By Joseph Slacian

The Wabash City Council on Monday, March 9, approved compliance reports for two local businesses.

The firms – Dorais Chevrolet Buick GMC and Ag Resolutions – are required to report annually to the Wabash City Council to show that they are in compliance with terms of tax abatements granted by the city.

Dave Dorais, president of Dorais Chevrolet Buick GMC, was questioned about the number of new employees at the firm. Under terms of the agreement, the firm was to add four new employees.

Mayor Robert Vanlandingham (left) gives the oath of office to First Class Patrolman Aaron Snover of the Wabash Police Department. Photo by Joseph Slacian

By Joseph Slacian

Aaron Snover is now a First Class Patrolman with the Wabash Police Department.

Snover received the oath of office on Tuesday, March 10, from Mayor Robert Vanlandingham during a ceremony at Wabash City Hall.

A Markle native, Snover attended Huntington North High School for three years before graduating from Manchester High School in 2007.

“I was on the county reserves for 10 months and worked on the North Manchester (Police Department) for nine months,” said Snover. “Wabash offered me a job. I’ve worked here since March 13, 2014.”

By Joseph Slacian

Wabash fire officials are saying little about a Friday afternoon house fire in the 600 block of Ferry Street.

Wabash Fire Chief Bob Mullett said Wabash Police are investigating the fire at 606 Ferry Street “for a suspected meth lab.”

Calls to the Wabash Police Department’s Drug Task Force have not been returned.

The fire, reported at 3:31 Friday, March 13, caused about $20,000 damage to the home and its contents, Mullett said.

Most of the damage, he said, was caused by smoke.

The Indiana State Police and the Wabash County Emergency Management Agency also were on the scene of the fire.

Guy walks the Ford Theatre stage playing a mix of blues song including his original hits and a few of the late Jimi Hendrix. Guy’s passion for guitar began on his plantation in Louisiana when he was 7-years-old and playing on a makeshift guitar made of two strings, a piece of wood, and his mother’s hairpins. Photo by Emma Rausch

By Emma Rausch

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and 2015 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award winner Buddy Guy said he feels at home in Indiana.

Or so he told the audience at his performance at the Honeywell Center Ford Theatre in Wabash on Saturday March 14.

Guy first took interest in guitar he was 7-years-old, playing a makeshift “guitar,” or a piece of wood with two strings secured by his mother’s hairpins.

Throughout the evening, Guy paused his strumming to talk to the crowd that yelled and sang along with his songs.

By Joseph Slacian

In 2009, Abbey Arwood weighed more than 300 pounds. Since that time, she lost more than half her body weight, thanks to the help of Jackae Francis.

“Jackae took me on and trained me for free when she became a personal trainer,” Arwood said. “She helped me reach my goal weight. For me to repay her, she just asked that I pay it forward.”

Arwood, who has since become a personal trainer at F.I.T. Personal Trainer, did just that, helping an individual lose about 80 pounds. But she doesn’t want to stop there.

“I am looking for my second client to train for free,” Arwood said.

Greg Thompson, general manager of Wabash Valley Chrysler, practices Hands Only CPR on the Wabash Fire Department’s new Resusci Anne CPR Unit during the department’s demonstration at Thompson’s dealership on March 10. Thompson partnered with the National Automobile Dealers Association Charitable Foundation to help financially support the fire department with training equipment, such as Anne. Photo by Emma Rausch

By Emma Rausch

On March 10, Wabash Valley Chrysler in partnership with the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Charitable Foundation presented the Wabash Fire Department’s Community Outreach CPR Program with a new Resusci Anne CPR Unit training mannequin.

Through contributions by new-car and truck dealers and friends, the NADA Foundation provided financial support to schools, private colleges and universities, emergency disaster relief and other community service programs.

I joined an NADA group a couple of years ago and it’s just been amazing all the things that they do, not only for the dealers but for the community,” said Greg Thompson, Wabash Valley Chrysler general manager. “I was glad that Jay (Brainard) found the information and contacted me and said, ‘All you have to do is sponsor it.’

“It was no cost to us and so we immediately sent out an email saying that we wanted to sponsor the Wabash Fire Department and NADA said, ‘Great.’ About a month later, (Anne) showed up. It worked out really well.”

Lindsey LeBlanc, Memory Care Program Facilitator at Autumn Ridge, shows resident Darlene Slater one of the manipulation boards. Photo by Joseph Slacian

By Joseph Slacian

The boards are about 2-feet-by-3-feet, and contain a variety of items one might see every day around their home. There’s an outdoor water faucet, several different types of locks, an electrical socket with cords to plug in them, a light switch and more.

Created by the Building Trades Academy at the Heartland Career Center, officials at Autumn Ridge Rehabilitation Centre’s Auguste’s Cottage Memory Center hope the boards help residents recall days gone by.

Called manipulation therapy boards, the devices, which can stand-alone or be mounted on a wall, are designed to help stimulate thinking and memory of people with Alzheimer’s disease, according to Lindsey LeBlanc, Memory Care Program Facilitator at Autumn Ridge. Students in Jim Hoover’s building trades class delivered the boards to Auguste’s Cottage on Thursday afternoon, March 12.

Wabash County Clerk Elaine Martin (second from right) and Deputy Clerk Theresa Ehret help Wabash County Election Board members Betty Hamlin (left) and Mary Brane test the voting machines for the May 5 Primary Elections. Photo by Joseph Slacian

By Joseph Slacian

Voting machines for the May 5 Primary Election passed a preliminary test conducted Wednesday, March 11, by the Wabash County Election Board.

The tests are conducted prior to each election.

Wabash County Clerk Elaine Martin said she and board members Mary Brane and Betty Hamlin, along with Deputy Clerk Theresa Ehret cast votes for all the candidates to make sure the machines had no problems in tabulating the vote.

They also tested the various ballots, which will be used in Wabash, North Manchester and LaFontaine for the primaries.

“We’ve never had any problems with the testing,” Martin told The Paper of Wabash County.

Following the tests, Martin, Brane and Hamlin signed documents to be turned in to the state certifying they had conducted the test.