Weekly Rewards

Thumbs up to organizers of A Day at the Bridge, the festival that highlights the nation’s longest historical covered bridge, earlier this month. Measuring 434 feet with 14-foot overhangs, Medora Covered Bridge was the heart of this year’s festival. For information about the bridge and its support group, call Morris Tippin at (812) 966-2491 or Morris Hypes at (812) 883-6604. Or send an email to

medorabridge@gmail.com.

Thumbs up to Jackson County Board of Zoning Appeals for moving its Sept. 11 meeting from the Jackson Circuit Courtroom at the courthouse to Brownstown Church of the Nazarene.

That space should allow more room for folks wanting to attend the meeting, which will include public hearings on two confined animal feeding operations. One request would result in a new 4,000-head hog farm east of Brownstown, and the other would allow expansion of a 2,000-head swine nursery west of Brownstown to double in size.

The crowd that attended the Aug. 14 meeting at the courthouse concerning the proposed new farm filled the courtroom and spilled into the hallway. Taking steps to ensure more people can attend is a good measure toward openness and transparency in local government.

Thumbs up to Southeast Purdue Agricultural Center and organizers of the field day at the farm in Jennings County. Farmers from around the region attended the session near Butlerville, which was geared toward strategies for coping with fallout from this summer’s lingering drought. It was a timely focus for the annual meeting.

Thumbs up to the Plumer family of Hamilton Township and others who helped stage the annual Jackson County Rodeo this month.

The event shifted from the spring to summer this year and changed focus from high school rodeo competitors to professional rodeo riders. But the rodeo again benefited the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in support of breast cancer awareness. It also donated proceeds to the Hunter “H.D.” Hogan Memorial Rodeo Scholarship fund in honor of Hogan, a Jackson County native who was killed in June while serving with the U.S. Marines in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Hogan was an avid rodeo rider and a good friend of the Plumer family.

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