Editor, Times-Union: In regard to Wed. 29, 1997, about Kosciusko County Fair Grounds history. I am Mrs. Noel Hedington. When we were first married, April 1931, Noel worked for P.D. Parks, drove a milk truck and farmed all the ground where fair grounds is today. We lived at Chapman Lake in P.D. Parks cottage. We got up at 3 o'clock every morning and drove to Winona Lake to do chores, milk cows and feed horses. Then picked up milk, then in the afternoon farmed. P.D. Parks owned that ground at that time. In the spring I went with Noel and we had a garden over at Winona Lake. I would work in the garden and do chores while he worked at farming.
Mrs. Noel Hedington Tippecanoe
Losing A Friend
Editor, Times-Union: I had to say goodbye to another friend tonight. I feel like Washington Robeling when he wrote, "One goes after another with perfect regularity."
I can't claim to have been a close friend of Jack Essenburg but I worked with him at Walmer Supply for quite a few years and got to know him fairly well. He was a true patriot, a hard-core conservative and a strong Christian. He was always so cheerful and full of life and he helped me through some pretty tough times probably more than he ever realized. I'm going to miss Jack very much.
Harold Kitson Warsaw
Drug Task Force
Editor, Times-Union: After reading the two recent articles in the Times-Union regarding the current status of the Drug Task Force, as seen by the current prosecutor and the various candidates for sheriff, I would like to offer another perspective, that of an insider. I have been working with the Task Force in one capacity or another for nine of my 12 years as a police officer. I am not a candidate for sheriff and I do not work for the prosecutor's office. While this letter will probably not serve to benefit my career, it is a true reflection of my concerns about the direction of drug enforcement in our county.
The newspaper article highlighted two problem areas. The first focused on problems within the Drug Task Force itself, both past and present. They include staff reductions, personnel turnover, funding concerns and allegations of misconduct. As those problems developed and were identified, they have been addressed by the administrators of the various agencies that make up the Drug Task Force. As in any decision-making process, the resulting changes are not often popular with those individuals directly affected by the decisions. That resulted in criticism of the administration and of the effectiveness of the Task Force, especially in an election year. Whether problems currently exist will be the subject of endless debate and disagreement among the many candidates for sheriff. The administrative solutions, whether necessary or not, will be decided by the winner. In the meantime, I can only assure you that those of us currently serving as members of the Task Force will continue to exert all of our efforts to identify, investigate and arrest the drug dealers and drug users that frequent our county.
The second problem area identified by the newspaper articles was the lack of cooperation between the Drug Task Force and the current prosecutor. While the current sheriff's candidates and other police officers may debate the existence of administrative problems within the Task Force, none will deny that there is a major problem between the law enforcement agencies and the prosecutor when it comes to drug enforcement. We were all encouraged when David Kolbe declared "War on Drugs," only to find that surrender loomed over the horizon. Believe me, he was there for the "photo op" and the television "news bite" when our months and months of undercover work culminated in drug arrests. He wants you to believe he was tough on drugs and drug dealers. And I would suspect that is what many of you believe. Well, after the television crews went home to South Bend and Fort Wayne and the local press turned their attention to the local high school sporting events, we quietly watched our "felony" drug cases get plea bargained away, often deferred and even dismissed. Most startling of all was the prosecutor's failure to strongly oppose, and in some cases, even his consent to sentence modifications for convicted cocaine dealers. There is a huge difference between the public's perception and the law enforcement officers' reality regarding Mr. Kolbe's War on Drugs. We often wonder what he was doing in the 1960s.
Mr. Kolbe has brought to the prosecutor's office a defense attorney's attitude. In a job that requires close cooperation of both the prosecutor and law enforcement agencies to achieve the goal of controlling drugs, Mr. Kolbe's attitude toward prosecution and public criticisms of police officers and their undercover tactics does not help in achieving that goal. The public made a mistake in the last election when Mr. Kolbe was elected as prosecutor. The wrong candidate was elected. In May, you will have a chance to rectify that mistake. Please do. If you do that, then one of the problems addressed in the Times-Union articles will be solved and the candidates for sheriff will be left to solve the other.
Michael D. Speigle
Loose Dog
Editor, Times-Union: On Feb. 27, my husband and I were coming home from a very relaxing birthday dinner. As we were driving on State Road 13 between Syracuse and North Webster, the driver of the car in front of us abruptly put on his brakes. My husband swerved to the right and quickly applied his brakes to avoid hitting the car.
The lights of our car shone on a beautiful Black Labrador with a rabbit in his mouth. Scared, he dropped his catch and ran across the road into the other lane. He was struck by a car and thrown into the ditch. A very sickening sound! My husband got our of the car, as the driver of the car did not stop but drove on.
What occurred next is still hard for me to believe. That beautiful dog was hit not once more but by three more vehicles. Each time he squealed and yelped in pain worse than the time before. Not one of the four cars had the decency to stop.
How can an owner of such a beautiful pet be so uncaring for that pet as to let him run free on a very busy highway? How can he be so irresponsible and inconsiderate to allow a dog to run free to cross that busy highway where not only the dog's life but those of the drivers on that highway are at risk? The drivers could do nothing but hit the dog or cause a many-car pile up.
In closing, I wish all people would be more caring of their pets. I feel that letting a dog run free in such a place without restraining him is saying "I don't care enough about my pet to keep him safe or about the people he may be putting at risk."
I hope I never never hear such agonizing sounds again.
Louise Rainwater Chapman Lake
Fighting Drugs
Editor, Times-Union: I would like to address the article "Fighting Drugs" that appeared in the Warsaw Times-Union on Saturday and Monday.
In 1987 the Special Operations Team was formed because Sgt. Gerry Moser and myself were at a junior high school giving a drug class. A young lady asked us why the county did not do something about the drug problem. That is when I realized that she was right. We were not.
We, with the approval of then Sheriff Ron Robinson, donated our time to fight the drug problem on our off-duty hours. We found that drugs were everywhere, and we the police didn't know. It shocked us when we found that students were sniffing cocaine and smoking marijuana in study hall at our local school.
In 1997 the Drug Task force received $93,709 in funds. The grant calls for two officers. The grant pays for one officer and the other is provided by the sheriff's office and both are to be assigned 100 percent of the time. The sheriff's department is to contribute $31,237 to the grant in the form of one full-time officer. The sheriff's office has not met the terms of the grant for two years. This is not a debatable issue ... it is fact.
In the 1997/1998 sheriff's department grant application the program objective was: "to attack drug dealers large and small along with the users of illegal drugs to the point that drugs is a not for profit business." I believe in the article we were told that the Drug Team has changed to focus on big dealers. So I ask you, what is a big dealer?
Is it when the neighbor next door is selling 2 ounces of marijuana a week and there is a lot of traffic in and out, and you call the police because you don't want your child exposed drugs? Or is it when a subject in Syracuse is taken into Elkhart County and shot because of crack cocaine? Or is it when two junior high students come to school high on LSD and when the Drug Team checks into it, these "small users" give us the information to arrest the subjects that are supplying Kosciusko County and Ball State University with LSD?
How do you ignore the citizens' complaint of a drug problem, big or small? If they are calling the sheriff's department, it's big to them and should be big to us.
Warsaw City has donated two officers and received none of the grant monies to pay for these officers, I commend them and the good work that these officers do. They desperately need help from the sheriff's department. And when elected, I will provide that by meeting the terms of the grant and assign two officers 100 percent of the time. In 1997 Fort Wayne City had 25 homicides attributed to gangs and drugs. Citizens, demand a hard working fully staffed drug unit! I don't want our drug problems in Kosciusko County to escalate to Fort Wayne's level, do you?
Det./Sgt. Sam Whitaker Republican Candidate for Sheriff
Barbee Directors
Editor, Times-Union: Approximately three years ago, I was appointed by the court to serve as a board member for the newly created Barbee Lakes Conservancy District. I was aware of the issues concerning the establishment of a sewage system after serving two years as a board member of the Barbee Lakes Property Owners Association. My involvement was purely voluntary with no personal or political agenda attached.
In the aftermath of the recent election, the purpose of this letter is not to debate the pros and cons of a sewage treatment system, but to question the need for my neighbors and members of the Barbee Lakes Quality Network to malign and slander board members in order to further their cause.
The men that I served with over the course of the last three years had been involved in this community for many years while the members of the opposition never cared enough to attend any property owners meetings to voice their concerns or express an interest in the quality of the lakes.
I have the utmost respect for Jack Maule, John Weyler, Arnold Patten and Lowell Gilmore for persevering in their commitment to making the Barbee Lakes a better place to live. I applaud them for raising issues that this community ought to care about and work together to resolve. These are fine people who do not deserve the personal attacks they have encountered. The same can be said for Attorney Dick Green and Mark Jesse of the Bonar Engineering Group.
I would hope that in the future, the people of our community will take some time to understand the issues at hand before making judgments based solely on their own self-serving interest. Our children and grandchildren will thank us.
