INDOT is reporting that two bridges near Camp Atterbury are scheduled to close today for inspections.
The inspection will begin at 9 a.m. this morning at the bridge on Pisgah Road over Sugar Creek. After that an inspection will be done at the bridge on Stone Arch Road over Nineveh Creek. The inspections will depend on the weather.
A community vaccination clinic is being planned for later this month in Columbus.
The clinic, being organized by the Bartholomew County Health Department, the Indiana Department of Health and the Indiana Immunization Coalition will be from 10 to 2 on September 26th at Columbus East High School.
The clinic will be for those 2 years old and older. Those with private insurance, Medicaid and even the uninsured are invited to attend. Most vaccine will be available including the flu vaccine.
You will need to be wearing a mask to participate. If you have any questions call 317-628-7116
A Columbus company will be getting a tax break on a $700,000 investment that will allow it to retain 23 jobs and add one more.
Columbus City Council approved the tax abatement request this week from Advanced Mold & Engineering. The company plans to purchase new manufacturing equipment to meet industry requirements for higher production speeds and shorter delivery times.
The company, on South International Drive, opened in 1994 and is owned by its employees since January of last year. The company builds molds for the automotive markets, consumer products, medical equipment and yard equipment industries.
Under a tax abatement, property taxes are phased in on new equipment, usually over 10 years. According to city estimates, the company will save about $21,478 thousand in property taxes over teh course of the abatement, but will also be paying nearly $36 thousand dollars more than it is paying right now.
The Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce will be having its annual meeting on Friday, delayed from its normal spring date due to COVID-19.
The event will include a virtual component for most attendees, with a small core of people in attendance at The Commons, says Cindy Frey, president of the chamber.
This year’s featured speaker is Charlotte Westerhaus-Renfrow, an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Management and Business Law at the Kelley School of Business – Indianapolis. Previously, she served for five years at the NCAA as vice president of Diversity and Inclusion.
The theme for this year’s program is “Resilience.”
The Chamber will also be giving out its annual awards including the Community Project, Business of the Year and Community Service. Some well known award winners usually given at the chamber meeting have already been recognized including the Edna Folger Teacher of the Year and the high school Maverick Challenge winners.
The 3 p.m. event will be an hour long and will not have the usual lunch served.
You can sign up to participate in Friday afternoon’s virtual event at columbusareachamber.com and click on events. Tickets for the livestream are $50.
Simon Property Group says all of its malls will be closed this Thanksgiving, according to a report from our news-gathering partners at Network Indiana.
The company, which owns the most malls in the country, said it’s making the change so employees can spend time with their families on the holiday. The malls will then re-open for Black Friday shopping.
Simon has 10 malls throughout Indiana including Indiana Premium Outlets in Edinburgh, and Greenwood Park Mall. Other Indiana malls include:
Several large retail stores, like Target and Best Buy, have already said they will be closing for Thanksgiving this year as well.
The 100th anniversary of woman getting the right to vote will be recognized on Saturday with a Suffrage Centennial Car Parade.
The parade will start at 12:30 p.m. at IUPUC, wend its way through the city and end at Mill Race Center.
Participants are being urged to decorate their vehicles in the colors of women’s suffrage — purple, white, and gold. And to add flags, banners, sashes or costumes supporting the right to vote.
The lead car will be decorated in honor of the first Bartholomew County women to register to vote: Elizabeth “Lizzie” Hubbard and Fanny Davis Johnson, who were both members of 2nd Baptist Church of Columbus.
The parade is being co-sponsored by the Centennial Suffrage Society and the IUPUC Constitution Day Committee.
Participants should plan to begin lining up at the campus at 12:15 p.m.
The local teachers’ union will be holding a forum for the candidates for Bartholomew Consolidated School Board.
The Columbus Educators Association forum will be held virtually through the Zoom app, and candidates will be participating remotely. Each candidate will be asked the same questions and all will be given an equal amount of time to speak.
The event will be hosted and moderated by local educators and questions will be provided by Bartholomew County educators.
All of the candidates for the three open seats for school board have agreed to participate. The District 3 race will see incumbent James Persinger, running against Mike Jamerson and Todd Grimes. In District 5, incumbent Pat Bryant will be running against Jennifer Corsi. And in District 7 Nicole Wheeldon will be running against Lacretia Ulery.
The public can attend the virtual forum starting at 7 p.m. in the evening on Sept. 21st. There will be a limit of 1,000 simultaneous viewers, but it will be recorded and can be watched at a later time.
A decision on a proposed parking lot beside St. Peters Lutheran Church in downtown Columbus again stalled at Columbus City Council last night, with the council deadlocking over the issue.
St. Peters is asking to rezone four properties along Fourth Street from residential and commercial community uses to public facilities use. The properties, just east of Chestnut Street would be turned into a parking lot with just over 40 parking spaces to support the neighboring church, school and outreach center.
Councilwoman Elaine Hilber said she remains concerned that the idea of a new parking lot in the downtown area goes directly against the conclusions of the Envision Columbus planning group. She said the plan explicitly says more housing is needed to revitalize the downtown area, but at the first opportunity opposing council members want to approve even more parking space.
When it came to a vote, Hilber, Tom Dell and Jerone Wood voted against the rezoning, while Frank Miller, Tim Shuffet and Dave Bush voted for the change. Councilwoman Grace Kestler recused herself from the vote because her family is affiliated with the church. With the 3-3 split, council continued to make no decision on the issue.
The council did vote to stop hearing the proposal at future meetings. Ultimately, the request will default to the plan commission recommendation, which looked positively on the issue, after 90 days.
Bartholomew Consolidated Schools are adding a new number to their COVID-19 calculations — the percentage of mask compliance in the schools.
At this week’s school board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts gave an update on the district’s COVID-19 statistics and the current state of the school district’s mitigation efforts.
One of the metrics the school district has planned to track is the percentage of those in the buildings wearing their masks, and wearing them properly Roberts said. The first tallies are now available, he said.
Administrators have tallied 95 percent compliance across the schools, he said.
The majority of those tallied without a mask were actually wearing a masks incorrectly, such as below their nose, he said. There were also instances where the youngest students had masks that were simply to large for their face, Roberts said.
Roberts said that the district, and the community, is current seeing either no spread or minimal spread of the disease. The district staff and students have not had a positive test result for COVID-19 since before Aug. 31st, he said.
Overall the district has had 22 positive test results — 14 students and 8 staff members. However, only four of those were students or staff that were actually in the school buildings.
Roberts said the biggest challenge is finding ways to maintain physical distancing in the school buildings.
The Bartholomew County Highway Department is reporting that County Road 250W will be closed to through traffic today and Wednesday for asphalt overlay paving.
That will be from County Road 100N to Lowell Road and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days.