MCF names March employees of month

BUNKER HILL — Miami Correctional Facility honors Mary Beth Fites, accountant 6, employee of the month (non-custody); Traci Riggle, correctional casework manager, named supervisor of the month (custody or non-custody); and Officer David Mercier, named custody officer of the month for March.

Fites was hired in August 1999 as an account clerk 4. She was promoted to account clerk 3 in March 2001, and to her current position in January 2007. Prior to coming to MCF she worked at North Miami Elementary School and with Weight Watchers of Peru.

Officer David Mercier was hired at MCF as an officer in April 2005. Prior to his employment at MCF, he worked at Trelleborg Automotive, Security Services and Cass County Sheriff Department as a correctional officer.

Riggle was hired in March 1999 as a correctional officer at Madison Correctional Facility. She transferred to MCF in May 2000 as a correctional counselor 4 and was promoted to correctional casework manager in March 2003. She transferred to Wabash Valley Correctional Facility as a casework manager in January 2005 and returned to MCF in July 2005. She also served as Unit Team Manager from December 2007 to January 2009 to fill in for someone who was on military leave.



Workshop offered for small business

The U.S. Small Business Administration will host free Internet small business workshops online April 1 and April 15.

The workshops, which will run from 2 to 3 p.m., will provide guidance to prepare small business owners for meetings with lenders. Business owners will learn what is involved in the loan process and review SBA programs and services that can help start or grow a business.

Reservations are not required. Log on to the session from any computer. For the presentation, log on to www.readytalk.com and for the audio portion call (866) 740-1260 the access code for both is 3056201#.

For more information contact Ronda Crouch at (317) 226-7272 ext. 212 or ronda.crouch@sba.gov.



Horvath joins SIHO Insurance Services

Josondra Horvath has joined SIHO Insurance Services as a third-party administration sales representative and will work from both the Bloomington and Indianapolis SIHO offices.

Horvath graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor of science degree in public health. She interned for the SIHO Bloomington office and completed an internship with Scott Benefit Services in 2007.

SIHO, a health plan administrator, was established in 1987 and serves more than 80,000 members with a network of more than 9,000 physicians and 65 hospital facilities. SIHO’s Indiana offices include locations in Bloomington, Columbus, Seymour, Indianapolis, Logansport, Evansville and Owensboro, Ky.



Local directors attend forum in D.C.

Directors of the Region IV Workforce Board and staff of Tecumseh Area Partnership Inc. recently attended the National Association of Workforce Boards annual forum in Washington D.C. March 7 to 10.

Board members and staff participated in legislative meetings with Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and a representative of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to discuss the stimulus package impact on workforce development issues in the region. Forum highlights included keynote speakers President Bill Clinton, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Juan Williams, NPR senior correspondentand a political analyst for Fox Television.

Directors participated in workshops related to workforce development, attended seminars related to Green Jobs for the 21st Century Workforce; and heard from policy experts within the Employment and Training Administration.

The Region IV Workforce Board is a volunteer board appointed by local elected officials of Region IV to represent the workforce development issues of Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Howard, Miami, Montgomery, Tipton, Tippecanoe, Warren and White counties.



Local day care centers join QUALITY

Cass County Little Sprouts and Stepping Stones Preschool and Daycare are now participants in Paths to QUALITY.

Paths to QUALITY is Indiana’s free and voluntary quality rating system for regulated child care providers, administered by the Family and Social Services Administration’s Bureau of Child Care in partnership with the Indiana Association for Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies and the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children.

The system validates child care programs for ongoing efforts to achieve higher standards of quality and provides incentives and awards for success.

Level one of Paths to QUALITY addresses health and safety of children; Level two addresses an environment that supports children’s learning; and level three addresses a planned curriculum that guides child development and school readiness. In level four, national accreditation is achieved and the corresponding Paths to QUALITY standards are met.



Delphi chamber offers second class

The Delphi Chamber of Commerce will begin its second class of its four-part education series for member businesses.

The class will begin 6:30 p.m. Thursday and will cover the crime of internal theft. The class will be at the chamber office, 113 S. Washington St.

The remaining classes will be the last Thursday of the next two months and include general security and bad checks and civil suits.

All classes are co-sponsored by Bob’s Investigations with Dale Seward instructing.

For information, call Delphi Chamber of Commerce at (765) 564-3034 or Seward at (812) 988-8058.