An iconic Columbus restaurant could be returning to operations as early as next month.

The Lucas Bros. Sandwich Shop, operated by the son of the most recent owner, plans a revival of the diner in Fair Oaks Mall. William Broaddus says that he still has the original grill used for years by his grandmother Donna Cannon, and his mother Cheri Perkins. He is even planning to use the same recipes for community favorite dishes such as the onion hamburgers and chili.

The restaurant operated in Columbus for more than 75 years, opening in the 1930s and closing in 2013 at its final location on State Street. Broaddus said he has a lease at Fair Oaks Mall though the end of the year. The restaurant will open in the space formerly occupied by Special Dogs & More in the mall.

He hopes to have the restaurant open again by early March. You can hear more from Broaddus about his plans tomorrow morning.

An effort to provide clothing for those in need will cap off that project with an event on Saturday at the America and Robie Anderson Community Center on McClure Road.

The Love Campaign clothing drive will hold a “Come Fill a Bag event” from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the eastside center, where those in need can come and pick up clothing for their whole family.

Cristina Villani, organizer of the project,  said she started the project after meeting a family in need through her job at a rock climbing gym. She said this is her first time organizing such an event.

After the project began to gain momentum, she said other organizations jumped in to help. Those included the United Way of Bartholomew County, Sans Souci and Ivy Republic at Ivy Tech Community College Columbus.

Ultimately, more than 500 pieces of clothing were donated, she said. Families will be able to take up to 10 items of gently used clothing on Saturday.

The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department staff are mourning the loss of one of their corrections officers.

Sgt. Grover Crouch has died unexpectedly. Sheriff Matt Myers posted on social media about the officer, calling Crouch one of the department’s best employees who was patient. kind and always had a smile on his face.

Crouch had been with the sheriff’s department for 9 years and was frequently seen at community events including the Ethnic Expo parade, the Community Easter Egg Hunt and the Youth Academy.

Funeral arrangements are not yet available.

(VERSION 1)

CANstruction is coming up this weekend. The annual event is a food gathering effort to help local food pantries. Eight teams will be building elaborate canned food sculptures in Fair Oaks Mall on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. Gary Parker with the Starving Artists team, says this will be their 10th year participating.

{02-15 Gary Parker Canstruction-1} :18 Q:the lighthouse

The plans for this year’s construction by the Starving Artists team are still under wraps. You can vote for your favorites by donating cans of food over the next week. After the voting is done, all of the structures will be dismantled and both the donations and the building materials will be donated to local food pantries.

You can hear more from Gary Parker with the Starving artist’s team, later this morning on AM Columbus.

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(VERSION 2)

CANstruction is coming up this weekend. The annual event is a food gathering effort to help local food pantries. Eight teams will be building elaborate canned food sculptures in Fair Oaks Mall on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. Gary Parker with the Starving Artists team, says this will be their 10th year participating.

{02-15 Gary Parker Canstruction-2} :28 Q: the banks

You can vote for your favorites by donating cans of food over the next week.

You can hear more from Gary Parker with the Starving artist’s team, later this morning on AM Columbus.

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(VERSION 3)

CANstruction is coming up this weekend. The annual event is a food gathering effort to help local food pantries. Eight teams will be building elaborate canned food sculptures in Fair Oaks Mall on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. Gary Parker with the Starving Artists team, says this will be their 10th year participating.

You can vote for your favorites by donating cans of food over the next week. The food used in the constructions and the food donated by those voting will all go to area food banks, including the Salvation Army, Love Chapel, the Hope COmmunity Center food pantry and, new this year, food pantries at Columbus North and Columbus East High Schools.

{02-15 Gary Parker Canstruction-3} :13 Q:

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(VERSION 4)

CANstruction is coming up this weekend. The annual event is a food gathering effort to help local food pantries. Eight teams will be building elaborate canned food sculptures in Fair Oaks Mall on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. Gary Parker with the Starving Artists team, says this will be their 10th year participating.

You can vote for your favorites by donating cans of food over the next week. Parker explains where the food that is donated and the food

{02-15 Gary Parker Canstruction-4} :14 Q: high schools.

CANstruction has donated more than 240,000 cans to local food banks sicne it started 10 years ago.

A community vigil will be held Sunday afternoon in memory of Xavier Scrogham, a teen who died in a motorcycle crash on a country road near Hope after a police chase last year.

Scrogham was driving his motorcycle on U.S. 31 north of Columbus in August of 2016, when he passed a patrol car driven by an off-duty, Nashville reserve officer. After fleeing from the officer, Scrogham crashed and died in eastern Bartholomew County not far from his home.

Scrogham’s mother, Carleen, says that the vigil Sunday is meant to raise questions she has about her son’s death and to bring awareness to problems in our judicial system.

One of her concerns is about the dashboard camera footage from the police cruiser. At first the video was believed to be corrupted, but Bartholomew County deputies had to serve a subpoena to get the video after it was recovered. It has the wrong date and time and is split in half, omitting the actual crash and the recovery of Scrogham’s body.

The driver of the police car pled guilty to false informing in August. As part of the plea deal, charges of reckless driving were dropped. He admitted to lying about the speed Scrogham was driving, when he began the chase. He was given a 180 day suspended sentence and placed on probation for 180 days.

The vigil will be at 2 p.m. Sunday on the steps of Columbus City Hall.

Scrogham said friends and family members will share their memories of her 18-year-old son.

The vigil is being organized by the local chapter of Black Lives Matter.

Tonight’s fireworks at Hope Heritage Days have been canceled due to the extreme heat.