The Bartholome County 4-H Fair is continuing today at the County Fairgrounds.
The Midwest Three-Quarter Racing League races with Tony Stewart were postponed last night due to the weather. That will be held at the grandstands at 7 tonight with practice at 6. Fair board president Mark Case:
Tickets for the races are $10 for adults and $5 for children.
Today is Bartholomew County Young Farmers Day at the fair. It is also kids day at the Midway and the midway opens at noon today. There will be $15 wristbands for rides.
Case said he is hopeful that a good turnout this afternoon will help offset the poor showing yesterday due to the rain.
White River Broadcasting is set up at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fair this week, sharing space in the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department tent.
Today, the sheriff’s department along with the High Twelve Club will be providing free IDs for your children. That will start at noon and run until 4 p.m. this afternoon.
The sheriff’s department will help you record all of your child’s vital statistics, so you can have that easily on hand should it ever be needed. The sheriff’s department says this could save you valuable time if your child is ever missing or lost.
A veteran’s job fair is being held at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday .
Veterans, transitioning military personnel, National Guard members, Reserve members and their spouses are encouraged to attend this event organized by the DAV and RecruitMilitary.com
You will be able to visit more than 70 exhibitors interested in hiring vets for jobs with their companies.. Organizers say you should be dressed for success and bring resumes.
The Clarion Hotel and Conference center on Jonathan Moore Pike was sold yesterday morning at auction, and then sold again later in the day.
Columbus Regional Health has now purchased the building, according to an announcement from the hospital.
German-American Bank, the original lien holder on the hotel property, made the winning bid at the sheriff’s sale auction yesterday morning. Our news-gathering partners at The Republic report that was a $4.25 million dollar purchase.
The hospital then bought the property from the bank. Hospital officials say that the strategic purchase is made in recognition of the property’s importance at the entrance to the community. They have not yet made a plan for how they will use the property, but they note that the hospital has outgrown its current office space.
They say that the property planning process is meant to best meet the needs of the patients, customers and communities the hospital serves.
The Bartholomew County sheriff is warning local rural churches to be on their guard. That is after another church vandalism in the county.
Sheriff Matt Myers says that Triumphant Baptist Church on Southern Crossing has been hit by vandals, and he believes it is related to a case where an Ogilville church was vandalized over the weekend.
The sheriff says that vandals broke out windows and damaged flood lights and security lights at the church. It does not appear that anything was taken from the church, the sheriff said. Monday night’s vandalism could have been worse, the sheriff says.
That’s on the heels of two other vandalisms of churches in southwestern Bartholomew County and three in Brown County. Ohio Chapel United Methodist Church, on W. County Road 525S near Ogilville was damaged over the weekend, including having a room set on fire.
Myers said deputies are providing extra patrols to try to keep an eye out for suspects. However there are a lot of churches in the county and deputies can’t be everywhere.
The sheriff suggested that churches have an emergency plan in place to keep watch over their own properties after hours and to review those plans with parishioners.
He also urged residents who live near churches to call 911 immediately if they see anything unusual.
Applications are now available for this year’s grants from the Women’s Giving Circle of Bartholomew County.
That’s a program of Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.
The grants will focus on women’s self-sufficiency, education opportunities for women and youth , parental support and helping women in crisis. You can apply online through heritagefundbc.org.
Christopher A. Riddle. Photo courtesy of Columbus Police Department.
Columbus police say that a local man is under arrest, but that’s after he bit an officer during a scuffle.
Officers were originally called to the 1000 block of Phoenix Court after an unconscious man was reported inside a vehicle. When police arrived, they noticed 38-year-old Christopher Riddle inside the vehicle, along with a baseball bat, a large knife and drug paraphernalia, says Lt Matt Harris, spokesman for the Columbus police. As police tried to put Riddle into handcuffs , he allegedly fought with them and bit the arm of one officer, Harris says. Police finally used a Taser to subdue Riddle.
After a trip to Columbus Regional Hospital to get checked out, he was arrested on preliminary charges of battery on a law enforcement officer causing injury, resisting law enforcement causing injury, a Marion County warrant for a probation violation, and possession of a syringe and drug paraphernalia.
Jayson D. Ackenback. Photo courtesy of Columbus Police Department.
The bitten officer was also treated at the hospital.
During the arrest, police allegedly heard threats being made against police from inside a nearby apartment. When they looked, they found 33-year old Jayson D. Ackenback of Columbus hiding in an apartment. He was wanted on a warrant for a parole violation and arrested.
The Bartholomew County Public Library is collecting underwear and diapers to help the needy in the community.
The main library branch in downtown Columbus and the Hope branch are taking the donations of new underwear, still in its packing, in a promotion they are calling Drop Your Drawers — a part of their summer reading program, with its challenge of building a better world.
The donations will go to Sans Souci and the Hope Community Center. The libraries are accepting donations through July 24th. For more information you can go to mybcpl.org.
Poster courtesy of Bartholomew County Public Library.
A Columbus landmark will be on the auction block today. The Clarion Hotel and Conference Center is slated to be auctioned at a sheriff’s sale at 10 a.m. this morning. The hotel on Jonathan Moore Pike has been going through foreclosure proceedings and is now up for sale to the highest bidder.
The sheriff’s department reports that there has been a lot of interest in the sale today with more than 30 people expected to attend and possibly bid on the building.
The hotel suffered extensive damage during the 2008 flood and its value has dropped steadily since an assessed value of $13.6 million in March of that year, according to the county property tax records. The building is now valued at just over $2.7 million dollars according to the county.
The sale will be held in the training room of the sheriff’s department offices and jail on Second Street in Columbus.
The empty space where the former Sears Auto Parts Store once stood in downtown Columbus would become part of an improved parking lot for Cummins employees, under a plan being considered by the city.
Cummins has an application into the Columbus Plan Commission to revamp the entire space at the corner of Brown and Third Streets into a better employee parking lot. According to the application from the company, the former auto parts store was recently demolished and now the company wants to rework the lot, building islands, installing landscaping and reconfiguring the spaces for maximum parking .
The company has to apply for a modification from the existing site development plan for the location filed with the city because it wants to add landscaping outside of the required five foot setback from the street. Instead the company plans to install sidewalks and the landscaping would go on the Brown Street right of way.
The auto parts store was in the parking lot at the tail end of what used to be The Commons. Cummins has transformed the former Sears store itself into working space for employees.
The city/county planning department staff is recommending that if there is an approval it be with the conditions that lights be only a maximum of 25 feet in height, and that landscaping along Brown Street be centered in the grass/landscape area provided.
The plan commission meets at 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon at Columbus City Hall.
