Opinion

Allen Kramer was the consummate high-school teacher, the best educator I ever encountered. This comparison includes the collective company of all my college professors.

I feared him, this dark-bearded man, mainly for the subjects he taught, his dreaded college-bound mathematics courses.

I was, in no way, his best student. During his 37 years as a teacher, I'm certain I'm not even listed among his top 1,000 students.

Still, I learned a great deal from this smart, focused man.

County commissioners took the easy way out last month by declining to act on a rezoning request that would have allowed a residence on Girl Scout Road to be converted into a recovery home for men seeking to come clean from drugs.

Commissioners' inaction doesn't change the fact that there are people, right here, in need of care. We hope the setback doesn't change the commitment others have to working with people trying to overcome addictions.

Is your youth group, organization, business or family already thinking about helping others this Christmas season? Well, you aren't alone. The Holiday Helpers United are already working on helping those in need this Christmas, and we need your help, too.

I'm sure plenty of Perry Countians were among the millions of Americans glued to their television screens earlier this month as a silver balloon, thought to be carrying 6-year-old Falcon Heene, floated through the sunny Colorado sky.

As we all know now, the elf-sized boy was never aboard and it's likely, authorities tell us, that the drama was all a stunt for fame-starved parents. If so, Richard Heene needs to set off in a balloon of his own, en route to prison, joined by his wife if she knew about the stunt.

Editor's Note: Emily Backer wrote this reflection on her summer, including time spent as a volunteer in the offices of the Perry County Convention and Visitors Bur-eau and Perry County Development Corp.

The summer between one's junior and senior years of college is a pivotal one. Most students either take an amazing but unpaid - as all the good ones seem to be - internship in a big city.

Releases of information each year from the state level have made us wonder whether educational efforts throughout Indiana are properly directed.

The Indiana Department of Education regularly notifies schools and the public about results of Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress exams. Before those notifications come, however, much effort goes into preparing teachers and students, administering the tests and then explaining the results.

Editor's Note: United Way of Perry County's fund-raising campaign is under way. To contribute to the cause, or to learn more about groups the money raised will support, visit www.unitedwayperryco.org or call 547-2577.

Crisis Connection Inc. would like to thank the United Way of Perry County for its financial support of our organization.  We would also like to thank everyone who contributed to the United Way of Perry County as you helped make this allocation to us possible.  

I stayed up half the night Thursday listening to the rain pounding the metal roof above my head, wondering if the flooding was going to cover the crops in my low-lying fields.

By sunup Friday, I was standing on a hill overlooking the Anderson River, which had become a small inland sea covering about 20 acres of cropland. In the distance, the water was edging into a golden field of corn.

An up-and-down growing season had taken another downturn and it hurt.

I only know what I read in the paper and I am really confused. The Tell City Electric Department announced Sept. 21 that they are planning to build a new substation on Spring Road.

Spring Road is a heavily wooded county road and is a meandering extension of Tell Street that extends to an area near the junction of new Indiana 237 and Indiana 37.

The Electric Department cites the reasons for the new substation as being:

• Future load growth surrounding the Spring Road substation location.