Looking back on the top stories of the year

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1) Teens die

Four teens died and five others were injured on the night of Aug. 25 as they pushed a stalled vehicle on State Road 258 in Cortland.

The youths who died in the incident were Brownstown Central High School students Brittany Watson, 15, and Nevaeh Law, 14, and Seymour High School students Jenna Helton, 14, and Martin Martinez, 16.

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The four injured teens were Allerika Henline, 15, and Starlit Watson, 12, both of Brownstown; Victoria Valdivia, 15, and Courtney Arthur, 14, of Seymour; and Victoria Burchard, 15, of Medora.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Carothers later said toxicology reports showed no substances were found in samples taken from the drivers of the two vehicles involved in the crash, Elizabeth Watson, 24, and Cara Selby, 37, both of Seymour.

Watson, who was not related to Brittany Watson, was the driver of a 2018 Chevrolet Traverse that crashed into a stalled Chevrolet Suburban on State Road 258 on the east side of Cortland. Selby was driving the vehicle that stalled following Valdivia’s birthday party at Selby’s home.

2) Curtis Collman III death

A Seymour man accused of refusing to get his 8-year-old son medical help after the child ingested methamphetamine June 21 is set to stand trial July 9 in Jackson Circuit Court.

Curtis Collman Jr., 41, faces 20 to 40 years in prison if convicted of the Level 1 felony charge of neglect of a dependent causing death linked to his refusal to call 911 for his son, Curtis Collman III. He also prevented others from calling.

A toxicology report later showed the boy had 180 times the lethal dose of methamphetamine in his bloodstream at the time he died at Schneck Medical Center in Seymour. He was taken there after police and personnel with Jackson County Emergency Medical Services were called to his grandparents’ rural Crothersville home.

Police said the boy had spent the night of June 20 with his father and became ill after ingesting the methamphetamine. His father later took him to the home of the boy’s grandparents. At some point, the boy became unresponsive.

Curtis Collman Jr., left the home but was later arrested and also faces felony charges of intimidation, failure to register as a sex offender and possession of methamphetamine along with misdemeanor charges of theft and pointing a firearm at an unarmed person.

3) Jamison murder

A 44-year-old Seymour man was charged with murder in the Sept. 7 death of his 19-year-old fiancée, who was brutally beaten from nearly head to toe, police reported.

Brian Michael Cogdill was arrested three days after Emma Jean Jamison died at Schneck Medical Center, where she was taken after being found battered at the home she shared with Cogdill on the city’s far north side.

Jamison sustained a severe laceration to her head that incapacitated her, a broken jaw and bruising all over her body, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by county Detective Tom Barker.

Evidence gathered during the investigation, which included multiple interviews, has led police to believe Cogdill beat Jamison for a variety of reasons. Those reasons include his belief she was having an affair, using drugs and stole $300 he had saved for new dentures.

4) Schneck expansion project

Schneck Medical Center is using German technology that’s relatively new to the United States in the construction of the new five-story medical office and five-level parking garage that continued throughout the year.

The project, which will change the face of the hospital — and the city along West Tipton Street — when it’s completed next spring, includes the use of the Slim-Line Cobiax system to create lighter, more efficient concrete slabs for each floor of the five-story medical office building.

The $44 million expansion project, which will provide 400 parking spaces, is aimed at providing better access to health care.

5) Jackson County Judicial Center project

The first of Jackson County’s three courts began moving into its new offices in the $12.14 million Jackson County Judicial Center in Brownstown in early December.

The staff of Jackson Circuit Court and moving company employees spent time carrying office supplies, furniture and other items from their offices in the courthouse to the 38,000-square-foot judicial center across Sugar Street.

The county’s other two courts, Jackson Superior I and Jackson Superior II, later moved into the new center at 109 S. Sugar St. along with other county offices, including the clerk.

6) Promised investment increases

The good economic news keeps rolling in for Seymour and Jackson County, as projects totaling more than $52 million in promised investment in 2019 were announced during the fourth quarter of this year.

Those projects, promised investments and the number of estimated jobs are Valeo North America Inc., $39.87 million, 255 workers; Kremers Urban, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lannett Co. Inc., $10.45 million, 30 jobs; Indiana Polymer, $150,000, 10 jobs; and SpaceGuard Products, $2 million, eight jobs.

Those announcements come on the heels of 10 projects totaling $84.14 million in promised investment resulting in 346 new jobs this year. The 2018 projects also led to the retention of 4,759 jobs.

Promised investment this year bettered the $61 in promised investment in 2017 and is only topped by promised investment ranging from $152 million to $175 million during the years of 2012 to 2014 when Cummins Inc. started its Hedgehog project.

7) Crossroads Community Park finished

Construction of the $3.5 million Crossroads Community Park in downtown Seymour was completed in the spring, but the venue didn’t officially open until July 19 with a performance by up-and-coming country music singer Jake Dodds.

Dodds performed a free show as part of CityJam on the covered stage at the park, located on U.S. 50 at the railroad tracks across from the old Blish Mill silos.

8) Louisville & Indiana Railroad rail line realignment

As promised, more trains began rolling through Seymour in December.

Realignment of the traffic in Seymour over the summer and the completion of the Flat Rock River Bridge replacement is expected to lead to an increase in the speed, frequency and length of trains on the Louisville & Indiana Railroad, company President John Goldman said.

These changes are the result of a federally approved agreement between L&I and CSX Transportation, which uses the rail line to transport freight between Louisville and Indianapolis. Under the agreement, CSX is spending $100 million to upgrade tracks, bridges and signals along the 106-mile corridor to safely support the growth.

The railroad project was announced in 2013 and approved by the federal Surface Transportation Board in 2015. At that time, it was estimated to take around seven years to complete the entire project from Louisville to Indianapolis.

9) No nativity

Just days before Christmas, an organization that promotes the separation of church and state asked Jackson County to immediately remove a Nativity scene from the courthouse lawn.

A attorney for the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote a letter to commissioners in Jackson County saying that a “concerned local citizen” contacted the group about the light display outside the courthouse in Brownstown.

The display was not removed until after Christmas.

10) Election 2018

Jackson County will have a new sheriff Tuesday morning, and it should come as no surprise that he’s a Republican since the Democratic Party was pretty much shut out at the ballot box Nov. 6.

Seymour resident Rick Meyer, who begins his four-year term Tuesday, replaces Seymour area resident Mike Carothers, who served as the county’s top law enforcement official the past eight years.

Besides Meyer’s win over Democrat Jeff Walters, Republicans won the other six races for countywide offices and each of the four district county council seats. Republicans used a surge of turnout where better than half of voters came out to vote to secure the victories.

Coming off of a record-setting year for early voting where 4,577 ballots were cast, 14,827 voters out of 27,976 from the county’s 30 precincts showed up to the polls this election cycle. That represents a turnout of 53 percent, which outpaced the 2014 turnout of 36 percent.

The turnout was likely pushed by a hotly contested U.S. Senate race between Democrat Joe Donnelly and Republican Mike Braun. Braun was able to capture 9,430 of the 14,413 votes cast in Jackson County.

A Democrat has not been elected in Jackson County since Roger Wheeler was elected coroner in 2012. He also is the last Democrat to hold office here.

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