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.. 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.

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

First Financial Bank and its associates donated more than $241,000 and 900 volunteer hours in Columbus and Bartholomew County last year, according to the Cincinnati-based company.

The bank is announcing that across the four states it serves, the company and its associates donated $4.4 million and more than 14,000 volunteer hours to local organizations.

That represents a 17 percent increase in volunteer hours over 2022. First Financial allows full-time associates to use up to 8 hours of paid time off to purse volunteer activities during work hours.

First Financial has initiated a new Community Benefits Agreement lasting through 2028, which includes a goal of $18 million in philanthropy. Those efforts will include an emphasis on supporting the creation and preservation of affordable housing, workforce development and groups that provide housing counseling and promote financial and economic inclusion.

The bank has also committed to $2.4 billion in lending and investments to low- and moderate-income clients and census tracts.

The bank operates more than 130 banking centers across Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois.

United Way of Bartholomew County will be partnering with Centra Credit Union and the NAACP of Bartholomew County in a workshop on building generational wealth as part of Black History Month activities in Columbus.

The organizations will be hosting the Pathways to Wealth seminar at the Bartholomew County Public Library on February 27th.

The panelists will include Cathy King, impact director for the United Way of Bartholomew County, Ubaldo “Wally” Lopez, a mortgage loan consultant with Centra Credit Union, and Johnnie Edwards, owner & CEO of Bankin Baby BBQ.

The workshop will be from 5 to 7:45 p.m. on Feb. 27th in the Red Room at Bartholomew County Public Library. Dinner will be served and registration is required.

You can find a link to register here: https://www.mybcpl.org/event/10002505?fbclid=IwAR1TmZzhp5Do0M83SpmLhs5dKLxMLvqsh5oN5-P8bMNcNqcBveHUZgMW1hM.

You can find out more about all of the community’s Black History Month activities at https://www.blackhistorycolumbus.com

SPARK Jackson County is starting a new initiative called Spark Ally that will provide help in building entrepreneurs in the local Latino community.

The Jackson County Chamber is announcing the SPARK Ally initiative through a partnership with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. Through the program a successful local entrepreneur will serve as a guide and resource for aspiring entrepreneurs.

The first SPARK Ally will be Raquel Pasillas, founder and owner of Seymour Protein Zone.

SPARK Ally is a pilot program with a goal to replicate the program in communities across the state.

In October, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation announced a $40,000 grant to the Jackson County Chamber to start SPARK Jackson County. Among its goals is to kickstart the community’s entrepreneurial ecosystem with targeted outreach to underserved founders and owners.

The governor’s office is accepting nominations for the annual Century and Half Century business awards.

According to the governor, the awards are meant to recognize businesses that have been in continual operation for more than 50, or more than 100 years and that demonstrate a commitment to serving their communities. The business must have been in operation by those milestones as of Dec. 31st and must have been in the same line of work for the whole time. It must be based in Indiana since it was founded.

Previous Half Century award recipients may qualify for a Century award.

The deadline to complete an application is April 12th. You can find a link for more information or to register here: https://share.hsforms.com/1OgAMk9N2Rhi-L8zdd6ouFQnppbm

Eligible companies are encouraged to complete the online application by April 12, 2024. Please visit the Indiana Economic Development Corporation website for additional details.

New Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon will hold her first State of the City address in March.

According to the mayor’s office the event will be taking place the afternoon of March 6th at Nexus Park, the former Fair Oaks Mall on 25th Street. The doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and the mayor’s remarks will be at 6 p.m.

The speech will be followed by a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Circle K Fieldhouse at Nexus Park.

The event is free and you are invited to attend. You should park in the southeastern lot off of 25th Street near Dunham’s Sports and signs will direct you to the location inside the former mall.

A Columbus man is under arrest accused of grabbing a woman’s throat in the line at a local pharmacy.

According to Columbus Police Department, officers were called to the Kroger Pharmacy on National Road in Columbus at about 5 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Witnesses said a man confronted a woman who was being helped at the pharmacy counter, claiming that she had cut in line. During the argument the man grabbed the woman by her throat, before bystanders separated them.

After talking with witnesses and reviewing security camera footage, police arrested 65-year-old Steven M. Ebert on a charge of strangulation.

Community organizations in three counties are banding together to address the child care challenges in Bartholomew, Jackson and Jennings Counties.

The Lilly Endowment has issued a grant to the organizations to study the issue in the region.

Local organizations taking part include The Community Foundation of Jackson County, Jennings County Community Foundation, Heritage Fund — The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, the Community Education Coalition’s Early Learning Initiative, Ivy Tech Columbus, Child Care Network Inc. and Jennings County Schools. They will be working with First Children’s Financial, a national leader in child-care business development and financing, to hold conversations in each community about sustainable child-care options.

Heritage Fund President and CEO Tracy Souza said that reliable, developmentally appropriate, dependable, and affordable child care is needed for he future development of children, to enable those with children in their care to work and to provide for their families, and to allow employers to thrive.

The initiative will be holding information gathering sessions in the three communities later this month and are hoping to have childcare providers, parents and employers attend.

The first session will be February 27th in Jackson County at the Child Care Network on Chestnut Street. A session in Bartholomew County will be held on February 28th at the Columbus Learning Center on Central Avenue and in Jennings County on February 29th at Jennings County High School on West Walnut Street.

The meetings will be from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

To register for a session or for more information you can  contact Kari Stattelman,  First Children’s Financial’s  director of consulting at
[email protected].

The deadline is approaching for Jackson County students interested in scholarships to study agribusiness.

The Jackson County Chamber is accepting applications for the Dick Moren Agribusiness Scholarships through February 23rd. Two scholarships are awarded to graduating seniors from a Jackson County school who will pursue an agriculture-related degree starting this fall.

You can get a scholarship application on the chamber website at jacksoncochamber.com, in e-mail from [email protected] or from the chamber offices.

The Chamber hosts a breakfast for the scholarship winners, their families, area FFA members, farmers and Chamber members. This year’s breakfast is scheduled for 7 a.m. on March 8th at the Seymour High School Ag-Science Facility.

If you are interested in being a sponsor for the breakfast or want to register to attend, you can go to the chamber website or call 812-522-3681.

Cummins will be offering a stock exchange program to help fully separate its former filtration business from the rest of the company.

The filtration business was started by Cummins in 1958, but the companies separated last year with an initial stock offering for the new Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc. Cummins still owns about 80 percent of the new company’s stock.

According to the Columbus based engine manufacturer, Cummins shareholders will have the option to exchange all, some or none of their shares of Cummins common stock for shares of Atmus common stock. The exchange is set to happen on March 7th, 8th and 11th.

Cummins stockholders will receive a 7 percent discount if they choose to swap for the new company’s stock. Until an upper limit on stock prices is hit, Cummins stockholders will be able to obtain about $107 of Atmus stock for every $100 of Cummins stock.

Cummins Chair and CEO Jennifer Rumsey said the separation will create value for both Cummins and Atmus. It will allow Cummins to “continue its focus on key strategic initiatives and innovating in core and new technologies,” while allowing the filtration business the flexibility to operate and to grow.

Cummins plans to distribute at least 33.5 million shares of Atmus common stock as a condition for the exchanges to be completed, along with other conditions. Cummins now owns about 67 million shares.

If you are interested in taking part you should contact your broker.

Cummins Press Release:

Today, Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) (“Cummins”) announced that it will commence an exchange offer to fully split off its remaining interest in Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ATMU) (“Atmus”). In May 2023, Atmus completed its initial public offering where 19.5%, or 16,243,070 shares, of Atmus’ common stock was sold, with Cummins retaining the remaining 80.5% of Atmus’ common stock. Through the planned exchange offer, Cummins shareholders will have the option to exchange all, some or none of their shares of Cummins common stock for shares of Atmus common stock, subject to the terms of the exchange offer. The exchange offer is expected to be tax-free for U.S. Federal income tax purposes, except with respect to cash received in lieu of a fractional share.

“This separation will create value for both Cummins and Atmus, allowing Cummins to continue its focus on key strategic initiatives and innovating in both core and new technologies, while allowing the filtration business the ability to operate and grow with flexibility,” said Cummins Chair and CEO Jennifer Rumsey. “Leveraging its advanced filtration technologies and capabilities, Atmus is well positioned to grow into new markets and help both existing and new customers be successful. We believe now is the right time to distribute our Atmus shares, and we are confident that the share exchange is the appropriate path forward to bring the greatest value to shareholders. I am excited to see what the future holds for the company.”

The exchange offer is expected to permit Cummins shareholders to exchange all or a portion of their shares of Cummins common stock for shares of Atmus common stock at a 7% discount, subject to an upper limit of 13.3965 shares of Atmus common stock for each share of Cummins common stock tendered and accepted in the exchange offer. If the upper limit is not in effect, tendering shareholders are expected to receive approximately $107.53 of Atmus common stock for every $100 of Cummins common stock tendered.

Cummins will determine the prices at which shares of Cummins common stock and shares of Atmus common stock will be exchanged by reference to the arithmetic average of the daily volume-weighted average prices of shares of Cummins common stock and Atmus common stock on the NYSE during the three consecutive trading days ending on and including the second trading day preceding the expiration date of the exchange offer, which would be March 7, 8 and 11, 2024, if the exchange offer is not extended or terminated. The final exchange ratio, reflecting the number of shares of Atmus common stock that tendering shareholders will receive for each share of Cummins common stock accepted in the exchange offer, will be announced by press release by 5:30 p.m., New York City time, on the second trading day immediately preceding the expiration date of the exchange offer (which expiration date, if the exchange offer is not extended or terminated, would be March 13, 2024). The final exchange ratio, when announced, and a daily indicative exchange ratio beginning on the third trading day of the exchange offer period, also will be available at www.okapivote.com/CumminsAtmusExchange.

The completion of the exchange offer is subject to certain conditions, including: at least 33,527,363 shares of Atmus common stock being distributed in exchange for shares of Cummins common stock validly tendered in the exchange offer; and the receipt of an opinion of counsel that the exchange offer will qualify for tax-free treatment to Cummins and its participating stockholders.

Cummins currently owns 67,054,726 shares of Atmus common stock, representing approximately 80.5% of the total outstanding shares of Atmus common stock. Cummins is offering to exchange 67,054,726 shares of Atmus common stock for outstanding shares of Cummins common stock in the exchange offer. If the exchange offer is consummated but not fully subscribed, Cummins intends to make a tax-free distribution to its shareholders of the shares of Atmus common stock that were offered but not exchanged in the exchange offer effected as a dividend on a pro rata basis to holders of Cummins common stock as of the record date.

Shareholders should reach out to their respective broker or provider for more information. Participation is voluntary and must be done by the established deadlines. No action is necessary for Cummins shareholders who choose not to participate.

The terms and conditions of the exchange offer will be outlined in a registration statement on Form S-4 to be filed by Atmus with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and a tender offer statement on Schedule TO to be filed by Cummins with the SEC today.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC will serve as dealer managers for the exchange offer.