A garage fire forced four family members to flee their Crump Estate home on Tuesday evening. Capt. Mike Wilson, Columbus Fire Department spokesman, says that firefighters were called to the 3200 block of Heritage Road at approximately 9 p.m. after receiving the call.

Wilson says that as firefighters arrived, Columbus Police Officers reported that they had accounted for everyone who had been inside the home. However, a pet cat was missing. One of the occupants, an adult man, was taken to Columbus Regional Health with injuries described as “non-life threatening.” The cat was eventually found, safe, hiding under a bed and returned to the family.

After learning that the residents were out of the house, Wilson says that firefighters began to attack the fire. He added that the fire was under control within 20 minutes.

The owner of the home reportedly told investigators that her kitchen was in the process of being remodeled and that the home’s cooking stove had been moved to the garage. She reportedly said that her 14-year-old grandson was in the garage cooking food on the stove when the fire broke out on the top of the appliance.

Wilson says that investigators determined the cooking fire to be accidental. Damages to the home were estimated at $100,000 to the structure and $25,000 to its contents.

Wilson cites a report from the National Fire Protection Association, in stating that cooking fires are the number one cause of residential fires and fire related injury. With that, the Columbus Fire Department offers these cooking safety tips:

• Stay in the kitchen if for are actively cooking on a stove top.

• Keep combustible items – like towels, paper products and pot holders- away from a hot stove.

• Keep a fire extinguisher near the kitchen ensuring you can access it without placing yourself in harm’s way.

• If you can’t safety extinguish the fire, get out and call 9-1-1 as soon as possible.

• Always have working smoke alarms inside your home.

• Plan and practice a home fire escape drill: Know two ways out of every room. Crawl on the floor to escape dangerous smoke. Have an outside safe meeting place designated for the entire family. Once you get out, stay out and never go back in to a burning building.

Eastern Bartholomew Water Corp. has issued a boil water advisory for customers on Railroad Street, extending to County Road 600 South in Elizabethtown. Utility officials say that the advisory is in effect due to a water main break. Affected customers should boil all cooking and drinking water prior to consumption. The advisory is in effect until noon on Saturday.

Customers with questions should contact Eastern Bartholomew Water Corp. at (812) 526-9777. The utility can also be reached by visiting its website at www.ebwonline.net.

Work to repair a leaking water main may cause some traffic headaches in downtown Columbus as we close out the work week.

Aimee Morris, with the city’s Engineering Department, says that, beginning at 8 a.m. Thursday, the westbound lane of Fifth Street, between Jackson Street and Brown Street will be closed. Officials expect the repairs to be finished, and traffic restored, by 4 p.m. on Friday.

Morris says that Columbus City Utilities will be continuing repairs to the water main that began last week. City officials are asking you to avoid this area and to use an alternate route.

Bartholomew County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for 27-year-old Kevin Michael Herring as their most wanted fugitive this week.

Herring is a white man, 6 feet tall and weighing about 180 pounds. He has brown hair and green eyes and tattoos on both his left and right shoulders.

He is wanted on two warrants for failing to appear in court. If you have any information on Kevin Michael Herring, you can contact  Capt. Dave Steinkoenig, at 812-565-5940, or you can call the sheriff’s department tip line at 812-379-1712

The City of Columbus is asking for your help keeping grass clippings out of the street.

The city public works department reports that the grass clippings, leaves and other debris that are left in the street flow into the storm sewer grates when it rains. And the materials often clump up, causing flooding or ponding water in the street.

Even if the grass makes it down the drain, the grass, fertilizer and other materials will contaminate creeks and rivers.

Instead, you can collect your clippings and they will be picked up as yard waste. Or you can save them to use as compost on a garden.

You can look for more information on the city’s Web site.

Columbus Township and Bartholomew County rural residents would see the loss or reduction of many of the community’s paid firefighters under plans being discussed by the township’s financial body.

Columbus Township Advisory Board members Jimmy Green and Michael Shireman are the only current board members, and they say their priority is cutting taxes. Green explains:

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Although the board members have suggested eliminating the township’s paid firefighters altogether, Green said he also would be in favor of making them part-time, which would save the township on benefits and retirement. Green said other townships, including Harrison Township on the west side of Columbus, provide paid staff more cheaply by using part-time firefighters.

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Township Trustee Ben Jackson and the firefighters are against the proposal. Jackson said the firefighting tax rate will already fall by a third in the next year because, among other reductions, a loan will finally be paid off.  Jackson explains the cuts that have already been proposed:

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However, Green estimated that cutting most of the staff to part-time could save taxpayers 50 percent of their firefighting costs.

Columbus Township firefighters, formerly known as the East Columbus Volunteer Fire Department,  serve the donut of properties that are in the township but outside of the city of Columbus. But Jackson says the Columbus Township Department’s paid staff are frequently providing aid to residents and businesses outside of the township itself.

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Fire Chief Dave Thompson said it is impossible for many purely volunteer firefighters to respond during the day because of work commitments.

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Thompson said the paid staff came about after 2008 and was started because so few volunteer firefighters can respond during the day. The township recently received an improved insurance rating due to the presence of paid firefighters and the quicker response times that brings.

Thompson said the paid firefighters work during the regular Monday-Friday work-week and also provide maintenance and other services that would still have to be paid for, if there were no paid firefighters.

The advisory board held a budget discussion meeting on Monday night that became heated over the issue. The final decision won’t be made until the township’s actual public budget hearings in September. Jackson said he plans to make the case to the businesses and homeowners in the township that public safety is improved by having a paid staff.

The third advisory board member, Greg Simo, resigned on Monday because he is moving out of the township.

The Columbus Area Metropolitan Planning Organization is holding a special event Wednesday evening. Laura Thayer, the Metro Planning Director, says that there will be an open house to discuss potential improvements to the long-range transportation plan.

Thayer says that those scenarios include:

Thayer says that improvements to the bus routes have been a consistent request…

Thayer says that attendees will get four votes as to what they would like to see worked on…

Wednesday night’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Columbus Municipal Airport. It is expected to last about two hours. You are invited.

The city of Columbus has named the winner of the Ivy Tech Community College Columbus student competition to design a bicentennial mural for the side of the Jackson Street Parking Garage.

Christina Tuttle’s Kaleidoscopic View was selected. It will include many design and architectural details and look at the nature of Mill Race Park.

The mural project has been accepted by the Indiana Bicentennial Commission as a bicentennial legacy project. The city’s goal is to brighten up the parking garage wall, which is at the end of Friendship Alley.

An alternative energy company in North Vernon hopes to have most of its workers back on the job over the next several weeks.

Dan Bates, CEO and founder of Windstream Technologies, told members of the North Vernon City Council his hopes and plans during the council’s meeting Monday night. The company, which manufactures wind turbines, opened its plant in the city in 2011.

Part of that plan, Bates explained, is the acquisition of additional capital through new investment. He added that the lack of investment, along with decreased demand for the company’s products, has resulted in much of the Windstream workforce being laid-off. When City Councilman Jack Kelley pressed Bates for numbers, the CEO said that eight to 10 employees are on the job now, down from the 35 recently working.

As part of the move to North Vernon, the company received a 10-year, $1.4 million loan from the city, through its Redevelopment Commission and Tax-Increment Financing funds. Since the loan was issued, repayments to the city have been irregular. Shawn Gerkin, North Vernon Clerk-Treasurer, says that the money the city has received has essentially been enough to cover the interest payments, leaving the $1.4 million balance largely intact. Part of the loan agreement includes a scheduled balloon-payment of several hundred-thousand-dollars, which is due in late-August.

Bates explained to the council that the balloon-payment was part of the problem in getting Windstream’s financial house in order. He said that he is working with a law-firm out of Raleigh, N.C. to restructure the company. Bates said that the payment due in August, along with the company’s stock price, is making it difficult to attract investors. Bates said that, while investors like the products being manufactured, they get spooked when they learn about the company’s financial situation. He went on to say that the North Carolina law-firm has a track record in helping companies in similar positions. Bates added that the immediate goal is to restructure and make Windstream “look presentable” to investors, adding that the company’s stock price does not accurately reflect the financial health of the business.

While not directly stating that the company will be unable to make the balloon-payment, it was alluded to enough that council members discussed the possibility of postponing it. That, after Bates suggested that a delay of up to two years would give his company ample time to take the steps needed to correct its course. Council members agreed that they would need to discuss the issue with the Redevelopment Commission before any possible changes to the loan agreement could be implemented.

Bates told the council that he understood and thanked the members, and the city as a whole, for their patience. He said that, while the loan repayment hasn’t gone as he has liked, Windstream Technologies has been an economic positive for North Vernon and all of Jennings County. Bates said that since the business opened locally, over $9 million in business has been done locally, counting property taxes, payroll and payments to vendors.

Bates went on to say that he wants to honor the agreement and do right by the council and the city. He says that he has been rejecting calls from advisors to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bates added that the company has every intention of meeting its obligations, but he needs a little more help from the city.

A traffic stop in North Vernon led to the arrest three people Sunday evening.

A spokesperson with the North Vernon Police Department says that, at 7:09 p.m., officers stopped a vehicle for speeding in the area of South State Street. After an investigation, police reportedly arrested 31-year-old Marshall Wilson and 29-year-old Jessica Neukam, both of North Vernon, along with a male juvenile. According to police, charges include Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of a Hypodermic Needle and Possession of a Look-Alike Narcotic.

North Vernon Police say that the juvenile was released into the custody of a legal guardian.