News

BAINBRIDGE — A house was heavily damaged by fire Thursday afternoon in Bainbridge but no humans are believed to have been injured in the incident. Firefighters were first dispatched to 411 W. Main St. at 12:40 p.m., with five area fire departments ultimately responding...

While Voter Registration Clerk Stacia Hathaway classifies the candidate filing period as slow so far, one race is already heating up for the upcoming primary election. In the race for the GOP nod for District 3 county commissioner, incumbent Don Walton already had two challengers as of Thursday afternoon...

RUSSELLVILLE -- With a new member having taken the oath of office, the Russellville Town Council touched on various topics during its first meeting of 2020 Wednesday evening. In its routine order of business, the council voted to retain Cary McGaughey as its president. The body later retained Stu Weliever of Henthorn Harris & Weliever in Crawfordsville as the town’s legal counsel...

Cars traveling on Franklin Street pierce the dense fog which moved into Greencastle during the early hours on Wednesday...

The Putnam County Non-Food Pantry, hosted by St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, will be distributing non-food items on Saturday, Jan. 25. The distribution is set from 12:30 until 3 p.m. at the church, located at 520 E. Seminary St. in Greencastle. A light lunch will be served...

CHICAGO -- Cohen Financial, a division of Trust Bank, has arranged a $45 million refinance loan for a 552,143-square-foot retail portfolio spanning Mississippi, North Carolina, Alabama, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Midland Atlantic Properties has received a refinancing loan for a six-property portfolio, including Putnam Plaza in Greencastle...

Winter Term students at DePauw University are staging a fundraiser on Tuesday, Jan. 21 to collect food items for those in need in the community. The Empty Bowls event is scheduled for 5:30-7 p.m. at Hoover Dining Hall off Hanna Street on the DePauw campus...

Greencastle Fire Chief John Burgess came before the Board of Works Wednesday to talk about a replacement for the city’s aerial truck and ended up detailing the arrival of a new pumper. The aerial truck, which will replace the city’s 1986 model tower truck, went up for bids last month and the lone proposal came from Sutphen Fire Apparatus Corp., Dublin, Oho, at $1,269,334...

DePauw University has been listed among the 30 best value colleges in the Midwest. Great Value Colleges, a website intended to help high school students identify the right college or university, conducted research on every liberal arts institution in 12 states, then narrowed the list to 30 institutions by focusing on these six factors:...

BAINBRIDGE -- As it gets ready to tackle a new year and the second semester, the North Putnam School Board held routine elections of its officers Monday evening. The board approved for Ron Spencer to continue as board president, while Dustin Osborn was voted as vice president. Darrell Wiatt was also tapped as board secretary...

With requests already submitted by various agencies throughout the county and region, the Putnam County Commissioners will spend Tuesday deciding how an estimated $1.076 million in economic development funds will be spent during 2020. The county will bring in an estimated $1,075,641 in Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) funds during the year, and the responsibility falls to the commissioners to decide how to spend the money...

Cloverdale High School Winter Homecoming is set for Friday, Jan. 17 at the high school. The Cloverdale basketball teams will take on Cascade in a pair of non-conference contests, the final co-ed doubleheader of the season.

After focusing on downtown development the past couple of years, the Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center will turn its attention to leadership development. That was what Development Center Executive Director Kristin Clary told the City Council at its January meeting...

First she created the Greencastle Music Fest, which has since grown and flourished into the musical highlight of the summer in Greencastle. Then came First Friday, for which Gail Smith has been a co-collaborator as the monthly event has evolved and prospered into a can’t-miss evening each spring and summer on the square...

So far, so good. With Tuesday marking the halfway point of meteorological winter -- the months of December, January and February -- the National Weather Service reports that this winter is currently tied for the ninth-warmest winter on record. Since the beginning of meteorological winter on Dec. 1, it was reported that 35 days -- or 78 percent of the days -- have recorded temperatures above normal...

Greencastle Community Schools is officially looking for a new leader following the announcement that Supt. Jeffrey Hubble will retire at the end of the school year. In a special board meeting Monday evening, the school board formally accepted Hubble’s retirement letter...

FILLMORE ­-- As two new members on the Fillmore Town Council are becoming acquainted, they have met with questions surrounding the resignation of a recently-elected official. During public comments near the end of the council’s first meeting on Thursday, former council member Robin Duncan confronted Jayna Haldeman, who was recently reinstated as Fillmore’s clerk-treasurer...

In another of those thank-goodness-it-wasn’t-snow wet weekends, the Greencastle area endured more than four inches of rain, the National Weather Service reported. The total amount of rain logged in northwest of Greencastle at 8 a.m. Sunday was 4.04 inches, according to the Weather Service...

BAINBRIDGE — The first Bainbridge Town Council meeting of 2020 was a positive, cordial affair, with the three new town councilmen sharing their respective and shared visions for the town. In concluding his opening statement as a board member, Council President Jeff Kiger requested patience for himself, fellow councilmen Brent Foltz and Robert Hensley and new Clerk-Treasurer Bobbi Boller...

The hay crop of 2019 in the Midwest region is reported to be among the poorest quality in years – a significant challenge to the 10,000 sheep and goat producers in Indiana and Kentucky. To help with this, Purdue University Extension and Kentucky State University will host the 2020 Sheep and Goat Webinar on Tuesday, Jan. ...

The Putnam County Museum is planning a Feb. 14 Sweetheart Dinner for Valentine’s Day. The night will commemorate the Old Trail Inn by using its original recipes. The menu will include Old Trail Inn staples such as fried chicken, Swiss steak, dinner rolls, other traditional sides, choice of desserts, drinks and the inn’s famous sweet rolls...

The Legislative Update series will make its 2020 debut Saturday, Jan. 18 when the Putnam County Farm Bureau hosts its first session of the new year. The program is scheduled to feature the three men who represent Putnam County in the Indiana General Assembly currently under way at Indianapolis -- District 44 State Rep. Beau Baird (R-Greencastle), Senate President Pro Tem and District 37 State Sen. Rodric Bray (R-Martinsville) and District 24 State Sen. John Crane (R-Avon)...

For only the second time in his 25 years on the Greencastle City Council, Mark Hammer will serve as Council president in 2020. Hammer, a Republican, received the unanimous backing of the seven-member Council at January meeting Thursday night. He succeeds First Ward Councilman Adam Cohen, a Democrat, in the Council leadership role...

An Indiana Landmarks grant to conduct an assessment of the historic O’Hair House has been put to good use, a Heritage Preservation Society of Putnam County official said. Indiana Landmarks recently announced that it had distributed $176,250 to nonprofit organizations in fiscal year 2019 to help preserve meaningful places across the state. ...

BAINBRIDGE -- Citing a steep learning curve, the new Bainbridge Town Council convened for its first meeting Wednesday at town hall. However, the newness doesn’t simply revolve around Robert Hensley, Brent Foltz and Jeff Kiger -- all brand new to their positions...