The Better Business Bureau is reporting a rise in the number of complaints about fake utility company scams in central Indiana. There have been reports of people impersonating internet, cable TV or electric company representatives as a way to scam you out of your money.

The bureau says that people are calling claiming to be with the utility companies and the calls can appear legitimate down to the Caller ID and even the hold music they use on the calls. But the callers want to trick you into making a quick payment using pre-paid debit cards or gift cards over the phone.

Legitimate companies will never ask you to make a payment using a pre-paid card or gift card. If someone unexpected shows up at your door claiming to be with a utility company, check their ID and call the utility directly to find out if they are a real employee.

Better Business Bureau Serving Central Indiana website

Columbus police are looking for your help finding a man who attacked a woman at Mill Race Park over the weekend.

Police say that a woman was inside a restroom at Mill Race park at about 9:45 Saturday morning when she was grabbed by a man she didn’t know. He ran from the restroom a short time later.

Witnesses said the man was white with an average build and between 5-10 and 6 feet tall. He was wearing shorts and a dirt-bike style helmet. He drove a black moped and left the park through its north entrance.

Police say that if you have any information, you should contact the Columbus Police Department at 812-376-2600. Tips and information can be left anonymously.

The chiefs of the 10 volunteer fire departments in Bartholomew County will be holding their first joint fundraiser tomorrow, as a way to raise money for training.

The Bartholomew County Fire Chiefs Association will be holding a fish fry at the Hog Molly Brewing Co., from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday. That is at 830 Depot Street in Columbus

Columbus Township Fire and Rescue Department Chief Dave Thompson explains:

Thompson says that volunteer fire departments have a hard time finding funds for training.

You can choose a fish or tenderloin dinner with sides Thompson said. The dinner itself will be a free will donation. The brewery will also be donating its locally made beers with a portion of sales going into the firefighter’s education fund.

State legislators are looking for your thoughts, as they begin to redraw state legislative and congressional maps.

Legislators will be holding a series of meeting at Ivy Tech campuses around the state starting in early August to discuss their plans for redrawing those district maps. The redistricting process happens every 10 years after the completion of the U.S. Census and affects the maps for the U.S. House, Indiana House and Indiana Senate.

There will be meetings in each of the state’s nine congressional districts, with one set for the Ivy Tech Community College Campus in Columbus from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday Aug. 6th. It will be led by State Sen. Jon Ford, a Terre Haute Republican.

The Purdue Extension Board in Bartholomew County is looking for volunteers interested in serving on the county plan commission.

The commission considers subdivisions and rezoning of properties in the county, among other responsibilities dealing with land development. It meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 8:30 a.m. in the morning.

The position is open to anyone who is a landowner in the county who has an agricultural interest.

Applications are available at the Purdue Extension- Bartholomew County Office at 783 S. Marr Rd. in Columbus or by email at [email protected]

Applications are due by August 27th.

Ivy Tech Community College will be offering virtual express enrollment days for the upcoming semester Monday through Friday, next week

During the online appointment, participants will receive assistance with assessment, meeting with an advisor, and registering for classes.

Classes for the August semester will start on August 18th . Hundreds of classes are available in multiple formats.

The virtual appointments can be scheduled from 9a.m.  to 6 p.m. each day.

To take part you need to RSVP online at IvyTech.edu/EEDay

The legal team for Breonna Taylor’s family is taking the case of a Louisville woman who died while in police custody in Jackson County last week.

Attorney Sam Aguiar says he and his team are taking the case of Ta’Neasha Chappell. The 23-year-old died at a hospital in Seymour on Friday after being taken there by ambulance from the Jackson County Jail.

Chappell was originally arrested after an incident at the Premium Outlet Mall in Edinburgh, accused of leading Indiana State Police on a 100-mph chase almost to the state line.

A theft from a store in the mall was reported to authorities on May 26th. Indiana State Police caught up with the vehicle near the Seymour exit on Interstate 65 southbound about 15 minutes later. The trooper stopped the vehicle and began to take Chappell into custody. But Chappell pulled away from the officer, got back into the vehicle and took off, headed south on the interstate at speeds of more than 100 mph.

Chappell’s vehicle eventually hit the rear of a truck near Clarksville, disabling the car in the median.

After the crash, Chappell was taken to Schneck Medical Center to be checked out before being arrested on numerous felony and misdemeanor charges related to resisting law enforcement.

She had been held in the Jackson County Jail since her arrest.

Indiana State Police are investigating Chappell’s death.

With information from our news-gathering partners at TTWN Media Networks Inc. 

Columbus East High School Food Pantry will be distributing food from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday .

You can drive up to receive pre-bagged collections of food. There will be enough food on hand for about 200 families.

School officials say that is a new start time that will be in effect for the rest of this school year.

The Columbus East Food Pantry is available to the entire community and is not limited to Bartholomew Consolidated Schools families.

The pickup point is at door 31 in the west parking lot behind the school near the tennis courts.

Organizers of Hope Heritage Days have announced a theme for this year’s festival, held annually in the northeastern Bartholomew County town.

HSJ Online, the Hope news website, is reporting that this year’s theme will be “A Year of Hope.” Organizers said that will reflect a year of Covid-19 related fear, closure and quarantine.

Last year’s Hope Heritage Days was cancelled due to the pandemic. This year’s event will be held the last full weekend in September, the 24th, 25th and 26th.

Heritage of Hope, which organizes the annual festival, has undergone a large turnover in its board of directors. Many announced last year that they were stepping down. According to the news site, the new board includes Jake Miller as CEO, Chad Miller as president of the festival and bandstand division and Matt Lee as vice president, Jessica Brown as treasurer and Jenni Richards as secretary and overseeing the food booths.

Indiana State Police are joining with their fellow state troopers in five states to crack down this week on those who do not change lanes for emergency vehicles.

Through Saturday, Indiana troopers along with officers from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will have heightened enforcement of their states’ Move Over / Slow Down law.

When you are driving by a stationary police, fire or medical emergency vehicle stopped on the side of a highway, you are required to change lanes away from the vehicle, or to reduce your speed to 10 mph below the posted speed limit, if you can’t safely change lanes. Indiana passed its law in 1999, the first state in the nation to pass such a law.

Indiana’s law has since been expanded to include vehicles for recovery, utility service, solid waste haulers, road and street highway maintenance, as well as survey or construction, when they are stopped and displaying flashing amber lights.