A third Democrat has filed to run for a City Council seat in the May primary.

Elaine Wagner filed Friday to announce her candidacy for City Council District 2. The seat currently is held by Ryan Brand, who is seeking re-election.

At 28, she’s the youngest candidate to file so far.

Wagner, daughter of local businessman Ryan Hou and former Cummins Inc. executive Jean Hou, was born and raised in Columbus and has volunteered and served in leadership positions for community organizations, including the Foundation for Youth, the Columbus Chinese Association and the United Way.

Wagner said she feels a responsibility to go above and beyond her current community service and is excited for the opportunity to continue helping by engaging young people.

She’s running for council because she wants to bring new energy and help make the Columbus community better as an engaged and proactive voice for residents, she said.

“As a member of City Council, I hope to bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to build a community that will be attractive for all residents, including young professionals,” Wagner said. “I believe that by better managing the city’s resources and empowering young people, Columbus can grow into a thriving home for small businesses and families.”

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Name: Elaine Wagner

Age: 28

Address: 4265 Sharp Lane

Employment: Works in Marketing for Cummins Inc.

Current office held: None

Past office held: None

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BROWN COUNTY — The Indiana Department of Transportation will close State Road 135 at Gnaw Bone Creek in Brown County for two months beginning in early March.

A state highway detour will route motorists around the closing via State Road 46, Interstate 65 and State Road 58.

INDOT officials are meeting with the contractor to discuss the $746,792 project to replace the highway’s bridge superstructure over Gnaw Bone Creek, just south of State Road 46 in Washington Township.

Schutt-Lookabill Company of Indianapolis plans to begin work on the project March 2 to remove and replace the bridge deck and rails. The project includes new pavement approaches and repairs to bridge piers.

The Gnaw Bone Creek bridge is a three-span, continuous, reinforced concrete structure, which is 123 feet in length. The project is set for completion April 30.

Columbus North students and staff, embracing what their principal called prayer in their hearts, struggled to get though a difficult day after learning that a student was critically injured in a car accident.

Social media lit up after the Sunday night accident near Taylorsville and continued into Monday as students used Twitter and Facebook to share updates on the condition of 18-year-old star basketball player Josh Speidel. The Columbus North senior’s condition was listed as critical but stable Monday in IU Health Methodist Hospital’s intensive care unit in Indianapolis, according to hospital officials.

North Principal David Clark said members of the 2,100–student high school demonstrated hopefulness regarding Speidel’s recovery, signing a large card for him set out in front of the counseling office. Numerous Twitter messages were sent under the hashtag #joshstrong.

“It is very somber at school,” North athletics director Jeff Hester said. “Josh is in everyone’s hearts and minds. It’s all anyone is thinking about.”

North head basketball coach Jason Speer, who was at Methodist with the Speidel family Sunday night and Monday, said the player was placed in a medically induced coma.

Columbus North officials received information Monday morning from the student’s family that he had undergone a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain and that the next 72 hours in his recovery from a traumatic brain injury would be critical.

“At this point, they just want to give him time. He has been unconscious ever since the accident,” Speer said.

Breathing on his own

Lisa Speidel, Josh’s mother, said Monday afternoon that her son is stable and breathing on his own and the pressure on his brain is at a normal level.

“He has been maintaining that normal blood pressure. They did a CAT scan last night (Sunday night) and this morning (Monday), and there have been no changes. There has been no more bleeding,” she said.

“It’s all quite amazing, quite a miracle — at least we are calling it a miracle,” she said in a telephone interview from the hospital. “There were no internal injuries.”

Her son has a skull fracture on his left side and his right jaw was fractured, she said.

Doctors’ concern continues to be the blood pressure on his brain remaining within a normal level, she said. The medical staff has started taking him off medication that has helped Speidel sleep, and the process has begun to wake him up on his own.

“I just want to see him open his eyes, and I want to hear his voice,” said his mother, who is an assistant principal at Margaret R. Brown Elementary School in Seymour.

Speidel is Columbus North’s all-time leading scorer in boys basketball. The 6-foot-8 power forward is averaging 25.6 points and 9.3 rebounds per game this season and has been nominated to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game.

He signed a letter of intent to play basketball next season at the University of Vermont, whose coach John Becker was planning to travel to Indianapolis to be with the Speidel family.

Becker had hoped to fly to Indianapolis on Monday, but flights were canceled because of the weather, Vermont sports information director Lisa Champagne said. The Vermont team has a home game tonight, but Becker hopes to be on a flight to Indianapolis on Wednesday.

The university tweeted, “Please pray for Josh Speidel. He’s a great kid who needs everyone’s support during this time! VT and UVM are with you Josh! #joshstrong.”

Friends, family gather

Collin Ebel, who has been one of Speidel’s closest friends since second grade, said he was stunned to learn of the accident.

Ebel and Speidel had been to a church league basketball game Saturday and afterward attended the North girls’ senior night game.

Ebel was among about 40 people in a Methodist Hospital waiting room Sunday night as Speidel’s family came out to give several updates about his condition. Family members broke down as they tried to deliver each report, he said, adding that they expressed gratitude to all the people who were there and those who were praying for their son.

He described Speidel as a fun-loving friend and the nicest guy anyone could ever meet.

“It’s crazy to think how popular he is,” Ebel said, referring to his star status on the Bull Dogs basketball team. “But he talks to everybody. He treats everyone the same way.”

When Speidel wakes up, Ebel said, he was going to give him a big hug and “tell him that I love him.”

“He has all my support, and he has all of Columbus’ support,” Ebel said.

Banners, posters, fundraisers

Ebel’s girlfriend, Lauren McNeely, said Columbus North cheerleaders are preparing a banner and 11-by-17-inch #joshstrong posters for students to display at tonight’s home basketball game against Hamilton Southeastern.

“We want to show Josh when he wakes up all the prayers and support for him and for his family,” McNeely said.

The signs have been donated by Quick Signs and Prestige Printing in Columbus.

Some members of the boys team participated in a shoot-around after school Monday instead of a typical practice for tonight’s game.

“We are doing this in the spirit of finding some kind of normalcy,” Speer said.

The North High School athletics department is having T-shirts made to raise money in support of the Speidel family. The shirts will have the #joshstrong logo and Speidel’s number on the back. They will be $10, with all proceeds going to the family.

A pasta dinner was planned for 5 p.m. today before the North game, with proceeds also going to help the Speidel family with medical bills, according to social media reports. Tickets are $5.

Speidel was taken to Methodist by ambulance after a two-vehicle collision 7 p.m. Sunday at U.S. 31 and Bear Lane. Bartholomew County sheriff’s deputies said Speidel suffered serious injuries in the crash.

Across-town support

Support has swelled throughout Columbus.

Columbus East officials called North Monday morning offering assistance. Columbus East also set up an area where East students could write messages of support to Speidel under the hashtag, @JSpeidel24 (which is Josh Speidel’s Twitter account) #ColumbusSticksTogether.

Lisa McCarter, president of East’s Quarterback Club, said the Olympians’ get-well messages will be sent to Methodist with family friends who are traveling back and forth to help the Speidel family.

“So many of these kids play on travel teams growing up, and lots of kids at East grew up with Josh,” said McCarter, whose family is friends of the Speidels.

“It’s just really scary. I don’t know another word to describe it,” McCarter said. “We’re just feeling helpless.”

McCarter has been calling area teams to see if they are interested in ordering basketball wrist sweatbands that will have Speidel’s number, 32, on them, along with his name in North’s blue and white colors.

“East and North are rivals when they play, but I am sure there are just as many East students who are upset as North students,” she said.

Clark described Speidel as a good student and a leader on the basketball court.

Speidel is a “take-charge kind of person,” a student who worked hard and did whatever was asked of him at North, his principal said.

“He was at the gym by himself running stair steps sometimes,” Clark said of Speidel’s dedication to basketball and his team.

A prayer chain was activated at Community Church of Columbus, where the Speidel family attends.

The church’s pastor, Chuck Coleman, was with the family at Methodist on Monday, according to the church receptionist. The church is collecting gasoline gift cards for the family to defray expenses of the family traveling back and forth to the hospital. Gift cards for gasoline may be dropped off at the church at 3850 N. Marr Road.

Lisa Speidel said the family has been “blown away by the people who are worried about Josh and who are praying for Josh.

“It has been amazing. We have been blessed with this community support,” she said. “We are overwhelmed by the calls coming in from all over the country.”

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Columbus North is hosting a pasta dinner at 5 p.m. today prior to the North-Hamilton Southeastern basketball game. Tickets are $5, and proceeds will be used to help Josh Speidel’s family with medical bills.

Community Church of Columbus, 3850 N. Marr Road, is collecting gasoline gift cards for the Speidel family, to alleviate costs of traveling to and from Methodist Hospital. The gift cards may be dropped off at the church between 8 a.m. and noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 8 a.m. to noon Fridays. For more information, call 812-376-9478.

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Columbus North cheerleaders are preparing a banner and 11-by-17-inch #joshstrong posters for students to display at tonight’s home basketball game against Hamilton Southeastern. The North athletics department also will be selling $10 T-shirts with the logo and Josh Speidel’s number 32 to raise money for the family.

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HOPE — Hope Grown Grubby was beckoned Monday morning to give her prediction during the first Groundhog Day ceremony in Bartholomew County.

“Grubby … awake from your slumber and tell us the news. If your shadow you see, six weeks more of the blues,” said David Miller, one of four local officials donning top hats for the ceremony.

Before a crowd of at least 50 onlookers huddled outdoors in 18-degree conditions, the year-old groundhog — on leave for the morning from UTOPIA Wildlife Rehabilitators southeast of Hope — was held above her wooden carrier at 8 a.m. as officials conferred.

Their official determination? No shadow. According to legend, spring is just around the corner for Bartholomew County.

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As onlookers in the town square spread word of an early spring through social media, they began getting updates from Grubby’s competitor in Gobbler’s Knob, 450 miles to the northeast in west central Pennsylvania.

But unlike Grubby, whose observation was welcomed during the ceremony led by UTOPIA founder Kathy Hershey, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. According to folklore, that means six more weeks of winter.

While some in Hope chuckled at the description of their groundhog as a “miracle varmint,” they preferred Grubby’s prediction over Phil’s.

Records going back to 1887 show Phil has predicted an early spring just 17 times.

Besides different predictions, there were other notable contrasts between the two ceremonies.

At Gobbler’s Knob, those who preside over the Groundhog Day event describe themselves as the Inner Circle, who decide on the forecast ahead of time.

Their Hope counterparts — Miller, David Webster, Chuck Baker and Michael Dean — prefer the label of Grubby’s Groupies.

They refused to acknowledge the presence of overcast skies prior to their proclamation.

The wording used by Phil’s Inner Circle for the nationally televised observance has been updated for the 21st Century.

“Forecasts abound on the Internet, but, I, Punxsutawney Phil, am still your best bet. Yes, a shadow I see, you can start to Twitter, hash tag: Six more weeks of winter!”

But in Hope, which takes its heritage seriously, more traditional wording was deployed to announce their more agreeable prognostication.

“No shadow she sees, the groundhog has spoken. Winter’s long spell will shortly be broken,” Webster announced.

So who is likely to be right — Grubby or Phil?

A Purdue University weather expert who relies on science rather than folklore to determine the chances of an early spring said it’s too soon to tell.

“From what I’ve seen, the long-term weather models are noncommittal,” associate state climatologist Ken Scheeringa said. “South-central Indiana has an equal chance of above or below average temperatures for the next month-and-a-half.”

Baker said myths such as the Groundhog Day forecast tie our present to the distant past, when nature had an even greater influence on agricultural-dependent lives.

“We have a natural asset, and we need to take advantage of it,” Baker said.

The appreciation of an old-fashioned Groundhog Day observance was evident during the post-ceremony reception in Strawberry Fields Mercantile and Auntie Aimee’s Country Tea Room on the north side of the square.

Made-from-scratch muffins and cinnamon rolls were served on traditional china with fine silverware and cloth napkins.

The crowd attending Grubby’s inaugural prediction was more than double what tea room officials had been expecting for their reception, the restaurant’s Rachel Pence said.

But Webster said even larger crowds are likely to emerge in future Groundhog Day festivities.

“It’s kind of like the Hope Ride,” Webster said. “I believe the first year we started with 13 bicyclists, and now, we’re up to about 2,000. So who knows?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Hope Grown Grubby’s Call To Duty: 

“Grubby … awake from your slumber and tell us the news.

If your shadow you see, six weeks more of the blues.  

If no shadow in sight, we all will rejoice. 

Spring will be here soon.  Oh, tell us your choice.”  

Proclamation of Grubby’s prediction for 2015:  

“No shadow she sees, the groundhog has spoken.

Winter’s long spell will shortly be broken

I suspect some are sad, some are glad. 

But I suspect Grubby is just indifferent.”

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