An online drive is underway to provide protective gear and sanitizer in Columbus classrooms.

City Councilwoman Elaine Hilber said the idea is that if you have extra money in your Venmo account, you can help purchase masks and sanitizer. A $1 donation will provide a disposable surgical mask, a $2 donation will provide a KN-95 mask and $4 will provide isopropyl alcohol sanitizer.

To take part you should Venmo @MasktoSchool including your school and teacher name and what you want to provide. The supplies will be delivered to the classroom and any extra money raised will go to provide additional masks for schools, non-profits, emergency and health care workers.

Columbus police arrested a driver Wednesday morning after he crashed into a fence at Garland Brook Cemetery.

According to police they received a report of a driver leaving the scene of a crash at Central Avenue and State Street at about 9:40 Wednesday morning. The same driver then crashed into the cemetery fence. After finding the vehicle, the driver 33-year-old, Nicholas Marino of Athens, Ohio allegedly tried to kick an officer and was otherwise uncooperative.

He was taken into custody and then to Columbus Regional Hospital to have his blood drawn. He allegedly continued struggling at the hospital and assaulted an officer, who was not injured.

He was arrested on preliminary charges of leaving the scene of a property damage crash, resisting law enforcement, battery on a law enforcement officer and operating a vehicle while intoxicated with endangerment.

With protests over police action still going on nationwide, Columbus has only had two complaints this year about officers’. And the department determined both were unfounded complaints.

The Columbus Police Review Board met Thursday night and Chief Mike Richardson updated the community on the status of police complaints. In the quarter that just ended, there was one police complaint out of more than 12 thousand interactions with the public. Richardson said that stemmed from a domestic dispute on April 27th.

The complaint alleged that police gave the girlfriend a leather case belonging to the complainant and she stole $2,000 dollars from it. The complainant also said police gave the woman access to his residence, despite her being barred for previous trespassing and he felt unsafe, that officers used unnecessary force during his arrest including forcing his hip out of place and failed to provide him medical treatment.

However, Richardson said that the person making the complaint inventoried the leather case, saying that everything was in place, the girlfriend had never been prohibited at the residence and that the complainant OKed the woman having access, there were no injuries found of the complainant during a check at Columbus Regional Hospital and no sign that his hip was injured, including video footage of him walking normally.

Members of the committee talked about finding ways to publicize the police complaint process, so that anyone who feels they have an issue can make the formal complaint. Forms are available at the police department, in City Hall and at the Columbus Human Rights Commission office. The review board meets quarterly to oversee any complaints or concerns about Columbus police.

IUPUC is planning to host a series of online discussion forums, they are calling “Timely Topics” starting in August.

The forums are sponsored by the Division of Business and the Center for Business and Economic Development at IUPUC.

The first forum will be a Mid-year Economic Outlook at noon on August 5th. Dr. Ryan Brewer and Dr. Steven Mohler will provide updated information from the Business Outlook Panel discussion held last November.

Dr. Kevin Jones and Dr. Jon Padfield will hold a discussion on Privacy in the Digital Age at noon on August. 12th.

You are invited to take part, however registration is required . For more information and to register, go to iupuc.edu/events/timely-topics.

Organizers of the Bean Blossom Blues Festival are announcing that they are canceling this year’s event. They said said that restrictions from the Brown County Health Department has made it impossible to hold the gathering.

The event was scheduled for August 27th through the 29th and would have been the 22nd annual festival.

All tickets and cart rentals will be refunded, in the order they were purchased. Organizers said that this could take some time as there are more than 1,000 purchases to refund, and they need to recover deposits made to bands before ticket-buyers can be reimbursed. The charges will be reimbursed to the credit card used to make the purchase.

No date for next year’s festival is being announced, because there is no way to tell what the future of live music looks like, organizers said.

For more information you can to go to beanblossomblues.com

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is declaring a mandate to wear a mask in public spaces, when you cannot socially distance from others.

The order, announced during the governor’s press conference today, will go into effect on Monday.

It will apply to Hoosiers who are 8-years-old or older in any location where they can not maintain social distance from those who are not their close family members.

He said that this is a way to blunt the growth in the COVID-19 spread in Indiana.

Holcomb said that it will apply in any indoor public spaces, commercial entities, or transportation services, or in outdoor public spaces where social distancing is not possible.

Exceptions are being made for strenuous physical activities, medical purposes, eating and drinking.

Holcomb said that it is the right time to make the change, because students are getting ready to return to school. This will help keep from sending mixed messages to children, as they see that their efforts to stay masked in schools will be duplicated in their communities.

The governor said that not wearing a mask could lead to a misdemeanor charge, but preferred that people do their civic duty and wear a mask willingly.

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill disputed whether the governor has the authority to threaten a criminal charge. In an advisory opinion issued Wednesday night, Hill said the governor should call a special legislative session to consider a mask mandate.

Columbus City Council has given its first approvals of a rate hike for the city drinking water system, and a $24.4 million dollar waterworks bond issue for Columbus City Utilities to make improvements to the system.

The new rates would phase in over three years, with the lowest end paying $2.54 per 1,000 gallons starting August of 2021, $2.97 in August of 2023 and $3.16 in 2024. The three new tiers would be under 15,000 gallons a month, up to 285,000 gallons a month and over 300,000 gallons a month.

Prices would also increase for the monthly meter charge depending on the size of the meter, on private hydrants, on fire protection and on automatic sprinkler systems. The changes would also include a system development charge billed to customers connecting to the water system.

Utilities officials say that the average home using 4,000 gallons a month of water would see the water portion of the bill increase from $9.82 a month to $17.97 a month after all the increases are phased in.

The council voted Tuesday night to approve the water rate increases and the bond issue.

The Student’s Fund of Hope is organizing a weekend fundraiser to help the family of a student suffering from bone cancer.

Whitney Budd, with the Student’s Fund explains, the event will be to benefit will be to help cover the expenses of the family of Sarah Taylor, a Hauser student fighting a form of bone cancer.

There will be a drive-thru dinner from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday at the Hauser Jr. Sr. High School campus on State Road 9. The dinner will be a freewill donation with baked potatoes and BBQ on the menu.

There is also an ongoing online auction to help the family. Winning items can be picked up Saturday at the drive-thru dinner site.

To participate, you should enter the school off of Hauser Drive and follow the volunteers through the drive thru to pick up your meal. You can choose to  take your meal home or dine in our campus parking lot. The Ridge will be performing some of Sarah’s favorite worship music.

You can get more information at studentsfundofhope,org.

Bartholomew County authorities are considering a mandate to require face masks in public places throughout the community. Columbus city leaders and county leaders met Tuesday afternoon with local law enforcement to discuss the details of such a mandate.

Masks or other facial coverings are seen as one of the primary ways to stem the COVID-19 pandemic.

Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop said that there are a variety of mask orders that have gone into effect around the state and one of the primary differences is how many exceptions they allow.

Lienhoop said the goal locally would be to encourage and educate the public on the importance of wearing masks, rather than being punitive.

After weekend visits to other Indiana communities, Lienhoop said he believes that heavy enforcement efforts will not be needed.

Dr. Brian Niedbalski, the county health officer, is ultimately the authority that would issue such an order. He said he believes a mask mandate would be a help to the health of the community as it sees a slight uptick in positive test results.

Niedbalski said that a mandate will be required to get the amount of mask usage to as close to 100 percent as possible.

He said says that having a mandate would help back up those businesses already making the independent decisions to require masks.

Niedbalski said that a decision could be announced later today.

Bartholomew County has had 641 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 45 deaths, according to the most recent update from the Indiana State Department of Health. The most recent death in Bartholomew or surrounding counties was was July 6th, in Jennings County.

Statewide, there have been 57,916 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Indiana, an increase of 734 cases since Monday’s update. There have been 2,652 deaths in Indiana as of Tuesday afternoon’s update, an increase of 20 since Sunday.

Columbus City Council will be considering a rate hike for the city drinking water system, and a $24.4 million dollar waterworks bond issue for Columbus City Utilities to make improvements to the system.

If approved, this would be the first drinking water rake hike since 1992. It would reduce the number of tiers of water customers from the current five, to three tiers. Customers currently pay $1.66 per 1,000 gallons for the first 10,000 gallons of water. The next tiers currently are at 40,000 gallons, 250 thousand, 700 thousand and a million gallons of water a month.

The new rates would phase in over three years, with the lowest end paying $2.54 per 1,000 gallons starting August of 2021, $2.97 in August of 2023 and $3.16 in 2024. The three new tiers would be  less than 15,000 gallons a month,  285,000 gallons a month and 300,000 gallons a month.

Prices would also increase for the monthly meter charge depending on the size of the meter, private hydrants, fire protection and automatic sprinkler systems. The changes would also include a system development charge billed to customers connecting to the water system.

Utilities officials say that the average home using 4,000 gallons a month of water would see the water portion of the bill increase from $9.82 a month to $17.97 a month after all the increases are phased in.

The council will meet at 6 p.m. tonight at Columbus City Hall.