Exhibit Columbus is outlining more details about its upcoming design installation preview event coming up on February 25th.

Exhibit Columbus, launched in 2016, has two-year cycles with a symposium hosted one year, and the installation of exhibits at landmarks around the city the next year. This year is an installation event. The theme for this year’s installations is Public by Design.

Activities will kick off with coffee and pastries from Lucabe Coffee at 8 a.m. followed by four sessions;

Session One 8:30 am – 10:45 am
Communication Design, Signals, Chris Grimley
PAU | Practice for Architecture and Urbanism
Molly Hunker and Greg Corso (Syracuse University)
Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Session Two 11:15 am – 12:45 pm
Jessica Colangelo and Charles Sharpless (University of Arkansas)
Halina Steiner, Tameka Baba, Forbes Lipschitz, and Shelby Doyle (The Ohio State University and Iowa State University)
Studio Zewde

Lunch 12:45 pm – 1:45 pm

Session Three 1:45 pm – 3:15 pm
PORT
Esteban Garcia Bravo and Maria Clara Morales (Purdue University)
High School Design Team

Session Four 3:45 pm – 5:30 pm
Deborah Garcia (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann (University of Virginia)
Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO

with the first starting at 8:30 a.m. and a second morning session starting at 11:15. After lunch provided by Fresh Take Kitchen, afternoon sessions will be at 1:45 and at 3:45, with the event ending at 5:30.

You will be able to preview the design concepts for the 13 installations that will open on August 26th this fall. Those will include the four J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipients, seven University Design Research Fellows, the High School Design Team, and Communication Designer. The designers will unveil their proposals and discuss the process that led to the designs.

The event will be held at The Commons in downtown Columbus.

You can get more information at exhibitcolumbus.org.

The 2023 Brown Music Competition was held over the weekend and winners were chosen for the Betty F. Brown and Anna Newell Brown scholarships.

According to Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, Columbus North Senior Darren Li won the Betty F. Brown Awards for Instrumental Excellence for his violin performances. North senior Molly Hotek won the Anna Newell Brown Awards for Vocal Excellence.

Both students will receive a $3,500 scholarship award.

22 students participated in the competition, with three seniors receiving instrumental awards and one senior vocalist receiving an award.

Instrumental

• Aislinn Tian, marimba, $2,000
• Grace Riordan, clarinet, $750
• Jacob Strietelmeier, piano, $750

Vocal

•  Ethan Burton, baritone, $1,000

Five underclass award winners were also chosen for instrumentalist and for vocalist.

Instrumental

• Jasmine Yang, piano, $1,700
• Ethan Deak, euphonium, $1,500
• Grace Huang, piano, $600
• Sreepadaarchana Munjuluri, violin, $600
• Rishabh Rajesh, share drum, $600

Vocal

• Gavin Foley, tenor, $2,500• Austin Clark, baritone, $2,000
• Amelia Maddox, mezzo, $1,000
• Annie Miller, alto, $500
• Kenzie Pendleton, soprano, $500

Saturday’s competition was held at the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic’s Helen Haddad Hall.

Photos courtesy of Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County

A pharmaceutical company is moving into a new shell building in northern Bartholomew County with plans to invest almost $11 million and to bring 10 new high-paying jobs with it.

Jason Hester, head of the Greater Columbus Economic Development Corporation, outlined the plans for Century Biopharma Services at Monday morning’s Bartholomew County Commissioners meeting. The company, based in Indianapolis serves 150 global pharmacy companies. The company plans to bring 10 new jobs here with an average wage of $32 per hour, according to paperwork filed with the county.

Hester said the company, through a subsidiary, SV Columbus, has purchased a shell building constructed by Force Construction. The 50,000 square foot empty building is on Executive Drive, north of County Road 800N. Hester said the company now is planning $9.8 million to finish the building and another $1.1 million in equipment.

The commissioners signed off on the plan and the company plans to ask for a tax break from the Bartholomew County Council at its meeting tonight. The tax abatement would allow the company to phase in property taxes on the equipment and construction over 10 years. Hester said even with the tax break, the company would still pay more than $600,000 in property taxes over the next 13 years.

Commissioners also approved the benefits statement for George Utz which is also seeking a tax abatement this evening on almost a $23 million investment. County Council meets at 6 tonight at the Governmental Office Building on Third Street.

Forecasters say it could be a windy day today, with a chance of strong wind gusts starting this evening and lasting through Wednesday morning.

The National Weather Service in Indianapolis says that we could see south winds of 15 to 25 mph along with gusts of up to 40 mph expected and some brief gusts approaching 50 mph.

You can expect the winds to blow around unsecured objects in your yard. Tree limbs could be blown down and there could be some power outages.

The strongest winds will be this evening and again tomorrow morning.

A wind advisory goes into effect at 4 p.m. today and lasts through 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Bartholomew County authorities are looking for an 11-year-old mildly autistic boy who has been missing since about 1:30 p.m. this afternoon.

According to Columbus Police Department, Ryder Newman was last seen in the 100 block of Jones Street in a red pedal car. He is mildly verbally autistic. He is a white boy, about 4 feet 7 inches tall and 65 to 70 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a camo hoodie, a blue under armor type undershirt, black pants with blue stripes and red shoes.

If you have any information you should call 911.

A suspect’s vehicle had to be recovered from a Sandy Hook neighborhood retention pond following a police chase Friday afternoon.

According to the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, a deputy stopped a vehicle near State Road 46 and East State Street at about 3:15 p.m. Friday afternoon, suspecting that the driver was 48-year-old Benjamin Munn of Flat Rock. Munn was wanted on an outstanding Shelby County warrant for failing to appear in court on a charge of possessing a firearm by a serious violent felon.

Deputies say that Munn sped away from the scene when he was ordered to get out of the vehicle. After a chase, the left the road near Taylor Road and Waycross Drive, went down an embankment and into a pond in the Sandy Hook neighborhood.

After coming ashore, Munn was first taken to Columbus Regional Hospital to be checked out then arrested on new charges including Resisting Law Enforcement, Criminal Mischief and r Reckless Driving as well as the outstanding Shelby County warrant.

The Bartholomew County Water Rescue Dive Team as well as Indiana conservation officers were called to the scene to recover the vehicle from the pond.

The Columbus Police Department is looking for public comments on its processes and procedures as part of its recertification process with a national board.

Since 2014, the police department has received certification from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement agencies, or CALEA. Accreditation is an ongoing four-year process where the department must show that it follows international guidelines for policing and organizational practices. Agencies must comply with standards in policy and procedures, administration, operations, and support services.

The overall intent of the accreditation process is to provide the participating agency with information to support continuous improvement, as well as to foster the pursuit of professional excellence.

On Friday, the department launched a public web portal to receive comments from residents. The department is looking for comments on its compliance with CALEA standards, engagement in the service community, delivery of public safety services, and overall candidacy for accredited status.

CALEA warns that it is not an investigatory body and the public portal should not be used to submit information for such purposes.

You can find a link on the Columbus Police Department website or here.

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A wanted man was arrested by Bartholomew County deputies serving a warrant late Thursday night but only after authorities threatened to use a police dog to make the arrest.

According to the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, deputies went to the Elkland Hills Trailer Park at about 11:12 p.m. Thursday night to serve an arrest warrant on 31-year-old Daniel Michael of Columbus, who was believed to be in a trailer there. Michael is wanted on warrants for dealing in, manufacturing and possessing methamphetamine. The sheriff’s department says he is on the local most wanted list and eluded arrest last week.

Michael refused to surrender and leave the home, and deputies sent in department police dog Frizko and his handler Deputy Dylan Prather. When told that the dog would be used to make the arrest, Michael decided to surrender, deputies say.

Sheriff Chris Lane said that “Frizko’s presence alone appears to have motivated the individual to surrender peacefully which prevented possible injury to himself and my deputies.”

Decatur County authorities are looking for you help find a missing woman from Hope, just over three years after she disappeared.

Donna Mitchell was last seen on February 11th, 2020 at the Brown Bottle liquor store in Hartsville around 7:30 p.m. in the evening. After she went missing, Mitchell was believed to be in extreme danger, having not taken medication she was dependent on when she left her home in Hope. Mitchell was driving a maroon 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer when she went missing, which was never recovered.

In the past two and a-half years, searches have taken place all over the area where Mitchell was believed to have been traveling, with no results. Property owners in the area allowed investigators to search ponds and lakes in the area as well with sonar equipment, but again, investigators weren’t able to find anything.

Mitchell was born on January 2, 1963. She is a white woman, 5 foot 3 inches, 115 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes and was last seen wearing glasses, a tan Carhart jacket, and blue jeans with a flower decal on the pant leg.

Hoping to conclude the search, additional investigators have been assigned to the case and will be actively pursuing old and new leads, according to the Decatur County Sheriff’s Department.

If you have any information, you can call 812-663-8125.

The Bartholomew County Solid Waste Managment Disctrict is announcing some changes for paper recycling.

Starting soon, there will no longer be paper-only bin collecting at the Bartholomew County Landfill as well as the Petersville and Harrison convenience stations. Instead paper will be combined with plastics, metals, and glass in co-mingled bins.

At the Landfill, paper will be collected in the Yellow Recyclying compactor. At Harrison and Petersville paper will be collected in the red bins.

Separated paper will still be accepted at the Columbus/Bartholomew County Recycling Center.

Cardboard will still be separated out at all the locations.

The agency says the changes are due to changes in the vendor service.

For more information you can go to www.bcswmd.com, or call 812-376-2614.