Bartholomew County’s Soil and Water Conservation District will be giving away trees on Friday in celebration of Arbor Day.
Heather Shireman with the district says the agency will give away 1,200 trees between 5 and 7 p.m. at the district headquarters on a first-come, first served basis. You can choose from Red Bud, Flowering Dogwood, Norway Spruce, Bald Cyprus, Pecan or Red Oak and there is a limit of six trees per person.
The district headquarters is at 1040 Second Street in Columbus.
Editor’s note: A draft version of this story was inadvertently published earlier. We apologize for the error.
Bartholomew County voters will be choosing their candidates for the three at-large seats on the Bartholomew County Council in next week’s primary election. Five Republicans are running in the Tuesday primary and three Democrats.
The Democrats, Pam Clark, Gaby Cheek and Lynne Fleming, are all going to advance to the general election in November. But the Republican field will be whittled down to three candidates on Tuesday. The Republican candidates include incumbents Bill Lentz, Jim Reed and Evelyn Strietelmeier-Pence plus Matt Miller and Mike Lovelace.
We asked the Republican candidates:
Lentz said that the county needs to look for more partnerships, inside and outside the county.
Lovelace said that the county needs to be willing to experiment.
04-26 Mike Lovelace Question 6
Miller said there should be partnerships with the city of Columbus in IT and in street repair
Reed said that the county will need to expand its partnerships to tackle the heroin epidemic.
Strietelmeier-Pence said that IT seems like a good choice but she is open for other ways to save money
Several hundred people turned out Monday afternoon at Zaharakos in Columbus to see Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz. A large black tour bus delivered the Texas Senator and his entourage to the ice-cream shop on Washington Street. A couple hundred supporters filled the upstairs gathering hall, while another few hundred people waited around the bus for a glimpse of the candidate.
Those waiting outside included supporters and opponents. There were a few signs touting the candidacy of Republican front-runner, Donald Trump. Other people were there, holding up signs that equated Cruz’s positions with hate and other signs that attacked the Senator personally.
Sen. Cruz did not give a speech during this event. He spent about 40 minutes on the downstairs section of Zaharakos, talking with customers. Afterwards, he made his way upstairs for about 25 minutes where he spoke privately and took pictures with individual supporters.
When Cruz made his way outside, a loud cheer filled Washington Street. Supporters shouted encouragement over the few protesters as Cruz continued to wave, shake hands and campaign, before boarding the bus and heading to Johnson County.
Susan G. Komen Central Indiana is awarding a total of $832,677 in Community Impact Grants to 15 breast health programs in its 41-county service area. A Komen spokesperson says that Bartholomew County will benefit from funding provided to Columbus Regional Health during Komen Central Indiana’s 2016-2017 grant cycle, which began in April. The hospital will use the grant to provide comprehensive breast care for low-income women.
“Our mammography assistance program seeks to remove the cost barrier for screening mammography. Local women who find screening mammography cost is a barrier that prevents them from getting the mammogram can be helped by our MAP program thanks to grant funding from Susan G. Komen Central Indiana,” said Deana Tuell, manager of the Breast Health Center at Columbus Regional Health. “Without our Komen partnership and grant money, many of our women would go without needed screening exams.”
Under the grant program, Columbus Regional Health’s Mammography Assistance Program will be able to help low-income women in Bartholomew, Brown, Johnson counties. A Komen spokesperson says that woman in 41 Indiana counties will benefit from their grants.
The Indiana Bicentennial Commission has approved six more Bartholomew County projects as Bicentennial Legacy projects.
That brings the county total up to 19 and more are in the pipeline, says Lynn Lucas, the local organizer of the bicentennial efforts.
The newest projects to win approval include:
Lucas said the previously approved projects include:
A Columbus man was arrested Saturday night after a fight in the 1200 block of Pennsylvania Street left a man with a knife wound to the arm.
Lt. Matt Harris, spokesman for the Columbus Police Department says the purported victim said he got into an argument with William “B.J.” Crouch at just before 11 p.m. During that fight, Crouch allegedly stabbed the victim in the forearm after the victim was forced to use his bicycle as a shield. Police say it was not a serious wound.
Crouch was arrested on preliminary charges of battery with a deadly weapon and intimidation.
The deck of a Columbus home received about $3,000 in damage in a fire Friday evening.
Columbus firefighters say that a lightning strike started the fire on Bayside Court at about 8 p.m., says Capt. Mike Wilson, spokesman for the Columbus Fire Department. The strike hit between two homes, causing circuit breakers to flip in a neighboring home. Those owners were checking the outside of the home for damage when they noticed the fire on the neighbors’ deck, coming close to a gas grill.
Wilson said firefighters use a hose to quickly extinguish the deck fire. They also noticed that a clothes dryer vent had melted and smoke had gotten into the house through the vent, but it caused little damage except to a load of laundry in the dryer.
Columbus Fire Department Inspector Matt Noblitt estimated damages at $3,000. No one was injured in the fire.
Columbus city officials will be turning to a judicial review before tearing down any abandoned or derelict houses in the city.
Mayor Jim Lienhoop campaigned last year on a promise to make sure that a homeowner would be contacted before tearing down any property, after the previous administration razed a home without talking to the owner.
Lienhoop said that after talking with the city attorney, the city is now asking for help from the Bartholomew County judicial system to make sure there is one last look at the case file before a building is torn down.
After the judicial review, the removal project would then go to the Board of Public Works and Safety for a final approval.
The mayor said the city is moving toward demolition of a house on 12th Street and after that process concludes successfully, more are slated for removal.
The incidents of seniors being taken advantage of by identity thieves and scam artists are on the rise in Indiana, according to the AARP.
Mandla Moyo, community outreach director for the Indiana branch of the AARP explains.
“If you look at the attorney general over in 2014, they received over 5,000 calls alone,” Moyo said. “And essentially 1,300 of those were about identity theft. It is really, really a prevalent issue here in Indiana. It is a scam that a lot of scammers take the opportunity to use because a lot of times it is easy to victimize someone in terms of how to steal their identity.”
To highlight the issue of scams that hit seniors, AARP will be having a special event in Indianapolis on Thursday, Aug. 28th featuring Frank Abagnale, a former scam artist and FBI consultant whose life story was made into the movie “Catch Me If You Can.” Abagnale will be at the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Tobias Theater from 7 p.m. to 8:30 Thursday. The event is free but you must RSVP to attend by calling at 1-877-926-8300.
Starting today, there will be three more locations in Bartholomew County to cast your early ballot for next week’s primary election.
According to County Clerk Jay Phelps, the satellite early vote centers at Donner Center, the Main Source Bank branch on Jonathan Moore Pike and at Flintwood Wesleyan Church on 25th street will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. You can also vote early at the Bartholomew County Courthouse from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. this week.
Voting so far in this primary election has been brisk Phelps says. As of Friday, the number of people casting ballots was the second highest total in Bartholomew County history, second only to last year’s mayoral primary in Columbus. With just over a week left of early voting, the totals so far have been the second highest in the past 10 years.
Bartholomew County voters will be choosing candidates on all levels of the November ballot, ranging from the presidential candidates, to town council members in Hope and Hartsville.