A new athletic director has been chosen for Columbus North High School. 40-year-old Brian Lewis is set to take the position, according to North principal David Clark.

Lewis will succeed Jeff Hester as Columbus North athletic director. Hester accepted a position as assistant athletic director at Carmel in May.

Lewis is an Indiana University graduate and has been assistant athletic director at Mary Institute & Country Day School. That is an independent private school that serves about 1,250 students from pre-kindergarten through high school in St. Louis, Missouri. He started at the school in 2012 and has served as assistant football coach, a middles school physical education teacher and director of summer sports camps in addition to his duties as an assistant athletic director.

While Lewis was with the school, teams captured 12 Missouri State High School Activities Association state championships including titles in boys tennis, boys golf, girls golf, girls track, baseball and cross country.

Lewis earned his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from IU and earned a master’s degree in athletic administration from William Woods University in 2017. While at IU, Lewis was a member of the Hoosiers’ football program for five years. He served as a team captain for the 2003 Hoosiers.

Lewis’ wife, Emily, is from Indiana. The couple have two children.

Lewis’ hiring will not be official until it is approved by the Bartholomew Consolidated School Board, which is set to consider the hire on July 20.

The colleges on the Columbus Municipal Airport property are taking a new approach to attract students from the local area to come to the schools in this time of pandemic and shutdowns.

Kathy Oren, executive director of the Community Education Coalition, says that the campus has had a group for some time that was working on outreach to employers to tout the programs and degrees that the campus offers. However, when the pandemic hit, they realized they needed to shift their focus.

Oren said the new focus also will be turned to helping those who have been left unemployed by the pandemic or who need to upgrade their skill set. Oren said it is one of the best kept secrets in town that there are world class institutions of higher learning in the community.

The group has put together a brochure explaining what the campus has to offer, and has updated the website for the Columbus Learning Center itself.

You can get more information and see the campus brochure at columbuslearningcenter.org.

Bartholomew County has added another death from COVID-19, bringing the county to 44 deaths so far.

According to the most recent update from the Indiana State Department of Health, there are 44,930 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Indiana, an increase of 362 cases since Saturday’s update.

There have been 2,427 deaths in Indiana as of Sunday afternoon’s update, an increase of 3 since Saturday.

Bartholomew and Shelby counties both saw an additional death from COVID-19 from last week’s totals. Bartholomew County has had 577 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and increase of five cases since last week

In other area counties, Decatur County has had 241 cases and 32 deaths, Jennings 168 cases and 9 deaths, Jackson 446 cases and 3 deaths, Brown 38 cases and 1 death, Johnson 1,205 cases and 117 deaths, and Shelby 412 cases with 25 deaths

Bartholomew Consolidated School officials are working their way through the results from a survey of parents, asking for their thoughts on reopening school this fall. The district currently plans to reopen on Aug. 6th with in person classes, but that depends on directions from state and local health officials and the desires of parents.

The district held an online survey to gauge parents reaction and nearly 75 percent of those who responded said they plan to send their children back to class for regular instruction. Parents said they had few concerns about returning their students to school. Of those who were concerned, they said they worried about how to have social distancing in schools and whether the schools could be properly cleaned and disinfected.

More than 8,000 parents took part in the survey, representing about 70 percent of the students in the district.

The school district staff plan to release their guidance for returning to class next Monday, July 6th.

Today is the first day for Columbus residents to legally shoot off fireworks leading up to the Fourth of July. Although you wouldn’t know that from the weeks worth of nightly fireworks detonations around town.

Lt Matt Harris, spokesman for the Columbus Police Department, says that Columbus changed its laws regarding fireworks last year.

Instead of being allowed year-round, fireworks are now only allowed in the days around the Fourth of July and on New Year’s Eve.

Today through July 3rd, and July 5th through the 9th, fireworks are allowed to be shot off between 5 in the afternoon and no later than 11 p.m. On the Fourth of July the fireworks are allowed to be fired between 10 in the morning and midnight. New Year’s Eve fireworks are allowed to be fired between 10 and 1 in the morning.

Although illegal outside of those hours, the police department is generally too busy to respond to fireworks complaint calls, Harris said. They have to give priority to ongoing events such as car crashes or fights rather than incidents where a minor crime has already happened.

Harris said it is the responsibility of those shooting off fireworks to do so safely, not damaging others property or causing fires.

You can find more information on Columbus fireworks ordinances here.

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Authorities say a Hope man shot his wife in the chest this morning with a small-caliber firearm and is now facing a charge of attempted murder.

70-year-old Thomas Venable was taken into custody without incident on the felony charge.

According to the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, the incident happened at about 8:20 a.m. this morning in the 2000 block of Neal Drive. The shooting victim, 68-year-old Linda Venable was alert at the scene and spoke with authorities. She was flown by Lifeline helicopter to the University of Louisville Hospital, where she is reportedly in stable condition.

Deputies say this is an ongoing investigation.

Columbus police say that they arrested two suspected drunk drivers in less than an hour this morning.

The first incident was around 2 a.m. near Thornybrook and Waycross Drives after a hit-and-run crash. Officers located the suspect vehicle nearby. The driver, 43-year-old Nathan K. Morton of Columbus had trouble keeping his balance and had the strong odor of alcohol on his breath.

He is facing charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a prior conviction within seven years and leaving the scene of an accident.

About 55 minutes later, officers stopped a vehicle for a minor traffic violation in the 300 block of Cleveland Street. The driver, 21-year-old Winston J. Cherry, had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath according to police reports. He is facing a preliminary charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

A speeding driver on Interstate 65 is now facing charges for driving a stolen vehicle after an early morning traffic stop by a Bartholomew County deputy.

The deputy noticed a car speeding on southbound Interstate 65 at about 1:52 a.m. this morning, and pulled the vehicle over. 43-year-old Amanda Maynard of Indianapolis did not have a valid driver’s license and the deputy smelled marijuana inside the vehicle, according to police reports.

A search revealed marijuana, methamphetamine and drug-related paraphernalia, police say. Officers also found that the vehicle had been reported stolen out of Indianapolis.

Maynard is facing charges for possessing the drugs and paraphernalia, possessing a stolen vehicle and driving with a suspended license.

Columbus firefighters say a shipping container full of recycled cardboard burst into flames at a Columbus business Wednesday night.

Workers at Columbus Container in the 3400 block of Commerce Drive called for help at about 11:41 p.m. Wednesday night after a semi-trailer at the company’s loading dock was found to be burning. Crews had been cutting and loading cardboard into the trailer when they noticed the fire.

Firefighters said heavy smoke was coming from the fire when they arrived. And the roof and floors of the semi trailer were heavily damaged, making it hard to reach all of the burning cardboard. Firefighters cut openings in the trailer, so water could be sprayed inside. All told, firefighters were on scene for about four and a half hours.

The building had minimal damage because of the sprinkler system, however some rolled paper in the loading dock did receive some water damage. No estimates are available of damages and no one was injured.

Columbus officials don’t know yet the exact impact the COVID-19 pandemic is going to have on city finances. But they are making plans to weather the upcoming changes.

Mayor Jim Lienhoop said that state revenue will  likely be hit hard, because most of that money comes from income and sales taxes. With high unemployment and reduced spending, both of those areas will take a significant hit.

However city budgets will be somewhat more stable as they get their revenue from a different pool of taxes.

Lienhoop said that the city does get about a third of its revenue from income taxes, so there will be a hit. But the funding formula takes into effect a rolling average of income tax receipts over several years, which means the city won’t feel the pinch until probably 2022 from that revenue shrinking.

In the meantime, city officials are taking actions to reduce spending including deferring some capital projects and choosing not to rehire employees to fill some vacant positions.

The mayor spoke recently with John Foster on AM Columbus on News Talk 1010 WCSI. You can hear more of John’s interview with Mayor Jim Lienhoop on our website.