The newest Columbus police officer was sworn in yesterday during the city’s Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.
Officer Zachary Romero is a graduate of Seymour High School and served as a corporal in the Marine Corps Romero most recently worked at Valeo in Seymour.
Columbus police say that Romero will begin orientation and in service training with the police department. He will attend the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy later this year.
You will have another chance to talk virtually with your local legislators next week.
The Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce will be holding the second Third House session of the year Monday morning from 8 to 9 a.m. on Zoom.
Chamber president Cindy Frey explains:
Frey said that the switch to virtual has meant more people can participate.
In some ways, the virtual version of Third House is better than the in-person version of previous years, Frey said.
You can get more information at columbusareachamber.com.
Columbus is patching a hole in its budget for Fair Oaks Mall after COVID-19 related workplace changes affected Cummins plans.
Jamie Brinegar, the city’s director of finance, explained at this week’s City Council meeting that the company has been one of the major tenants at the mall, turning the former Goody’s store into spillover office space for its workers.
But Cummins declined to renew its lease on January 30th, Brinegar said. The loss of the tenant means an expected loss of up to $225,000 thousand dollars in revenue, Brinegar said. Because of the 75/25 cost-sharing arrangement the city has with its partner in the mall, Columbus Regional Hospital, that will mean a hit to the city of about $150,000 thousand dollars, Brinegar said.
Mary Ferdon, director of administration for the city, said the city is actively trying to find new tenants for mall spaces to offset the loss of Cummins.
Columbus City Council approved the additional appropriation as part of a package of COVID-19 related budget changes this week. The money will come from economic development income tax revenues.
You can expect some slick roads in spots out there this morning.
All of our area counties remain under travel restrictions. Brown, Jackson and Jennings counties are under a travel watch this morning, which means only essential travel, such as to and from work or in emergency situations, is recommended. Bartholomew, Johnson, Shelby and Decatur counties are all under a travel advisory, the lowest level of travel restrictions.
The National Weather Service in Indianapolis is reporting a return to bitterly cold temperatures tonight, with real temperatures near 4, but winds of 5 to 7 mph will push the wind chill values below zero. You can expect a wintry mix of rain and snow over the weekend, with our area mostly getting rain.
Two Bartholomew County Commissioners have been hit with COVID-19 and the entire commissioners office is quarantining.
The Republic newspaper is reporting this morning that County Commissioners President Larry Kleinhenz and Commissioner Tony London both have tested positive for COVID-19.
Kleinhenz told the newspaper that he had been feeling poorly, including a fever and trouble breathing. London said he had only mild symptoms, including fatigue.
The Centers for Disease Control recommends staying home for 14 days after you have had close contact with a person who has had COVID-19. The federal agency figures close contact as being within six feet of someone with COVID-19 for 15 minutes or more. If you had direct physical contact with the person, shared eating or drinking utensils, or if the person sneezed, coughed or otherwise got respiratory droplets on you, you also are considered to have been in close contact.
You can read more about the commissioners COVID-19 cases at therepublic.com
Ivy Tech Community College Columbus Campus and Greensburg Community High School will be featuring their partnership in an upcoming statewide podcast.
According to the school, an upcoming episode of the college’s ‘Our College, Your Voice” podcast will be focused on the path high school students can take through Ivy Tech to earn college credits. The schools have a program called Indiana College Core, where high school students can take a list of Ivy Tech classes while still in high school, that will transfer to any Indiana four-year university or college. Students who take part in the program will start college as a sophomore.
In addition to school officials, the podcast will feature student Ella Tungate. She is a recent Greensburg Community High School graduate who took part in the program. She is now studying radiology and plans to do a field experience at Columbus Regional Hospital.
.The podcast will be available on all major podcasting services on February 25th.
For more information about the Indiana College Core program, visit ivytech.edu/gen-ed-transfer-core/.
A brother and sister from Hope have been arrested after an incident where a pregnant woman was battered during a domestic disturbance.
The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department arrested 19-year-old Autumn Purtlebaugh and 18-year-old Ean Purtlebaugh after an incident earlier this month in Taylorsville. According to police reports, the Purtlebaughs went to a home in Taylorsville uninvited and got into a fight with the residents there.
Ean Purtlebaugh is accused of hitting and strangling a man in the Mulberry Street home, while Autumn Purtlebaugh allegedly spit on and attacked a pregnant woman, causing injuries to the victim.
Ean Purtlebaugh is facing charges of strangulation and domestic battery. Autumn Purtlebaugh is facing preliminary charges of burglary, battery on a pregnant woman resulting in injury, battery in the presence of a minor and battery by bodily waste.
Columbus Clerk-Treasurer Luann Welmer is announcing her plans to run for chairwoman of the Bartholomew County Republican party.
Last month, long-time party chairwoman Barb Hackman announced that she was stepping down from the position she has held since 2013.
Welmer has been elected clerk-treasurer in 2011, 2015 and again in 2019 and has also served as the Bartholomew County Republican Party treasurer for eight years.
Welmer also announced a slate of officers she would be bringing with her to the chairwoman role, if chosen by county Republicans, That includes Josh Burnett as vice chair, Leah Beyer as secretary, and Liana Lienhoop as treasurer.
County Republicans will be gathering at YES Cinema on March 6th to choose Hackman’s replacement.
The Bartholomew County Coroner’s office saw significant increases in homicides and overdoses last year, but the largest increase was in the number of natural deaths investigated in the county.
The coroner’s office released its annual report for 2020 this week, which showed 31 deaths from overdoses, an increase over the previous record of 30 set in 2017. According to County Coroner Clayton Nolting, there were five homicides last year in the county, up from the one in 2017, none in 2018 and two in 2019.
But the number of natural deaths investigated by the coroner’s office increased to 125 last year compared to 94 in both 2017 and 2018, and 89 in 2019.
According to Nolting’s report, there were some bright spots as the number of suicides decreased in 2020 from 16 the previous year to 12 last year. And there were no deaths of children to be investigated last year, compared to six in 2019 and 5 in each of the two prior years.
You can read the entire 2020 Bartholomew County Coroner’s Report here.
From our news-gathering partners at TTWN Media Networks Inc.
Longtime talk radio host Rush Limbaugh is dead. His wife Kathryn made the announcement.
The 70-year-old passed away after a year-long battle with advanced lung cancer, a diagnosis he revealed was terminal just months ago.
Since achieving radio syndication stardom in the late 80’s, he has grown into the most listened-to radio show in the U.S. Limbaugh opened up about his cancer battle late last year, admitting he wasn’t expecting to make it to December.
In February of 2020, President Trump awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his final State of the Union address.
Trump is remembering Rush Limbaugh after learning the conservative radio host passed away today.
Trump said he spoke with Limbaugh a couple of days ago by phone and noted he was fighting until the very end. Trump praised Limbaugh as a fantastic man and a fantastic talent. He said Limbaugh was very courageous during his battle with cancer and he wished he could have visited with Limbaugh in his final days, but that wasn’t possible.
Talk show host Sean Hannity says the conservative media landscape today would look a lot different if there was no Rush Limbaugh.
Hannity said there would be no talk radio, Fox News or other right-wing broadcasts if Limbaugh had not set the stage. He credited Limbaugh with putting the nation on a conservative course, saying he had changed the minds of generations of Americans.