On Friday at McKeand Stadium the inducted members to the Shelbyville High School Alumni Hall of Fame were honored in ceremonies at the home football opener.

Unable to attend was longtime teacher, coach, principal, city councilman, husband, father and more, Gene Sexton.  Sexton, 95, passed away on August 14.

John Hartnett, an SHS Alumni Hall of Famer himself, remembers Sexton in this conversation that aired at halftime of Friday night's game on GIANT fm Sports.

Shelby County United Fund (SCUFFY) is pleased to announce and welcome the addition of The Arc of Shelby County, Inc. to the SCUFFY family of organizations.

Don Collins and Holly Forville are the driving force behind the local chapter of The Arc. This partnership with SCUFFY will help ensure that their group is sustainable well into the future. The mission of The Arc is inclusion – to inform, navigate, care, lead, unite, serve, inspire, organize and nurture those with special needs.

“The Arc has worked hard to seek services to help loved ones live a better and full life to be an active part of our community social fabric,” said Collins. “Partnerships such as this allow us to secure better care, better education, better employment and better inclusion in many of the activities that every other citizen in our community enjoys.”

The Arc of Shelby County is a chapter of the Arc of Indiana and The Arc of the United States. Founded by parents working to get services for their children and adults who had a disability, The Arc is the largest organization that serves people with disabilities. In Indiana, there are 45 chapters and almost 30,000 members.

The Arc works every day to:

• Empower families with information and resources to help their loved ones lead full and meaningful lives.
• Empower people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) to be self-sufficient and independent to the greatest extent possible
• Inspire positive change in public policy and public attitudes.
• Promote public awareness of the importance of prenatal care.
• Serve as a voice and advocate for families and their loved ones with I/DD.
• Help demonstrate that persons of all abilities have value and can contribute to making our community a better place to live a happy and more productive life.

In a continuing effort to build a better life for people with I/DD and their families, The Arc chartered the Shelbyville VC Aktion Club in 2009. The Aktion Club is a member of the Kiwanis International family of clubs and the Kiwanis Club of Shelbyville is a co-sponsor, along with The Arc of Shelby County. Today, the Aktion Club has 50 members and serves several local charities in assisting people in the community that need services.

Besides their charity work, Aktion Club members also learn teamwork and new leadership skills. The club meets twice monthly, but, due to the Covid virus, currently meets monthly.

On February 1, 2016, The Arc established the SENSES indoor playroom sensory gym. Originally intended to serve children with special needs, it quickly became apparent that children of all abilities could benefit from sensory play. Since opening, the SENSES gym has served over 8,000 children, including hundreds of children with I/DD or other learning delay. This inclusive environment is important to facilitating children of all abilities to learn to play and play to learn together at an early age.

The Shelbyville Central School system became aware of the importance of sensory play to child growth and development, and prior to opening the new preschool, invited The Arc to share space in the newly created Golden Bear Preschool. The 330 children attending the preschool use the SENSES gym during the week and is also open to the community children, ages 1-6. on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday each week.

The Arc works with other organizations in the community to meet the needs of people with a disability and their families. They work with the special education departments of all four schools, the Shelby County Special Olympics Shares, Inc. They also work with Down Syndrome Indiana and the two major organizations serving children and adults with autism.

The Arc is led by an eight-member Board of Directors. Due to Covid, they currently meet quarterly, and their annual meeting is in September. Their membership roster is about 240 people.

SCUFFY Executive Director Alecia Gross said, “SCUFFY is excited to welcome The Arc into our family of agencies. This fills a niche we had been missing – SCUFFY works hard to serve all members of our community”.This partnership ensures that the families that have a loved one with a delay or disability will have another source for information and access to much-needed services.

For more information, please contact Alecia Gross at the SCUFFY office at 317 398 6231.

INDOT will close State Road 9 on Monday, August 23 at 8:00 AM for work on the CSX railroad crossing just north of US 52 through Saturday afternoon, August 28 at about

5:00 PM.

The last address accessible from the south is 11720 N State Rd 9.

The last address accessible from the north is 11851 N State Rd 9.

The official detour for this closure is US 52, I-465 and US 40.

Purdue College of Agriculture and Extension and United States Department of Agriculture experts gathered at the Indiana State Fair on Thursday (Aug. 12) to discuss the results of the 2021 USDA crop report and the current status of Indiana’s major cash crops.

Jason Henderson, director of Purdue Extension and senior associate dean of the Purdue College of Agriculture, moderated the discussion among panelists. Panelists were Nathanial Warenski, state statistician of the USDA, NASS, Indiana field office; Dan Quinn, Purdue assistant professor of agronomy and new extension corn specialist; Shaun Casteel, Purdue associate professor of agronomy and extension soybean and small grains specialist; Beth Hall, Indiana State Climatologist; and Jim Mintert, Purdue professor of agricultural economics and director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture. 

Indiana corn production is forecasted to reach 1.02 billion bushels this year, which would be a 3.7 % increase from 2020 production. The expected yield is up 3.7% from 2020 at 194 bushels per acre. As of Aug. 1, corn condition was rated 76% good to excellent.

“Indiana corn looks good to great and we hope to keep this trend to finish strong. A few things that stood out to me include disease, specifically tar spot and corn rust, and past saturated conditions that could potentially impact the yield,” Quinn said.

Soybean yield is projected to reach 60 bushels per acre, compared to 58 bushels per acre in 2020. As of Aug. 1, soybean condition was rated 72% good to excellent.

“In terms of the soybeans, this season has been anything but normal. We’ve had wet and drought conditions, affecting the root systems and causing disease. The next 35 days are critical for yield development,” Casteel said.

The panel also discussed the crop market, trade and potential impacts from wildfires.

“We have started seeing some of the impacts of the wildfires, including traveling smoke, which is effective at blocking sunlight,” Hall said.

Mintert said, “Today’s report was a bit of surprise when looking at USDA estimates versus trade. This will be a very positive crop year in terms of income and does lead us to expect positive impacts on cash-rent.”

Henderson ended the discussion by observing: “The main takeaway from this report is that Indiana crop production is doing very well. Other areas of the nation weren’t so fortunate, which will potentially open up market opportunities for Indiana farmers.”

The USDA August Crop Report is available online.

As the summer break comes to an end, students across  Indiana are starting their return back to school next week.  With that return to school, the Indiana State Police would remind all motorists to be focused on traffic safety during morning and afternoon commutes.

Motorists should be prepared to experience an increased amount of school bus traffic and pedestrian children walking to and from their bus stops and schools during the early morning and mid-afternoon hours. Motorists should plan your commutes accordingly to allow for extended travel time during these periods. Special attention should be given to the posted reduced School Zone speed limits, and for school buses regularly stopping or standing to load or unload students. Children are often unpredictable and may dart out in front of vehicular traffic unexpectedly!

Indiana traffic law requires motorists to the operate in a safe and responsible manner when approaching a stopped or standing school bus according to the following rules:

• When approaching a school bus from any direction, which is stopped and has its red lights flashing and stop arm extended, motorists are required to STOP, even on multiple lane highways where there is no barrier or median separating lanes of traffic.
• Motorists on a highway that is divided by a barrier, such as cable barrier, concrete wall, or grassy median, are required to stop only if they are traveling in the same direction as the school bus.
• Always be prepared to stop for a school bus and watch for children. Children are unpredictable. Not only is disregarding a school bus stop arm dangerous, it is a serious offense.

The Indiana State Police is committed to the safety of our children by keeping Indiana’s roadways safer through education and enforcement patrols.  Please join us by doing your part to make travel on our Indiana roadways safer for all Hoosier students throughout the school year.