State’s virus case New storefront for Coaching trio has count back to May two local businesses a lot of experience Area State Page 1a Page 3 Sports Page 6 The News-Bannerwww.News-Banner.com WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021 BLUFFTON, INDIANA • Wells County’s Hometown Connection $1.00 NWCS makes face masks optional for 2021-22 year By GLEN WERLING 2021-22 school year. will not necessarily be quarantined checked at new wall-mounted at 5 percent positive at any given Just like everything else related Here are the highlights of the just because of close contact. thermometers that the school cor- time, remote eLearning may be to COVID-19 the Northern Wells policy changes: • If the county is on a Level poration has purchased with Ele- implemented for two weeks. If it is Guidance Document governing • Face coverings will be option- Blue, there will be no restrictions mentary and Secondary School an individual building that is caus- how the school corporation deals al in all educational settings. for spectators at sporting or school Emergency Relief funds. “If you ing the spike in positive cases, then with the virus has changed again. • Ten-day quarantines will be extracurricular activities, nor for have a 100.4 temperature, you will it may be just that building where At Tuesday night’s meeting of required for staff members and visitors at the schools. However, not be permitted in,” Springer said. eLearning will be implemented. the Northern Wells School Board, students only if they have con- if the county goes to Level Yellow, • If the county goes to Level Springer observed that the Superintendent Mike Springer pre- firmed positive COVID-19 results. or worse yet, to Level Orange, the Red, spectators may be restricted changes differ substantially from sented the board members with the • Staff and students who have school corporation may restrict to 25 percent of a venue’s capacity last year’s guidance document in updated version of the policy that had close contact with someone spectators to 50 percent capac- and no school day visitors will be that last year, there was a day when will govern the school corpora- testing positive for COVID-19 will ity and school-day visitors will be permitted. 120 students were absent from the tion’s handling of the virus for the be identified and monitored, but required to have their temperature • If the student enrollment tests (Continued on Page 2) BFD hires four more firefighters NMS building By DAVE SCHULTZ als. Bueter and Duffy have no train- Four more firefighters were added Another individual did not pass ing, but Craig noted that a training to the Bluffton Fire Department’s ros- Saturday’s agility test and will not be session is coming up soon. Howe ter Tuesday afternoon, bringing the hired at this time. and Komarck have received train- project begins total to 10 new hires for the year to Craig was very happy with the ing and also work for other depart- date. additions. ments. By GLEN WERLING The four people hired — Nathan “This is the most people we’ve The paid on-call firefighters With no remonstrations filed against the pro- Bueter, Brianna Howe, Hayden Kom- hired in a year since I’ve been here,” respond to fires. The part-time fire- posed middle school project, the Northern Wells arck, and Evan Duffy — passed the which was 2006, Craig said. fighters do, too, but they have primar- Community School Board plans to proceed full agility tests last weekend. Assum- The Bluffton Board of Works ily been hired to staff the fire station steam ahead. ing they pass the written test and the — Mayor John Whicker and Roger when full-time firefighters are unavail- “I’m really thankful for and appreciative of the interview portion of the hiring pro- Thornton (Scott Mentzer was not pres- able for reasons such as vacation or ill- community support. We got through our 30-day cess, Fire Chief Don Craig was given ent) — approved Craig’s request to ness. wait,” Superintendent Mike Springer said at the permission to hire the four individu- hire Tuesday. [email protected] outset of Tuesday night’s school board meeting. The 30-day waiting, or so called “cooling off” period concluded at the end of June. Now nearly a month later, the school building project begins in earnest. Springer observed that already the school bus fueling pad that was located slightly southeast of the current middle school has been moved to the north side of the building. The maintenance build- ings that will have to be relocated will take a little longer, he observed. He presented the school board members with a timeline of the project at Tuesday’s meeting, observing, “I kind of like this because it shows you what we actually need to do before putting a shov- el in the ground.” Schmidt Associates, the architect for the proj- ect, will update the school board members on the new design plans for the middle school. That will be at the board’s Aug. 10 meeting. “There’s been a lot of work and we’ve gotten a lot done. I’ve been really pleased with how that’s been progressing,” Springer said. At the Aug. 24 school board meeting, the mem- bers need to adopt four resolutions: A nice night to spend time on the river • A determination for the need for the project. More than 50 people took to the Wabash River Tuesday for a free community kayaking event put on by the Bluffton • Reapproving the formation of a school build- Parks and Recreation Department. (Screenshot from Bluffton Parks video) (Continued on Page 2) CDC updates indoor 9 hearings, 3 days Legislative leaders announce a tight mask guidelines for schedule of redistricting hearings The Indiana Citizen • Ivy Tech Valparaiso some parts of U.S. The legislative leaders Campus, Friday, Aug. 6, 3 in charge of Indiana’s redis- p.m. CDT. By MIKE STOBBE tricting process on Thursday • Ivy Tech Columbus AP Medical Writer announced a concentrated Campus, Friday, Aug. 6, 4 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention schedule of nine public p.m. changed course Tuesday on some masking guidelines, hearings, limited to three • Ivy Tech Fort Wayne recommending that even vaccinated people return to days and timed well before Campus (3800 N. Anthony wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the the public release of the Blvd., Fort Wayne), Satur- delta variant of the coronavirus is fueling infection proposed congressional and day, Aug. 7, 10 a.m. surges. legislative maps on which • Ivy Tech Evansville Citing new information about the variant’s abil- the Indiana House and Sen- Campus, Saturday, Aug. 7, 9 ity to spread among vaccinated people, the CDC also ate are expected to begin a.m. CDT. recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, stu- debate in September. • Ivy Tech Sellersburg dents and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of The schedule, posted Campus, Saturday, Aug. 7, vaccination status. on the General Assembly’s 4 p.m. In other developments, President Joe Biden said his website, lists the following • Ivy Tech Elkhart Coun- administration was considering requiring all federal two-hour field hearings — ty Campus (22531 County workers to get vaccinated. His comments came a day each in a different congres- Road 18, Goshen), Satur- after the Department of Veterans Affairs became the sional district — held jointly day, Aug. 7, 4 p.m. first federal agency to require its health care workers by the Senate Elections and A ninth hearing is sched- receive the vaccine. the House Elections and uled in the House Chamber Biden dismissed concerns that the new masking Apportionment committees, of the Indiana Statehouse guidance could invite confusion, saying Americans with members of each com- on Wednesday, Aug. 11 at 1 who remain unvaccinated are the ones who are “sow- mittee divided among the p.m. ing enormous confusion.” hearings scheduled to take Specifics on the hear- “The more we learn about this virus and the delta place simultaneously: ing locations at the eight variation, the more we have to be worried and con- • Ivy Tech Anderson Ivy Tech campuses will be cerned. And there’s only one thing we know for sure Campus, Friday, Aug. 6, 10 announced later. All listed — if those other 100 million people got vaccinated, a.m. times are the local time we’d be in a very different world,” he said. • Ivy Tech Lafayette zones, and are Eastern Day- Source: Indiana Business Research Services, using the (Continued on Page 2) Campus, Friday, Aug. 6, 10 light unless otherwise noted. boundaries created after Census 2010 redistricting and provid- a.m. (Continued on Page 2) ed by the Legislative Services Agency, May 2011. (via HSPA) Inside Outside Online DETAILED DENTAL CARE How to contact us: • General Dentistry Call us: 824-0224 Local/Area • Sedation Dentistry or 1-800-579-7476 Follow us on Facebook! 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