By The Paper Staff

Candidates in the MSD of Wabash County school board race will be invited to a Candidate Forum at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 30. 

The event will take place in the Honeywell Center's Legacy Hall. 

Organizers told The Paper of Wabash Countyon Monday afternoon that invitations would be sent to candidates within the next 24 hours. Details will be found in the Oct. 24 The Paper. 

The forum comes one day after a Meet the Candidate event at the Wabash County YMCA. That event will be from 5-8 pm. Monday, Oct. 29. 

By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com

The Wabash County Clerk’s office must accept all requests for absentee ballots, even if they aren’t the proper ones.

That was the ruling by the Indiana Election Division in light of a decision last week by the Wabash County Election Board not to accept any requests that came via the Indiana Democratic Party.

The Indiana Democratic Party mailed thousands of defected absentee ballot request forms to likely Democratic voters in September, according to Secretary of State Connie Lawson. The mailing didn’t contain mandatory instructions on how to fill them out.
 

By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com

Todd Titus is hoping something that has cropped up among various Wabash County events doesn’t happen Satuday, Oct. 20, during the 16th annual Wabash Cannonball Chili for Charity Chili Cook-off.

“Wind and rain are the things we don’t want,” said Titus, chair of the cook-off committee. “That’s always the unknown.

“But if you look at the weather and the festivals in Wabash County this year … Roann got hit with it. Friday night of FunFest in Manchester got hit with it. The Kunkel Car Show on Friday night got hit with it. I hope it’s a trend that’s not continuing.”
 

By Josh Sigler
jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com

MSD of Wabash County board member Gary Fadil caused a stir amongst board members by calling for a motion that was not on the regular agenda during the Tuesday, Oct. 9 meeting.

Fadil stated that, after receiving the results of the study by Dr. Steve Yager, it was his opinion that the board move forward on a pair of directives from those interviewed in the study.

First, Fadil saw a clear directive that those surveyed wanted to see more opportunities for the children. He then made a motion to revisit Phase II of the study commissioned by the Community Foundation of Wabash County.

“It’s a free one – you’ve already spent $22,000 for the last opinion survey,” Fadil said. “We’ve paid for what it was going to do to our taxes, and I’d like us to take one more step forward and go back and revisit.”

By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com

Bids for a bridge project in LaFontaine and for the county's annual materials, supplies and equipment rental needs will be accepted in the coming weeks.

County Highway Superintended John Martin requested that the county commissioners open bids for a rehabilitation project for Bridge 701 carrying Walnut Street over Grant Creek in LaFontaine at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 19.

Martin also requested that the commissioners open bids for the county's annual materials, supplies and equipment rental costs at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Dec. 3.
 

By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com

Steven Van Zandt is a musician, perhaps best known as guitarist for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

But he’s also an actor, having performed as Silvio Dante in HBO’s “The Sopranos” and as ex-mobster Frank Tangliano in Netflix’s “Lilyhammer.”

In addition, he’s a music producer and writer. And don’t forget to add activist to his list of accomplishments, most notably with Artists United Against Apartheid, a musical coalition Van Zandt assembled in the 1980s to help raise awareness of the system of racial segregation enforced by the governing party in South Africa.
 

By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com

When Steven Van Zandt stops in Wabash on Oct. 29, his mission will be two-fold.

First and foremost, he’s here to perform with his band, Little Stevie and the Disciples of Soul, at the Honeywell Center.
But before the show, he will be part of a free continuing education workshop for area teachers, part of the “Soulfire Teacher Solidarity Tour.”

“We set a goal this year to register 10,000 teachers into our curriculum,” Van Zandt told The Paper of Wabash County during a telephone interview. “We just crossed the halfway mark three days ago. We’re doing great, man, making a lot of teachers happy and showing our gratitude to the teaching profession to come to the show for free.”

The tour sets aside several hundred tickets per show so those teachers attending the workshop, as well as a guest, can attend the concert for free.
 

By Josh Sigler
jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com

It’s been over a year and a half since the now infamous Delphi murders of Libby German and Abby Williams.

And for folks like Libby’s grandfather, Mike Patty, the grief is still as strong as it was the day the murders occurred on Feb. 13, 2017, especially with the gut-wrenching feeling of knowing that the killer is still at large.

At 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 13, 2017, Abby, 13, and Libby, 14, were dropped off by a family member at an abandoned bridge where they planned to go hiking. The girls were reported missing at 5:30 p.m. after they did not arrive to be picked up from the bridge. Their bodies were discovered around noon on Feb. 14, about 50 feet from the north bank of Deer Creek. Their killer remains at large.

“Time heals a lot of wounds, but we’re not at that stage yet,” Patty said. “With the fact that we don’t have this guy caught yet – that is the pain that I live every day. I don’t get to take a break from it. Nor do I want to until this guy is caught. Opportunities like this just enable us to get the word out there again and keep it out there, because the fact of the matter is there’s still a guy walking around out there that’s responsible for the murders of two girls from Delphi.”

With the help of businesses like Brandt’s Harley Davidson, the memory of the girls and their story will live on.