During July, over a span of just 18 days, EFD will lose 76 years of valuable experience due to the retirements of Captain James “Jim” D. Blanford, Jr. and Battalion Chief James “Jim” A. Fuchs, Jr.

Blanford retired July 3th after 33 years on the department, serving as Captain since 1984. He has been at Station#17 on the northside since 1998, although he served at Station #15 on the southeast side 14 years previously. Blanford said “The Fire Department’s all I’ve known my whole life” referring to the fact that his dad, James Blanford, Sr. joined EFD when Jim was just 2 years old. Jim Sr. retired in 1993. Jim is looking forward to his retirement by camping, going to “more” NASCAR races and spending time with family.

Fuchs will retire July 21st after nearly 43 years “on the job”. Fuchs has been a “Chief” since 1980 when promoted to Fire Prevention Coordinator (School Safety Liaison Officer) as a District Chief. Fuchs was promoted to Battalion Chief in 1986 and became the Chief Inspector (Fire Marshal) for the City. Fuchs has served in a number of capacities including the Chiefs of Training, Administration and Health & Safety and was the Assistant Chief under Mayor Weinzapfel. Jim is also looking forward to retirement citing his 4 grandkids as one of the main reasons, which will help “occupy his time”.

EFD wants to wish both men a long and happy retirement.

Indianapolis, IN – The Indiana State Police, in accordance with state law, conduct inspections of all school buses used to transport children to public and private schools. All buses are inspected annually. Buses more than 12 model years old are inspected biannually.

While school bus inspection reports are a public record, historically there was not a simple way for parents, school officials, or the public in general to view the thousands of inspection reports prepared by state police personnel each school year. To make school bus records more accessible the Indiana State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division, in collaboration with the Indiana Office of Technology (IOT), and Indiana Interactive, a subsidiary of e-government provider NIC USA, developed a public access portal website where school bus inspection records can be viewed from the comfort of a parents’ home computer.

The all encompassing goal of this public access portal website is to provide parents, school officials, and the public in general, an easy to navigate website with up-to-date school bus inspection information. To that end, other website owners are invited to make a direct link to the Indiana State Police school bus inspection public access portal website.

The public access portal website became operational on July 1, 2013. The website contains records from more than 30,000 inspections and will automatically update within days after future school bus inspections are conducted.

Access to this new service can be made in several ways:
Visit this Indiana State Police website link at http://www.in.gov/isp/2988.htm. Read the introduction information and then click this link: https://secure.in.gov/ISP/BusInspections/Public/Index.

You may also go directly to the site at: https://secure.in.gov/ISP/BusInspections/Public/Index

Once on the site, simply select the county where the school is located and follow the on screen directions to view selected school bus inspection records.

Refer to this helpful guide:
1. Select the County of the School Corporation
2. Select the School or School District
a. A pie-chart summary of the most recent annual inspection is displayed reflecting the initial inspection results.
b. The initial annual inspection results DO NOT reflect the current status of the bus fleet
i. To see only the Approved, Ordered Repaired or Out of Service inspection results from the original annual inspection, click on either Total Approved, Total Ordered Repaired, or Total Out of Service
ii. To see definitions of these categories, hover the mouse over the selection
3. To see the current status of any bus, select ‘View Inspections’
a. Select the PDF to the right to view the printable inspection record
b. To see historical inspection records of any bus select the bus number on the far left side of the screen
i. This displays all records for a specific bus dating back to Oct. 2011
ii. Select the PDF to the right to view the printable inspection report

The Indiana State Police encourage parents to use this valuable resource to track the inspection reports of their child’s school bus. The only information a parent needs to successfully navigate the website is the bus number of their child’s bus.
###
BURSTEN/KATH
Contact Information:
Cpt. David Bursten
Public Information Office
317-232-0064
dbursten@isp.in.gov

State Representative Ron Bacon (R-Chandler) issued the following statement in response to the announcement of the delay of a key provision of Obamacare:

“Two weeks ago, I chose to write my weekly column about the unintended effects of Obamacare. I expressed my concerns upon seeing many companies in Indiana cutting employee hours or cutting jobs all together in order to get around the employer mandate to provide health insurance. Yesterday however, we learned that a key provision of the Affordable Care Act has been delayed by one year.”

“I am very pleased to see this delay and simply regret that it did not come sooner. I’m afraid that for many Hoosiers, the damage has already been done. I consider this delay a small victory; but it doesn’t do anything to change what has already taken place.”

The start of the 11th annual Cops Cycling for Survivors bicycle ride across and around Indiana. A departure ceremony will be held at 8:30 a.m. EDT at the Law Enforcement/Firefighter Memorial, adjacent to the State Capitol, in downtown Indianapolis. This year there are 51 cyclists participating in the ride. They will depart shortly after the key note comments of Spencer Moore, survivor of Officer David S. Moore of the Indianapolis Metro Police Department, end of watch January 26, 2011. Their 9:00 a.m. departure from the memorial will take them east toward Greenfield, Indiana on the first leg of journey that will last 13 days and cover nearly 1,000 miles bicycling the perimeter of Indiana.

Cops Cycling for Survivors Foundation, Inc., is made up of active and retired police officers, law enforcement survivors, law enforcement family members and friends of law enforcement riding their bicycles around the perimeter of Indiana to raise money and awareness about the sacrifices made by Hoosier law enforcement families across Indiana. Funds raised from this event are used to aid surviving family members and co-workers of officers killed in the line-of-duty. Previously raised funds have been directly donated to the Indiana Chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS), National COPS, Illinois COPS, The Unity Tour and Project Blue Light.

This year the cyclists are recognizing the sacrifices made by Lake County Corrections Officer Britney Meux and Indiana Department of Corrections Officer Timothy Betts. Corrections Officer Meux was killed instantly when struck while on a training run around the perimeter of the Lake County Jail. Three co-workers were also injured in the hit and run crash. She was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and had served with the Lake County Sheriff’s Department for three years. Officer Meux is survived by her daughter, mother, father, and four sisters. Correctional Officer Betts suffered a heart attack while escorting an unruly prisoner to the segregation unit at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility. Officer Betts had served with the Indiana Department of Correction for 15 years. He is survived by his wife, children, and grandchildren.

The ride is scheduled to conclude on the afternoon of Saturday, July 20, 2013, at Crown Hill Cemetery, Heroes of Public Safety Section, where the riders will reunite with their families and other law enforcement survivors. There will be a short closing ceremony beginning at 2:30 p.m. To see the route the cyclists will follow, please visit their website: http://www.copscycling4survivors.org/route.html Additional information on specific locations of meals and overnights can be found by clicking on the Calendar tab of the website.
Cops Cycling for Survivors Foundation, Incorporated was granted 501(c) 3 status as a not-for-profit in late 2011, and the inaugural 13 day tour around Indiana took place in July of 2012. However, the spirit of this ride began many years before. In 2001 a group of police officers decided to support survivors by riding their bicycles from Indianapolis, Indiana to Washington, D.C. to honor officers who had been killed in the line of duty and to support their survivors.
The ride has gone through many changes over the years, but one thing has remained constant…the cyclists’ dedication to honoring fallen law enforcement heroes and supporting their survivors left behind.

Two people who were integral to the success of Cops Cycling were Lt. Gary Dudley of the Indiana State Police and Retired Chief Gary Martin of the Lake County Police Department. Lt. Dudley took the organizational and emotional lead and kept the wheels rolling after the first two years riding to Washington, D.C. Wanting to do more to support survivors on a local level, Gary brought the ride home to Indiana.

On August 22, 2006, Lt. Dudley and Chief Martin were both killed during the ride when a large box truck struck the rear of the support truck, pushing the support truck into the cyclists. Several of the cyclists who had participated in the ride for many years and were cycling the day of the crash determined to keep Lt. Dudley and Chief Martin’s memories and motivation alive. Those memories and motivation have developed into what the ride is today, Lt. Dudley’s vision and legacy in supporting law enforcement survivors. To date, the cycling event has raised over $300,000 for IN Concerns of Police Survivors.

For more information on the ride please visit the Cops Cycling for Survivors Foundation web-site at: http://www.copscycling4survivors.org/ or Rich Crawford, President of Cops Cycling for Survivors Foundation, Inc. at 317-650-8961.

The EVSC Board of School Trustees approved an agreement to sell the former Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Administration Building located at 1 S.E. 9th Street to Professionals Plaza, LLC for $740,000. The sale makes the former administration building the final building to be either sold, leased, repurposed or divested since the EVSC consolidated unneeded or underutilized facilities into other locations three and a half years ago.
“We are pleased that this facility will once again be in use and that a local company will now take ownership of the building,” said EVSC Superintendent David Smith. “What’s even more notable is the fact that all our buildings that became available when we consolidated facilities – 12 in all – are now either sold or leased to tenants, are being reused or have been divested.”
In 2010 the EVSC undertook an initiative that helped bring nearly all EVSC offices under one roof by revamping existing warehouse space that was no longer being utilized and relocating the EVSC Administration Building to 951 Walnut Street. By consolidating buildings, the EVSC was able to bring together offices at the new Administration Building location that had been previously divided into three different locations, and allowed the school corporation to operate more efficiently. As of tonight, all three former administrative locations are either being leased or have sold.