A Shelbyville man died last night in Morgan County after a large part of a tree fell on his ATV.

Conservation officers with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources say that it isn’t immediately apparent why the tree fell on the ATV. 28-year-old Robert C. Blacker was at a friend’s house helping him gather wood and pulling a large bundle of branches with the ATV at 7:37 p.m. But the tree that fell on him was not attached to the bundle.

Rescue workers recovered Blacker from under the tree and he was taken to IU Health Morgan Hospital in Martinsville suffering from blunt force trauma to his head and chest. He was pronounced dead at 8:21 p.m.

Blacker was not wearing a helmet or any other protective gear.

Tonight in Columbus you can enjoy music Live on the Bartholomew County Public Library Plaza with Naturally 7 presented by the Columbus Area Arts Council.

Geri Handley with the arts council explains that the group’s acapella style incorporates “vocal play,” where the group turns their voices into the sounds of instruments.

The show is free and it starts at 7 p.m. at the library plaza on Fifth Street, with a rain location of The Commons.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated.

The city of Columbus is having problems with payments from another restaurant in The Commons.

The city, through the redevelopment commission, acts as a landlord for the tenants in the city owned building in downtown Columbus. Last week, the redevelopment commission attorney, Stan Gamso, sent a letter to the owners of Jordy McTaggart’s urging the owners to catch up on rent and other fees.

Mary Ferdon, the city’s Executive Director of Administration and Community Development, explained that that the notice is only a first warning letter and is not a termination or eviction notice.

After receiving the letter, the company owners paid about $7,700 of their past due $21,000. They also pledged to pay more next week, says Heather Pope, the city’s redevelopment director.

The city has had previous problems with tenants in The Commons including nonpayment of rent by the former Snappy Tomato owner Larkin & Company and a contract dispute with Jordy McTaggart’s predecessor, Scotty’s Burger Joint. The city also had similar problems with Bistro 310, which operated in the Jackson Street parking garage, also owned by the city.

The town of Hope and the Yellow Trail Museum will be holding an old-fashioned Independence Day on Friday, July 1st on the Hope Town Square.

There will be free crafts, games, and contests like the annual watermelon eating contest , seed-spitting contest or sack races for kids and adults. There will also be food including a fish fry by the Hartsville Volunteer Fire Department to benefit the Yellow Trail museum.

The Hope Farmer’s Market will be taking place until about 8 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., the Banister Family Band will perform until the fireworks start at dark.

Shelby County deputies are looking for the driver of an older-model white Impala who allegedly fled the scene of a crash with a motorcyclist.

According to reports the driver hit a motorcyclist on Interstate 74 on June 7th and after briefly stopping, fled the scene. The motorcyclist suffered serious injuries including broken bones, dislocations and scrapes and was just released from the hospital yesterday.

The Impala is suspected to have serious front-end damage.

If you have any information you can call the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department at 317-398-6661

Bartholomew County deputies were on their way to a disturbance report Tuesday night involving a driver, when they found that the vehicle had crashed into a tree.

The reported disturbance was in the 1500 block of Tannehill Road in Taylorsville and the vehicle involved crashed at Walnut and Pearl streets in Taylorsville at about 10:53 p.m. The driver, 43-year–old Jeannie A. Medley of Tannehill Road received facial injuries in the crash and told deputies that she had gotten into an argument in a parking lot, before she drove off and hit the tree.

Medley appeared intoxicated and was found to have suspended license, says Judy Jackson, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department.

After being treated at Columbus Regional Hospital, Medley was arrested on preliminary charges of operating a motor vehicle under the influence and driving while suspended.

A Columbus resident found a man in his apartment last night and held onto the burglary suspect until police arrived.

The situation happened last night at about 11:45 p.m., when a resident returned to his apartment in the 1500 block of 28th Street and noticed a strange bicycle by the front door. When he went inside, the resident found the first floor had been ransacked. Upstairs, he found 25-year-old Adrien W. Hawksworth hiding, says Lt. Matt Harris, spokesman for the Columbus police. After Hawksworth allegedly threw a punch, the resident took the intruder down and held on until police arrived, Harris says.

Two syringes were also recovered, according to police.

Hawksworth is facing preliminary charges of burglary and possession of a legend drug injection device.

U.S. 31 will be closing this morning at Southern Crossing, which is County Road 400S in Bartholomew County, as the Indiana Department of Transportation contractors begin work on a roundabout.

That work is going to take up to 60 days and you can bypass the area by taking U.S. 50, Interstate 65 and then U.S. 31 at Taylorsville.

The work is part of an $8.4 million project that is also replacing the Sand Creek Bridge at the Bartholomew and Jackson County line. That bridge was removed in early May and is expected to be out for about six more months.

Columbus police and animal care services were involved in a special rescue effort yesterday afternoon.

Lt. Matt Harris, spokesman for the Columbus Police Department says that rescue workers recovered nine ducklings from a storm drain.

Harris said that passersby heard the cries of the ducklings at about 1 p.m. near Seventh Street and Pleasant Grove. Officer Chris Strickland rescued two of the ducklings by hand and returned them to their mother — but the other seven were stuck in a part of the drain about 10 feet under the street.

Harris says that Chris McDaniel with Columbus Animal Care Services was able to use a net to remove the remaining seven. But they couldn’t reunite those ducklings with their mother. Instead, the city workers took the ducks to Utopia Wildlife Center near Hope.

Harris said the ducks appeared to be about two weeks old and they are in good health.