WiLLow LeaVes of Hope will be hosting performance of the play, “The Miracle Worker” this weekend.
The play is the story of Helen Keller, a blind-deaf and mute girl who learns to communicate through her tutor Anne Sullivan.
The shows will be at 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings and 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon at the store and dinner-theater on the north side of the Hope Town Square. Tickets are $25 for dinner and the show. You can call for reservations at 812-546-0640.
All Columbus city offices will be returning to their normal schedules on Monday.
Many city offices have been observing summer hours, which has employees coming in an hour early and leaving during the hottest part of the day as a way to conserve energy.
The normal hours for most city offices are 8 .m. through 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. City officials do encourage you, if you are planning to visit a city office, to call ahead or to check the office hours online at columbus.in.gov.
The city of Columbus has called off a informational meeting on a proposed development on the west side of the city, originally set for tonight.
The city had scheduled the meeting at Fire Station 5 tonight to talk about the Spring Hills Lake proposal. However, the rezoning of that property was shot down by Columbus City Council at its meeting on Tuesday. More than 100 people turned out to the council meeting, most to protest the proposal citing concerns such as traffic, declining property values and what they said was a lack of communication with developers.
The plan would have brought 40 duplexes to a 10-acre property near Goeller Road, west of Tipton Lakes.
City officials say that tonight’s meeting will not be rescheduled. The proposal is essentially dead for an entire year unless developers make substantial changes.
The Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation is set to receive additional money from the city of Columbus to help students prepare for life after the classroom.
The Columbus City Council approved a resolution Tuesday night authorizing the city’s redevelopment commission to grant $750,000 to BCSC. The redevelopment commission approved the measure in mid-July. Along with iGrad and transition planning, the funding will benefit the school corporation’s science, technology, engineering and math programs.
BCSC Superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts says that this funding will help with training and learning opportunities to help special-needs students transfer to the workforce. This $750,000 will come out of the city’s central tax-increment financing allocation area. This marks the third consecutive year that the city has provided such a grant.
The city council voted unanimously to approve the request.
A Hope man facing child molestation charges was appointed a public defender on Wednesday. Our news-gathering partners at “The Republic” are reporting that Bartholomew Superior Court 1 Judge James Worton entered a “not guilty” plea for 72-year-old Larry L. Scott during an initial hearing.
Worton appointed public defender Benjamin Loheide to represent Scott. However, the newspaper says that Scott intends to eventually hire his own attorney.
Scott was arrested by Indiana State Police on July 22 after investigating a child molesting complaint against him at Ceraland.
For more on this story, visit therepublic.com.
The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department is looking at bids of about $1.2 million to replace the security system in the jail.
At a County Council work session this week, County IT director Scott Mayes said the bids are being reviewed now and he expects to have firm numbers to present to the council in a couple of weeks. The bids include several options including renting the system from a vendor, rather than purchasing it outright, and various maintenance plans. The specs sent out for bid also included building expandability into the system, so more cameras could be added in the future or more storage space for video.
Replacing the system will take six to eight months and it is a first step to allowing the jail to address overcrowding concerns. The new system would allow oversight of the old portion of the jail that is currently unused.
Sheriff Matt Myers and his staff said the jail has about 240 inmates on a daily basis, with more than 255 on Monday. In essence, he said the jail is now a small prison.
County Council members said they would like to pay for half of the upgrade from revenues that are coming in from last year’s income tax hike aimed at public safety projects and the rest from economic development income tax revenue controlled by the Bartholomew County Commissioners.
Cummins is announcing plans to buy back $500 million dollars worth of shares from Goldman & Sachs.
The Columbus based diesel engine manufacturer made the announcement this morning, saying that an accelerated share repurchase agreement with the financial company was part of a previously announced plan to repurchase stock and is authorized by the Board of Directors. The company plans to return 75 percent of its operating cash flow to shareholders this year.
The company says that it will initially repurchase 3 million shares based on current market prices and the rest will be determined by the average stock price, minus a discount.
A rezoning request for a development on nearly 10 acres in the Tipton Lakes has been denied. Developers for the Proposed Spring Hill Lake development, just west of the greater Tipton Lakes area and north of Goeller Road, wanted to rezone the property to allow for the construction of duplexes. That development would have provided homes for approximately 40 families.
More than 100 people turned out at Tuesday night’s Columbus City Council meeting, a vast majority who spoke were against the proposal, citing concerns with traffic and the impact on neighboring property values. Neighbors also decried what many referred to as a lack of communication from the developer.
City Council members agreed with the neighbors, specifically mentioning a lack of communication with neighboring property owners. Councilman Frank Miller says the proposal is a good one. While he supported the rezoning request, Miller says that a number of concerns could have been alleviated with more transparency from the developer and a willingness to actively engage neighbors.
Council voted 5-2 to deny the rezoning request. Councilmen Tim Shuffett and Miller voted to approve it. The developer may make adjustments to the proposal or return in one year to resubmit the failed request.
The city of Columbus unveiled four new buses during a Tuesday morning ceremony. Dave Hayward, city engineer, explains…
He talks about some of that equipment…
Hayward, city engineer, explains that is was simply time to replace the buses…
Hayward says that these buses cost about a half-million dollars each, but thanks to a federal grant, the city only had to 20 percent of that. He adds that two older buses remain in the city fleet, but they will also be replaced with newer models next year utilizing an identical grant.
A boil order issued by Brown County Water is affecting some Nashville Municipal Utility customers in the Bean Blossom area. Included are:
4931-5075 State Road 135 North;
32-205 Gatesville Road;
60 McDonald Drive;
5345 Spearsville Road;
11 State Road 45 West;
4145-4756 Covered Bridge Road;
While Brown County Water personnel would not publicize all of the area under the boil order, they say that all of their customers have been notified.
The order is in effect through 5 p.m. Wednesday.