Legal Aid will be holding a free Legal Aid Clinic by phone for residents of the agency’s eight-county district on Tuesday. That district includes Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Jackson, Jennings, Johnson, Rush, and Shelby counties.
The Legal Aid Clinic uses local volunteer attorneys, to offer free legal consultations to low-income individuals. You can expect to receive a brief consultation over the phone to answer general questions, to offer legal information, or to receive other assistance or advice.
Although the clinic will be from 3 to 5:30 p.m., you must first register between noon and 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, by calling Legal Aid at 812-378-0358.
Local hospitals are urging you to take safety precautions as COVID-19 cases rise in our area.
Columbus Regional Health and Schneck Medical Center in Seymour have issued a joint warning, urging the use of masks, social distancing and hand washing to stem the increase.
The two hospitals said they are joining forces asking you to do your part to prevent mass outbreaks so that medical providers can preserve vital resources, such as staff and inpatient capacity, in order to continue responding to the pandemic. They say that as temperatures continue to cool and people engage in less outdoor activities, limiting in-person social gatherings and wearing a mask around anyone not in your household is more important than ever.
The hospitals say that face coverings, when worn properly greatly reduce the amount of virus-containing droplets or particles people emit and absorb. Maintaining a distance of 6-feet or more from others when in public and frequent hand-washing prevent the spread of coronavirus, but also other illnesses and bacteria that commonly circulate.
The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department is joining more than 250 other Indiana law enforcement agencies cracking down for seat belt violations during the annual Click It or Ticket campaign.
The enforcement effort starts today and runs through Nov. 29th. It includes overtime patrols to look for those driving or riding in vehicles without seatbelts. Funding for the effort is provided by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.
Sheriff Matt Myers says buckling up saves lives. Unrestrained motorists accounted for more than half of the fatalities in vehicle crashes.
Indiana has a primary seat belt law, which allows officers to stop and to cite drivers and passengers for failing to wear a seat belt. Drivers can also be cited for each unbuckled passenger in the vehicle under the age of 16. Children under the age of eight must be properly restrained in a federally approved child or booster seat.
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2021 Edna V. Folger Teacher Award. Any full-time elementary or secondary school teacher or educator working in a public, private, or parochial school in Bartholomew County is eligible to receive the award.
Anyone or any group can nominate a person for the award. Nominations should include biographical information, reasons for nomination, letters of recommendation and support materials. The award is presented annually at the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Meeting.
Nomination forms and instructions are available from the IUPUC Center for Teaching and Learning, the Bartholomew Consolidated Schools administrative offices, and in the main office of schools throughout Bartholomew County. You can also download the forms from www.iupuc.edu/ctl/folger-award.
The deadline for nominations is Friday, January 22nd.
The Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress in Bartholomew County is raising awareness of the importance of the life-saving drug Narcan, also known as Naloxone, during Narcan November.
Narcan can temporarily counteract the effects of opioid overdoses, providing time to get those who have overdosed to the hospital for further treatment. Molecules of the drug attach to opioid receptors in the body and can quickly get a victim breathing again if their breathing has slowed or stopped because of an opioid overdose.
The alliance is providing Narcan for free at the ASAP Hub from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. The Hub is located in the Doug Otto United Way Center at 1531 13th St. ASAP is also distributing yard signs with the slogan “Narcan Saves Lives.”
At 6 tomorrow night, ASAP will have an online discussion about the medication and how it works. You can find a link on the ASAP Hub Facebook Page. You can get more information online at ASAPNARCAN.org.
Other upcoming ASAP events related to Narcan use include:
Narcan Virtual Training: Wednesday, November 18th – 7:00 PM – Teaching the signs of an Opioid Overdose and how to properly administer Narcan. Location: ASAP Hub Facebook Page.
Narcan Virtual Training: Saturday, November 21st – 10:00 AM – Teaching the signs of an Opioid Overdose and how to properly administer Narcan. Location: ASAP Hub Facebook Page.
ASAP Discussions: Tuesday, November 24th – 6:00 PM: Roundtable discussion on the impact that Narcan has had on our community. Location: ASAP Hub Facebook Page.
11 local not-for-profit agencies are receiving $2,000 grants from Centra Credit Union. The credit union announced last week that the organizations were nominated by employees who were passionate about the work the organizations do in the community.
Company wide, Centra provided 27 grants of $52,000 to the communities the credit union serves.
Local agencies receiving the grants include Advocates for Children, Sans Souci, Columbus Fireman’s Cheer Fund, Love Chapel, Our Hospice of Southern Indiana, Lincoln Central Neighborhood Family Center, Bartholomew County Humane Society, Book Buddies of Bartholomew County, Foundation for Youth, Turning Point, and Bartholomew County School Supplies Assistance Program.
Ricky J. Stewart. Photo courtesy of Jackson County Sheriff’s Department
Two people have been arrested in connection to a garage burglary in Seymour.
Seymour police say that tools, car parts and copper fittings were taken from a garage in the 300 block of South Carter Street last week. Property owners provided police with video evidence of a vehicle leaving the scene of the thefts. That and other evidence on the scene led police to a home in the 800 block of West Laurel Street on Thursday.
More than 70 items were recovered from the home on West Laurel Street and 14 more items found in a home in the 700 block of South Walnut Street.
Kelly J. Shelton. Photo courtesy of Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.
40-year-old Ricky J. Stewart and 29-year-old Kelly J. Shelton allegedly admitted to police that they had taken then items from the garage. They were arrested on felony charges of theft and burglary.
Carlos Esparza Avitia aka Juan Carlos Avitia. Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department.
The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department has made an arrest in a child molestation case after 15 years, due to the persistence of a deputy.
According to the sheriff’s department, Juan Carlos Avitia was a suspect in a child molesting case from September of 2005 and a warrant was issued for his arrest in early 2006. However Avitia could not be located and information suggested he had fled to Mexico.
However, recently BCSD Uniform Division Commander Capt. Dave Steinkoenig, who investigated the case 14 years earlier as a road deputy, came across an mug shot taken during a border-crossing arrest in Texas. The man claimed his name was Carlos Esparza Avitia and denied he was the wanted man. But fingerprints confirmed his identity.
He was taken into custody on Oct. 31st in Bartholomew County on preliminary charges of child molestation and possession of methamphetamine, according to the department.
Columbus police are looking for your help solving a series of vehicle break-ins yesterday on the south side of the city.
Lt. Matt Harris, spokesman for the department, says that there were reports of about 10 thefts from vehicles in the Shadow Creek Farms subdivision between 3 and 6 Thursday morning. The vehicles were unlocked and two handguns were stolen during the thefts.
Harris said that two people were seen on video leaving a white car and pulling on the door handle of another vehicle during the time of the thefts. The suspects then left the area shortly afterwards.
If you have any information, you can contact the Columbus Police Department at 812-376-2600. Tips and information can be left anonymously.
The Bartholomew County COVID-19 Task Force announced this morning that the community will be resetting to Stage 4.5 of the governor’s Back on Track plan after a spike in local cases of the disease.
Dr. Brian Niedbalski, the county health officer, said the official announcement could be coming as soon as this afternoon.
Niedbalski explained some of the restrictions that are being put back in place:
Some of the main changes are that dining rooms in restaurants will still be open, but will be reduced to 75 percent capacity. Bar seating and capacity will be reduced to 50 percent, as will bowling alleys and movie theaters and any other indoor entertainment activities.
Niedbalski said that the event capacity had been lifted to 500, but will now be restricted again to 250. And where specific events were previously allowed to submit plans to go above those limits, at least for the time being that will be a hard limit that can not be exceeded.
Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop and Dr. Jim Roberts, superintendent of Bartholomew Consolidated Schools both stressed the importance of community cooperation to help get this spike under control so things can again be returned to a more normal level of operations. Measures that help include wearing masks, social distancing and frequent hand-washing and sanitizing.
Dr. Thomas Sonderman, chief medical officer at Columbus Regional Health, said that contract tracing locally has revealed major outbreaks that can be attributed back to social events such as Halloween parties, weddings and birthdays, or through contact with an infected person in the household.
Roberts said that there has been no evidence that school activities, either in class or extra-curricular, have led to outbreaks of the disease.
The decision to reinstitute restrictions comes on the heels of the Bartholomew Consolidated Schools switching to virtual learning due to the increase in community spread of the disease. That will to into effect on Monday.
