A Seymour man was arrested last Friday on several charges after the suspect fled police only to crash into several parked cars.

On March 10th about 6 p.m., a K-9 officer with the Seymour Police Department (SPD) tried to stop a 2006 Ford Mustang for driving on the wrong side of the road in the 700 block of West 5th St., per SPD’s Lt. C.J. Foster.

The driver, Michael D. Taylor, 39, refused to stop and accelerated away before striking a stop sign, a fire hydrant, and three parked vehicles, according to police. Taylor then fled on foot but was arrested a short time after, according to law enforcement.

Taylor was arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a prior conviction, operating a vehicle with a BAC of .08% or greater, leaving the scene of a property damage crash, resisting law enforcement, and resisting law enforcement in a vehicle. The amount of damage to city property and parked cars are not currently known.

The Hoosier Lottery says someone bought a $50,000 winning ticket at a Kroger in Crawfordsville during Monday night’s Powerball drawing. That person matched four out of the five numbers and the Powerball. The winning Powerball numbers for Monday are 3, 10, 24, 46, and 63 with a Powerball of 4. The Powerball jackpot for Wednesday, March 15th, is an estimated $63 million.

The Greenwood Police Department announced Monday that Marco Antonio Gonzalez, of Greenwood, has been taken into custody and charged with murder.

He is accused of shooting to death 52-year-old Indianapolis resident, Timothy A. Sannito, last Wednesday in the parking lot of the Ale Emporium on County Line Road, in Greenwood.

The Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office says that Gonzalez is currently being held in the Johnson County Jail in Franklin. The investigation is ongoing.

Washington Street will be closed from 3rd to 4th street Today (Wednesday) from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Tomorrow (Thursday), March 16th from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for film production.

The Columbus Board of Works approved a special use of right of way request for the filming. Writer and Director Robert  Monoit, of Driver Productions, will be shooting “The Ice Cream Man”, a film about a Jewish ice cream parlor owner in 1941 Amsterdam named Ernst Cahn who helped spur what became “The February Strike”, which is considered the first and largest anti-Nazi protest during World War II.

Columbus benefactor and entrepreneur Tony Moravec, who passed away in November, helped fund the film and lent use of Zaharakos for filming.

Following a record-setting year of enrollment for On My Way Pre-K, Indiana’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning is now accepting applications for the 2023-2024 school year. On My Way Pre-K allows 4-year-olds from lower-income families to receive a free, high-quality, prekindergarten education through Indiana’s only state-sponsored prekindergarten program. Information about the program and the link to apply can be found at OnMyWayPreK.org.

“We enrolled more than 6,200 children in 2022 and expect to enroll even more this year,” said Courtney Penn, director of FSSA’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning. “The Purdue University long-term study released last year showed that children who attend On My Way Pre-K are better prepared for school and that the benefits continue well into elementary school. As we enroll an even larger group of children, we know more will be better prepared to succeed throughout their school years.”

For the 2023-2024 school year, a child is eligible for On My Way Pre-K if they:

will be 4 years old by Aug. 1, 2023
plan to start kindergarten in the 2024-2025 school year
live in a household with an income below 127% of the federal poverty level
have parents or guardians who are working, attending job training or an educational program, looking for employment, or
meet other requirements specified on this page
An easy-to-use, online application called “Early Ed Connect” serves as the application for both On My Way Pre-K and child care assistance provided via the federal Child Care Development Fund or CCDF. Early Ed Connect makes it easy to attach documents and notifies the user that their submission was successfully submitted. A Spanish version is also available.

Once the family has met eligibility requirements and completed the enrollment process, they may choose from any of the 1,055 approved On My Way Pre-K programs located across Indiana. These programs are operated in homes, centers, schools and religious settings, allowing families to choose the type of setting that works best for them. Families can search approved providers at www.ChildCareFinder.IN.gov.

If a family needs help working through the enrollment process or finding an approved pre-K program, they can go to navigate.onmywayprek.org to connect with a manager in their county.

More than 21,000 Hoosier children have attended pre-K through the On My Way Pre-K program since it began in 2015. The program, which started as a five-county pilot and then expanded to 20 counties in 2017, became a statewide program in 2019. OECOSL also updates the Indiana General Assembly every year on the program. The most recent report can be found here.

The Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning is a division of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

Families may call 800-299-1627 for assistance from an early learning referral specialist or for other questions about On My Way Pre-K.

According to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, Indiana’s unemployment rate in January stands at 3.1% while the national unemployment rate for January is 3.4%.

The state’s labor force participation rate held at 63.4% for most of January, remaining above the national rate of 62.4%. Indiana’s total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3,409,096, a decrease of 973 from December.

Private sector employment in Indiana increased by 12,600 jobs over the last month, translating to a gain of 85,300 jobs from this time last year. Indiana’s January private employment stands at 2,825,700.

Industries that experienced job increases in January included:

Construction (+6,700);
Leisure and Hospitality (+4,700);
Private Educational and Health Services (+2,500);
Trade, Transportation and Utilities (+1,500); and
Professional and Business Services (+300).

As of March 1st, there were 130,839 open job postings throughout the state. In January, 19,460 unemployment insurance claims were filed in Indiana.

The Columbus yard waste/chipper program is set to begin on Monday, March 20th, and will continue through December 15th.

It is asked that toters and small piles of sticks are brought out to the curb by 7 a.m. on your designated trash day for collection. Residents who are participating are reminded that all yard waste must be in a toter.

For more information on the program, check out the Department of Public Work’s website at columbus.in.gov/publicworks, or call 812-376-2509 to sign up for the service.

The Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET) has apprehended two Columbus residents suspected of fentanyl distribution. The arrests were the result of a long-term ongoing drug dealing investigation.

During the investigation, Jera Lynn McCoy, and Casey N. McCoy, were identified as supposed retail distributors of suspected fentanyl, according to law enforcement. JNET obtained a search warrant for a residence in the 1600 block of Cottage Avenue in Columbus where authorities allege the McCoys were dealing the drugs. The narcotics team also obtained a search warrant for a hotel room in the 100 block of Carrie Lane that was booked under Casey McCoy’s name.

After the searches of the house on Cottage Avenue and the hotel room, JNET allegedly found approximately 17 grams of suspected fentanyl, packaging material, and a digital scale, along with a list of suspected customers and customer phone numbers.

Jera Lynn McCoy and Casey McCoy were both preliminarily charged with dealing in a narcotic drug. They are incarcerated at Bartholomew County Jail. The investigation continues and more charges are possible.

The Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team, a combined unit of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office, the Columbus Police Department, and the Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s Office is proactively targeting the manufacturing and abuse of dangerous drugs in Columbus and Bartholomew County.

Angie Ginder, A 6th Grade Teacher at Rockcreek Elementary School, received the 2023 Edna V. Folger Outstanding Teacher Award during a special presentation at the school on March 9th, 2023.
Ms. Ginder will also be recognized during the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting on March 30th.

Ginder serves in leadership roles in the school corporation and at Rockcreek – serving as a district science mentor and on Rockcreek’s continuous improvement council.

As part of the recognition, Mrs. Ginder received a monetary gift from SIHO; an inscribed clock from the IUPUC Center for Teaching and Learning; and her name will be added to a permanent plaque in the Columbus Learning Center which lists all previous Folger Award winners.

For more information about the Edna Folger Outstanding Teacher Award, contact Marsha VanNahmen at the IUPUC Center for Teaching and Learning at [email protected]

Mill Race Center and The Pitman Institute in partnership with IUPUC will once again host Great Decisions at Mill Race Center. The Mill Race Center program has been the largest in the state for many years.
Great Decisions is a once-week program running on Thursday evenings from March 23rd-May 11th from 6:30-8:00pm. Registration is required and can be done by calling Mill Race Center at (812)376-9241 or stopping in at Mill Race Center at 900 Lindsey Street in Columbus.
The participation fee is $35 for Mill Race Center members and $45 for non-members.
Class will be held in person and also with a Zoom option. Each participant will receive a Briefing Book by the Foreign Policy Association.
Great Decisions is America’s largest discussion program on world affairs and developed by the Foreign Policy Association.
Published annually, the Great Decisions Briefing Book highlights nine of the most thought-provoking foreign policy challenges facing Americans.
The Topics for 2023 Are:
ECONOMIC WARFARE
CLIMATE MIGRATION
ENERGY GEOPOLITICS
GLOBAL FAMINE
WAR CRIMES
POLITICS IN LATIN AMERICA
CHINA AND THE U.S.
And
IRAN AT A CROSSROADS

For More information Contact Shannon Truman at (812) 376-9241 or at [email protected]