Search
Make wishtv.com your home page

DECATUR, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — An ice cream manufacturing plant in Decatur, which is set to permanently close, will operate two months longer than previously announced. Kansas City-based Dairy Farmers of America Inc. has notified the state it intends to extend operations of two production lines through November.

The company announced in June it was closing the Adams County plant due to “changing market conditions. More than 160 workers are losing their jobs with layoffs starting this week.

The announced layoffs are to take place in waves through the fall months. The additional ice cream production means workers who were scheduled for termination in mid-October will now have the option to work through mid-December. DFA expects the closure to be completed by December 31.

The plant produces a variety of ice creams under the Mayfield Dairy, Dean’s Country Fresh, and Friendly’s brands. DFA acquired Deans Foods in 2020 as it was going through bankruptcy.

DECATUR, IN. (Inside INdiana Business) — Kansas City-based Dairy Farmers of America Inc. has notified the state it is closing an ice cream plant in Decatur and will be laying off more than 160 workers. DFA says the permanent closing of the Adams County plant is due to “changing market conditions.” The company says it will cease operations in September with layoffs occurring in waves.

“Unfortunately, the financial challenges associated with running the facility are just too great,” said Robin Galloway, president, DFA Dairy Brands Ice Cream. “The employees here have done an excellent job producing quality ice cream products, and we sincerely appreciate their hard work and dedication.”

The company expects the closing to be permanent. DFA says there are no bumping rights for affected employees. DFA is a national milk marketing cooperative, owned by about 13,000 dairy farmer-members.

“This was a difficult decision, but we have a responsibility to our dairy farmer-owners to operate financially sound businesses that bring them additional returns on their investments in the Cooperative,” said Galloway.

The plant produces a variety of ice creams under the Mayfield Dairy, Dean’s Country Fresh, and Friendly’s brands.

DFA acquired Deans Foods in 2020 as it was going through bankruptcy.

UPDATE: Silver Alert 124-2020 issued on Nov. 3, 2020 on Gloria Haviland has been canceled as of November 3, 2020. For more information on this cancellation, please contact the Adams County Sheriff’s Department at 260-724-5345.

DECATUR, Ind. (WISH) — A statewide Silver Alert has been issued for a 66-year-old woman missing from Decatur in northeastern Indiana.

Gloria Haviland is believed to be in extreme danger and may require medical assistance. 

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office described Haviland as 5-feet-1 and 183 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Decatur is about 75 miles northeast of Indianapolis. 

Anyone with information was asked to call the Adams County Sheriff’s Department at 260-724-5345 or 911.

GREENSBURG, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — The Indiana Next Generation Manufacturing Competitiveness Center is partnering with Honda Manufacturing of Indiana LLC to launch the newest IN-MaC Design and Innovation Studio. The studio, located inside Honda’s facilities in Greensburg, gives southeast Indiana students the opportunity to learn more about next generation manufacturing.

IN-MaC says the studio, also known as the HMIN Drives Dreams Pathway, provides middle and high school students with the hands-on experience with additive printers, robotics and coding, as well as engineering and science learning modules. 

“What stands out about this studio is the chance for students to make the connection between what they are learning at school through STEM classes with the manufacturing processes, critical thinking and problem solving our associates use every day to build vehicles for our customers around the world,” said Tim Myers, senior vice president of HMIN. “As we continue to build our talent pipeline and future workforce, it is critical for Honda and other companies like ours to tap into the interests of students by providing opportunities like this.”

The HDDP program is open to students from Hoosier schools, homeschools and community-based education organizations.

The Honda studio is one of 10 IN-MaC Design and Innovation Studios located at elementary schools and industries throughout the state. IN-MaC says the studios are being implemented to pilot innovative STEM education and work solutions.

Additional studios are scheduled to open later this year.

DECATUR, Ind. (WANE) – Two Amish midwives have been charged in Adams County with illegally practicing medicine and administering medication to mothers and babies.

Sylvia C. Eicher and Lydiann S. Schwartz, both 73, face felony charges of practicing medicine without a license and unlawful possession of a syringe related to investigations in May 2017.

The Schwartz case

On May 10, 2017, police were notified about a 14-day-old newborn that was rushed to Adams Memorial Hospital, who later died. The Adams County coroner said the baby died of congenital heart disease; a small hole was found in the child’s heart.

The baby’s parents told police that they’d received prenatal care from Schwartz, and the baby was born at Schwartz’s home, the affidavit said.

Schwartz told police that the baby stayed with her for four hours after it was born, and she said the infant “seemed normal” after it was delivered, the affidavit said. She said the infant was grunting but through a stethoscope she said she did not hear a “murmur or swishing” in the baby’s heart, the affidavit said.

Schwartz told police that three days after the delivery, the baby returned to her home for a phenylketonuria test to check for “proper enzymes,” which involved a “heel stick,” the affidavit said. The child’s mother also said Schwartz gave her an IV during delivery to “speed up the process,” the affidavit said.

Schwartz described the IV to police as a “veterinary ‘pit,’” or Pitocin, according to the affidavit.

Pitocin is a brand name for oxytocin, which can cause or strengthen labor contractions during childbirth, and control bleeding after childbirth.

Police asked Schwartz if she’d been medically certified and she said a Willshire, Ohio, doctor taught her how to give IVs, the affidavit said.

The child’s mother and father said they paid Schwartz $550, which also included checkups, the affidavit said. 

Police recovered syringes from the Schwartz’s home, the affidavit said.

The Eicher case

May 2017, police received a tip about a pregnant Amish woman who had been taken to Adams Memorial Hospital the day before for high blood pressure and a severe headache. While under care there, the woman told her doctor that she’d received two injections from Eicher, who she said was not a midwife but rather a “mother’s helper,” according to a probable cause affidavit.

Eicher is not licensed and cannot administer prescription drugs or injections.

Police then went to the woman’s home. There, she told police that, earlier in the week, she woke up with swelling in her legs, and her husband said she should go to Eicher’s home for treatment. The woman said Eicher directed her to go to the hospital, where doctors induced labor at 33 weeks, the affidavit said.

Police then asked about the injections. The woman said Eicher had given her injections on two different occasions “for the baby’s lungs” and she was not aware of the name of the medication, the affidavit said.

Police went to a building Eicher used as a clinic of sorts and found Eicher and her husband. Eicher told police she “may have (given injections) and she didn’t remember,” the affidavit said.

Eicher said she sees “so many women that she didn’t remember,” the affidavit said.

Eventually, Eicher admitted to the injections, according to the affidavit. She told investigators that she gives “vet medicine” injections in the hip area to help “mature the lungs.”

Police found various medical supplies at the building including five sealed syringes, the affidavit said.

Both Eicher and Schwartz have been released from Adams County Jail after posting bail. They are both set to appear in Adams County court Friday morning.

DECATUR, Ind. (WANE) – When it was time for Phylis Whitright and her husband to wrap up their afternoon walk with their dogs Ike and Lou in tow, something was wrong.

“We yelled for the dogs and Ike came running but Lou never did,” Whitright said.

The 9-year-olds don’t need leashes and stay close to their owners. But it seemed Lou’s Jack Russel nose took him somewhere else and they couldn’t find him.

“He was nowhere. So we looked all over the place. We searched the woods, everywhere,” Whitright explained.

After a couple hours, they had to take a break. When they came back, still no Lou. They called the sheriff’s department, reached out to friends and posted on social media. But then, the day was coming to an end.

“We came back home and of course I was crying the whole time. Could barely sleep,” Whitright said.

The next day they went back to look again. They weren’t having any luck. Until, Lou’s brother, Ike, lead the search. Ike went inside a fallen down tree, and there he was.

“I looked down and there’s a little hole there and here Lou’s face was sticking out,” Whitright said.

Stuck, unable to move or really even bark, 24 hours later Lou was rescued. “I said ‘oh my gosh, I found him. I found him! Lou’s alive!'”

Now the family is safe and back together. And the credit, goes to Ike.

“Ike is the one who went down in that log and looked for him so he’s our hero,” Whitright said.

Lou’s family wants to make sure they thank everyone who helped including the sheriff’s department and their friends. As you can imagine, it meant the world to them.

DECATUR, Ind. (WANE) – A 13-year-old boy is in police custody after leading an Adams County Sheriff’s deputy on a chase early Monday morning.

Authorities in Adams County responded to a 911 call of a stolen vehicle around 6:20 a.m. A short time later, a deputy found a vehicle that fit the description in a field, but lost sight of it.

It was spotted again on County Road 150 North and 300 East, police said.

It was there that the deputy tried to pull the vehicle over, but the driver refused to stop, according to a police report. The driver sped north on U.S. 27 just south of Decatur, then into Allen County and eventually Fort Wayne, where the pursuit ended. Police said the vehicle’s tire blew out at the intersection of U.S. 27 and Tillman Road.

Tire-deflation devices were deployed multiple times during the pursuit, though only one set was successful in deflating one tire.

The driver — a 13-year-old boy — was apprehended and taken into police custody, according to the Adams County Sheriff’s Department. Police said the boy stole his parents’ vehicle.

BURNEY, Ind. (WISH) – Five fire departments were battling a large fire on a farm about five miles west of Greensburg, Decatur County authorities said.

Burney-Clay Township Volunteer Fire Department was joined at the scene by equipment and firefighters from nearby departments of Adams, Greensburg, Hartsville and Letts Community. Crews were first dispatched to the fire about 9:30 p.m., according to local authorities.

Barbara Smiley, the owner of Smiley Farm Inc., operates the corn and hog farm with her two sons. It’s based about a mile east of Burney. The small community is about 25 miles southeast of Indianapolis.

Smiley spoke by phone in her darkened home where the power was out while fire crews battled the blaze.

“It was our feed mill that’s burning, but there are grain bins right close by.”

She did not believe any people or animals had been injured in the fire.

The farm has operated for 65 years.

Smiley said it was the worst day on the farm since a medical helicopter crashed there on Aug. 31, 2008, and all three crew members aboard were killed.NOTE: This story corrects information from previous versions about the aircraft crash on the farm.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — A group of around 100 shelter dogs arrived in Fort Wayne late Saturday night from western Texas, but how those dogs got here has a lot of people angry.

They came in a box truck for the trip of 30-plus hours.

The Rescue the Animals shelter in Abilene, Texas, needed to free up space to host animals affected by Hurricane Harvey. The shelter transported the dogs they had before the storm to Fort Wayne in coordination with animal rescue and adoption organization G.R.R.O.W.L.

Many of the volunteers were displeased with the condition of the dogs when they arrived. Veterinary technician Melissa Saylor was one of the volunteers who was not happy with how the dogs were transported or the condition the dogs were in when they arrived.

“I’m real angry,” she told NewsChannel 15, the newscast of WISH-TV sister station. “I’m real upset. Six of the dogs were taken away immediately by the [Allen County] sheriff’s department to get emergency medical attention, meaning their lives were in imminent danger.”

One volunteer told NewsChannel 15 he was the first to open the truck when it arrived. A temperature gun registered the box truck with an internal temperature around 120 degrees.

Volunteers said several dogs were vomiting or lost consciousness – likely suffering from heat stroke.

Katie Wilson, director of Lennoxs Legacy Rescue in Decatur, Indiana, said they have received four chihuahuas, but illegally.

“I know our dogs that came up here were not transported with USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) certificates, health certificates saying it was safe for them to travel.”

She doesn’t approve of how the dogs arrived.

“I believe with the amount of money that was raised those dogs should have never been transported in an enclosed Enterprise rental van,” she said. “No animal should ever be transported inside an enclosed vehicle with no air conditioning. No access to fresh air.”

But despite the conditions, volunteers are glad they can now help.

“These dogs are happy,” said volunteer Joshua Braden once the group started getting the dogs out of their cages. “They’re getting loving, getting care and getting done what they needed to be done.”

The Allen County Sheriff’s Department is conducting an investigation on the transport.

NewsChannel 15 has attempted to contact both organizations involved in the transport, but they’ve either been unreachable or not returned phone calls and messages.

DECATUR, Ind. (WANE) — Police are investigating an industrial accident at Manley Meats Inc. in Monroe Wednesday afternoon that left one person dead. Another was airlifted to a local hospital.

Emergency crews got the call around 3:35 p.m. Work was reportedly being done on a sewer pit when the people became unresponsive. The Adams County coroner said an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause and manner of death. The identity will be released pending notification of family.

Manley Meats posted on Facebook Wednesday night that the business will be closed Thursday “due to a family tragedy.”

Never miss another Facebook post from WISH-TV