Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Seven people were taken into custody early this morning after police received an anonymous tip of an underage drinking party.
When officers arrived at the Shamrock Mobile Home Court residence, a male standing outside reportedly darted inside. Officers entered the home with the permission of a resident.
Police allegedly found the seven minors and many empty, opened and unopened beer containers in the residence.
Five people were booked into the Kosciusko County Jail on charges of illegal possession or consumption of alcohol by a minor and held on $175 bond. They are:
• Derek Robert Fleckenstein, 20, of 2044 E. Riverside Drive, Warsaw;
• Joshua Brant Hawthorne, 18, P.O. Box 263, Leesburg;
• Brock Alan Hawthorne, 20, of 12 EMS D18A Lane, Syracuse (also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and held without bond);
• Terri Jo Stoebe, 18, of 3750 Lake City Highway #8, Warsaw; and
• James Robert Roe, 19, of 70330 CR31, Syracuse.
Also taken into custody were Christina Lee Ann Yoder, 17, and Christina Etheline Lyons, 18, both of 8292 E. Asbury Lane, North Webster. Both were released to their mothers, with Yoder charged as a juvenile and a warrant to be issued for Lyons' arrest.
Warsaw police responded to the 12:32 a.m. call, with a Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department deputy assisting in transporting the subjects to jail.
History of Leesburg comes alive with homes tour next week
BY TERESA CARRANO, Times-Union Staff Writer
It's a labor of love.
It has to be because, for the last two years, Scott and Sirenna McDonald have remodeled the kitchen, repaired plaster walls, drilled through 15-inch thick brick walls to provide electrical outlets on the second floor and replaced the front porch floor of their Italianate house on CR 150W, south of Leesburg.
The property is the seventh stop of the 1998 Kosciusko Historic Home Tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 12.
The McDonalds knew they could tackle a "fixer-upper" like the former Stookey property.
Scott owns McDonald Remodeling and Sirenna is a part-time assessor.
They bought the house and three acres in the winter of 1996 at auction.
"We've got a dream here," Scott said, still starry-eyed about the house after two years of renovation.
"We both wanted to do it," Sirenna said. "When you love something you're often blind to its faults. We had friends give it a once-over. We knew what we were getting into."
"We decided we had to have it," he said.
When they bought it many windows were broken, allowing admittance to weather, animals and birds.
During the 1960s modernization efforts included installation of single-pane windows, electricity downstairs and removal of the 15-inch thick interior wall on both stories to open up the living room.
Scott and Sirenna have had new windows and doors installed, following original designs. A geo-thermal heating and cooling system required installation of a new pump.
So far, with the exception of the kitchen floor, there have been few surprises for the McDonalds, who have done most of the work themselves.
One owner decided to cover the kitchen floor with more floorboards and the McDonalds discovered the original floor underneath. Thinking to save time and money, Scott figured he could hide the worst of the worn boards under cabinets and under the island planned for the center of the room.
"Traffic through the kitchen had worn the boards down half an inch, which I didn't realize at first," Scott said, "When I started to move them, of course they didn't match up. We tore up the whole floor and installed the ash."
Ash wood also can be found in the dining room and main hall. Cherry wood cabinets complement the kitchen. Throughout the rest of the house is poplar wood, a soft hardwood commonly used in country homes 100 years ago.
After a year of preliminary repair and renovation, the McDonalds and daughter, Kelsea, now 3, moved in, confining their personal quarters to the living room and storing most of their possessions in the basement.
Scott has repaired the plaster walls and replaced cracked ceilings with drywall. The upstairs has been wired for electricity - with conduits running through the brick walls.
The house is listed as "outstanding" by the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana.
"The only reason it can be called outstanding is because no one really did anything with the place," Scott said.
Along with the original 15-inch thick brick exterior, the original porch pillars and bric-a-brac are in evidence.
The McDonalds decided to open their house for a historical home tour last year after attending the 1997 tour sponsored by the Historical Society.
"When they called and asked us to participate this year we were surprised," Sirenna said.
It also put their own remodeling efforts into high gear, although they have kept at the work steadily.
"We just live with the dust," Sirenna said.
The McDonalds designed a front drive and brick walkway so visitors would knock on the front door. They decided to have a brick walk in back of the house, too. When a backhoe began to scrape out a walkway trench, they discovered a buried brick walk in the same place and same pattern they chose out front.
The McDonalds' property was built around1860 by Sylvannus Davisson. After Mrs. Davisson's death in 1888, the farm was purchased by Jefferson and Sarah Stookey, who lived there for many years.
Later owners included Milan Stookey, Fred Stookey, Kenneth Murphy and Austin Stewart.
Stookeys owned the property from 1890 to 1959.
The McDonalds have made the acquaintence of Iva Marie Rosbrugh, Warsaw, granddaughter of Jefferson and Sarah Stookey. She still owns a washstand, chair, cake plate, shawl and fan which are original to the house and will be on display Sept. 12.
Rosbrugh has given the McDonalds photographs of the farm and delights them with tales of when she was a little girl and she and her cousins slid down the bannister.
Ceilings are 11-feet high. Fragments of the original wallpaper remain on the ceiling of a northeast second story room.
Home Tours To Benefit Historical Pound Store
The 1998 Kosciusko Historic Home Tour features five historic homes in the Leesburg community, the Leesburg cemetery and the Pound Store, the oldest commercial building still standing in the county. Touring hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 12.
Proceeds of the event are dedicated to the completion of restrooms at the Pound Store in Oswego. Open to the public and for classroom tours by appointment only, the Pound Store serves as a second museum for the Historical Society.
Tickets are available at the Kosciusko County Jail Museum, P.O. Box 1071, Warsaw IN 46581; First National Bank of Warsaw, Warsaw and Leesburg offices; Lake City Bank, Warsaw office; and Brennan's Downtown Pharmacy. Tickets are $8 pre-event and $10 the day of the tour. Rain date is Sept. 13 noon to 5 p.m.
