10 Years Ago Leah R. Winger, daughter of Matt and Debbie Winger, is the valedictorian for Whitko High School and Emily R. Barnes, daughter of James and Lea Barnes, the salutatorian. ML Motorsports driver Chad Blount qualified first for the ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Kentucky Speedway. Blount led 55 of the 100 laps at the 1.5-mile speedway and finished second. Jessica Harms, Nicholas Hippensteel and Joyce Immel have been named valedictorians for the Class of 2005 at Manchester High School, having earned this honor with a perfect 11.0 grade point average. Amanda Gable is the salutatorian, having earned a 10.9 GPA. 25 Years Ago Kosciusko County officials purchased three properties south of the Justice Building – NIPSCO consumer building, Data Management Inc. and a group of retail stores on the same block owned by George Mann – which would lay the groundwork for a multi-county juvenile facility, work release center and additional office space for cramped county offices. Retail stores (ComputerLand, Dharma School, Studio Four Boutique, George’s Electronics) along the northwest corner of Center and Lake streets will be razed and replaced with jail cells. Joan Cusick, hired as the first director of Combined Community Services six years ago, announced her resignation May 10, but will stay during the interim period with the new director. She and her husband, Leo, will be moving to Florida. The agency began as a dream of Dr. Howard Smith’s. 50 Years Ago Mentone Chamber of Commerce basketball team members are Tom Harmon, Harold “Red” Shaffer, Dale Wallace Jr., Gerald Romine and Larry Pyle. They will oppose these teachers from Mentone, Burket and Talma schools in a game to benefit the scholarship fund: Gaylord Toll, Kenneth Bush, Paul Rush, Cecil Mason, Roger Bridge and George Welch. Lucile Paxton, Clara Belle Demaree and Iva Carpenter made frothy pastel nylon scratchers used as decorations for the 58th spring convention of the Pythian Sisters of Indiana, District 1, April 21 at the Westminster Hotel. Syracuse High School students worked on posters for the chili supper and Lakeland Youth Center dance April 24. They were Tom Clayton, Kent Thomas, Norma Stewart and Diana Smith. 75 Years Ago A delegation of 10, headed by Orlando Meredith and Dr. C.C. DuBois, appeared before the commissioners and urged the blacktopping of a three and 3/4-mile stretch from Sevastopol east to the Claypool Road. Sure signs of spring: Mrs. Sam Boggs, of west of Warsaw, reported to the Times & Union office that on March 31 she found wild flowers and a rattlesnake on the Boggs’ farm. Sports editor Marion “Mush” Warner also reported seeing a garter snake while fishing at Winona Lake. Police officer Harve Mathews ordered a hobo out of town Sunday night after he was reported loitering around the gas plant on East Winona Avenue. Nipsco employee, Don Baum, had four stitches on his thumb as a result of a fight with a rooster on his farm north of Warsaw.
