Bartholomew County Commissioners are lifting the burn ban they put in place on Friday. That comes after rains overnight and today, plus more rain expected through the week.

The burn ban limited campfires, open burning, debris burning and the use of burn barrels over the weekend.

Commissioners formally ratified the ban they put in place at this morning’s meeting, then moments later formally lifted the ban.

Bartholomew County Commissioners also extended the partial closing of county government buildings through Nov. 14th, based on last week’s decision by the governor to keep the state at Stage 5 of the Back on Track Indiana plan. The commissioners announced that county buildings would remain closed to the public except by appointment only. The lockdown was originally set to be lifted on Oct. 31st.

An IUPUC professor will be studying the support that youth activists for racial equality receive from schools, the community and other factors.

The university is announcing that Dr. Stephanie Serriere, received a research grant from the Indiana University Racial Justice Research Fund to study South Central Indiana students 8 to 18 years old who are active in the Black Lives Matter movement or other racial equity projects. After a survey, there will be interviews for some of the respondents.

Bartholomew County’s Council for Youth Development will be supporting the study, by determining relevant survey/interview items and initiating the contact with area youth activists.

Serriere’s research will help provide anti-racist frameworks for teacher preparation programs  in K-12 schools across the state. She says that the public school system serves a civic mission to prepare citizens with the skills and knowledge to participate in a diverse democracy. She said that Americans who are not properly educated about their roles as citizens are less likely to be civically engaged.

A man is in custody after a shooting in Shelby County last week. The sheriff’s department says that Michael S. Weddle was arrested at 1:35 p.m. Friday afternoon in connection with the shooting on Tuesday in the southwestern portion of the county. He is facing charges of aggravated battery and battery with a deadly weapon.

Bartholomew County deputies, Columbus Police and Indiana State Police were searching on Wednesday morning for a Bartholomew County man believed to be the victim of Tuesday’s Shelby County incident, after the victim told friends he had been shot but didn’t want to be treated for the wound. The search centered around Clifty Park and led to a lockdown at Columbus East High School.

Later Wednesday morning, authorities announced that 50-year-old Mike Ward had been found after being taken to the hospital for treatment.

Edinburgh authorities say that a man was found dead after an apartment fire early Saturday morning.

Firefighters were called to the 100 block of West Thompson Street at 4:07 Saturday morning and found an apartment building fully engulfed in flames. Six fire departments worked at the scene to extinguish the fire including Edinburgh, German Township, Amity, Franklin, Nineveh and Trafalgar departments.

A man was found dead in one of the apartments and the Johnson County Coroner’s office is still investigating, with assistance from the Indiana Fire Marshall’s Office, Edinburgh Police, Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office and the Bartholomew County Fire investigator. A resident of another apartment escaped the fire and no one was home in the third of the three units.

Photo courtesy of Edinburgh Police Department.

The Bartholomew County Commissioners have issued a countywide burn ban due to the extreme dangers of fires in the area.

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for all of our listening area. A red flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now, or will shortly. A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior.

The Bartholomew County Commissioners proclamation:

County Burn Ban
Bartholomew County, Indiana
​
October 16, 2020
Whereas, Bartholomew County, Indiana is immediately threatened by a natural disaster- specifically county wide drought conditions, and;

Whereas, as of October 16, 2020, we find our county to be at risk of widespread fire hazards because of the ongoing drought conditions and;

Whereas, a county wide burn ban affecting certain activities is an appropriate public safety response to the fire hazards presented by the current drought conditions;

Now, therefore, we, the Bartholomew County Board of Commissioners, declare, pursuant to the provisions of IC 10-14-3-29, that a state of emergency exists in the county and that we hereby invoke and declare those portions of the Indiana Code which are applicable to the conditions and have caused the issuance of this proclamation, to be in full force and effect in the county for the exercise of all necessary emergency authority for protection of the lives and property of the people of Bartholomew County.

We also declare that, effective immediately, the following activities are prohibited in Bartholomew County:

​1.campfires and other recreational fires;
2.open burning of any kind using conventional fuel such as wood, or other ​combustible matter, with the exception of grills fueled by charcoal briquettes or ​propane;
3.​the burning of debris, such as timber or vegetation, including such debris that ​results from building construction activities; and
4.​the use of burn barrels for any open burning at residential structures.

Charcoal from permitted grills shall not be removed from the grills until the charcoal has been thoroughly extinguished.

In addition, we strongly encourage our residents to attend public displays of fireworks and limit their personal use of fireworks to those that do not leave the ground, and that they refrain from using aerial firework devices.

Reference is hereby made to all appropriate laws, statutes, ordinances and resolutions, and particularly to Section 10 14-3-29 of the Indiana Code.

All public offices and employees of Bartholomew County are hereby directed to exercise the utmost diligence in the discharge of duties required of them for the duration of the emergency and in execution of emergency laws, regulations, and directives whether state and local.

All residents are called upon and directed to comply with necessary emergency measures, to cooperate with public officials and disaster services forces in executing emergency operations plans, and to obey and comply with the lawful directions of properly identified officers.

All operating forces will direct their communications and requests for assistance and operations directly to the Emergency Operations Center.
Bartholomew County Commissioners

A home fire on the east side of Columbus displaced a family this morning.

A resident told Columbus firefighters that he had been working on a vehicle outside the home in the 200 block of Jones Street .When he went back into the home, he noticed a fire in the bedroom. He attempted to put it out with a bucket of water but it continued to burn. He grabbed the family’s two dogs and called 9-11.

Firefighters arrived at about 10:05 a.m. this morning to find black smoke coming from the front of the home. Inside, they found heavy smoke and high heat. After dousing visible flames they overhauled the interior and used ventilation fans to remove smoke from the home.

The fire remains under investigation. No injuries were reported. Damages to the home and contents were estimated at about $4,000. No working smoke alarms were found inside.

The Salvation Army is providing emergency assistance with shelter for the family.

Photo courtesy of Columbus Fire Department

Indiana has a new single-day reporting record for coronavirus cases.

The Indiana State Department of Health announced 1,962 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday. That brings the state’s total to 141,212 since the pandemic began.

Indiana State Department of Health chief medical officer Lindsay Weaver says the department will consider imposing its own restrictions in counties categorized as “high risk” due to a combination of high numbers of cases and high positivity rates, according to our news-gathering partners at Network Indiana.

Currently, only Fountain County is in that red “high risk” category, but 21 other counties in the state are classified as nearing high risk.

The only area county in the orange or near-high risk category is Jackson County. Brown and Johnson Counties are in the yellow moderate category and Bartholomew, Shelby, Decatur and Jennings Counties are all shown in the state’s blue, or low spread category. As of Wednesday, there were 7 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Bartholomew County and had been 57 deaths in the county since the pandemic began, the most recent on September 12th.

Indiana State Police are calling a driver’s escape from a crash near Seymour on U.S. 31 Wednesday miraculous.

Sgt. Stephen Wheeles with the state police says that 62-year-old Terry Marshall of Seymour was driving a truck for Kroot Transport shortly before 7 a.m. on U.S. 31 near Jackson County Road 1110E Wednesday morning when the truck left the east side of the road. It traveled about 200 feet off the road before striking an embankment, crushing the cab of the truck.

Marshall was trapped in the wreckage for more than an hour before he could be rescued. Wheeles said Marshall was flown to an Indianapolis hospital by IU Lifeline helicopter for treatment of his injuries, which are believed not to be life threatening.

Photo courtesy of Indiana State Police

Democratic congressional candidate Jeanine Lee Lake says that she was shot at just before heading into an event with other local Democrats in Muncie last night.

The candidate, who is running against Columbus Republican Greg Pence for Indiana’s Sixth Congressional District posted on social media last night about the incident says that she was in her vehicle and heard the “pop pop pop” of three gunshots in her direction. Other witnesses in her video also describe hearing what they called a small caliber weapon firing in the area and hitting metal.

Muncie and Indianapolis media had reports yesterday that Lake has been receiving phone threats to her campaign and vandalism to her property including a window broken out of her campaign RV, door magnets stolen and a license plate missing off of her father’s car. The Delaware County prosecutors office told WTHR-TV that it had no evidence of threats or criminal activity in a package of written materials that had been mailed to Lake.

In last night’s video, Lake said police were investigating the gunshots.

Photo courtesy of candidate’s website

German Township Volunteer Fire Department firefighters put out a blaze in a pickup truck this morning that tied up traffic on Interstate 65.

According to firefighters, they were called to the fire just north of the Edinburgh exit at about 9 a.m. this morning to find the vehicle engulfed in flames. It took about 300 gallons of water and less than three minutes to put out the blaze .

The driver of the vehicle said he started to see smoke coming from under the hood. When he pulled over and opened the hood he saw the engine compartment was on fire.

Indiana State Police say that the southbound lanes were closed for just over an hour and a half while the scene was cleaned up.

Photo courtesy of Indiana State Police.