Eagle 99.3's Top Local News Stories Of 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 6:29 AM

...Continued from first part of article.

6. Two Children Killed In US 421 Crash - March

Two children were killed in this accident on U.S. 421

near Versailles March 24.

Tragedy struck on a Ripley County highway the afternoon of March 24.

A semi plowed into the rear of a Chevrolet S10 truck that was stopped in the southbound lanes of U.S. 421. Two children in the back of the truck - seven-year-old Kacy Nonoka Indiana Brown and her sister, six-year-old Grace Nana Brown - were killed instantly.

Their parents in the front seats – 31-year-old Kristopher C. Brown and Ai Odashima Brown, both of Versailles – were critically injured.

The family lived in Versailles, where friends and neighbors prayed for their recovery. Paper crane folding parties were organized to gather 1,000 of the folded birds.

Ai Brown is originally from Japan where superstition says the folding of 1,000 origami cranes can make a wish come true.

The news hit especially hard at South Ripley Elementary School where Kacy and Grace were students.

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7. Surprises, Close Calls Highlight Elections – November

Bill Marksberry (left) lost the November

election for Rising Sun mayor to Branden

Roeder by just three votes after a recount.

The November election provided plenty of drama between candidates and at the ballot box.

Two local elections required recounts. Rising Sun Democrat Mayor Bill Marksberry petitioned for a recount after losing to 29-year-old Republican newcomer Branden Roeder in the November general election by just five votes. After the recount, Roeder was still the winner by three votes.

A recount was also necessary in the yet closer Batesville City Judge race. Democrat John Kellerman’s two vote Election Day lead was cut in half by a recount, but he held on to defeated Republican Kristen Weiler.

In Lawrenceburg, city Democrats enjoyed a widespread victory. Dennis Carr and his supporters handed out a large number of absentee ballots when campaigning door-to-door. The method proved critical to Carr’s win as he defeated Republican Kelly Mollaun by just 62 votes out of more than 1,000 total.

In Aurora, Republican mayor Donnie Hastings, Jr. enjoyed a landslide victory over Democrat councilman Rick Orcutt. Greendale incumbent Democrat Doug Hedrick also sailed to re-election over Republican Stephanie Libbert. Hastings and Hedrick will both enter their third terms in 2012.

The newly elected candidates across the area will be sworn in soon after the new year.

8. April Floods Headline Rainy 2011 – April

Cole Lane was among a number of roads

rendered impassable thanks to flooding in

April.

The tri-state not only set a new yearly record for rainfall in 2011, but shattered the previous record from 1990.

The National Weather Service has counted just over 72 inches of rain as of the year’s final week. The former official record had been 57.78 inches set 21 years ago.

Much of that rainfall came during a wet, wet spring. A new monthly rainfall record was set in April with about 12 inches of rain.

The Ohio River swelled out of its banks in areas. State Road 56 through downtown Aurora had to be closed because of high water. Low-lying roads in the Laughery Creek valley became impassable.

The Aurora Police Department used a cruiser camera to capture a spectacular display of water cascading down the steps leading to Hillforest Mansion during a heavy rainfall.

State Road 62 just east of Friendship remains shut down as of this story’s publication. Many areas of the windy road were washed out or experienced slips. The Indiana Department of Transportation continues to engineer a fix for the slips for the highway in hopes of reopening it as soon as possible, but no completion date has been set.

9. PETA Snaps Over Snapperfest – August

A video still from a prior Snapperfest shows a

participant holding a snapping turtle by its neck.

Who knew a snapping turtle wrestling contest could cause so much controversy?

For over a decade, Snapperfest – a competition to see which person could pull a wild snapping turtle’s head out of its shell the fastest without being bit - took place at Campshore Campground in Ohio County with mostly only locals having knowledge of its existence. That changed when animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, issued a national action alert to its members.

Various public officials began receiving a swarm of phone calls from around the country urging them to stop the event.

Owners of Campshore Campground insisted the turtles were treated humanely and were not harmed. PETA, meanwhile, called the display “extraordinarily cruel.”

Despite PETA’s pleas, Snapperfest went on as planned August 20 with limited interruption, although protestors were spotted at and around the campground throughout the day.

Eagle 99.3’s news story about the Snapperfest controversy was referenced on The Huffington Post.

10. Missing Boy Drowns In Creek - June

Volunteers gather to search for John Burton, Jr.

who went missing in Aurora in June. The autistic

child was soon found drowned in Hogan Creek.

A beautiful summer day in June turned tragic as a seven-year-old autistic boy wandered from his Aurora home.

City-wide searches began in hopes that John Burton, Jr. would be found hiding in some woods or beneath somebody’s porch.

More than 70 people volunteered to assist with the search the day after Burton’s disappearance. Within an hour a volunteer searcher kayaking on Hogan Creek discovered the child’s body in the water. Burton had drowned.

“I want to express all of our gratitude for all the volunteers and all the agencies that came to our assistance. It’s a huge pull for the community to come together for this effort. We are so thankful for those people who came out,” Aurora Police Sgt. Josh Daugherty said following the search.

Burton’s drowning was one of several which occurred in various waterways across southeast Indiana this past summer.