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Covering Milford, Syracuse & North Webster, Indiana
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
One Nation Under God
Campal Tries Sports At Wawasee Page 6
themail-journal.com
2024 Flotilla Theme ‘Family Game Night’ —
Dr. Rex Parent announced as Flotilla commodore Gather the family and get your game on for the 2024 Wawasee Flotilla! This year you can pass go and collect $200 (maybe more). Leading the parade on July 6 will be J. Rex Parent, MD, who has been named the 2024 Wawasee Flotilla Commodore. Celebrating the time-honored lake tradition of family-friendly competition, this year’s theme allows participants to highlight favorite pastime around the game table, in the yard or on the pontoon. Is your go-to a classic like Monopoly or Clue? Maybe it’s a spirited yard game like corn-hole or bocci. How about some Left-Center-Right? What ever gets your family’s competitive juices flowing, celebrate it by entering and decorating your boat for the 2024 Wawasee Flotilla Parade. You can also celebrate by decorating your yard or your pier to reflect this year’s playful theme.
MATTHEW BUEHLER
DR. J. REX PARENT, 2024 WAWASEE FLOTILLA COMMODORE Parent is a lifelong lover of Lake Wawasee, starting with family vacations at rental cottages on Natti Crow Beach. “My summer fun and summer vacation wishes have always been based on Lake Wawasee,” Parent explained. The family soon moved to Ogden Island. Later he bought his own place just a few piers Continued on page 3
TYLER HUFFER
PROGRESS BEING MADE — Crews from Phend and Brown were busy working on the CR 1300 bridge that goes over the Norfolk Southern tracks last Thursday and Friday, May 2-3. Ten precast 82 feet, 40 ton beams were set in place, five on each side. The crews were able to get the east side of the bridge done Thursday and finished the work on Friday. Each beam took two cranes to lift them into place with crews at both ends to ensure they were set perfectly into designated spaces. Work on the bridge was significantly delayed due to changes in Norfolk Southern policies. Andy Brown of Phend and Brown said the concrete bridge deck is expected to be poured Thursday, May 30. This is dependent on Norfolk Southern giving the construction crews an outage day, meaning no trains will be coming through while the bridge is being worked on. Main Street and CR 1300 is expected to be paved June 20-28. Guardrails, signs and pavement markings are expected to be installed July 8-31 with other miscellaneous work completed Aug 1-15. Both Main Street and CR 1300 are expected to be open to traffic by mid August. Photo by Lauren Zeugner.
JAMES MOYER
SUE ANN MITCHELL
MIKE BRAUN
MARLIN STUTZMAN
Buehler, Huffer, Moyer and Mitchell win county races By DEB PATTERSON Editor-In-Chief Matthew Buehler, Tyler Huffer, James Moyer and Sue Ann Mitchell received the Republican nominations in their respective county races. Buehler received the nomination for county circuit court judge. Huffer won the nomination for county coroner, Moyer for county surveyor and Sue Ann Mitchell won the nomination for county
commissioner – northern district. Kosciusko County had 20% of its voters turnout for the primary Tuesday, just 1% shy of the 2022 primary. Circuit Court Judge Race Buehler edged out his opponent Jack Birch with 53% of the vote to Birch’s 47%. Birch did have a narrow lead in the absentee and early vote results, but that lead dwindled to as high as a 15% vote difference as the votes came in.
“I want to thank first of all Jack Birch, my good friend who is a wonderful attorney and an honorable, honorable man for running a great campaign,” said Buehler. “Just a very competitive and above the belt campaign that really made the decision very, very tough for the Kosciusko County voters, the voters themselves, who have the confidence in me to go do this extremely important, incredible job; my family: my wife, my three boys, my
mom and dad who supported me throughout this entire process and mostly those who supported me throughout the campaign … “I’m honored that the people of Kosciusko County have faith in me to do this incredibly important and difficult job and I’m excited for the general election in November and hopefully we can win there too.” Coroner Race Huffer defeated his opponent Tracy Cutler-Wilson with 66%
Wawasee School Corporation conducts phase one bid opening By MARISSA SWEATLAND Staff Writer The performing arts center is slowly coming to fruition for the Wawasee Community School Corporation. The corporation held a phase one bid opening Monday, May 6, in the new Professional Learning Center, 801 S. Sycamore St, Syracuse. The bids were placed by prequalified contractors for the work and supply of materials for the
Wawasee High School performing arts center and CTE renovations. “The general description of Bid Phase No. 1 is ‘Make Ready Work’ with classroom renovations, utility relocation and building demolition,” Dr. Brandon Penrod, CFO for the corporation, explained. The scope of work varies from bid package to bid package. Bids were placed for masonry; general trades; metal stud, gyp board, ceiling installation; resilient flooring; painting; fire protection; mechanical; electrical; earthwork; and site utilities. The bid opening was led by Penrod, Superintendent Dr. Steve Troyer and Wawasee High School principal Geoff Walmer, who were also in attendance. The bids received were for phase one. The second phase will be coming out to bid in August or September. The bids are under advisement of Weigand Construction and Wawasee School Corporation. Among the bids received were: ·On bid package #04-1, Weigand Construction bid a base of $60,800 with alternate one of plus $1,000 and alternate two of plus $88,800. ·On bid package #06-1, Weigand Construction bid a base
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of $183,600 with alternate one of plus $2,000 and alternate two of plus $20,000. · On a combination bid for bid
package #9-1 and #9-3, Collector Interior Systems bid a base of $120,500 with alternate one of Continued on page 3
of the vote. Huffer lead the race throughout the night as the results were released. Huffer was excited with the results and the turnout for him. “I think its pretty good results” he stated with just three vote centers yet to be counted. “I’m glad to be staying in the office and being re-elected to the office again, to keep doing the good work that we’re doing and making the improvements we’ve done so far and working upon those
improvements,” he stated. He noted he tried to keep level headed throughout the campaign, which was hard and difficult. “We did it and we’ll keep moving forward.” He noted he recently implemented a suicide/overdose review team, which after two meetings have had good results. That team is working with other offices and nonprofit organizations in the county and getting more awareness into the community. Continued on page 3
Indiana’s Largest Marina
Over 95 Years of Exceptional Service and Products
Syracuse-Lake Wawasee Calendar debuts Summer is a busy time in the Syracuse-Lake Wawasee area with a variety of activities happening each month, especially on the weekends. A listing of the vast majority of nonprofit events has been compiled into a calendar and will be published monthly in The Mail-Journal. Starting with this week’s edition of The Mail-Journal a calendar listing those events in the Syracuse-Lake Wawasee area planned for the remainder of May is being published on page 2. Readers are encouraged to cut it out and place it on your pegboard, refrigerator or wherever you may place those reminders. You don’t want to miss the numerous fun events. A calendar for each of the upcoming months will be published the last Wednesday of the preceding month, through Aug. 28. So look in the May 29 issue for the June calendar. Should we have missed a nonprofit event, contact dpatterson@the-papers.com or call (574) 658-4111, ext. 2308. We’ll publish the information in our Around The Lakes column, if it is too late for that month’s calendar. If it is a future event, we will add it to the appropriate month’s calendar.
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