The sign-up deadline is today for those interested in taking part in a Saturday workshop for first-time homebuyers.

The Lincoln Central Neighborhood Homebuyer’s Program is organizing the workshop from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Yes Cinema.

The workshop will be presented by Apprisen, in partnership with Union Savings Bank, the Southern Indiana Housing and Community Development Corporation and Lincoln Central.

Workshop topics will include preparing for homeownership, working with a real estate agent and understanding budgets and credit history. After finishing the workshop, participants will receive a HUD homebuyer certificate of completion.

The workshop is free. Registration is required. For more information or to register, you can call the Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center at 812-379-1630 or email [email protected].

YES Cinema is at 328 Jackson Street in downtown Columbus.

The Bartholomew County Historical Society will be hosting its annual Free Family Fun on the Farm event Saturday at the Historic Henry Breeding Farm. The event allows participants to experience life on a farm of the early 1900’s

The event will include steam engines, historic games, spinning and weaving, Beekeeping, Blacksmithing, Historic Music, Candle making and Crafts.

The event will be from 9 to 1 on Saturday at the farm on County Road North 100W near Edinburgh. For more information you can go to bartholomewhistory.org.

Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Historical Society.

The city of Columbus is providing $450 thousand dollars toward the design and construction costs in a project to redo the plaza at the entrance to the downtown area.

The plaza includes the POW/MIA and law enforcement memorials as well as the Robert D. Garton Veterans Plaza just off of the Second Street bridge. The plaza is about an acre and a half in size and is two half circle pieces of property just off the bridge and flanking either side of the road.

The Columbus Redevelopment Commission and Landmark Columbus through the Columbus Design Institute had issued a request for qualifications to choose a designer for the property in February. That drew 18 designers interested in working in Columbus. The committee interviewed five designers earlier this month and and have selected their final candidate. Announcement of the final decision is scheduled later this month.

The property was last redesigned in 2000 by Michael VanValkenburgh and Associates. The goal is to transform the gateway to be safer, more attractive and accessible, to maintain greenspace and to allow more activity and interaction.

The Redevelopment Commission approved the request for funds from the Columbus Design Institute at its meeting this week.

Columbus emergency officials say that a search for a missing child ended with the child being found safe overnight.

The Columbus Police Department issued an alert yesterday evening at about 6 p.m. that a 12-year-old autistic boy, Rider Newman, was missing and police were looking for any information to help find him. While he was first reported missing from the East Columbus area, a later update at about 8:30 p.m. said he was last seen on 25th Street near Nexus Park.

The search expanded with Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department and Indiana State Police joining in the search and continuing the search overnight, focused on an area south of 17th Street in Columbus.

An alert was sent out through the Bartholomew County Everbridge phone, text and email alert system at 2:25 a.m. this morning saying that Rider had been found safe.

The United Way of Bartholomew County is kicking off a community wide food drive later this month to help ensure children have enough to eat this summer.

According to the agency the food drive is being organized by the United Way and the Bartholomew County Food Insecurity Coalition and will be going on from April 29th through May 31st. The goal is to give local food pantries enough donations to stock their shelves for the summer break, without having to dip into their regular budgets to meet the need.

All the food and donations collected will be split between Love Chapel, Salvation Army, and Community Center of Hope.

This is the second year for the community-wide food drive and last year’s efforts were the largest single fundraiser/donation ever to Love Chapel.

Churches and businesses throughout the community are holding their own food collection efforts but you can also drop off food donations at United Way’s firehouse building at 13th Street and Hutchins Avenue in Columbus.

Organizers request that food donations be non-perishable, nutritious foods that are low-sodium and low-sugar, when possible.

An opportunity yesterday for the public to give their thoughts on the proposed contract for the next Bartholomew Consolidated Schools superintendent led to no being concerns raised.

The school board held a required meeting yesterday afternoon to get public input on the proposed contract with their choice for superintendent, Dr. Chad Phillips.

Current Superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts is stepping down at the end of June to take on a new role with the Community Education Coalition. Phillips has been serving as the school district’s assistant superintendent of financial services for the past 7 years and has been with the school district for 20 years.

The contract with Phillips would give him a base salary of $204,671  with an initial contract lasting until the end of June of 2027. It also would provide a $30,000 annual contribution to the retirement plan, 20 paid vacation days, 14 days for sick time and four personal leave days. And there would be a car allowance of $12,000 annually.

The school board was required to hold the public comment session yesterday, but no one signed up to comment or offered thoughts when the opportunity was given. The meeting was over in a matter of minutes.

Next up will be a consideration for approval of the contract at the school board’s April 29th meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Columbus North High School.

Advocates for Children say that their weekend SING! karaoke fundraiser generated more than $75,000 for the organization’s efforts to protect the interests of children in the court system.

Advocates for Children provides advocates for abused and neglected children. Last year, the organization served 498 of our community’s most vulnerable children. Nearly half of those children were younger than 5 and 76 percent were younger than 12.

About 300 people turned out for the rethemed event’s second year on Saturday and enjoyed live karaoke performances from five groups. The Carla and the T-Birds team were the winners after performing “Summer Nights” from the musical Grease. Carla was Carla Janikowski along with friends from Century 21 Breeden Realtors

Photo: Carla and the T-Birds. Photo courtesy of Advocates for Children.

Signups are underway for this summer’s classes for young babysitters in the area of Schneck Medical Center in Seymour.

The free Safe Sitters classes keep the babysitters up to date on how to keep their charges safe with lessons from specially trained team members from Schneck Medical Center. The sitters will learn life and safety skills to give them the tools to handle emergencies when caring for younger children.

The one-day class is for sitters entering sixth through eighth grades. Each class is limited to 12 students will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at a variety of locations and they fill up quickly.

Class schedule:

• Seymour, Schneck Professional Building, Classroom 300: June 7,8, 14, 21, 22, 28 and July 12, 13, 20
• Scottsburg, Scott County YMCA, Multipurpose Room: June 15
• North Vernon, Jennings County Public Library, Conference Room 1: June 1 and July 19
• Salem, Washington County Community Foundation, Classroom A: June 29

You can register online at SchneckMed.org.

The Bartholomew County Public Library has an agreement in place to take possession of the former North Christian Church off of National Road. The library board approved the acquisition yesterday.

According to the library, the board voted yesterday to accept the donation of the church building and the campus at 850 Tipton Lane. The campus includes the building itself, designed by renowned architect Eero Saarinen before his death in 1961 and built in 1964. The landscape was designed by Dan Kiley. The church is part of the city’s National Historic Landmark status for modern architecture.

The library board thanked the church’s former congregation for the donation and the Columbus Capital Foundation which has acted in a caretaker role, owning the property during the process of the donation to the library system.

According to a recent strategic study ,the library is at capacity in its current spaces, without the ability to add more programs or services, . The library anticipates renovation costs will be needed, but those are expected to be less than the cost of a new building construction. The library will work to have fundraising and seek grants to upgrade the building, but Jason Hatton, the library director, also said it is possible that a bond could be needed for capital projects in the future.

Hatton estimated that the former church will not be fully operational for library use for about five years. But the outdoor spaces could be used more quickly including a summer reading program, with some of the building being used for small programs and performances.

The library is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year and it already has two architecturally significant buildings, including the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library designed by I.M. Pei and the Hope branch library designed by Deborah Burke.

Photo courtesy of Hadley Fruits for Landmark Columbus Foundation.

A meeting will be held this afternoon for the public to comment on the proposed contract with Dr. Chad Phillips to be the next superintendent of Bartholomew Consolidated Schools.

The school district announced last week that Phillips had been chosen for the role. Phillips has been serving as the school district’s assistant superintendent of financial services for the past 7 years and has been with the school district for 20 years.

Current Superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts is stepping down at the end of June to take on a new role with the Community Education Coalition.

The school board will hold a public meeting at 5 p.m. this afternoon at the administrative offices on Central Avenue to hear public comments on the proposed contract with Phillips. The school board is scheduled to consider a vote on the appointment at the board meeting on April 29th at 6:30 p.m. at Columbus North High School.