Two ministries are partnering to establish a Christ-centered addiction recovery facility in Bartholomew County.

Chain Breaker Ministries, a nonprofit organization formed by concerned Columbus-area Christians, is teaming up with the Indianapolis-based Wheeler Mission in the effort.

If area churches and others are willing to assist, the two ministries hope to transform a 2,282-square-foot former church parsonage at 1218 California St. into an abstinence-based intake center for six to eight men with alcohol or drug addictions, according to Chain Breaker project leader Rick Colglazier. The facility will be named Chain Breaker House.

The former parsonage, with three bedrooms and a finished basement, is large enough for the intake center, organizers said.

Representatives of Chain Breaker canvased 61 homes within a four-block area surrounding the parsonage and nearby former church, and hosted three neighborhood meetings about the project, Colglazier said.

The intake center will house no more than six recovering addicts at one time and is not designed as a half-way house, organizers explained. The individuals in recovery will be supervised by a program manager, as well as two senior leadership trainers, said Cal Nelson, Wheeler vice president of men’s programming.

Each client would stay for not more than six weeks in the Columbus facility before being moved to a remote location north of Bloomington for several months of long-term addiction treatment, Nelson said.

For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.

The inaugural gathering served as something of a passionate tent revival for Columbus’ creative vision among Modernist meccas.

Such was the first Exhibit Columbus opening party two years ago in Mill Race Park, where a capacity crowd of 700 people from all over the nation gathered under a tent to celebrate a three-month public exhibition that eventually garnered worldwide attention.

Now Exhibit Columbus leaders have announced that it’s time to get the latest party started — or at least publicize it and get ticket sales moving, all a month earlier than the timeline for the 2017 festivities.

“I don’t think I can personally remember any other event where so many people looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves,” said Jeff Baker, a co-organizer of the 2017 event and now in the same role for the upcoming gathering. “And the sense of unity I felt there was so incredibly strong.”

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery

He and John Pickett, the other co-organizer, aim to build the Aug. 24 opening party into something equally memorable. The $175-per-person event will feature a cocktail reception, dinner, and live entertainment by Chicago-based rhythmic quintet, Dos Santos.

People began buying tickets within the first hour they were available online a week ago, according to Baker.

The Exhibit Columbus exhibition, titled “Good Design and Community,” will be Aug. 24 to Dec. 1 with 18 temporary installations. The free event, held every other year, focuses on art, architecture and design, and uses new, pop-up installations from the world’s leading designers to highlight existing structures and landscapes in a city known globally for its Modernist legacy.

In addition to that, Columbus’ architectural standing includes seven National Historic Landmarks.

The 2017 exhibition attracted an estimated 40,000 people, and several of its installations enjoyed a second life in such prestigious locales as The National Building Museum in Washington. D.C. and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the world’s largest art and architecture festival.

As part of the weekend’s celebrations, Exhibit Columbus will host four curated conversations that will be presented in two locations:

Aug. 23 in Eero Saarinen’s North Christian Church at 850 Tipton Lane.

Aug. 24 in Eliel Saarinen’s First Christian Church, which helped launch the city’s architectural reputation, at 531 Fifth St.

These conversations will feature participants from the exhibition, including the J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients, Washington Street Civic Project Leaders, and University Design Research Fellows. Each conversation will be moderated by Exhibit Columbus curatorial advisors: Sean Anderson, Museum of Modern Art; Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Donna Sink, Rowland Design and Architect; and Mimi Zeiger, critic and curator.

“As much as the opening party is a celebration of all the hard work that goes into the celebration, those free events really are designed for everyone to come out and experience as much of those conversations as they want,” said Hannah Brokenshire, Exhibit Columbus’ communications director.

A list of which designers are speaking on which day will be released later, according to Brokenshire.

What organizers are doing with the discussions this time around is more closely related to discussions from the 2018 Exhibit Columbus symposium. That included one public conversation at North Christian Church and one at First Christian Church — discussions that Brokenshire referred to as “magical moments.”

At the First Christian site before and afterward, people milled about the Bartholomew County Public Library plaza, “activating even that space and using it just as it was meant to be used as part of the community’s living room,” Brokenshire said.

Borrowing from the symposium format for the exhibition makes even more sense, Brokenshire said, when one considers that all the exhibition designers spoke at the 2018 symposium.

“It allowed us to establish a longer relationship with them,” she said.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Exhibit Columbus opening weekend” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

What: Four curated conversations that will unfold in two locations: Aug. 23 in Eero Saarinen’s North Christian Church at 850 Tipton Lane; Aug. 24 in Eliel Saarinen’s First Christian Church, 531 Fifth St. These conversations will feature participants from the exhibition, including the J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients, Washington Street Civic Project Leaders, and University Design Research Fellows.

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Exhibit Columbus” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

The Exhibit Columbus exhibition is a once-every-two-years display of a wide variety temporary architectural installations meant to highlight or somehow connect to nearby, permanent structures and buildings in Columbus.

The exhibition is set for Aug. 24 to Dec. 1 and is an exploration of art, architecture, and design.

Exhibit Columbus seeks to celebrate Columbus’ heritage while making it relevant in new and modern ways, according to organizers. It is the signature project of Landmark Columbus, which was created in 2015 to care for the design heritage of Columbus, and is under the umbrella of The Heritage Fund — the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.

To learn more, visit: exhibitcolumbus.org

[sc:pullout-text-end]

City of Columbus Fire Chief Chief Mike Compton has announced his plan to retire from the department in mid-July.

Compton was sworn as a firefighter on January 22, 1988 by former Mayor Robert Stewart.

Over his three decade career, Chief Compton was promoted through the ranks of sergeant, lieutenant, captain and battalion chief.

He was appointed fire chief on Jan. 1, 2016 by Mayor Jim Lienhoop. Compton’s official retirement date will be July 23, 2019 after serving 31 years as a City of Columbus firefighter.

Lienhoop and Compton worked together to name Compton’s successor. Leinhoop has selected Andy Lay, currently serving as deputy chief of fire department operations, as the next fire chief. Lay will take over as fire chief on July 23.

Lay has served as the Deputy Chief of Operations since 2016, and has served the Columbus Fire Department since 1997.

For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.

A Bartholomew County Sheriff deputy located a missing 14-year-old boy Sunday night using the department’s new Project Lifesaver technology.

Chief Deputy Maj. Chris Lane found the teen unharmed in the Walmart parking lot on Merchants Mile on Columbus’ west side. Lane had joined the search around the retail complex several hours after the teen was reported missing at 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

Jacob Peden, 14, who deputies said is prone to wander, was equipped with a Project Lifesaver bracelet that allows searchers to use a tracking device to locate his last known location, deputies said. The technology can locate one of the bracelets within three miles of a Project Lifesaver receiver.

A signal from the bracelet was picked up near Walmart on Merchants Mile which is about one mile from the juvenile’s home in the 900 block of Garden Street, deputies said.

Surveillance footage showed Peden entering the store, entering the bathroom, where his Project Lifesaver bracelet was found, then running from the store.

Officers from the county, city and Indiana State Police, along with Bartholomew County and city firefighters, went to the Walmart area to search for the teen. Firefighters were preparing to use a drone to search for the teen when he was found, deputies said.

When Lane arrived at the area, the teen had missing for a couple hours, he said. Lane drove around the Walmart parking lot, and using a description of the teen, located him in the lot.

“I pulled around and saw him walking through the lot,” Lane said Monday. “I said, ‘Hey, what are you up to — did you run away from home?’ “

When the teen said he that was the case, Lane asked him to go ahead and have a seat in the sheriff’s car, and the teen complied. Lane estimated it was after midnight when he located the teen in the parking lot.

Although the teen had removed his Project Lifesaver bracelet inside the store, the technology was still instrumental in responders being able to quickly narrow the search area, deputies said.

The teen had used scissors in the store to cut off the bracelet and then threw it into a trash can in the store’s bathroom before leaving the store, with his movements being captured on store surveillance video, Lane said.

Deputies said a new band will be added to the teen’s bracelet so that a special tool will be required to remove it.

TRIAD, a branch of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office, and Sergeant Jim Stevens applied for and used a $29,000 grant from the Custer Nugent Foundation to get the Project Lifesaver program up and running locally.

Sheriff Matt Myers has appointed a retired mechanical engineer, Dave Coffman, as special deputy in charge of TRIAD.

Interested persons should contact Triad at triad@bartholomew.in.gov.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Project Lifesaver” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Project Lifesaver is the search and rescue program operated internationally by public safety agencies and is designed for individuals who are prone to the life-threatening behavior of wandering.

TRIAD, a branch of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office, and Sergeant Jim Stevens applied for and used a grant from the Custer Nugent Foundation to get the Project Lifesaver program up and running.

Initially, 50 transmitters were purchased and are being assigned to clients. Six receivers that can pinpoint the location of the transmitters were also purchased. The transmitters can detect bracelet signals up to three miles away.

Three of the receivers are kept at the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department and three are assigned to the Columbus Fire Department.

Currently four deputies and three Columbus Fire Department personnel are certified to train others as electronic search specialists. At this time, there is no cost to the client, however there are a few guidelines that must be met in order to become a client.

Interested persons should contact Triad at triad@bartholomew.in.gov or call 812-447-4054.

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”TRIAD volunteers” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Five people have been selected who will work with individuals and caregivers in the new Project Lifesaver program in Bartholomew County.

President – Dave Coffman

Vice President – Kim Bowden

Secretary – Stacey Goffinet

Treasurer – Leah Boas

Columbus Fire Department – Mike Wilson

These five will serve as liaisons between searchers and family members when a person with certain mental conditions wanders off. They will also make visits to the families to ensure the transmitters are working property.

Project Lifesaver is the main service being offered through TRIAD, a branch of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department.

[sc:pullout-text-end]

A Columbus homeowner accused of running an auto repair shop out of a home at 4717 Clairmont Drive is vowing to fight the city in court after code enforcement officer Fred Barnett cited violations of four municipal code and zoning ordinances.

Barnett notified homeowner Alicia Higgins of three violations via certified mail on May 4, 2018. The letter identified three violations of the City of Columbus municipal code and zoning ordinances, including operating an auto repair shop within an area zoned for only residential use, having inoperable vehicles parked on private and public property and blocking sidewalks with vehicles.

In the letter, Barnett said resolving these violations would require ceasing operation of the auto repair shop at the home or moving the shop to an area in Columbus that is zoned for this type of business, removing all inoperable vehicles from the property and placing the vehicles on private property in a legally-conforming garage, car port or other enclosure.

The letter also included four pages explaining the permitted primary uses of the zoning and the standards for a home-based business.

Barnett said the city received the letter back with a “refused” note written on the envelope. In a second attempt to notify Higgins via certified mail on July 18, 2018, Barnett noted this was the final notice of violation after finding the situation had not been remedied.

“We are not running an auto repair shop,” Higgins said. “All the vehicles are either owned by myself, my husband, my brother who resides with us as well, or Russell Woodhouse.”

For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.