Wabash Christian Church members will present their annual Living Crèche (Nativity) on Saturday, Dec. 22, from 6 to 8 p.m.

There will be three live, 15 minute shows each hour in front of the church, complete with animals, music, and beautiful costumes.

Diane Kirlin, chair of the Living Crèche, told The Paper of Wabash County that the church has been putting on this show since the early 1960s.

“We don’t know exactly the date, but we are saying that we are getting close to probably 58 years.”

Kirlin has been in charge of this production for more than 20 years.

A proposed ordinance that would have banned smoking in public parks and at city-sponsored events on public property was defeated Monday, Dec. 9, by the Wabash City Council.

The Council voted 4-2 to defeat the measure on second reading. It had approved the same measure on first reading at its Nov. 25 meeting.

Council members Doug Adams, Marc Shelly, Mitch Figert and Bryan Dillon voted against the ordinance while members Bob Greene and Eric Schoening backed the measure. Adams was the lone person to vote against the measure in November.

The vote took place following a brief discussion among council members and about 15 minutes of input from the public.

Cracks in the Honeywell Park tennis courts will be filled before the start of the next tennis season under action taken by the Wabash Board of Parks and Recreation on Wednesday night, Dec. 11.

In addition, the board instructed Park Superintendent Adam Hall to ask the Wabash City Council to begin setting aside funding for a more extensive repair.

Filling the cracks will cost the city $4,200, according to a quote received from Leslie Coatings of Indianapolis.

For that sum, the firm will clear structural cracks of vegetation and debris and fill it with court patch binder. It also will touch up the color on the cracks repairs; however, the firm warned that the color will not be an exact match due to the age of the existing courts.

Filling the cracks was one of three options the board could choose from.

When Roxanne Layton was a young girl, her father had grand plans to build a boat and sail around the world with his family.

To help occupy his 6-year-old daughter’s time while on the journey, he wanted to find a small, portable music instrument that she could play. That is when she was introduced to the recorder.

The trip never came to fruition, but the same can’t be said for Layton’s love of the recorder. It grew and grew, as did her mastery of the instrument.

On Thursday, Layton, who plays recorder and is a percussionist with the Mannheim Steamroller, will be at the Honeywell Center’s Ford Theater as the group puts on two performances.

“We pass through there a lot,” she said of Wabash. “We have a great audience there. We have great support there. We’ve played Indiana a lot – Indianapolis, Wabash.”

Wabash Walmart was buzzing with excited kids on the morning of Saturday, Dec. 14, as they took off into the store with local police officers as part of the annual Shop with a Cop.

For more than 20 years, the Wabash community comes together to raise money for the underprivileged youth of Wabash to be able to “shop with a cop” for Christmas presents to ensure that every child has a happy holiday season.

The money raised gets split up evenly per child that participates, and then each child is accompanied by an officer to pick out toys and clothes until they reach the allotted amount. 

“When I started doing this, 15 years or so ago, I didn’t quite understand the impact this has for these kids,” WPD Sgt. Chad Galligan said. “The best part is, we are not here to do any kind of investigation at all, zero. Nothing more than bringing kids smiles. So, every one of these officers that are in a uniform wants a child to smile. We just want these kids to have the best day ever.  We make sure that we spend a minimum of $100 per child, and there are about 200 kids this year.”

Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch received a close look at the egg producing industry on Tuesday, during a 75-minute tour of Automated Egg Producers.

Company officials Bob Krouse, Dan Krouse and Sam Krouse led Crouch and others on a tour throughout the facility, explaining in great detail the process of producing and preparing eggs for market.

“I’ve been wanting to get up here for some time,” the lieutenant governor said. “One of the reasons I wanted to come is, as secretary of agriculture and development, I understand how important agriculture is to the Indiana economy.

“Poultry is a huge part of that. They contribute almost $4 billion to our state’s economy.”

She said she was impressed with the facility, especially from the aspect of an Indiana consumer.

Wabash Community Schools have been in preparation for eLearning days by having practice days to work out bugs, and creating a policy for when eLearning days begin.

During these days, WCS teachers and staff will participate in different types of professional development, while students stay home and do lessons online set up by each of their teachers.

Students and teachers will use Canvas, an online course management system that supports online learning, as the platform for eLearning days.

“We’ve been talking about this for years, and have had some good discussions,” said Wabash Middle School principal Mike Mattern as he addressed the WCS board at the Dec. 2 meeting.

“Moving forward this year, we want to, a little bit more, gear it towards some professional development days.”

Mattern shared with the board that an eLearning policy has been developed in order to set ground rules and expectations for when eLearning days begin.

An ordinance banning smoking in public parks and at public events on city property was approved on first reading by the Wabash City Council on Monday, Nov. 25.

The council passed the measure 5-1, with Council member Doug Adams casting the lone dissenting vote. It will consider the matter again on second reading at its Dec. 9 meeting.

Under the ordinance, the ban will be enforced by the City Code Enforcement Officer, his designee or the Wabash Police Department. Violators can be fined $50 for the first event and $100 for each subsequent event.

The city now has an ordinance prohibiting smoking within 50 feet of playground equipment at public parks. However, Mayor Scott Long told the Council that during recent visits to Friendship Hill, the city’s inclusive park, he found people smoking in the pavilion.

“Parents were sitting there smoking right next to their children,” he said. “If they can’t make the decision to protect their own child’s health, then we’ll do it for them in our city parks and on our city property at public events.

“This, in no way, hampers Brandt’s and their events, or any events on private property. It simply states Wabash City Parks and city owned property where public events are held, we’re going to prohibit smoking.”