Area law-enforcement agencies were among these receiving new RADAR and LIDAR speed enforcement devices. The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute is distributing 1,000 new devices among 162 state and local police agencies. The units are being purchased with $1.6 million in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration funds.

Dash-mounted RADAR systems are used while patrol vehicles are moving or stopped, and can measure traffic speeds in the same and opposing directions. Hand-held LIDAR devices help officers spot speeding drivers through several lanes of traffic or obstructions such as trees and bushes.

Recipients include:

– Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Dept.: 10 RADAR, 1 LIDAR
– Brown County Sheriff’s Dept.: 5 RADAR, 1 LIDAR
– Decatur County Sheriff’s Dept.: 4 RADAR, 1 LIDAR
– Franklin Police Dept.: 8 RADAR, 1 LIDAR
– Greensburg Police Dept.: 4 RADAR, 1 LIDAR
– Greenwood Police Dept.: 10 RADAR, 1 LIDAR
– Jennings County Sheriff’s Dept.: 5 RADAR, 1 LIDAR
– Johnson County Sheriff’s Dept.: 2 RADAR, 1 LIDAR
– Nashville Police Dept.: 5 RADAR, 1 LIDAR
– Seymour Police Dept. 5 RADAR , 1 LIDAR
– Shelby County Sheriff’s Dept.: 5 RADAR, 1 LIDAR

Federal grants administered by ICJI’s Traffic Safety Division fund training, equipment and overtime enforcement law-enforcement costs.

Columbus Parks and Rec will have additional storage space after action taken by the Board of Public Works and Safety. Jamie Brinegar, the city’s director of finance, explains that the site at 1360 Jackson Street is attractive to the parks department.

The board voted unanimously on Tuesday to transfer ownership of the property from Parks and Rec to the city.

The Columbus Parks Board voted unanimously last week to purchase the site for $205,000. The property is owned by Norma Lienhoop, aunt of Mayor Jim Lienhoop. The mayor has recused himself from all business related to the proposed purchase.

The former Machinery Moving site was found to have environmental contamination during the appraisal process. However, local officials expressed confidence that the issue can be remedied at little expense locally. Pam Harrell, director of business services for Columbus Parks and Rec, explained during the July 24th meeting of the parks board that there is a solution to the cleanup issue.

Once the property is in the city’s name, discussions with Indiana Brownfields can move forward.

The Bartholomew County Health Department and Indiana State Department of Health are joining to offer free Hepatitis A vaccinations at a pair of upcoming events. On Thursday, Aug 1st, these vaccinations will be offered from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Clarity Testing Clinic, located at 1950 Doctor’s Park Drive, Suite B.

Hepatitis A vaccinations are also available the same day from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Clarity Pregnancy Clinic, located at 2420 East. Seventh Street.

Health officials say those most at risk include:

– The homeless
– Those who have recently been in jail
– Those who use illicit drugs
– Those who have had close contact with an infected person

Free HIV testing and Hepatitis C testing will also be offered.

If you see a funnel cloud this afternoon, don’t be alarmed.

Bartholomew County Emergency Management says that a different type of funnel cloud forms when weather conditions are similar to those of today. These are called cold air funnels and are not as violent as those associated with warm and humid conditions.

Cold air funnels are associated with thunderstorms or showers that form in deep, cold core, large-scale low pressure systems. Officials say these funnel clouds normally protrude a few hundred feet downward from the parent clouds, rotate and last only a few minutes
before dissipating.

In rare cases when their circulations does reach the ground, cold air funnels cause only minor damage. Bartholomew County EMA says that warnings will be issued if any of them touch the ground.

EMA officials say that tornado sirens were activated today as a result of multiple reports from first responders of a funnel cloud being spotted north of the airport toward the Taylorsville area. Protocol for dispatch also stipulates that all sirens are sounded in such an event. Officials say an Everbridge alert did not go out with the activation, though one should have. They are investigating why that didn’t happen.

Exhibit Columbus will soon be unveiling this year’s architecture and design installations complementing the city’s most famous landmarks. This is the second time for the installations in and around downtown Columbus, which are created every other year by designers and architects from around the world.

The opening weekend starts on Friday Aug. 23rd with public conversations talking to those creators about their work. Anne Surak, artistic director for Exhibit Columbus, explains.

Those will start at 4 p.m. Friday at North Christian Church and will pick up again on Saturday morning at First Christian Church.

Surak said the goal is to have the public engage with the designers and how they approached the creative process relating to Columbus’s world-famous architecture.

There will also be a ticketed party in Mill Race Park on the evening of Saturday, Aug. 24th to celebrate the opening of the installations. You can get more information and find links to tickets at exhibitcolumbus.org.

A statewide Silver Alert has been issued for a missing Lawrence County man.

The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the disappearance of 48-year-old Kyle D. Bex. Bex is  missing from Williams, Indiana and was last seen at 7 p.m. Monday. He is believed to be in extreme danger and may require medical assistance.

Bex is  6 feet tall, 200 pounds with  brown hair with blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and brown pants. He has a scar on top of his head.

If you have any information on Kyle D. Bex, you should contact the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department at 812-277-2002 or call 911.

Parents in Flat Rock-Hawcreek Schools will have an opportunity to meet the district’s school resources officer on Monday.

Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Pendleton will be available from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Monday at the Hope Elementary School open house.

Pendleton is an 11-year department veteran.

A driver fleeing police in a stolen vehicle led to a crash that shut down Interstate 65 for about five hours Monday afternoon in Scott County.

Indiana State Police are reporting that a witness called in a vehicle weaving in and out of traffic on southbound Interstate 65 in Jackson County at about 4:51 p.m. yesterday afternoon.  A check of the license plate number revealed that the car had been reported stolen out of Illinois.

A Crothersville police officer began the chase near the Jackson/Scott County line and was soon assisted by troopers and Jackson County deputies as speeds reached 140 mph. The car crashed into a semi and another car near Scottsburg.

All three of the people in the stolen car were juveniles from Illinois. After the crash, two ran from the scene while a third was trapped in the wreckage and had to be rescued by emergency workers. That occupant was flown by air ambulance to the University of Louisville hospital with serious injuries.

The other two were caught soon afterwards, treated for minor injuries and then taken to the Clark County Youth Detention Center.

The driver of the second car was treated for injuries at the Louisville hospital and then released, while the driver of the semi refused treatment.

The interstate was shut down until about 10 p.m. last night for cleanup of the crash scene and investigation.

A former Bartholomew County Sheriff’s reserve deputy accused of child molesting will appear in court for a change of plea hearing in December.

Our news-gathering partners at “The Republic” are reporting that 73-year-old Larry Scott, of Hope, appeared in court for an initial change of plea hearing on Monday. The paper says the request for a continuance was approved by Bartholomew Superior Court 1 Judge James Worton. The new change of plea hearing is set for December 16.

Scott worked security at Ceraland. He was arrested in July of 2018 on charges of Child Molestation, Possession of Child Pornography and Performing Sexual Conduct in the Presence of a Minor.

For more on this story, go to therepublic.com.

A Hartsville man is behind bars on child molestation and gun charges.

The Decatur County Sheriff’s Department says that deputies picked up 60-year-old Gary Guenthenspberger at 8:49 a.m. Saturday on an outstanding warrant for Child Molesting, a Level 4 Felony. When police encountered Guenthenspberger, they say they found him with a gun. He is facing a new charge of Gun Possession by a Serious Violent Felon.

Details of Guenthenspberger’s crime have not been released, as the investigation is ongoing.