North Vernon Police arrested a local man Wednesday afternoon on a number of charges.

Officers responded to the initial call of a suspicious person in the area of Ivy Park Apartments just before 12:30 p.m. During their investigation, officers reportedly found 38-year-old Jeremy Hazlewood inside of one of the apartments. After running on check, officers arrested Hazelwood for having outstanding warrants from Jennings County. He is also facing charges for Failure to Register as a Sex or Violent Offender and Driving While Suspended with a Prior Conviction.

Hazelwood was booked in the Jennings County Jail.

A New Albany man was arrested on drug charges early Thursday morning after a traffic stop in Bartholomew County.

Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department Spokesperson Judy Jackson says that at about 12:07 a.m., Deputy Teancum Clark located a vehicle that matched the description of one possibly being driven by an impaired driver.

Jackson says that an off-duty Indiana State Trooper had been following the vehicle and observed multiple infractions and near-crashes. She says that as Deputy Clark began following the vehicle, he reported witnessing similar activity.

Deputy Clark initiated a traffic stop on the I-65 exit to westbound State Road 46. He reported that the driver, 23-year-old David Bradley, appeared to be under the influence. During the traffic stop, Columbus Police Department K-9 Argo arrived and alerted to the vehicle. At that point, Bradley reportedly told officers that he had needles and heroin inside the vehicle.

Jackson says that a search of the vehicle resulted in the discovery of those items, as well as two pre-loaded syringes, a grey cotton-type material, a white powder, scales, a spoon, a razor and two mirrors with white powder residue on them.

Bradley was booked in the Bartholomew County Jail on charges of: Operating a Motor Vehicle While Intoxicated – Drugs, Possession of Heroin, Possession of Paraphernalia, and Possession of a Legend Drug Injection Device. He was being held on $37,500 bond.

Columbus police arrested two wanted suspects Wednesday in separate incidents.

Sgt. Matt Harris says that Wednesday morning, police arrested a man wanted on Missouri warrants who was believed to be armed and dangerous.

After receiving a tip that 32-year-old Travis A. Kelly of Fullton, Missouri was working at a construction site on West County Road 450S in Columbus, Columbus Police Officers Greg Ross, Rusty Imlay and Lt. Joe Richardson arrested the fugitive without incident.

He was wanted on a long list of felony charges stemming from alleged inappropriate contact with a relative under the age of 14, where a weapon was displayed.

Charges included:

• Sodomy or Attempted Sodomy (Dangerous Weapon Displayed)
• Armed Criminal Action
• Sodomy or Attempted Sodomy (1^st Degree)
• Statutory Sodomy with Person Under 14 Years of Age (Dangerous Weapon Displayed)
•  Abuse or Neglect of a Child Under 14 Years of Age
• Endangering the Welfare of a Child

A Shelbyville man was arrested on a parole violation warrant after allegedly trying to hide his identity from police, Harris said.

Sgt. Kyle Young stopped a vehicle that was speeding near Third and Chestnut streets Wednesday evening and the driver allegedly gave a fake name and birthdate. But officers determined that the driver was really 33-year-old John E. Reid II and he had previously given a relative’s information.

He was arrested on preliminary charges of false informing, driving while suspended and on the warrant.

German Township Volunteer Firefighters helped scrape cheese off of Interstate 65 late last night after a truck fire.

Matt Lynch, the deputy chief, reports that firefighters were called to a truck fire just north of the Edinburgh exit on the Interstate at about 8:24 p.m. The truck driver said he had picked up a load of liquid cheese in Wisconsin and had just noticed that the trailer’s brakes were smoking.

Before he could pull over, flames started shooting out of the trailer’s back wheels and one tire exploded from the heat. He stopped, unhooked the cab and moved away.

Lynch says that German Township volunteers were able to contain the fire to the back of the trailer, before it could spread to the refrigeration unit. After putting out the fire by about 10:30 p.m., the firefighters returned to the scene at 12:30 this morning to clean the cheese off the road.

The interstate was completely reopened by about 1:30 this morning. The southbound lanes were closed for about 5 hours.

The city of Columbus plans to make improvements to Rocky Ford Road between Taylor Road and Tally Road at an estimated cost of $8.5 million dollars.

Mayor Kristen Brown made the announcement that preliminary engineering work has been completed and the project is expected to go out to bid next month.

The goals of the project are to widen the road, increase the safety for pedestrian and bicyclists and to improve storm drainage. The project will also install a new bridge over Sloan Branch.

Brown said that 80 percent of the project cost, or about $6.8 million, will be paid out of federal funds.

Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers is considering selling firearms from the department’s property room to raise money for training, equipment or other department needs.

Myers estimated that it has been more than 20 years since the property room was cleaned out.

Myers on the gun inventory

Myers said earlier this week that the department is allowed to sell the guns to a specially federally licensed gun dealer and the guns are then resold to other police departments or government agencies.

Myers estimated that the county could raise $40,000 to $50,000 through the gun sale program, but he has not yet decided whether to pursue the option. Myers told the county council that he does not want to leave the perception that the department is in the business of putting weapons back on the street.

A Columbus man was hurt after a crash in the early morning hours of Thursday.

Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department Spokesperson Judy Jackson says that Deputies Nate Nichols and Matt Bush arrived on the scene, in the 8000 block of East 25th Street in Columbus, at about 1:10 a.m. First responders reportedly found a vehicle resting on its side in a tree line on the north side of the road.

Deputies spoke with a witness who stated that she was an acquaintance of the driver, 30-year-old James Rodarte. The unidentified woman reportedly told them that she had met Rodarte at a convenience store at 25th Street and Taylor Road. The woman is reported at saying that, for an undisclosed reason, Rodarte became angry. The witness told investigators that she then decided to leave and noticed moments later that Rodarte was following her. As the vehicles traveled east on 25th Street, Rodarte apparently lose control of his vehicle and crashed into the tree line.

Rodarte was airlifted by Lifeline to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. His condition has not been released. No one else was reported injured.

Jackson adds that Sgt. T. A. Smith was called to the scene to reconstruct the accident. It remains under investigation.

The Independent Sports Association (ISA) named the Columbus Area Visitors Center its 2015 “Sports Commission of the Year,” in recognition of the services provided for the ISA Senior Softball World Series held in Columbus this past summer. Erin Hawkins, the Visitor Center’s director of marketing, says the ISA operates between 400 and 500 events annually throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. She says that Columbus was selected as the award recipient from among this pool of events.

“This award is a fitting tribute to the spirit of collaboration that exists in Columbus,” according to Executive Director Karen Niverson. “The Columbus Department of Parks and Recreation takes great pride in maintaining first-class sports facilities, and the Visitors Center helps facilitate smooth logistical operations for event operators from start to finish.” Hawkins says 2015 marked the fourth consecutive year that Columbus has hosted the Senior World Series. She went on to say that the 2015 tournament featured 41 teams from seven states, and had a direct spending impact estimated at $366,640.

The award was presented at the ISA/Senior Softball USA Convention in Reno, NV last week. Hawkins says that Eric Marvin, director of sports tourism, accepted the award on behalf of the Visitors Center.

Nashville recording artists Danika Holmes and Jeb Hart will be performing Christmas music with Hope Elementary fifth graders at Willow Leaves of Hope on Saturday evening.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students. The show starts at 6:30 p.m. with Sally Webster.

Willow Leaves is on the north side of the Hope Town Square.

The Bartholomew County Council has exempted the county’s youth services center from requirements that any job vacancies must be first approved by the council before they can be filled.

The council voted last night to add the youth services center to the wording of next year’s salary ordinance requiring council approval to fill individual positions. Previously the only departments that were exempt from the requirement that department heads justify all open positions were the sheriff’s department and the emergency operations center.

The council decided to put the youth services center into that category after Brad Barnes, the head of the court services department which oversees the program, argued that there was a danger to the workers and to the children in custody that a staffing shortfall could cause.

The council voted in the new rule as a way to trim employees from the payroll through attrition. Some council members have said they would like to lose about 10 positions to help the county make ends meet before next year.

The Council also approved the hiring of a new employee to replace an employee leaving the county’s information technology department. The department had already shrunk from five positions to four during budget cuts and leaving the position unfilled would only leave three people to take care of any computer problems countywide.

Councilwoman Laura DeDomenic said that the county needs to soon reevaluate the pay scale in the IT department. She said the pay is so low that IT personnel will continue to turn over as soon as they are trained and gain experience, making the county just a stepping stone to a better job.