Exhibit Columbus is celebrating the opening of this year’s installations with free public events tomorrow.

There are more than a dozen temporary installations built around the city’s architectural landmarks. The theme of this year’s event is “New Middles: From Main Street to Megalopolis, What is the Future of the Middle City?”

Opening events tomorrow will be centered around community conversations at First Christian Church and at Mill Race Park.

The First Christian Church events will be from 1 to 3:30 p.m. and will start with a conversation with this year’s University Design Research Fellows on Design as Memory and Play.

The Mill Race Park conversations will be from 7 to 9:30 p.m. and will include a chance to meet this year’s J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients.

There will also be a guided tour of the installations from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, but a reservation is required and space is limited.

Saturday’s events are free and you are invited to attend.

The installations will be on view until Nov. 28th, with further events scheduled throughout the fall.

You can get more information at exhibitcolumbus.org.

No one was injured after a train derailed in Shelby County yesterday, shutting down State Road 9 for about 11 hours.

The accident involving a CSX train happened just northwest of U.S. 52 and State Road 9 near Fountaintown around 8:10 a.m. yesterday morning.

Eighty cars were in the train and 13 came off the tracks, according to authorities. Multiple agencies were called in to assist, including the Indianapolis Fire Department hazmat team over concerns of possible chemical spills. The fire department says the only chemicals that leaked were used cooking oil and plastic pellets, which were contained in the area where they spilled.

Authorities evacuated five houses in each direction as a precaution. Firefighters say an entire 100-foot section of railroad ties was pulled up out of the ground due to the velocity of the crash.

INDOT says State Road 9 reopened around 7 p.m. last night.

CSX is investigating.

Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Fire Department.

A Jennings County man was killed yesterday morning while walking on State Road 3 near Jennings County Road 400S.

78-year-old Charles Couchman of North Vernon was pronounced dead after the accident at about 4:12 a.m. in the morning, according to reports from the sheriff’s department.

Deputies say that Couchman had been a passenger in a vehicle that ran out of gas. He was walking north in the northbound lanes when he was struck.

Indiana State Police are reconstructing the crash. Other agencies assisting at the scene included Lovett Fire Department, Jennings County medics and the Jennings County Coroner’s office.

Eastern Bartholomew Water Corporation says some of its customers are under a boil water advisory for the next 48 hours after someone tampered with a fire hydrant.

The affected areas include Grammar, Burnsville, Legal Tender Road and Glenview addition, but not Rock Creek Elementary School.

You should boil any water for three to five minutes before drinking it or using it for cooking.

If you have any questions, you can call the water utility at 812-526-9777

Gov. Eric Holcomb is recognizing 65 law enforcement officers around the state for their record of cracking down on drunk drivers.

The governor presented the Traffic Safety All Star Awards to the officers at a ceremony at Victory Field. Each officer was nominated by their department, must have had more than 20 drunk driving arrests, and must have taken part in one of the state’s targeted enforcement efforts during the past year.

Local officers that were recognized include Deputy Grant Carlson with the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, Officer Brandon Meyer with the Greensburg Police Department, Officer Robert Crocker with the Edinburgh Police Department and Deputy Dillon Dallas with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department.

The state launched its most recent targeted enforcement effort yesterday, Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over. More than 200 agencies around the state will be on extra patrols searching for drunk drivers through Labor Day weekend.

Columbus City Utilities will be repairing a water main leak at 3rd and Pearl Streets today.

The center and far right lanes of 3rd Street will be closed from Chestnut Street to Lafayette Avenue during the work. Only the far left lane will be open to traffic. After the repair is complete, the center lane will remain closed thru Friday afternoon so that crews can repair the pavement.

You should find an alternate route is possible. City officials say that if you must travel in this area, you should use extreme caution and obey the message boards.

A North Vernon man is being accused of lighting a victim on fire with a blow torch.

The Jennings County Sheriff’s Department is reporting that deputies began investigating after a man was admitted to St. Vincent Jennings Hospital with severe burns on Tuesday at about 7:54 p.m. in the evening. Deputies discovered that the victim had several items taken from him during the attack.

Deputies identified the suspect as 27-year-old James Robbins of North Vernon. A search warrant was served on a home in Country Squire Lakes. Deputies found items belonging to the victim along with methamphetamine, syringes, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Robbins was arrested without incident on preliminary charges including robbery, battery with serious bodily injury, maintaining a common nuisance and for possessing the drugs and paraphernalia.

An inmate’s death in the Bartholomew County Jail earlier this summer was caused by a fentanyl overdose, according to County Coroner Clayton Nolting.

47-year-old Gregory A. Leonard of Clifford was found unconscious at the jail on June 6th. He was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Nolting ordered an autopsy and the results were forwarded to the Indiana State Police in July. Troopers are investigating the incident and the case is under review by the Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s Office, Nolting said.

Two people were arrested early this morning on drug-related charges after a traffic stop by Columbus Police.

According to police reports, officers stopped a vehicle on U.S. 31 near Lowell Road at just after midnight this morning. Officers spoke to the driver, 50-year-old Calvin L. Watkins and his passenger, 23-year-old Abigail N. Clemans, both of Columbus.

A police dog alerted to the smell of drugs in the vehicle and a search revealed methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, including drugs Watkins had hidden in his clothes. Both the driver and passenger were arrested.

Watkins is facing preliminary charges for possessing methamphetamine, a legend drug, a controlled substance, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia. Clemans is being accused of possessing methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

The Bartholomew County Historical Society is receiving a $45,000 grant to make repairs at the historic Henry Breeding Farm.

The Indiana Historical Society announced its support for 18 projects in 15 counties through more than half a million dollars in grants from its Heritage Support Grant program. The grants serve the state’s historical societies, museums and historical sites and the role they play in upholding the state’s heritage.

The Bartholomew County grant will be used to restore the Breeding Farm, which was built in 1871 and is considered to be the last 19-century farmhouse in the county. The restoration will help ensure that the society’s collections are in a safe and secure environment, allowing the space to be used for public programming.

Other grants in our area include $3,500 to the Freeman Army Airfield Museum in Jackson County for a historical marker recognizing the 1945 civil rights protests by Tuskegee Airmen at the Freeman Army Airfield; and $37,500 to the Jackson County History Center, to repair the walls, siding and ceiling of their 1871 livery barn.