Monthly Archives: January 2020

Hope museum hosting World War I sailor’s memories

The Yellow Trail Museum in Hope is hosting the next of its Sunday Social events this weekend.

This month’s session will feature retired teacher and Bartholomew County Historical Society volunteer Candy Carr, who will present letters written home from World War I veteran Don Norton of Nortonsburg.

The Sunday Social is at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the museum on the northwest corner of the Hope Town Square.

Friendly dog helps ease the stress for Northside students

Mya is a facility dog at Northside Middle School in Columbus. WRB photo

Northside Middle School students have a furry friend who is always happy to help them relieve their stress.

The Bartholomew Consolidated School Board was introduced to Mya at its meeting this week, a trained therapy dog brought into the school daily by school nurse Beth Ballard.

Mya has been trained in stress relief techniques including drawing kids attention with a friendly paw, or pressing her head against a child’s lap.

Sometimes the children just want a chance to talk to Mya, Ballard said.

Mya has been coming to school since 2017.

Mya has also helped ease children’s minds when they need to see the nurse for a medical problem, Ballard said.

Mya has been coming to school since 2017. The school sends out a parental permission form each year to ensure that students are allowed to accept the assistance from Mya. School principal Amy Dixon says that only a handful of families turn down permission and that is largely due to allergies.

Beth Ballard. Photo courtesy of BCSC

C4 program hosts open house tonight at Columbus North

The Columbus Area Career Connection will be introducing its programs and courses to potential students and their families at an open house tonight.

C4 provides career and technical education to students in Bartholomew, Brown, Jackson, and Decatur counties and Edinburgh.

C4 teaches classes in nursing, cosmetology, welding, precision machining, criminal justice, engineering, graphic arts, electronics and education.

Students who will be in high school next school year are invited to stop by.

The open house will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. tonight at the C4 facilities at Columbus North High School.

Bartholomew County sees rise in overdose deaths

The number of drug overdose deaths in Bartholomew County rose last year.

Bartholomew County had 23 drug overdose deaths, up from 17 in 2018, according to Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting. He released the 2019 figures yesterday.

Of the 23 overdose deaths, 14 involved an opiod of some sort, including heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone or other derivatives and of those 8 specifically involved fentanyl and three involved heroin. Stimulants including methamphetamine were part of the cause of death in 13 of the cases last year.

Nolting said that 11 of the overdose deaths involved multiple substances. In those cases it is normally very difficult to determine which drug actually caused the death, unless one in particular has an extremely high level.

The overdose deaths were still down substantially from the recent high in 2017, where there were 30 overdose deaths in the county.

Nolting said he was concerned about other trends in the county, including suicides and infant deaths. We will have more from the coroner’s office tomorrow.

Shotgun blast leads to arrest of Columbus man

Brian A. Hoover. Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Sheriffs Department.

A Columbus man is accused of firing a shotgun at a vehicle Monday evening.

Bartholomew County deputies were called to a home in the 5800 block of North County Road 330W at about 8:23 p.m. They were told that a suspect, 44-year-old Brian A. Hoover, fired the weapon at the vehicle of a person leaving the home. Hoover then fled the area, police say.

With the assistance of a police dog and drone deployed by the Columbus Fire Department, Hoover was located and taken into custody.

He is facing a preliminary charge of criminal recklessness with a firearm.

BCSC and Duke Energy partnerships nears $100k donation mark

BCSC Superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts accepts a check from Duke Energy’s Chip Orben at Monday night’s school board meeting at Northside Middle School.

Duke Energy is making a $7,500 donation to Bartholomew Consolidated Schools to improve science, technology, engineering and math learning in the school district.

Chip Orben with Duke presented an over-sized check to the school district at last night’s school board meeting.

Orben says that this makes just under $100,000 thousand dollars in STEM donations from the energy company’s foundation to BCSC since 2015.

 

Still time for nominations for BCSC’s Teacher of the Year

Bartholomew Consolidated Schools are accepting nominations for “Teacher of the Year” through the end of the week.

Students, staff, friends and families are asked to nominate a teacher from a BCSC school that you would like to recognize. Nominations are open through Friday, Jan 31st. Each school will select one nominee as their school Teacher of the Year. School nominee recognition will take place at the school board meeting on March 2nd.

Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Teresa Heiny said the local teacher of the year will be able to compete at the state level.

“We will be helping our candidate create a portfolio to submit to the state for this award,” she said. “We would appreciate the community’s assistance in determining a teacher to represent our district at the state level. This nomination is the first step in this process.”

For more information, including nomination forms, visit bit.ly/2G8ygF7.

Flu impacts hospital visitation policy at Schneck

The flu is impacting visitation at a Seymour hospital. Schneck Medical Center has implemented visitor restrictions, effective Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 7 a.m., to help protect patients, staff, and the community from the spread of influenza.

Schneck officials say that no more than three visitors may be admitted to a patient’s room at one time. Visitors must include immediate family and significant others as identified by the patient. Visitors must also be at least 18 years-old.

Anyone with the following symptoms is asked to refrain from visiting patients:
• Fever and/or chills
• Sore throat
• Muscle aches
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Cough
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Vomiting and/or diarrhea

All visitors must wash their hands with soap and water, or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer, before and after visiting a patient. Hand sanitizer can be found throughout the hospital as well as outside each patient’s room.

“We’ve seen an increase in the number of patients with flu-like symptoms in the last week prompting us to implement visitor restrictions,” said Stacy East, Infection Preventionist at Schneck. East says, “If you are experiencing flu-like symptoms, please seek medical attention. If you are sick and are not getting better, contact your healthcare provider for further treatment.”

For more information on how to protect you and your family, visit cdc.gov/flu.

Woman accused of mailing drugs to her ex in punishment scheme

Lafern Gibson. Photo courtesy of Columbus Police Department.

A Columbus woman is being accused of anonymously mailing prescription drugs to her ex-husband’s workplace, in a scheme to get him in trouble.

The Bartholomew County Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team arrested 58-year-old Lafern K. Gibson Friday afternoon after a four month investigation into the mailings.

Police say that Gibson began mailing the drugs to her ex because she was upset that he had a new girlfriend. After starting the mailings, she then contacted the JNET squad to report that he was having drugs shipped to his workplace. The packages had no return labels.

Local officials worked with the Post Office to gather video of Gibson mailing four of the packages from the Columbus post office.

She was arrested on preliminary charges of dealing in a schedule IV drug.

The Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team, a combined unit of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office, the Columbus Police Department and the Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s Office. It targets the manufacturing and abuse of dangerous drugs in Columbus and Bartholomew County.

Jennings SWAT team makes drug arrests after traffic stop

Photo courtesy of Jennings County Sheriff’s Department.

Six people were arrested on methamphetamine related charges in Jennings County after an investigation that started with a traffic stop for an expired registration.

The Jennings Sheriff’s Department is reporting that a deputy stopped a vehicle near County Road 800N and County Road 200E in Sand Creek Township at about 6:25 Friday evening. The deputy became suspicious that illegal drug activity was going on and called for the department’s police dog, Vampir, who alerted to the smell of narcotics in the vehicle.

A search revealed more than an ounce of Methamphetamine, Fentanyl and various items of drug paraphernalia. The driver, 51-year-old Rodney Mead, and passenger, 42-year-old Heather Cheesebrew, both of North Vernon, were arrested on charges including dealing methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine (10 or more Grams), possession of a syringe, possession of a narcotic drug, maintaining a common nuisance, possession of paraphernalia, theft, and possession of a controlled substance.

Mead is also being charged with driving while suspended with a prior offense.

The traffic stop led to a search warrant being served at a Spencer Township home by the SWAT team at 3:24 a.m. Saturday morning. Deputies discovered methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia at the home as well as a box trailer that had been reported stolen from a North Vernon business in November.

Two North Vernon residents, 23-year-old Michael Redkey and 49-year-old Richard Jackson, and two Seymour residents. 39-year-old Joel Shands and 43-year-old Tony Taylor, were arrested at the home on possession charges for the methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, as well as maintaining a common nuisance.

Jackson was also wanted on an outstanding warrant.