Taking it to the Streets

MOUNT VERNON —  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was in Mount Vernon on Friday making arrests.

FREDERICKTOWN — Helen Booth has a giving and nurturing soul, like her mother, she said. That’s why she took in a woman she and her daughter, Lisa, believed to be pregnant with twins and in an abusive situation.

MOUNT VERNON — Suspended Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher John Freshwater was the first witness when his contract termination hearing resumed Thursday. His attorney R. Kelly Hamilton asked him questions regarding items acquired from an anonymous source, whose identity is unknown to Freshwater.

MOUNT VERNON — After 30 months of wrangling with officials, Darla Holtkamp and Frank Nagy are still in limbo about the maintenance of the road to their residence.

MOUNT VERNON — Timothy L. Leasure, community development analyst with the Ohio Department of Development's Office of Housing & Community Partnerships, met with the Knox County Board of Commissioners on Thursday morning to review grants awarded for the county's hamlet projects.

BELLVILLE — After waiting 10 months for a match, Robert Wallot of Bellville was overjoyed to hear he would receive a new kidney. Living with diabetes for many years destroyed his own kidneys to where they could not function properly.

MOUNT VERNON — April is Donate Life Month, a time to learn more about the opportunity each person has to give the "gift of life." It's also a time to bring awareness to the need to donate organs and tissue.

MOUNT VERNON — The Mount Vernon baseball team has had different players step up at different times throughout the year. Thursday, four hitters and a sophomore pitcher stepped up, leading the Jackets to an 8-5 victory over visiting Mansfield Madison.

MOUNT VERNON — The Mount Vernon High School boys volleyball team moved one step closer to its goal of an undefeated Ohio Capital Conference season on Thursday night with a three-game win over Pickerington Central. The Yellow Jackets defeated the Tigers, 25-6, 25-9 and 25-21, improving to 17-2 on the season.

According to Mount Vernon News reporter Pam Schehl, three witnesses have testified so far this morning at the termination hearing of Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater.

MOUNT VERNON — In a meeting Monday night, the Knox County Board of Health terminated the employment of Brian Benick, environmental health director for the health department, on the grounds of insubordination. Wednesday, Benick explained his side of the circumstances surrounding his termination, and his reasons for the alleged insubordination.

MOUNT VERNON — On, Aug. 21, 1994, Bege Wiegman and her family received "the phone call from hell." Her eldest son, Luke, was in a motorcycle accident and had suffered severe head trauma. Three days later, Luke died, forever changing the Wiegman family.

MOUNT VERNON — Beginning July 1, Knox County will have a new deputy registrar. Michael Kellenbarger, Newark, has been awarded the 2010-13 contract to operate the Knox County license bureau. He will replace Sam Barone, who has operated the bureau for over 20 years.

DANVILLE — The dean of students positions at the Danville High School and the elementary school will be eliminated with the start of the 2010-11 school year, according to Dan Harper, school superintendent.

MOUNT VERNON — The Ohio Order for the Preservation of Storytelling, OOPS for short, returns to Mount Vernon this week for its annual spring conference.

MOUNT VERNON — The Mount Vernon Development Center held its annual employee service awards ceremony in the Great Room on Wednesday.

GAMBIER — The spring concert of the Knox County Symphony will bring the distinctive cradling warmth and gentle melancholy of Brahms' "German Requiem," filled out with the dusky beauty of a new A clarinet.

MOUNT VERNON — The Mount Vernon High School baseball team checked one of its goals off its list on Wednesday afternoon at Yellow Jacket Field.