The proposed “quiet zone” for railroad traffic going through Columbus is at an impasse. Heather Pope, the city’s director of redevelopment, says that the city’s work with a consultant hasn’t been as successful as originally hoped. She explained that the consultant served in an advisory role, trying to guide city officials through the maze of getting a quiet zone established. Pope says the city, as well as the consultant, has done as much as they can.

The proposed quiet zone would allow trains on the Louisville & Indiana Railroad to not have to sound their horns at 11th Street, Eighth Street, Fifth Street and State Road 46. Columbus officials determined last year that it would be in the city’s best interests to try to institute this quiet zone as railroad traffic has increased and is expected to reach as many as 22 trains per day.

Pope says the decision on whether or not to implement the quiet zone restrictions largely belongs to the railroad, as well as state transportation officials. She says that L&I officials have recommended that the city employ the services of CTC, another consultant that the railroad has worked with.

During Monday’s meeting of the redevelopment commission, the body chose to table a measure that would have contracted the services of CTC for up to 18 months at a cost not to exceed $41,721. Members say they want to get a better idea of CTC’s success rate, as well as find out if there are any outstanding expenses that need to be paid to the current consultant.

Indiana Department of Transportation’s contractor for the state’s $823,000 repair and resurfacing project along 1.8 miles of State Road 3/State Road 7 at North Vernon is saw-cutting pavement for repairs between Walnut/Buckeye Street downtown and the U.S. Highway 50 bypass on the north side.

Dave O’Mara crews will be patching the north-south roadway over the next several weeks. Once repairs have been made, surface pavement will be milled and a new 1½-inch asphalt overlay put in place.

This preventative maintenance project also calls for new ADA-compliant curb ramps at Main Street and installation of signal loops at Walnut, Poplar and Hurley Drive where a separate traffic signal modernization project is currently underway.

The contract calls for all work to be completed by mid-November.

The Bartholomew County Historical Society is getting help in its mission to document and share local history. The organization has been awarded $50,000 from the Indiana Historical Society’s statewide Heritage Support Grant program.

The funding is made possible by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. Since the program’s launch in 2016, grant funds from the Endowment have allowed IHS to award an average of $500,000 per grant cycle to organizations in 53 of Indiana’s 92 counties.

This is the first Heritage Support Grant for the Bartholomew County Historical Society. The organization says the funds will be used to develop a new exhibit titled Sharing the Heritage of Bartholomew County. It will be on display at the historical society museum, located at 524 3rd Street in Columbus.

“Creating a one-of-a-kind local history experience is a goal turned reality, thanks in part to grant funds from IHS and the Lilly Endowment,” said Diane Robbins, executive director of the Bartholomew County Historical Society. “Guests of all ages will have the opportunity to learn about our past through this hands-on, interactive exhibit.”

The design and installation of Sharing the Heritage of Bartholomew County is expected to be completed by the summer of 2019. You can get more information at bartholomewhistory.org.

The first funding request to tap into money from last year’s Bartholomew County income tax hike to battle drug addiction was approved Monday afternoon by the Substance Abuse Public Funding Board.

Bartholomew courts officials are asking for just over $240,000 to fund what they are calling REALM, or the Recovery Enables a Life for Men program. The court-ordered drug treatment program is patterned after a similar program for women called WRAP that the county already has been using. County Councilwoman Laura DeDomenic…

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DeDomenic talks about the proposed 50/50 split between the city and county to cover the costs of the program…

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The city and county councils will have the final say on whether or not to provide funding. That funding is expected to cover the costs for the program, beginning in the fourth quarter of this year and lasting through all of 2019.

A head-on collision over the weekend resulted in a drug arrest. Judy Jackson, spokeswoman for the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, says that at about 12:40 p.m. on Saturday, deputies responded to the 5400 block of West Goeller in reference to a crash with injury.

One driver, 75-year-old Shirley Bozell, of Columbus, told first-responders that she was traveling east when she saw the other car approaching her vehicle head on. Bozell was transported to Columbus Regional Health, where she was later released.

The driver of the second vehicle, 40-year-old Philip Menefee, of Columbus, was treated at CRH and arrested on preliminary charges of Operating a Motor Vehicle while Intoxicated (Drugs) and Possession of a Controlled Substance.

Menefee has since been released.

Columbus police arrested a wanted woman after she was seen outside her home Sunday night.

Police say that they noticed 28-year-old Aimee Davis outside the home in the 3800 block of Rosewood Court at about 11:50 Sunday night and recognized that she was wanted on two Bartholomew County warrants.

As she was being taken to jail, police report that they found she was carrying syringes, drug paraphernalia, heroin and methamphetamine. She is facing various possession charges as well as the outstanding warrants.

An early-morning shouting incident in downtown Columbus ended up in an arrest for a North Vernon man over the weekend.

Columbus police are reporting that they were called to an incident where a man was screaming in the area of Fourth and Washington streets at about 1:50 on Sunday morning. They found 37-year-old Joshua K. England who was slurring his words and appeared wobbly on his feet. As he was being arrested, he allegedly kicked an officer while police were trying to put him in a patrol vehicle and also kicked a jail officer while being locked up, according to police reports.

He is facing preliminary charges of resisting law enforcement, disorderly conduct and battery on a law enforcement officer.

The first funding request to tap into money from last year’s Bartholomew County income tax hike to battle drug addiction will be heard this afternoon.

Bartholomew courts officials are asking for just over $240,000 to fund what they are calling REALM, or the Recovery Enables a Life for Men program. The court-ordered drug treatment program is patterned after a similar program for women called WRAP that the county already has been using.

Jeff Jones, the executive lead for the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress in Bartholomew County said that a city and county funding board will consider the request.

The new joint board was set up specifically to consider the funding requests from the new income tax revenues. It is made up of the Columbus mayor, a county commissioner, the hospital CEO and members of the city and county councils.

Jones said this is the first financial request of the recently formed board.

The proposal includes funding to operate the rest of this year and all of next year. If approved by the funding board, the request would then go on to the City and/or County Councils for final funding approval.

The Substance Abuse Public Funding Board meets at 2 p.m. today in the Council Chambers at Columbus City Hall.

North Vernon police say they were called to check on the welfare of a woman at a home and ended up arresting two people on drug charges.

Police reported yesterday that they were called last Monday evening to check on a woman and on reported drug activity at a home in the 500 block of Daniel Drive.

After receiving reports detailing drug activity at the home, police sought a search warrant and recovered drug paraphernalia, prescription pills not in their container, 20 grams of what they believe to be methamphetamine, along with heroin residue and 10 firearms.

47-year-old Perry D. Proctor and 32-year-old Cassie L. Bright are both facing charges of dealing in a controlled substance and methamphetamine, along with maintaining a common nuisance and possessing drug paraphernalia.

The Purdue Cooperative Extension office in Bartholomew County is reporting that we have some top-notch tractor drivers in the community.

Seven community students took part in the tractor competition at the Indiana State Fair last week competing against 180 youth from all over Indiana

Daniel Murphy won the championship in the senior lawn tractor category and defended his 2017 championship in senior zero turn tractors. Joel Murphy was reserve champion in the junior zero turn category. Winning blue ribbons in their categories were Brendan Boewe, Joel Beck, Wyatt Romine, Heidi Murphy and John Beck.

Bartholomew County had the highest number of rankings of any county at the state level, according to the extension office.