On the heels of last week’s Cummins announcement of June as the sixth annual company Environmental Month, officials say that Saturday’s downtown Columbus event will be clean and green.

Cummins employees and retirees will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the company Saturday with food, music and other entertainment in the area between Mill Race Park and Jackson Street. But the company is also committed to making sure that things stay environmentally friendly says Sally Leyes, director of internal communications.

Among the efforts will be banning of plastic water bottles. Instead, attendees will be asked to bring their own reusable water bottles or hydration stations in the area will be offering compostable cups.

The downtown celebration is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

On Thursday, Cummins will be holding its 9th annual Community Wide Recycling Day from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Columbus Engine Plant parking lot on Central Avenue, as part of its Environmental Month efforts.

The Bartholomew County Council has said “no” to a plan to add dispatchers to the Bartholomew County Emergency 911 Center. At least, for now.

Emergency 911 Center Director Todd Noblitt proposed the hiring of six new dispatchers. He noted that he currently has 24 dispatchers, a number that has been largely unchanged since 2002. Noblitt noted that during this same period, emergency calls went up approximately 58 percent.

Noblitt’s proposal included two hires this July, two in January of 2020 and the final pair in July of 2020. Under an interlocal agreement between the city and the county, Columbus would pay for 55 percent of these costs, while the county will cover the remaining 45 percent.

County Council rejected the proposal on a vote of 3-4. Mark Gorbett, Laura DeDomenic and Jorge Morales voted to approve the request. Scott Bonnell, Evelyn Pence, Bill Lentz and Matt Miller voted “no.” All four who voted against say they don’t disagree that the the help is needed, but they prefer to wait to consider new positions until the budget for 2020 is put together. Pence noted that a number of department heads have requested new employees, 13 thus far, and said that waiting would be the fair thing to do.

Council is set to begin budget work at the end of summer.

Monthly real estate stats from F.C. Tucker Company indicate a slight increase in homes sold as prices continue to rise in central Indiana. May 2019 pended sales increased 2.2 percent compared to May 2018 while the average year-to-date sale price for the 16-county central Indiana region increased 4.4 percent to $218,296.

In May, Bartholomew County homes sold 17.5 percent faster at an average sale price of $205,948. That’s down half-a percentage point from May of last year.

Jennings County home sale prices for May 2019 are up nearly 20 percent from last May to just under $134,000.

Decatur County home prices increased 13.7 percent over the same period to an average of just over $146,000.

Jackson County home prices increased six-percent to $135,525.

Brown County home prices were up 8.3% to an average of just over $234,000.

No one was seriously hurt after a dump truck crashed into a home. The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department says that at about 11 a.m. Tuesday, deputies were called to 10782 E County Road 450 N after a single-axle dump truck crashed into the side of a 100-year-old farm house.

Authorities say the dump truck, owned by Edge Construction, ran off the roadway and into the house, likely causing significant damage to the foundation of the home. Columbus Township Fire and Clifford Fire Departments are attempting to stabilize the home’s foundation.

The driver of the dump truck, 27-year-old Geoffrey Jones, received minor injuries. No one inside the house was hurt.

The investigation is ongoing.

A former Jonesville clerk-treasurer convicted more than a decade ago of stealing town funds could be facing time behind bars.

Our news-gathering partners at “The Republic” are reporting that county prosecutors are considering three new felonies against 45-year-old Melissa Schultheis, of Jonesville.

Schultheis pleaded guilty to 10 counts of theft in 2009 and received a suspended 15-year sentence. The paper reports that Schultheis was ordered to pay back over $92,000 to the town with payments of no less than $300 a month.

The potential new felonies stem from a 2017 order that Schultheis complete 24 hours of community service per week whenever she is not employed at least 35 hours per week. Prosecutors allege that Schultheis produced a fake doctor’s note to avoid work and/or community service, says the report.

For more on this story, visit therepublic.com.

The Bartholomew County Health Department is holding a Hepatitis A vaccination clinic from 9 a.m. to noon on June 24th and 28th at Love Chapel, at 311 Center Street.

The Indiana State Department of Health says that those at risk include the homeless, those taking illicit drugs, people who have recently been in jail and those who have close contact with an infected person.

Jennings County deputies say that a man tried to flee through woods on his motorcycle before eventually getting stopped by a ravine.

The incident started at about 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon while deputies were using their new off-road vehicle, and noticed a driver run through a stop sign .  Instead of stopping for officers, the driver took off, eventually going off-road before reaching a creek he couldn’t cross. The driver, identified as 34-year-old Michael Hubbard of North Vernon then tried to run away, before being taken into custody a short distance later.

He was arrested on preliminary charges of resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, reckless driving, operating a vehicle while intoxicated and driving while suspended.

Columbus police say a suspected shoplifter had allegedly stolen items falling from his pants when he tried to run from police Sunday night.

Officers were called to the Whitfield Drive Walmart store at about 10 p.m. last night for a reported shoplifter and as officers arrived 22-year-old Skyler J. Blair of North Vernon broke away from store security and ran away.

As an officer chased after Blair through the parking lot, items began falling from his pants. After he was arrested on preliminary charges of theft and resisting law enforcement, the items were rounded up and taken back to the store.

When Cummins celebrates its 100th anniversary in downtown Columbus on Saturday, the company will have some special guests.

Sally Leyes, director of internal communications for the Columbus based diesel engine manufacturer, explains that will include nearly 100 of Clessie Cummins descendants and family.

Clessie Cummins grandon, Matt, is traveling from Oregon in his Cummins powered Ram pickup to attend the celebration.

The company was incorporated in February 1919 in Columbus. On that day this year,  company locations around the world held celebrations on that day. But they are also holding celebrations all summer long at company locations across the world, Leyes said.

Starting in May and lasting through September, each Cummins site will hold its own localized version of the celebration event.

Saturdays event in Columbus is the only one in Indiana and employees from Seymour to Indianapolis will be attending. It is limited to Cummins employees and retirees and their families but about 13,000 people are expected.

Downtown activities will include live music, food, displays and tours of the Cummins headquarters building. Shuttle buses will be taking visitors from satellite parking locations including the lots at the CEP and Cummins Fuel Systems.

The downtown activities are from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the area around Mill Race Park including Jackson and Fifth streets and the headquarters parking lot.

A Nineveh man was injured Sunday evening after his off road vehicle flipped over, pinning him underneath.

According to Indiana conservation officers, 58-year-old Richard Hogue was riding the vehicle in woods on private property. That was near the 9000 block of Sweetwater Trail at about 6:25 p.m. Sunday evening in Nineveh. Johnson County paramedics took him to Johnson Memorial Hospital where he is being treated for back and chest injuries.

Conservation officers say that Hogue was not wearing a helmet or other safety equipment and alcohol appears to have been a factor in the crash.

The Trafalgar Police Department assisted at the scene.