A driver ended up with his car in the Mill Race Park pond after losing control Monday night.

Columbus police say that they were called to the scene at about 8:40 p.m. last night to find the car submerged in the pond. The driver, 20-year-old Christian D. Sconce fo Columbus told police that his brakes had failed. Witnesses said that they saw the car speeding through the park before it lost control, hit a tree and launched into the pond.

The Bartholomew County Dive Team was called in to remove the car from the pond and assist with the investigation.

No one was injured.

An endowment fund benefiting northeastern Bartholomew County has hit a major milestone. The Hawcreek- Flat Rock Area Endowment fund has passed $1 million in its nest egg for the community, according to HSJ Online, the Hope news website.

According to the site, the benchmark was hit on Dec. 4th.  Tim Andrews, a St. Louis Crossing native, and now a business executive in New Jersey promised to donate $25,000 to the endowment if the community could raise $975,000 by the end of next year. However the community fundraising reached that total a year early, and Andrews made the final donation to push the fund over the top.

The money in the fund is held in trust through Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County. Each year, earnings from the endowment are used to support programs and projects in the two townships in northeastern Bartholomew County. This year the endowment awarded grants of almost $33.000. The endowment is set up so that the nest egg will never be dipped into, with grant funds coming from the earnings on the investments.

You can get more information at hsjonline.org

Bartholomew County deputies are reporting that a two-vehicle crash on Sunday morning sent five people to the hospital.

Emergency workers including deputies, Columbus Regional Hospital paramedics, Columbus Township Fire and Rescue Department and the Indiana State Police were called to the crash at about 11:17 a.m. Sunday morning at U.S. 31 and East County Road 100S.

According to deputies, five people including one juvenile received minor injuries and were taken to Columbus Regional Health.

Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department

The Bartholomew County Historical Society is adding a new twist to a recent tradition — Christmas Trees Through Time, but viewed from outside.

Organizers say that the windows of the historical society’s museum at 524 Third Street feature trees decorated by area designers including Christy Langston, Geri Handley, Shari Donnelly, Pam Zeller, Bruce Pollert and Jean Donica. You are invited to stroll around the building to see the trees and enjoy the lights.

Gramz Bakery on Washington Street is also featuring a historical society created display in the window featuring several Arvin Industry items.

Diane Robbins, executive director of the society, said that the Christmas Trees Through Time tradition started in 2018 and the outside plan is a way to keep it going.

The museum itself is closed until at least February.

Columbus police say that two women tried to flee from police after shoplifting from a Eastbrook Plaza store.

Police were in the area  at about 3 Saturday afternoon when they were flagged down by a witness, who saw two women pushing full shopping carts out of the Dollar General Store. Officers saw the women’s vehicle, with the trunk still open, race out of the parking lot.

As police chased after the women, the suspects lost control of their vehicle and crashed into the median at Herman Darlage Drive and U.S. 31. Although the driver, later identified as 28-year-old Ashlee N. Dyer of Edinburgh briefly attempted to free her vehicle, she eventually surrendered.

Police discovered more than $750 in stolen merchandise in the vehicle. It was returned to the store.

Dyer was arrested on charges of theft, resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, driving while suspended with a prior conviction and reckless driving.

The passenger, 42-year-old Tiffany D. McCammon, of Elizabethtown, is being accused of theft.

Fixing drainage problems at two northern Bartholomew County subdivisions would cost millions of dollars.

Bartholomew County Commissioners were told yesterday that even the most economical way to stop storm water from rising in the Armuth Acres and North Cliff subdivisions, north of the Columbus Municipal Airport, would cost more than $4.7 million dollars. That option, of the four presented from a recently completed study by Strand Associates, would involve improving drainage within the subdivisions themselves, then moving the water westerly through ditches in agricultural areas along County Road 600N, eventually dumping it into the Flat Rock River. Steve Ruble with Strand said the most expensive option outlined would involve a pumping station and cost more than $13 million dollars. A fifth option would make no changes, Ruble said.

None of the options have been formally adopted, no source of county funding to fix the problem has been identified nor a timeline established. Trena Carter, the county’s grant advisor with ARA, said that a maximum of $600,000 in funds could be available to mitigate the problem from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.

Commissioners yesterday approved spending $3,850 dollars as the county’s share towards the grant funding the study.

Columbus Regional Health expects to begin vaccinating front line healthcare workers against COVID-19 later this week.

The hospital is one of the Indiana sites in the first wave of vaccine doses and will be giving the vaccine to all eligible and interested healthcare workers in Bartholomew, Jackson, Jennings and Decatur counties.

The first to receive the vaccine will be healthcare workers who regularly work face-to-face with patients or who handle infectious material. Over the next week or so, healthcare workers in the region will receive information from their licensing body and a link to register. They will receive the vaccine in either their county they are employed or the closest site location to where they work.

Vaccines will begin at the CRH site on Keller Boulevard on Friday.

Indiana’s first coronavirus vaccine doses went to healthcare workers in Fort Wayne, where 7 people who work at Parkview Health got a shot yesterday. The state of Indiana is expecting over 55-thousand vaccine doses by the end of the week

Seymour police have arrested a suspect accused of raping a 15-year-old girl.

Police are reporting that they were called to the 700 block of Marley Lane on Friday. After interviews and gathering information at the scene, police obtained a search warrant for a home in the 100 block of Green Circle Avenue in the Village Green Mobile Home Park. Based on the criminal history of the suspect and the severity of the crime, police called in the Seymour SWAT team to execute the warrant and 31-year-old Christopher D. Blum of Seymour was taken into custody.

He was taken to the Jackson County Jail on charges of rape, sexual misconduct with a minor and criminal confinement.

COVID-19 testing sites in Jackson and Jennings counties are adding more hours starting today.

The sites have previously been closed on Mondays, but now will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. The sites are closed on Sundays.

Both testing sites will be open 8 a.m. to noon on Christmas Eve and closed on Christmas and New Year’s days.

The Jackson County site is in the former State Police Post at 721 East Tipton St. in Seymour. The Jennings County site is at the Education Training Center, 1200 West O&M Avenue in North Vernon.

Schneck Medical Center and the county health departments have partnered to provide the free testing.

Two Columbus Signature Academy New Tech High School seniors have been chosen for the 2021 Lilly Endowment Community Scholarships for Bartholomew County.

Heritage Fund – The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, is announcing that Hayley Barr and Jadi Miller are this year’s recipients.

Barr is the daughter of Kirsti Barr. She plans to pursue a major in chemistry and to go on for a doctorate in veterinary medicine. She has been active in National Honor Society, school Interact Club and “Student Voice” student publication and as a volunteer for Bartholomew County Humane Society, Columbus Animal Care Services and Mill Race Center.

Miller is the daughter of Robert and Jami Miller and plans to pursue a degree in education. She has been active in National Honor Society, “Student Voice” track and field and as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and St. Bartholomew Church.

The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarships allow Indiana students to pursue four years full-time undergraduate study leading to a bachelor’s degree at an accredited public or private nonprofit college or university in Indiana. Barr and Miller will receive full tuition for four years to the Indiana college of their choice and a $900 annual stipend for required books and equipment.

Heritage Fund received 54 applications for this year’s scholarships, from which 10 finalists were selected.

Finalists included: Marin Wieneke, Taylor Hollen, Josie Burbrink and Gabriela Heredia from Columbus East High School; Brock Burbrink and Emmaleigh Martin from CSA-New Tech; Helena Ho from Columbus North High School; and Tamara Essex from Hauser Jr-Sr High School.