For the past several years, Hauser High School has not been able to field a marching band for the annual Hope Heritage Days parade due to the small number of students participating in the program.

But for the 50th annual Heritage Days parade, held yesterday in Hope, a group of alumni decided to help out.

Organizer Donju Taylor, a 1986 alumnus of the school, says that a group of former Hauser band members teamed up with current Hauser junior and senior high school band students to perform yesterday in the parade.

The group included Taylor’s father, Don, a 1966 drum major for the Hauser band.

Alumni of the former Hauserettes Dance Troupe, of which Taylor is a former coach, also took part.

Taylor said the plan came together at the last minute, but there was a lot of enthusiasm, especially with it being the 50th Hope Heritage Days.

The marching unit won the judge’s award for best entrant in the parade.

A local man died Sunday when his SUV went into a retention pond near Menards and Walmart on the west side of Columbus.

Capt. Mike Wilson, spokesman for the Columbus Fire Department, says that a vehicle driven by 37-year-old Thomas Kedrowitz, of Columbus, left the road and went through a farmer’s field before driving into the pond. A witness told investigators that she did not see anyone surface after the vehicle entered the water.

Wilson says that first-responders arrived within minutes. Firefighters entered the water and performed a surface-water search, but were unable to find the SUV. The Bartholomew County Water Rescue and Recovery Team arrived and deployed two water craft, while CFD firefighters utilized a Rapid Deployment Craft, an inflatable watercraft used for surface ice and water rescues, and began to drag the bottom of the retention pond. Wilson says that dive members entered the water at 12:32 p.m. and found the vehicle about 10 minutes later, some 15 feet below the surface. Divers searched the vehicle and confirmed that Kedrowitz was the sole occupant.

Wilson says the SUV was pulled out of the retention pond at approximately 2 p.m. Traffic was diverted from the area for approximately three hours.

The investigation into what caused the crash is ongoing, as is Kedrowitz’s cause of death.

A North Vernon man is facing murder charges after a shooting Friday night.

50-year-old Kelly K. Smith is under arrest after the incident just before midnight on Friday, where Smith allegedly shot 40-year-old Carl L. McMurtrey in the pelvis after a dispute over a garage McMurtrey had been renting, according to reports from the sheriff’s department.

Lt. Mike Mowery says that the dispute had started earlier in the day when Smith told McMurtrey that he could no longer stay there, because he had warrants for his arrest. McMurtrey returned later in the evening, making threats and Smith shot him, according to witness reports. Mowery says police recovered a .357 Magnum pistol at the scene.

McMurtrey was pronounced dead at St. Vincent Jennings Hospital.
Smith is facing charges of murder, aggravated battery and reckless homicide.

Two other people at the home were arrested on drug charges during the investigation, Mowery said:

• 43-year-old Ariana B. Carpenter of North Vernon, violation of the legend drug act and possession of drug paraphernalia.
• 21-year-old Tanner R. Cornett of North Vernon, possession of a syringe.

A three-vehicle crash on Friday afternoon resulted in a Lawrence County man being flown to a Louisville hospital. Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers says that just before 4 p.m., deputies responded to the crash on State Road 11 at the Bartholomew/Jackson County line. While responding, deputies were informed that the crash was a head on collision with entrapment. Due to the uncertainty of which county the collision occurred in, Myers says that Jackson County Deputies, Fire and EMS personnel also responded to the scene.

Authorities arrived to find a car and an SUV stuck together in the southbound lane of State Road 11. In the northbound lane, deputies found a pickup truck with damage to his John boat and trailer. The three involved vehicles were blocking both lanes of State Road 11. Myers says that one of the drivers, 26-year-old Caleb Meadows, of Bedford, was trapped inside his car. Meadows was successfully extricated in a joint effort by County Fire/EMS agencies, then flown by Stat helicopter to University of Louisville Hospital. His condition has not been released.

Myers says that the driver of the SUV, 17-year-old Alexander Royalty, of Seymour, went to the hospital for a complaint of pain. The driver of the pickup truck, 32-year-old Jared Shepherd, of Seymour, as well as his passenger, were not hurt.

Investigators say that their investigation revealed that Royalty’s SUV rear-ended to the truck and boat, causing it to move into the southbound lane of State Road 11, into the path of Meadow’s car.

A crowdfunding effort is underway to install new play equipment, an outdoor classroom and a gathering space outside of CSA Lincoln Elementary in downtown Columbus.

The campaign, sponsored by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority and offered through the crowdfunding platform developed by Patronicity, is being run by The Linden Project Committee.

Organizers say that if the campaign reaches its crowdfunding goal of $32,000 by November 3rd, The Linden Project will receive a matching grant from IHCDA’s CreatINg Places program. They say that the funding raised during this campaign will allow The Linden Project Committee, supported by the Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation, to install new play equipment, an outdoor classroom and a gathering space outside of CSA Lincoln Elementary in Downtown Columbus.

Organizers say that the new equipment will replace the current out-of-date play set with an engaging space that honors the original design of the school and outdoor play area from when the Lincoln Elementary first opened 50 years ago.

For more information, or to donate, visit http://bit.ly/2xuEFHa.

The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department is inviting county students, in grades K through six, to take part in a poster contest marking Crime Prevention Month in October.

Sheriff Matt Myers says that posters should be on 8 ½ X 11 paper and reflect a crime prevention theme. Entries can be made in pen, pencil, colored pencil, crayon, paint and felt pen. However, department officials are asking that students not submit computer generated works. Students should include their name, school, grade and telephone number on the back of their poster.

Posters may be dropped off during regular business hours, October 2nd through the 31st, at the Bartholomew County Jail. Posters may also be mailed to the jail, located at 543 Second Street in Columbus. The deadline for submitting a poster is 5 p.m., October 31st. Students may submit more than one poster.

Winners will be selected by the department’s command staff and the winner, or winners, will be announced on or before November 9th. The winning students will have their photograph taken with Sheriff Myers and posters will be displayed in BCJ’s administrative offices.

The Indiana Department of Transportation says that maintenance personnel have been scheduled to begin work placing a high-friction wearing surface on State Road 46, between Bloomington and Nashville, on Monday. INDOT says the installation of the surface is taking place “as an extra measure of safety at select curve sites along the scenic highway.”

INDOT Bloomington Subdistrict crews are scheduled to begin work at 8:30 a.m. on Monday and wrap-up around 6 p.m. the same day. Work is scheduled to continue through daytime hours on Tuesday. In all, seven curves will be treated. INDOT says that drivers should expect delays, as traffic will be reduced to a single lane in affected areas.

This work is dependent on the weather and may be rescheduled if needed.

One person was hurt after a Friday afternoon crash involving a school bus and another vehicle. Lt. Matt Harris, spokesman for the Columbus Police Department, says that the crash occurred at about 3:45 p.m. near 15th Street and Gladstone Avenue. He says the driver of the vehicle, an unidentified female, suffered serious head injuries when her vehicle slammed into the bus and became lodged underneath it. She was transported to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis via Lifeline helicopter. Harris says that there were eight children on the bus at the time of the crash. Neither they, nor the bus driver, were hurt.

Columbus Police say that Gladstone Avenue, from 10th Street to 17th Street, remain closed as investigators reconstruct the accident and crews clean up the site.

We’ll have more information, including the identity of the driver, as it is released by the Columbus Police Department.

A Columbus man is facing an attempted murder charge following an incident last month where he allegedly attacked a Decatur County Sheriff’s Department inmate transport officer. “The Greensburg Daily News” is reporting that 26-year-old Joshua B. Stam attacked the officer as they arrived at the Miami County Correctional Facility on Aug. 30th.

According to the report, Stam had made a pre-trial court appearance on a local burglary charge Aug. 28 and was set to be returned to prison ahead of another local appearance scheduled for Oct. 17 in Superior Court. But as the transport vehicle arrived at the prison, Stam, having freed one hand from his handcuffs, climbed across the police car’s center console, punched the officer in the face and strangled him to the point of unconsciousness with a piece of cloth, police say. The report says that Stam also tried to take the officer’s gun, but was unsuccessful. The officer said he awoke to find Stam attempting to put the transport car into gear to potentially drive away, but two other officers arrived and detained the suspect.

The newspaper is reporting that Stam now faces felony charges of Attempted Murder, Aggravated Battery, Attempt to Commit Escape, and Battery Resulting in Bodily Injury to a Public Safety Officer. The report says that prosecutors are also seeking to classify Stam as an habitual offender, which could add even more time to a possible prison sentence.

The paper is reporting that Stam is currently serving a sentence on charges of Resisting Law Enforcement, Burglary, Theft, Receiving Stolen Property and Attempted Theft and/or Attempt at Receiving Stolen Property. That sentence was handed down in Bartholomew County in April.

For more on this story, visit greensburgdailynews.com.