Columbus police say a man tried to run away from officers when they went to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. Now he is facing charges of resisting arrest.

The incident happened at about 1:10 this morning, when an officer noticed a vehicle without taillights on North Gilmore Street. After stopping the vehicle, the officer confirmed that the driver, 25-year-old Michael Childers was wanted on warrant. Childers allegedly ran away, jumped a fence and then ran through several yards before being caught in the 1800 block of Gilmore Street.

20-year-old Hope man is being accused of rolling his pickup truck, while driving under the influence.

Bartholomew County deputies say the accident happened at about 6:25 p.m. last night on North Marr Road. Deputes were called to a report of a possibly intoxicated driver and found the pickup rolled over in the 11000 block of North Marr Road.

Deputies say that the driver, 20-year-old Ryan T. Meahl, of Hope, tried to navigate a turn while driving too fast. He left the road, hit a fence and then rolled over.

Meahl was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital for treatment before being taken to the jail on preliminary charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing endangerment and illegal consumption. He has since been released from jail.

No one else was injured in the accident.

Friday is the United Way’s annual Day of Caring.

Volunteers will be out in Bartholomew County helping local not for profit groups and residents. Angie Huebel, head of the United Way’s Volunteer Action Center explains some of the activities:

If you would like to help, there are still locations needing volunteers. You can contact Huebel at (812) 314-2706

Mill Race Center is seeking nominees for the 2017 Joan Pearcy Senior Citizen of the Year Award.

The awards, given since 1957, recognize an outstanding senior citizen for his or her service to the community. The award was named after Pearcy in 2011.

The deadline to submit your nomination is 5 p.m. on June 30th. Nomination forms may be picked up at Mill Race Center, 900 Lindsey Street or online at www.millracecenter.org The recipient will be honored at the Seek 2017 Conference Luncheon in August at Mill Race Center .

Bartholomew County’s public defenders have too many cases to adequately represent everyone in the court system who needs to be provided an attorney at taxpayer’s expense.

That’s part of the conclusions of the Bartholomew County Public Defenders Board, which was tasked last year to recommend fixes to the overloaded system.

The board presented its findings and recommendations to the County Council this week.

Board members say that the assignments and contracts for public defenders should be taken out from under the county judges, Board member Rob Kittle explains:

Kittle said that the assigning and contracting of public defenders would instead by done by a chief public defender.

Board members say that the number of cases being handled by the 11 local part-time public defenders continue to increase and is now above state standards set by the Indiana Supreme Court. Board member Bud Herron explains:

The board is recommending two part-time defenders be added. The county is spending about half a million dollars a year on public defenders.

The board also looked at an option where the Indiana Supreme Court would pick up 40 percent of the cost of the county public defenders. However, that would also require the county meet all of the state standards and there is no guarantee that the state would continue funding the program indefinitely or at what level it would pay. Under those state guidelines, the county would have to set up a separate public defenders office, parallel to the count prosecutor’s office.

In Bartholomew County, the public defenders pick up the cost of office supplies and expenses such as copying and mailing out of their own contract money and the work is usually done by the attorney’s private law office. The board is also recommending adding a fund to cover those sorts of expenses.

Two local Ivy Tech Community College students won gold medals at a state Information Technology competition recently.

The first-ever Statewide IT Challenge was held last month and Erick Bernal-Martinez won a gold medal in the computer science competition, while Tommy Lynch won gold in the database competition.

The inaugural Ivy Tech Statewide IT Challenge held in Indianapolis featured seven events based on the college’s IT courses, including software development/web design, computer science/programming, network infrastructure, IT Support, cybersecurity, server administration, and database management.

Seven local students took part including Bari McVay and Chris Fox in cybersecurity, McVay and Braxton Heinlein-Mann in network infrastructure, Bernal-Martinez in computer science, Lynch in database management, and Dylan Thompson, Justin Hanner and Heinlein-Mann in IT support.

Columbus police found a missing person Monday night and then arrested him and his mother on warrants.

At about 7 p.m. Monday evening, police located 21-year-old Kyle G. davis in the 100 block of Carrie Lane. He had previously been reported as a missing person, says Lt. Matt Harris, spokesman for the police department. Davis was wanted on a Johnson County warrant for dealing methamphetamine.

Police also arrested his mother, 40-year old Heather S. Payne of Columbus, who was wanted on a body attachment warrant.

The director of Bartholomew County’s 911 center is moving up to a state job.

Ed Reuter, who has served as director for 10 years, will be taking over the state 911 Board in Indianapolis as executive director, starting on May 15th.

Reuter served for 33 years with the Indiana State Police before taking over the Bartholomew County center.

Reuter says he and his family will continue to live in Columbus.

Bartholomew County emergency officials are reviewing Friday night’s storm warnings to figure out why the tornado sirens did not sound in time.

Shannan Hinton, the county’s emergency management director, says that the sirens were delayed even though the system has redundant means of notification to alert dispatchers that the sirens need to be triggered.

She said that residents should use multiple means to keep themselves informed during bad weather including the county’s Everbridge alert system, weather radio and monitoring severe weather alerts from radio and television.

You can sign up for Everbridge alerts online at bartholomew.in.gov or by calling 812-379-1500.

Hinton said that suspected straight-line winds caused a nearly mile-wide path of destruction that stretched for about 14 miles. The winds are estimated to have been up to 90 mph.

Bartholomew County would need to increase its jail staff by 11 people, or about 20 percent to meet state standards.

That’s according to a Six Sigma study done with the help of Cummins and a review of jail staffing by a consultant. The analysis concluded that the jail does not have enough staff to cover vacations, sick time and other personnel requirements, as well as the regular needs of the jail inmates, says Dana Vogt, with Cummins.

Without enough staff, the county is instead burning up its overtime budget to cover standard personnel staffing needs, Vogt said.

The jail inmate population of about 215 is reaching its maximum level, Jail Commander Maj. John Martoccia told the County Council at its work session last night. Although there are empty beds, some inmates require cells to themselves for safety reasons. If the jail population grows much more, the county would have to reopen the old portion of the jail, which would require even more staff, Martoccia said.

Sheriff Matt Myers said he will propose the county increase the jail staffing by seven people in 2018. The jail currently has 55 staff members. The study suggests immediately adding two medical personnel, four rovers and security and one transport and security staff members.

The rest of the staffing shortfall would continue to be made up with overtime pay, the sheriff says. Although the jail budget overtime budget will be exhausted by next month.