State Road 252 in southern Shelby County will be opening in time for your holiday travel. The Indiana Department of Transportation says the stretch between Interstate 65 and the town of Flat Rock will be reopening Wednesday.

Contractors have been widening and resurfacing about five miles of the state highway and doing work at the bridges at Lewis Creek and the Flat Rock River.

After the winter break, crews will be replacing pavement between the Lewis Creek bridge and the Auburn Hills Subdivision. Next year they will also be putting in new pavement on either side of County Road 600W.

The Indiana Department of Transportation plans to open the second phase of the U.S. 50 bypass of North Vernon on Wednesday afternoon.

The $22 million dollar project created a bypass from State Road 3 and Deer Creek Road. That included 3 and a half miles of new pavement, two bridges and a roundabout connecting the new highway with U.S. 50

A west-end roundabout will be build next year.

A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held near the roundabout at 1:30 p.m.  Wednesday afternoon.

A plane that crashed near Oldenburg on Saturday, killing three people, had just taken off from the Columbus airport, according to officials.

The crash happened at about 9:10 p.m. Saturday night in woods behind a home near Oldenburg. Sgt. Stephen Wheeles with the Indiana State Police says that all three people and a dog in the plane died. A second dog survived and turned up a at a nearby home. That dog was taken to the veterinarian for its injuries.

The single engine Cessna had left Kansas City, Missouri and was heading to an airport in Frederick, Maryland. It took off from Columbus shortly before the crash, says Brian Payne, director of the Columbus Municipal Airport.

Autopsies are scheduled for today and the names of the victims will not be released until those are complete. The cause of the crash is unknown. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. .

The Columbus Area Visitors Center has named a new director of sports tourism. Spokeswoman Erin Hawkins says that Isaac DeClue will be charged with continuing to grow sports tourism in Bartholomew County. DeClue replaces former director Eric Marvin, who resigned in August.

Hawkins says that growth in sporting events has skyrocketed over the last decade. She notes that when the Visitors Center began its sports initiative in 2004, Columbus and Bartholomew County hosted 21 sports events. Nearly 90 sports events were held in Bartholomew County in 2017.

Hawkins says that DeClue is a Columbus native who managed Tre Bicchieri Italian Restaurant in downtown Columbus for 10 years before serving as a digital sales specialist at AIM Media for two years. DeClue is a graduate of Columbus East and obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University.

“Ike’s experience in sales, coupled with his and wide-reaching network of relationships in the community makes him the ideal individual for this role,” said Karen Niverson, executive director of Columbus Area Visitors Center. “Columbus has had tremendous success as a sports tourism destination and we’re eager to see how Ike will lead efforts to increase capacity and grow this segment of our business.”

Hawkins says that sports tourism has become a huge economic driver for the area. By the end of 2017, the Columbus Area Visitors Center estimates that athletes and spectators will have spent $12 million in Columbus and Bartholomew County.

North Vernon Police arrested three people on drug charges Thursday night. Officers executed a search warrant at a home in the 100 block of Lincoln Street at 10:15 p.m. They allegedly found several stolen items, along with methamphetamine, syringes and drug paraphernalia.

Police arrested 24-year-old William Heilman, 27-year-old Amanda Moore and 27-year-old Gregory Miller, all of North Vernon, on various possession charges.

A statewide Silver Alert has been canceled for 72-year-old Danny Campbell of Columbus. Campbell was found in Sellersburg by the Indiana State Police and taken to Clark Memorial Hospital last night.

Alerts were sent out through the local Everbridge alert system at about 7:30 p.m. last night that Columbus police were searching for Campbell and that he could be in danger. At about 11:15 p.m. that became a statewide Silver Alert, which was canceled at about 12:30 a.m. this morning.

The Columbus Police Department is searching for someone they describe as “an endangered missing person.” They are looking for Danny Campbell. Authorities say that Campbell is a 72-year-old white male, standing 5’11” tall and weighing 180 pounds. He was last seen wearing a green hat, black jacket, white thermal top and gray sweatpants. Campbell was driving a Black 2012 Toyota Venza with license plate RSA683. If you have any information on Campbell’s whereabouts, you should immediately call the Bartholomew County Emergency Operations Center at (812) 379-1689.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s office has released the official cause of death of the Seymour man that died at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant last weekend. WDRB TV in Louisville is reporting that the coroner’s office says that 41-year-old Ivan Bridgewater died from blunt force trauma in the Dec. 9th incident. Police initially said Bridgewater suffered fatal injuries from an electrical shock. The coroner says the exact cause of the trauma is still under investigation.

Bridgewater’s death has been ruled an accident.

Columbus police say they shocked a wanted man with a Taser, early this morning after he tried to run away from being arrested.

An officer stopped a car near 17th Street and McClure Road at about 1:45 this morning and noticed that the driver appeared nervous. The driver allegedly gave a fake name to police and as he stepped out of the vehicle, he ran away.

Police took off after him and hit him with the Taser to end the chase.

22-year-old Nicholas M. Richey was arrested on four outstanding warrants, three of which were from Bartholomew County. He is also facing new preliminary charges of resisting law enforcement and false informing.

Police in two area cities are looking for your help to crack a stolen credit card case. Columbus and Franklin police have released photos of a man they say used a stolen credit card at a Franklin convenience store, but the card was actually stolen from Columbus.

If you have any information about the suspect you can contact Franklin Police Detective Ray Tice at 317-346-1143.