Brown County State Park will be dedicating a mountain bike trail on Friday morning. The park will be celebrating the addition of Weed Patch Trail, a 2.4 mile mountain bike trail constructed in partnership with the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association.
Parks officials say Weed Patch Trail will provide an integral connection between the campground, the Limekiln Trail and the rest of Brown County’s existing 36-mile mountain bike trail system. Funding for the project includes a Next Level Trails grant to HMBA, who is providing the required match dollars. The grant includes Weed Patch and two other new mountain bike trails in the park, which will total 7.5 miles of new trail by 2021.
Mountain bike trails in Brown County State Park are multi-use and are open to hiking as well as cycling.
Local gamers will be helping to raise money and toys for the Columbus Fireman’s Cheer Fund, with a 24-hour board-game-a-thon in downtown Columbus this weekend.
Organizer Tyson O’Haver explains that the event runs from 6 p.m. Friday evening to 6 p.m. on Saturday evening at Hotel Indigo.
This is the second annual board-game-a-thon. Last year’s event raised $1,200 and provided a pickup’s truck worth of toys for the Cheer Fund.
Participants will be able to play board games, card games, role-playing games and other gaming activities from a large game library. All ages are welcome to play, he said.
There will also be drawings for door prizes of donated games and a silent auction. Food is being donated for Friday and Saturday evening meals.
The cost to participate is $20 and the donation of a new toy or game.
Haley J. Burton. Photo courtesy of Columbus Police Department.
A Columbus woman is facing drug-related charges after being stopped for driving without a license Wednesday evening.
Officers noticed 21-year-old Haley J. Burton driving near 8th Street and Hutchens Avenue at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday evening, and recognized that she had never been issued a license. After she stopped her vehicle, a police dog alerted to the smell of narcotics inside. A search revealed methamphetamine in the center console of the vehicle.
Burton was arrested on preliminary drug possession charges as well as operating a vehicle without ever receiving a license.
A pig-farming facility in Jackson County has been cleared of accusations made in an activist’s video.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a video last month purportedly shot at East Fork Farms in Brownstown. The next day, an investigation by Indiana State Police was opened and a veterinarian along with investigators inspected the facility finding no violations. Further, parts of the video appeared to be staged and some scenes were shot at other locations.
An Indiana Board of Health veterinarian’s inspection also did not reveal any wrongdoing, although the vets did provide some suggestions for improvements.
After State Police finished their investigation, it was passed to Jackson County Prosecutor Jeff Chalfant who decided not to file any charges in the case.
The play, “The Well House” is returning to Hope tonight and tomorrow with dinner shows at Willow Leaves of Hope on the north side of the town square.
Performances last year were a big success for the locally produced screenplay, where the town itself is part of the setting.
Jessica Brown of Hope is an actress in the play.
The book by Mark Van Voorhis and Ed Kugler was adapted for the stage by retired Hope Elementary School Teacher David Webster.
Brown says Webster was her fifth grade teacher and his involvement drew her to the play.
The play is the story of two young people who meet at IU and are separated by the Vietnam War. The young Marine in the story grows up in the town of Hope in a farm family.
Brown explains the book’s and play’s ties to Hope.
Performances are today and Friday with the doors opening at 5:30 p.m.; dinner at 6 p.m. and the play at 7 p.m.
Tickets for the dinner and show are $26 per person. You can get more information or make reservations, call 812-546-0640.
The parent company of White River Broadcasting is selling its Ohio-based newspaper division.
Findlay Publishing Co. announced today that it is selling the Ohio-based Findlay Courier and Fostoria Review-Times newspapers to Ogden Newspapers, effective at the end of November.
White River Broadcasting and a sister broadcasting company will continue on under the ownership of the Findlay Publishing Co. The company will continue to operate News Talk 1010 WCSI and 98.1 FM, Indiana Country 101.5 WKKG, 106.1 The River and WIN 104.9, in Columbus as well as three radio stations in Ohio under the Blanchard River Broadcasting banner.
The Heminger family has owned the Courier for five generations.
Findlay Publishing purchased WCSI, the first of its Columbus radio stations in 1947.
As the holidays draw near, you may want to think about helping out those who less fortunate. “Toys For Tots” is one of those options. Nate West is a volunteer for the program, put on by the Marine Corp. Reserves. He says that last year, Toys For Tots help more than 1,600 children in Bartholomew and Jennings counties.
West adds that the toy drive began in earnest just a few weeks ago.
West says there are more than 40 white boxes labeled “Toys for Tots” in Bartholomew and Jennings counties. You can drop off your donation and volunteers will gather them and make sure they are delivered to a child in need.
If you are a Bartholomew County resident with a child up to age 18, you can request assistance by calling Bartholomew County United Way at 812-375-2216. In Jennings County, visit ToysForTots.org.
Contractors will be making two traffic switches this week as part of the INDOT construction project on Interstate 65 between Columbus and Seymour.
Officials say that southbound traffic will be shifted back to the southbound side on Friday night in an area between Seymour and Jonesville Road. On Saturday night, northbound traffic will be switched back to the northbound lanes in an area between Jonesville Road and Walesboro.
This is part of the winter shutdown configuration, and will restore traffic back to its normal lanes throughout the entire project.
When completed, the Interstate 65 project will expand the highway to three lanes in each direction between Columbus and Seymour.
The first conceptual designs for a new facility at the site of Fair Oaks Mall were unveiled Tuesday night. WRB photo
Members of the public got their first look at the possible future of the Fair Oaks Mall property last night.
Consultants for the city’s oversight board, the Fair Oaks Mall Community Development Corp., made a presentation last night of their first conceptual ideas for a new joint use of the building to be shared by the city parks and recreation department, Columbus Regional Health and commercial establishments.
The proposed uses for the building were taken from the public input at two previous meetings.
Under the preliminary plans, the revamped building would include a fieldhouse for normally outdoor sports, a revamped parking layout and access road, an outdoor greenspace surrounding a grand entrance into the new facility. And per public input, there would be an abundance of pickle ball courts. However, the consultants cautioned that the building improvements would have to be done in phases and that until costs and architectural designs can be worked out, their suggestions were necessarily speculative at this point.
Under the suggested layout, the fieldhouse would be on the north side of the building closest to National Road, while the large entrance would be off of 25th Street where the former JC Penney store now sits.
There was good news for those concerned about the expense. The consultants said that a large portion of the building would be reusable in some form, because the layout of internal supports would largely allow for the spaces needed in the future revamped building. Some uses, such as a swimming pool or the fieldhouse, would need reconstruction though.
Lindsey Peckinpaugh of architectural firm Perkins & Will outlined the internal layout suggestions, while Eric Lucas of MKSK landscape architects, presented the outside and streetscape improvements.
The number of overdose deaths in Bartholomew County are an the rise again. County Coroner Clayton Nolting said we have already passed last year’s total with two more cases pending and a month and a half left in the year.
Nolting went before the Bartholomew County Council last night to ask for more money for his office to make it through the year.
Nolting says there have been 18 overdose deaths, with two more pending so far this year. In all of last year, there were 17 overdose deaths in the county.
Additionally, there have been five investigations into the sudden death of infants this year.
Council voted 6-0 to approve the $23,000 additional appropriation from the county’s general fund.
