Saturday will be National Prescription Drug Takeback Day organized by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in partnership with local organizations including the Indiana State Police and North Vernon Fire Department.

Sites will be set up to take expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs, where they will be properly disposed of. This program is for liquid and pill medications. Vaping pens without batteries and vaping cartridges will also be taken. Needles, new or used, will not be accepted for disposal. This service is free and anonymous with no questions asked.

Medications may be dropped off between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday at most Indiana State Police Posts, including the Versailles and Bloomington posts, In Jennings County, there will be a drop off site at the North Vernon Fire Department on Madison Avenue.

You can get more information or find a nearby drug takeback site at https://www.dea.gov/takebackday

INDOT says that you will see restrictions on Interstate 65 in Jackson and Scott counties starting next week as crews start preparing for work resurfacing two bridges.

According to the agency, work will be going on nightly, from 9 at night until 6 in the morning, Mondays through Saturdays at two locations. The first zone will be for the Mutton Creek Bridge, between Uniontown and Seymour and the second on the Muscatatuck River Bridge between Austin and Crothersville. You can expect to see lanes closing, reduced speeds and width restrictions during the work.

The preliminary work will include stregthening shoulders and installing lane crossovers and that work is expected to be finished by June. The bridge resurfacing will start in July.

INDOT asks that you slow down, drive without distractions and be alert to worker safety in all work zones.

Tickets are now on sale for Talking Tombstones, a fundraiser for the Bartholomew County Historical Society coming up on May 4th.

The event will take place at the historic Columbus city cemetery south of Donner Park and will feature actors taking on the roles of famous residents of the past who are buried in the cemetery. It will start at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 4th with check in at 19th Street and parking available between Donner Center and the Cemetery.

Tickets are $15. You can get them through Eventbrite (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/talking-tombstones-2023-tickets-619388035287), at the Bartholomew County Historical Society museum on Third Street or at the event.

For more information you can call the historical society at 812-372-3541.

A pet food pantry distribution is set for Thursday afternoon at the Columbus Municipal Airport.

Friends of Columbus Animal Care Services will be holding their Furry Friends Food Bank giveaway from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon. The pet food will be distributed in the airport parking lot at 4770 Ray Boll Boulevard in front of the Charlie 119 cargo plane display.

The purpose of the pantry is to assist local community members in need to keep their pets in their homes and out of area shelters. If you take part you should stay in your vehicle and the food will be brought to you.

Friends of Columbus Animal Care Services is the non-profit partner of the city-operated Columbus Animal Care Services.

The event will continue even if it is raining, but in the event of active thunder and lightning, it will be canceled.

A Hope man is facing charges for illegally carrying a handgun after he was originally accused of shoplifting.

According to the Columbus Police Department, officers were called to the east side Walmart store at about 3 p.m. Friday about a shoplifting suspect. Store security pointed out 40-year-old Randall Burton of Hope, who was seen using a knife to cut open packaging and then putting items in his pants pockets.

Police confronted Burton, recovering the knife as well as a set of headphones. But they also found he had a loaded handgun in his possession. Police discovered that Burton was not allowed to possess a firearm due to previous felony convictions.

He was arrested on preliminary charges of possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, resisting law enforcement and theft.

The Columbus Police Department is nearing the end of a hiring process meant to encourage officers from other communities to come here to serve.

According to the police department, the deadline to apply for the lateral hiring process is coming up Wednesday. The department is looking for certified Tier 1 law enforcement officers in other agencies to make the jump to CPD. The department is trying to fill several open patrol officers positions.

Applicants coming from other agencies will be allowed to skip the department’s written and physical tests for this lateral recruitment effort.

According to the agency, starting salaries for CPD officers range from almost $60,000 to nearly $72,000.

You can find a link for more information here: https://www.policeapp.com/Certified-Columbus-IN-Police-Officer-Jobs/4490/

A frost advisory remains in effect until 9 a.m. this morning for our area, according to the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.

According to the agency’s weather records dating back to 1893, the last freezing temperatures of the season in Columbus normally come by April 11th but the latest date was May 27th, set in 1965. The earliest last freeze in Columbus was March 25th, set in 2005.

In Seymour and Shelbyville, the latest last freeze of the season was May 27th in 1961.

Bartholomew County deputies have arrested a man on a murder charge after a woman’s body was found in a home Sunday.

According to the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, deputies were called to check on the welfare of a woman at about 5:28 a.m. Sunday morning at a home in the 500 block of East County Road 650S. After no one answered at the home, a search warrant was issued and deputies discovered 40-year-old Ashley E. Neville dead inside, according to the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office.

A report came in that a man was hiding in the woods near the 650S home and after the area was cordoned off and a Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department police dog was brought to the scene, 49-year-old Anthony W. Carter of Indianapolis was taken into custody without further incident.

Carter was arrested on a charge of murder as well as an outstanding warrant from another county.

According to the Sheriff’s Department, an abandoned suspicious vehicle in a field in the 2000 block of East County Road 800S was also connected to the home.

This week is the time to Make Seymour Shine.

The city’s department of public works will be collecting extra trash items from households and small businesses this week. You will need to put the extra items out with your regular trash by 7 a.m. in the morning on your normal trash day.

You should separate trash, metal and yard waste. Landscaping, wood debris, drywall and remodeling remnants should be separated from yard waste. You can get rid of latex paint but it must be dried with cat litter, saw dust or oil dry. No oil based paints or spray paint will be accepted curbside. You can put out up to four used vehicle tires, but no semi or agricultural tires.

If you have household hazardous waste such as pesticides, fuel, cleaners or oil-based paints you can bring those to Department of Public Works.

There will be a $20 fee for each television, computer monitor and laptop.

If you have a vehicle, you can call to have it towed away at 812-524-1100 but you must have the title.

A passenger died after a crash near Trafalgar on Friday.

According to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department, deputies were called to the accident on State Road 135 and County Road 500W at about 3:42 p.m. Friday afternoon. A pickup being driven by 16-year-old Jeremiah J. May of Morgantown was turning left into the path of a pickup being driven by 79-year-old Hugh K. Gossage of Trafalgar. Gossage and his passenger, 79-year-old Mary L. Gossage, were seriously injured and were taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, where she died of her injuries.

May was taken to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis.