A Columbus North High School student has been chosen as the 2023 Poetry Out Loud National Champion.

According to the Bartholomew Consolidated Schools, junior Sreepadaarchana Munjuluri was the winner of the event held in Washington DC last week. The Poetry Out loud program, organized by National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation, encourages youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. The program is in its 18th year.

Munjuluri recited poems by Emily Jungmin Yoon, Emma Lazarus, and Garrett Hongo. Munjuluri will receive a prize of $20,000. She participated through the Indiana Humanities organization.

Munjuluri said she loves that students are sharing a part of their identity through the poems. She said her choices shared facets of what she believes in and who she is.

Photo: Sreepadaarchana Munjuluri competes at the national Poetry Out Loud competition. Photo by James Kegley for the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Columbus Fire Department is looking for your thoughts on their service.

The fire department is launching a community survey as part of its efforts to get accredited through the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. The survey is intended to provide a quick overview of the services the department provides and allow you to give your opinions about the Columbus Fire Department.

The deadline to take the survey is May 31st. You can find online links at the city website and the fire department social media pages. Paper copies are available at the fire department administrative offices at 1101 Jackson Street. You can find the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CFDStakeholder

A wanted man was arrested Thursday in Jennings County after a pursuit by the county SWAT team and the assistance of the Seymour SWAT team.

According to the Jennings County Sheriff’s Department, deputies began gathering information about a previously violent felon who was in the Hayden area, 58-year-old Brian L. Weber. He was wanted on warrants from Decatur County for burglary with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily harm, for failing to appear in court on a charge of being a habitual traffic violator and an Indiana parole warrant for dealing cocaine.

Authorities were told that Weber had said he would not go back to prison and planned to go out “in a blaze of glory.”

A search warrant was issued and the SWAT teams along with other agencies found Weber outside a home where he had been living. But Weber ran from the officers going through several yards, police say. He was finally cornered in a barn about a half mile away.

He was taken into custody by Jennings County police dog Zobi and after being treated for minor injuries, he was taken to jail. In addition to the warrants, he is facing new charges of intimidation of a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.

Also assisting at the scene were Indiana State Police, Indiana Department of Natural Resources conservation officers, and Jennings County medics.

Photo courtesy of Jennings County Sheriff’s Department.

Heritage Fund: The Bartholomew County Community Foundation is announcing the recipients of the Donald W. & Catherine G. Jurgemeyer Community Leadership Project of the Year Award and the Jurgemeyer Community Hero Award.

The Black History Month Columbus organizers were recognized as Community Leadership Project of the Year. Presenters said that organizations involved in the project, including the African American Fund of Bartholomew County, NAACP Columbus/ Bartholomew and Paths to Success, worked with more than a dozen community partners to collaborate on efforts to present Black history.  The award includes $15,000 to support the sustainability of the project.

Patty Pigman, specialist with the Infant Mortality Prevention Action Team, received the Community Hero Award. Pigman, a licensed social worker with Columbus Regional Health, was credited with helping to curb infant deaths in the community attributed to unsafe sleep. In 2018, a study showed that a quarter of all infant deaths were related to unsafe sleep here. The recognition comes with a $5,000 award.

The two new awards were established this year by the estate of longtime Columbus residents and philanthropists Donald and Catherine Jurgemeyer. The couple were long-time Columbus residents with Donald Jurgemeyer, an attorney in the community for 29 years, serving as legal counsel for the community foundation in its early years. Catherine Jurgemeyer served as president of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation and chaired the American Bar Auxiliary and the Indiana Lawyers Auxiliary.

The shoulders of Indianapolis Road in Columbus will be closed Monday and Tuesday while crews are working in the area.

According to the Columbus Department of Public Works, the work will be from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Work will start at the intersection with Tellman Road all the way to U.S. 31 and back.

You should find an alternate route is possible. If you have to drive in the area, you should slow down, use caution and plan for delays.

Nominations are open for this year’s Jack Cramer Ideals of Athletic Competition Award, according to the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department.

The awards are presented annually to a local male and a female athlete, coach or sports organizer. All nominees must live or work in Bartholomew County and be a senior in high school or older.

The 2022 winners were Sandy Freshour and Carrie Utterback, in the women’s category and Bob Arthur and Harry Crider in the men’s category.

The award is in honor of Cramer, a former local athlete who died in 1978 at the age of 33.

You can find information and nomination forms at Donner Center or at https://columbusparksandrec.com The deadline to enter is June 16th.

The Bartholomew County Jail inmates have all been moved into the new section of the jail as a way to increase efficiency and safety.

Bartholomew County Sheriff Chris Lane said that the move will allow the jail to operate more efficiently, given the current limitations. He said the move will eliminate the need for corrections officers to be spread over a larger area making it more efficient to manage day to day operations. He said the move will also reduce the amount of overtime being worked by corrections staff and hopefully improve the work-life balance of jail officers, helping relieve some of the pressures leading to staffing problems.

Lane has explained to county officials that the department is having a hard time finding and retaining jail staff and is consistently running below required staffing levels.

The change will also allow contractors to complete a HVAC renovation project, while providing relief to the inmates from the summer heat. While the inmates are relocated, the department will work to improve the unused older jail pods and cells, so the space will be available for when the jail population grows.

Lane said that the jail’s drug treatment programs will not be effected by the changes.

Eastern Bartholomew County Water Corporation has extended a boil water advisory for all of its customers through at least noon today.

The advisory is due to low chlorine in the water. The water for the town of Hope is supplied by Eastern Bartholomew Water Corp. and Hope Utilities is also extending its boil water advisory.

Under a boil water advisory, you should bring water to a full boil for five minutes before drinking it or using it in food preparation.

If you have any questions you can call Eastern Bartholomew Water Corp at at 812-526-9777 or Hope Utilities at 812-546-5469.

Decatur County officials are praising a 9-year-old girl who helped save her father’s life after his semi truck was struck by a rock believed to be thrown by teenagers.

According to the Decatur County Sheriff’s Department, the incident happened last month on Interstate 74 when the driver, Travis Hampton, was severely injured after a rock came through the windshield of his FedEx truck. He suffered head injuries and was knocked unconscious. Cables in the median stopped the truck, keeping it from going into oncoming traffic.

Hampton was flown by Stat Flight helicopter to St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Tips from the public led the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office to identify two minors who were allegedly involved. A 16-year-old has been detained however the name is not being released because they are a minor.

Hampton’s daughter Sha’Lon Sharp was riding in the truck with her father during the incident. She was honored Thursday for calling 911 and helping first responders find the semi they were in.

TTWN Media Networks contributed to this report

Photo courtesy of Decatur County Sheriff’s Department.

Law enforcement agencies across Indiana are looking for drivers who aren’t using their seat belts, in the national “Click It or Ticket” enforcement blitz which organized around Memorial Day weekend.

Running through June 4th, the campaign will have extra officers on overtime patrols making sure drivers and passengers are buckling up and children are properly secure.

According to the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, unbuckled motorists make up almost 40% of all passenger vehicle deaths in the state. In 2020, 226 unbuckled drivers and passengers were killed on Indiana roads – the second highest in the past decade. Young drivers, especially males, were the least likely to be buckled during a crash.

One of the focuses of this year’s campaign will be nighttime enforcement. That’s because in 2021, 57% of passenger vehicle occupants killed at night were not wearing their seat belts.

Drivers can be cited for lack of seat belt use, but also for each unbuckled passenger under the age of 16.

The overtime patrols are funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with grants administered by ICJI.