Here are a few of my favorite shots from the past couple months. Let me know what you think.
Kindergartener Aidan Stydinger, left, looks on as his classmate Owen Altermatt reacts in surprise to the weight of a bomb squad helmet during Troopers Rick Stockdale and Brian Meeks' presentation for career day on Thursday at Southwestern Elementary School. Meeks and Stockdale, both from the Versailles post of the Indiana State Police, talked to the children about their jobs and brought the crowd pleasing visual aids of a bomb suit and the MKII Vanguard Bomb Disposal Robot. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
The dome of a nuclear containment silo on the grounds of the old Marble Hill facility smokes after explosives went off on Wednesday. The dome is one of the last visible evidences of the home of a nuclear power plant that was started, but never completed in the 1970s and 1980s near the Jefferson and Clark county line.
On Wednesday crews spent hours rigging the structure with explosives for demolition. After the explosion, though, the dome only showed a few new signs of cracking.
Emily Mardigian, of MCM Management Corp., said that MCM owns the site and is demolishing the plant in order to reclaim the scrap materials, which are sold for profit. Mardigian said that the company has worked on the demolition of very large projects, including the old Tiger Stadium in Detroit, She added that the Marble Hill plant is unique in that it was built with such a high volume and high density of metal reinforced concrete that the demolition has been anything but standard.
Neither of the silos, have come down easily, and the last dome is still proving difficult to destroy. Sooner than later she expects the demolition to be complete and all usable scrap will be gone. She said about 95 percent of the materials are reusable.
There is not word yet as to what will happen to the land after MCM is done salvaging. Mardigian said her company has heard several questions concerning why no one is wearing protective suits for radioactive waste and she stresses the reminder that Marble Hill was never an active site and that there was never any radioactive material on the grounds. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Illustration about not allowing dogs to sleep in your bed. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Retirement portrait of local dentist Wendell Grassmyer. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Sean Geil, right, and Mike Oberst, of The Tillers, preform at the Ohio River Valley Folk Festival on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Monica Melvin, of Bedford, took her granddaughter Alexis Webster, 4, out between rain showers to take pictures of the flooding in Trimble County on Saturday. Webster was able to snap some photos of the rapids that covered Connector Road in Trimble County. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Water washes over Vaughn Drive and Vine Street on Friday. City crews closed off sections of Vaughn that had become un-passable due to the flooding. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Debris filled a yard near Eminence, Ky., on Monday after an early morning tornado tore through an area around Spring Hill circle and State Highway 1899. Two houses were completely destroyed and several others damaged by the storm. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
A sure sign of shifting seasons can be seen in the roadside ditch of State Road 256 as patches of daffodil blooms sway in the breeze of passing vehicles. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
The sweet fragrance of magnolia blossoms and the sight of the tree's buds and blooms were on display near the parking lot of the Madison State Hospital on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Girl Scout Elizabeth Allen, 10, of Troop 741, carries flags to headstones in the Indiana Veterans' Memorial Cemetery on Monday. Girl Scouts from Troops 741 and 1667 and their families and other community members came out on Monday to place American flags next to the grave stones in preparation for next week's Memorial Day service. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Ashlynn Cissell, 10, places the wreath at the World War II Roll of Honor plaque during the Memorial Day service at the Trimble County Courthouse on Monday.(Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Graduates make their way past Parker Auditorium toward the 178th annual commencement ceremony at The Point at Hanover College on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Skylar Thomas and the rest of the Carroll County High School Panther cheerleaders place heir hands to their hearts during the National Anthem at a game in February. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
City of Madison firefighters make their way into the smoke filled basement of the Brown gym during a training exercise on Saturday. The main point of the training was to give hands on experience to the firemen with their new Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) tracking devices. The devices allow firefighters to call for help and trigger a homing signal which their comrades can use to find them and rescue them from a fire scene. The SCBA tracking systems are also compatible with a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) bag, which is a mobile compressed air refilling device that allows firefighters to recharge their air tanks in the course of a rescue operation.
As Don McKay, Jr., Battalion Chief for Madison Fire Battalion 2, addressed the group of firefighters at the beginning of the training exercise he alluded to the death of Greg Cloud.
"Cloud got lost in the building with no radio and he as out of air,' McKay said. "Now everyone has a voice in there."
Throughout the day, the firemen trained on scenarios of finding a lost firefighter, finding a lost firefighter who is low on air and rescuing a trapped firefighter who is low on air.
Personnel from Scott, the RIT and SCBA tracking system manufacturer, were on hand to demonstrate proper use of the masks, of the tracking device, of the handheld Pac Tracking Unit and the RIT bags.
McKay said an additional benefit of the training was the chance for the different companies to cross train and develop a uniform standard operating procedure for working with the equipment.
funding for the new SCBA equipment came from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant. McKay said the total equipment cost, was near $309,000. "That's averages out to about $5,000 per firefighter," McKay said. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Kindergartener Aidan Stydinger, left, looks on as his classmate Owen Altermatt reacts in surprise to the weight of a bomb squad helmet during Troopers Rick Stockdale and Brian Meeks' presentation for career day on Thursday at Southwestern Elementary School. Meeks and Stockdale, both from the Versailles post of the Indiana State Police, talked to the children about their jobs and brought the crowd pleasing visual aids of a bomb suit and the MKII Vanguard Bomb Disposal Robot. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
The dome of a nuclear containment silo on the grounds of the old Marble Hill facility smokes after explosives went off on Wednesday. The dome is one of the last visible evidences of the home of a nuclear power plant that was started, but never completed in the 1970s and 1980s near the Jefferson and Clark county line.On Wednesday crews spent hours rigging the structure with explosives for demolition. After the explosion, though, the dome only showed a few new signs of cracking.
Emily Mardigian, of MCM Management Corp., said that MCM owns the site and is demolishing the plant in order to reclaim the scrap materials, which are sold for profit. Mardigian said that the company has worked on the demolition of very large projects, including the old Tiger Stadium in Detroit, She added that the Marble Hill plant is unique in that it was built with such a high volume and high density of metal reinforced concrete that the demolition has been anything but standard.
Neither of the silos, have come down easily, and the last dome is still proving difficult to destroy. Sooner than later she expects the demolition to be complete and all usable scrap will be gone. She said about 95 percent of the materials are reusable.
There is not word yet as to what will happen to the land after MCM is done salvaging. Mardigian said her company has heard several questions concerning why no one is wearing protective suits for radioactive waste and she stresses the reminder that Marble Hill was never an active site and that there was never any radioactive material on the grounds. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Illustration about not allowing dogs to sleep in your bed. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Retirement portrait of local dentist Wendell Grassmyer. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Sean Geil, right, and Mike Oberst, of The Tillers, preform at the Ohio River Valley Folk Festival on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Monica Melvin, of Bedford, took her granddaughter Alexis Webster, 4, out between rain showers to take pictures of the flooding in Trimble County on Saturday. Webster was able to snap some photos of the rapids that covered Connector Road in Trimble County. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Water washes over Vaughn Drive and Vine Street on Friday. City crews closed off sections of Vaughn that had become un-passable due to the flooding. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Debris filled a yard near Eminence, Ky., on Monday after an early morning tornado tore through an area around Spring Hill circle and State Highway 1899. Two houses were completely destroyed and several others damaged by the storm. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
A sure sign of shifting seasons can be seen in the roadside ditch of State Road 256 as patches of daffodil blooms sway in the breeze of passing vehicles. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
The sweet fragrance of magnolia blossoms and the sight of the tree's buds and blooms were on display near the parking lot of the Madison State Hospital on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Girl Scout Elizabeth Allen, 10, of Troop 741, carries flags to headstones in the Indiana Veterans' Memorial Cemetery on Monday. Girl Scouts from Troops 741 and 1667 and their families and other community members came out on Monday to place American flags next to the grave stones in preparation for next week's Memorial Day service. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Ashlynn Cissell, 10, places the wreath at the World War II Roll of Honor plaque during the Memorial Day service at the Trimble County Courthouse on Monday.(Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Graduates make their way past Parker Auditorium toward the 178th annual commencement ceremony at The Point at Hanover College on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Skylar Thomas and the rest of the Carroll County High School Panther cheerleaders place heir hands to their hearts during the National Anthem at a game in February. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
City of Madison firefighters make their way into the smoke filled basement of the Brown gym during a training exercise on Saturday. The main point of the training was to give hands on experience to the firemen with their new Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) tracking devices. The devices allow firefighters to call for help and trigger a homing signal which their comrades can use to find them and rescue them from a fire scene. The SCBA tracking systems are also compatible with a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) bag, which is a mobile compressed air refilling device that allows firefighters to recharge their air tanks in the course of a rescue operation.As Don McKay, Jr., Battalion Chief for Madison Fire Battalion 2, addressed the group of firefighters at the beginning of the training exercise he alluded to the death of Greg Cloud.
"Cloud got lost in the building with no radio and he as out of air,' McKay said. "Now everyone has a voice in there."
Throughout the day, the firemen trained on scenarios of finding a lost firefighter, finding a lost firefighter who is low on air and rescuing a trapped firefighter who is low on air.
Personnel from Scott, the RIT and SCBA tracking system manufacturer, were on hand to demonstrate proper use of the masks, of the tracking device, of the handheld Pac Tracking Unit and the RIT bags.
McKay said an additional benefit of the training was the chance for the different companies to cross train and develop a uniform standard operating procedure for working with the equipment.
funding for the new SCBA equipment came from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant. McKay said the total equipment cost, was near $309,000. "That's averages out to about $5,000 per firefighter," McKay said. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
