Columbus police say that they are investigating a shooting incident that happened Monday night on Wallace Avenue.
According to the police department, the incident happened at about 9:39 p.m. Monday night in the 1900 block of Wallace when shots were fired from a dark-colored sedan. Bullets hit a home and a vehicle, but no one was injured. Police say they believe this was an isolated incident.
If you have any information on the incident you are asked to call Detective Kummer at 812-376-2632.
Columbus Police Department is welcoming a new police officer after a swearing in ceremony yesterday morning at City Hall.
Officer Matthew Kieper was sworn in Monday morning by Mayor Mary Ferdon.
Kieper graduated from high school in Texas before joining the U.S. Marines Corp. After leaving the service, he worked as a police officer at College Station Police Department in Texas and then as a uniformed officer protecting the White House as part of the U.S. Secret service.
According to Columbus police, Kieper will undergo several weeks of training before starting his field training.
Photo courtesy of Columbus Police Department
A motorcyclist was seriously injured in a Saturday crash in Decatur County.
According to the Decatur County Sheriff’s Department, the crash happened at State Road 3 and Decatur County Road 560N at about 2:02 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Deputies say that the northbound motorcycle rider, Christian C. Arvin of Frankton was struck by a westbound passenger vehicle. The biker was flown by Lifeline helicopter to IU Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
The driver of the passenger vehicle, Titus A. Bowling of Greensburg told authorities that he had stopped at the intersection and didn’t see any oncoming traffic, but as he turned onto State Road 3 he struck the right side of the cycle.
The investigation is continuing.
The Bartholomew County Historical Society will be holding the annual Reeves Festival at the Historic Breeding Farm near Edinburgh later this month.
The event will be from 10 to 4 on Saturday Aug. 24th at the farm which is at 13730 North County Road 100W.
The event celebrates the Reeves family and the role the Reeves Companies played in Columbus. There will be live music, rides on Reeves steam engines, hands-on history displays, candle making, farm animals, blacksmithing garden tours and more.
Tickets are $10 per car and are available at the Bartholomew County Historical Society Museum on Third Street, or at the gate on Aug. 24th. Historical Society members will get in for free.
You can get more information at bartholomewhistory.org.
Contractors will be working a bridge on U.S. 50 west of Seymour starting next week.
According to INDOT, the bridge rehabilitation project will be on U.S. 50 over Sandy Creek, between Jackson County Roads 400 East and 475 East. Temporary traffic signals will be in use while the work is in progress.
The work is expected to start next Tuesday, August 20th and be completed by late October, depending on the weather.
INDOT says that a bridge project already going on over Heddy Run is expected to wrap up in the next few weeks.
The Sandy Creek project is part of a a $2.2 million contract awarded to Force Construction.
INDOT asks you to slow down, to drive without distractions and to use extra caution in all work zones.
A former Columbus fire chief is stepping down as head of the state homeland security department to take a new job in Carmel.
Indiana Department of Homeland Security executive director Joel Thacker is stepping down and will become the new fire chief in Carmel. Governor Eric Holcomb says the Indianapolis suburb is “fortunate to have him” and says Thacker has been “a consistently effective leader when Hoosiers needed it most.” Holcomb had appointed Thacker to the job in June 2022.
Thacker previously served briefly as the chief of the Columbus Fire Department. He served in Columbus for about four months, from May to September in 2012 under former Mayor Kristen Brown. Thacker started as a career firefighter in Brownsburg and then Johnson County’s White River Township. He moved to the Plainfield department in 2015 and became chief there in 2017. In 2020, Holcomb appointed Thacker as the state fire marshal.
According to the governor’s office, Thacker will start the Carmel job September 3.
Bartholomew County is adopting new rules regulating tattoo parlors, body piecing salons and the artists who work at them.
Bartholomew County Commissioners yesterday gave their approval to an ordinance that will regulate health and safety concerns where you go to get a tattoo or body piercing. It will require that the facility meet minimum standards and regulate the artists by requiring a license.
Link Fulp, with the county health department, explained to the commissioners that this will bring the county into compliance with requirements for a state environmental health grant. And it follows state guidelines in effect since 2000.
Among the requirements, parlors and salons must have hand washing sinks at each station, there must be restroom facilities in the building for the artists, the locations must be well ventilated and walls and floors must be lined with smooth, easily cleanable material that is easily sanitized. Disinfectant and sterilization equipment must also be used and tested monthly.
The businesses must maintain records on their customers for at least two years, documenting their photo ID, their age and patrons must sign written guidelines.
The new ordinance also outlines the quality of any jewelry implanted and bans a list of procedures from local parlors including scarification and branding.
Each facility must be inspected twice a year and the health department has the authority to shut down facilities that don’t meet the guidelines.
Since the new ordinance was first proposed, there have been mostly positive comments on the proposal. Fulp said that some artists said it will be easier for them to work or move to other communities, if they are already licensed in Bartholomew County. He said that the facilities already meeting the guidelines are in favor as it helps legitimatize the quality of their business.
Commissioners gave the new ordinance their final approval yesterday.
Ordinance No. 2024-09. An Ord. Regulating Establishments Providing Tattoos and or Body Piercings
The Bartholomew County Joint Narcotics Enforcement team has made three arrests in a months-long drug-dealing investigation.
According to the Columbus Police Department, police received tips about drugs being sold from a home in the 2500 block of 14th Street about two months ago. On Thursday, they served a search warrant on the home and one of the suspects, 46-year-old Benji Smith fled the scene on a bicycle, but was soon taken into custody.
Inside the home police found more than $4,000 in cash, more than six ounces of meth, scales, drug packaging material, and other drug paraphernalia. Police arrested two people at the home, 61-year-old Anthony Jeffares, and 61-year-old Kathy Baker, both of Columbus.
Smith is facing preliminary charges of dealing methamphetamine, for possessing meth, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, maintaining a common nuisance, criminal mischief and for resisting law enforcement.
Jeffares and Baker are both being accused of maintaining a common nuisance, and Baker was also wanted on an outstanding Hancock County warrant.
Photos courtesy of Columbus Police Department.
Thrive Alliance will be offering its Powerful Tools for Caregivers sessions in Seymour, starting next month.
Powerful Tools for Caregivers is an educational series designed to provide caregivers with the tools they need to take care of those in their care while also taking care of themselves.
The series consists of six sessions held once a week. Classes will be held every Thursday from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m., in the Community Room of Crossroads Senior Apartments, on South Poplar Street in Seymour starting on September 19th. Classes run through October 24th.
The program is free and you are invited to attend. You can register by September 15th by calling 812 372-6918 and going to ext. 2403.
A reminder that State Road 45 will be closing this week in Brown County as crews work to install a culvert.
According to INDOT, that will be happening at Bear Creek Road and the road will be closed between Helmsburg and Needmore while the work is going on. You should take a detour around by using State Road 46.
The work is expected to start on Tuesday and take a full day. The work schedule is dependent on the weather.
INDOT reminds you to slow down, to use extra caution and to drive without distractions in all work zones.