Edinburgh police are alerting parents about THC-laced candy that is showing up in the community.

The police department says that it confiscated more than six pounds of the candy during a recent raid on a home in the 500 block of East Park Drive. The drugs look similar to Nerds Candy and some are even labeled and packaged to appear like the actual candy.

Officers say that they recovered the candy along with THC vape cartridges and multiple bags of marijuana last week. Two people were arrested.

Photo courtesy of Edinburgh Police Department

Columbus police are reminding you of local ordinances restricting fireworks.

Police say that you can only set off consumer fireworks in specially designated discharge locations, on your own property or on someone else’s property, only if the owner has given permission.

Fireworks can only be used or in the possession of those 18 or older, unless a responsible adult is present.

The city of Columbus limits fireworks to certain hours around the Independence Day holiday. You can only shoot them off between 5 and two hours after sunset today and Saturday, and again on July 5th through the 9th. On the Fourth of July fireworks can be used between 10 in the morning and midnight.

Authorities ask that you be safe while setting off fireworks. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Annual Fireworks Report, fireworks sent about 10,000 people to the emergency room in 2019. Children younger than 15 accounted for 36 percent of the estimated fireworks-related injuries.

Indiana conservation officers will be out in force this weekend, looking for boaters under the influence.

DNR says that conservation officers will be on high alert for violators Friday through Sunday as part of Operation Dry Water. Although a year-long program, the operation will be in heightened effect this weekend.

In Indiana, it is illegal to operate a vessel on any body of water with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or higher.

Operation Dry Water is produced under a grant from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, administered by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Indiana Department of Transportation says plans are in place to begin work on highway bridges and structures in Brown County starting next week.

Contractors are scheduled to begin work on a superstructure replacement of the bridge over State Road 135 over Pleasant Valley Creek. Starting Tuesday, the highway will be restricted to one lane with a temporary traffic signal on State Road 46, near Van Buren Elementary School.

The signal is expected to remain in place through early October. Valley Branch Road will remain open during construction.

State Road 46 will also be restricted, starting Tuesday, as crews replace several small structures on the highway. The highway will be reduced to one lane with temporary signals at two locations. Those will be about three and four miles east of State Road 135.

INDOT reminds you to slow down, to use extra caution and to drive without distractions in all work zones. The work depends on the weather and schedules are subject to change.

Former Indiana first lady Pat Whitcomb died earlier this week in Seymour. She was 91.

After graduating from Ward Belmont College in Nashville, Tennessee, Pat joined the Fashion Board at L.S. Ayres. Modeling in the Tea Room, she caught the eye of young State Senator and future Governor Ed Whitcomb. After a three-month courtship they married.

After politics, Pat Whitcomb lived in Toluca Lake, California until the late 80s and she and the former governor divorced. Pat, her mother and brother operated a Honey Baked Hams franchise in Toluca Lake.

After moving back to Indiana, Whitcomb was active in the community.

She is survived by her children, grand children and great grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are pending with Winklepeck and Brock Funeral Home in Brownstown. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Community Diner of Seymour at the First Methodist Church in Seymour.

Gov. Eric J. Holcomb is directing flags at state facilities be flown at half-staff in her honor from now until sunset on Monday, July 12th. Holcomb also asks businesses and residents to lower their flags to half-staff.

Submitted photo

Her obituary:

Former Indiana First Lady Patricia (Pat) Whitcomb passed away on June 27, 2021, in Seymour at the age of 91. Born in St. Louis, Missouri to Nelson Frank Dolfuss and Alice (Pfeffer) Dolfuss, Pat loved her adopted home state of Indiana.

A graduate of Greenfield High School and Ward Belmont College in Nashville, Tennessee, Pat joined the Fashion Board at L.S. Ayres upon graduation. Modeling in the Tea Room, she caught the eye of young State Senator Ed Whitcomb. After a three-month courtship they married.

That began a journey that would take them to all 92 counties in Indiana several times and to all corners of the world. Eager to engage with people everywhere she went, Pat learned courtesy phrases in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Japanese, Tagalog and German. From their lovely home in Seymour, Indiana, Pat made everything she touched beautiful and meaningful.

Pat was active in her community. She regularly volunteered at the Thrift Shop, operated by her sorority, Psi Iota Zi. The same horticultural skills that she used to landscape the grounds of their home earned her the presidency of the All-Thumbs Garden Club. A leader of her daughters’ Brownie troop and as a Sunday School teacher, Pat was a role model of grace and intelligence.

The consummate partner, Pat helped Ed build his law career, his political base, and was responsible for getting his first book published. All the while, she managed the household of five children and their numerous pets with the help of her mother-in-law, Louise; Anna Habenicht, their live-in housekeeper; and Nancy Endicott Parker, a college student who supervised the children when Pat and Ed were on the campaign trail and serving the state as Governor and First Lady.

Life after politics took Pat into the business world with her mother and brother. They operated a successful Honey Baked Hams franchise in Toluca Lake, California. During that time, she and Ed divorced, and Pat lived in Toluca Lake until the late 1980’s. She then moved back to Indiana where she continued her passion for the arts, gardening and being with her children and grandchildren.

Pat is survived by her children, Trish Whitcomb (Russ Sipes), Ann (John) Guggenheim, Shelley Whitcomb, Alice Carfagno, and John (Terri) Whitcomb. Grandchildren include Patty Guggenheim, Michael Guggenheim, Amber (Ryan) Burton, Zach (Georgia) Branham, Russell (Donna) Sipes, Bonnie (Chris) Hovey and Tabitha Whitcomb; great grandchildren Arabelle, Lincoln, Charlotte, and Lola Burton, Sebastian Branham, and Emma James Cowden.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Nelson Frank Dolfuss, Jr., and her grandson, John Allen Whitcomb.

The family is grateful for the care Shelley Whitcomb gave their mother, and the support of home healthcare workers and hospice nurses. Funeral arrangements are pending with the Winklepeck and Brock Funeral Home, Brownstown, Indiana. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Community Diner of Seymour at the First Methodist Church in Seymour.

Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers salary and pension dispute with the County Council will continue, as council members wait to hear from the sheriff’s personal attorney.

At this week’s special council meeting, there was no resolution to the long running disagreement over how much the sheriff should be paid and how. In May, the sheriff’s department attorney Jeff Beck told the council that the sheriff had never signed a contract setting his salary last year. Instead, he took the state minimum which is 80 percent of the salary of the county prosecutor. But Myers also opted to supplement that revenue with a percentage of the collected tax warrants in the county. That supplemental money could take Myers up in pay to equal the county prosecutor, or about $159,000.

Council members have expressed frustration that Myers is earning more than he would have under a contract with the county. But Myers has been frustrated that the council will not agree to change a retirement rule that keeps him from receiving pension benefits that he has paid into. Beck said that without that change, Myers appears to have opted to receive higher pay than he would under the contract to make up for the lost pension.

However, Beck has pointed out that he represents the sheriff’s department and not the sheriff personally. Council members this week opted not to act on the sheriff’s contract, instead waiting until they hear from his personal attorney.

Myers did not appear before the council for the discussion.

A grill fire was put out and then reignited yesterday morning at Jill’s Downtown Diner in Columbus.

Columbus firefighters were called to the restaurant in the 400 block of Seventh Street at 10:57 a.m. Wednesday morning and were told by workers that a small fire had ignited on the grill.

The fire had been extinguished, but as firefighters inspected the grill area, the fire started again behind the grill top. They turned off the gas supply and used two extinguishers to fully put it out. Firefighters believe that an accumulation of grease contributed to the fire.

Damages were limited to the grill area and cooking hood system. No damage estimate is yet available. No one was injured and the incident was reported to the Bartholomew County Department of Health.

Columbus East High School Food Pantry will be distributing food from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday.

You can drive up to receive pre-bagged collections of food. There will be enough food on hand for about 200 families.

The Columbus East Food Pantry is available to the entire community and is not limited to Bartholomew Consolidated Schools families.

The pickup point is at door 31 in the west parking lot behind the school near the tennis courts.

There will also be a Columbus East food pantry distribution on Friday, July 23rd from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.