Schools open Wednesday
Business as usual for county, city offices too
By Karin Grunden
Tribune-Star
Days after the postponement of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's scheduled execution, it's back to business as usual in Terre Haute -- for the time being.
Flanked by city and county officials as well as the U.S. Penitentiary warden, Vigo County School Superintendent Dan Tanoos announced schools, as well as county and city offices, will be open Wednesday, the day McVeigh had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute.
"There is no reason not to have school at this point," Tanoos said during a news conference on Monday.
For a variety of reasons, including security, the school corporation, along with city and county offices, planned to close McVeigh's execution day -- a day some people had dubbed as "McVeigh Day."
However, on Friday, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the execution would be delayed until June 11, giving McVeigh's attorneys time to pour over more than 3,000 newly discovered FBI documents. The documents, found during archiving of bombing-related materials, were supposed to be turned over to the prosecution and defense prior to McVeigh's 1997 trial.
City, county, prison and school officials met Monday and decided to resume a normal schedule this Wednesday.
That schedule will include conducting the county's courts "as a usual day of business," Judge Jerome Kearns said from his office on Monday afternoon.
The Vigo County Public Library will be open as well.
A three-week Indiana State University course, "The Death Penalty: Examination of the Death Penalty and the Timothy McVeigh Execution," which began a week ago, is continuing.
"The students won't have as much firsthand experience as we were hoping," ISU associate political science professor Kirby Goidel said. But, "I don't think it will greatly affect the course."
Even at the U.S. Penitentiary, where the execution had been scheduled to occur this week, "we're back on track with normal activity," Warden Harley Lappin said, adding "we had planned for this issue."
Lappin said he expected to hand McVeigh an official notification of the rescheduled execution either Monday or today.
"We are moving forward as if there is going to be an execution June 11," Lappin said.
The Terre Haute Police Department will continue to prepare as well, which could be costly.
City officials expect police overtime, training and equipment associated with the McVeigh execution to total $100,000 by June 11, Police Chief Jim Horrall said.
The Bureau of Prisons has agreed to reimburse the city $40,000, and Horrall said he has been in contact with U.S. Rep. Brian Kerns about additional reimbursements.
Horrall estimated Monday that $60,000 has already been spent on city police preparations for the execution. Exact figures won't be available until later in the week, he said.
"It is a strain on our budget," city spokesman Luke Anderson said. "Obviously, we'd like to get this behind us as quickly as possible."
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