Eastern Bartholomew Water Corp. has issued a boil water advisory for the Heritage Heights Mobile Home Park in Taylorsville.
You should boil any water for three minutes before you consume it or use it for cooking.
The advisory is in effect until noon on Friday.
The city of Columbus is looking for volunteers to help educate the public on new compost bins that will appear for the first time at Ethnic Expo.
The city has added the compost bins to the waste and recycling receptacles in the dining areas. The city is looking for volunteers willing to work two-hour shifts in the tents to explain what should go into each bin.
Officials are asking that you don’t cross contaminate the materials going into the bins so that the waste is accepted by recycling facilities.
Ethnic Expo is Friday and Saturday on the streets around City Hall in downtown Columbus. You can get more information and sign up for the volunteer shifts on the city website at columbus.in.gov.
Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing is announcing a new line of order picking forklifts.
The Columbus-based company says that the vehicles can carry 3,000 pounds and will be offered in three different models, including one that can reach more than 32 feet..
They operate on AC electric power motors and range from an introductory level 24-volt version to a 32-volt system.
The order pickers are designed to lift the operator along with the forks and pallet to higher shelving for the gathering of materials in a warehouse. The company says the new product line is built for customers in general warehousing, distribution, general manufacturing, retail, food storage, cold storage and more.
Ethnic Expo, with host country France, is Friday and Saturday in the streets around City Hall in downtown Columbus.
The annual festival, in its 35th year, will have some new features says Katherine Dunn, organizer of the festival for the city. Instead of two live music stages, live music will concentrate on the City Hall plaza this year, while the space at First and Washington streets will be used to recognize the host country.
Dunn said the intersection will turn into an open air French cafe. There will be French music, dancing lessons, wine and food.
The two booths will be Columbus Indiana Accueil and Oui Crepes. Both have been taking part in the Columbus Farmer’s Markets over the summer.
Ethnic Expo events are going on from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. You can get more information at ethnicexpo.org.
Correction: Due to a source error, the community identified in the story was incorrect. It is not in Brown County.
The USDA is loaning a rural Indiana fire department almost $350,000 to renovate and expand a fire department building.
The agency announced Tuesday that it would be providing $349,800 in funding to the Van Buren Township Volunteer Fire Department Association in Monroe County through the Community Facilities Direct Loan Program.
The funding is meant to help rural areas make infrastructure improvements and provide essential facilities such as schools, libraries and day care centers.
The township fire department serves about 3,500 in Van Buren Township. More than 100 types of projects are eligible for funding in rural areas with a population of 20,000 or less.
Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett made the announcement Tuesday. The agency reported that it is investing $181 million in 88 projects in 27 states.
Two people were killed overnight when an SUV was hit by a train at the Bartholomew and Johnson County line.
The Bartholomew County Coroner’s office has identified the victims as 30 year old Joshua L. Kelso, of Cloverdale, and 20-year-old Justice M. Llewellyn of Franklin. They were both killed by blunt force trauma from the impact.
Firefighters from the German Township Volunteer Fire Department and Edinburgh Fire Department were called to the scene at about 11:50 p.m. last night near County Road 900N and 250W after several witnesses reported the crash. The first firefighter was on the scene within a minute and found a heavily damaged SUV about 150 feet south of the road and 20 feet east of the railroad.
The driver’s side of the vehicle suffered the most damage and the bodies of the two victims were still inside the SUV, says German Township Fire Chief Matt Lynch. A third person was also found, lying on the ground next to the vehicle. That victim was flown to an Indianapolis trauma center by IU Lifeline helicopter.
Lynch says the train consisted of only two southbound locomotives but the conductor said the train was moving at just under 50 mph.
The Indiana State Police is investigating the accident.
Lynch said firefighters want to stress drivers should always be alert for trains when crossing railroad tracks. Most rural railroad crossings do not have lights or a stop arm so you should make sure to stop and look both directions each time you approach tracks. He said it is just not worth trying to beat a train across the tracks.
If you are near the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairground this weekend, you will be seeing a lot of emergency workers. But Columbus Township firefighters say that it will all be part of a training exercise.
Columbus Township Fire Chief Dave Thompson explains that the three-day trauma camp will be going on Friday through Sunday, with most of the real-looking exercise going on Saturday after 5 p.m.
You will see many fire trucks, police and the IU Lifeline helicopter Saturday’s activities, Thompson says.
However, the exact details of the exercise remain under wraps.
Thompson said that fire departments from throughout Indiana and as far as Kentucky have attended in the past. Those contingents have been as large as a entire department or as small as a single firefighter.
Firefighters need hours of continuing education training each year, and the trauma camp was created to help fulfill those goals, he said. The camp, which combines classroom training with the hands-on events, is meant to educate firefighters of all experience levels.
The fire department is still seeking about 100 volunteers to serve as victims for Saturday’s activities. Many will be wearing makeup simulating realistic-looking injuries. That technique is called moulage.
To take part, you will need to arrive at the fairgrounds at about 3 p.m. for the makeup to be applied. You should be done by about 7:30 p.m. Thompson said.
You can reach the department through their Facebook page or their website.
A Hartsville family lost everything in a Sunday afternoon home fire.
And at first they thought they had lost one of their two dogs, a Yorkie. The resident’s mother kicked open the front door and the larger of their two dogs ran from the home. However the smaller dog did not come out.
Emily Young, EMS Chief with the Hartsville Volunteer Fire Department explains:
But as firefighters sifted through the ruins of the home, there was a surprise, Young says.
A firefighter opened a door and the dog raced from the home. It had a small burn on a paw and had to be on oxygen, but was otherwise unharmed.
The family, a father and two adult children, lived in the home of Lake Site Drive off of County Road 1050E. Firefighters from several departments were called in at just before 1 Sunday afternoon.
Young said the home is a total loss. The fire appears to have started in the attic, causing the roof to collapse into the interior of the home.
She said that the residents had kept their bedroom doors shut which would normally help protect those rooms from fire damage. However, with the fire collapsing the roof and attic, the contents were destroyed.
An October tradition won’t be held this year in Columbus. Our news-gathering partners at The Republic are reporting that Night of a Thousand Jacks, a pumpkin carving contest put on by Advocates for Children, is being scuttled because of a lack of staff.
This would have been the 10th annual event. The last few years, the event has been held at Fair Oaks Mall and in the past it has been a major fundraiser for the organization. Advocates for Children assigns volunteers to look out for the interests of children who are victims of neglect and abuse caught up in the court system.
Representatives for the agency told the newspaper that the loss of the agency’s executive director and the retirement of the event’s organizer meant this year’s event had to be canceled. They still hope to continue the event in future years.
The agency will be holding the Dash-O-Lantern Halloween Costume 5K Run/Walk on Saturday, Oct. 27th at Freedom Field Park. The 5k run will start at 10 a.m. that morning and the walk will start at 10:15 a.m. The park is just north of Parkside Elementary School.
You can learn more about the agency at www.apowerfulvoice.org
An area woman is out $5500 after a telephone scammer convinced her that she was wanted by police for missing jury duty.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Department reports that the Bargersville woman came to the county jail after the incident, where she spent nearly three hours on the phone with the caller while she was instructed to buy pre-paid debit cards to settle the supposed fine.
The call appeared to come from the 317 area code and to be from the sheriff’s department based on caller ID information. The caller claimed to be a man name Roy Jenkins from the sheriff’s department. He originally reached the woman at work and talked her into leaving her place of employment to take care of the fake legal issue.
The man also threatened the victim with more serious charges if she talked to anyone else about the situation, if she got off of the telephone or if she went to the sheriff’s department directly to pay the fake fine.
Experts say that a legitimate debt collector or court official will never ask you to purchase pre-paid cards as a way to settle a debt or fine.