1
Alana Cook, 12, stood in the middle of the Northside Middle School basketball surrounded by her best friends and teammates but could not hold back the tears as she told them she had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.
2
Eastside Community Center, which operated nearly 40 years to help lift residents out of financial distress, closed its doors indefinitely because it was deep in debt.
3
The city announced that it attracted another Japan-based company, Daiei Inc., that plans to locate its first and only U.S. production site in Columbus.
4
Democrats claimed two of the seven seats on the Columbus City Council next year. Elaine Wagner defeated incumbent Republican Ryan Brand in the District 2 race while fellow Democrat Tom Dell earned one of the two at-large seats.
5
Home News Enterprises, based in Columbus and owned by the Brown family for more than 140 years, announced that it reached an agreement to sell The Republic and its other newspapers, online and commercial printing properties to a company that owns community newspapers in Texas.
6
Police arrested three suspects and confiscated methamphetamine with a street value in excess of $550,000 at a drug raid.
7
Ivy Tech’s Columbus campus officially formed a sister college relationship with Huzhou Vocational & Technical College of Huzhou, China.
8
City officials disagreed whether an Indianapolis engineering firm hired to help Columbus develop the former Walesboro airport is moving the project forward or simply retracing work completed three years ago.
9
Priscilla Scalf submitted her resignation as party chairwoman four days after Democrats won two seats on Columbus City Council for the first time in more than 20 years.
10
About 65 firefighting volunteers worked during a countywide fish fry at Hauser Junior/Senior High School, serving nearly 3,000 people and bringing in an estimated $25,000 to benefit the Hope Volunteer Fire Department.
11
Columbus residents disposed of more than 1,400 tons of recyclable materials during the first eight months of the city’s new curbside recycling program, which allows people to recycle items without stepping off their property.
12
The names of 185 Bartholomew County veterans who died during the past year were read at the Bartholomew County Veterans Memorial during a Veterans Day event that drew a crowd of almost 300.
13
Multiple signs point to the local economy faring well next year, although challenges for Cummins Inc. will have an impact, a local economist said during an economic forecast presentation at the Columbus Learning Center.
14
It took nearly six months, but Chevrolet of Columbus received approval for a sign that can be seen from Interstate 65 on the city’s west side.
15
Neighbors said they want Bartholomew County officials to deny rezoning 42 acres at the southwest corner of U.S. 31 and State Road 46 Columbus Township for commercial development.
16
A new interlocal cooperation agreement between the city of Columbus, Bartholomew County, Columbus Regional Hospital and Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. means they will share a radio tower that provides a signal for each agency’s radio system — aiding safety and providing cost savings.
17
A Columbus family vacationing in Paris was about a mile away from the deadly terrorist attacks but safely made it home during the weekend. Mike and Lana Clancy and their daughter Caitlin, 22, were in a hotel room near the area where terrorists attacked outdoor cafés, the Bataclan concert hall and a soccer stadium.
18
Dustin Evans, facing arrest on drug charges, slipped away from an Edinburgh police officer in Columbus while being transported to the Bartholomew County Jail and eluded police who searched for him.
19
A $3 million project to transform the city’s former Pump House into a brewhouse restaurant stands to become the second retail operation to receive a tax abatement in Columbus since 2014.
20
A decision on whether fowl are too foul to be housed within city limits was placed on hold by the Columbus City Council.
21
Cummins Inc. employees in Columbus began receiving word that their positions had been eliminated. The cuts were part of Columbus-based Cummins’ plan to reduce its global workforce by about 2,000 salaried professionals.
22
An engineering firm hired to create a developmental plan transforming the former Walesboro airport into an industrial park recommended keeping a test track in the plans — for now.
23
An exhilarating holiday spirit was evident in both the young and the young-at-heart in the Hope Town Square for the annual Christmas of Yesteryear event.
24
The county’s estimated labor force increased to 44,160 in October, up 171 from September, according to a report Monday from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. The number of Bartholomew County residents with jobs also increased by 88 in that one-month period, to 42,776.
25
An average of 51 babies were born to teenage mothers per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19 in Bartholomew County between 2006 and 2012, according to a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That amounts to about 129 births for each of those seven years. The birth rate of 51-per-1,000 ranked the county seventh-highest among Indiana’s 92 counties.
26
A stream of families gathered at the Bartholomew County Courthouse for adoption hearings on National Adoption Day — legally formalizing a relationship status that had been decided long before in their hearts.
27
Columbus Baptist Church volunteer drivers delivered about 470 Thanksgiving dinners with all the fixings to locales from as far south as Jonesville and as far north as Edinburgh around lunchtime and served a total of 585 people, including those who ate inside the small church on U.S. 31.
28
For the past month, Columbus Post Office employees signed on for No Shave November, a nationwide effort to raise awareness about men’s health and cancer. But this local version also was a chance to help one of their own, Bob Malone of Seymour, who retired in October after learning his Stage 4 pancreatic cancer had spread to his liver.
29
Columbus food banks reported a slight uptick in demand for food this month after new regulations requiring food stamp recipients to work or attend job training to retain benefits went into effect.
30
City officials said they would install an underground stormwater containment system that they believe will be a cost-effective solution to street flooding along Central Avenue near the Columbus Municipal Airport.
