Ivy Tech Community College in Columbus and Franklin will be hosting special open houses next month for home school students.

According to the college, the college visit days are aimed at home school students in ninth through 12th grades and their parents to learn more about college.

Those who attend will be able to meet with faculty from the school’s academic programs including advanced manufacturing, business, health care and information technology. They will also be able to try immersive virtual reality simulations that allow users to experience potential careers. The school will be providing information on dual credit and accelerated degree opportunities, and explaining how Ivy Tech prepares students for a career or for a continuing education in a four-year college.

The Homeschool College Visit Days will be from 9 a.m. to noon on March 1st at Ivy Tech on Central Avenue in Columbus and from 9 a.m. to noon on March 8th at Ivy Tech in Franklin on McClain Drive.

Lunch will be served. To attend you should RSVP online by going to link.ivytech.edu/homeschoolvisit

Moravec Hall photo courtesy of Ivy Tech Community College.

The Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge will be hosting a celebration of sandhill cranes on Saturday with guided car tours and other activities.

The event is being organized by the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Society. There will be two car tours starting at the Visitors Center. One will begin at 9 a.m. and the second will start at 1 p.m. The availability of the tours will be determined by the number of cranes. According to the refuge there have been few cranes on the refuge early in the morning. However there are thousands of cranes in the Ewing and Honeytown Bottoms near Brownstown along East Fork White River.

If large groups of cranes can be found close to the refuge guided car-caravan type tours

At noon there will be an interpretive program about cranes at the Visitor Center and from 10 am- 2 pm there will be crane crafts for children.

Staff will be on hand to give information about cranes and maps will be available to find good crane viewing areas.

Photo courtesy of Muscatatuck Wildlife Refuge Facebook page

An arrest has been made after a Seymour restaurant was found to be the victim of an employee who took funds using a company credit card.

According to the Seymour Police Department, the investigation began in in October when the owner of Brewski’s Downtown contacted police about an employee who had used a company credit card for personal purchases. After subpoenas were issued for transaction records, an IT specialist for the business was linked to the unauthorized credit uses.

Police tried to interview the suspect in mid-January but he declined. An arrest warrant was issued on Jan. 25th for 29-year-old Spencer A. Kindred of Seymour on felony charges of theft and forgery. On Tuesday, Kindred turned himself in at the Jackson County Jail.

The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department is partnering with Strive to provide services to those in the community suffering through a mental health crisis.

According to the department, Stride is equipping first responders with iPads that will be used to immediately connect a person in crisis with mental health professionals. The iPads will be used for Zoom calls with the mental health professional and will de-escalate a situation as well as providing access to follow-up services.

Sgt. Andrew Whipker, co-coordinator for the Bartholomew County Crisis Intervention Team, said the goal is to reduce the number of mental health related calls the Sheriff’s Office responds to by connecting those in crisis with the resources they need. Whipker said the hope is that by giving the person access to those resources, the department will reduce the number of 911 calls and the amount of manpower spent responding to mental health calls and hospitalizations.

According to the department, first responders such as law enforcement are often the first called in when someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, especially if the person is a danger to themself or others.

The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office is partnering with the Stride Center on Second Street which opened in April as a 24/7 crisis center and Stride Mobile.

Melissa Helms, Director of Crisis Services with Stride, said the sheriff’s department has “been fantastic partners and are so committed to ensuring that individuals in crisis have access to mental health and substance services.”

Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department.

There is a week left for candidates to file for office in this year’s elections. The filing period runs through noon on next Friday, February 9th.

Since last week there have been several candidates who have filed for office in Bartholomew County including: John S. Bennett as a Democrat for Jonesville Town Council and candidates for party positions such as precinct committeeman and state delegate.

Among the offices up for election this year are two seats on the Bartholomew County Commissioners and three at-large seats on the County Council, as well as Superior Court 1 Judge, county coroner and surveyor and state representatives.

You can get more information in Bartholomew County at the County Clerk’s voter registration office at 812-379-1604.

The non-profit Park Theatre Civic Centre in North Vernon will be hosting an evening with Back 2 Mac — A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac tonight.

Among the band members are bass player Tim Halcomb, a Dupont native.

Tickets are $20 and are available in advance at the Park Theatre box office on North Madison Ave., in North Vernon. The box office is open 2 to 5 p.m. today. Tickets will also be available at the show, if any are left.

The Park Theatre opened in 1916 with shows ranging from vaudeville acts to silent films but closed in the 1960s. A not for profit group was formed in the 1990s to renovate the venue and reopened it as a civic center.

For more information, call the Park Theatre at 812-346-0330.

The Bartholomew County Historical Society will be hosting a reception for two new exhibits next week.

According to the organization, the museum will be hosting new exhibits on the Bartholomew County connection to the 1904 Worlds Fair in St. Louis, and the Soul of Philanthropy/And Still We Rise displays created in previous years for Black History Month.

Zaharakos is sponsoring the World’s Fair exhibit  which will be on display through June 28th. The African American Fund of Bartholomew County is sponsoring the local Black history presentation which will be at the museum through the end of the month.

The reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday February 9th at the historical society museum at 524 Third Street. Light snacks and beverages will be provided.

You can get more information at bartholomewhistory.org

State Rep. Jim Lucas of Seymour is being accused of intimidating students who were at the capital Tuesday advocating for gun control, by flashing his handgun.

Lucas said he was not trying to intimidate anyone when he displayed his handgun.

The students are gun safety advocates and said they were intimidated and scared by the gun-toting lawmaker. Lawmakers and their staff members are permitted to be armed in the Statehouse.

Lucas’s district includes part of southern Bartholomew County as well as Jackson, Scott and Washington counties.

Story courtesy of TTWN Media Networks

The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department says it has changed its overtime policies to reduce costs to the county.

According to a report from Sheriff Chris Lane, the department was able to reduce its overtime expenses by about 5 percent, or a $22,000 savings last year.

The sheriff’s department has three main areas of need that lead to overtime costs: critical incidents, training requirements and staffing shortages. The sheriff said one of the key tools to reducing overtime was an increase to base pay for county jail staff. That helped fully staff the jail, greatly reducing the overtime costs. Lane said he was able to make the pay increases without increasing the overall budget.

Lane said that there are still staffing shortages in the budget for the county deputies in the road division, but a new hiring cycle will begin in March and he hopes to solve that part of the problem.

The sheriff’s department leadership team created a scorecard for costs that it evaluates monthly. The team will then find ways to correct any area that is straying out of the budget parameters.

Lane said that he has made a commitment to run the department more like a business using data for budgetary decisions.

Bills from two Bartholomew County legislators are moving on to consideration in the state senate.

According to the offices for State Rep. Ryan Lauer and Rep. Jennifer Meltzer, bills to help find neglected children new homes and to close a loophole on whether an animal tranquilizer should be a controlled substance have cleared the Indiana House.

Lauer, a Columbus Republican, authored a bill to allow abused and neglected children who have been removed from their home to more quickly find a permanent home if it isn’t safe to reunify them with their parents.

Lauer said that children can wait for more than a year in temporary care while their case is making its way through the system. But the Department of Child Services is not currently required to make a backup plan for a permanent placement if the reunification isn’t possible. Which means even more time in foster care.

Under Lauer’s bill, if the child has been removed from the home for 12 out of the past 22 months of the case, DCS would have to come up with that alternative plan. Lauer said other states already require concurrent planning

Meltzer, a Shelbyville Republican, authored a bill that will make xylazine, a large animal sedative, into a controlled substance. The bill would require a prescription to possess xylazine or the holder could face criminal penalties.

Meltzer, vice chair of the House Courts and Criminal Code Committee said xylazine is being mixed with heroin as a street drug. She said her legislation would give law enforcement a new tool to get the drug off the streets.

There would be exceptions such as for pharmacists and veterinarians.