Traffic is expected to be restricted for almost two months on a Jackson County bridge.

According to the Indiana Department of Transportation, crews will be working to complete painting on the State Road 39 bridge over Smart Ditch south of Tampico, starting today.

The bridge is about two miles south of Tampico and a mile north of State Road 256. Motorists will be unable to use the southbound shoulder while work is in progress. Crews will begin to place signage in the area prior to the start of construction. The work is expected to take up to seven weeks but the work schedule is dependent on the weather.

Eagle Painting and Maintenance Company is the contractor for the project.

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

The Indiana Immunization Coalition will be holding a community immunization clinic at Yes Cinema this week.

Everyone who takes part will be vaccinated with all of the CDC recommended vaccines. The clinic will consult the state immunization registry to see what vaccines you are missing. You can decline any vaccine, but you need to contact the coalition two days before the event to do so.

You should bring your insurance card as the coalition will accept and bill all insurance carriers. There is no cost for anyone without insurance, except for the Shingles vaccine.

Walk ins are welcome but you can register online at patients.vaxcare.com/registration and use the enrollment code IN 65942.

The cinema is at the corner of Fourth and Jackson streets in downtown Columbus and the clinic will be from 11 to 2 p.m. on Thursday.

The Crump Theatre will be hosting a fundraising show this weekend featuring hometown band 40 Years of College.

According to the band, despite the large local following, 40 Years of College has not performed in Columbus since before the pandemic. Organizers at the Crump hope to raise enough funds from this and other upcoming events to help refurbish a men’s lounge area on the second floor of the 134-year-old theater.

Jess Schnepp, head of the project to rehabilitate the Crump Theater, explains:

Kevin Welsh the drummer for with 40 year of College explains:

Becky Burbrink, lead singer for the band, is also its newest member. She is a teacher at Columbus North, but said she has yet to perform with the band in Columbus.

The show will start at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Tickets are $15 in advance or $25 for a VIP experience. You can get tickets here:

Columbus Regional Health CEO and President Jim Bickel is making plans to retire.

As of next week, he will be stepping down from his role as president of the hospital.

Bickel has been with the hospital system for 34 years. He took over as the hospital’s executive in 2007. He will continue as CEO and plans to leave the hospital completely by next year.

The hospital will be splitting the duties of president and CEO, effective August 1st. Bickel will be replaced as president by Steve Baker, who has been serving as chief operating officer.

Baker has worked with the hospital for 20 years, with a break as he served in the U.S. Air Force for more than nine years. He has been with the hospital since 2016. Previously he has served as Chief Information and Technology Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, and most recently as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

An Indiana native, Baker moved to Columbus in 1998. He and his wife, Deanna, have two adult children.

Photo: Columbus Regional Health President & CEO Jim Bickel talks before a media tour of the new Nexus Park facility in January.

A study by a real estate website is listing Columbus as one of the most desirable places in the U.S. to live.

The site, AgentAdvice, ranked communities by 11 metrics that their experts say contribute to the desirability of an area. Among the factors they looked at is average home size and price, number of attractions and things to do as well as average income, violent and property crime rates per 100,000 population and costs in the city. Each community was ranked on a 1-100 score.

Under their rankings, Columbus scored 59.17 out of 100 making it the seventh most desirable place in America to live. The rankings found reasonable home prices here, along with rent just below average, higher than average wages and slightly lower than average cost of living.

The study also found that Columbus has some of the lowest rates of property crime, with only 147 of those crimes per 100,000 population.

You can get more information here: https://www.agentadvice.com

Chart courtesy of agentadvice.com

Area police departments are preparing activities surrounding National Night Out in August.

The annual nationwide event is meant to promote police-community partnerships.

According to the Nashville Police Department, town officers, Brown County deputies and other public safety personnel will be holding a gathering on the Village Green on Tuesday, August 6th.

Police say that many local businesses are donating food, beverages, time, supplies, and financial support to make this event cost free for attendees.

The Nashville event will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on August 6th.

Edinburgh Parks and Recreation Department is hosting a National Night Out event for police, firefighters and other emergency personnel on August 6th at the Parks and Rec Sports Complex. There will be a free meal and a chance to meet police and firefighters and see live demonstrations.

The Edinburgh event is being sponsored by the Edinburgh Fellowship of Churches. Iti will be from 5 to 7 on August 6th.

Greensburg police will be holding National Night Out activities on Thursday August 8th at North Park.

There will be emergency vehicles on display and live demonstrations from the police K-9 team, Greensburg Fire Department and the REMC.

The Greensburg event will be from 5 to 8 at the park on North Carver Street.

The deadline is coming up next week if you would like to sign up for the next Bartholomew County Works job readiness program’s workshop series.

Bartholomew County Works is committed to helping members improve their lives, gain full-time employment and achieve economic self-sufficiency. It provides resources in areas including transportation, finances and budget setting.

The day-long workshop series will start on Monday August 5th and run through Friday August 9th at Yes Cinema.

An orientation session will be held August 1st from 10 to 11:30 in the morning.

The deadline to sign up is Wednesday.

To get more information on signing up, you can call Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center at 812-378-2638.

Schneck Medical Center in Seymour is hoping to get your thoughts on the community’s health needs.

The hospital is launching a Community Health Needs Assessment and are inviting anyone in the community to take part.

The assessment is meant to identify the most pressing health issues facing the community. Steps will include gathering data, assessing health indicators, and looking for your thoughts. The information will help Schneck with its strategic planning and allocating resources to better serve community needs.

You can take part in the survey with a link available on the hospital website, through social media links or by picking up a physical copy of the survey, at the greeter’s desk at the hospital from 7 to 4 Monday thorugh Friday.

The deadline to take the survey is August 16th.

The city of Columbus faced two digital problems Thursday, which they are say are unrelated, but both limiting city computer systems.

According to the city, Columbus government computers have been the victim of a cyberattack. The incident started with an intrusion into the systems Wednesday evening but the city IT department caught the breach and took steps to immediately limit access to information to the hackers. City officials say no credit card or banking information within the city was compromised in the breach.

The city says that the breach is being investigated by the department and Mike Richardson, director of security and risk for the city.

Richardson calls this an “isolated incident” and says the city is “taking measures to put further safeguards in place to mitigate future risk to the city’s cyber infrastructure.”

Officials say that in an unrelated incident, the city government has been working through an Internet outage. All city offices have been affected by the outage today. City payments and online services have not been available and the city email has been taken down by the outage.

They say that the occurrence of the outage and the system breach are coincidental.

As of late Thursday, the city was still working through the issues.

Indiana Senate Republicans are announcing they are searching for paid spring-summer interns during next year’s session of the General Assembly.

They are looking for candidates to fill spots in the caucus’s communications, information technology, legal, legislative, page and policy offices.

Candidates must be at least a sophomore in college and recent graduates as well as graduate school and law school students will also be considered.

Senate internships are full-time positions at the Statehouse in downtown Indianapolis. There is a mandatory orientation in late December and work concludes at the end of the legislative session in April. Interns earn an $900 biweekly stipend and may also benefit from scholarships and academic credit opportunities.

Sen. Greg Walker of Columbus encouraged residents of his Senate district to apply, saying internships can lead to opportunities and allow interns to “develop professional relationships that benefit them when they are ready to start looking for full-time positions.”

The deadline to apply is Oct. 31st. You can get more information online at www.IndianaSenateRepublicans.com/Intern

Indiana Statehouse photo courtesy of iga.in.gov