The town of Hope will be hosting more performances of the play the Miracle Worker.

Those are tonight and tomorrow at WiLLow LeaVes of Hope on the north side of the town square. Organizers of the dinner theatre play, which tells the story of Helen Keller, say that because of the enthusiastic response that they have added a performance to the schedule at 6 p.m. tonight. The play’s last performance is set for 6 p.m. Saturday.

For ticket reservations, you can call 812-546-0640.

Columbus Young Professionals have announced the winners of their NextGen awards.

The Educator of the Year is Nick Williams. Lucabe Coffee was chosen as the Business of the Year. Volunteer of the Year is Ashley Abner. Innovator of the Year is Brian Payne and the Unsung Hero is Jonathan Nesci.

There will be an awards luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 7th at The Commons.

The Columbus Young Professionals are a program of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. You can get more information or buy tickets for the luncheon at ColumbusYP.org

Legal Aid will be having a free Legal Aid Clinic in Bartholomew County on Monday, August 27th.

You can get up to a 10 minute consultation with a pro bono attorney to answer legal questions, to offer information or to receive other, limited, advice. The sessions are available on a first-come first-serve basis and there is no need to register in advance. .

The clinic will be from 3 to 5 p.m. at the agency’s offices in the United Way Building, on 13th Street in Columbus.

Bartholomew County and Seymour photographers are winners in the Indiana Department of Agriculture’s 2018 Indiana Agriculture Photo Contest.

Kristen Daily from Elizabethtown won in the Faces of Agriculture Category. Her photo was titled “Preparing for Planting.” Luke Schnitker of Seymour was a winner in the On the Farm category with his photo “Soybean Harvest.”

Two winners were selected from each of the four categories, also including Agritourism and Conservation.

The winners were announced yesterday by Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch. The winning photos will be displayed in the offices of the Lt. Governor’s Family of Business in Indianapolis.

Local law enforcement is joining more than 230 other agencies around the state to crack down on impaired driving between now and Labor Day weekend. Operation Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over will be looking for impaired drivers and you can expect to see increased sobriety checkpoints and more patrols.

The efforts, which include Columbus police, Bartholomew County deputies and the Indiana State Police, are funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and administered by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.

Those two organizations recently purchased more than 2,600 portable breath tests to assist 150 Indiana law-enforcement agencies with establishing probable cause in arresting drunk drivers.

The Yellow Trail Museum in Hope is adding its first full time museum manager.

The not for profit museum features history displays and artifacts from the town’s earliest days. It also operates a branch of the Columbus Area Visitors Center.

The museum’s board of directors announced this week that they have hired Lizzie Flora for the role. She is a graduate of the University of Evansville with a degree in archaeology and art history. Most recently she worked at the Indiana State Museum.

Board president Erin Anderson says that Flora will be taking care of daily operations, developing exhibits and programs, cataloging the museum’s collection and ensuring proper preservation of the materials.

Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers is announcing the next of his series of neighborhood meetings, this time in Clay Township.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 22nd, at the Clay Township Volunteer Fire Station in Petersville. That is on rural 25th Street, east of Columbus

The sheriff says the meetings allow residents to discuss issues that they find important and for him to see how the sheriff’s department can better serve the community.

The neighborhood meeting is open to all residents of Bartholomew County. You do not have to be a Clay Township resident to attend.

There will be a free outdoor concert tonight in Seymour.

Seymour Main Street is organizing the performance by Darn the Torpedoes Tom Petty tribute band. The show will be in the new Crossroads Community park downtown. You can buy food from The Pines starting at 6 p.m. and the music will start at 6:30 p.m.

The Georg Utz facility in Edinburgh received tax breaks from Bartholomew County officials this week, allowing it to go ahead with a $2.9 million dollar expansion. The company appeared before the County Council this week to ask for the tax break on upcoming equipment purchase.

Tom Heller, an audience member, suggested that the council might want to reconsider tax abatements going forward, in light of the recent changes to federal taxes that were aimed a businesses.

The county council approved a five year tax abatement plan for the business, which means property taxes on the new equipment purchases would be phased in. There would be no taxes paid in the first year, and a growing percentage over the next four years.

Bartholomew County officials are going forward with plans to upgrade the security system in the county jail, at a cost of just over $1 million dollars.

The cost would all come out of income tax revenue with half coming from the County Commissioners-controlled economic development income taxes and half from unallocated newly instituted income taxes controlled by the County Council. Those new income taxes are accumulating in the county’s general fund.

Scott Mayes, the county IT director, said that the original winning bid came in at about $1.4 million dollars but by taking various options, the county whittled the cost down to just over $1 million. He also asked the County Council and Commissioners this week to include an additional 10 percent contingency fund, in case the project required any additional unexpected expenditures or ran into problems in the jail.

Councilman Jorge Morales expressed some frustration at the purchase of such technological equipment, as he says it seems to go obsolete practically as soon as it is installed.

The security system expansion would allow the jail to begin surveilling parts of the old jail building, whose cells have not been used for prisoners since the new section opened. The sheriff would like to expand the use of that section to ease overcrowding.

The installation of the new surveillance equipment is expected to take about 8 months.