Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Wednesday, May 20, 2009
(UNDATED) - A state representative is less than pleased with the governor and the state health department’s decision to close the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Children’s Home in Knightstown.
Representative Scott Reske was one of several legislators fighting to put money in the budget to keep the facility open.
Reske says he and other legislators appealed to the governor to keep the facility open until after the special session with the hopes of getting the funding passed.
Reske says the governor does not have the legal authority to close the home because it was the Indiana General Assembly that took over the home after it was established by a private citizen after the Civil War.
Reske says the issue is not with the proposed new Indiana National Guard's Hoosier Youth Challenge Academy and praised the guard for developing the program.
However Reske says there is enough land and space for both the children's home and the academy to co-exist on the property.
He adds the timing of the closure is an insult to those students graduating from the school this Saturday.
Reske says the issue will likely come up again during the special session as well as in a lawsuit filed in Rush County challenging the closure's legal grounds.
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