Students with area ties earn dean’s lists recognition

Northern Kentucky University President’s Honors List: Kacie Kotnik, Columbus. Students named to the list must receive a 4.0 grade-point average for the semester. Kotnik is a senior pursuing a double major in applied mathematics and statistics.

Seton Hall University: Sloane Kirsch, Columbus, a broadcasting and visual media major.

Miami University: Julianna M. Pikus, Columbus.

Hanover College: Alicia Hopkins, a senior sociology and communications major from Columbus; Katie Schmidt, a sophomore from Columbus; Teresa Wiczynski, a junior kinesiology and integrative physiology and Spanish major from Columbus; Will Bridgeman, a freshman from Columbus.

Columbus learner heading to England with program

Lauren Wirth of Columbus, who is majoring in business administration-management at University of Evansville, is studying at UE’s study abroad program at Harlaxton College near Grantham, England.

Harlaxton is a historic 150-room manor house in the English countryside, offering interdisciplinary introduction to British life and culture. Classes are combined with field trips around England and weekend trips are offered to London, Paris, Ireland, Wales and the Lake District in northern England.

Colleges to host College Goal Sunday

IUPUC and Ivy Tech Community College will host College Goal Sunday, a free program Feb. 22 that assists high school seniors, high school graduates and all who will qualify for undergraduate admission to a college or university.

The session helps them file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

College Goal Sunday will be at 2 p.m. in the Columbus Learning Center, 4555 Central Ave. Check-in for the session is at the main entrance.

Filling out the FAFSA is required for students to be considered for federal and state grants, scholarships and student loans at most colleges and universities. The form must be filed by March 10 for students to be eligible for Indiana financial aid.

Financial aid professionals will assist students in completing the required online form correctly.

Students should attend the session with their parents or guardians and should bring a completed 2014 IRS 1040 tax return, W-2 form and other 2014 income and benefit information. Students who worked last year will need to bring their income information as well. Students age 24 or older may attend alone and bring their own tax return, tax documents and income and benefits information.

Students and parents are encouraged to apply for their U.S. Department of Education Personal Identification numbers at pin.ed.gov before coming to the event.

A Spanish interpreter will be available at the event.

Students who attend the event and submit a completed evaluation form will automatically be entered into a drawing for a $1,000 scholarship. Winners will be notified in March.

For more information, visit collegegoalsunday.org or contact Nina Loesch at nloesch@ivytech.edu or Jennifer Chandler at jenchand@iupuc.edu.

Ivy Tech board has new officers

Ivy Tech Community College-Columbus has three new officers serving three-year terms.

Richard Beckort will be chairman, John Quick will be vice chairman, and Mary Stroh will be secretary.

Beckort is agriculture and natural resources extension educator for Purdue University. He has been an Ivy Tech board member since 2006.

Quick is superintendent of Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. He has served on the Ivy Tech board since 2007.

Stroh is an attorney with Sharpnack Bigley Stroh & Washburn LLP and has served on the Ivy Tech board since 2012.

The board recognized William Harmon, Harmon Construction, for his 13 years of service as chairman of the board. Also recognized were Wesley Boas, Force Construction, for 10 years of service; and Larry Koenes, retired chief operating officer from Skillman Corp., who serves on the Central Indiana board, for two years of service.

Other members of the board are Derek Kintner, Harmon Steel Inc.; Kathy Oren, Community Education Coalition; and Jim Trueblood, Cummins Inc.

Jesse Brand, retired president of Brands Inc., was recently named trustee on the state Ivy Tech board.

Two Columbus students are among eight in the 6th Congressional District nominated by Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., to the nation’s service academies.

The nominees are Jesse Brownfield and Parker Saddler, both of Columbus.

Brownfield and Saddler, with their parents, joined Messer for a dinner at 18 on the Square in Shelbyville recently.

Other nominees honored at the dinner were Bret Lawson of Muncie, Connor Paul and Derek Roth, both of Lawrenceburg, Grant Williams of Greenfield, Adam Oyler of Greendale and Rachel Wineman of New Palestine.

Students in W.D. Richards Elementary School teacher Moll Lueken’s music class have been hard at work experiencing the music and tradition of Russia through a folk dance called “Sasha.”

That lesson and others have been used by classes at Richards as a tool to teach various lessons in a new and innovative way.

Fourth-graders learn to dance with their classmates but also learn about the Russian tradition and in doing so learn about diverse cultures.

Other students in Lueken’s music classes at Richards are learning how to play instruments, keep tempo and incorporate math into lessons.

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Students also incorporate what they’re learning in the music classroom with other skills such as reading and writing.

One fourth-grade class performed the syncopated melody “Poliwog’s Cake Walk” for the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. board Jan. 26, showing what they had practiced for nearly a month.

Bartholomew County is updating where its working fire hydrants are located, after firefighters thought they had access to a hydrant at an October fire but then learned they didn’t.

About half of rural fire departments asked to make visual confirmation of recorded fire hydrants had responded by the first week in January, 911 Emergency Operations Center Director Ed Reuter said.

Although he anticipates the visual checks will resume this spring, Reuter said he doesn’t know when the labor-intensive update will be completed.

When firefighters were sent to a house fire Oct. 24 in Colony Park near Taylorsville, they used data placed in the computer-aided countywide emergency dispatch system to locate a hydrant. That information indicated that a hydrant was across the street from the home.

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When they arrived at Don Purkey’s burning home on Sheffield Court, firefighters located a hydrant exactly where it was supposed to be.

Except it wasn’t a hydrant to be used in fighting fires.

Instead, the device near Purkey’s home was a “flushing hydrant,” used by utility companies for clearing water lines of silt, rust, debris or stagnant water, said Columbus Township Fire and Rescue Chief Rodney Ferrenburg.

The threads on the hoses used by area fire departments don’t fit on a flushing hydrant, and there are no manufacturers of adapters, Ferrenburg said.

While flushing hydrants cost less than fire hydrants, they are useless to firefighters working to keep flames from spreading to nearby buildings and vehicles, Ferrenburg said.

Strong winds that day fanned the flames to a vacant home south of Purkey’s residence, causing about $10,000 in damages to the empty residence.

In addition, three vehicles, including a Winnebago, parked in Purkey’s driveway were destroyed.

Although fire hydrants are required in residential neighborhoods within the Columbus city limits, most of the rural subdivisions in Bartholomew County do not have them, Columbus Fire Department Capt. Mike Wilson said.

The mission of rural water corporations historically has been to provide water for domestic use, not fire protection, said Columbus Utilities Director Keith Reeves. Also, several Bartholomew County subdivisions have no public water supply and rely on wells, he added.

In most cases with county subdivisions, tankers from a number of rural departments are brought in to supply needed water, Wilson said.

But in the Purkey fire, since firefighters thought they had a hydrant, time was lost in getting tankers to the scene, Ferrenburg said.

Information about hydrant locations was placed in the county’s 911 Emergency Operations Center dispatch system about five years ago, after being submitted by county fire departments.

The Bartholomew County Surveyor’s office then validated the exact location of each hydrant before maps of the hydrants were placed into the dispatch computer, Reuter said.

“Since learning of this incident, it is my understanding there may have been some equipment changes to some of the hydrants in the county,” Reuter said.

The Oct. 24 incident appears to be an isolated one, Bartholomew County Emergency Management Director Dennis Moats said. No similar problems have been reported since hydrant locations were placed in 911 emergency dispatch computers, he said.

Most unexpected snags encountered by emergency responders have been limited to malfunctioning or outdated equipment, such as radios, explosive detonation devices and specialized firefighting apparatus, Moats said.

Fire and utility officials say they are unaware of existing records that might indicate the number of flushing hydrants in Bartholomew County. But Columbus Utilities Director Keith Reeves said they are usually installed at the end of a water line on cul-de-sacs and dead-end roads.

While hydrants in the Colony Park neighborhood are maintained by Eastern Bartholomew Water Corp., German Township Fire Chief Robert Drake doesn’t want any fingers of blame pointed at anyone.

In fact, he commended the Taylorsville-based water utility for its long history of assistance to his department, especially in supplying water needed for emergencies and training exercises.

What is essential is that Bartholomew County firefighters have accurate information about fire hydrant locations and other resources available to handle emergencies, Drake said.

It’s also important that local residents don’t get a false sense of security by mistaking flushing hydrants for those used by firefighters, Ferrenburg said.

The easiest way to distinguish between a fire hydrant and a flushing hydrant is that flushing hydrants typically only have one outlet, while fire hydrants usually have two or three.

Since all flushing hydrants within the Columbus city limits have thin, two-inch barrels, they’ve never been mistaken for a fire hydrant, Reeves said.

“They look more like a water meter than a hydrant,” Reeves said.

In Columbus, regulations call for a maximum 800 feet between fire hydrants in all residential neighborhoods, Columbus Fire Inspector Matt Noblitt said.

Businesses are required to install a sprinkler system, and a fire hydrant no further than 35 feet from the water line that feeds the sprinklers, he said.

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Fire hydrant: Typically has two or three outlets. Used by fire departments to extinguish flames from burning homes, vehicles and other structures, and to protect property. Required in residential neighborhoods within Columbus city limits.

Flushing hydrant: Typically has one outlet. Used by utility companies for clearing water lines of silt, rust, debris or stagnant water.

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