The city of Columbus recently announced that Hope native Mikala Brown has started working with the city as redevelopment project coordinator.

Brown will be responsible for coordinating the department’s various public and private improvement projects. She will also serve as a community advocate for awareness of redevelopment issues.

Brown is a 2017 graduate of IUPUC, where she earned a bachelors’ degree in Business with a dual concentration in Management and Finance. She received the IUPUC Chancellor Scholar award, which goes to the student with the highest GPA. Since 2020, she has owned and operated Cedar Spring Farm LLC in Hope, a local event solutions provider.

The Bartholomew County Health Department will be having a free COVID-19 clinic Monday at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fair.

Both the Pfizer and the Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be offered at the clinic which will be held in the sheriff’s department tent at the fairgrounds. The clinic is for those 12 and older and walk-in patients are welcome.

A free gift will also be given with each vaccination.

The clinic will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Monday.

The city of Columbus has finally ended its lease with the Subway restaurant in The Commons.

The owners of the restaurant, Estep and Co., told the Columbus Redevelopment Commission at the end of last year that they were closing the restaurant and sought to end the lease with the city. The redevelopment commission agreed in January to begin the process of ending the lease.

At this week’s meeting of the commission, city attorney Stan Gamso, said that the paperwork had finally been processed by the Subway corporate headquarters, allowing the lease to be terminated. The big hold up was confusion on the part of the corporate office over who the lease holder was in Columbus. The Columbus Redevelopment Commission became responsible for managing the leases in the city-owned restaurant spaces after the dissolution of Downtown Columbus Inc., a non-profit corporation the city created to find tenants for those spaces.

The Subway lease in the Commons had been signed in 2011, and had been renewed after the first 5-year term for about $2,800 a month. However the commission suspended all rents for its restaurant tenants during the pandemic through the end of June.

Heather Pope, the city’s redevelopment director, said that the restaurant owners have paid the utilities and property taxes. The restaurant equipment is expected to be removed by the end of the month.

Photo courtesy Carol M. Highsmith, from the Library of Congress collection.

Columbus Scottish Festival organizers are announcing that the festival will not be held this year, due to the loss of major financial support.

On social media, the festival organizers announced that while they look forward to continuing to share Scottish culture in southern Indiana, presenting a full festival this year would jeopardize their ability to present the festival in the years ahead. They said that the not-for-profit organization relies on grants, sponsorships and entry fees for funding.

On the normal festival weekend, Sept. 11th and 12th, there will be virtual festival programming through the group’s Facebook page.

You can get more information at scottishfestival.org.

A Butlerville man is under arrest after Jennings County deputies found a stolen catalytic converter in his vehicle during a traffic stop.

The sheriff’s department reports that a deputy pulled over an SUV in Geneva Township at about 6:46 p.m. Monday evening for a traffic violation. Deputies discovered that the driver, 40-year-old Travis Groce had a suspended driver’s license. A search of the vehicle revealed the stolen exhaust part, as well as methamphetamine.

Groce was arrested on preliminary charges of theft of precious metals, possession of methamphetamine and driving while suspended.

State Road 3 in Decatur County will be closing for a few days while a culvert is replaced, weather permitting.

INDOT says that the highway will close between Decatur County Road 650N and County Road 800N today and is expected to reopen by Friday. The detour will take Interstate 74 to State Road 244.

The work is part of the ongoing asphalt resurfacing project on State Road 3 between I-74 and the Rush County line.

Legal Aid is holding a Free Legal Aid Phone Clinic from 3 to 5:30 p.m. this afternoon

Legal Aid offers the clinics for low-income residents of its eight-county district.

If you take part you will have a brief consultation with a volunteer attorney to answer general questions, to offer legal information or to receive other advice over the phone.

To take part, you must first register between noon and 2 today by calling 812-378-0358.

Columbus police are looking for information after a man was beaten with a baseball bat, leaving him in critical condition.

The incident happened near the public restrooms and playground at Lincoln Park at about 7:40 p.m. Saturday evening. The victim was taken to an Indianapolis hospital intensive care unit.

If you saw the incident, you are urged to contact Detective Sergeant Matt Martindale at 812-376-2631. Tips and information can be submitted anonymously.

A Seymour motorcyclist was seriously injured in a Sunday afternoon crash.

Indiana State Police say 45-year-old Jeremy Longbrake was riding on US 31, south of US 50, when an SUV pulled out in front of him. Longbrake hit the side of the SUV and was thrown from his cycle. He was not wearing a helmet.

He was flown to University of Louisville Medical Center by Stat Flight Medical Helicopter.

The driver of the SUV, 83-year-old William Gordon of Avon, was uninjured.

Photo courtesy of Indiana State Police.

A foundation has offered a $500,000 challenge grant to a local group trying to preserve a historic Columbus church clock tower.

The Jeffris Family Foundation based in Janesville, Wisconsin has offered a $1 match for every $2 pledged for the project to repair the tower at First Christian Church.

The Foundation focuses on projects of national significance in smaller communities in the Midwest. The tower would be the 11th National Historic Landmarks preservation project for the foundation.

The church tower, along with the church, was designed by Eliel Saarinen, in 1942. Since then it has had four major renovations, the last in 1976. Repair costs are estimated at $2.4 million.

The church, with its iconic tower, was the first Modernist architecture project in Columbus.

First Christian Church will be kicking of its local fundraising efforts to save the church tower with an event Wednesday.

The Save Our Tower Campaign event will be at 4 on Wednesday at the church at 531 Fifth Street. It will include a presentation on the church history and a guided architecture tour of the church by J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program Director T. Kelly Wilson.