The Cole Family along with Northfield High School would like to invite all golfers to participate in the Jeremy Cole Memorial Golf Tournament. This tournament is a scramble tournament that will be held on Aug. 10 at the Honeywell Golf Course. The proceeds from the tournament assist the Northfield golf programs.

The tournament begins with a shotgun start at 1 p.m. It is a four-player scramble. Participants can sign up as a team or as an individual.

Northfield Jr/Sr High School would like to welcome Carly Mast as the new head coach of their volleyball team.

Coach Mast had a very successful career as a player at Northfield, where she earned various honors as a four-year starter. Coach Mast, a 2010 Northfield graduate, was slated to be the head JV coach heading into this season, and has developed a great relationship with the student-athletes, which Northfield felt was very important due to the timing of the position opening.

Coach Mast has also been a part of the girls’ varsity coaching staff at Northfield. Northfield is excited to have Coach Mast running the volleyball program, as she will be an excellent role model for the kids with her commitment and work ethic.

“Carly has great pride and passion for the program and school and we look forward to her building on the foundation that has been set by Coach Dale,” said Athletic Director Geoff Salmon,

by Gary Andrews

The Southwood baseball team used a 5 run third inning to grab a 5-2 lead over Elwood Saturday in their first game of the regional, only to give up 5 runs the last two innings in a 7-5 loss at Wabash.

Southwood starter Clay Hinrichsen was dominate the first two innings, striking out 5 of the 6 hitters he faced, with the Knights putting three runners on base with Jackson Blair being hit by a pitch, Robbie Cole reaching on a fielders choice and Brandin Frazier drawing a walk. The Knights couldn’t plate a run and the game was scoreless heading to the third.

Elwood would get to Hinrichsen in the third. With a runner on first and two outs the Panthers hit three straight singles to grab a 2-0 lead. The Knights would respond in the bottom of the inning with 5 runs, which would end up being the only inning they scored in. With one out Jackson Blair drew a walk. After a pop out Robbie Cole roped a triple down the right field line to score Blair and make it 2-1. Christian Deeter followed with a single to tie the game, but the Knights were not done. Jacob Lloyd then singled to put runners on first and second when Brandin Frazier hit a 2rbi double to grab a 4-2 lead. John Collins then scored on an Elwood error and the Knights led 5-2.

The Knights looked like they were going to add to their lead in the fourth when Zach Ball dropped a bunt for a single and advanced to second on the bad throw. Jackson Blair then singled to put runners on the corners when Nathan Hollars was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. The Knights would then hit a short fly out that couldn’t advance a runner, then had a strike out and a ground out to go score less in the inning.

By Emily Armentrout

emily@thepaperofwabash.com

The Industrial Business Complex, which sits on 135 acres of land in Wabash, has been selected as one of five properties in Indiana for Duke Energy’s 2013 Site Readiness Program. According to Duke Energy’s website, Duke Energy’s Site Readiness Program “provides funding and expertise to help communities identify, assess, improve and increase awareness of industrial sites in the Duke Energy Indiana territory.”

In an email to The Paper, Bill Konyha, President and CEO of the Economic Development Group of Wabash County, stated that the “process and evaluation were essential to Wabash County becoming a community working towards continuous improvement.” Konyha also explained the criteria by which Wabash County and the Industrial Business Complex were evaluated. Categories like site characteristics, utility adequacy/capacity, transportation access and site costs were included in the site evaluation. The Wabash Northeast Business Complex received at 77 percent, with a 229.75 out of 300.

There are some issues that are out of the community’s control. One issue that was part of the report was the distance  from I-69. Though the 38-mile distance from the complex to I-69, Konyha pointed out that the Hoosier Heartland Highway is complete and will open soon. He also noted that means “we will have four-lane highways connecting us to I-65 and I-69.”

The issue of the complex not having a railroad isn’t as big of a problem because the complex was never intended for heavy industrial use. The complex is more appropriate for “light manufacturing, food processing, logistics, distribution, value added agricultural processing, medical implements and advanced manufacturing,” according to Konyha.

On the Business and Industrial Services level, Wabash trails Indiana when it comes to educational attainment. Wabash County’s graduation rate is 85.4 percent, with Indiana’s graduation rate being 87 percent. Wabash County also trails the state in bachelor degree attainment by 6.8 percent. Konyha told The Paper that “the ability that Wabash County has to recruit technical and professional workforce is perceived as a weakness.”

“We have been working on these (issues) with all of our community partners. The Wabash County Promise is a great example of how the community is working to improve our issues with educational attainment. EDG is proud to partner with the YMCA, all three of our public school corporations, the Chamber of Commerce, our elected officials, Beauchamp McSpadden, Parkview Hospital, and countless others to develop a culture that values college and career readiness,” added Konyha.

The information received from McCallum Sweeney will be used as the Economic Development Group designs the final phases of infrastructure for the complex according to Konyha. “We’ve already addressed the minor issues and we will consider all of their remaining comments.”

There is no current plan to build on the remaining 135 acres at the Wabash Northeast Business Complex, but Konyha told The Paper that the information put out by McCallum Sweeney would be used for marketing programs as well.

“The opportunity to be evaluated by a major site selector is a great opportunity and EDG is very grateful to Duke Energy for making it possible.”