Columbus city government offices will remain largely closed through at least the end of the month due to COVID 19 increases.

According to the city, official business will still continue and employees will still be working to answer phone and e-mails. But meetings with the public will be handled by appointment only.’

City government meetings will continue with mostly virtual meetings through January. That will include the City Council, the Board of Works and Public Safety, City Utilities, the Human Rights Commission, Redevelopment Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals. You can watch a live-stream of city government meetings through the city website at columbus.in.gov and clicking on the video link on the home page.

The Columbus City Utilities building is closed to the public, although the drive-through window will remain open. ColumBUS transit routes will continue to run as normal.

Hamilton Center and the Columbus Gymnastics Center will remain open for scheduled activities, but other visitors will be by appointment only.

Bartholomew County is starting the new year nearly surrounded with counties that are in the red on the State of Indiana’s COVID-19 advisory level map.

Johnson, Brown, Jackson and Jennings counties are all still in the red advisory level tracked by the state, or showing severe spread of the disease, according to yesterday’s update. Once a county is listed as being red, it can only drop back the orange level after two consecutive weeks of lower levels of infection. But those counties are all still showing the severe spread currently.

Bartholomew, Shelby and Decatur counties remain orange on the state map, showing serious spread of the disease.

Johnson County was the only area county to report new deaths yesterday, with two. Johnson County also led the area with 96 new cases. Bartholomew had 49, Decatur 11, Jennings 3, Jackson 21, Brown 2 and Shelby County 19.

Statewide Indiana added 3,002 new positive cases in yesterday’s tally, although some of those dated back as far as November 24th. There were 54 deaths reported yesterday, going back to Dec. 5th. That brings Indiana to 8,111 deaths since the pandemic started. The statewide 7-day positive rate is at 14.7 percent, according to the state health department.

Bartholomew Consolidated Schools are starting the new year with in-person, five-day-a-week teaching for elementary students and with what they are calling a hybrid model of in-person and online learning for secondary students. That is a move back from the all e-learning program that had been in place at the end of last semester.

At the middle and high school level, students will attend part of the week in class and part in e-learning, depending on the letters of their last name. A to K students will be in person Mondays and Tuesdays, while L through Z students will be in person Thursdays and Fridays. Should the county drop into the red level on the Indiana State Department of Health rankings, elementary school students would follow the same model.

The school district announced last week that the hybrid model will be in place for at least two weeks, or Jan. 15th. The district will continue daily to evaluate and to discuss the local situation with local medical professionals including the Bartholomew County Health Department and Columbus Regional Health.

Families that have already signed up for the full-time e-learning, or Bridge program, will continue with distance learning.

The district is encouraging staying home if you have had direct contact within the last 14 days with someone experiencing symptoms or who has been diagnosed with COVID-19. Or if you yourself has shown any of the symptoms.

The new semester starts tomorrow.

The Indiana Department of Transportation promises the I-69 Finish Line Project will finish a year earlier than expected.

The project, which began in 2019, is the sixth and final section of the I-69 connection between Evansville and Indianapolis.

The entire project is now expected to finish a year earlier, in 2024, that speed comes at a price: a five mile stretch between State Road 39 and Morgan Street will be shut down in order to expedite construction efforts.

There will be no north-south accessibility on State Road 37 once the closure is in place. There will be however be some east-west connectivity that will cross State Road 37 to help people get to Martinsville.

That closure will begin this coming Saturday, Jan. 2, and will last until late 2021.

The official detour for the closure in Martinsville will follow State Road 39 to State Road 67 and to State Road 144.

For more information about the closure and to plan your route, head to i69finishline.com.