The Atterbury Bakalar Air Museum at the Columbus Municipal Airport has reopened after its winter break and will be open on Saturday with a special event.

During the break volunteers worked to improve the museum by cleaning, repairing old displays and building new ones. During their down time volunteers were able to repair a popular attraction, a cutaway radial engine from an aircraft. That has been out of service for more than a year.

Pat Billey with the museum explains:

The museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow you will be able to tour the restored C-119 plane nicknamed the “City Of Columbus.” Skip Taylor explains:

The museum officially reopened Thursday.

Photo courtesy of Atterbury-Bakalar Museum.

The 12th annual fishing tournament named after former Brown County Sheriff Buck Stogsdill is set for April.

Bartholomew County Sheriff Chris Lane is announcing that the Indiana Sheriff’s Association’s Open Bass Tournament will be held April 20th at Lake Monroe’s Cutright Ramp starting between 7 and 7:30 a.m. The registration fee is $125. There will also be a raffle. Proceeds go to benefit the association’s Line of Duty Death Benefit, Youth Leadership Camps and Scholarship Programs.

Stogsdill died in 2011.

The association provides assistance to Sheriff’s Offices statewide, helping them improve the delivery of law enforcement and correctional services.

For more information you can go to indianasheriffs.org.

State Road 135 in southern Brown County will be closing next week for up to 20 days while crews work to replace a drainage structure.

According to INDOT, contractors will be closing the highway near Hamilton Creek Road on Thursday, March 14th. That is just south of Story. Signs will be installed prior to the road closing.

The state-approved detour will follow State Road 58 to State Road 46.

This is part of a $3.7 million contract with five projects awarded to E&B Paving . Two of the projects were finished last year and three are expected to be completed this year.

The work-schedule is dependent on the weather.

INDOT asks you to slow down, to drive without distractions and to use extra caution in work zones.

A new police dog named after two area counties is going through training and is expected to be on duty in May.

According to the Jennings County Sheriff’s Department, Indiana conservation officer Zack Walker started training last month with his new dog Jaycie. The sheriff says the new dog was purchased in part by Jennings County Sheriff’s Office, Jennings County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office. And her name represents the counties’ initials.

Jaycie is a flatcoat retriever and she is 1 and a half years old.

The training is taking place at Patoka Lake. Dogs will be certified in man tracking, area searches/evidence recovery and wildlife detection. That will include being able to sniff out deer, turkey, waterfowl and ginseng.

There are four dog teams taking part in this round of training, three from Indiana and one from Arkansas. The dogs have already gone through more than 100 training tracks and are expected to graduate in late May.

Photo courtesy of Jennings County Sheriff’s Department.

Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon is outlining her goals and initiatives in her first State of the City address held Wednesday evening at Nexus Park, the former Fair Oaks Mall.

She announced initiatives to improve public safety, reduce homelessness, address modern transit needs and improve Columbus Animal Care Services.

Ferdon announced that Mark Stewart, head of the United Way of Bartholomew County, would be leading a task force to tackle homelessness in the community.

“I’m pleased to announce that Mark Stewart, President of United Way, has agreed to lead a community -based initiative to move our community in the direction where homelessness is rare, brief, and non -reoccurring,” Ferdon said.

Ferdon said the current animal shelter, built in the 1980s, is not meeting the city’s needs.

“This facility was not built to accommodate current demand and best practices and we cannot keep up with the building maintenance,” Ferdon said. “We’ve begun the process of reviewing how we can design and build a facility which serves current and future needs in a more cost -effective and efficient way. Animals are another vulnerable population which requires community care.”

Ferdon spelled out how a new department of Security and Risk would help protect public safety in city buildings and the start of a transit study this spring to determine modern needs.

“Our current fixed -route system, while functional, cannot easily meet the needs of our growing senior population and the change in how people work. It was designed for a different period of time,” Ferdon said. “Our goal is to look holistically at the type of system that will best serve the needs of residents, both now as well as into the future.”

Photo: Mary Ferdon speaks at the 2024 State of the City address at Nexus Park.

INDOT says crews are starting work again on State Road 7 in Jennings County.

According to the agency, contractors are closing County Road 275 between State Roads 3 and 7 to turn it into a cul-de-sac. After that work is complete, they will begin widening State Road 7. The goal is to add a left turn lane at Country Squire Lakes but the road widening, turn lane installation and culvert replacements will be done at a later time..

This is part of a $7.5 million contract awarded to Dave O’Mara construction company.

INDOT asks you to slow down, to drive without distractions and to use extra caution in work zones.

Dr. Eric Fish, chief executive officer at Schneck Medical Center, has been named as a Rural Hospital CEO To Know by a health care magazine.

Becker’s Hospital Review featured Fish and others with an article dedicated to the heads of rural hospitals and health systems.

Fish was one of only three executives in Indiana to receive the recognition. Fish has over 18 years of leadership experience at Schneck, wehere he has served in several capacities, most recently as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. He was promoted in September of 2020 to CEO and president of Schneck.

Fish holds several other leadership roles including southern district president of the Indiana Hospital Association, on the Indiana Rural Health Association board of directors and chairman of the board of directors for SIHO Holdings.

Seymour’s John Rust remains banned from running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in Indiana.

The Indiana Supreme Court upheld the state’s party affiliation law that says candidates must have voted for the party they want to represent in their last two primary votes. Rust voted in the Republican primary in 2016 and the Democratic primary in 2012, and those were his last two primary votes.

Rust is a former executive of Rose Acre Farms. He has said he believes the state’s two primary law shouldn’t apply to him because of a December ruling from Marion County Superior Court Judge Patrick Dietrick who found it unconstitutional.

He says his candidacy will eventually be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rust is a former executive of Rose Acre Farms.

Story courtesy of TTWN Media Networks

After North Vernon police checked on an unconscious driver last week, a car chase ended with the vehicle crashing into a utility truck.

According to the North Vernon Police Department, the incident started at 9:02 a.m. Thursday morning when officers, firefighters and medics were called to North State Road 3 and U.S. 50 about a man passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle. Rescue workers found a man slumped over in the driver’s seat in a car. After attempting to revive the man, he suddenly woke up, ignored instructions from police and drove off in the car.

Police briefly lost sight of the vehicle but found it again after it had crashed into a bucket truck at the intersection with U.S. 50 and North State Road 7. Police say no one in the bucket truck was injured and the driver of the car refused medical treatment.

The driver, 30-year-old Jarvie T. Williams III of North Vernon, is facing charges of reckless driving and criminal recklessness. The incident is still under investigation and more charges may be coming, police say.

Photos courtesy of North Vernon Police Department.