The town of Hope will be lighting up the Town Square again this year, starting tonight, with a light show choreographed to music.

The performance is being organized by Heritage of Hope. The show, which was first held last year, features lights around the bandstand and music played over the speaker system and over an FM transmitter.

The show will also be expanding this year, as the town adds lights on the shelterhouse for the first time. Those are expected to be active by this weekend.

The half-hour long shows will run from 6  to 9 p.m. every night through the end of the year.

The annual community Thanksgiving dinner at First Christian Church will be on Thursday but the last day to sign up for home delivery is today.

Diane Doup with Lincoln Central Neighborhood Family Center says that Doup says that serving time will be from from 12:30 to 2 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. The dinner is free and you are invited.

Doup said that community support has already filled all of the needs for the annual dinner.

The event is organized by the church and Lincoln Central Neighborhood Family Center and sponsored by Fed Ex.

Doup says that about 600 meals were served last year. She talks about the atmosphere.

The deadline to sign up for home delivery is 4 p.m. this afternoon If you need home delivery you can call the church at 812-379-4491

Legal Aid will be providing a free clinic for low-income residents on Monday, Nov. 27th at its offices in the Doug Otto United Way Center.

Volunteer local attorneys will be providing legal consultations on a first-come, first serve basis. Each consultation will be about 10 minutes long.

The clinic will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Nov. 27th. The United Way center is on 13th Street in Columbus.

There are still a few days left if you haven’t had a chance to check out the art and architecture installations that are part of the first Exhibit Columbus show.

This is the final week for the exhibition which started in August. The exhibition will end on Sunday, Nov. 26th. Although all of the installations won’t disappear overnight, they will begin being dismantled.

Many of the works are along Fifth Street in Columbus, including those chosen for the first J. Irwin and Xenia Miller prizes. The Miller prize installations are at the Bartholomew County Public Library, First Christian Church, Cummins headquarters, the Cummins conference center and in Mill Race Park. There are also college-designed installations at Central Middle School and North Christian Church, as well as other displays downtown along Washington Street.

Organizers say that they are working to find permanent homes for many of the works.

You can get more information at exhibitcolumbus.org.

Four area families will be recognized as family of the year at an event tonight at St. Peters Lutheran Church on Fifth Street.

Judy Lifferth is local organizer for the National Family Week activities.

Liffeth said the four families will be recognized for working together, playing together and overcoming obstacles and grief with grace and dignity.

The four families are:

• The Humes-Gilberts: Molly Hume and Megan Gilbert.
• The Poueriets: Pablo, Jennifer, Oliver and Lucas/
• The McCauleys: Michael, Marci and Cierra
• The Lancasters: Doug and Laura

That event will be from 7 to 8:15 p.m. tonight in the church sanctuary.

Columbus resident Denise Pence has been reappointed to the state’s tourism council by Gov. Eric Holcomb.

The governor’s office announced yesterday that Pence, owner of the Exit 76 Antique Mall in Edinburgh, will continue her service on the council. Her term expires in 2019.

Jennings County deputies arrested three men, accused of stealing a truck from a home on Tuesday morning.

A homeowner heard the sound of a vehicle in his driveway near County Road 850W and 350S at about 6:45 a.m. that morning and realized that it was his own truck being taken. He followed in another vehicle and eventually two men jumped out of the stolen truck and ran away. A third suspect was in a parked truck down the road and also ran away.

Deputies arrived and cordoned off the area, eventually catching two men running in a field about a mile away, according to the sheriff’s department. The third man was arrested later in the day without incident.

Both of the vehicles had been reported stolen and one was found to have about $2,500 in stolen tools and scrap metal in the bed of the truck.

21-year-old John Meisberger II of Butlerville and 20-year-old Christopher Carf Junior of Holton are facing preliminary charges of auto theft, burglary, theft and criminal trespass. 26-year-old Dustin Gifford of Butlerville was arrested on a parole warrant and on a preliminary charge of theft.

Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers will be getting more money for deputies’ overtime. The sheriff said that two shooting incidents this year pushed his overtime budget even further into the red than previously estimated.

The county had originally budgeted about $84,000 in overtime for sheriff’s deputies, but the department has spent more than $155,000 so far this year, says the sheriff. The department has already moved money around to cover part of the shortfall, but needed County Council approval to access $31,000 in other funds to make it to the end of the year.

Myers said that there have been several incidents this year that required exceptional overtime. For example, deputies aided in the search in late September of a man who shot at a Columbus police officer and then fled into the woods near the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

Myers explained there have also been personnel reasons there has been so much overtime including new deputies who can’t patrol alone, retirements and injuries.

Myers asked to recover money that was paid for a deputy assigned to the federal DEA task force in Indianapolis.

The County Council earlier this week approved moving funds to allow for the overtime expenses.

Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County recently approved three grants to community organizations.

• $11,000 will go to the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department for gear that lets deputies safely test dangerous drugs.
• Developmental Services Inc is receiving $26,500 to make a more welcoming programming space for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
• IUPUC is receiving $25,000 to hire a staff person to come up with women’s programming through the university’s office of women.

All of the grants came from Heritage Fund’s Community Fund, which distributes about half a million dollars a year to aid community efforts.

For more information on the Heritage Fund, you can go to heritagefundbc.org

An effort to improve the playground at CSA Lincoln Elementary School is being recognized by Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County with the annual James A. Henderson fundraising award.

The LInden Project is a group of parents and volunteers working to upgrade the playground, turning it into an outdoor learning environment. In partnership with Bartholomew Consolidated Schools, the project has raised more than half a million dollars toward the renovations.

The Heritage Fund donated $2,500 to the award-winning effort, through the Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation.