State Road 58 in Jackson and Lawrence Counties will be closing for up to three months starting on Sunday for a series of three small drainage structure replacements between State Road 135 and State Road 446.

INDOT says the road will close on Sunday in Jackson County for up to 30 days about 12 miles east of State Road 446 between Jackson County Roads 550W and 650W. That is over an unnamed tributary to South Fork Salt Creek.

Also in Jackson County, the road will close for about 30 days starting in early June about 10 miles east of State Road 446, between Pike Road and County Road 980W.

The final closing in Lawrence County will start in early July. The schedule is dependent on the weather.

INDOT says that access will remain open for local residents, but through traffic should take a different route. The official detour will take State Road 446, U.S. 50 and State Road 135.

Five Star Company is the contractor for the $1 million dollar project.

INDOT says you should slow down, drive without distractions and be alert for worker safety in all construction zones.

A North Vernon man was arrested recently on drug dealing charges after large amounts of marijuana and its byproducts were found by deputies.

The Jennings County Sheriff’s Department announced yesterday that deputies opened an investigation on April 15th into an illegal drugs enterprise after recovering 124 pounds of marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, three pounds of THC resin, THC edibles and other items indicating a large distribution operation.

That investigation led police to serve search warrants on a home in Geneva Township and a storage unit. Authorities say that they recovered more marijuana, THC wax, THC edibles, THC vapes, packaging materials and more than $40,000 in cash.

The total value was estimated at more than half a million dollars.

47-year-old Christopher Unsworth was arrested on preliminary charges for possessing the marijuana and for dealing in marijuana.

The Bartholomew Consolidated School Board celebrated the winner of this year’s Edna V. Folger Outstanding Teacher award at the board meeting last night — first grade teacher Jennifer Ryshavy of Taylorsville Elementary School.

Marsha VanNahmen, assistant director at the Center for Teaching and Learning at IUPUC, explains this year’s choice for the award:

Each year since 1983, an educator at a public, private or parochial school in Bartholomew County has received the award, meant to raise awareness about the influence teachers have on their students and to recognize the image of teachers as important community role models.

The award is sponsored by the IUPUC Center for Teaching and Learning, the Community Education Coalition and SIHO.

Bartholomew County will be going with a Bloomington company to complete a $2 million dollar upgrade to the county jail’s heating and cooling systems.

The County Commissioners chose Harrell-Fish of Bloomington for the project yesterday, and also authorized four alternates for the project that would bring the total cost of just under $2 million dollars. The most expensive of the alternates was a proposal to replace the boilers in the more recent jail expansion at a cost of about $74,000. The other alternates include temporary boiler connections, clean the administration area duct work and to provide HVAC building controls.

Josh Apling with DLZ Engineering said that the bids did come in higher than originally anticipated when the project was designed in December, but that it also tracks with the rising costs of other project bids in recent months. County Commissioner Tony London said that during the original planning, the county was expecting to pay $1.2 million for the work.

Commissioners received two quotes for the work, when they opened bids last week, with the second and more expensive coming from Dunlap and Co. of Columbus. The Harrell-Fish base bid was just over $1.86 million.

Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said the county expects that the contractors will find difficulties during the work in the old and new sections of the jail. He warned that the project managers would need to keep an eye out for any expensive change orders during the project, that could push the price over the budgeted amount.

The project is estimated to take 9 to 10 months to complete. The county budgeted $1.3 million for the project to come from federal COVID-19 relief funds instead of the county general funds.

The National Weather Service in Indianapolis says that there is a chance of frost tonight for central and southern Indiana.

The greatest chance for frost tonight will be north of Lafayette, Muncie and Kokomo. But south central Indiana could see areas of patchy frost with lows of 34 expected in Greensburg and 35 in Columbus, Seymour and Bloomington.

The weather service warns that frost could kill sensitive outdoor plants if they are left uncovered. You should take steps today to protect tender vegetation from the cold.

The frost advisory is in effect from 2 to 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Frost on leaves image courtesy of www.mccormick.northwestern.edu

A pitch competition for local entrepreneurs organized by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce is returning this week.

Ignite Columbus will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Helen Haddad Hall at the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic headquarters on Franklin Street.

The event allows local innovators and would-be entrepreneurs to hone their idea-pitching skills. Participants will have to give their 5-minute pitches with a series of 20 slides that will advance relentlessly every 15 seconds.

The event will include cash awards, including a People’s Choice Award, Most Enlightening Award and Most Innovative.

The event is free and you are invited to attend. You can find a link to register here.

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

Legal Aid offers the clinics for low-income residents of its eight-county district. That includes Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Jackson, Jennings, Johnson, Rush, and Shelby Counties.

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 p.m. Tuesday by calling 812-378-0358.

Columbus city officials say there is still time to buy engraved bricks for the 1821 Bicentennial People Trail expansion along First Street.

The first order of bricks arrived recently, but you can still order bricks through May.

Bricks are 4 inches by 8 inches and you can have up to three lines of text with a maximum of 16 characters per line. That includes spaces and punctuation. Each engraved brick is selling for $100. They will be placed in the paving for the trail expansion that is being built along First Street from Water Street to Lafayette Avenue.

You can find a submission form here.

If you have any questions, you can call Robin Hilber at 812-376-2522.

The Indiana National Guard says the Guardian Response Exercise will be returning to Muscatatuck Urban Training Center this week

The federal emergency response exercise simulates a national emergency in order to test the preparedness of federal emergency response teams. The training center will simulate a community hit by a disaster.

There will be an increase of traffic in the area, both on local roads and in the air. You could see delays of 10-15 minutes with large convoys of vehicles or troops moving in the area. The base will not be closing Brush Creek Reservoir and County Road 475 this year.

Lt. Col. Stephen Spencer, Muscatatuck Urban Training Center’s director, said this is the 13th year for the base to host the event. He said that “This is the kind of training Muscatatuck was created for and we are proud to do our part to ensure America’s military and first responders are prepared for every situation.”

The exercise will be Tuesday to May 11th.

A woman was arrested last week in Jennings County, accused of a shooting during a domestic dispute.

Jennings County Sheriff’s Department reports that deputies were called to County Road 610W late Thursday evening about a man being shot.

Police found the victim walking in the roadway. He had a superficial injury to his right shoulder. The victim was taken to an area hospital where he was treated and released.

Deputies were dispatched to the home where they secured the scene and arrested 60-year-old Karen Thayer on preliminary charges of criminal recklessness with a firearm and domestic battery.