efforts by participating in the program. They credit it with helping them develop new skills and increasing their awareness of strategies and partners they can turn to when dealing with children and teens.

“Cops & Kids gave me and my department some very valuable resources for developing our community oriented policing unit,” said Curtis Boyd, Lead Community Resource Officer for the Port Authority Police of Allegheny County, Pa. “It helped us reach kids and reach out to other police departments to learn from them. The program also helps us make the case that preventive policing really does work.”

“Cops & Kids is a terrific and important program,” said Sue Ascione, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Lawrence County, Pa. “It is very valuable for officers to learn how they can be helped by children’s advocacy organizations and how to hook up kids with organizations they might not otherwise connect with.”

In early 2011, applications to participate were invited from entities including but not limited to:

  • Offices of the mayor, city manager, or city council members;
  • Municipal police departments;
  • Police academies;
  • Tribal police departments;
  • Housing authority police departments;
  • Transit police departments;
  • Military police departments;
  • Campus security departments;
  • Juvenile probation programs;
  • School police departments;
  • Postsecondary educational institutions that provide pre-professional and continuing education for law enforcement officers; and
  • Social service/human service agencies and other community organizations.

Trainings will be held at a number of sites throughout the country, as well as online, at no cost to participating cities or their police departments and officers. An effort will be made to hold trainings in easily accessible areas for a wide range of departments and populations. Follow-up support will be provided for local trainers interested in facilitating additional workshops. If you are interested in this program, please contact Mark Meyers at the Fred Rogers Company at meyers@fredrogers.org.

EDITOR FOOT NOTE: The City-County Observer is excited to announce that our annual CCO “OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD” luncheon for 2015.will be held on October 26, 2015 at Tropicana-Evansville Walnut rooms A and B.  This years winners of the “Outstanding Community Services Awards” are: Vanderburgh County Commissioner Joe Kifer, well respected local Attorney Joe Harrison, Jr, Indiana State Auditor Suzanne Crouch and former Vanderburgh County Sheriff and 8th District  Congressmen Brad Ellsworth, Dr. Dan Adams, Dr Steven Becker MD, Tracy Zeller, Holly Dunn and Cheryl Musgrave who currently sits on the Vanderburgh County Board of Zoning Appeals and also is a Commissioner on the Evansville Redevelopment Commission.  Registration begins at 11:30 am, the event officially starts at 12 noon on October 26, 2015.  Reservations for this event may be obtain by calling Mollie Drake Schreiber at 812-760-4233 or e-email her at mdarke07@yahoo.com. Deadline for registration is October 15, 2014..  The last five (5) events were sellouts.

Daily Off Topic Forum October 9, 2015

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Joest to serve as Executive in Residence for USI’s Romain College of Business

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Doug Joest, executive director of Evansville Regional Airport, will serve as the 2015 Executive in Residence for the University of Southern Indiana’s Romain College of Business. His presentation, “Flight Plan for Your Career: Passion, Persistence, Performance & Patience,” will be presented at 9 a.m. and noon on Thursday, October 22, in Carter Hall in the University Center West. Both presentations are free and open to the campus and public.

The Romain College of Business’ Executive-in-Residence program provides valuable insights into the business world through the experiences of business executives. This year is the 43rd year for the program at USI.

An Evansville native, Joest became interested in aviation early, and earned his pilot’s license while attending William Henry Harrison High School. He subsequently worked on the airport ramp at Tri-State Aero, Inc., while completing his bachelor’s degree in accounting at USI.

After graduation, he worked in public accounting and then gained experience in corporate finance, while working for a natural gas pipeline company in Texas. After several years, he eagerly moved home to Evansville, returning to Tri-State Aero, Inc. as its CFO and business manager. While in this position, he was active on the Business Management Committee of the National Air Transportation Association.

After 13 years at Tri-State Aero, Inc., Joest explored different aspects of financial management across several industries. During this time, his enthusiasm for aviation led him to serve on the Evansville Vanderburgh Airport Authority Board for five years.

In 2007, he returned to the aviation industry when he joined the Evansville Airport staff as financial manager and treasurer. Since 2010, he has had the opportunity serve the Evansville community in his current role by maintaining a safe and attractive gateway to the region and expanding air service to further connect Evansville to the world.

He is a member of the boards of the Aviation Association of Indiana and the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville. He also is active with the American Association of Airport Executives, the Board of the Southwest Indiana Chamber of Commerce, the EVV Pilot’s Club, and the Board of Advisors for the Romain College of Business at USI.

ACCOUNTABILITY

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EPA Announces Recipients of 2015 Environmental Justice Small Grants

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WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced nearly $1.2 million in competitive grants selected for award to 40 non-profit and tribal organizations working to address environmental justice (EJ) issues nationwide. The grants enable these organizations to conduct research, provide education, and develop solutions to local health and environmental issues in minority and low-income communities overburdened by harmful pollution. In addition to the 36 projects receiving funding from EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, the program is bolstered this year by the funding of four additional projects in Gulf Coast communities by the EPA Gulf of Mexico Program.

“EPA’s environmental justice grants help communities across the country understand and address exposure to multiple environmental harms and risks at the local level,” said Matthew Tejada, Director of EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice.  “Addressing the impacts of climate change is a priority for EPA and the projects supported by this year’s grants will help communities prepare for and build resilience to localized climate impacts.”

EPA’s EJ Small Grants have been a foundational piece to the portfolios of many community organizations that have gone on to make a visible difference in their communities.  The 2015 grants will help organizations in 22 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands carry out projects that will educate residents about environmental issues that may impact their health, collect data about local environmental conditions, and work collaboratively to address environmental justice issues in their communities.  The grants support activities that not only address a range of community concerns, but also support activities that are educating and empowering youth and the next generation of environmental stewards. Specific grant projects will focus on reducing exposure to air pollutants from diesel exhaust, developing resilient sustainable agriculture, protecting farm workers from health impacts of pesticides, and increasing community climate resiliency.

“We’re excited to have this critical support to further our EJ work,” said Juan Parras, Director of the Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s.).  “Funding for EJ groups can be hard to come by, and the support from the EPA will go a long way at the community level.”Environmental justice is defined as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race or income, in the environmental decision-making process. Since 1994, EPA’s environmental justice small grants program has supported projects to address environmental justice issues in nearly 1,500 communities. The grants represent EPA’s continued commitment to expand the conversation on environmentalism and advance environmental justice in communities across the nation.

For 2015 Environmental Justice Small Grant recipients and project descriptions: http://www3.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/resources/publications/grants/ej-smgrants-recipients-2015.pdf

For more information on the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program, including descriptions of previously funded grants:
http://www3.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/grants/ej-smgrants.html

USI softball players honored for academic success

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Six University of Southern Indiana softball players were recognized this week by the National Fastpitch Coaches’ Association for their efforts in the classroom in 2014-15.

 

MacKenzi Dorsam (Dubois, Indiana), Olivia Clark-Kittleson (Carbondale, Illinois), Shelby Tate (Mattoon, Illinois), Haley Hodges(Portage, Indiana), Janna Green (Glenwood, Indiana), and Lexi Reese (Lebanon, Indiana) were among 833 NCAA Division II softball players to be recognized as NFCA All-America Scholar-Athletes.

 

The award is given to student-athletes who earn a 3.5 grade point average or higher during the academic year.

 

Dorsam, who earned All-America honors for the second straight season, was the 2015 Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year. She also earned first-team Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-America honors for her efforts in the classroom and on the field in 2015.

 

The Screaming Eagles, who had nine players earn Academic All-GLVC honors last year, begin the 2016 season February 20 when they take on Midwest Region foe Ohio Dominican University in a doubleheader at the USI Softball Field.

 

EVPL to be Recognized for Outstanding Library Services, Programming and Collaboration

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The Indiana Library Federation (ILF) is pleased to announce that the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library (EVPL) is the recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Library Award.

EVPL’s range of services, leadership endeavors, outstanding programming and community collaborations shows a commitment to excellence in library service.

The EVPL will also receive the Collaboration Award for the 2014 One Book One Community/Evansville Remembers community collaboration.  Working with nearly a dozen cultural and educational organizations, the collaboration provided a multi-faceted focus on the Holocaust and World War II through a variety of events.

In addition to these awards, the library will receive the Programming Award.  The EVPL offered more than 2,400 programs in 2014, ranging from robotics classes and film series to music events and history programs, drawing nearly 58,000 attendees.

It is unprecedented that one library receives this many awards in one year.  “The awards committee noted that Indiana is fortunate to have EVPL serving as a role model to other libraries,”said Susan Akers, ILF executive director. “They lead by example.”

The EVPL will receive these awards at the ILF awards banquet on November 1

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