Several area counties have been included in a disaster assistance declaration from the Small Business Administration after the severe weather that rolled through a few weeks ago.

According to the agency the disaster declaration covers the severe storms, straight-line winds and tornadoes that hit Indiana on March 31st and April 1st including Monroe and Johnson counties. Adjacent counties are also included in the declaration, with Bartholomew, Brown, Jackson and Shelby county businesses and organizations eligible for economic injury assistance.

Small businesses and residents in Johnson and Monroe counties could be eligible for business physical disaster loans, home disaster loans and economic injury disaster loans, while the neighboring counties could be eligible for just the economic injury assistance.

Those loans are meant to help organizations meet financial obligations that cannot be met due to the disaster. They are eligible to small businesses, agricultural cooperatives, small businesses involved in aquaculture and most private non-profit organizations. The economic disaster loans are limited to $2 million, but also are limited by business interruption insurance..

A business recovery center is opening Friday at Grace of Assembly of God Church, on U.S. 31 in Whiteland.

The Landmark Columbus Foundation is announcing new leadership.

The board of directors recently elected Mark Elwood as chairman, moving from vice chair, and board member Tracy Haddad will serve as vice chair. Former chairman Rick Johnson will remain as part of the executive committee.

Johnson had led the organization since its founding in 2014 as part of Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County. In 2019, the organization became a stand alone non-profit, working to care for, celebrate and advance the cultural heritage of the Columbus area.

Elwood’s first effort will be to bring in donations to push the foundation’s endowment fund over the $1 million mark. The endowment fund launched under Johnson and has already passed $800,000 dollars.

Elwood is chairman and co-founder of Elwood Staffing, headquartered in Columbus. Haddad is an owner of Golden Endeavors, LLC, a property management company based in Columbus.

The Landmark Columbus Foundation oversees the annual Exhibit Columbus events in the city. Exhibit Columbus is in its fourth two-year cycle, with installations set to open at 14 landmarks August 24th and 25th.

Emergency officials are warning of possibly dangerous conditions for the spread of fires this afternoon.

The National Weather Service in Indianapolis has issued a red flag warning for this afternoon. Forecasters say wind gusts combined with low relative humidity and warm temperatures are causing critical fire weather conditions. Any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly. Outdoor burning is not recommended today. And you should hever throw lit smoking material such as cigarettes from a vehicle.

Winds are expected to be from 20 to 25 mph this afternoon with gusts of up to 40 mph, and relative humidity will be as low as 20 percent, with near-record temperatures in the low 80s forecast.

The red flag warning is in effect from noon to 8 p.m. today.

A Columbus man was arrested after nearly causing a head-on collision with a police officer.

According to Columbus police, an officer was on patrol in the 500 block of Jonesville Road at about 11:30 Tuesday night, when a truck crossed the centerline into the path of the police cruiser. The officer dodged the accident and pulled the driver over.

The driver had bloodshot eyes, appeared lethargic and had difficulty following orders. 32-year-old Derik J. Bryant failed several field sobriety tests and was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital to have his blood drawn. He was then arrested on a preliminary charge of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.

Columbus City Utilities will be unveiling recent improvements to its offices with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday morning.

The renovations closed the public office at McClure Road since September. They include security upgrades, a public restroom in the lobby, improved handicapped parking spaces and upgraded furniture and carpet in the business office. The restroom and parking spaces now comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This is the first renovations since the building opened in 1987. The project was designed by Strand Associates and constructed by Dunlap & Company, who also constructed the building.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at the offices at 1111 McClure Road.

Demolition has started of the former Bartholomew County Court Services building between Second and Third Streets.

The project will allow the redevelopment of the larger property, which includes a former county government parking lot, into a hotel conference center and parking garage by the Columbus Redevelopment Commission. The lot is part of a land swap between the Columbus and Bartholomew County governments.

The city of Columbus and Bartholomew County governments partnered to move the location of the court services operations from the Third Street location to a new $3.7 million building behind the Bartholomew County Jail on First Street. In exchange for the county giving up the parking lot and old court services building, the city agreed to pay the first $1.5 million to construct the new court services building.

The city, through the redevelopment commission, also agreed to finance the rest of the cost over 15 years through a lease-purchase arrangement with the county. However, last year the county government decided to pay for the remaining $2.2 million cost out of its cash reserves. Officials said at the time that the early payoff would save three quarters of a million dollars.

Heather Pope, director redevelopment for the city of Columbus, said at this week’s commission meeting that work continues on design of the proposed garage, as well as conversations with Sprague Hotels, the potential developer of the hotel site, and Hunden Strategic Partners, who the city contracted with to conduct a market feasibility study into the need of a hotel conference center.

Photo courtesy of Columbus Redevelopment Department.

The next in the series of Great Decisions community discussions will be held Thursday at Mill Race Center.

Great Decisions is a once a week program running on Thursday evenings through May 11th. Great Decisions is America’s largest discussion program on world affairs and developed by the Foreign Policy Association. It highlights the most thought-provoking foreign policy challenges facing Americans.

Thursday night’s discussion will focus on war crimes including how opinions of what constitutes a war crime have evolved and how to punish the perpetrators.

The Great Decisions discussions are from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the evening. Registration is required. You can register or get more information by by calling Mill Race Center at 812-376-9241.

There will be a resource fair tomorrow aimed at pregnant and new mothers at Donner Center in Columbus.

The Bumps and Babies Family Resource Fair is organized by CareSource, a nonprofit health plan, in partnership with Safe Kids Bartholomew County, Dorel Juvenile Group and Healthy Communities at Columbus Regional Health. The goal is to provide education on how to best support health before, during and after pregancies. Topics will include breastfeeding support, car seat safety, and insurance. There will also be prizes, food and kids activities.

The fair will be from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday afternoon at Donner Center off of 22nd Street in Columbus. The event is free and you are invited to attend. Space is limited. You can find a link to register here:

Columbus police are welcoming a new officer, sworn in Tuesday morning by Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop.

Alec McCullough is a recent graduate from IUPUC with a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice. He is enrolled at Indiana University East where he is working towards a master’s degree, also in Criminal Justice.

After completing in house training with the Columbus Police Department, McCullough will attend the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield.

Columbus firefighters are testing a new technology that will the tracking of rescue workers inside of a building.

According to the Columbus Fire Department, the testing of the new 3d tracking technology took place at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center late last month. It included 10 teams vying to get funding and entrepreneurial support for their tracking system. The system’s goal is to provide tracking of rescue workers within 3 feet of their actual location. That compares to accuracy of up to 50 feet for GPS technology, which only tracks on two-dimensional plane.

Columbus Fire Chief Andy Lay attended the competition, saying that the technology could provide help when a firefighter becomes missing or is downed during an incident. He said “Being able to see precisely where our firefighters are located within a home or business is a great advantage.”

The Columbus firefighters completed exercises mimicking operations within buildings of various sizes. Each Firefighter was equipped with a prototype tracking device, which the teams attempted to track.

The competition is being led by the Crisis Technologies Innovation Lab in the Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University. Prize money will be awarded in each phase of the competition with a total of $5.6 million distributed through five phases. The fifth phase will be held in October and Lay said he hopes Columbus firefighters will be invited again to participate.

Members of the Columbus Fire Department that participated in the live testing included  Firefighters Seth Burton, Chris Moon, Justin Sims and Nikolas Zickler.

Photo courtesy of Columbus Fire Department.