Published: December 29, 2008 10:45 pm            

A look back at 2008: September-October: Campaign stops and Victory Days

Sept. 2 — Jill Long Thompson, Democratic candidate for governor; and Brad Ellsworth, incumbent U.S. representative from District 8; speak at the Wabash Valley Central Labor Council awards banquet.

Sept. 3 — Event chairman David Felstein, of the first Victory Days celebration planned for Oct. 3-5 at Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field, calls on World War II veterans to share their stories in the living history event.

Sept. 4 — Kellogg Co. buys the IndyBake plant in Seelyville in a move that could bring several hundred manufacturing jobs to Vigo County.

Sept. 5 — Donations from the public have led to the Terre Haute Police Department’s acquisition of Shadow, a Belgian Malinois dog that can track people as well as find hidden drugs.

Sept. 6 — United Way of the Wabash Valley kicks off its fundraising campaign in the Ohio Building. The goal is $2 million.

Sept. 7 — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama speaks to about 1,000 in a limited-seating presentation at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds.

A proposal to install synthetic turf football fields at three Vigo County high schools is scrapped because a committee says it has been unable to raise sufficient matching funds.

Sept. 9 — Indiana State University’s student chapter of the NAACP comes in second place for national College Chapter of the Year.

Sept. 10 — Vigo County’s 3,235 applicants for flood-related Federal Emergency Management or Small Business Administration assistance resulted in assistance or loans totaling $9.23 million, according to government figures.

Jenn Kersey of Clinton has been named director of the Wabash Valley Long-Term Disaster Recovery Coalition.

Sept. 11 — Philip T. Myers of Clay City, an employee of Indiana Railroad Co., died after a tanker derailed from a rail spur at Tangent Rail Products in Terre Haute.

Sept. 12 — Hundreds participate in a candlelight vigil in Dede Plaza on the campus of Indiana State University to commemorate the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

Sept. 13 — About 240 people take part in the United Way’s 11th Annual Days of Caring, in which volunteers work in local not-for-profit agencies.

Sept. 14 — As many as 10,000 people attend the Saturday’s day- and evening-long Blues at the Crossroads festival in downtown Terre Haute.

Sept. 15 — Between 600 and 700 guests attend Taste of India in Hulman Center, raising more than $10,000 for the Wabash Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Sept. 17 — Post office box customers are being notified about a change in the location of their boxes as part of the transition under way for Indiana State University to assume ownership of the federal building at Seventh and Cherry streets next year.

Sept. 18 — Vectren Energy predicts natural gas prices will result in heating bills of 15 to 25 percent higher this winter.

Sept. 19 — Teams from the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee will be out knocking on doors to conduct needs assessment for flood victims as part of the Wabash Valley Long Term Disaster Recovery Coalition’s efforts.

Sept. 21 — Indiana State University President Daniel J. Bradley says he wants to increase student enrollment by 1,500.

Sept. 23 — Vigo County School Board OK’s $425,000 for a practice football field for West Vigo High School, using money from the refinancing of a bond.

Sept. 24 — Police are investigating the painting of a swastika on the shed at the home of an interracial couple near Voorhees Park.

Sept. 25 — Ann Bradshaw, mayor of Brazil since the previous mayor’s resignation in June, names former police Capt. Dave Archer as chief.

Sept. 28 — Terre Haute’s fourth annual Street Fair profits from beautiful weather to draw about 15,000 people to the festivities downtown.

Sept. 29 — Television and film star Kal Penn visits Barack Obama headquarters in Terre Haute to encourage young voters to participate in the November presidential election.

Sept. 30 — The Swope Art Museum ($31,750) and Wabash River Development and Beautification ($30,000) are among the beneficiaries from $207,000 given to 22 recipients by the Wabash Valley Community Foundation in grant awards.

Oct. 1 — Duke Energy is recognized as the Outstanding Business of the Year with the Business, a Level Above Award in the 95th Annual Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce.

Oct. 2 — Tribune-Star Publishing Co. honored by Gov. Mitch Daniels with Century Business Award for more than 100 years in business. The Meadows shopping center, Ragle & Co. and C.H. Garmong & Son were honored with Half-Century Awards.

Oct. 3 — AP & S Clinic announces it will donate $300,000 to Union Hospital’s $185 million expansion/renovation project.

Oct. 4 — Terre Haute’s localized version of “Dancing with the Stars” nets thousands for CHANCES for Indiana Youth in a fundraiser in which local celebrities pair with dance instructor before a large paying crowd.

Oct. 5 —About 2,554 people walk or run in the 12th Annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure cancer fundraiser at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.

Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, is awarded the annual Eugene V. Debs Award during a banquet in Hulman Center.

Oct. 6 — Organizers of first Victory Days celebration at Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field pronounced the two-day event a success, with thousands attending the second day on Oct. 5.

Oct. 8 — A state jail inspector orders that all mold be removed from the Vigo County jail, a problem Sheriff Jon Marvel blames on a leaking, second-floor roof.

Oct. 9 —Melissa Limcaco of Terre Haute and Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, representing a victims’ advocacy group, meet outside the Vigo County Courthouse to raise awareness of the group’s efforts to have charges brought against Harry Monroe, a priest who allegedly molested boys in Terre Haute in the 1970s.

Oct. 10 — The first guest has checked in to the Candlewood Suites hotel in downtown Terre Haute in the refurbished former Tribune-Star Building. Dora Bros. Hospitality Group owns the new inn.

The 52nd annual Covered Bridge Festival begins today, with tens of thousands expected to descend on Parke County for 10 days of bargains, food, entertainment and tours of the countryside.

Oct. 11 — National economic woes, including a sunken Dow Jones Industrial Average, have local investors and businessmen worried and U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar calls the market turmoil “very, very serious” in a visit to the Wabash Valley.

Oct. 12 — Fifty-four members of the Canal Society of Indiana tour the remains of 19th century Locks 47 and 49 of the Wabash-Erie Canal near Riley, rare locks because they are made out of stone instead of the usual timber.

Oct. 14 — A National Public Radio report notes that Vigo County’s voting record shows its people have voted for the winner in 27 of the past 29 presidential elections, and have been within 3 percent of the national vote every time since 1960.

Oct. 15 — Citing an economic downturn and a credit crunch, Great Dane Trailers lays off 108 workers, or half its work force, from its Terre Haute plant.

Terre Haute Fire Capt. Sam Lane, who saved the life of a family while on vacation in North Carolina, is honored by the Exchange Club of Terre Haute as its Firefighter of the Year.

Oct. 16 — Pfizer begins cleanup of Jordan Creek in preparation for its plan to remove PCBs from private property adjacent to its property south of Terre Haute, a contamination caused by the June flood.

Oct. 17 — Environmental Protection Agency announces it will begin cleanup next month of hazardous waste at Wabash Environmental Technologies on South First Street, because of its imminent health threat to nearby residents.

Oct. 19 — Four hundred volunteers clean up trash in Terre Haute in a semiannual cleanup sponsored by Keep Terre Haute Beautiful and Trees Inc.

Oct. 21 — Bill Kurtis, anchor of television’s “American Justice,” speaks to a crowd in Tilson Auditorium as part of Indiana State University’s Speaker Series.

Oct. 22 — John Lovett of Brazil, accused of murders in the 1988 homicides of Ricky Mustard and Tonya Pickett, is given a bail setting of $200,000 after an evidentiary hearing in Clay County.

Terre Haute Police Cpl. Phil Haley, who volunteers time teaching martial arts to young people, is named Exchange Club’s Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.

Oct. 24 — Diedre Adams, a science teacher at West Vigo Middle School, is honored in Washington, D.C., as one of 15 national Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator awards.

Oct. 26 — The final chapter closes on VX nerve agent in the Wabash Valley in a community gathering in Clinton to recognize the end of neutralization in August of the deadly substance and the closing of the Newport Chemical Depot.

Oct. 28 — More than 100 people turn out for the grand opening of the Voorhees Skate Park, a paved facility for skaters, skateboarders and stunt bikers that had been years in planning and building.

Oct. 29 — The city’s 43 arsons so far in 2008 are a “big problem,” Terre Haute Fire Chief Jeff Fisher says, and he encourages the public to report suspicious activity.

Oct. 30 — WTHI television station reached an agreement with Time Warner after a contract dispute had kept the station’s Channel 10 off the air for 26 days.

Oct. 31 — Vigo County residents who live near the Pfizer plant talk about contamination of their homes by PCBs as the company begins a state-approved cleanup process. A dam that breached during the June flood released water from a containment pond that caused the contamination.

        

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