U.S. Navy veteran Jerry Howard McCartney was recognized as the Veteran of the Month by the Kosciusko County Commissioners this morning. McCartney and 10 other young Warsaw residents enlisted together in 1952, a year after the former Warsaw High School football team captain graduated. He served as a metalsmith aboard the USS Prairie, a Dixie-class destroyer tender. His tour of duty took him from Pearl Harbor to Japan to South Korea, where he spent two months, then back to station duty on the West Coast. McCartney thanked commissioners for taking the time to honor veterans, while county Veterans Affairs Officer Rich Maron also thanked them for the program, which gives him the chance to meet veterans and sit and talk with them. Also this morning, the county accepted two grants relayed by county Emergency Management Director Ed Rock. A $22,000 reimbursement will cover District 2 training for emergency responders – what sort of training they need will be determined after a risk assessment, he noted – and a $39,000 reimbursement will cover 50 percent of his and his assistant’s salaries. Rock also told commissioners he has put in a request for 12,000 sandbags to prepare for spring flooding, which would double the county’s supply. He noted many towns have their own supply of 1,000 or so bags. And commissioners approved the $13,000 purchase of a Kubota lawnmower from More’s Kubota of Warsaw for the county sheriff’s department work release program, which county Administrator Ron Robinson said is compatible with attachments the county already owns. And Commissioner Bob Conley announced that during bridge construction on Rozella Ford Road, the restriction on heavy trucks will be removed.
