Area school districts are making the decision to suspend in-person classes through the start of next year.

Bartholomew Consolidated School officials said the decision not to return to in-person classes until at least January 5th was made in consultation with medical professionals and the Bartholomew and Columbus COVID-19 Community Task force.

School officials said they would be monitoring local COVID-19 data and make adjustments as necessary.

Flat Rock-Hawcreek schools also made the announcement that they would be continuing e-learning after the Thanksgiving break and would evaluate the community spread, as well as tracking close contacts and positive cases in the school district to inform any future changes.

The northeastern Bartholomew County school district plans to return to in-person classes on Jan. 5th.

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More than 5,000 Hoosiers have died from COVID-19.

The grim milestone was reached Sunday when the Indiana State Department of Health announced 48 more coronavirus deaths in the Hoosier state. The deaths happened between October 29th and November 21st.

More than 3,100 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Indiana. The Department of Health announced 6,255 new cases yesterday, for a total of 295,357 since the pandemic began.  The state’s 7-day all-test positivity rate is nearing 12 percent.

Bartholomew County reported 75 new cases yesterday and a 7-day positivity rate of 11.25 percent. In area counties, Decatur had 12 new cases, Jennings 16, Jackson 47, Brown 7, Johnson 159, and Shelby 42. There were no new deaths reported in our area.

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Bartholomew County continues as orange on the Indiana State Department of Health’s color-coded map of COVID-19 spread, but local officials expect and fear that the county will tip over into the red category soon.

Orange indicates serious spread of the disease in a community, while the red category indicates a severe spread.

Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop says local officials are keeping a close eye on the numbers.

Should the county switch to red, further restrictions would go into place including limits on social gatherings to 25 people instead of the current 50.

Brown and Decatur counties are both listed as red already by the state, while other surrounding counties remain in the orange.

Dr. Brian Niedbalski, the Bartholomew County health officer, put new restrictions into place on Saturday afternoon.

Jennings County Sheriff’s Department is warning about scammers pretending to be contact tracers for COVID-19.

Victims report receiving phone calls from scammers who claim to be with a health department or the CDC. Then they ask for personal information such as Social Security numbers or bank information. The Sheriff’s Department stresses that contact tracers will never need that sort of information.

If you receive a phone call, deputies suggest that you ask what agency the caller is with and then hang up. You can look up a direct number for the agency yourself, then call back directly.

Indiana State Police troopers are investigating a weekend homicide in Brown County.

State police are reporting that the Brown County Sheriff’s Department received a 911 call about a dead body found near Bean Blossom and Bell roads.

Sheriff Scott Southerland told the Brown County Democrat newspaper that the body was found by a deer hunter.

At about 12:30 on Saturday afternoon, tThe Bloomington state police post was asked by the sheriff’s department to conduct the investigation. Detectives said that they believe this is an isolated incident and stress that there is no indication of danger to the public.

The identity of the victim has not yet been released, pending a positive identification and an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

More information will be released as it becomes available.

Bartholomew Consolidated School students will continue distance learning through the start of next year, the school district announced today.

School officials said the decision not to return to in-person classes until at least January 5th was made in consultation with medical professionals and the Bartholomew and Columbus COVID-19 Community Task force.

With the continuing spike in COVID-19 cases in the community, the decision was made not to return to in-person teaching until after the winter break. When the decision was made earlier this month to go to eLearning through at least the Thanksgiving holiday break, Bartholomew County had a per capita COVID-19 rate of 30.4, a positive test rate of 15.8, and CRH hospitalizations were at 14. As of yesterday, the per capita rate was up to 98.2, the positivity test rate has increased to 31.3 and there are 46 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the county.

School officials said they would be monitoring local COVID-19 data and make adjustments as necessary.

Bartholomew County health officials are putting more restrictions on activities to try to stem the rising spread of COVID-19 in the community. Dr. Brian Niedbalski, the county health officer, says new restrictions will go into effect at noon on Saturday, Nov. 21st and last until further notice.

Those restrictions include:

• Limiting social gatherings, meetings and events to no more than 50 people and they must adhere to social distancing guidelines. Plans may be submitted for larger events, but are asked not to exceed 50 attendees. Those events may be reduced to 25 attendees if the county goes into the state’s red or severe spread category.
• Reducing bars, nightclubs, and bar seating at restaurants to not more than 25 percent capacity while adhering to social distancing guidelines.
• Limiting movie theaters, bowling alleys, and similar indoor entertainment venues to 50 percent capacity with social distancing.
• Dining room food service, “Big Box” Retailers including food and hardware stores, essential businesses and other similar facilities may not exceed 50 percent capacity while adhering to social distancing guidelines.
• Gyms, fitness centers, personal services, and similar facilities are to operate in a reduced capacity equal to 50 percent with restrictions. Those facilities must screen employees daily, wear face coverings, and equipment must be spaced out to accommodate social distancing. Equipment must be cleaned after each use and between uses. Group fitness classes should be postponed at this time.

Facilities must calculate the number of customers that these percentages represent, post that number clearly on the entry door, and ensure those numbers are not exceeded and can be checked by staff and the proper authorities.

There will be a continued need for face coverings, social distancing, frequent hand Washing and sanitation of frequently touched surfaces to slow the spread of the COVID -19 virus, Niedbalski said.

Three people were injured, one seriously, after a propane explosion this morning at Faurecia’s Columbus plant.

Columbus firefighters were called to the plant on South Gladstone Avenue at 2:08 a.m. this morning and were told by witnesses that there had been explosion when an employee was filling a propane tank for a forklift.

One employee is believed to have serious burns and was flown by medical helicopter to an Indianapolis hospital. Two others received minor injuries and were treated at the scene.

The explosion caused a fire at the propane filling station, outside of the main manufacturing facility, according to firefighters. The facility’s sprinkler system activated, significantly reducing the possible damages caused by the fire. No damage estimate is available.

Faurecia evacuated the building prior to firefighters arriving on scene.

Fire crews were on scene for more than two hours.  The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.

Photo courtesy of Columbus Fire Department

The Columbus and Seymour offices of Kemper CPA Group are merging with accounting firm Agresta, Storms & O’Leary, ASO announced yesterday. The staff of the two Kemper offices will join the ASO staff when the the Columbus offices of ASO move to the Kemper offices on Washington Street at the start of the year.

“We are excited for the opportunity to add these offices as this acquisition supports ASO’s strategic growth plan,” said Shawwn Storms, partner at ASO. “Acquiring these locations will allow our firm to be in a better position to provide a broad suite of tax, accounting, and business consulting services to companies throughout South Central Indiana. We believe this acquisition will make us stronger and ensure our clients have access to more capabilities, capacity, and resources.”

ASO was founded in 2009, and operates a full-service accounting firm with offices in Indianapolis, Martinsville, Batesville, Greensburg, Columbus, and Seymour. You can get more information at ASO CPA dot com.

The Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress in Bartholomew County is temporarily closing the ASAP Hub due to the spike in local COVID-19 cases.

Doug Leonard, ASAP’s executive director, said that that the most responsible step is to close the physical location to help ensure the safety of clients and staff. ASAP plans to continue to monitor the local situation and will announce a return to normal when the COVID-19 spike ends.

As of today, the ASAP Hub will be operating remotely. Clients can visit the Hub online at asapbc.org and start a videocall from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. or can fill out the contact form online and an ASAP Hub staff member will get back with you.

If you heed to reach the Hub you can call and leave a message at (812) 418-8705, and an ASAP Hub staff member will contact them.

Indiana saw its second highest number of new cases of COVID-19 in yesterday’s report from the state Department of Health.

The state had 7,420 new positive cases, with a 7-day positivity rate of 12.1 percent. The state also had 59 newly reported deaths from the coronavirus.

Bartholomew County showed 98 new cases, the second highest day since the start of the pandemic in March. There were 33 new cases in Jennings, 54 in Jackson, 3 in Brown, 139 in Johnson, 38 in Shelby and 37 in Decatur counties. Shelby County had three new deaths from the disease, and Jackson had one.

There are 46 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Bartholomew County according to the most recent numbers from the local community task force.

According to the state color coded map, Bartholomew, Johnson, Shelby, Jennings and Jackson counties are all show as orange, or serious spread of the disease, while Brown and Decatur counties are red, showing severe spread.

Columbus Congressman Greg Pence honored Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department’s fallen police dog Diesel on the floor of the House this week.

Memorial services for Diesel are planned for tomorrow in the Fair Oaks Mall parking lot. The public services will be from 1 to 3 and law enforcement memorial services will be from 3 to 4 p.m. Hundreds of police canine officers from around Indiana and the region are expected to attend.

If you are planning to attend, entrance to the services at the mall parking lot will be in the westbound lanes of 25th Street.

Diesel died Saturday after being hit be a vehicle while chasing a suspect near Interstate 65.