Bartholomew County property tax bills should be hitting your mailbox soon.

According to county Treasurer Barb Hackman, the tax bills are scheduled to be mailed today, and will include details on the installments due on May 10th and on November 12th.

Hackman has pointed out that most residents with mortgages have their property taxes paid through an escrow account automatically. Even if that is the case, you will still receive a bill with the current amount and comparison of last year’s tax bill, but it will be watermarked as being “For Informational Purposes Only.”

If you need to make a payment, you have several options including through the mail to the treasurer’s office, in person at the Governmental Office Building on Third Street, at one of the two drop boxes located at the office building, at local banks including Centra Credit Union, First Financial Bank, JC Bank, Horizon Bank and German American. You can also pay by phone by calling 844-278-9126 or you can find a link to pay online here: https://bartholomew.in.gov/treasurer.html#view-pay-taxes-online

A Terre Haute man has been arrested, accused of threatening a local legislator.

Network Indiana is reporting that threats were made against state Rep. Jim Lucas, a Seymour Republican, both through voicemails and on Facebook, say Indiana Capitol Police.

Police have not revealed the contents of those messages.

After a search warrant was served Monday, police arrested 55-year-old Robert L. Bennett of Terre Haute who is facing four counts of felony intimidation.

Lucas represents District 69 in the statehouse, which includes the far southern portion of Bartholomew along with parts of Jackson, Scott and Washington counties.

Story courtesy of Network Indiana

Note: This information will be updated as it becomes available.

Bartholomew County officials say that State Road 11 between Garden City and Southern Crossing at County Road 450S has reopened, as well as Southern Crossing itself.

According to Bartholomew County Emergency Management, roads still closed include:

• 800 S, east of SR11
• Water Street
• 8155 N 330W
• Double Y Saddle Club

Closed parks:

• Mill Race Park
• Noblitt Park
• Heflen Park

Seymour firefighters battled a large blaze at a factory in the community yesterday morning.

According to Seymour Fire Department, firefighters were called to the scene of the fire at Seymour Manufacturing on North Broadway Street at 6:47 a.m. Tuesday morning. Units from all three Seymour fire stations responded to the scene and found heavy smoke and large flames coming the roof. The fire appeared to be in the “wax dip” area of the factory, which is were fire starter blocks are produced.

Firefighters used aerial trucks on two sides to knock down the flames and crews with hand lines were able to go in to fight the fire inside. The fire department says the blaze was brought under control within 30 minutes. Firefighters continued to work in the area for more than six hours to overhaul and cleanup the site.

All workers evacuated from the factory safely. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Community leaders are expressing their gratitude to local rescue workers and crews who kept people safe and are working to get their communities open again, after the flooding that started a week ago.

Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon explained:

Bartholomew County Commissioners President Carl Lienhoop:

Leaders are also crediting changes made after the 2008 flood for helping reduce damage and improve warnings ahead of last week’s heavy rain. They are saying that better flood prediction rain gauges in area rivers give advance warning, better flood maps allow for properties to be built so they are not in he flood plain and higher elevations of newer construction means they are above flood waters when they do come.

Seymour Mayor Matt Nicholson said that despite the near-record flooding, the city escaped with minimal damage. He praised the efforts to provide sandbags for those in the community that needed them.

Photo: State Road 11 during the weekend flooding. photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department.

Toyota Material Handling North America is announcing its five-member senior leadership team after integrating the Raymond Corporation under the Toyota umbrella.

Toyota Material Handling announced in January that it was formally absorbing the Raymond Corporation, a company it has owned as a separate entity for more than 24 years. The two have combined under the Toyota Material Handling banner however, the company also plans to continue to maintain unique brand identities. The integration process completed last week.

Earlier this week the Columbus-based company announced that Brett Wood will continue to serve as president and CEO as well as a senior executive officer for parent company Toyota Industries Corp.

Michael Field will be the company’s chief operations officers. Previously he served as president and CEO of the Raymond Corporation.

Sam Coles will be Chief Sales & Marketing Officer. He most recently served as President of Toyota Material Handling International in Sweden.

Tony Miller will be Chief Supply Officer. He most recently was Toyota Material Handling’s Senior Vice President of Operations, Engineering & Strategic Planning.

Mark Taggart will be chief administrative officer. He previously was Toyota Material Handling North America’s Chief Financial Officer President of Raylease.

Bartholomew County emergency officials are looking for your reports on any flood-related damages you have had on your property.

According to Bartholomew County Emergency Management, homes or businesses that have been damaged during the flooding that started last Wednesday, are urged to report the damage. You can file a report by calling emergency management at 812-379-1680, by leaving a comment on the Bartholomew County Emergency Management Facebook page.

You can also file damage reports through the statewide 211 system, by calling 211 or 866-211-9966, Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to complete a damage report over the phone. You can also go online to file a report at IN 211 dot org and clicking on Damage Reporting.

Two area organizations are receiving grants from the Duke Energy Foundation for environmental initiatives.

The Foundation made the announcement this week about its shareholder-funded grants to six Central Indiana conservation groups and local governments.

In Bartholomew County, a $35,000 grant was announced to the Applied Research Institute and Advanced Machine and Vehicle Institute to test and to develop clean energy technology. The grant will go toward a facility to test and develop clean energy technologies and toward creating a learning lab to provide education about renewable technologies and offer workforce training and certification programs.

Shelby Eastern Schools in Shelby County is also receiving a $35,000 grant to expand the district’s agricultural programming. That will go to a program at Morristown Junior-Senior and Waldron Junior-Senior High Schools to construct greenhouses. The funds will be used to construct 600-square-foot greenhouses at each school, which will provide hands-on learning experiences for students in horticulture and plant and soil sciences classes.

Other grants went to the city of Wabash Parks Department, Hamilton County Parks and Recreation, Monarch Joint Venture in Putnam County and the Wabash River Enhancement Corporation in Tippecanoe County.

Flood warnings continue on some rivers in our area.

East Fork White River at Seymour remains in the moderate flood stage, at just over 18 feet this morning. That is a foot above the moderate flood level. The river is on its way down but is not expected to return to minor flooding until this evening. The river is not expected to return to normal levels until Friday afternoon.

East Fork White River at Columbus dropped below flood levels early this morning.

Driftwood River at Edinburgh remains in the minor flood stage by inches. It is at 11.4 feet this morning, about three inches above the minor flood level and on its way down. It should return to normal levels later this morning.

Bartholomew County will be holding training sessions on Thursday for its new countywide GIS system.

According to County Assessor Ginny Whipple, the new geographic information system, called Beacon, will go live on Thursday on the county website’s GIS portal. The mapping and property tracking software displays assessment values as well as tax information. The previous program, Elevate, has been in use for many years and was purchased by Schneider Geospatial. The new software combines elements of both program.

Training sessions will be held in the County Council chambers at the Governmental Office Building on Third Street in Columbus tomorrow, with sessions at 8:30, 10:30 and 2. Each session will last about an hour.

Space is limited and you encouraged to make a reservation. You can call the county assessor’s office at 812-379-1505 and hit Option 5.