An Edinburgh family escaped a tragic house fire on Christmas Day. The Edinburgh Fire Department was dispatched to a house fire just after 3 p.m. on Friday.

While en route, crews were notified that there might be a child inside the home but that turned out not to be true. Firefighters initiated a primary search and gave an “all-clear” as that nobody was in the house.

Emergency crews knocked down the blaze which was located mainly in a back bedroom area. However, there was smoke damage throughout the home.

No injuries were reported.

The Edinburgh Police Department, which also responded to the fire, said the family lost a lot in the blaze and local residents are trying to put together some way of helping them. Contact the Fire Department if you would like to donate clothing or other items to the victims.

Local government offices are closing down for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

The Bartholomew County Landfill will be closing at 1 p.m. on Christmas Eve and will be closed both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, according to the Bartholomew County Solid Waste Management District.

The Columbus and Bartholomew County Recycling Center on Mapleton Street will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Columbus city offices will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. However trash and recycling routes will run on their normal schedules on Dec. 24th and Dec. 31st. There will be no trash or recycling pickups on Christmas day or New Year’s day. Normal Friday routes will be delayed until Saturday.

Columbus City Utilities offices will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. If you have a problem with your water or sewer service, you can call the business office at 812-372-8861 and follow the prompts.

Two area businesses have been chosen for the third round of Indiana Manufacturing Readiness grants, announced yesterday by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

The agency in partnership with Conexus Indiana announced $1.5 million dollars in grants to 31 Indiana businesses under the governor’s Economic Activity Stabilization and Enhancement program. The grants are meant to stimulate manufacturing investment and position the state for future growth.

FosTecH Inc. of Jackson County is receiving $44,222 to put in place a new manufacturing control system that lets customers customize individual products. The company manufactures firearm products for civilians, military and law enforcement customers.

Poolguard of Jennings County was awarded $56,250 to increase its productivity and capacity to meet the increased demand the company is seeing during the pandemic. The company manufactures swimming pool safety devices and builds its own electronic printed circuit boards.

After a lull in Monday’s report of COVID-19 deaths, the Indiana State Department of Health is now reporting a record number of deaths from the disease in the state with yesterday’s update.

The state is adding 143 new deaths to the tally, up one from the high hit earlier this month. However the newly reported deaths happened between Nov. 10th and Monday. The state is now reporting 72 hundred and 44 deaths from the disease.

December could soon surpass November as the deadliest month for COVID-19 in Indiana. The coronavirus killed 982 people during the first 21 days of November. Through December 21st, 1,469 Hoosiers died of COVID-19. As of yesterday, the virus was killing an average of 69 Indiana residents per day.

Of the counties in our area, Johnson County is reporting six new deaths, while Bartholomew, Jennings and Decatur counties are each reporting one new death.

Bartholomew County had 38 new cases reported, Decatur 9, Jennings 11, Jackson 32, Brown 4, Johnson 137 and Shelby County 27.

Statewide there were 3,258 new cases reported with a 7-day positivity rate of 12.2 percent. The total since the pandemic began in Indiana is 471,876 cases.

Bartholomew Consolidated Schools will start the new year with in-person, five-day-a-week teaching for elementary students and with what they are calling a hybrid model of in-person and online learning for secondary students. That is a move back from the all e-learning program that has been in place for weeks.

At the middle and high school level, students would attend part of the week in class and part in e-learning, depending on the letters of their last name. A to K students would be in person Mondays and Tuesdays, while L through Z students would be in person Thursdays and Fridays. Should the county drop into the red level on the Indiana State Department of Health rankings, elementary school students would follow the same model.

The school district announced yesterday that it will continue daily to evaluate and discuss the local situation with local medical professionals including the Bartholomew County Health Department and Columbus Regional Health.

Families that have already signed up for the full-time e-learning, or Bridge program, will continue with distance learning.

The district says there are no restrictions on travel during the winter break, but they encourage staying home if you have had direct contact within the last 14 days with someone experiencing symptoms or who has been diagnosed with COVID-19. Or if you yourself has shown any of the symptoms.

If you do come down with COVID-19, the district asks that you call to report cases during the winter break at 812-314-3867.

The new semester starts on January 5th.

Three more deaths were reported in area counties from COVID-19 yesterday, with only 31 deaths reported across the state in the newest update from the Indiana State Department of Health. Those deaths dated from Friday through Sunday.

Under those newly reported numbers, Shelby, Johnson and Decatur counties each had a single death from the disease. Bartholomew County had 55 new cases reported, Decatur 10, Jennings 19, Jackson 35, Brown 41, Johnson 110 and Shelby County 28.

Statewide there were 3,978 new cases reported with a 7-day positivity rate of 12.2 percent. That is the first time since the first week of November that the state has reported fewer than 4,000 new cases. The total since the pandemic began in Indiana is 468,219 cases, with 7,101 deaths and a total of nearly 5.3 million tests given.

Hospitals across the state say 75-percent of the ICU beds they’ve designated for the coronavirus are full.