Starke County EMS Still Hiring EMTs and Paramedics

Published: August 6, 2015 By: Mary Perren, WKVI

Starke County EMS is still looking for EMTs and paramedics. Director Keith Emigh told the county commissioners this week his goal is to have all three bases adequately staffed in order to offer county-wide Advance Life Support Service around the clock, seven days a week.

ALS personnel are certified to provide more services, including the administration of some medications. Having ALS trucks available throughout the county also allows Starke County EMS to transport patients from IU Health Starke Hospital and local nursing homesto other medical facilities as needed for treatment while ensuring the county is covered in case of an emergency.

Emigh hired six part-time paramedics and four part-time EMTs last month and says he will continue hiring until the service is staffed at adequate levels.

Back-to-School Vaccination Reminder

Published: August 6, 2015 By: Jacque Ryan, WKVI

Are back-to-school vaccinations on your end of the summer to-do-list? If not, they should be. Regardless of what grade your child is going into, there are required immunizations they must receive or have listed on their medical records. The requirements and recommendations are in alignment with the routine vaccination schedules from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

For the 2015-2016 school year, all students entering kindergarten and first grade are required to have a record documenting two valid doses of Hepatitis A vaccine. Two Varicella vaccines must be on record for any students grades K-12. Students in grades 6 through 12 must have one Tdap vaccine on record. Students entering 12th grade must have a record of two doses of the Meningococcal/meningitis vaccine. For a complete listing of Indiana school immunization requirements, visit the Indiana State Department of Health website.

Though it is not a required vaccination, parents should talk with their doctors about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Each year HPV cause more than 26,000 new cases of cancer in both men and women. HPV is spread by skin-to-skin sexual contact. Infection with the virus can lead to cervical cancer in women and can also cause other oral and genital cancers in men and women. All boys and girls ages 11 to 26 are recommended to receive the vaccine which is given in three doses over a six month span.

Hoosiers can access their immunization records through MyVaxIndiana, a user-friendly website that allows parents and other individuals to connect with their immunization records from any computer through the use of a personal identification number. PINs can be obtained from health-care providers and used to log in to the secure website where users can access their records.

Vote for Kids Closet To Receive a Donation from Safeco Insurance

Help a charity get $10,500!  Vote for 1st Choice Insurance and Kids Closet at http://www.safeco.com/make-more-happen.  Contest ends 10 a.m. on August 17, 2015.  

• The three teams with the most votes will receive respectively a $10,000, $5,000 or $3,000 donation from Safeco Insurance for the charities.
• All 33 charities each get $500 if the vote total in the contest reaches the 28,000 goal.

1st Choice Insurance, North Judson, Indiana, making more happen for Kid’s Closet, North Judson, Indiana

“Children without needs” is the vision of Kid’s Closet, a program run by the United Methodist Church in North Judson, Indiana. The all-volunteer group served 550 children in 2014, giving kids in need 250 backpacks filled with school supplies, clothing and more. 1st Choice Insurance got involved last summer after learning about the program and the impact it has on the community, which is in the poorest county in Indiana. Employees volunteer one evening per month to help sort, fold and organize clothing, as seen here. They also assist with fundraising and collecting donations. The children served by Kid’s Closet are recommended by schools, churches, government agencies and sometimes even the families themselves. All go through a screening process and receive a home visit from a volunteer, who also makes sure the kids like the clothing they’re given and that it fits properly.

8/22/2015 Kids Closet Fish Fry/Blue Jay Quilt Raffle

American Red Cross Warns of a Looming Blood Shortage

Published: August 5, 2015 By: Jacque Ryan, WKVI

During the summer months, the American Red Cross and other blood banks see a sharp decline in the amount of donors at their blood drives. On average during the summer months, about two fewer donors give blood at each Red Cross drive than what is needed. It if for this reason that the American Red Cross is urging all eligible donors to pitch in an help prevent a blood shortage.

Right now donors with types AB, O negative, B negative and A negative are especially encouraged to donate. Plasma from type AB donors and type O negative blood can be transfused to patients of any blood type. Type B negative and A negative blood can be transfused to Rh-positive or negative patients. These are the blood types that are in highest demand.

Patients are constantly in need of donations and the American Red Cross wants to ensure blood is available for each and every one of those people. You can assist three individuals with just one donation and the process itself takes less than an hour. Local drives are happening all the time, just this month a few are scheduled for the area.

• In Hanna on Saturday, August 15 from 8 am until noon a drive will be held at the Hanna United Methodist Church.
• That same Saturday from 10 am until 2 pm a blood drive is scheduled in Hamlet at the Starke County 4-H Fairgrounds.
• On Wednesday, August 19 there will be a drive hosted by the Knights of Columbus from 11:30 am until 5:30 pm in Winamac.
• On Tuesday, August 25 Oregon-Davis High School will have a blood drive from 8 am until 1:30 pm.
• On Thursday, August 27 from 8 am until 2 pm Culver High School has a drive scheduled.

If none of these dates or times fit into your schedule, at anytime you can enter your zip code into the Red Cross website to find a drive near you. Overall blood donations in the Red Cross Indiana-Ohio Blood Services Region have been approximately 1,500 fewer per month in June and July this year than the previous 10 months of the year. Change the trajectory for the month of August by making a donation and thank you in advance for helping to prevent an emergency shortage. Visit redcrossblood.org for more information or call 1-800-RED CROSS. There are less than 40 days left of summer, make them count by making a difference.

Guess Who Was Invited!

When you're celebrating something as important as a Centennial you naturally invite important people to join you. You can see the letters they received in response to their invitation at the Library's website.  Just click on this link:

https://sites.google.com/site/northjudsonwaynetwplibrary/north-judson-history/guesswhowasinvited

Foomobile - Starke County Tidbit #62

Foomobile 

Years ago, the blacksmith was the corner of the community.  Take your idea to the blacksmith and he would hammer out that idea.  It could be a new wheel or a new plow.  That is how John Deere started in 1837.  John was a blacksmith.  The blacksmith days are gone, but we still have innovators looking for better ways of doing things in shops and farms around the world.

When I talked about the Space Ship landing in Hamlet, I mentioned that we have fun in Starke County.  Pulaski County has fun, too.   I have stretched the borders of Starke County before, so I thought I would do it again.  Just west of Francesville, Indiana, is a company called Schlatters, Inc.  Pulaski County is just like Starke County in the fact that we are major agricultural production counties in the state - rural and wonderful.  And creative, too.

Bill Holman was a syndicated writer in Chicago for the Smokey Stover comic strip between 1935 and 1973.  In the comic strip, Smokey was a fireman and would drive the fire chief, Chief Cash U. Nutt, to the different fires.  To fully understand the comic strip, you need to click on the following ----

http://www.smokey-stover.com/

Now, to get back to Pulaski County, Pete Schlatter of Francesville was a genius in his ability to build anything.  His son, Ron, is the same way.  Pete created a real live Foomobile - the seemingly impossible two-wheeled car like Smokey Stover's in the comic strip.  I'm not going to tell you how it stays up on the two wheels, but if you really want to know, you can look around on Google and find it.   I have included a photo of Schlatter's Foomobile when Melba and I drove it in a parade years ago.



Jim Shilling
Starke County Historical Societyhttp://www.starkehistory.com
http://www.scpl.lib.in.us/historical/

8/4 & 6 & 7/2015 IU Health Offers Tours of Full-Size Hospital Mock-Up

Published: August 4, 2015 By: Mary Perren, WKVI

IU Health officials are working on plans for a new, state-of-the-art hospital in Knox. President Craig Felty says the lean concept design will focus on efficiency.

“It’s going to be a licensed hospital. We’ll have all the outpatient complementary services that we offer now – x-ray, lab, CT, MRI – all of the diagnostic imaging options we have now. It will have a full-service emergency department. We’re looking right now at a 10-bed hospital, or a 10 bed inpatient unit, if you will.”

Members of the public are invited to take a tour of a life-sized, cardboard mock-up of the proposed new design. It is set up at the former Freeman Products Building at 888 S. CR 300 East in Knox. Tours will be available Tuesday, Aug. 4 from 4 until 6 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 6 from 7:30 until 9:30 a.m. and Friday, Aug. 7 at 10 a.m.

Felty says more care is transitioning to outpatient offerings. He adds IU Health Starke Hospital is well positioned for that.

“About 82 percent of the work we do is outpatient. We’re actually very well placed for what the future’s going to hold for us. We know that even more of that is probably going to end up being in the outpatient area. We know there is a need for inpatient care in Starke County. We’re going to be here to serve that need for as long as we can.”

Felty adds wellness and illness prevention are also important offerings.

“We want to help you be well, and we want to help you prevent illness through pre-screenings and getting aligned with the family physician and just making sure you have an established relationship with a provider that you can go see. You can get your screenings that you need to get done, and you can prevent illness. That’s one of the areas we feel we have a great impact on, and we’re very proud of that.”

Plans call for the new hospital to be constructed just to the south of the existing building in what is now the parking lot. The current IU Health Starke Hospital facility will be torn down once the new building is done, and the area where it sits will be used for parking.

IRS May Need More Information Because of Affordable Care Act

Published: August 4, 2015 By: Mary Perren, WKVI

The IRS may need more information from some income tax filers this year due to provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Taxpayers who signed up for coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace chose to either have advance payments of the premium tax credit paid directly to their insurance provider in order to reduce their premiums throughout the year or to get their assistance at tax time as a premium tax credit.

Taxpayers who had advance payments made throughout the year need to file a return to either claim premium tax credit or reconcile the advance payment with the actual amount of premium tax credit to which they were allowed based on their 2014 income.

Taxpayers who have not yet filed their taxes or filed an extension request risk losing the advance payment of premium tax next year. The IRS urges them to file their taxes electronically within the next 30 days.

The agency also estimates some 760,000 taxpayers nationwide filed a tax return but did not attach the required Form 8962 to reconcile the payments. Those taxpayers will receive letters asking that they submit the form. Officials say it is not unusual for the IRS to follow up with taxpayers for more information about their returns after April 15th.

8/22/2015 Kids Closet Ministry Fish Fry

Kids Closet Ministry Fish Fry is August 22nd, at North Judson Fire Department. 4pm-??.
Adults - 10.00 and Children - 5.00. Carry Outs available.