IU Columbus will be offering voting information on campus as part of its celebration of Constitution Day and Voter Registration Day later this month.

According to the school, activities on Sept. 17th will include opportunities to check your voter registration and who will be on your ballot, find your voting locations, and view a voting booth used in Bartholomew County elections. There will also be snacks, button making and opportunities to ask questions about the upcoming elections.

Associate Professor Pamela Morris is coordinating the events and says the goal is “to celebrate the right to vote, encourage engaged citizenship, and have AirPark campus faculty, staff and students—as well as members of the local community—commit to vote.”

The activities will be held in the Landing at the Columbus Learning Center at 4555 Central Avenue from 10 to 2 p.m. on September 17th. The event is free and you are invited to attend.

The city of Columbus will be holding a public conversation with former mayors of the city on Wednesday, focused on the history of the community.

The Legacy of Leadership — Our Mayors Remember talk will be on Wednesday at The Commons. It will feature Mayor Mary Ferdon, former mayors Nancy Ann Brown-Poynter, Fred Armstrong and Jim Lienhoop, as well as former Deputy Mayor Sherry Stark representing the Stewart Administration. WCSI’s own John Foster will be the moderator for the panel.

Mayor Mary Ferdon explains that the idea grew from a panel discussion last year.

There will be a hospitality hour from 5 to 6 p.m., followed by the conversation from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and questions and answers from 7:30 to 8 p.m.

Heritage Fund is the sponsor for the event.

Columbus emergency workers will be observing the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks with a ceremony at the Columbus City Hall plaza on Wednesday.

The outdoor ceremony will begin at 8:40 a.m., with a moment of silence taking place at the moment the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. There will also be a dispatch over the emergency radios honoring the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives that day in the attacks on New York City, the Pentagon and on Flight 93, that crashed in Pennsylvania.

Members of the Columbus Fire Department and Police Department Color Guard will take part in the ceremony. The ceremony is scheduled to last about 30 minutes.

The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce is accepting applications from community first responders for matching grant funds to improve the emergency services in the county.

According to the chamber, each request can be for up to $500 through the Jackson Chamber Foundation. Organizers hope the grants increase the level of service provided to the community through training and equipment improvements.

The deadline to apply is October 4th.

The chamber is also hosting its third annual first responders appreciation breakfast next month.

The event will be on Friday October 25th at Pewter Hall in Brownstown. Members of all Jackson County first responder departments such as law enforcement, fire, medics, or corrections officers are invited to attend.

Dan Robison, director of the Jackson County Chamber, said the event provides an opportunity for the community “to give back and show some respect and appreciation to the folks who serve our community with great commitment.”

The breakfast will begin at 8 a.m. The event is free but you are asked to register.

For more information, to apply for the grant or register for the breakfast you can email [email protected]

Low-income Bartholomew County residents will have a chance for free legal advice on Tuesday.

River Valley Legal Aid offers the clinics for low-income residents of its eight-county district to receive legal advice and assistance.

The group will be holding the free legal aid phone clinic Tuesday. If you take part you will have a brief consultation with a volunteer attorney to answer general questions, to offer legal information or to receive other advice over the phone.

The phone clinic will be from 3 to 5:30 p.m. To take part, you must first register between noon and 2 p.m. by calling 812-378-0358.

A more than $8 million project to turn a building off of Indianapolis road into a new home for the Columbus Departments of Public Works and Transit is moving through the approval process.

It was approved last week by City Council and will go before the city’s Plan Commission this week.

According to city documents, the city would buy a building on Arcadia Drive for $2.6 million and then spend about $6.1 million to renovate the building and property to accommodate the city departments. The renovations would include a maintenance addition, covered storage, a wash building for vehicles, a fuel island along with interior and site work, according to estimates prepared by Force Construction.

The building is owned by Yinlun TDI and was previously used as a data center. It includes 20 acres.

Money for the project would come from the city’s redevelopment department, via property tax revenues from the city’s central tax increment financing district.

The city department of public works is currently located off of Mapleton Street.

The project was approved last month by the Columbus Redevelopment Commission. Because the project will cost more than $500 thousand dollars, the redevelopment commission is required to seek approval from City Council, which happened last week.

This week the project will be before the city plan commission for rezoning it from heavy industrial to general rezoning use. That meeting starts at 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

The Labor Day weekend concert to benefit Our Hospice and Palliative Care raised more than $80,000 according to organizers. For the first time, the concert was held indoors at the Circle K Fieldhouse at Nexus Park and there was a charge for tickets.

The annual concert is the largest fundraiser for Our Hospice. The organization, based in Columbus, provides care for more than 300 patients in 22 counties throughout south-central Indiana. Steph Cain, president of the hospice said that the funds raised will directly support the organization’s “mission of providing compassionate care to patients and their families during their most difficult times.”

Last weekend’s headliner was the Woombiles Rock Orchestra.

Organizers thanked the support of sponsors Dunlap General and Mechanical Contractors and Columbus Regional Health.

Nominations are open for the Bartholomew Consolidated Schools 2025 Education Hall of Fame.

The award honors exceptional teachers and administrators and their impact on the local schools and community.

Nominees must be current or former licensed teachers or administrators who have worked for BCSC for a minimum of 15 years.

The deadline for nominations is November 1st and they must be submitted to the superintendent’s office in the BCSC Administration Building on Central Avenue.

You can get nomination forms from the superintendent’s office by phone at 812-376-4220, by email at [email protected]. or by going online to bcscschools.org

Photo: Sandy Watts is inducted into the BCSC Hall of Fame by then-Superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts. Photo courtesy of BCSC

A Columbus man that police are calling a serious violent felon is facing charges after allegedly threatening a woman in Jennings County.

According to the Jennings County Sheriff’s Department, deputies began investigating the reported threats early on Tuesday morning. Authorities discovered that the woman was receiving messages with death threats from her ex-boyfriend. Those included photos and videos displaying a gun. And while the deputy was on scene, the threatening text messages continued to come in.

Police identified an address on Whippoorwill Drive, in Seymour where the ex is now living and discovered that the man had five outstanding warrants out of Bartholomew County. Jennings and Jackson county deputies as well as Seymour police went to the home and discovered that the man was living in a garage. And despite hearing phone calls from inside, the officers could not get the man to leave the building. Eventually they forced their way into the locked garage.

They found the suspect, 46-year-old Steven Burton hiding under a pile of clothes and garage items. After a brief struggle, he was taken into custody and transported back to Jennings County. After being checked out at the hospital he was arrested on new charges of intimidation with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest, as well as the warrants which included two felony charges of invasion of privacy with a previous conviction.

The project to turn the former Fair Oaks Mall into NexusPark is receiving a $1 million grant from the state toward a more than $4 million upgrade to the nearby ball diamonds.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation announced this morning the next round of READI 2.0 allocations, including the Columbus project. The money will go toward synthetic turf on the six ball diamonds at Lincoln Park, across 25th Street from the former mall. It will also help fund amenities including greenspace, trails, lighting and outdoor restrooms. The entire project is estimated to cost $4.2 million dollars and to start later this year.

City officials estimate that the upgrades will allow for more sporting events and a longer season for events. That would add up to an increased economic benefit to the community of $950,000 each year, according to estimates.

Mayor Mary Ferdon said that the first round of READI funding helped facilitate the joint city and Columbus Regional Hospital project to transform the aging and mostly empty mall into a health and wellness facility. She said the additional funding will allow the community to grow regional sports tourism.

The South Central READI region which includes Columbus, Bartholomew, Jackson and Jennings counties as well as Edinburgh, has been awarded $60 million so far in READI matching funds. The region is led by the Southern Indiana Housing and Community Development Corporation.

The READI program, short for the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, was established in 2021.

Indiana Economic Development Corporation press release

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) announced today that Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative 2.0 (READI 2.0) projects are officially moving forward in south central Indiana with the expansion of NexusPark, a health, wellness and recreation facility dedicated to improving the lives of Hoosiers in Columbus and the surrounding communities.

Governor Eric J. Holcomb established the now $1.25 billion READI program in 2021, and it has since been nationally recognized for its success. READI 2.0, which was part of the governor’s 2023 Next Level Agenda and approved by the Indiana General Assembly, allocates another $500 million to regions across the state to accelerate shovel-ready projects and programs that are expected to transform Indiana communities, attract talent and improve quality of life for Hoosiers in the short and long term. READI 2.0 funding allocations were awarded in April to 15 regions representing all 92 Indiana counties.

“Indiana’s READI program has challenged local and regional leaders to think creatively and strategically about their futures, and the NexusPark project is an inspiring example of reuse – transforming an abandoned mall into a regional destination for health and wellness, recreation and economic impact,” said Indiana Secretary of Commerce David Rosenberg. “This development is already fueling community connections and regional growth, and this next phase of investment will build on this momentum, creating a lasting impact on Hoosiers across Columbus and the south central region.”

In Columbus, the region’s first READI 2.0 project will build on a READI 1.0 development – the creation of NexusPark, which is transforming an abandoned mall into a destination for health and wellness. Phase one of the project includes the development of an indoor sports facility, a regional hub for wellness related services, the city’s park administrative offices, community spaces for residents and families, and an outdoor park and trail space.

Now, the region is investing $4.2 million (including a $1 million READI 2.0 allocation) on the next phase of the development that will add synthetic turf on six outdoor ball diamonds at the adjacent Lincoln Park and create a complimentary set of amenities, enhancing the future exterior campus that is set to include greenspace, trails, lighting and outdoor restrooms. With the recent addition of the NexusPark Fieldhouse, the synthetic turf at Lincoln Park will create new opportunities for indoor/outdoor sporting event combinations and extend the event season, increasing economic benefit by an estimated $950,000 annually. The project is expected to start late this year and be complete by the end of 2025.

“The adaptive reuse of a former mall into NexusPark, a 550,000-square-foot health and wellness facility, was facilitated by READI 1 dollars. State funding through READI 1 magnified the impact we could have on our local residents’ quality of life and give a healthy boost to our sports tourism industry,” according to Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon. “Additional funding from the state through READI 2.0 allows us to grow regional sports tourism and increase both the number of events we can host, as well as improve the quality of play. If the goal of READI funding was to drive economic impact – that goal has been met in Columbus by assisting in making these investments in our region and city’s future.”

READI 1.0 has awarded $487 million to 353 unique projects and programs across the state, yielding $12.6 billion invested (26:1 investment leverage ratio) in quality of life, quality of place and quality of opportunity initiatives. READI 2.0, which secured additional funding awarded by the Lilly Endowment Inc., is allocating another $750 million to accelerate community development investments statewide. This funding is expected to attract a minimum 4:1 match of local public and private funding, yielding at least $3 billion invested to increase the vibrancy and prosperity of Hoosier communities.

Columbus is part of the South Central READI region – led by the Southern Indiana Housing and Community Development Corporation – that was awarded $60 million total in READI 1.0 and READI 2.0 matching funds to support quality of life, quality of place and quality of opportunity projects across Bartholomew, Jackson and Jennings counties as well as the town of Edinburgh. The region’s READI investments, including the NexusPark expansion, are designed to inspire and cultivate collaboration among companies and communities to build powerful technologies, prosperous communities and a resilient future by focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship, education and workforce development, housing and quality of place.

Learn more at IndianaREADI.com.