The public is invited to cut up and removed certain downed trees at Patoka Lake for firewood. Firewood permits will be available depending on weather and staff time.

Property employees are removing trees that threaten to fall or lose limbs, primarily in high traffic areas such as the modern campground, fishermen’s campground, and beach area. 

The cost of one pickup-truck load is $10. All proceeds will be used for resource management and restoration efforts, including the replacement of trees in campgrounds and other public areas.

A permit can be obtained at the property office between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays beginning Nov. 11. Days, hours and access to specific areas for cutting will be determined by weather conditions and availability of downed trees. Call the park office at 812-685-2464 for more information.

Firewood cut at Patoka is for personal use only and cannot be sold.

Patoka Lake (on.IN.gov/patokalake) is located at 3084 N. Dillard Road, Birdseye, IN 47513.

Indiana’s daily Covid-19 numbers have increased from a high of 1,000 per day in late July to over 5,000 as reported on Saturday – less than four months later.

In fast, Indiana’s Covid-19 cases have doubled in about three weeks.

The 5,007 new infections reported by the Indiana State Department of Health on Saturday were the state’s highest single-day level of the pandemic, eclipsing the previous record of 4,714 new cases officials reported Friday.

Sunday’s numbers dipped a bit to 4,689. 

The virus appears to be spreading more rapidly than ever before. 

At the end of July, Indiana first hit 1,000 new cases. Two months later, the state doubled that number in mid-October, topping 2,000 cases in one day.

After seeing the needle tick up past 3,000 last week, Indiana went to over 4,000 four days last week with new cases doubled in about three weeks.

Indiana Governor Eric J. Holcomb said following his re-election on Tuesday that he’s not making any changes to state policy on handling COVID-19 and staying at Stage 5. 

The department’s daily update of its coronavirus dashboard showed 2,036 Hoosiers are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 – the largest number Indiana has seen since officials began releasing those counts last spring, early in the pandemic.

Of those hospitalized, 559 are in intensive care.

More than 71% of Indiana’s intensive care unit beds are also in use, according to the Health Department, leaving 621 beds available as of Thursday.

Indiana’s 43 new COVID-19 deaths reported Saturday raised the state’s pandemic death toll to 4,592, including confirmed and presumed coronavirus infections.

Today’s results stem from a record of 50,610 tests submitted in the last 24 hours.

To date, 1,794,398 unique individuals have been tested in Indiana, up from 1,777,105 on Friday.

A total of 3,167,518 tests, including repeat tests for unique individuals, have been reported to the state Department of Health since Feb. 26.

Holcomb, who won a second term as governor on Tuesday by defeating Democrat Woody Myers said Wednesday he’s not making any changes to the state’s COVID-19 policy, including no statewide closure of schools.

Myers, a former state health commissioner, had called for tougher anti-virus actions as Indiana’s COVID-19 hospitalizations, deaths and new infections climbed steeply since nearly all state restrictions were lifted in September.

Get in the WSLM Sports Zone tonight as two Washington County teams vie for their Sectional Championships in Football and a former State Championship girls basketball team starts a new season.

Catch all the LIVE High School Sports action on WSLM 97.9 FM and WSLM 1220 AM and here online. 

Listen to the 2012 Class 2A State Champion Eastern Lady Musketeers in their season opener tonight against the Borden Lady Braves. 

wslmradio is on Mixlr 

 West Washington Senator Football is LIVE on WSLM 1220 AM and on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/wslmradio/

Salem Lions Football is LIVE on WSLM 97.9 FM and streaming on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/wslmradio/

Early Wednesday morning, Washington County Clerk Stephanie Rockey finished the final unofficial results in the 2020 General Election for the county that showed a record turnout with 63 percent of the voters exercising their right. 

Overall, 12,224 votes were cast in Washington County. 5,265 of those were early votes with 6,959 votes cast on Tuesday. 

This mirrored other counties and states around the nation as a record turnout.

At 10p Tuesday, Rockey reported that approximately 500 absentee votes still needed to be counted and those tallies came in before 1a Wednesday. 

With all the votes counted over six hours after the polls closed, the Republican party still swept all contested races giving wins to Nancy Coats for Treasurer and Emily Rodman for Surveyor and returning incumbent Rick Roberts to the District 3 Commissioner seat. 

COATS UNSEATS BATT

Coats unseats Democratic incumbent Shirley Batt, who has worked in county government since she graduated from high school and has held public office in the Clerk’s seat and in the Treasurer’s office.

Coats received 7,242 votes or 61 percent of the vote, compared with 4,631 votes or 39 percent of the vote for Batt. 

The record turnout includes absentee, early voting in-person, and overseas voters and in-person voters on Election Day. 

Rockey reported earlier on Tuesday that she had received 27 percent of the vote in the county or 5,216 early voters from mail-in, overseas, military, and walk-ins.

She said this was three times the amount from the 2016 and 2018 elections. 

SURVEYOR 

With the final votes in Rodman defeated Libertarian candidate Max Greene for Surveyor 8,917 to 1,928. 

COMMISSIONERS

Roberts won over Greene’s wife, Rhonda, another Libertarian candidate, 8,760 to 2,192. 

Phillip Marshall ran unopposed for the District 1 seat that he has held for two previous terms. 

Marshall received 9,969 votes. 

SALEM SCHOOL BOARD

In one of the largest races in recent history for school board, thirteen candidates vied for four spots as At Large members of the Salem Community School Board. 

The unpaid positions came available when board member Mark “Bubba” Abbott decided to run for County Council. 

Current board members Ron Haendiges and Ericka Garloch did not seek another term and board member Dustin Davidson, who was appointed to fill out a term for Steve Motsinger, ran but was not returned to the board. 

Mark A Day received the most votes with 2,261 or 13.58 percent. 

Former Salem Middle School Principal Ray Oppel captured 2,138 or 12.84 percent. 

Rebecca “Becky” Humphrey received 1,831 or 11 percent of the vote. 

Allison Jean Ezzell won the fourth seat with 1,775 or 10.66 percent of the vote. 

Aaron “Spud” Schocke was a close runner up with 1,450 votes – just 350 votes short of getting a seat on the board.

Total votes include:

• Benjamin T. Bowers – 1,179
• Emily R. Cockerill – 934
• Dustin Davidson – 1,106
• J. Michael Davisson – 771
• Mark A. Day – 2,261
• Allison Jean Ezzell – 1,775
• James Hobbs – 605
• Rebecca “Becky” Humphrey – 1,831
• Christopher A. Hunt – 818
• Christie Paris Luckett – 1,103
• Ray C. Oppel – 2,138
• Aaron “Spud” Schocke – 1,450
• Constance “Connie” Young – 

WEST WASHINGTON SCHOOL BOARD 

On the West Washington School Board, newcomer Carrie Cambron unseated incumbent Aaron Dennis 983 to 706 for the Madison Township seat. 

Brian Farmer was unopposed in the race for the Posey Township seat. He received 1,492 votes.

Board member Sal Sama was returned to the Vernon Township seat with 1,432 votes. He was unopposed. 

EAST WASHINGTON SCHOOL BOARD

Two candidates ran unopposed for two different seats. 

Thomas Coats ran for the Polk Township seat and earned 2,647 votes.

Incumbent Jeff Clem Jr ran unopposed and returned to the board with 2,550 votes.

COUNTY COUNCIL

The Primary election locked in three Republican seats for At Large positions on the Washington County Council. Since voters could vote for three candidates and there was no competition for their positions. 

Mark “Bubba” Abbott received 6,418 votes, incumbent Rondale Brishaber received 4,785 votes and Keeley R. Stingel took 4,656 votes. 

CAMPBELLSBURG TOWN COUNCIL

Two candidates were up for election and both David L. Brown and Donnie Williams won the spots. Brown took 47 votes and Williams earned 42 votes. 

TOWN OF NEW PEKIN TOWN COUNCIL

Two candidates vied for two positions on the Town of New Pekin Town Council Member at Large. 

Darlene Hall won with 286 votes and Anthony Mosby captured his seat with 154 votes. 

WASHINGTON COUNTY CLERK

Rockey was appointed to fill out the term of the previous clerk and ran for election for the first time. There was no Democratic candidate in the spring or fall so she was unopposed. 

Rockey received 10,007 votes. 

CORONER

Republican Peg Schell was the incumbent for Washington County Coroner and had no opposition in the primary or general election. 

She captured 9,887 votes. 

PRESIDENT

Although the Presidential election is still undecided but shows Vice-President Joe Biden with approximately 2 million votes ahead of President Donald J. Trump. 

At the time of this report, Biden leads in the Electoral College 238 to Trump’s 218, but several key states that Trump is leading in have not officially been declared, which would deliver him the win. 

In Washington County, 9,112 votes went to Trump with 2,783 votes for Biden. 

The Libertarian platform of Jo Jorgenson and Jeremy Cohen took 231 votes. 

INDIANA GOVERNOR

Eric J. Holcomb was picked as the early winner to hold on to the Republican position in Indiana.

Locally, Holcomb picked up 7,917 votes with Democratic challenger Woody Myers taking 2,407 votes. 

Libertarian challenger Donald Rainwater picked up 1,745 votes.

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Republican Candidate for Attorney General Todd Rokita took 8,979 local votes with 2,826 votes going to Democratic challenger Jonathan Weinzapfel. 

9th DISTRICT US CONGRESSMAN

Republican Incumbent Trey Hollingsworth was returned for a third term as 9th District US Congressman. He received 9,026 votes in Washington County. 

His Democratic challenger Andy Ruff took 2,499 and Libertarian candidate Tonya Millis captured 465 votes. 

INDIANA REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 73

Republican Steve Davisson was returned to his seat for another term and received 10,254 votes locally. 

He ran unopposed.

Washington County Clerk Stephanie Rockey is still at the Washington County Justice Center – four hours after the polls closed at 6p – feeding paper ballots into machines to get the final count. 

These are paper ballots sent in from early voters that couldn’t be counted until the polls closed at 6p. 

Thousands of those votes were being run through the machines and less than 500 remained at 10p. 

An unofficial report was printed out for all 22 precincts at 9:24p showed 43.37 percent of the county turned out to vote today with 83 percent (or 2,966) of those casting Republican straight-party votes. 

513 or 14.5 percent of the straight-ticket votes were Democratic and 60 were Libertarian. 

Locally, the three contested races appear to have been dominated by Republicans. 

Republican Nancy Coats captured more than twice as many votes as Democratic incumbent Treasurer Shirley Batt — 5,202 to 2,740. 

Republican Emily Rodman won the race for Surveyor with 82 percent of the vote against Libertarian Max Greene, who captured 17 percent of the vote. 

The other race involved Republican incumbent Rick Roberts for District 3 Commissioner against Libertarian Rhonda Greene. 

Roberts captured 6,126 (80.85 percent) of the vote compared to Greene’s 19.15 percent (1,204 votes). 

In the race for Salem School Board member at large, the top four spots so far include Mark A Day (1,496 votes), Ray Oppel (1,293 votes), Rebecca “Becky” Humphrey (1,225), and Allison Jean Ezzell (1,082 votes). 

With those remaining votes yet to be tallied, these totals could change and those in the fifth and sixth spots could gain momentum. 

Aaron “Spud” Schocke has 1,059 votes – just 23 votes behind Ezzell. 

Benjamin T. Bowers would be in sixth place at 800 votes. 

In uncontested races in Washington County:

State Representative, District 73

• Steve Davisson (R) – 7,151 votes

Washington County Clerk

• Stephanie Rockey (R) – 6,966 votes

Washington County Coroner

• Peg Schell (R) – 6,933 votes

Washington County Commissioner

• District 1 Phillip Marshall (R) – 6,956 votes

Washington County Council Members at Large (Vote for 3) 

• Mark “Bubba” Abbott – 4,475 votes
• Rondale Brishaber – 3,226 votes
• Keeley R. Stingel – 3,105 votes

Town Council – Campbellsburg – At Large (vote for 2)

• David L. Brown – 31 votes
• Donnie Williams – 20 votes

Town Council – Town of New Pekin – Member at Large (vote for 2)

• Darlene A. Hall – 213 votes
• Anthony Mossy – 119 votes
• East Washington School Board – Polk Township
• Thomas K. Coats – 1,819 votes

East Washington School Board – Town of New Pekin

• Jeff Clem Jr – 1,753 votes

Salem School Board – Members at Large (vote for 4)

• Benjamin T. Bowers – 800 votes
• Emily R. Cockerill – 600 votes
• Dustin Davidson – 742 votes
• J. Michael Davisson – 469 votes
• Mark A Day – 1,496 votes
• Allison Jean Ezzell – 1,082 votes
• James Hobbs – 405 votes
• Rebecca “Becky” Humphrey – 1,225 votes
• Christopher A. Hunt – 531 votes
• Christie Paris Luckett – 630 votes
• Ray C. Oppel – 1,293 votes
• Aaron “Spud” Schocke – 1,059 votes
• Constance “Connie” Young – 442 votes

West Washington School Board – Madison Township

• Carri Cambron – 719 votes
• Aaron Dennis – 532 votes

West Washington School Board – Posey Township

• Brian Farmer – 1,104 votes

West Washington School Board – Vernon Township 

• Sal Sama – 1,068 votes

Other Races

President

• Donald j. Trump/Mike Pence – 6,585 votes
• Joe Biden/Kamala Harris – 1,364 votes
• Jo Jorgensen/Jeremy Cohen – 163 votes

Governor/Lt. Governor

• Eric Holcomb/Suzanne Crouch – 5,458 votes
• Woodrow Myers/Linda Lawson – 1,177 votes
• Donald Rainwater/Henry – 1,429 votes

Attorney General 

• Todd Rokita – 6,444 votes
• Jonathan Weinzapfel – 1,462 votes

US Representative – 9th District

• Trey Hollingsworth – 6,445 votes
• Andy Ruff – 1,221 votes
• Tonya Millis – 347 votes