Heritage Fund – The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County has a new scholarship fund to help students whose families are suffering during the current crisis.

Amy Laker, scholarship manager for Heritage Fund, said that they have pooled unused scholarship dollars to create the one-time emergency aid fund. The emergency fund must be for this fall’s semester and students must explains how their family is facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If awarded to an applicant, the scholarship funds will go directly to the school on the student’s behalf.

The deadline to apply is June 1st. You can get more information at heritagefundbc.org.

Seymour police arrested a driver after he led them on a more than 25-mile chase through the city at speeds of up to 70 mph Monday morning.

Officers were called to the 300 block of Parkland Avenue at around 2 a.m. yesterday morning about a suspicious vehicle seen driving in the area. Officers recognized the driver from previous run-ins as 23-year-old Gavin M. Dutton and tried to pull him over because he didn’t have a license, but Dutton sped away. During the 26-mile and 28-minute chase he disregarded stop signs, drove through properties and went the wrong way against oncoming traffic. Eventually he drove over a curb deflating a tire and drove over police stop sticks near East Brown Street, taking out the remaining three tires. After striking a road sign, the vehicle eventually came to a stop in the 600 block of South O’Brien Street.

Dutton is facing preliminary charges of possession of methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, resisting  law enforcement with a vehicle, reckless driving, criminal mischief, criminal recklessness and being an operator never licensed.

Indiana State Police are looking for a police impersonator operating near the Shelby/Marion County line.

Troopers from the Indianapolis District received a report from a citizen who was pulled over for a traffic violation last week by a man driving a black and tan Dodge Charger equipped with a blue and red light bar. The man identified himself as a state trooper and took the driver’s license and registration but then left with the documents.

The suspect is a black man between 5-8 and six feet tall with a buzzed haircut and mustache. He wore a dark blue police uniform with a red tie, but had no gunbelt, firearm or hat.

If you have any information you can call Crime Stoppers at 317-232-TIPS. That is 317-232-8477

The Bartholomew County Highway Department says that County Road 100W will be closed to all traffic between 650S and 800S, starting  this morning and running through 4 Tuesday.

The road will be completely closed and you should avoid the area.

A Madison man is under arrest again, hours after he left jail, this time accused of stealing a State Police vehicle from a trooper’s home in Jefferson County.

State police say that the trooper was working  on equipment in the the truck at his home in rural Jefferson County at about 10:30 Friday morning, when Vincent L. Wiefling walked up and took off in the vehicle, while the trooper was distracted. Wiefling had just been released from the jail hours before. He crashed the vehicle about two miles away and hid in the woods, where police found him.

He is facing preliminary charges of Auto Theft, Resisting Law Enforcement, Criminal Trespass, Operating While Intoxicated, Unlawful Entry of a Motor Vehicle, and Leaving the Scene of an Accident.

Columbus firefighters battled a garage fire on the east side of Columbus Saturday morning.

Firefighters were called to the 2200 block of McKinley Avenue at 6:31 a.m. Saturday morning and found a detached garage on fire. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze which damaged the garage, a nearby vehicle and a wood-splitting device, causing about $4,000 in damage.

No one was injured and the fire remains under investigation.

Jennings County deputies arrested an armed and wanted man last week after they found him hiding under a porch in Country Squire Lakes.

The sheriff’s department reports they were told that 20-year-old Jerimiah Blaze Littrell of North Vernon was at a home in the subdivision on Thursday. He was wanted on a warrant for domestic battery.

The Jennings County SWAT team was called out on Thursday and Littrell allegedly ran away just before deputies arrived. He was found under a wooden porch and arrested on preliminary charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of a firearm by a domestic batterer and carrying a handgun without a license.