Church struck twice by lightning celebrates 150th year\nWAYNESBURG, Ind. -- A congregation is celebrating its resilient 150-year history, which includes having to rebuild twice because lightning burned down the church.\nLightning struck the Waynesburg Christian Church in 1898 and in 1993, but the church survived and marked its anniversary this weekend.\nAbout 20 people formed the church in 1854 and held services in a log cabin in the community about 50 miles south of Indianapolis.\nIn 1877, the group replaced the log cabin with a frame church, which had to be rebuilt after the first lightning strike, according to church history.\nNaomi Goble, chairwoman of the anniversary planning committee, said the congregation held chili suppers and grew corn to raise money to pay for the reconstruction.\n"They were God-loving people, and finally they were able to improve the second building," Goble said.\nThe congregation felt the restored church was safe from future disaster because lightning rarely strikes the same place twice, she said.\n"The old saying just didn't hold water," Goble said.\nLightning hit again in 1993, and most of the building was burned.\nOnly a gymnasium addition survived, which was incorporated into the current structure. The congregation again raised money for the rebuilding, and another area church donated money to help.\nAbout 160 people attend service on Sunday mornings. Stained-glass windows were installed four years ago, and the sanctuary has a new organ and a Baldwin grand piano.
State considers proposal to restrict sewer plants\nGREENVILLE, Ind. -- A state panel is considering a proposal that would prohibit sewage treatment plants from being built or expanded along dried-up rivers or along those that are reduced at times to a trickle.\nDevelopers routinely build treatment plants for housing subdivisions along such rivers and streams, but those could be severely limited if the Indiana Water Pollution Control Board agrees to the plan.\nThe proposed rule states that plants would only be allowed to discharge their treated sewage into streams or rivers that would dilute it by a ratio of at least 10-to-1 -- that is, at least 10 gallons of water to each gallon of treated waste.\nTim Method, deputy commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said the agency does not support the proposal, which he said arose from citizens' concerns about violations at some of the state's treatment plants.\n"We don't think the right approach for addressing noncompliance at some plants is to preclude operations across the state at all treatment plants on these types of streams," Method said.\nTwo southern Indiana citizens groups, the Greenville Concerned Citizens and Save Our Knobs, proposed the rule now being considered by the control board.\nBrian Zipperle, a vice president of Greenville Concerned Citizens, said hundreds of private treatment plants across the state are failing, and there are scores of polluted streams.\nZipperle said rapid development has led to many subdivision sewage plants being built on seasonal streams or small tributaries.\n"The term tributaries is somewhat misleading," he told the state board in June. "Many are, in fact, dry ditches, flowing only after a rainfall."\nThe water pollution control board will hold public hearings on the proposal Sept. 28 in Sellersburg; Sept. 29 in Elkhart; and Sept. 30 in Indianapolis.\nGreg Fifer, a Floyd County lawyer who often represents developers, said the proposal is unreasonable.\n"If you require that, you would shut down development. In Floyd County there are no streams that run year-round," he said.\nFifer said he believes that is also true elsewhere in the state. Major rivers, he said, would not support the state's development needs.\nRae Schnapp, water policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, said she is pleased the groups have gotten the control board to schedule hearings.\nShe said the hearings will bring attention to a serious statewide problem that is largely ignored.
