Cleanup is underway at Columbus North High School’s Erne Auditorium after a Monday morning fire destroyed about 25 seats.

Bartholomew Consolidated Schools Superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts explains that there was minimal fire damage but there was extensive smoke damage.

“There is a lot of work being done in there, but we are hoping to get that taken of as soon as possible — maybe even by the end of January, if things progress,” Roberts said.

The school district was already planning some renovation work in the auditorium for next year.

He praised school officials who got the fire out before firefighters even arrived and others who are working to clean up the mess.

The cause of the fire was an overhead light bulb that burst, sending superheated glass into a plastic cover that then melted and dripped molten plastic onto the seating below, igniting the fire.

Capt. Mike Wilson with the Columbus Fire Department said the department has been researching the metal halide lighting involved and such incidents are extremely rare. The department’s investigators have procured one of the overhead lights and some of the seating and plan to experiment to see if they can recreate the incident, Wilson said.

Several events have had to be rescheduled or moved due to the fire. The Columbus Indiana Philharmonic is moving two holiday concerts by the Wright Brothers to Robbins Auditorium at Columbus East High School. Those will be at 3 and 7 on Sunday and seating will all be general admission.

Dancers Studio Inc. also announced that it will be moving next week’s performances of the Nutcracker to East High School’s auditorium. The performances will be on Saturday, Dec. 17th instead of the 18th as originally planned.

A pair of holiday concerts originally scheduled to take place this weekend at Columbus North’s Judson Erne Auditorium have been relocated after a fire in the building earlier this week. Kaitlyn Ice is with the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic…

Both concerts will be held in the Columbus East High School Robins Auditorium, where searing will be general admission. Ice says that tickets already sold for these events will be honored, however you should ignore your seating assignment and find the best seat possible.

For more on these shows, including ticket information, visit www.thecip.org.

The Indiana Department of Transportation plans to open all lanes and ramps at State Road 3 bridges that span Interstate 74 at Greensburg on Friday afternoon. Crews spent Thursday removing concrete barrier walls.

Traffic at the twin-bridge overpass has been restricted to a single lane in each direction atop the reconstructed northbound State Road 3 bridge, while the southbound bridge was being built. INDOT says that, in addition to opening the new southbound bridge, four cloverleaf ramps at I-74, which were closed in early April, will reopen to traffic.

INDOT says that this $3.7 million project replaces the two State Road 3 superstructures with new four-span bulb-T concrete beam bridges, as well as the construction of new highway approaches to the bridges. The work was done by Milestone.

INDOT says that workers will return to the site for several weeks this spring to remove temporary crossovers, as well as landscape and complete any remaining work.

The Jennings County Sheriff’s Department has announced the results of its Thanksgiving travel enforcement blitz. Robbie Amos, department spokesman, says that the 24-hour period resulted in deputies writing 97 tickets. The good news is that no arrests were made for drunk driving.

The reason for the blitz, says law-enforcement, is safety. During the holidays, more individuals and families are traveling on the roads. “The foundations of driving safe begin with important actions, such as wearing your seat belt and not driving intoxicated,” said Sheriff Gary Driver. “These actions and their messages extended well beyond the travel season and we will continue driving those messages home to drivers and passengers alike,” added the Sheriff.

Sheriff Driver says that this increased enforcement effort is an annual one, supported by funding from the federal government, distributed by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. The Jennings County Sheriff’s Department was one of more than 250 law enforcement agencies across the state to receive funding.

Correction: An earlier version of this story had the day of the outages incorrect.

Duke Energy is warning about power outages Saturday for some area customers while the company trims trees in our area.

The company will be trimming in the area of Reeveston Drive starting at about 9 a.m. and lasting until noon and Fox Pointe Drive starting at about 1 p.m. and lasting until 3:30 p.m.

The company says that it will be trimming trees and vegetation away from powerlines.

The company will be working as quickly as possible due to the cold temperatures and the inconvenience for customers, says Chip Orben, spokesman for the power company.

The company plans to also alert customers tomorrow by phone before the outages.

Johnson County deputies are investigating a fraud case based around a yard work scam.

Sheriff Doug Cox says officers began investigating a case yesterday that actually started back in November in Greenwood. A woman reported that a man came to her door asking if she needed yard work done. She pointed out trees and shrubs she needed cut down and gave the man an advance payment he asked for. He left to cash the check and never came back.

Deputies have a suspect in the case and a description of his vehicle. They have arrested the man at least twice in the past year for similar activities, deputies reported. The newest victim presented officers with a copy of the canceled check, which included the fingerprint of the person who cashed it.

The investigation is ongoing.

Authorities warn that you should not contract with someone who comes to your door unannounced seeking to do work around the house. Instead look for a reputable contractor that you contact yourself.

An effort to raise money for the needs of local non-profit groups has begun today.

Josh Burnett hosts the “Celebrate Columbus” show on Facebook. He says that the show is joining with the Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, to raise $24,000 over 24-hours for various local nonprofit groups.

Burnett says he got the idea after finding out that the Heritage Fund had some 160 wishes from area nonprofit groups.

“I thought, wouldn’t that be so awesome to partner with them and combine the public, private and social sector to do some good for our community?” Burnett said.

He said the needs are so great, and so varied, that you can choose an organization to support for which you already have an affinity.

Burnett is drumming up interest through his Facebook channel, doing interviews with the not-for-profit groups

Burnett says that the Heritage Fund will also be making a donation towards this 24-thousand dollar goal. For more on this effort, visit “Celebrate Columbus” on Facebook.

The Columbus water treatment plant looked like the scene of a disaster yesterday morning, but local emergency workers were instead learning how to handle a major hazmat incident, authorities say. The rescue drill simulated a chlorine spill at the water facility off of Spear Road and Southside Drive near the fairgrounds.

The drill included the Columbus police and fire departments, Bartholomew County deputies, Columbus Township firefighters, local schools, city utilities and state officials.

Capt. Mike Wilson, spokesman for the city fire department, said the teamwork between the agencies went well.

“The great thing of this type of an exercise is that the hazards are imaginary, but in that function we are evaluated,” Wilson said. “We actually have some external evaluators that look at what we are doing and they basically grade us after the fact. We go through an after-action period where we review the things we did well and the things we need to work on, as an agency, and then as the public safety agencies as a whole. It is a very useful tool for improving your response capabilities and our public safety abilities.”

One of the lessons learned was the importance of keeping the public informed, Wilson said.

“The biggest concern is that we keep those people away from any of those hazards,” Wilson said. “One of those things we learned today, we actually had real live calls and questions about what was going on and we know that in a real situation that is going to be amplified. So for the public, stay away, and be in tune with some sort of information medium so that you know what is going on.”

He said that getting the information out to the public as fast and as accurately as possible will be one of the priorities for public safety agencies. He suggested listening to radio, following social media, signing up for the Everbridge system alerts and following online news sites.

Dancers Studio Inc is moving their performances of the Nutcracker to Columbus East High School and they will be on Saturday, Dec. 17th instead of Sunday. That’s after a fire on Monday at Columbus North High School’s Erne Auditorium.

The shows will be at 1 and 7 on Saturday, Dec. 17th at the East Auditorium. The studio will honor Sunday tickets at either of the Saturday shows. If you already bought tickets but can’t make either Saturday show you can call 812-376-8080.

Tickets are available from Dancers Studio in advance for $10 for students and $15 for adults. The tickets have previously been available online, but the studio is still working on changing the date and location through the online portal.

Monday’s fire  at Columbus North happened at about 7:44 a.m., when an overhead light burst, sending superheated glass into a plastic light cover. The cover then melted and dropped molten plastic onto the seats below, igniting the fabric. About 25 seats were destroyed. School officials quickly extinguished the fire but there was extensive smoke damage.

The Ivy Tech Community College Columbus chapter of the National Society of Leadership and Success will induct 18 new members on Friday, as well as honor 12 students and several Ivy Tech faculty and staff members.

Chris Schilling, spokesman for the school, says the society is the nation’s largest leadership honor society. He adds that students are selected for membership based on their academic standing and leadership potential.

Students being inducted are:

Joshua Borowski, of Columbus;
Theresa Colina, of Butlerville;
Sherry Dowell, of Nineveh;
John Farace, of Brownstown;
Brianna Hettinger, of Greenwood;
Hobert Hurley, of Shelbyville;
Gregory Johnson, of Columbus;
Christina Lefler, of Hope;
Krista Marshall, of Nashville;
Pierre Alexandre Mbaye, of Columbus;
Melissa Miller, of Trafalgar;
Donald Morris, of Columbus;
Evan Mustard, of Columbus;
Karissa Nolan, of Nineveh;
Shanta Pittman, of Columbus;
Savannah Spray, of Columbus;
Jonathan Sweet, of Shelbyville;
Clarence G. White, of Columbus.

Schilling says that the induction of these new members brings the society’s total inducted membership to 141 members.

Colina, Johnson, Marshall, Mbaye, Miller, Mustard, Nolan, Spray, and Sweet also are receiving the National Engaged Leader Award, as are members Lauren Burton of Edinburgh, Catherine Robertson of Hope, and Bethany Wendel of Columbus, says Schilling. The award is given to members who complete orientation and leadership training day, attend six speaker broadcasts and six success networking team meetings, and participate in at least five hours of community service.

“We’re very proud of our members,” said Yolonda Altepeter, Student President of the Ivy Tech Columbus chapter. “The Society has had a significant impact on our campus, inspiring our students to become better leaders and helping them build a better future for themselves, the campus and their respective communities.”

Ivy Tech faculty being honored with Excellence in Teaching Awards are:

Mary Garvey, Assistant Professor and Department Chair of Criminal Justice and Human Services;
Trunnis Goggins, Assistant Professor of Business;
Bonnie Nolting, Department Chair for Business and Professor of Business Operations, Applications, and Technology;
Sara Dunlap, Career Development Adviser, is being honored with an Excellence in Service Award.

Schilling says that the National Society of Leadership and Success was founded in 2001 to build a community of like-minded, success oriented leaders who come together to help one another succeed. The society has over 525,000 members on nearly 500 college and university campuses nationwide.