An early-morning traffic stop on U.S. 31 near Taylorsville Sunday led to a woman’s arrest on drug and weapons charges.

A Bartholomew County deputy saw a vehicle commit a traffic violation at just before 4 a.m. that morning near Bear Lane. After the stop, the deputy found that the driver, 33-year-old Chasity Williams of Edinburgh had a suspended driver’s license.

Police dog Bolt alerted to the odor of narcotics in the vehicle and a search allegedly revealed methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia and a loaded handgun.

Williams is facing preliminary charges of carrying a handgun without a license, and possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

Live on the Plaza will take to the Bartholomew County Public Library’s patio on Friday.

This year’s free show will feature Time for Three, a trio that performs with two violins and a double bass. They cover everything from classical music to their own mashups including bluegrass, The Beatles, Kanye West and Taylor Swift.

Live on the Plaza is organized by the Columbus Area Arts Council and sponsored by the Columbus Area Visitors Center. The show starts at 7 p.m. on the library plaza on Fifth Street downtown and you should bring a lawn chair.

You can get more information about this or any Columbus Area Arts Council event at artsincolumbus.org.

The Jennings County Fair is off to an earlier start this year, with events starting today.

Tonight’s grandstand event is the KTPA Sanctioned truck and tractor pull starting at 7 p.m.. The midway opens Tuesday and that is Family Bargain Night on the midway.

The baby pageant will be Wednesday at Sand Creek Elementary and the grandstands will have KOI Mud Racing on Wednesday night starting at 7 p.m. Rusty Bladen will be the featured act at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

The fair wraps up on Saturday with a first-ever BBQ contest that day.

You can get more information at the Jennings County Fair Facebook page.

A 38-year-old Vallonia man is accused of having sexual contact with a girl over a two-year span when she 14 to 16 years old.

The Indiana State Police are reporting that Derrick G. Williams was arrested on Friday, a day after troopers started working on the case. The allegations were passed on to the state police by the Jackson County Department of Child Services and the Child Advocacy Center in Dillsboro on Wednesday.

Williams is facing felony charges of sexual misconduct with a minor, child seduction, and child solicitation.

Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County is kicking off a new campaign to raise $200,000 for the Community Fund.

They are calling it “The 100 Campaign” and they are searching for 100 donors willing to give $1,000 or more. Those 100 donations will be combined with 10 “lead donors” who have pledged to match contributions up to $100,000.

Members of The 100 will be invited back for a community event set for 20 years from now, to show the power of compound interest. Heritage Fund estimates that $200,000 donated back in 1976, when Heritage Fund started, would have grown to more than $2 million today.

Money going to The Community Fund is invested and grants are given out of annual returns to address community needs. Community Fund grants have funded projects such as rebuilding The Commons, pre-K initiatives, opioid abuse prevention and  support to local nonprofit agencies.

For more information, you can call 812-376-7772 or go online to heritagefundbc.org.

The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department is warning of a jury duty scam going on in the area that is trying to fool you by using the name of a real deputy.

The department reports that a person pretending to be Chief Deputy Chris Lane is calling and threatening to arrest you if you haven’t paid a fine for missing jury duty. None of that is true and officials are warning that people might be pulled into the scam because it sounds so official. they believe the scammers are pulling deputies’ names off of the web.

If you get one of these calls you are asked to contact Detective Terry Holderness at 812-565-5927

Four Columbus residents were arrested on a number of charges after a Thursday night traffic stop. Judy Jackson, spokeswoman for the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, says that at approximately 10:07 p.m., Deputy Adam Warner was southbound on US 31 when he observed the license tag on the vehicle in front of him as one reported stolen by the Columbus Police Department.

As the car turned onto West Tellman Road, Deputy Warner observed an occupant throw something from the vehicle which was later recovered and identified as marijuana. After additional units arrived, a traffic stop was initiated and other drugs and drug-related items were allegedly found. It was also determined that the registration renewal sticker affixed to the stolen license plate had also been stolen from another vehicle.

Arrested were:

Marlon Cowan, Jr, 42 – preliminary charges of: Two Counts of

Theft/Receiving Stolen Property, Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Paraphernalia, Obstruction of Justice and Driving While Suspended with a Prior Conviction

Cowan has since been released.

Joshua Virgil Dewey, 36 – preliminary charges of: Possession of Methamphetamine and Possession of Paraphernalia

Dewey has since been released.

Anthony Keith Roberts, 25 – preliminary charges of: Possession of Paraphernalia, Felony Warrant out of Bartholomew County for a Probation Violation on an original charge of Theft – Level 6 Felony.

Roberts remains in jail without bond.
Rachel Cardoso-Nelson, 29 – preliminary charge of: Possession of Paraphernalia

She remains in BCJ in lieu of $2,500 bond.

Authorities say that all of the recovered stolen property was returned to the rightful owners.

The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department has two new deputies. Sheriff Matt Myers recently administered oaths to Dylan Prather and Frank Munoz-Jaime.

Deputy Prather is a native of Bartholomew County and lives in Columbus. He is a 2014 graduate of Columbus North High School and a graduate of IUPUC with degrees in Business Administration and Criminal Justice.

Deputy Munoz-Jaime is a native of Seymour, a graduate of Ball State University and a member of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserves.

“These young men will be responsible for the enforcement of state and local laws relating to public safety and welfare. They must exercise independent judgment in dealing with dangerous or

unusual situations and often work under stressful, high-risk conditions,” said Sheriff Myers.

The Hope Town Square will be a good place for BBQ fans this weekend. Today and tomorrow is Smoke on the Square, an annual fundraiser for the Community Center of Hope.

While 15 teams will be competing for trophies and other prize money, there will also be plenty of food for BBQ fans to try, says Jeff Yarnell, organizer of the event.

Food will be available to purchase including pork shoulders, packer briskets, chicken breasts and hot dogs. Those will be sold both individually and as part of meals including sides and a drink.

You can also check on the competing teams and see the different styles of smokers and ingredients, Yarnell said.  Those teams are competing for prize money and trophies.

The one-bite challenge is new this year. Teams will have an hour to compete for judges, by cooking a surprise meat chosen secretly by organizers.

Saturday afternoon will include voting on the People’s Choice award, where participants can sample all of the teams BBQ. That starts at about 4 p.m.

Smoke on the Square runs from 4 to 9 p.m. today and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, or until food runs out.

City officials and residents gathered in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood Thursday evening to remember the 10th anniversary of the June 2008 flood.

Judge Jim Worton was Columbus police chief during the 2008 flooding. He said that the day is etched into his memory.

Police were cut off by water over roadways and overwhelmed with calls for assistance, Worton recalls.  He said as Columbus Regional Hospital flooded, there were desperate requests to help evacuate the patients, but the police department had no officers to send.

Emma Edwards was a kindergartner when the flood of 2008 hit and a second grader at CSA Lincoln Elementary when her class was approached with a project — to try to figure out what to do with the green space left behind in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood. That’s after 48 destroyed homes were bought out in a FEMA funded project, the land cleared and the property turned over to the city.

Edwards said that students settled quickly on the idea of a park. But they they went about the approval process, including gathering input from the community.

Going through the approval process for the park meant meeting with city officials, who were pretty easy when it came to approvals. But then came approvals from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

That idea turned into the Puddles to Park orchard where 10 new serviceberry trees were planted in the park yesterday in recognition of the anniversary.

Now a sophomore at CSA New Tech High School, she said that she is glad to see the park moving to its next phase — the creation of a pollinator park and other amenities.