A scrapbooking store in downtown Nashville is being called a total loss after a fire last night.

Few details are available this morning, but the owner of the Wishful Thinking Store at the corner of Pittman House Lane and South Old School Way posted on social media this morning that she was alerted at about 10:15 p.m. last night that the store was on fire. She said that when she arrived on scene it was obvious the store was a total loss.

Brown County Volunteer Fire Department fought the fire at the shop and a neighboring business last night. Photos from the fire department show the front of the building, including the porch and stairs, engulfed in flames.

Assisting at the scene were Fruitdale, Jackson Township, Southern Brown, and Hamblen Township fire departments, along with IU Health Lifeline and the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Photos courtesy of Brown County Volunteer Fire Department.

First Financial Bank is announcing that is has provided more than $3.9 million in donations and more than 11,700 volunteer hours last year throughout the four states it serves.

The bank has a long-term mission to act as a positive influence and to help its clients and communities to thrive.

“First Financial and our associates believe strongly in helping our communities to grow and become stronger, and we’re thankful for our combined dedication to community service and the benefits it delivers,” said Roddell McCullough, chief corporate responsibility officer for First Financial Bank.

In the greater Indianapolis area, First Financial contributed more than $350,000 in donations and more than 1,100 volunteer hours last year.

The bank’s Community Benefits Agreement for 2018-22 called for donations of $8.5 million. Its donations during the 5-year period have already passed $14.9 million.

The bank also has a Give First program for its employees, which offers 8 hours of paid time off for full-time associates to pursue volunteer activities during work hours.

The company operates in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois and is headquartered in Cincinnati.

The Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce is celebrating entrepreneurship with what it is calling Innovation Week this week.

Among the highlights will be a luncheon today with Elevate Ventures CEO Chris LaMothe. Elevate Ventures builds the entrepreneur culture in Indiana by developing high-potential, high-growth businesses, so far investing in more than 450 Hoosier companies.

The Columbus Area Chamber partnered with Elevate Ventures in 2019 in  the Velocities project that also included the Dimension Mill in Bloomington. Through Velocities, local companies have received direct investment, programming and mentoring from the Velocities Entrepreneur in Residence.

The lunch will be at 11:30 a.m. today at The Commons and will include a boxed lunch. The cost is $40 and registration is required. You can register at business.columbusareachamber.com/events/calendar.

Correction: The date of the clinic was incorrect in an earlier version of this article.

The Indiana Immunization Coalition will be holding a community immunization clinic from 9 to 11 a.m. in the morning on April 2nd at Taylorsville Elementary School in the cafeteria

You should bring your insurance card as the coalition will accept and bill all insurance carriers.

Everyone who takes part will be vaccinated with all of the CDC recommended vaccines. The clinic will consult the state immunization registry to see what vaccines you are missing.

You can register online at patients.vaxcare.com/registration and use the enrollment code IN 65942.

The Louisville & Indiana Railroad will be closing lanes in downtown Columbus Tuesday night for several hours while crews repair the railroad crossing.

INDOT says that the railroad will be doing the work on westbound Third Street or State Road 46 near Lindsey Street.

The railroad will be closing two lanes at a time, leaving one lane open at all times while the work is in progress. You can expect restrictions to go into effect at about 8 p.m. Tuesday evening.

The work should last two to three hours. The schedule is dependent on the weather and will be rescheduled if there is inclement weather.

Friday night’s storm that brought tornado warnings to Jackson County, led to a tornado hitting the town square in Salem.

The National Weather Service is confirming an EF-1 tornado with winds of 105 mph touched down in Washington County Friday night at 8:06 p.m., uprooting hard wood trees, damaging roofs and throwing a carport hundreds of feet.

After traveling about five and a half miles, the tornado damaged two businesses northwest of the county courthouse before lifting off the ground at 8:14 p.m., just north of the town square.

Photo: Friday night tornado damage in Washington County. Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s Department.

Cummins is announcing that it will suspend all of its commercial operations in Russia, because of the war on Ukraine.

The company said that the board of directors made the decision Thursday to suspend the operations and the company is “now taking steps to wind down operations expeditiously.”

Cummins strongly condemns the actions of the Russian government, saying it is putting millions of innocent people at risk and turning millions of Ukrainian citizens into refugees.

“This decision is very difficult for our employees affected in Russia, our company, our communities, and our customers,” according to a statement from the company. “We have deep care and concern for our employees and are making every effort to minimize the impact on them. We are evaluating the best ways to support our employees during this difficult time in accordance with local laws and regulations.”

The company has about 700 employees in Russia.

Cummins also outlined its charitable relief efforts in the area:

• To provide immediate assistance for short-term emergency refugee needs, Cummins is starting with $250,000 in fast-tracked grants.
• Cummins is working with community organizations, especially in Romania and Poland, to determine how to assist as the refugees arrive in new communities.
• Employees around the world are working with the companies grant-making partner GlobalGiving, which has launched a Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund. All donations to the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund will support humanitarian assistance in impacted communities in Ukraine and surrounding regions where Ukrainian refugees have fled.

The Tannehill Road bridge over Interstate 65 in northern Bartholomew County is set to close for about six months, starting on Friday, April 1st.

INDOT says that Milestone Contractors will be the crews working on the $2 million project to replace the superstructure on the bridge.

You will see lanes closed on the Interstate at night next Wednesday and Thursday as crews set up barrier walls, closing the shoulders of the highway under the bridge. That work will be between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Starting April 2nd and continuing April 10th, there will be rolling slow-downs on the Interstate from 9 p.m. on Saturdays to 11 a.m. on Sundays while the bridge is demolished.

Tannehill Road is expected to reopen by the end of October. During the construction,  traffic will be detoured to County Road 280W, County Road 700W, Heflin Park Road and U.S. 31.

INDOT asks you to use extra caution,  to drive without distractions, and to be alert for workers when you are driving through construction zones. The schedule is dependent on the weather.

The Columbus Area Visitors Center is offering grants to support 2022 events, with the next application deadline coming up next month.

According to the center, grants are intended to develop events such as festivals which generate out-of-county visitor spending in Bartholomew County. Awards will be made for events taking place this year and must be submitted prior to the event.

Applications for the next grant cycle are due April 15th.

If you have an event and are interested in applying for a grant, you can request an application by calling  the Visitors Center at 812-378-2622 or by email at [email protected].

An IUPUC professor has received a grant from the Indianapolis Zoo to study threatened and endangered mayfly species in Indiana.

The grant will support IUPUC Associate Professor of Biology Luke Jacobus’ research and monitoring of 12 threatened or endangered mayfly species that have not been found in Indiana for 50 years or more. One of the species has not been seen here in 190 years.

Jacobus said that 37 species of mayflies are listed as threatened or endangered in Indiana. He will go on 11 collecting expeditions to search for the mayfly species in at least 15 locations to evaluate current habitat conditions.

He says “This project will help us know which species really are in trouble and which ones are thought to be scarce simply because nobody has looked in the right place at the right time.”

The college announced this week that the grant is part of a $350,000 zoo program to support conservation programs.