The Seymour Museum Center will be open on Saturday to show off its historic preservation efforts during the Cars and Guitars event in downtown Seymour.

The museum will have exhibits featuring memorabilia from local car clubs. But it will also be featuring a display on Endangered Heritage in Indiana from the Indiana Historical Society.

Endangered Heritage shows some common dangers to objects and documents in history collections. It also explains the importance to Hoosier museums of humidity and temperature controls, adequate storage, and funds to care for the collections preserving local history. There will also be information on how you can help the museum.

The Endangered Heritage exhibit is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The museum center is on North Chestnut Street and will be open from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is free.

Ivy Tech Community College will be officially opening its new advanced manufacturing lab at the Franklin campus today.

According to the school, the new lab is designed to support local industry employers in upskilling and training their workforce. It will also offer opportunities for high school students taking part in early college initiatives. That will include programs offered to Center Grove High School and Clark-Pleasant community schools students to earn an associates degree from Ivy Tech in industrial technology while also earning their high school diploma.

Students in their junior and senior years will have the opportunity to participate in paid, on-the-job training with local industry partners.

The Ivy Tech Franklin Advanced Manufacturing Lab is a 4,000-square-foot addition to the campus. It will provide hands-on experiences in quality control concepts and techniques, modern manufacturing requirements, and manufacturing processes.

The lab is available through support from the Indiana Manufacturing Competitiveness Center, American Water, Caterpillar Inc., Duke Energy Foundation, Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, Johnson County Community Foundation, Milwaukee Tool, and the National Havoc Robot League.

The ribbon cutting will start at 9:30 a.m. this morning at Ivy Tech’s Franklin campus on McClain Drive.

A Columbus company is planning a $5.5 million investment in its plant on Marr Road.

According to documents filed with the city, Analytical Engineering Inc plans to make the investment in new equipment at its plant. Company officials say that the expansion will allow 47 jobs to be retained and 3 new jobs added in the next two years, with average wages of $27 an hour.

The company makes prototype engines, vehicles, components, engine-related systems and anaylytical measuring equipment. The company plans to upgrade several existing pieces of equipment and to replace those nearing the end of their useful life.

The company is seeking a tax abatement on the investment, which will allow the property taxes to be phased in over several years instead of the full price being paid at once. According to the city, the company last received a tax break in 2012 when they bought the then-vacant building and again in 2016 to buy more equipment. The city estimates that the newest abatement would save the company just under $300 thousand in property taxes over the 10-year life of the tax break.

Columbus City Council members are scheduled to consider the tax break request when they meet Tuesday night. Council meets at 6 p.m. in Columbus City Hall.

Graphic courtesy of Bartholomew County GIS system.

The U.S. Postal Service in Indianapolis wants to remind you that there will be no mail delivery, caller service or Post Office Box service today, and post office retail counters will be closed  due to the Juneteenth federal holiday.

If you need to use postal services, you can use the self-service kiosks at select post offices including: Columbus, Seymour and Greenwood. The kiosks can handle 80 percent of the transactions conducted at the retail counter. That includes buying stamps, mailing a parcel, or shipping an urgent letter or package.

Mail services will resume on Tuesday.

Jackson County authorities have more pieces in place of a more than 50 year old puzzle.

Lt Adam Nicholson has been investigating the fire at a makeshift cabin near Brownstown that happened in December 1971. Three teens were believed to be camping there when a fatal fire broke out the night of December 18th — 17-year-old Stanley R. Robison, 19-year-old Jerry Autry and 16-year-old Michael W. Sewell. The bodies were badly burned in the fire and Robison and Autry’s remains were primarily identified by their class rings found in the cabin. Sewell was reported missing that day and never seen again.

The bodies were exhumed from Fairview Cemetery in Brownstown last June and they were taken by anthropologists to the University of Indianapolis to be analyzed. Dr. Krista Latham, a professor of biology and anthropology, investigated whether the remains could have been those of more than two people.

Nicholson says that the investigation definitively revealed that the remains were actually of three people, based on multiple copies of the same bones. Further, Latham determined that there was no apparent cause of trauma outside of the results of the fire.

Surviving family members provided DNA and a test of a bone fragment sent to the Indiana State Police Lab came back this week that positively identified one of the bones as Robison’s. The other bones were too badly damaged to yield results.

Sheriff Rick Meyer said that investigators will continue the investigation with the hopes that new techniques will someday allow for extracting more DNA to be tested.

If you have any information on the case, you can call Nicholson at 812-358-2141.

The fourth and final suspect in an attack where a victim was lured to an abandoned barn and beaten earlier this month has turned himself in to authorities.

According to the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, 19-year-old Zablin J. Woodruff turned himself in at the sheriff’s office at about 9:45 a.m. this morning. The prosecutor’s office filed formal charges against the suspects yesterday.

Woodruff along with Charles Breedlove and Ashton Fields, both 18-year-olds, are facing charges of robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, kidnapping, criminal confinement, and aggravated battery. 18-year-old Emily Franklin is being accused of kidnapping, as well as aiding in robbery, aggravated battery and criminal confinement.

The attack happened late in the evening on June 2nd, into early morning on June 3rd. The 19-year-old victim said that a female acquaintance offered to give him a ride to pick up food. But instead took him to an abandoned barn in the rural part of the county. The victim was then taken into the barn by masked men and attacked.

Plans for a new health care facility in Brown County are moving forward.

According to IU Health, the health network and Brown County Community YMCA have received zoning approval for the new facility at State Road 46 and Maple Leaf Boulevard. When completed, the facility will be home to primary care and walk-in services from IU Health.

The location will also allow for possible expansions in the future, such as the addition of orthopedics.

IU Health will manage the construction and when finished will rent the space from the YMCA. The health pavilion will be named after Sue Borgelt, who along with her husband, Burt, proposed the creation of the present Brown County Community YMCA.

The Bartholomew County branch of the NAACP will be holding a Juneteenth Jubilee: A Celebration of Education from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday in downtown Columbus.

The event will have food, music, kids activities, arts, clothing, a health corner and more.

According to the Columbus city engineer’s office there will be several streets closing Saturday in the downtown area, with setup starting at 8 a.m. in the morning. Fourth Street will be closed from Washington to Franklin Streets. Franklin will be closed from Fourth to Fifth Streets. Fifth Street will be closed from Franklin to Lafayette.

You will also see parking restrictions downtown and alleys closed during the event.

The event is free and you are invited to attend.

Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S., marking the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, Texas, more than two and a half years after it was issued by President Abraham Lincoln.

A reminder that government offices will be today in observance of Juneteenth.

In Columbus, city trash, recycling and yard waste routes will still be running on their normal schedule. You should have your trash to the curb by the normal 7 a.m. in the morning.

Columbus City Utilities offices are also closed. If you have a problem with your water or sewer service, you can call 812-372-8861 and follow the prompts.

In Seymour, both Mondays and Tuesdays trash, recycling and yard waste will be collected on Tuesday.

Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, the first new federal holiday created by Congress in nearly four decades.

The Columbus Area Visitors Center is looking for applicants for the next round of its Support Grant Program.

According to the center, grants are intended to develop events such as festivals which generate out-of-county visitor spending in Bartholomew County.

The next cycle of applications, are due on or before July 15th. Awards will be announced by August 15th.

You can find a link to the grant application here: https://columbus.in.us/grants-info For more information you can call 812-378-2622.