Friday, September 19
Hi – 87° Low – 61° | 🌤 Mostly Sunny → ☁️ Partly Cloudy
Plenty of sunshine and very warm with a high near 87°F, paired with a light east breeze. A great day for late-summer fun outdoors. Tonight brings a few passing clouds and a low of 61°F, with a gentle evening breeze keeping it comfortable.

🚧 Southbound I-69 Exit Closing For A Week In Fort Wayne

⚡ IDEM Opens Comment On New Power Plant In Columbia City

🚲 Fort Wayne Harley-Davidson Hosts Honor Flight Ride

🎃 Fall Festival Returns To Kuehnert Dairy Farm

📚 ACPL Launches Multilingual Website For Non-English Speakers

💰 AWS Foundation Awards $1.4M To 15 Local Nonprofits

🚆 Future Of Fort Wayne Passenger Rail Presented At Regional Commission

🦌 DNR Explains Deer Reduction Zones As Hunting Season Begins

🚔 Coroner Identifies Homicide Victim After High-Speed Chase

🏀 Saint Francis Names Nate Conley Men’s Basketball Coach

🚧 The Indiana Department of Transportation announced that southbound I-69 exit 309B to U.S. 30 in northwest Fort Wayne will close on or after Friday, September 19, for concrete patching and joint repair. The closure is expected to last about a week, depending on weather. Drivers heading to westbound U.S. 30 should detour by continuing south to exit 305 at Illinois Road, then re-enter I-69 northbound to reach exit 309B. Read more from WANE here.

⚡ The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has opened public comment on a new Northeastern REMC power plant under construction at 2500 South 600 East, Columbia City. The plant will feature two five-megawatt natural gas generators to help reduce peak energy costs and improve reliability for members, including local businesses. NREMC stated emissions will remain within state and EPA standards. IDEM is accepting comments until October 16. Read more from WANE here.

🚲 Harley-Davidson of Fort Wayne is hosting a ride on Saturday, September 27, to raise money for Honor Flight of Northeast Indiana. Registration is open from 10–11:30 a.m. at the dealership, with a $20 entry fee. Riders will depart shortly after registration and finish at VFW Post 857. All proceeds will benefit Honor Flight. Read more from WANE here.

🎃 The Kuehnert Dairy Fall Festival is back with corn mazes, pumpkins, jump pads, and baby calves. Admission is $15 per person, with kids two and under free. Guests must sign a waiver before entry. The festival runs Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through October 26, open Fridays 6–9 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m.–9 p.m., and Sundays 12–5 p.m. Read more from WANE here.

📚 The Allen County Public Library has launched Cultural Connection, a multilingual website designed for residents who don’t speak English. The site highlights programs, resources, and community services in 12 languages spoken in Allen County, including Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, French, German, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Nearly 14% of county residents and about 54,000 people speak a language other than English at home. The launch coincides with Welcoming Week, Sept. 12–21, celebrating diversity across the community. Read more from WANE here.

💰 The AWS Foundation has distributed $1,412,784 in grant funding to 15 northeast Indiana nonprofits supporting people with disabilities. Projects include cabin improvements at Camp Millhouse, sensory-friendly programming at Fort Wayne Ballet, adaptive riding scholarships at Haven Hills Therapy Center and Image of Hope Ranch, and an inclusive playground renovation at Turnstone. Other recipients include Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana, and Lutheran Social Services, among others. Read more from WANE here.

🚆 Fort Wayne Councilman Geoff Paddock and the Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association presented plans for the Midwest Connect Corridor at the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission’s annual meeting in Kansas City, September 10–12. The proposed line would run from Chicago to Columbus and Pittsburgh through Fort Wayne. Paddock said the effort, though years away, is moving forward with support from federal and state leaders. Federal matching funds remain intact under the Trump administration, keeping the project on track. Read more from WANE here.

🦌 Indiana’s deer hunting season began September 15 with Deer Reduction Zones (DRZs), targeting areas with high deer and human populations to reduce conflicts like property damage, crashes, and ecological concerns. Northeast Indiana DRZs include Allen County, Warsaw, DeKalb County, LaGrange County, Steuben County, and Wabash County. Hunters may harvest up to 10 deer statewide (only one antlered) but must take an antlerless deer in a DRZ before an antlered one. DRZ hunting runs through January 31, followed by youth, archery, firearms, and muzzleloader phases. The DNR also urges hunters to report unusual deer deaths to help track diseases like epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD). Read more from WANE here.

🚔 The Allen County Coroner identified Jorge Luis Granados Guzman, 35, of Fort Wayne, as the man found dead in a car following a shooting and high-speed chase on Monday. Police said Guzman was shot near Cortland Avenue and West State Boulevard, then placed in a car that later led officers on a pursuit ending near SR 205 and Madden Road. The driver, found with a semi-automatic gun and an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, was arrested and taken to a hospital. Guzman’s cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. The case remains under investigation. Read more from WANE here.

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🏀 Bishop Dwenger graduate Nate Conley has been named the new men’s basketball coach at the University of Saint Francis. Conley spent the last six seasons leading Manchester University, where he was HCAC Coach of the Year in 2022–23 after guiding the Spartans to their first regular-season conference title in more than a decade. He previously coached at Ohio Wesleyan and played at Defiance College. Conley replaces Chad LaCross, who stepped down after 15 seasons as head coach and 22 total years with USF, finishing as the program’s winningest coach with a 335-168 record. Read more from WANE here.