Shoppers will find both familiar and the new when the Mitchell Ruler Foods reopens its doors this fall in the former Jay-C Foods location at 1240 W. Main Street.

Ruler carries products to meet all customers’ basic needs creating a complete
and convenient shopping experience including fresh produce and choice meats.
As part of The Kroger Company, we feature Kroger brands that shoppers know
and trust. 

The 25,372-square- foot store will be entirely remodeled and represents a $600,000 investment in the Mitchell Community.

In addition to a fresh interior and new look, shoppers will discover expanded

fresh produce and meat departments—an ongoing test at the new Ruler stores,
and extensive offerings from Kroger’s private label brands including: Kroger,
Truth organic and “free from” products, and Private Selection.

The new store will feature Ruler’s new look and layout and will aim to surprise and delight
customers with special deals on exclusive items and seasonal fare.

Liz Ferneding, president of Ruler Foods, is eager to reopen. “We are very excited
to expand our footprint in Mitchell, IN!  We are dedicated to continuing to serve
our loyal Mitchell customers a fresh experience in the new location and look
forward to serving new customers in the community with a new modern Ruler
experience while still delivering the low prices and selection our customers love.”

Specific details on the grand opening date and related events will be forthcoming
once the project is underway.

Ruler Foods operates from Seymour, Indiana with 50 stores in six states
(including Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, and Tennessee).

Their mission is simple: “provide quality foods to customers who need or want to save money.”

For more information, visit Ruler Foods online at www.rulerfoods.com
and www.facebook.com/rulerfoods.

The Indiana Department of Revenue (DOR) continues to partner with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to share the top tax filing season concerns referred to as the “IRS Dirty Dozen” tax scams for 2018.

The second scam in the 12-part series is phone scams. Phone scams are designed to threaten taxpayers into paying money toward bogus tax bills. These scams surge during tax season and often trick the taxpayer into paying money to criminals claiming to be from the IRS or DOR.

Most of these phone scams involve con artists making calls claiming to be from the IRS and demanding payment on a fake tax bill. Threats including arrest, deportation and/or revoking a driver’s license are being made to intimidate the victim into paying. Con artists then convince the victims to provide cash payments usually through a wire transfer, prepaid debit card or gift card.

A new phone scam deployed in recent weeks has identity thieves filing fraudulent tax returns with refunds going to the taxpayer’s bank account. The scammer will then call the victim to convince them to send the refund money to the scammer.

The federal government’s Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reports over 12,000 victims who have paid over $63 million as a result of phone scams since 2013.

“If you have an outstanding tax liability owed to the State of Indiana, the Indiana Department of Revenue will contact you first by mail,” said DOR Commissioner Adam Krupp. “While we do communicate regularly with customers over the phone to work through outstanding liabilities or aid customers in making a payment, we will never call to demand payment or threaten a taxpayer.” 

“If Hoosiers ever question any kind of correspondence from either tax agency—DOR or IRS—we  encourage them to call our agency directly to ask questions and confirm what actions need to happen if any.”

Remember DOR and the IRS will never:

• Threaten a taxpayer with arrest or deportation for not paying.
• Demand taxes be paid without giving the taxpayer the opportunity to question or appeal the amount owed.
• Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
• Call taxpayers about an unexpected refund.

If taxpayers think they may be the target of a phone scam:

• Do not give any information over the phone, hang up immediately.
• Call TIGTA at 800-366-4484 or report online at https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml
• Report to DOR by email at investigations@dor.in.gov or by phone at 317-232-2240.

The Washington County Commissioners and Council had a joint special meeting with township trustees on March 1 to determine who will pay for 11 miles of road that currently is not receiving tax money. 

The county is in the process of updating their pavement asset management plant for the Community Crossing Grants and have discovered that the county is maintaining approximately 11 miles of roads of roads not receiving any tax money the maintenance. 

The 11 miles of roads is in incorporated town limits. 

Superintendent Rick Voyles said county road money should not be used to pave roads within the limits. 

The towns need a pavement asset management plan in order to qualify for grant monies. 

The council and commissioners informed the towns that the county would be willing to pay the cost of the pavement asset management plan for the first year only. 

HWC Representative Paul Lincks stated the cost would be $1200. 

Once the plan is done, the towns could contract with HWC to apply for grant monies. 

It was the consensus of the commissioners and council to provide the funding for the plan and decide at their regular March meetings. 

The Washington County Commissioners met in a special session last Thursday afternoon to award bids in the courthouse restoration project. 

The board voted to approve the $1,038,000 bid from General Restoration Corporation from Columbus, Ohio. 

The base bid was $965,000 with three alternate bids for copper roofs, porticos and belfry covered in EPDM. 

Other bidders were Bodenbender and Shalwer who turned in a bid of $1,642,488 (with a base bid of $1,459,088), NR LEE RESTORATION with a bid of $1,080,700 (with a base bid of $989,400), BOLLEY & ANDREWS MASONRY with a bid of $1,597,777 (with a base bid of $1,342,777) and MIDWEST MAINTENANCE, INC with a bid of $1,808,000 (with a base bid of $1,635,000).

The commissioners thanked everyone for bidding. The board asked Fritz Hergot with Arsee Engineers to review the bids and give them a recommendation. 

At the board’s regular monthly meeting on Monday, other business included:

BRIDGE 236

THE COMMISSIONERS OPENED BIDS FOR BRIDGE 236.

TEMPLE & TEMPLE bid $182,250 and E & B PAVING turned in a bid for $450,010.

The commissioners asked highway superintendent Rick Voyles to review the bids and make a recommendation at their next meeting. 

WTH AGREEMENT

The commissioners tabled this until their next meeting

HIGHWAY

Highway superintendent Rick Voyles gave information to the commissioners about the underground facilities and the county’s responsibility for roads on the southern and eastern boundaries. 

COMMISSIONER SHELL

Commissioner Shell discussed the sheriff towing fee ordinance that was recently passed by the county council. Shell believes the fee should not be collected by the towing companies due to the bonding requirement by the state board of accounts. Attorney Howard will look into the bonding requirements and report to the findings at the April meeting. 

CLAIMS/PAYROLL/MINUTES

Commissioner Shell made a motion to approve the claims, payroll and the minutes from the previous meeting and the March 1 special meeting.

The motion was seconded by Commissioner Roberts. The motion passed 3-0.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT

The board gave approval to replace the part-time health nurse.

Indiana State Police will be conducting a sobriety checkpoint this upcoming Friday night and early Saturday morning. The exact location and time will not be released. Motorists that are not impaired can expect only short delays of 2-3 minutes while passing through the checkpoint.

Troopers encourage all motorists to call 911 or the closest Indiana State Police Post when they observe another motorist that may be impaired. Be prepared to give a description of the vehicle, location and direction of travel.

The Indiana State Police are committed to traffic safety and will continue to conduct saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints to apprehend impaired drivers and to deter others from drinking and driving.

LaGrange County-A Coldwater, MI woman ended up in jail facing marijuana and methamphetamine charges following a traffic stop on the Indiana Toll Road.

On March 9, 2018, around 11:20 p.m., Trooper Zarek Finley stopped a westbound Toyota for several moving violations near the 112 mile marker.  This is approximately nine miles west of the Howe/LaGrange exit.

While speaking to the driver and female passenger, Finley purportedly could smell marijuana.  He also noticed a small child in the back of the Toyota.  Following a search of the Toyota, approximately 28 grams of suspected marijuana and paraphernalia were located.  Approximately one gram of suspected methamphetamine was found hidden on the front seat passenger, identified as Jasireee Bauder, age 30 of Coldwater, MI.

Bauder was arrested for preliminary charges of Possession of Methamphetamine, Level 6 Felony, Possession of Marijuana, A-Misdemeanor, Possession of Paraphernalia, C-Misdemeanor, and Maintaining a Common Nuisance, Level 6 Felony.  Bauder was taken to the LaGrange County Jail.