Low-income area residents will have a chance for free legal advice today.

River Valley Legal Aid will be offering a walk-in legal clinic today in Bartholomew County. If you take part you will have a brief consultation with a volunteer attorney to answer general questions, to offer legal information or to receive other advice.

The walk-in clinic will be from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Bartholomew County Public Library on Fifth Street.

River Valley Legal Aid offers the clinics for low-income residents of its eight-county district to receive legal advice and assistance. Residents of all area counties are invited to attend.

The Bartholomew County 4-H Fair continues today with Bartholomew County REMC Day at the fair.

Entertainment tonight will include the Chordlighters at 6 p.m. at the David Boll Theater, the Frog Jumping Contest at 7 at the Farm Bureau Building and the All Star Circuit of Champions TQ Midgets at the grandstands at 7 p.m.

The midway will open at 5 p.m. with Community Day. You can get $5 off of a $30 wristband with a canned food donation Tuesday.

With this week’s extreme heat, officials are reminding you to keep your pets safe in these dangerous conditions.

Columbus Animal Care Services says that you should make sure to provide your pets plenty of fresh water to drink and to make sure not to exercise your pets when the temperatures and pavement are at their hottest. You can avoid heat related illnesses by bringing your pets indoors.

And they stress that you should never leave a pet in a parked vehicle. With these extreme temperatures, a car can quickly reach more than 100 degrees. Those temperatures can easily become fatal to your pets.

A heat advisory is in effect until Friday evening with heat indexes above 100 forecast for afternoons all week. The National Weather Service is calling this an extreme heat risk event.

Columbus police are investigating after a man’s body was found in Mill Race Park.

According to Columbus Police Department, officers were called to the park near Fifth and Lindsay Streets at about 12:43 p.m. Friday and found a man who had died near a picnic table.

The Bartholomew County Coroner’s office has identified the man as 59-year-old Aron Hoy of Columbus.

Authorities say that there are no indications of foul play or injuries found at the scene. An autopsy will be performed.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Our area continues to be under a risk of extreme heat according to forecasters, who are using a new classification tool.

According to the National Weather Service, although temperatures are expected to reach 93 today, the humidity is going to make it feel like 102. A heat advisory remains in effect through Friday evening.

The National Weather Service is testing a new alert system for heat risks. The HeatRisk tool flags hot conditions that are unusually warm for the time of year and factors in humidity. It works on a five point scale with numbers and colors. Zero or green shows little to no risk from expected heat, one or yellow shows minor risk, two or orange shows moderate risk, three or red shows major risk, and four or magenta shows extreme heat.

The weather service says that this week’s weather is ranked as the highest level, or a Magenta Extreme Heat Risk event because of the long duration of high heat, with little or no overnight relief. Anyone without effective cooling or sufficient hydration is in danger. The high heat is expected to affect local health systems, heat-sensitive industries and infrastructure.

TTWN Media Networks contributed to this report

A North Vernon man was arrested last week on drug and other charges after a traffic stop.

According to the Jennings County Sheriff’s Department, a deputy pulled over a vehicle Thursday after noticing a traffic violation near State Road 3 and County Road 750S. A police dog alerted to the smell of drugs in the vehicle.

Police say a search uncovered about 25 grams of methamphetamine, that a passenger tried to hide inside a fountain drink. The passenger, Virgil Gillmer Jr. allegedly admitted that the drugs were his and that the driver did not know the drugs were in the vehicle.

Gillmer was arrested on preliminary charges of obstructing justice and for possessing the meth.

A fire left two homes damaged in downtown Columbus Friday evening.

According to the Columbus Fire Department, a passerby noticed flames coming from the carport at a home in the 900 block of Chestnut Street and alerted the homeowner. The resident tried to fight the fire with a garden hose, and firefighters were called to the scene at about 5:52 p.m. Firefighters arrived to find the carport was fully engulfed in flames and was melting the vinyl siding on a neighboring home.

Firefighters began knocking down the flames outside and found that the fire had spread inside the first home. Inside they encountered high heat and low visibility, with the fire seemingly concentrated in a bedroom. But as they removed part of the ceiling they discovered it was burning inside a hidden void that had been created over the life of the home. After cutting through the roof they were able to put the fire out.

The original home was found to be unlivable after the fire and a neighboring apartment was also damaged. Eight people were displaced from their homes by the fire and received assistance from the American Red Cross to find shelter.

No one was injured and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Photo courtesy of Columbus Fire Department

State Road 11 will be closing in downtown Seymour starting next week and is expected to remain closed for about two months.

According to the Indiana Department of Transportation, contractors will be replacing a culvert on the highway, or Walnut Street, just south of U.S. 50, starting on June 30th. The street will be closing between North Park Drive and South Park Drive near Gaiser Park. The official detour follows U.S. 50 to Interstate 65 and State Road 250.

The work is expected to last through mid August. The work schedule is dependent on the weather.

Force Construction will be doing the work on the project, which is part of a $1.3 million contract.

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

Columbus Regional Health Foundation will have a new leader starting next week.

According to the hospital, Tanya Hand will become the president of the foundation, starting on June 30th. Hand most recently served as Chief Development Officer for the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. Previously, she was with the United Way of Central Indiana serving as Vice President of Major and Transformational Giving.

The Hands now live in Indianapolis and plan to move to Columbus.

Hand will be taking over for Julie Abedian, who plans to retire as Executive Vice President and Chief Community Impact Officer and as CRH Foundation President, effective August 21st. The hospital says the positions of Executive Vice President and Chief Community Impact Officer will not be replaced.

Abedian has been with the hospital system for 21 years. She has been deeply involved in community efforts including the transition from Volunteers in Medicine to the VIM Care Clinic, the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress in Bartholomew County and Mental Health Matters initiatives and the development of CRH’s Treatment and Support Center

The foundation has grown from $6 million to $20 million under her leadership and makes about $2 million in grants each year.

This stretch of extremely hot weather is now expected to last through the end of the week.

The National Weather Service in Indianapolis  is extending the heat advisory, saying it is going to feel like up to 105 in the afternoons all week. The heat advisory is now in effect until 8 p.m. Friday evening.

Forecasters says that today real temperatures will be in the low to mid 90s, with high humidity making it feel like 100 degrees or more in our area.

The weather service suggest that if you have to work outside that you schedule frequent rest breaks in the shade, or in an air conditioned space if you can.