Toppled trees from recent storms totaled several vehicles and left a person trapped inside a camper in a Bartholomew County park.

The incident happened at Heflen Park on the northwestern corner of the county during storms in early July. Bartholomew County Commissioners approved an emergency expenditure from the county parks department at their meeting this week for a tree service that had to be called in to rescue the trapped person and remove the large trees that fell at the park during the storms.

Commissioner Carl Lienhoop said that it was fortunate that no one was injured, despite the entrapment. Lienhoop said that the fallen trees were live trees and not dead ash trees, which have been killed by the ash borer infestation. He also praised the county parks department for reducing the numbers of the dangerous dead ash trees.

The expenditure of $7,200 for Schuder Bros Tree Service was approved retroactively.

Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Parks Department

The Small Business Administration and the Indiana Small Business Development Center Southeast office in Columbus will be offering a free webinar on Friday to help those who suffered economic damages from the late March tornadoes.

The webinar will provide information on applying for the SBA’s working capital disaster loans, also known as Economic Injury Disaster Loans. Businesses and private non-profits in the declared disaster counties are eligible for the loans which can be used to pay normal operating expenses like rent, utilities, wages, and other financial obligations.

The deadline to apply for the loans is January 15th.

The loans are mean to help organizations that suffered economic damages from the severe storms on March 31st and April 1st.

Businesses in several area counties are eligible for the disaster assistance including those in  Bartholomew, Brown, Jackson, Johnson and Shelby counties.

The webinar will be at 11 a.m. Friday morning. You need to register in advance here: https://isbdc.org/training-education/

You can apply for the working capital loans under SBA declaration # 17882
here:  https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/ela/s/

A Columbus company was approved for a tax break last night on a $4.3 million investment. But not before questions from City Council members about why it failed to meet promised employment goals for its last abatement.

Nikkei  MC Aluminum America on South Inwood Drive requested the tax abatement on a planned investment that includes a $2.3 million and nearly 10,000 square foot expansion of its facility and just over $2 million in new manufacturing equipment.

The company said the expansion would allow it to retain its 90 current employees with average wages of $25.88 an hour and add eight more positions by 2024 at an average wage of $16.87 an hour.

However, Council member Elaine Hilber pointed out that the company promised to have 95 employees by this time already when it asked for an abatement in 2020. She said that the council’s incentive review committee recommended not approving the new request based on the unfulfilled headcount promise.

Nikkei Project engineer Chris Smith told the council that economic conditions and problems with new equipment had led the company to miss the employment goal. He said the company plans to work through the equipment issues by the end of this year or early next year.

Council member Dave Bush said that the company’s addition of five employees was a 7 percent increase and while it would have been nice to see the promised 10, the company’s efforts were commendable. Council member Tom Dell said that increasing employment is an important component of tax abatement requests, because increasing income taxes from new employees helps offset the loss of new property taxes from the abatement.

Hilber and Council member Grace Kestler voted against the tax abatement.

Indiana State Police are warning drivers to be careful in the Interstate 65 construction zone at the Columbus exits at State Road 46.

Sgt. Stephen Wheeles said on social media that troopers and Bartholomew County deputies have responded to multiple accidents in the construction zone since recent traffic pattern changes. Those accidents are happening at the northbound ramp onto the interstate from State Road 46 where temporary stop signs have been installed.

Wheeles said that although there are warning signs alerting drivers to the upcoming stop, in only a few minutes on the scene yesterday that he saw numerous vehicles ignoring the stop signs entirely.

He urged drivers to obey the stop signs which are meant to protect drivers so they can safely get onto the interstate. And he warned drivers on northbound Interstate 65 to take extreme caution when coming up on the construction zone and to watch for merging traffic.

Photo courtesy of Indiana State Police.

The city of Columbus is planning to spend $150,000 or more to look into the community’s housing needs.

The Columbus Redevelopment Commission approved the initial spending Monday with the understanding that the costs could grow as the study scope expands.

Mary Ferdon, the city’s executive director of Administration and Community Development, asked the commission for the funding, saying that the city would be issuing requests for proposals for companies to perform the study. She said that the study would include an assessment of existing housing conditions, demographics, market demands and identify critical gaps. The goal is to help city officials identify priorities and policies to address housing issues.

Ferdon said that there are several trends limiting available housing, including seniors aging in place in larger homes and the huge surge in post-World War II housing construction that is now nearly 80 years old, deteriorating and doesn’t meet modern needs.

Funding for the study will come from the redevelopment commission’s tax increment financing district revenue from the Central area of the city.

Columbus police, firefighters and other emergency workers will be holding a Family Fun day next week.

The City of Columbus Public Safety Family Fun Day will be from 5 to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 25th in the Columbus Lowes parking lot. That is at 3500 10th Street.

Th event is in collaboration with “National Night Out” and will feature Columbus police officers and firefighters as well as other public safety personnel.

You will be able to ask questions, interact with the public safety personnel, and see equipment such as police cars and fire trucks up close.

Several local businesses and not for profit groups are also scheduled to have information tables set up at the event.

A pet food pantry distribution is set for Thursday afternoon at the Columbus Municipal Airport.

Friends of Columbus Animal Care Services will be holding their Furry Friends Food Bank giveaway from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, or until the food runs out. The pet food will be distributed in the airport parking lot at 4770 Ray Boll Boulevard.

The purpose of the pantry is to assist local community members in need to keep their pets in their homes and out of area shelters. If you take part you should stay in your vehicle and the food will be brought to you.

Friends of Columbus Animal Care Services is the non-profit partner of the city-operated animal shelter

The Bartholomew County Historical Society will be hosting an event next week shedding light on some of the area’s first European settlers.

The Rev. Arthur Schwenk, Jr. will be giving a talk on the county’s German immigrants stating at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 27th at the historical society museum on Third Street.

Considered one of the foremost historians on the German immigrants to Bartholomew County, Schwenk will be discussing where the German immigrants came from, what the voyage to the New World was like for them and how they ended up here.

Five generations of Schwenk’s family have lived in Bartholomew County with his German great-great grandparents settling in Ogilville in the late 1800’s. Schwenk taught German and math in Rochester and Columbus for 34 years and theology for four years at Trinity Lutheran High School in Seymour.

Schwenk’s talk is the second in the Evelyn Seward Speaker Series and funding is provided by the Seward endowment.

Seymour police are raising awareness of the dangers of speeding and cracking down on speeders as part of a statewide effort to make roads and streets safer.

According to the Seymour Police Department, police agencies across the state are taking part in the Speeding Slows You Down campaign and through the end of July officers will be on the lookout for speeding vehicles. The campaign is funded by the National Highway Traffic Administration through the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.

According to the institute, 290 people were killed by speeding in Indiana in 2022. Police say that speeding reduces your ability to steer safely around another vehicle, a hazardous object, or an unexpected curve.

Authorities are stressing that speed limits are the law and are posted for the safety of drivers and others. Since local roads are where most speeding-related crashes occur, that is where the campaign is focusing its efforts.

A more than $5 and a half million dollar road improvement project on State Road 7 in Jennings County is set to begin tomorrow.

INDOT said that the intersection improvement project at State Road 7 at County Road 900N in northern Jennings County will be adding auxiliary lanes and improving the road’s shoulders. Starting Wednesday, State Road 7 will be reduced to one lane and County Road 900N will close for up to 100 days while the work is underway. You will see a temporary traffic signal at the intersection.

The detour will take traffic to County Roads 950 and 940N.

The work should finish by late October but the work schedule is dependent on the weather.

The $5.7 million dollar project also calls for turns lanes to be added to State Road 7 at Country Squire Boulevard but that work won’t be scheduled until next spring. Dave O’ Mara Contractors is the construction company for the roadwork.

INDOT asks you to slow down, drive without distractions and be alert to worker safety in all construction zones.

INDOT is also announcing that work has been postponed on a project that would have closed State Road 11 south of Seymour starting Monday. The bridge replacement project over Grassy Fork Creek will be rescheduled.