Columbus Regional Health continues to move its practices and services to NexusPark, the former Fair Oaks Mall on 25th Street.

The hospital announced that several practices have moved and opened yesterday including Doctor’s Park Family Medicine, Rau Family Medicine, VIMCare Clinic, and Medication Assistance Program.

The former mall is being revamped by the hospital and the City of Columbus as a center for health, wellness and recreation. The CRH share of the facility opened in January and the hospital has invested more than $54 million dollars in the project. Ultimately more than 15 offices will be located at the center by the end of April.

The next offices to move will be Laboratory Services which was formerly on Middle Road, and Sandcrest Family Medicine which are both expected to open by Feb. 26.

According to the hospital, patients of practices are receiving information on new office locations and will receive reminders for any upcoming appointments.

You can get more information at www.crh.org/nexuspark.

Photo: Casey Gibson with Columbus Regional Health explains the main promenade in the new Nexus Park space during a media tour recently. 

The Edinburgh Police Department’s police dog Xta will be receiving a bulletproof and stab protecting vest.

According to the department, Xta’s vest is sponsored by Vested Interest in K9s. The vest is expected to be delivered in eight to 10 weeks.

The not-for-profit group from Massachusetts provides the vests to dogs working in police and other agencies. Vested Interest in K9s has provided over 5,400 vests to K9s in all 50 states.

The group also announced recently that a police dog in Elkhart has received a vest that will be embroidered in memory of Diesel, a Bartholomew County police dog killed in 2020 by a vehicle while trying to capture a suspect on Interstate 65.

The organization accepts donations and $985 will sponsor one vest.

You can get more information at www.vik9s.org

The Indiana Department of Health is reporting that rabies has been detected in skunks in southern Indiana for the first time in 20 years.

The agency says that while skunk rabies is normally found in northern Kentucky these are the first cases since 2004. Authorities are urging you to protect yourself and your pets by making sure your animals are vaccinated, leaving stray wildlife alone, keep your pets indoors, on leashes and under your direct supervision and contacting your local animal control to remove stray animals from your neighborhood.

The rabid skunks were found in Washington and Clark counties. The agency is working to determine whether other southern Indiana counties are affected. You can can help by reporting sick or dead skunks to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Fish & Wildlife Health Program.

You can report a sick or dead skunk online at on.IN.gov/sickwildlife.

The 2024 Brown Music Competition was held over the weekend and winners were chosen for the Betty F. Brown and Anna Newell Brown scholarships.

According to Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, Columbus North senior Jasmine Yang won the Betty F. Brown Awards for Instrumental Excellence for her piano performance. Columbus East senior Gavin Foley won the Anna Newell Brown Awards for Vocal Excellence.

Both students will receive a $3,500 scholarship award.

21 students participated in the competition, with two seniors receiving instrumental awards and three senior vocalists receiving an award.

Instrumental

• Sreepadaarchana Munjuluri, $2,500
• Emma Cloud, $1,000

Vocal

• Amelia Maddox, $2,000
• Austin Clark, $1,000
• Antoinette Hughes, $500

Seven underclass award winners were also chosen for instrumentalist and for vocalist.

Instrumental

• Santi De Luna, $2,000
• Grace Huang, $2,000
• Rishabh Rajesh, $2,000

Vocal

• Rebekah Woodruff, $2,000
• Rebeca Natalie Cantu Garcia, $1,000
• Elizabeth Alderfer, $500
• Annie Green, $500

Saturday’s competition was held at the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic’s Helen Haddad Hall.

Photos courtesy of Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County

You will see lane restrictions on Interstate 65 around the Edinburgh and Taylorsville exits starting today.

According to the Indiana Department of Transportation, crews will be reducing the north and southbound lanes to a single lane and closing the off ramps during bridge work .

Crews will begin patching the bridge deck today, with southbound I-65 reduced to one lane and closing the southbound I-65 off-ramp to southbound U.S. 31. When that work is complete, crews will move to the northbound lanes and off-ramp.

The southbound off-ramp to northbound U.S. 31 and the northbound off-ramp to southbound U.S. 31 will remain open.

The work is expected to be going on from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day through Thursday. The work schedule is dependent on the weather.

INDOT asks that you slow down, drive without distractions and be considerate of worker safety in all work zones.

Map courtesy of INDOT

A driver is facing felony charges after fleeing from a Bartholomew County deputy onto Interstate 65 early Friday morning.

According to the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, a deputy tried to pull over a vehicle for a traffic stop at the intersection of River Road and East County Road 550N at about 12:55 a.m. Friday morning. But instead of stopping the driver took off through northern Bartholomew County before fleeing up the interstate.

Franklin police and Johnson County deputies used a device to deflate the vehicle’s tires near the Franklin exit, but the driver continued northbound. That’s where a Bargersville Police officer used a maneuver to force the driver’s vehicle to spin and stop. The driver was taken into custody and identified as 34-year-old Adam Cameron of Columbus.

Police say that the driver appeared to have self-inflicted cuts on his body. He was taken to an Indianapolis hospital to be checked out before being taken to the Bartholomew County Jail. He is facing preliminary charges of resisting law enforcement with a vehicle and for being a habitual traffic violator.

Columbus, Edinburgh and Whiteland police along with Indiana State troopers also assisted in the incident.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb is sending National Guard members to the Texas border for a 10-month deployment.

The governor announced today that he plans to send 50 troops to the border. That comes after a direct request for aid from Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Holcomb said that the troops will spend a week at Camp Atterbury for training and then will deploy to Texas by mid-March.

Bartholomew County state representatives Ryan Lauer of Columbus and Jim Lucas of Seymour both said they support the border protection mission.

The Bartholomew County primary elections have taken shape, as a surge of candidates filed in the last hours of the filing period.

Among the races this year are two seats on the Bartholomew County Commissioners, three at-large seats on the County Council, along with Superior Court 1 Judge, coroner and surveyor.

Long-time County Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz has a challenge from Rick Miller in the Republican primary. The winner of that race will face Democrat Josh Burbrink in the fall. Incumbent Commissioner Tony London, a Republican, has no opponent in the primary or general election.

None of the three current at-large members of the County Council filed for re-election. The outgoing members, Bill Lentz, Matt Miller and Evelyn Strietelmeyer Pence are all Republicans.

Four Republicans did file for the County Council seats: Michael R. Bell, Kim Bennett, John Prohaska and Marcus D. Speer. Three Democrats will be on the ballot with Nancy Merbitz, Zack Patchett and Michelle Carr filing to run for the at-large seats.

Superior Court Judge Jim Worton also filed for re-election and is unopposed in the primary or general election.

The only candidate for coroner is Republican Tom Barrett and the only county surveyor candidate is Republican Jake Fitzsimmons.

In the last hours of filing Friday morning 23 candidates filed for office at the county clerk’s voter registration office, most for Republican party positions as precinct committee members or state convention delegates.

National Road was shut down in Columbus for almost an hour Thursday near Lowell Road while crews fought a grass fire in the median.

According to the Columbus Fire Department, firefighters were called to the intersection on U.S. 31 after reports of the fire at about 1:20 p.m. Thursday afternoon. Firefighters discovered that the fire was burning in the median between the northbound and southbound lanes. The windy and dry conditions let the fire grow quickly to about six acres and it created a large amount of smoke. The smoke led firefighters to request for the road to be shut down.

And the fire had jumped over the northbound lanes, threatening a garage on North County Road 150W. The property owner was attempting to stop the fire with a garden house.

Columbus and German Township firefighters arrived to assist with their off-road firefighting brush trucks. It took about 20 minutes to get the fire under control and firefighters were on scene for about 25 more minutes to put out hot spots. The road was re-opened at about 2:20 p.m.

The cause of the fire has not yet been identified, but firefighters say they believe it was accidental and likely sparked by discarded smoking materials.

Photo courtesy of Columbus Fire Department.

Note: This story has been updated

A Columbus man is facing charges after a months long investigation into catalytic converter thefts across several counties.

According to the Columbus Police Department, the agency’s Intelligence Led Policing Unit began investigating the spree of thefts from businesses in the community. Police identified 59-year-old Russell D. Neville as a suspect in the local thefts as well as those in Johnson and Marion counties.

Last week, police stopped Neville’s vehicle and he was arrested on charges for possession of methamphetamine and marijuana. The investigation continued and police recovered several saw blades of a type frequently used to cut catalytic converters off of vehicles. On Wednesday, the Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s Office filed more charges including nine counts of theft.

Evidence photo courtesy of Columbus Police Department.