The Bartholomew County Highway Department is reporting that Lowell Road between County Roads 330W and 500W will be closing this morning from 8 until about 6 this evening. Milestone contractors will be paving the full width of the road. There will be long delays in the area and you should find another route, if possible.
A team of students from Columbus North High School have advanced to the finals in the national MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge.
The team of students, Helen Rumsey, Samantha Heathcote, Anna Kim, Erica Song and Vivek Hebbar, competed against 3,500 teams of 11th and 12th graders from across the country.
Organizers say that the COVID-19 pandemic derailed the traditional M3 Challenge final event, where finalist teams normally head to New York City in late April to compete. Instead, all judging is taking place virtually this year.
A panel of judges will assess papers from all eight of the finalists, gather commentary and come to a consensus on the final rank by Monday, April 27th. Winning teams will be awarded a share of $100,000 in scholarships, with the champion team receiving $20,000.
The event, in its 15th year, is presented by Philadelphia-based Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and sponsored by MathWorks.
The Cummins Foundation is giving emergency grants to help agencies assisting those who have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The foundation announced Wednesday that it would be providing grants to charities that are providing childcare, nutrition, basic needs, and remote learning assistance.
The funding is going to communities where Cummins is a critical employer including Columbus, Seymour, Indianapolis, Rocky Mount, North Carolina and Jamestown, New York.
Mark Stewart, president of the United Way of Bartholomew County, said that the grants have been critical in allowing agencies to help 203 families with rent assistance, food and other urgent needs. Stewart said there are pressing needs for food, rent, medicine, cleaning supplies and hygiene items.
Mary Chandler, CEO of the Cummins Foundation and Cummins vice president of community relations and corporate responsibility, said that the impact on families in the communities has been “swift and devastating.”
Cummins Foundation is a funding partner of human services organizations in Seymour, remote e-learning in Indianapolis, the primary childcare partnership in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
The foundation plans to continue to award additional grants to partners providing direct services in Cummins communities.
The number of deaths from COVID-19 remain unchanged in Bartholomew County and most surrounding counties, while the number of cases continue to climb.
According to the Indiana State Department of Health, Bartholomew County has had four deaths from the disease, unchanged from Tuesday morning’s update. Johnson has had 8 deaths, an increase of 1, and Shelby County has its first death. Decatur and Brown counties remain unchanged, with 6 in Decatur and 1 death in Brown. There have been no deaths in Jackson or Jennings counties.
Statewide there are 5,943 positive results and have been 203 deaths, an increase of 33 since Tuesday morning’s tally.
There are 66 confirmed cases in Bartholomew County, an increase of 11 confirmed since yesterday. According to the county health department, there have been 666 total tests of county residents, of which 460 have been negative and 85 are still pending.
Decatur County has 99 cases, Jennings 42, Jackson 46, Brown 9, Johnson 230 and Shelby County 56.
Marion County leads the state with 58 deaths and 2,290 cases.
Indiana State Police are warning that scammers are trying to snag government stimulus payments.
Troopers say not to give the scammers, swindlers, and frauds an open door. Police are suggesting that you be especially vigilant in protecting your personal information over the next few months to avoid being scammed.
They say that the IRS will not contact you via telephone or email asking for any personal information. All stimulus check information will be automatically gathered by the IRS from your actual tax return data. The direct deposits and checks will be distributed automatically, with no action required for most people.
Distribution of the payments should begin over the next three weeks.
Lincoln Central Neighborhood Family Center and YES Cinema are selling yard signs to show your support local health care workers and to provide financial support to the shuttered theater and its workers.
The loss of revenue including ticket and concession sales, on-screen advertising and special events is putting the downtown Columbus theater in a precarious position, according to supporters. 18 part-time workers are also without incomes during the mandated closure.
The yard signs are $15 and feature a big heart with Thank You and #columbuscares to show support for health care workers. Proceeds will support the theater and its employees. You can order the signs to be delivered to your home at www.lcnfc.org/columbuscares/
Indiana State Police arrested a Hendricks County man Tuesday on Interstate 65 in Jackson County in a stolen car after a stolen cell phone gave up his location.
Sgt. Stephen Wheeles with the Versailles post says that officers were notified of the stolen vehicle on the interstate and were able to track it to the Seymour area by the location of the stolen phone.
Troopers and Crothersville police stopped the vehicle on the interstate near that town. 35-year-old Joshua R. Smith of Clayton was arrested without incident and taken to the Jackson County Jail on preliminary charges of Possession of a Stolen Vehicle, Theft, and Violation of the emergency Stay at Home Order.
Local emergency workers are having to make changes to protect themselves and the public from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers explains that deputies are getting more information before they show up for a call so they can make judgments on whether to wear protective gear.
Myers said that he expects all deputies and firefighters in the county to begin wearing protective equipment on every call, but right now that is a matter of having enough supplies.
Myers explains that jail staff have new procedures in place to protect themselves and inmates.
Last week, Capt. Mike Wilson with the Columbus Fire Department said that city firefighters and CRH paramedics were making changes to their procedures. Firefighters usually run on all paramedic calls and frequently arrive first on the scene.
Wilson said firefighters are now waiting for an ambulance to arrive and quickly assess the scene of non-life-threatening calls.
On Tuesday, Bartholomew County Commissioners approved a retroactive claim for the purchase of 20,000 of the in-demand N95 respirator masks by the sheriff. The plan is to split the masks between county and city emergency personnel and eventually to split the cost, said Commissioners President Carl Lienhoop. The first half of the purchase was paid for on a county credit card by the sheriff at a cost of just over $52,000 dollars with the second half of the purchase due on delivery.
Commissioners approved the expenditure.
There have now been four deaths from COVID-19 in Bartholomew County. The Indiana State Department of Health morning update also reports 6 deaths in Decatur County, 1 death in Brown County and 7 deaths in Johnson County.
The state is reporting 5,507 positive test results for COVID-19 in the state and 173 deaths as of this morning’s update.
Bartholomew County has 55 positive test results, with 90 in Decatur, 41 in Jennings, 40 in Jackson, 8 in Brown, 212 in Johnson and 41 in Shelby counties.
Marion County has the highest numbers in the state with 2141 confirmed cases and 48 deaths.
There have been 28,764 tests reported to the health department.
Excerpt from Indiana Executive Order 20-18 (April 6, 2020)
Updates to the March 23, 2020 Stay-At-Home Order are italicized
Businesses Covered by this Executive Order
For the purposes of this Executive Order, covered businesses include any for-profit, non-profit, or educational entities, regardless of the nature of the service, the function it performs, or its corporate or entity structure.
All Essential Businesses and Operations shall comply with social distancing requirements established by the CDC, including maintaining six-foot social distancing for both employees and members of the general public at all times and must utilize or employ other CDC recommended sanitation measures such as washing hands with soap and water for at least twenty seconds as frequently as possible or using hand sanitizer, covering coughs or sneezes (into the sleeve or elbow, not hands), regularly cleaning high-touch surfaces, and not shaking hands.
All employers, whether manufacturers, distributors, professional offices, retailers or other, must comply with safety and health standards established and enforced by IOSHA. Employers are subject to specific standards to prevent the exposure or spread of a disease. Additionally, the General Duty Clause requires employers to provide their employees with a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm.
Essential Businesses and Operations
For the purposes of this Executive Order, the phrase “Essential Businesses and Operations” means Healthcare and Public Health Operations, Human Services Operations, Essential Governmental Functions, and Essential Infrastructure, as well as the following:
Retail businesses providing the necessities of life as described above may remain open to the public under the following conditions and restrictions:
Cummins and DuPont are partnering in a project to use the companies’ filter technology to produce materials critical for N95 respirator masks.
The first masks featuring the filter technology are being used as part of a project to supply masks to Minnesota’s M Health Fairview network.
Cummins’ NanoNet® and NanoForce® Media technology, which uses DuPont’s Hybrid Membrane Technology, has been used in air, fuel and lube filtration products used in heavy-duty diesel engines. But the materials are being adapted to be used in N95 respirator masks. The masks are in in high demand by healthcare professionals because they filter harmful airborne particles that can spread COVID-19.
When Cummins’ NanoNet® Media was tested using an industry standard testing method, it exceeded the performance requirements for N95 designation. Cummins’ manufacturing facilities have since provided media samples to mask manufacturers across the globe to test its effectiveness.
The first mask prototypes using Cummins’ donated media were assembled by University of Minnesota teams in March as part of an initiative to provide masks to M Health Fairview and other Minneapolis-based healthcare systems. As the COVID-19 outbreak escalated, the University of Minnesota realized their supply of N95 masks to protect healthcare workers would potentially run out in a matter of weeks.
To address this challenge, a team of designers, engineers, chemists, surgeons, anesthesiologist and apparel and clothing experts from the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Engineering in Medicine; Medical School; College of Design; College of Science and Engineering; and Center for Filtration Research Consortium came together to address this projected shortage of critical personal protective equipment.
The project also aims to provide open source instructions that other healthcare systems and groups can use to create their own respirator masks.
Products featuring Cummins’ media still need to be vetted and approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
“We’re working as quickly as possible with healthcare regulators and other partners to help certify products with our materials, and prepare our manufacturing facilities to meet demand,” said Amy Davis, vice president of Cummins Filtration.
“Cummins is re-evaluating our supply base and manufacturing capabilities to identify how we can support our healthcare professionals who rely on critical personal protective equipment to do their jobs,” Davis said . “Our NanoNet® Media can fill a key supply void and help address the mask shortage facing the United States and other countries around the world.”