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June - September 2011

2011-10-12T16:05:00.008-04:00

CSA farmer Jerry Eaton takes a break from the field to take a sip of coffee. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The green glow of ultraviolet lights illuminates the water on its way through the Madison sewage treatment plant on Tuesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Victor Bradley, of H & D Professional Brass Polishing in Louisville uses sanders and buffers with special compounds to restore the sine of the bell that used to ring in the Jefferson County Courthouse. The bell was removed after the fire in May 2009 and was replaced with a modern chime system. Once fully restored, the bell will be displayed in a public viewing area on the courthouse grounds. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A wide range of hood ornaments catch they eye among the row of classic cars. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Irvin McMahan, 10, of the Smyrna Star Searchers 4-H Club shovels bedding material that he will use for his sheep into a wheelbarrow on Friday at the 2011 Jefferson County 4-H Fair. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Pam Middleton fills plastic bags with trash at the 2011 River Sweep in Madison on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Spc. Rafael Calzonzi, of the A 2-151 company of the Indiana Army National Guard looks for instructions on how to proceed while dealing with a sniper in the building to the left on Tuesday at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center.
The Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville is hosting a specialized training for NATO forces this week. The training is to teach service members to use equipment that helps identify friendly and enemy fighters in combat situations. The exercise is called Bold Quest 2011 and also includes training at Camp Atterbury.
According to a release from Staff Sgt. David Bruce, Atterbury - Muscatatuck Public Affairs, Bold Quest is a NATO exercise to test the inter-operability of target identification systems of member nations to reduce friendly fire incidents.
The target identification systems include a device worn on the soldiers in combat as well as devices mounted on their weapons.
If a weapon is aimed at a target with the identification device then an indicator will alert the soldier taking aim that the target is "friendly" so that the soldier can desist.
Military aircraft from NATO will also be equipped with the devices so as not to accidently drop ordnance on the wrong targets.
The chief aim is not only to give soldiers the ability to use the equipment, but also to ensure that the digital devices from multiple different countries communicate with each other correctly.
Training includes fighters from Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Midway worker Red Marks shouts "Winner! Winner! You could be next," while holding up a prize won by William Bruns, 11, at the Break a Bottle game on the midway at the Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Wednesday. Several workers remarked an encouragingly larger crowd on Wednesday than they had seen on the days before. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Saundra Altman sews by the light of a window in the home at the Musee de Venoge farmstead. Altman, who used a sewing brick to assist her in her work, was one of the demonstrators at an open house for the newly restored historic Switzerland County site on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A bee buzzes around a sunflower on the side of the road on State Road 256 on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Hunter Rosenbaum, 7, looks through his pirate scope monocular at the Pirate Adventure Party: Ahoy! on Monday at Kathryn Winn Primary School. School Library Media Specialist Leah Spencer said the party included crafts, pictures, snacks, games and a book giveaway. The goal of the party, Spencer said, was to keep the students in the habit of reading through the summer, to give them a chance to see friends that they may not have seen since the end of the school year and to have fun.
The party was coordinated with a partnership between the school and the Carroll County Public Library.
Last week Spencer said there was a party themed for girls called "Pinkelicious" which had about 80 people in attendance. This week's pirate party was originally designed for boys, but the girls were interested in the theme as well. Overall more than 100 people, including many parents attended the event on Monday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Trombonist Ben Link, of Davina and The Vagabonds belts out a solo during the Madison Ribberfest on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Re-enactor Dickie O'Dell, of the the 6th Kentucky Infantry, finds shelter from the rain under a large tree, while waiting for a mock Civil War battle to start at Lanier Days on Sunday at the Lanier Mansion State Historic Site. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Matalin Staser holds a small collection of the nearly 6,000 flags she has collected for a July 4th weekend display that she will set up on State Road 62 near the Chelsea General Store. The flags are going to be displayed in a "Field for the Fallen" in memory of the more than 6,000 troops that have been killed in the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

David Carlow, of the Western Fire Company, from left, Indiana Fire Marshal Jim Greeson and Madison Fire Chief Steve Horton talk before the beginning of the Jefferson County Courthouse Rededication Ceremony on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Audience members listen to speeches from the county commissioners while the sunlight filters through the trees on the Jefferson Street side of the building during the Jefferson County Courthouse Rededication Ceremony on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Project Phoenix volunteer Patty Powers scrapes paint from a door jam in the Project Phoenix house during a workday on Saturday. When finished, the house will be used to provide a transitional residence for people who have lost their home by fire or other disasters. Project leader Tim Harmon said that those looking for more information about the project or those looking to help with the house by volunteering time and work hours, financial donations or donations of materials can contact him or other project members through the Project Phoenix website at www.projectpnx.org. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Colin Southers, 11, gets ready to set off a detonator to blow up a coffee can while Trooper Kyle Stovall, of the Indiana State Police bomb squad yells, "Fire in the hole!" Southers, of New Albany, is a participant in this year's ISP Respect for Law camp at Hanover College. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Trooper Zach Ruble gives a faux field sobriety test to Laken Flickner, 11, who had just driven a golf cart through several cones while wearing goggles that simulate the vision impairment associated with drunkenness. Flickner had trouble standing on the white line in front of her, let alone walking along the line. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Emergency Response Team Trooper Mark True rappels off the back of the Hanover College football stadium press box area at the ISP Respect for Law camp at Hanover College. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Students and youth leaders hold hands and share their faith around the Madison Consolidated High School flag poles during the event that began before sunrise and finished up just before the first bell on Wednesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Catherine Fisher, of Madison looks through glass pendants on display at Heidi Barron's Barron Glass Design booth at the 2011 Madison Chautauqua Festival of Art on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The lights of rides and a ticket booth glow at dusk on Thursday at the 2011 Swiss Wine Festival at the Paul Ogle Riverfront Park in Vevay. This year is the 40th anniversary of the festival. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Magnolia Clayton, 10, of East Enterprise makes her way across a rope bridge high in the air above the midway area of the 2011 Swiss Wine Festival at the Paul Ogle Riverfront Park in Vevay. The rope bridge was part of the Fear Factory attraction, in which participants are harnessed to a steel frame while they cross several precarious obstacles. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Favorites- Feb-May 2011

2011-06-10T17:08:00.005-04:00

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the past couple months. Let me know what you think.

Kindergartener Aidan Stydinger, left, looks on as his classmate Owen Altermatt reacts in surprise to the weight of a bomb squad helmet during Troopers Rick Stockdale and Brian Meeks' presentation for career day on Thursday at Southwestern Elementary School. Meeks and Stockdale, both from the Versailles post of the Indiana State Police, talked to the children about their jobs and brought the crowd pleasing visual aids of a bomb suit and the MKII Vanguard Bomb Disposal Robot. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier) The dome of a nuclear containment silo on the grounds of the old Marble Hill facility smokes after explosives went off on Wednesday. The dome is one of the last visible evidences of the home of a nuclear power plant that was started, but never completed in the 1970s and 1980s near the Jefferson and Clark county line.
On Wednesday crews spent hours rigging the structure with explosives for demolition. After the explosion, though, the dome only showed a few new signs of cracking.
Emily Mardigian, of MCM Management Corp., said that MCM owns the site and is demolishing the plant in order to reclaim the scrap materials, which are sold for profit. Mardigian said that the company has worked on the demolition of very large projects, including the old Tiger Stadium in Detroit, She added that the Marble Hill plant is unique in that it was built with such a high volume and high density of metal reinforced concrete that the demolition has been anything but standard.
Neither of the silos, have come down easily, and the last dome is still proving difficult to destroy. Sooner than later she expects the demolition to be complete and all usable scrap will be gone. She said about 95 percent of the materials are reusable.
There is not word yet as to what will happen to the land after MCM is done salvaging. Mardigian said her company has heard several questions concerning why no one is wearing protective suits for radioactive waste and she stresses the reminder that Marble Hill was never an active site and that there was never any radioactive material on the grounds. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Illustration about not allowing dogs to sleep in your bed. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Retirement portrait of local dentist Wendell Grassmyer. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Sean Geil, right, and Mike Oberst, of The Tillers, preform at the Ohio River Valley Folk Festival on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Monica Melvin, of Bedford, took her granddaughter Alexis Webster, 4, out between rain showers to take pictures of the flooding in Trimble County on Saturday. Webster was able to snap some photos of the rapids that covered Connector Road in Trimble County. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Water washes over Vaughn Drive and Vine Street on Friday. City crews closed off sections of Vaughn that had become un-passable due to the flooding. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Debris filled a yard near Eminence, Ky., on Monday after an early morning tornado tore through an area around Spring Hill circle and State Highway 1899. Two houses were completely destroyed and several others damaged by the storm. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A sure sign of shifting seasons can be seen in the roadside ditch of State Road 256 as patches of daffodil blooms sway in the breeze of passing vehicles. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The sweet fragrance of magnolia blossoms and the sight of the tree's buds and blooms were on display near the parking lot of the Madison State Hospital on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Girl Scout Elizabeth Allen, 10, of Troop 741, carries flags to headstones in the Indiana Veterans' Memorial Cemetery on Monday. Girl Scouts from Troops 741 and 1667 and their families and other community members came out on Monday to place American flags next to the grave stones in preparation for next week's Memorial Day service. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Ashlynn Cissell, 10, places the wreath at the World War II Roll of Honor plaque during the Memorial Day service at the Trimble County Courthouse on Monday.(Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Graduates make their way past Parker Auditorium toward the 178th annual commencement ceremony at The Point at Hanover College on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Skylar Thomas and the rest of the Carroll County High School Panther cheerleaders place heir hands to their hearts during the National Anthem at a game in February. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

City of Madison firefighters make their way into the smoke filled basement of the Brown gym during a training exercise on Saturday. The main point of the training was to give hands on experience to the firemen with their new Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) tracking devices. The devices allow firefighters to call for help and trigger a homing signal which their comrades can use to find them and rescue them from a fire scene. The SCBA tracking systems are also compatible with a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) bag, which is a mobile compressed air refilling device that allows firefighters to recharge their air tanks in the course of a rescue operation.
As Don McKay, Jr., Battalion Chief for Madison Fire Battalion 2, addressed the group of firefighters at the beginning of the training exercise he alluded to the death of Greg Cloud.
"Cloud got lost in the building with no radio and he as out of air,' McKay said. "Now everyone has a voice in there."
Throughout the day, the firemen trained on scenarios of finding a lost firefighter, finding a lost firefighter who is low on air and rescuing a trapped firefighter who is low on air.
Personnel from Scott, the RIT and SCBA tracking system manufacturer, were on hand to demonstrate proper use of the masks, of the tracking device, of the handheld Pac Tracking Unit and the RIT bags.
McKay said an additional benefit of the training was the chance for the different companies to cross train and develop a uniform standard operating procedure for working with the equipment.
funding for the new SCBA equipment came from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant. McKay said the total equipment cost, was near $309,000. "That's averages out to about $5,000 per firefighter," McKay said. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

January 2011

2011-02-10T11:29:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I am trying to get back in gear with some semi-regular blogging in hopes of getting feed back from other photogs. Here are my favorites from January. This time of year is always really slow, so I spend hours out on the roads looking for feature art. Most of these are fruit from those searches (except for the pipe organ, the steeple and the portrait).

Wesley Rule works by the light of a small headlamp and adjusts the trackers inside the pipe organ at First Baptist Church. The trackers connect the keyboard to the valves in the organ, which allow air to move from the chest of the organ to the pipes. The Knoxville, Tenn., based pipe organ restoration shop, B. Rule & Co., dismantled the pipe organ in May 2010, restored it in their shop and are in the process of rebuilding it in the First Baptist sanctuary.
Church member Ken Goins, who has worked on the organ restoration team, said the church has been using an electronic keyboard in the months without the pipe organ.
Goins also said that the church had to gather in the basement of the church for this past Sunday's services because there were parts of the organ all over the sanctuary.
While the sanctuary is scheduled to be in use again this coming Sunday, the organ will not be completely ready for use for at least a couple more weeks, as each pipe is "voiced" or adjusted for proper sound. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Katherine Jones takes a walk during a lull in the snow storm on Tuesday. Aside from a chance for scattered snow showers today, the rest of the week is forecast to be clear and cold. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Bright green conifer needles stand out in contrast to the white snow on and around them after the Courierarea was blanketed on Tuesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Bridge Building Triptych: Mel Adams stands on the ice over a pond at Spring Hills Golf Course to work on a golf cart bridge on Monday. "It beats scaffolding," Adams said. He said that he was trying to get this particular part of the project done before the forecast rain melted all the ice this week. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Tim Harmon and Cecil Rowlett, of Timbers Custom Signs, work in the median on U.S. 421 near Fourth Street to install one of the 11 new signs designed by Madison Director of Community Development and Outreach Jenny Eggenspiller to lead visitors toward the downtown area.
Eggenspiller said she began working on this project in 2009 with Linda Lytle, executive director of the Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau, in response to comments from tourists who visited Madison hilltop without ever realizing there was a downtown area.
"We identified locations and met with INDOT officials to submit an application for their approval," Eggenspiller said. "After much work, and several revisions, the plan was approved in the fall of 2010."
In addition to the downtown signage, additional signs are being installed on the hilltop around the intersections of State Road 62 and Michigan Road, State Road 62 and US 421, State Road 62 and State Road 7, State Road 62 and State Road 256, State Road 62 and State Road 56. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The instillation crew from Campbellsville Industries, from Campbellsville, Ky., uses a crane to lift the 35-foot-tall steeple into place at Cornerstone Baptist Church on Tuesday. The steeple is a part of a larger expansion project of the Cornerstone campus, which includes a new auditorium that will have seating for 300, a choir loft that can seat 50, a foyer, a welcome center, a nursery, restrooms and the pastor's office. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Drivers move on a snowy U.S. 421 toward downtown Madison this morning. Courierarea schools were closed today as the early morning snow covering foretold a heavy storm on the way. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Snow gathers on the Madison Riverfront on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

About thirty people participated in the Marade at Hanover College on Friday. The march which also included poetry reading, performance art and readings of famous speeches and historical facts was done in appreciation of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights pioneers was the final event of the college's "Power of a Dream MLK Week". The marade marchers made a stop at The Point, one of several stops around campus, to hear Alicia Muhammad reads about the last event that Martin Luther King Jr. led before his assassination. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Emma Montgomery recently received the regional 2010 Power Award from Goodwill BridgePointe Services for her excellence in customer care and her great attitude with her coworkers, which even extends to making cakes for her coworkers birthdays. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Work began last week on the causeway on the Indiana side of the Madison-Milton Bridge. The causeway will extend into the water to provide access for workers during the bridge replacement project. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

November - December 2010

2011-01-24T10:55:00.005-05:00

Precinct 4-1 voter Steve Smith, right, casts his votes this morning while precinct judge Ed Hatton waits for a booth to open for the next voter in line at Anderson Elementary School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Catherine Freeland struts down the walkway in a Christmas tree dress made of recycled materials in the second annual Chi Omega Make A Wish Foundation fashion show at the Hanover College Campus Center on Thursday. The sorority was able to raise funds for the foundation through ticket sales to the event, through a silent auction and through the voting system in which the audience used their pocket change to cast votes for their favorite fashion entry. The rules for the fashion show were that none of the outfits could be store bought or sewn. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Gene Viau, blows leaves off his front lawn on Fairway Drive while an occasional sprinkle of rain fell around him on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Madison Carli looks over at classmate Jacob Matson as the two portray Mary and Joseph in the Carrollton Christian Academy's live Nativity scene at the Carroll County Courthouse on Friday. The school has had the live Nativity for more than two decades. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Arthur Perkinson, of the American Legion Post 9 Honor Guard waits to be called to post the Colors during the Wreaths Across America ceremony at the Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Rita Gast points out sights to her son Dustin during a hay ride at Camp KYSOC on Saturday with Dustin's brother Luke and dad, Jim Gast, all of Louisville, Ky, and several other families. The Gast family was one of the many helped in the last five decades by the camp. They visited KYSOC on Saturday for the camp's 50th reunion celebration, which included a campfire, tours, a meal and the hay ride as well as an opportunity for past campers and workers and their families to catch up and discuss the ongoing efforts to save the camp. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

David Zach belts out the lyrics to one of Remedy Drive's last songs of the night in a benefit concert for the Ruth Haven transitional home on Monday at North Madison Christian Church. The concert, which also featured local Christian bands As I Am, and New Psalm and soloist Angie Bahmad, and the Chicago-based group Made Avail, helped to raise money and awareness for the transitional home that focuses efforts on helping women who are recovering from addictions.
Michelle Sanchez, vice president of Jefferson County Transitional Services, and one of the lead organizers of the concert told the crowd that Ruth Haven is waiting to place the final piece in their program by finding the right residential manager for the home, which is located where the old Scalo House was on Presbyterian Ave.
Sanchez also revealed plans for a Christian music festival for Madison, which is in the early planning stages at this time. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tim Schanie, from left, Ryan Nix, Johnny Burns and Chad Sebree, of the band As I Am, play a set during the Ruth Haven Benefit concert at at North Madison Christian Church on Monday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Lead guitarist Luke Buishas, of the Chicago-based group Made Avail, sings backup during a benefit concert for the Ruth Haven transitional home on Monday at North Madison Christian Church. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Steve Pullias, from left, Larry Alexander and Drew Geerts, of the Madison band New Psalm, perform at a benefit concert for the Ruth Haven transitional home on Monday at North Madison Christian Church. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jaylen Galbreath, 5, calls out for his mom to look at some jeans while making his way through Wal-Mart with Madison Police Officer William Watterson on Tuesday. Watterson was one of the officers involved in the Shop With A Cop program. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jacob Goins, 5, reacts to seeing Santa while eating dinner at Madison Consolidated High School with his "partner", Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy Brent Jansen on Tuesday. Deputy Jansen was teamed up with Jacob in this year's Shop With A Cop program. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Karl Ray Andersen, 3, looks at Nerf toys on a shelf while his cousin, Macey Marie Andersen points to bikes in the nest row at Wal-Mart on Thursday. The cousins were being escorted around by Fireman Ron Lanham, of the Madison Township Fire Department, during the annual Shop with a Firefighter in Madison.
Coordinator Kim Washer said moe than $20,000 was raised for this year's event, including $3,000 from the Moose Lodge. The Moose also provided pizza for the families before the shopping trip.
The Pleasant Valley Renegades gun club donated enough toys for every child to get one when Santa visited the children at the end of the evening at the Madison Township Firehouse.
Washer said 102 children went on shopping sprees, each with $150 to spend on their needs and wants. Another 20 children were given $75 gift cards. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

After Mark Johnson finished directing the Madison Concert Band through several traditional Christmas favorites at a free concert at Trinity United Methodist Church on Tuesday, he left to be replaced soon afterward by Santa. Santa finished the show at the conductor's stand with a sing-a-long with the band and the audience of about 80 people. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

James Riley, 7, (from front) rides in a cart with his 23-month-old brother, Matthew, while being pushed through the VF Outlet store by their dad, Richard Riley. Richard said he and his wife, Bethany had done all of their Christmas shopping earlier in the year and were just out early on Friday to see if they could find any deals on their regular family needs. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Recent Portraits

2010-11-23T10:55:00.003-05:00

From state penitentiaries to the last 15 years with the Carroll County, Tony Meadows has been working as a corrections officer for three decades. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tim Harmon poses for a portrait in front of the house that Project Phoenix is rehabilitating for use as a transitional home for people who have lost their residence to fire or other kinds of loss. Project Phoenix is in the running for a $50,000 grant from the Pepsi corporation's Pepsi Refresh Project. To receive one of the grants (up to 10 are given each month), Project Phoenix needs to more online votes than other groups within the month of September. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The "I" in the Ohio Theater sign is broken. The lights on the marquee do not sparkle like they used to. Damaged siding covers the old brick facade and the windows are in desperate need of repair. All of those things can be remedied with a $25,000 grant that the theater might receive from the National Trust Main Street Community Challenge. But the theater need the community's support to earn the grant. That support comes in the form of online voting for the project. Laura Ratcliff, who owns the theater with her husband, Tony, said she has been overwhelmed with the support so far. "So many people voted for us and then told their friends and then they voted for us too," Ratcliff said. "We hope this keeps spreading." (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Lieutenants Matthew and Emily Phelps are serving over the Madison Salvation Army Corps Community Center. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Madison Consolidated High School senior Alex Podczerwinski is a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Madison Police Department Interim Chief Yancy Denning. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Artist Stephanie Hellmann poses for a portrait at the Broadway Fountain, which is where she created the photograph that is being used on the poster for the 2010 Madison Chautauqua Festival of Art of Madison Chautauqua.
The t-shirt logo for this year's festival is a screen print design taken directly from the Hellmann image. The screen print logo was produced by Troy Seel, who works at Heitz Sign Company. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

2010 Carrollton Mayoral Candidates

Carrollton mayoral candidate Gene McMurry. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Carrollton mayoral incumbent candidate Dwight Louden. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Carrollton mayoral candidate Dean Miller, Jr. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Carrollton mayoral candidate Walter Smiley Coghill. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Hodge Podge

2010-11-23T10:20:00.005-05:00

Brandon Ayers, 14, from left, Alex Gomez, 9, and Garrett Morton, 7, play a game of tag during the Help Hope fund raising event at Ryker's Ridge Baptist Church on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Decorated cupcakes are set on a cupcake tree and on plates, ready to be tasted at the parent teacher conferences at Madison Consolidated High School on Monday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Workers from Louisville based Faulkner Construction install sheet pilings near the cell at Lamplighter Park along the Madison Riverfront on Thursday. The sheet pilings which are interlocked pieces of steel that are driven deep into the ground are being used as part of a bank stabilization and erosion control project.
The pilings are lifted into place with a crane, lined up, one to another, by a man in a lift cart and driven into the ground using a vibratory hammer.
The piling will line 120 feet of the riverfront on the east side of the cell and 100 feet on the west side of the cell to help prevent erosion in the area. Once the pilings are in, the dirt will be filled back in behind them and the park will be re-landscaped. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

(Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

(Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Alexis Baker, 9, center, Chelsea Garlinghouse, 7, left, and Angel Higbie, 8, partner with the rest of the Junior Madison Red Cheerleaders as they shout for their team at Rucker Sports Complex on Saturday. This is the first season that they have had a cheer leading squad for the little league football teams. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The steady breeze on Monday allowed Hannah Spry to make bubbles with little effort. The National Weather Service has forecast much more substantial winds today, with some gusts topping 40 mph. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Grant Smith, 7, right, tries to get the soccer ball around his brother Isaac, 9, for a goal while practicing in their front yard in Madison on Monday. The forecasted rain for Monday afternoon never fell in the Madison area, giving the Smith's plenty of time to practice. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Third grader Emily Skirvin, of E.O. Muncie Elementary School, climbs a ladder to get to the cab of a John Deere sprayer after Zach Ford, of the MCHS FFA, right, told the third graders about the machine at Ag Day at the Jefferson County 4-H Fairgrounds on Wednesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jami Karst and other workers from the Madison Correction Facility paint the bee houses and shotgun house at Pearl Park on Thursday as part of a renovation project between the Madison Parks Department and the Jefferson County Preservation Council. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Angel runs away with her tennis ball instead of retuning it to Ansley Crutchfield, 9, while training at the city dog park on Tuesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Erin Ware, a graduate student from Ball State University, takes apart a stain glass window for restoration as part of a workshop at St. Michael the Archangel Church building. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Erin Ware, right, a graduate student from Ball State University, and Ivy Tech historic trades instructor Rhonda Deeg take apart a stain glass window for restoration as part of a workshop at St. Michael the Archangel Church. The workshop was sponsored by Historic Madison Inc. through Ivy Tech Community College. Students were able to earn three college credit hours for the course as they received hands on experience with stain glass restoration, stonework and historic plastering in the HMI owned church buildings and grounds. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Hanover College alumni groups went on sightseeing trips from Madison on the Belle of Louisville on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Engineer Dale Poorman, of Columbus, Ohio, climbs on the undergirding of the Madison-Milton Bridge as he and a team of other engineers from Burgess & Niple, Inc., of Louisville began their week-long fracture-critical inspection, which is done once every two years.
Results from the December 2008 fracture-critical inspection led to the 15-ton weight limit being imposed for bridge traffic.
If weather permits, another inspection by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet will be done Friday from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. That inspection will cause closures on one lane of traffic throughout the day. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Fall 2010

2010-11-19T20:43:00.003-05:00

A stem and leaves from a nearby tree sit on a wet bench after a light rain moved through the Courierarea on Tuesday. The rain is not likely to make much of an impact on the local drought. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Leon Jackson, of East Enterprise, fishes at Krueger Lake at Jefferson Proving Ground as geese fly over the surface of the water on Wednesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Part of a group of the 100 architects from the Indiana and Kentucky chapter of the American Institute of Architects follow John Staicer, president and executive director of Historic Madison Inc., to the Jeremiah Sullivan House, 304 W. Second St., one of the stops on a walking tour of historic properties on Thursday. The architects were welcomed to town at the beginning of their annual convention, which is being held at Belterra Casino Resort & Spa this year. Upon arrival in Madison, the architects heard a presentation by Camille Fife, president of the Westerly Group, on Madison's early architecture, and a presentation about preservation techniques and materials by Orbin Ash, historic sites construction manager at the Division of Indiana State Museums and Historic Sites. Both presentations were given at the John T. Windle Auditorium. Afterward, the architects were divided into groups of 25 for the walking tours. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The orange and reds of a tree stand in stark contrast behind the green street sign on the hilltop. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A maple tree's leaves start to change color in Madison. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

While the drought has hindered the normal explosion of colors in the Courierarea's fall foliage, there are still many pockets of color to be seen for local residents on the lookout. The early morning sunshine allowed for a reflection of trees on the surface of the lake at General Butler State Park, in Carrollton, Ky. The typical peak season for fall colors in southern Indiana is mid-October. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Ryan Spivey, 15, throws a pumpkin to Kenny Kendall, 17, who then stacked the gourds on a trailer on David Ginn's farm in Trimble County on Thursday. Ginn said he did fairly well with a batch of pumpkins that started growing before the drought, and that a this new batch produced much smaller pumpkins. The overall pumpkin crop in the Courierarea was cut down by the dry summer. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A Cupola Pictures

2010-11-18T17:57:00.004-05:00

A worker from Campbellsville Industries, from Campbellsville, Ky., unhooks a crane from the top of one-half of the dome of the replacement cupola for the Jefferson County Courthouse after the piece was unloaded from a truck on Thursday. Weather permitting, all of the pieces of the new cupola will be delivered, assembled and installed by this week and next. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Barry Antle, supervisor of the instillation crew from Campbellsville Industries, from Campbellsville, Ky., tells a driver where to position his tractor trailer as the first half of the dome is delivered for the replacement cupola for the Jefferson County Courthouse on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A crew rigs the first half of the dome for a lift from the delivery truck onto the south lot of the Jefferson County Courthouse on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The first half of the dome of the replacement cupola is lifted off the delivery truck and placed in the south lot of the Jefferson County Courthouse on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tim Maupin, of a crew from Campbellsville Industries, from Campbellsville, Ky., assembles pieces of the middle portion of the cupola that had been taken off for transport to the Jefferson County Courthouse. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The cupola drum and dome were installed atop the Jefferson County Courthouse on Wednesday, about one year and five months after fire destroyed the last cupola. Campbellsville Industries, the company that was commissioned to recreate the cupola in their Campbellsville, Ky., shop, planned on completing the installation today with the placement of the lantern, a smaller second dome and the weather vane. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Troy Durrett works inside the middle portion of the cupola as he and the rest of a crew from Campbellsville Industries, from Campbellsville, Ky., worked this week delivering and assembling the pieces of the replacement cupola for the Jefferson County Courthouse. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Troy Durrett works inside the middle portion of the cupola as he and the rest of a crew from Campbellsville Industries, from Campbellsville, Ky., worked this week delivering and assembling the pieces of the replacement cupola for the Jefferson County Courthouse. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The cupola drum and dome were installed atop the Jefferson County Courthouse on Wednesday, about one year and five months after fire destroyed the last cupola. Campbellsville Industries, the company that was commissioned to recreate the cupola in their Campbellsville, Ky., shop, planned on completing the installation today with the placement of the lantern, a smaller second dome and the weather vane. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The cupola drum and dome were installed atop the Jefferson County Courthouse on Wednesday, about one year and five months after fire destroyed the last cupola. Campbellsville Industries, the company that was commissioned to recreate the cupola in their Campbellsville, Ky., shop, planned on completing the installation today with the placement of the lantern, a smaller second dome and the weather vane. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The Ribberfest and Other Recent Festivals

2010-11-02T08:32:00.006-04:00

As always, Madison played host to a plethora of incredible festivals this year.
Here are some of my favorite photos from the events.

The "Pulled Pork" statue and others are on display this weekend on Vaughn Drive as part of the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Harmonica Red and guitarist Ryan Patterson, of the band Big Al & the Heavyweights, make their way through the crowd while playing dueling solos at the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Mike Horan, of Scottsburg based Mo Dog barbeque team, prepares Beer Can Chicken on the grill at The Madison Courier Backyard Barbeque, part of the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Sarah Cole, of Columbus, Ohio, dances to the music at the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Friday. Cole is in town to cheer on her uncle who is competing in the barbeque contest today. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The moon glows in the sky while hot air balloons light the Milton riverbank during the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Friday. Rain and high winds kept the balloons from racing on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Byron Chism, left, creator of "Butt Rub" barbeque seasoning talks with one of his fans, Tim Roszmann, of Dry Ridge, Ky., during the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

David Roper carries his own plastic fork and spoon with him where ever he goes during events like the Madison Ribberfest. he said when cooks and barbeque teams are giving out samples forks and spoons are the first thing they run out of. Roper, who has judged competitions across the country was in Madison to support his friend Byron Chism, creator of "Butt Rub" barbeque seasoning. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Ben Fortner, of Bedford, Ky., competes in the Good to the Bone rib eating contest at the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jimmy Hall plays the saxophone during his band's set at the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Ernestine Thomas, left, of the Fall City Smokers barbeque team from Smithfield, Ky., and Regina Rojas, of Oliver's Smokin' BBQ team, from Louisville, wait in line to submit their teams deserts for judging at the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Judy Bixby shows a table of judges a desert entry at the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tyrone Cotton, left, and Stephen Couch perform at the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Two rows of balloons light up on the riverbank in Milton for the 2010 Madison Ribberfest's Balloon glow on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Guitarist and singer Greg Foresman plays a solo at the beginning of the 2010 Madison Ribberfest on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Old Court Days vendor Alice West, of Seymour, refastens her quilts to a fence near the Jefferson County Courthouse on Friday. "The wind was so bad, I've hardly kept things from blowing away," West said. Today's temperatures are forecasted to remain in the mid-70's with sunny skies. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kevin Schartz, of the Lawrence, Kansas, based Celestial Ironworks, makes his way past a field of metal flowers to tend to a customer at his booth at the Madison Chautauqua Festival of Art on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Paul Kelly juggles while meandering down Vaughn Drive at the Madison Chautauqua Festival of Art on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Macy Risk, 9, of Madison, creates a "Peace, Love, Earth" design on a sidewalk near the intersection of Main and Jefferson streets during the Fourth Friday Art and Shop Hop. Children from kindergarten through 12th grade were encouraged to do sidewalk chalk art to celebrate their return to school. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Isabella Abbott, 4, from left, and her brother Clayton Abbott, 3, of New Washington, ride the helicopter with Jenna Brierly, 4, of Milton, Ky., at the Shawe and Pope John Community Festival on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The sun begins to set beyond a ferris wheel and the Fun Slide at the Shawe and Pope John Community Festival on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

RandomMania

2010-08-09T17:36:00.016-04:00

Here's a bunch of pics (posted without rhyme or reason) from the last six months. I'm finished with school now, so I'll try to keep this more up to date (but no promises).

Trinity United Methodist Church member Josh Webb prays silently during a prayer meeting at the church on Tuesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jackie Osinski, Director of Programs, Outreach and Education for Trinity United Methodist Church, far right, leads a prayer with a group of church members on Tuesday. Trinity has begun a weekly call to prayer for their church family and for all Christians everywhere to take time every Tuesday at 6 p.m. to pray specifically for the city, the county and the country as well as for individuals in need. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy Andrew Allen, waits for Lt. Tanya Colber to sign out a group of prisoners from jailer Dave Baulac at the Jefferson County Jail. While waiting to go to the academy, Allen will work side by side with Lt. Colber and other senior officers to get a working hands-on knowledge of the day to day operations. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Rick Ballard, and his son Brannon, 7, of Mt. Washington, Ky., take a paddle boat ride around the lake during a family outing at General Butler State Park on Wednesday. The paddle boats are available for rental through Labor Day. The hours are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday's through Thursdays and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Rentals are $10 per hour for each four seater paddle boat or two person canoe. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

With a trace of the spotlights coming through the curtain, Barry Elkins plays a mandolin backstage. Elkins was waiting for his band The White Lighting Boys to go on as the last performance before intermission at the Hoosier Hank & Johnny: The Music of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash concert on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Local blues guitarist and singer Jimmy Davis opens the Hoosier Hank & Johnny: The Music of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash concert at the Ohio Theater on Friday. The concert, which was presented by the Cultural Continuum of Madison, was sold out on the night of the show. After a series of solo renditions, Davis brought out friends Greg Ziesemer and Kriss Luckett. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Elly Cicenas, 9, investigates what she thinks might be a worm in a radish that she pulled from the ground on Monday at the Girls Inc. Garden. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Madison Consolidated Schools Director of Technology Operations James Brown, dismantles a switching unit for the Canaan Elementary School telephone and computer network on Friday as Brown and others helped to move MCS equipment and supplies from Canaan. The equipment that Brown was disassembling will be used at Ryker's Ridge Elementary School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Gabriel Romero, 11, of Laconia, Ind., is tailed by an Indiana State Police cruiser as he drives a golf cart with "Sobriety Goggles" which are designed to reproduce the visual impairment associated with particular blood alcohol levels. Romero was one of more than 30 youths at the annual Respect for Law Camp at Hanover College this week.
After running over a traffic cone, Romero was stopped by the ISP and underwent a field sobriety test and "taken into custody." (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Bear Cub Luke Nickell uses a rope to guide his car down Vine Street as Cub Scout Pack 718 held a Cub Mobile race for their Tiger, Wolf and Bear groups (first through third grades) on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Traffic speeds past Gary Guarino on his slow moving sidewalk sweeper at West and Main streets. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

On Saturday from noon to 10 p.m., visitors to the Ohio River Valley Folk Festival at Bicentennial Park will be able to get a glimpse into the typical underwater ecosystem in our river at a display from the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission's "Life Below the Waterline" aquarium. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Hanging Rock Hill had to be closed Monday as the waterfall washed over the roadway. A Madison Police cruiser is seen here moving cautiously in the oncoming lane, just before the road was reopened as the falls began to subside. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Remote controlled robots are used to place pool balls into a short cone during a robotics competition at Ivy Tech Community College Madison Campus on Wednesday. The competition was the last event in a three-day robotics in education program. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Indiana State Police Detective Rick Stockdale dons a protective suit and gloves before clearing materials from a methamphetamine lab at 2634 N. Brooksburg-Manville Road, in Milton Township on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Andrew Potter passes the time near a campfire at the 33rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry camp by playing a set of bones and talking to the occasional visitor at Lanier Days on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Esther Miller covers cinnamon roles with icing as her daughter Hannah, 17, works behind her in the kitchen. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Julia Wise has developed a skill for learning multiple instruments. while her first love is the violin, she is also able to perform with a guitar, flute, clarinet, piano and cello. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Justin Banks, 5, (left) and his brother Matthew, 7, of Vevay, make their way through CoCo, the Colossal Colon on Friday. The 40-foot long, 4-foot tall model of a human colon was brought in and installed at Wal-Mart on Friday as part of a traveling exhibit to inform the public about cancer, diverticulitis and other diseases of the colon. There were also small openings in the top of the model for those unable, or unwilling to climb through CoCo. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Reagan Warren, 5, walks in a parade of racers just before the annual Head Start 500 at the O.V.O. Child Development Center on Tuesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Zachary Dean, center, takes off quickly for the lead against Philip Scully, left, and Forrest Deutscher the annual Head Start 500 at the O.V.O. Child Development Center on Tuesday. The race car boxes were created by the children and their parents, and the youngsters ran in pseudo-competitive heats. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Bead artist Kevin Douglas Leach says there is always a work in progress on the mirrored table in his studio, which is covered in containers of beads and crystals. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Bead artist Kevin Douglas Leach adjusts a piece of his work before rehanging it in his apartment and studio. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Ashton Hill, 13, fishes with his grandfather Ronald Harrison on the riverfront in Madison on Friday. With the temperatures reaching into the 90's the two waited until close to sundown to go out with their rods and reels. Harrison, a retired switch yard worker from IKE said he and Ashton spend many hours hunting and fishing together and he is proud to list off his grandson's numerous catches and kills. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The old city hall building on west street is seen through a screen of icicles hanging from the gutters along side the neighboring dentists' office. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Trey Holt, 12, clears his neighbor's sidewalks after clearing the walkway in front of his own home on Main street Monday. Holt said he is enjoying the multiple snow breaks from his classes at Madison Junior High School. The school's were canceled again today and the forecast has the possibility coming through the Courierarea later this week and the beginning of next week. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Paul de Lamerens, plant environmental superintendent in the Environmental Department at the Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation's Clifty Creek Plant (center with orange hat), directs the attention to one of the stacks gives a tour of the facility to a group of students from Shawe Memorial High School on Thursday. The tour, which also included students from Southwestern and Madison high schools, was part of the EcO15 program. Pictured with de Lamerens are Shawe students, from left, Matt Armstrong, Michael Kring and Eric Grote, chaperone Kevin Fry, and students Dawson Fair and Olivia Daugherty. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jack Olds, from left, and two of his employees, computer tech Chris Miles and loader/pilot-in-training Kerry Lee pose for a portrait near one of Olds' aircraft that he uses for crop dusting fields. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Brett Cahill, 7, left, and Meaghan Geyman, 8, both of Madison, round a corner during the stick-horse race at the second annual Barn Blast event at the Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Nicholas Sebastiao, 7, of Deputy, leaps across the arena during the sack race at the second annual Barn Blast event at the Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Caroline Bechman, 7, from left, Jessie Stuart, 8, Belle Stubbins, 8, Ashlyn White, 7, Jesse Marshall, 8, and Anne Hassfurder, 8 compete in the calf scramble where the children raced to see who could be the first to grab the ribbon from the calf's tail. The scramble was one of the events at the second annual Barn Blast event at the Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Thursday. The barn blast is for first and second graders from the mini 4-H program with team games designed to give a fun welcome to the new children and parents in 4-H. Games included a water balloon toss, a stick horse race, musical chairs, a cow pie toss (using brown Frisbees), a sack race, several relay races and the calf scramble. After the children finished the games, each one got a tie-dyed shirt and an ice cream cone. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

As exhibits and competitions happen across the field, the midway bustles with activity at the 2010 Jefferson County 4-H Fair this week. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Rebecca Mack, 17, of the Homegrown 4H Club, waits near her caged rabbit while another portion of the rabbit show went on at the 2010 Jefferson County 4H Fair on Monday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Morgan Ruffra, 10 calms her rabbit before her competition began, at the rabbit show at the 2010 Jefferson County 4H Fair on Monday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A young fox peaks out from it's hiding place in a pole barn on Rogers Road near Kent. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Southwestern High School sophomores Kendall Ebley and Ryan Wells set up chairs in the SWHS gymnasium while working as part of a set up crew for the Ohio Valley Showcase, which will be held at the school tonight and Saturday. The event is sponsored by the Southwestern Show Choir Esprit. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kuba the Clown from Spectrum Productions of Jefferson County, entertains Cinda Hoehn, of Corydon, Ind., at the MadisonFest block party on Friday. Once the sun began to set and the temperatures cooled, a large crowd of people came out to enjoy games, food, free music and more on the opening night of the new festival. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Sammi Cox, 4, of Anderson, practices on her new roller skates at Bicentennial Park on Thursday. Cox has been visiting her grandmother, Sue Goins this week in Madison. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Brad Rule sits deep within the A.B. Felgemaker pipe organ at First Baptist Church, dismantling the massive instrument for shipment to his Knoxville, Tenn. shop. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Second graders Hunter Ehlers, 9, left, and Mikey Lehman, 8, look through a "Dirty Jobs" book at the Scholastic Book Fair fundraiser at Anderson Elementary School on Wednesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Roger Welch turns a table leg on a lathe in his shop. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Bob Gray oils up the valves on his cornet before the weekly practice for the Madison Community Band on Tuesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Trevor Crafton, owner of Cozy Acres Golf Complex, poses for a portrait with his 6-month-old son, Nash in the club house on Thursday. Crafton and his team at Cozy Acres will be featured in the National Golf Course Owners Association's trade magazine, "Golf Business". (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Cody Thornton laughs with friends before the 2010 Southwestern High School graduation ceremony on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Zaira Watterson, 4, and her sister Mya, 6, enjoy ice creme cones from a nearby vendor at the 2010 Madison Regatta on Saturday. The Watterson girls, of Muncie, were visiting their family with their dad, Colt Watterson. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Vern Parrish, of Bedford, top, and Ross Colen, of Rising Sun, go fishing on the Kentucky River after starting out from Point Park in Carrollton on Wednesday. Parrish said meeting in Carrollton was a little more than half way for Colen but that, "Our water's a lot better here." (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Terry Ford, of Glass Unlimited, goes outside of the Main Street public restrooms and comfort station where he and a crew of workers were replacing the windows on Tuesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The royal court of the 2010 Miss Madison Regatta pageant wave to the parade spectators in the Regatta parade on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kyle Simpson, guitarist for the Jeffersonville, Ind., band Slakker, plays a solo in his band's cover of the Metallica song, "Master of Puppets" at the 2010 Madison Regatta Battle of the Bands at Fireman's Park on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A groundhog walks around along the fence line on the south lawn at the Lanier Mansion on the day before Groundhog Day. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The magnolia trees were in full bloom this week in front of the Prince of Peace Church on Second Street providing a sweet fragrance for the nose and a bright sight for the eyes. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Omar Santamaria stands in the window of the the Old Jefferson Street Antique Mall while scrapping paint off the exterior sills. Building co-owner Andy Lytle said the first six of 87 windows are completed and they should all be done by the end of August. He said most of the interior demolition and restoration work has been completed. State permits for the construction work will be submitted soon. Lytle said one of the next visually noticeable projects on the building will be a new exterior paint job. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Elijah Pahls plays guitar and sings at a youth talent show at the Madison-Jefferson County Public Library on Wednesday. Each of the 13 performers received their choice of one book at the end of the program. Children's librarian, Brenda Evans said the show provided an opportunity for the youths to showcase their abilities in a friendly supportive environment. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

January 2010

2010-02-10T14:45:00.011-05:00

Tricia McDowell, from left, parts with her pink locks; Southwestern Elementary School student Caleb Denton, 10, gets his head shaved; and Gregor James goes bald to support his daughter at the ChickieFuzz Challenge at the Rusted Roots salon on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Isa James reaches out for her mom, Phoebe, from her dad, Gregor's arms, while Anita Bunch laughs and rubs her newly shaved head during the ChickieFuzz Challenge at the Rusted Roots salon on Thursday. Anita was the first person to have her head shaved down to the scalp in a fundraiser and community showing of solidarity for Isa, 3, who lost her hair to chemotherapy in an ongoing battle against acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Bunch said she had no worries about her hair. "It grows back," she said. Several people submitted to Kim Kidwell Lytle's electric clippers Thursday. including Isa's parents, and family friends, all to raise funds for the little girl's treatments. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Darrell Auxier participated in the the ChickieFuzz Challenge, and while he did not shave his head, he did part with the mustache that had adorned his face for the last 35 consecutive years. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Dupont Elementary School third-grade teacher Joe Elliot announces the players on purple and blue teams as they take the floor at the Dupont Elementary intramural basketball event on Friday, Jan. 22. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Ryan Whicker gives his orange team comprised of kindergarten through second graders a pep talk before they head back out to play in the Dupont Elementary intramural basketball event on Friday, Jan. 22. The basketball games are a way of bringing the rural community together and a chance for the children to play in a not-so-competitive, encouraging sport. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Dupont Elementary School second-grader Martin Hardy shoots the ball over his classmate, second-grader Cole Kanable's head during the Dupont Elementary intramural basketball event on Friday, Jan. 22. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jim and Alice Nichols (front row) react as their grandson, first-grader Lane Gayle and other players take a spill on the court at the Dupont Elementary intramural basketball event on Friday, Jan. 22. the children turned out to be fine and the grandparents and other fans of the game went back to their jovial applause and cheers. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tammy Cox fills bags of popcorn for sale at the Dupont Elementary intramural basketball concession stand on Friday, Jan. 22. Cox's children participate in the event. Her daughter, fifth-grader Courtney, plays basketball and is on the cheerleading squad when she does not play. And Cox's son, first-grader Dustin plays basketball. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Carrollton County Middle School science teacher Brenda Cole peeks from behind one of her classroom's new terrariums for a portrait. She purchased the terrariums with funds from a $500 “MAC Grant” from McDonald’s Restaurants. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Alex Nemeth talks up his collection of thousands of old beer cans, each one different from the next. None of Nemeth's displayed cans are alluminum. All are steel. He says he used to follow strangers on the street, waiting for them to throw their empty cans in a trash can or on the ground, so he could take the cans for his collection. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Thousands of colorful cans fill shelves from the floor to the ceiling in one of Alex Nemeth's rooms. The first beers in cans were sold 75 years ago in Richmond, Va. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Thousands of colorful cans fill shelves from the floor to the ceiling in one of Alex Nemeth's rooms. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A lumberjack swings an ax on a commemorative can of beer from the 1979 Sawdust City Days in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. the can is one of more than 150,000 owned by collector Alex Nemeth. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Webelo Cub Scout Fisher DeWitt, 10, celebrates after receiving trophies for most original racer and fastest Webelo with his hot dog car. Scouts from Pack 718 competed in the Pinewood Derby at the Brown Gym on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Hanover College sophomore Tara Francis, left, and junior Christina Howard carry a banner as they lead about 30 marchers in the fourth annual Marade. A Marade, is a march and parade that celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The marchers began at the Lynn gymnasium, marched to the west entrance of the college, then to the lawn in front of Donner Hall, on to the campus flagpole, to the Point and back to the Lynn gym.
At each stop there were recitations of speeches. Nana Thompson read from a speech from Martin Luther King Jr. Stacy Buschhaus read from a speech from Ida-Wells Barnett. Rusty Blaker read from a speech from W.E.B. DuBois. Morgan Rumple read the poem "Each One, Pull One" by Alice Walker. Cary Menifee read from a speech from Coretta King, and Xavier Jackson read from a speech from President Barack Obama.
There was also group singing of "Lift Every voice and Sing", also known as the "Black National Anthem". There was a solo rendition of "His Eye is on the Sparrow" by Monica Green and praise dancing by Yawa Tay, Christina Howard, Cary Menifee and Tiffany Casillas.
The Marade was organized by Kaleidoscope, a student group that educates students about minority issues, promotes cultural diversity, and supports those who are seeking to know more about the cultures that are on campus. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A truss is lifted into position on the Jefferson County Courthouse on Tuesday. The Courthouse was damaged by fire May 20, 2009. As reported in The Madison Courier on Monday, the estimate for completion of the dry-in portion of the roof is Jan. 27. The installation of the cupola and dome structure is expected by mid- to late summer. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Rogers Corner employee Goma Olin, tapes a sign to the Main Street entrance to the restaurant on Saturday that reads, "Today is Rogers last day! Come in and eat!"
According to Rogers manager Kerry Thompson, the business will be completely remodeled. "A remodel and remaking of this place could revitalize this corner," Thompson said. Thompson could not comment on the record as to what the new restaurant would be or when it would be done.
Thompson said that the location has had the name Rogers since 1908 and he believes that there was a lunch counter at Main and West streets since at least the 1880's. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Gaylean Morris, proprietor of the Indian Trails Restaurant, said she thinks Canaan will become a ghost town if the town's elementary school were to close. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Dennis Lyon, left, and Donald Copeland talk about growing up and going through school in Canaan and discuss the possibility of Canaan Elementary School's closure during lunch at the Indian Trails Restaurant in Canaan on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Third graders Mackenzie Gray, left, and Carol Lou Johnson, right, catch Carol's sister, kindergartner Patty johnson after she loses her footing on a pair of roller skates in the gymnasium at Deputy Elementary School on Monday. The kindergartners donned helmets, elbow pads and knee pads and received assistance from the older students as they learned how to control their movement on skates. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kindergartner Trenten Eggers begins to move smoothly across the gymnasium floor a few minutes after getting started on roller skates on Monday at Deputy Elementary School. The school's parent teacher association pulled their resources together to rent a case of skates from Skatetime School Programs, a company that provides roller skates with wheels that are designed for use on gym floors.
The school uses the skates to promote fitness and exercise. Also, the school will have family nights when the students can bring their parents and skate. The family skating nights will be on January 21 for fourth and fifth graders, January 28 for second and third graders, and February 4 for kindergarten and first grades. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Isaac Bevis, 8, walks past a tunnel opening of a snow structure that he built with his brother Owen on Saturday. Isaac and Owen's father, Ken Bevis said that since the twins are home-schooled, they were unaffected by the snow cancellations at Courierarea schools.
Bevis said they only ended up studying for half-day schedules on Thursday and Friday, but the children's friends in the neighborhood had the whole days off. So, when Saturday came, they took other shovels and snow-brick makers began an ambitious building project that included a domed fort with three tunnels and a wall surrounding the structure. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Bob Vonch checks his lines while ice fishing at Hereford Lake on Friday. He has to skim the top of the water to keep it from freezing over while waiting for a bite. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Bob Vonch of Madison shows a bluegill that he had just fished out of the icy waters of Hereford Lake on Friday. Vonch said the fish weren't terribly active, but with some patience and several poles working at once, he began to get some bites on the line. "I'll fish sometimes in the spring and summer," Vonch said. "But fish from the ice, Oh! It tastes good." (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A bluegill comes to rest after flipping around in the snow. The fish had just been caught by Bob Vonch, of Madison. He said that the fish keep flipping once in a while, sometimes for more than an hour, and that once or twice they have flopped back into the water. "I've lost a few of them that way." (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A bright purple Schwinn bicycle stands in stark contrast to the white blanket of snow near the Lynn Center for Fine Arts at Hanover College. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Water flows under snow covered chunks of ice on Harbert's Creek along side County Road 500-N near Wirt. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The 12-degree temperature did not serve as an excuse for Randy Moore, left, and Ron Marshall, who persevered through the cold for their regular walk in Clifty Falls State Park on Tuesday morning.
"We're out here all times of the year," Moore said. "Whether it's hot or cold."
However, Marshall did add that they don't walk through downpours of rain or in heavy snow. The rest of the week holds the promise of snow showers, with possible accumulation up to three inches in some areas on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Chris Wykoff uses a hand cart to move tires to a service bay at Big O Tires on Thursday. This week's snow storm may have canceled schools in the Courierarea, but there were still plenty of people out braving the elements to get necessary work done. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Madison Post Office Mail Carrier Michaela Bear delivers letters, magazines and other parcels on Broadway on Thursday. Bear said that after more than five years with the post office, she is used to delivering mail in any weather condition. She said there was a blizzard on the first day that she worked as a carrier. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A tractor clears the parking lot for patients, doctors and visitors at the King's Daughters' Hospital medical office building on Thursday. Today crews will be out again dealing with snow, both newly fallen snow and blowing snow that drifts back over the roadways. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Shila Ledger, 6, of Madison, lines up her shot while playing pool with her uncle Robert Roeseler at the ABATE of Jefferson County bowl-a-thon at Ten Pin Alley on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Megan Mullen and Dennis Perlstein walk down the aisle as the characters Emily Webb and George Gibbs in a rehearsal for the play Thornton Wilder's "Our Town". The play is a joint venture between Spectrum Productions and the Madison Consolidated High School Theatre Department. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Glenn Pavy, manager of Ten Pin Alley, checks on one in a line of Brunswick A2 machines that was not reloading pins properly. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Sheilia Underwood, sponsor of the Carroll County Middle School chess club, gives sixth-grader Clay Keeton some pointers before he takes on a club member. Underwood sponsoring the chess club at Cartmell Elementary School when her oldest son wanted to play about seven or eight years ago. When Her younger son moved up to the middle school, she passed her elementary school duties to another sponsor and began working with the older students. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Fourth-grader Bailey Black and her schoolmates leap and spins in a dance in the gymnasium during Anderson Elementary School's celebration on Friday for their 4-Star Award. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

First-graders Dakota Brown, from left, Jordyn Bilz, and Vy Huyhn, shout in a victory chant with their classmates during Anderson Elementary School's celebration on Friday for their 4-Star Award. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Cory O'Neal, of Southwestern, bottom, grimaces as he gets wrapped up by Milan's Tyler Money in the 103 lbs. weight class in the finals at the 2010 Southern Indiana Wrestling Conference on Saturday at Southwestern High School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Dakota Tatem, of Southwestern, looks for a way out from under Milan's Ben Jackson in the 285 lbs. weight class in the finals at the 2010 Southern Indiana Wrestling Conference on Saturday at Southwestern High School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Forrest Park's Justin Olinger, left, pushes Luke Schroeder, of Southwestern, toward the outside of the ring in the 119 weight class at the finals at the 2010 Southern Indiana Wrestling Conference on Saturday at Southwestern High School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Michael Brawner, of Southwestern, left, works for an advantage over Milan's Nick Huff in the 130 lbs. weight class in the finals at the 2010 Southern Indiana Wrestling Conference on Saturday at Southwestern High School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Justin Webb (30), of Trimble County High School, is fouled on his way to the basket by Eminence players Jordan Fairchild (11), left, and Dre Banta (21) in the second quarter of their game on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

November - December 2009

2009-12-31T09:09:00.003-05:00

Hamp

The late Hampton “Hamp” Baxter's daughter Grace Trogoley, left, leads her father's horse and scores of family and friends in a funeral procession to Hamp's final resting place deep in the woods on his farm on Shirks Hollow Road Wednesday.
Hampton “Hamp” Baxter's horse stands near his master's burial plot before Hamp's coffin was placed in the ground on Wednesday.
A large gathering of Hampton “Hamp” Baxter's friends come together around his coffin before the burial on his farm on Shirks Hollow Road Wednesday.
A group of men gently lays Hampton “Hamp” Baxter's handmade cedar coffin into the ground at his final resting place deep in the woods on his farm on Shirks Hollow Road Wednesday.
Gabe Baxter and his wife Mikel, embrace and shed tears for Gabe's father, Hamp Baxter during his burial service on Wednesday.
Flowers and a cowboy hat accompany Hamp Baxter's handmade cedar coffin at the end of his burial service on Wednesday.

A Deputy Laid to Rest

Jefferson County Sheriff Bill Andrews wipes a tear from his eye while discussing the loss of Deputy Bruce Sutton. Sutton died in a crash while responding to a call on Duggan Hollow Road on Friday. "I view this loss, as the sheriff of the county, like a loss of a child."
Flowers are set on the blacked-out windshield and on the ground beside a Sheriff's cruiser in front of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and Jail in memory of fallen Deputy Bruce Sutton. Sutton died in a crash while responding to a call on Duggan Hollow Road on Friday.
Jefferson County Sheriff Bill Andrews, right and Captain Keith Hartman place a flower arrangement at the site of Deputy Bruce Sutton's fatal car wreck on Dugan Hollow Road.
Jefferson County Sheriff Reserve Deputy John Schoenstein pauses at the coffin of his fallen comrade, Deputy Bruce Sutton, as Schoenstein and others laid white carnations atop the coffin during the burial service at the New Marion Cemetery in New Marion on Thursday.

Brandon Johnson, of Madison, holds his trumpet behind his back after playing Taps at Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy Bruce Sutton's burial service at the New Marion Cemetery in New Marion on Thursday.

Daily Work

Above and below: The Army Corps of Engineers have installed bulkheads and drained the water from the 1,200-foot-long main lock chamber of the Markland Dam and Locks in order to do repairs to the lower leaf gate, which was damaged when one of the leaves came off of its hinge Sept. 28. One leaf was removed and placed on a nearby covered barge for inspections and repairs. The fallen leaf is still at the bottom of the lock chamber, and should be removed this week. While the leaves are tended to, welders are also making necessary repairs to the Sockets for the pintle balls, which act similar to a ball and socket for the gate leaves to swing on. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Alan Jones helps to piece together the frames for the new half-pipe ramps in the Madison skate park on Monday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kim Watson takes pork chops from an oven for lunch at the Salvation Army last week. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kim Watson carries an arm full of canned peas from a dry storage closet at the Salvation Army. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kim Watson works over a stove top in the Salvation Army kitchen last week. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Don and Reva Sambol peruse the back patio of the Terrell Home on friday. The exterior space includes a resplendently decorated tree with white lights and oversized ornaments. The Terrell Home is one of 11 featured sites on the 2009 Nights Before Christmas Candlelight Tour of Homes. The tour is sponsored by the Madison Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Lanier State Historic Site, Historic Madison Inc., The Jefferson County Historical Society, and the Masonic Schofield House. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)
Julie Sparks sits with her father Marvin Bright during the Madison Consolidated High School Veterans Day program on Wednesday. Bright, a U.S. Navy veteran held a photo of himself and his three brothers, who all served in world War II. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

David Cart, of Vintage Restorations, paints the pressed tin ceiling in the sanctuary of the Kent United Methodist Church on Monday. Cart's work, which included some repair work near the church bell tower in addition to painting, should be done in about two weeks. The building is undergoing several restoration and renovation projects at the moment, with the congregation meeting in the fellowship hall on Sunday mornings.
Cart does most of his work with churches and other non-profit organizations. He helped with a major restoration project at the Deputy UMC several years ago, worked on the Historic Madison Inc., restoration of the Costigan House and wil be moving on to work on another church outside of the county this winter.
The Kent UMC had its ceiling painted a flat white color years ago. Cart found traces of the original colors while scraping the tin and is restoring those colors in the current restoration. He said the depth and complexity of the ceiling tile design had been lost in its all-white coating. "Now the detail will be hard to miss," Cart said. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Makayla Scheuermann, 3, places a new brightly colored throw rug in the center of her new bedroom. Makayla picked out the colors for her walls as her mom, Karrie Miller, and others prepared the family's Habitat for Humanity home for Tuesday's dedication and move-in. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Al Cochran, of American Legion Post 9, stands by waiting to serve in the Wreaths Across America ceremony at the Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kenneth Robertson kneels beside his wife Clara's headstone during the Wreaths Across America ceremony at the Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

September - October 2009

2009-11-17T10:41:00.009-05:00

Newly changed red leaves hang from a branch with other foliage that has not yet taken on its Autumn hue at General Butler State Park. Although many leaves have already fallen, there are still plenty of vibrant pockets of color to be seen in a drive in the Courierarea. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Penny Roberson makes an oil painting of the overlook of the Ohio River at the Great River Paint Out at Hanover College. This was the third Paint out, which is held every other year. This year there were about 150 artists in attendance, including groups of high school students from Trimble County, Ky., and Jennings County, Ind. Individual painters came from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. Roberson, of Noblesville, Ind., is a member of the Hamilton County Artists Association and a retired art teacher who said she spent a career teaching others to paint and has really dived back into her own art in the year since she retired. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Hanover College sophomore Wesley Hough makes himself comfortable in a chair in the Science Center on Monday and gets some reading done for a philosophy class that he is taking this semester. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Madison Consolidated High School junior Katie Hall paints a model of Little Jimmy for the set for the Madison Bicentennial Musical "Rivertown". Hall is the crew chief of the production. After working on plays at the high school for several years, Hall said it is cool to hear original songs about her town being sung by actors in the hallway instead of Broadway standards. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Madison Consolidated High School junior Dylan Kidwell arranges lights in the cat walk above the stage and seating in the MCHS auditorium for the Madison Bicentennial Musical "Rivertown". (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Choreographer Addie Turner teaches the chorus and other actors and dancers their steps during rehearsals for the upcoming production of Madison Bicentennial Musical "Rivertown" at Madison Consolidated High School. Turner is a 2007 graduate of MCHS. Students from Prince of Peace, Southwestern & Madison school are involved in the project. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Nichole Waldon applies mascara ash she and other actors and crew prepare on Friday for opening night of Rivertown, the original two-act play commissioned and performed for the Madison's Bicentennial. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A combine kicks up dust while harvesting soybeans from a field farmed by Terry Barker near County Road 650 West in Hanover Township on Wednesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Combines collect soybeans from a field farmed by Terry Barker near County Road 650 West in Hanover Township on Wednesday. There is a chance of rain forecasted through Friday night, which will slow down the harvesting process. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The Switzerland County High School marching band performs in the parade during the 45th annual Canaan Fall Festival on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Artist Leticia Bajuyo (Above and Below) works on an installation art piece that will eventually be a giant, two-horn gramophone sculpture created with wood, thousands of compact discs and fishing line, in Madison on Friday. The piece is being built in town, but will be taken to Louisville for a show at the Cressman Center, which will run through the end of November. Bajuyo is an associate professor of art and gallery director at Hanover College. She is currently on a semester-long sabbatical to pursue her vision without the pressures and commitments of the classroom. (Staff photos by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Documentary filmmaker Ric Burns flails his arms in an animated discussion of the truly American attributes of Tecumseh during an interview before his presentation on the Shawnee leader at Hanover College on Monday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The late morning sun shines on drying tobacco leaves that hang from scaffolding on land farmed by Mike Gray near Sandy Beach. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tobacco hangs from scaffolding on land farmed by Mike Gray near Sandy Beach. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Julio Hernandez cuts tobacco in a lot leased by farmer Mike Gray near Sandy Beach on Thursday. Gray and his father Larry Gray grow about 60 acres of tobacco together and another 300 acres of corn and soybeans. Mike Gray said the weather has not been too bad for the tobacco this year, but the heavy rains took out about half of his other crops.
With the transition from the auction system to contracts for selling tobacco, Gray said he and other large producers biggest challenge is finding enough places to hang the tobacco after harvest.
To meet the challenge, Gray has foregone the expense of new tobacco barns, and instead created simi-permenant hanging "scaffolds" on his property that have no walls, but have a metal roof and two levels of racks to hang the plants from. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

From bears, to pumpkins to Santa faces, Brian Christman sets out his creations in front of his home to be seen by passersby on Main Street in Vevay. In addition to his pieces that he does for himself, he also creates sculptures on commissions. He said when he's asked to create something new, even something that seems difficult, he always goes for it. He said that is how he learns and grows in his art. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Brian Christman leans against his work bench in his outdoor sculpting studio in Vevay. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Brian Christman carves out the snout of a bear with his chain saw. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Brian Christman makes delicate marks into a log that eventually took the shape of a bear in his outdoor workshop next to his home on Main Street in Vevay. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

John Roberts climbs a ladder on a painting job in Madison on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Hanover College senior Jason Taber stands chest deep in bushes to get to a corner that still needed scraped on the exterior of the St. Stephen's A.M.E. Church on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kelsea Kingery, of Greenfield, Ind., looks through a kaleidoscope at Fran McIntire's "Stained Glass & Scopes" booth at Old Court Days on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A view of the inside of a kaleidoscope at Fran McIntire's "Stained Glass & Scopes" booth at Old Court Days on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Fifth grader Josh Rosenbalm portrays King George III in a presentation called "A More Perfect Union" at Rykers' Ridge Elementary School. The presentation included all 27 students in Dariel Courtney's fifth grade class. they summed up the time between the U.S.'s separation from Great Britain with the Declaration of Independence through the writing and signing of the U.S. Constitution. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Portraying a group of patriots, fifth graders Ryan Adams, from left, Ray Clutter and Eli Kent burst out with laughter after set pieces fell to the floor beside them in a presentation called "A More Perfect Union" at Rykers' Ridge Elementary School on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Nurse Rebecca Wilson gives Quintin Beard, 5, a dose of the H1N1 flu vaccine at the Three Rivers District Health Department in Carrollton on Thursday. The vaccine clinic was free and open to the public. No appointment or insurance was required. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Mark Stultz takes his daughter Sophie, 7, on her first long hike at Clifty Falls State Park on Thursday. The two were at the park with the rest of their family from Carmel, Ind., during their children's fall break from school. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Maryli Peres, left, and Reyna Ortiz run around in the grass during the ninth annual Hispanic Cultural Awareness Festival at the Broadway Fountain on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Evan Searcy, 5, plays a game of checkers with his grandfather, Larry Searcy during the annual senior citizens event, "Memories of the Family Farm," at Point Park in Carrollton, Ky.
The free event included a "down home" meal, a costume contest, entertainment including square dancing and line dancers, Clay Cable and Friends, Pay It Fourward and David Stahl.
There were also free games, door prizes, a stick candy shop, old-fashioned displays at the General Store, a quilting bee and more. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jennifer Courtney waits with her sons, William, 6, and Liam, 4, at the corner of West and Main streets as the pint-sized Wolverine and Captain America collected sweets at the Shop & Treat on Friday. The pre-Halloween event allows children to collect goodies from downtown merchants. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Environmental inspector Jason Pfeiffer, left, of Linebach-Funkhouser, Inc., and Chris Cummins, of the Ky. Transportation Cabinet, collected samples from various areas of the Madison-Milton Bridge on Monday, including sealants and joint compounds. The samples will be tested for asbestos. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The Army Corps of Engineers Henry M. Shreve floating crane, of the Louisville Station Repair fleet, made its way up the Ohio River on Saturday. Weather permitting, the crane will be used on Monday at the Markland Dam and Locks to lift the middle wall miter gate leaf out of the lower end of the 1,200 foot main lock chamber. The leaf fell from its hinge several weeks ago, making the larger of the two locks unusable.
The plan is to lift the leaf out of the water and place it on a barge for inspection and possible repairs. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

An Army Corps of Engineers crew with the Henry M. Shreve floating crane, of the Louisville Station Repair fleet, removes a miter gate leaf from the lower end of the 1,200-foot main lock chamber of the Markland Dam and Locks on Monday. The leaf shown was damaged when its adjoining leaf came off of its hinge in late September. That leaf remains underwater and will be salvaged within the next couple of weeks. The leaf that was removed Monday was positioned onto a nearby barge. It will be inspected and assessed to determine whether it can be repaired or if it need to be replaced.
Col. Keith Landry, commander of the Louisville District of the Corps of Engineers, said that while the lock chamber is closed more inspections will be done throughout to make sure everything is up and ready for operations once the miter gate leafs are replaced. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Baker Corp. bridge engineer Aaron Stover faces a large group of people from the Indiana and Kentucky state preservation offices, the National Park Service, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Historic Madison Inc., the Jefferson County Historical Society, the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, the Advisory Council for Historic Places and other concerned citizens, and tells them about the proposed replacement process for the Milton-Madison Bridge on Monday as part of the "Section 106 Process." (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

August 2009

2009-09-01T10:48:00.007-04:00

Austin Darnold, 6, of Madison, jumps out from the spinning tunnel in a fun house at the Shawe and Pope John Summertime Festival on Friday. The festival continues today with live music, a spaghetti dinner, barbeque pork, rides, games, poker tables, a beer garden and more. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Alex Shaw, 6, center, sits with Reds teammates Jaden Frye, 6, left, and Sebastian Biallas, 6, while they wait to take the field. Even at a young age, Shaw's passion for the game is evident. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Alex Shaw, 6, waits for his turn at bat during a T-ball game at the Lide White Memorial Boys & Girls Club, Brok Hensler Memorial Field. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Alex Shaw, 6, swings at the ball during a T-ball game at the Lide White Memorial Boys & Girls Club, Brok Hensler Memorial Field. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The lead or "hare" balloon takes off at sunrise on Saturday as pilots and heir guests competed in the 2009 Ribberfest hare and hounds hot air balloon race. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kimberly Whiteman, of San Diego, Calif., walks inside of her team's balloon and unfolds it as it is inflated for the 2009 Ribberfest hare and hounds hot air balloon race on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

From new buds to extravagant blooms, a cornucopia of dahlias can be seen in a series of stages of growth in Kirk's garden. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Soldiers and civilians applaud as three helicopters from the 38th Aviation Brigade, 38th Infantry Division fly over the dedication ceremony of the Patriot Academy at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center on Wednesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Carrying a guidon topped with a fake skull and barbed wire, Pvt. Mario Guillen, 18, of Dallas, Tx., leads his citizen soldier classmates as the first class of the Patriot Academy leaves the school's dedication ceremony on Wednesday at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center.
The Patirot Academy is a pilot program with a mission to allow high school dropouts join the National Guard in their state, and earn their diploma at the academy in between their Basic and Advanced Individual training.
In addition to their high school classes, the students receive training to equip them in their roles as soldiers once they move on to the guard unit.
The students receive full-time military pay for their rank and benefits while attending the academy and live in dorms on-site.
The entrance requirements include having 10 or less credit hours remaining for graduation; ages 17-20; and they must have been out of school for at least six months.
There are currently 48 students in the academy, 18 of them are from Indiana. The National Guard Bureau predicts a maximum of 500 students in the program by 2011. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Sharon James takes kindergartner Austin Bilbrey by the hand and escorts him into class. Opening the doors and welcoming the students, James began Tuesday morning as the new principal of the brand new Milton Elementary School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Seventh graders Olivia Griffin, left, and Phoenix Whisman high-five after Olivia found out that she was placed in the advanced math class on the first day of school at Carroll County Middle School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Steven Snell, of Madison, clips Seyval Blanc grapes from a vine at the Madison Vineyards Estate Winery this morning. Steve Palmer, co-owner of Madison Vineyards said that the vineyard was inundated with at least 100 calls for their help wanted advertisement this year, more than in year's past.
Along with Snell, about 20 other people were working to beat the forecasted rain.
Palmer said it typically takes four to five weeks to pick all of the grapes. The vineyard has about 12 varieties of grapes that they grow. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

About 20 workers clip Seyval blanc grapes from vines at the Madison Vineyards Estate Winery Thursday morning. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Bridge inspector Jeff Sams, left, and Josh Rogers, project manager for Ohio River bridge inspections with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, discuss one of the 14 areas to be inspected on the Madison-Milton Bridge. Their task on Monday was to check all of the recent repairs to gusset plates and other structural elements on the bridge.
Their inspection, if all is deemed satisfactory, marks the completion of the repair process. If their inspection yields unsatisfactory results, contractors will be called back in to make changes. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Blues fans listen to the local band Stompbox at Bicentennial Park during the 2009 Ribberfest on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Billy Applegate, of the Madison Street Department, uses a saw to cut away a section of sidewalk in front of 712 West Third Street on Friday as the work continues at replacing old walkways this season. Two separate agendas are being met by the crews. One crew is repairing areas that were damaged by up-rooted trees in last September's wind storm. The other crew is tending to the long waiting list of neighborhood sidewalks that have needed replacement for several years.(Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Delaine Duquette, 9, is caught by her brother Dominique, 7, as she comes out of a slide at Crystal Beach Swimming Pool on Friday. The siblings, both of Madison, were at the pool as part of a field rip from the Lide White Memorial Boys and Girls Club.
The pool was scheduled to have free admission on the following Tuesday, with free hot dogs and soft drinks at 5 p.m. followed by the City council meeting at 5:30 p.m.; all as part of the annual a crime-prevention event, National Night Out. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Bob Wilson, of Scottsburg, warms up away from the crowd before taking to the stage in the fiddling contest at the Neavill’s Grove Old Settlers Meeting on Friday night. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Charles Pryor plays a trumpet solo with his band Big James & The Chicago Playboys at the 2009 Ribberfest on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Blandon Toombs, of Carrollton, Ky., tends to the chicken, beef and other items on the grill for his "Best Rack Around" grill team in the Madison Courier's Backyard BBQ Blast, part of the 2009 Ribberfest. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

July 2009

2009-08-13T17:23:00.009-04:00

Darren Barnes dismantles a rusted out bicycle that was brought in to Barnes' shop for a major overhaul. Barnes often relates the care for a bicycle to that of an automobile and says that a bike will last it's owner for a long time with a regular and consistent pattern of preventative maintenance. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Above and Below: Artist Tiffany Black works on the three story tall mural overlooking The Madison Courier parking lot on West Street. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Gary DuVall laughs with a resident at Hanover Nursing Center during an outreach church service from Hanover United Methodist Church on Sunday. DuVall sings at Hanover Nursing Center, Thornton Terrace and this week began singing at the Jewel House as well. He says he does what he does in order to thank God for his many blessings. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Gary DuVall sings and is accompanied by Norma Croxton on the piano, while they and Elizabeth McFall, all from Hanover United Methodist Church, provide an outreach church service to the residents of Hanover Nursing Center on Sunday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Mariana Stephens, 13, works on the wings of her paper mache pig during a session of a summer art camp taught by Stacy Hardesty-Gray at the Madison Art Club gallery on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tim Stoner, of Zionsville, Ind., helps his son, Gage, 4, aim a water cannon at a midway game during the Madison Regatta on Sunday. The crowd was able to ditch their umbrellas and ponchos on Sunday after a deluge of rain on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The crowd cheers for the National Guard unit from Madison as they march down Main Street in the 2009 Madison Regatta Parade on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jean Harrell reacts to the accolades expressed in her honor and to songs sung to her during a surprise party at her home in Wirt. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A Madison Railroad engine, passenger car and caboose cross a bridge near Breeding Road in Lancaster Township on Saturday. Beginning back at the railroad station at Jefferson Proving Ground, the bridge was the far point of a free train ride held in celebration of the Madison Railroad's anniversary. According to the railroad web site, Madison Railroad began operation in September 1978. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Lucas Bruno, 3, gets a close look at a river barge shipping container after the tugboat, "West Virginian" pushed aground at Milton on Monday to meet up with a repairman for the tug's air conditioning unit. The boat and it's 12 empty barge containers drew the attention of several spectators on the Madison riverfront. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Brett Cahall, 6, left, and Abby Ferguson, 6, both of Dupont, watch a passing demonstration from Madison Consolidated High School soccer players Mackenzie Grooms, 15, second from right, and Kayla Harmon, 15, during a soccer skills camp a Rucker Sports Complex on Monday.

The MaSh Soccer Camp brings players from MCHS and Shawe Memorial High School as well as Madison Girls soccer coach Kevin Dillman, and Shawe coach Pat Stack to teach the basics and advanced-basic skills of the game to area youths, ages 6-13. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Motorists traverse the bend on Hanging Rock Hill where the deluge of rain caused the falls to flow over the road on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

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2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair
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Alyssa Demaree, 18, sprays down her Holstein heifer named Milky, at the 2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Travis Imel, 19, helps his girlfriend Alyssa Demaree, 18, by tending to her quarter horse, Cloey, while she gets her sheep ready for competition at the 2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair. Having met through the FFA and 4-H, the two began dating at the fair three years ago. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Dana Mefford, 15, of the Dupont Die Hards 4-H club and her nephew Cody Williams, 9, of Madison, try to dislodge two feed buckets while helping Mefford's parents prepare their stables at the Jefferson County 4-H Fairgrounds on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Zach Hubbard, 16, of the Hanover No Names 4-H club, left, and Trace Taylor, 15, of the Kent Clover 4-H club hang a fan in the swine barn at the Jefferson County 4-H Fairgrounds on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kenton Mahoney, drops batter into the frier to make donuts at the North United Methodist Church booth at the Jefferson County 4-H Fairgrounds on Friday. Mahoney said he has been working the booth at every fair for the last eight or nine years. He said he will be working the opening shift all week, starting the production of donuts at 6:30 a.m. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Rebecca Mack, of the Homegrown 4-H Club, leads her poodle, Star, along the course in the Dog Agility competition at the 2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Sunday. Mack went on to win the Reserve Grand Champion award. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Meaghan Kramer, 5, of Hanover tries to keep the tractor moving in the Farm Bureau Pedal Pull on Sunday at the 2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair. Kramer won first place in the 0-40 pound weight class. More results and photos of the winners will be published in the upcoming 4-H Fair Review section. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jack McCane competes in the Mud sling grandstand event at the 2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Sunday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Conner Skirvin, 10, of the Saluda Kountry Kids 4-H club prepares his pygmy goat for the goat show on Monday at the 2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Shane Clark, 13, of the Dupont Diehards 4-H club hangs on a fence while waiting for the goat show to begin on Monday at the 2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Morgan Mahoney, 15, of the Hanover No Names 4-H club, rides her horse named Smokin' Footwork in the Western Pleasure Senior Horse Show competition at the Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Tuesday. Mahoney went on to win that particular competition. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Maggie Thomas, 17, of the Kent Clover 4-H club, rides her horse named Lucy in the Western Pleasure Senior Horse Show competition at the Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Tuesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Andre Howard, right, and his cousin Aidan Triplett, both 3, of Madison, ride the Sky Fighter during Kiddie Day at the 2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Wednesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Brienne Copeland, 13, of the Canaan 4-H Club, practices her handling of her Suffolk sheep before the Sheep Show at the 2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Wednesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Derek Wynn, 18, waits to take his steer in for competition while his sister, Abbi, 12, and father Larry make last moment adjustments to the animal at the Beef Show at the 2009 Jefferson County 4-H Fair on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

June Favorites

2009-07-03T16:14:00.009-04:00

Lizzy Barnes , of Dayton, Ohio, sings "Only You" with the DH Dance Orchestra at the 1920's Gala Cocktail Party on Vaughn Drive on Sunday. The Gala was part of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kelly and Eric Rector, of Madison dance in 1920s costumes as the DH Dance Orchestra plays at the 1920's Gala Cocktail Party on Vaughn Drive on Sunday. The Gala was part of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Suzan and Gary Duckworth, of Madison, laugh with friends at the 1920's Gala Cocktail Party on Vaughn Drive on Sunday. The Gala was part of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Water Aerobics Instructor Sandy Ison leads a class at Crystal Beach swimming pool on Thursday. Eighteen people showed up for the class on Thursday, which was about five more than the first class. Ison is a rehabilitation technician at King's Daughters' Hospital.
The City of Madison Parks Department is providing the class for free on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 a.m. The class is limited to people over 55 and will continue through Tuesday, July 28. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Mabel Harrison smiles while running in place underwater during a senior water aerobics class at Crystal Beach swimming pool on Thursday. Instructor Sandy Ison told the participants that while the exercises seemed easier because of the low impact in the water, the effectiveness of the exercises would certainly be felt in the days ahead.
"It's a real workout," Ison said.
The City of Madison Parks Department is providing the class for free on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 a.m. The class is limited to people over 55 and will continue through Tuesday, July 28. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Marlyn Finnegan, center, Nancy Watson, left, and Lynn Murphy follow the lead of instructor Sandy Ison in a senior water aerobics class at Crystal Beach swimming pool on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tim Malone, from the Louisville based A&A Concrete Sawing & Drilling, carries a large blade back to his truck after cutting through the roadway on State Road 62 on either side of the rail road crossing between Wilson Avenue and State Road 7. The crossing is being replaced this week. The process is being done with pre-cast concrete panels that have ready made groves for the tracks to fit into. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Faye King talks about her love of flowers and gardening while standing amongst her day lilies and other pretty petaled plants at the south entrance of Madison Heritage Apartments. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Juliana Dilk, 7, of Madison, cheers as she makes her way down the twisting water slide at the Clifty Falls State Park pool on Monday. The pool is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (weather permitting) Admission to the pool is $2 per person or $35 for 25 admissions during the season. Children two years old and younger are admitted for free. Admission to the park is $4 per Indiana licensed vehicle on weekdays and $5 on weekends. Out of state vehicles cost $7 everyday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Batesville Lumbermen player T.J. Green waits for his turn at bat while John Aplin, of the Indianapolis Blues, pitches during a vintage baseball game at Legion Field at Shawe Memorial High School on Saturday. The game was a part of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

John Aplin, of the Indianapolis Blues, encourages a teammate at bat during a vintage baseball game at Legion Field at Shawe Memorial High School on Saturday. The game was a part of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Crowds watch the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party laser light and fireworks show at the Rucker Sports Complex on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Rusty Bladen and his band headlined a night of music at the Rucker Sports Complex as part of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party on Saturday. After Bladen finished his set, the audience was treated to an impressive laser light and fireworks show that was sponsored by Madison Precision Products. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Chad Kraner, from left, and Dave Walker, teach Jack Dryden, 9, and Grant Ward, 11, about the use of rifles in the Civil War during Lanier Days at the Lanier Mansion on Saturday. Lanier Days and the Historic Trades Fair went on throughout the weekend at the mansion as parts of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tyler Reckner, of Sebree, Ky., runs along the top of the south wall to the Lanier Mansion gardens before jumping down near his family's tent during Lanier Days at the Lanier Mansion on Saturday. Lanier Days and the Historic Trades Fair went on throughout the weekend at the mansion as parts of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Lyndsae Reckner, of Sebree, Ky., walks her Jersey cow, Rosy, during Lanier Days at the Lanier Mansion on Saturday. Lanier Days and the Historic Trades Fair went on throughout the weekend at the mansion as parts of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jayden Snell, 5, swings a sword at the camera while pretending to be a super hero in his home in Canaan. Jayden's mother said before his diagnosis with Neuroblastoma, he was lethargic, cried constantly and never wanted to eat. Finally a doctor sent him in for chest x-ray and found the cancer.
Now Lefker says Jayden is just like any other boy, running around and playing at full speed all day long. Jayden still has to go in for tests and checkups every six months to make sure the cancer has not returned. He is set to start kindergarten at Canaan Elementary School in the fall. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Dressed as old time newsies and posing for the camera, Tristan Kelsi, 10, left, and Ian Banta, 12, hawk commemorative editions of The Madison Courier to the crowd at John Paul Park before the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party Founder's Parade on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Charles Hillary reads the Bicentennial Commemorative Edition of The Madison Courier while sitting on the back of an antique fire engine at the Antique Fire Equipment Muster at Fireman's Park, part of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Camille Fife portrays opera singer Jenny Lind at the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party Opening Ceremony at Vaughn Drive and Broadway on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Leroy Harsin rides down Broadway in the Madison Trolley during the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party Founder's Parade on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Dillon Gardner, 8, Owen Altermatt, 4, his brother Alex Altermatt, 22 months, and Catherine Fisher, 10, make their way through a Labyrinth painted in the grass near the Madison Riverfront Gazebo during Arts Day on the Madison Riverfront on Monday. Arts day is part of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Darrick Byers uses tires found near the Ohio River for a sculpture he was asked to build for Arts Day on Monday. Arts day is part of the Madison Bicentennial 200 Hour Party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Corey Weaver rests his eyes as he and his classmates await the beginning of the 2009 Graduation ceremony at Shawe Memorial High School on Sunday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tyler Burress looks to the crowd of families and friends in the stands at the 2009 Madison Consolidated High School Graduation while he and his classmates march into the gymnasium on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Salutatorian Michael Swartz laughs with his classmates as they wait to move to the gymnasium for the 2009 Graduation ceremony at Shawe Memorial High School on Sunday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Joanie Poe carts a load of strawberries out to a wholesale customer at Bray Orchards and Roadside Market in Bedford, Ky. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

May Favorites

2009-06-04T16:33:00.009-04:00

Here's my favorites from May 2009. There will be an upcoming series of photos posted showing the Jefferson County (Indiana) Courthouse before, during and after the fire.

A bored Cassandra Allen, 5, yawns and stands by while waiting for her mom, Sarah Beavers, to finish filling out forms at the kindergarten registration day at Southwestern Elementary School on Wednesday. The forms included medical information, basic information about the student and a sheet for the parent's choice of full or morning-only kindergarten.
Additionally, the students were given a speech evaluation and a "Pre-Kids" evaluation, which determines their current grasp of numbers, letters, shapes, colors and more.
Finally the parents work with the school to find out whether or not they are eligible for free or reduced lunch.
On the first day of the SWES school year, parents are allowed to stay with their children through the morning to help get the students acclimated to their classroom environment. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Izabelle Lewis raises her hand to answer a question in class on Friday. Using paper flowers, drawings, and stickers, Lewis and her classmates in Crystie Schultz's second grade class at Pope John Elementary used older copies of the Madison Courier to make fancy hats in celebration of Saturday's 135th Kentucky Derby. Once completed, the youths read the lifestyles section of the courier as part of their Newspapers in Education program. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Four goslings swim with a goose in the lead on the Ohio River on Monday. The baby geese recently hatched from a nest on a pier near the Madison riverfront. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

David Bear cuts a section out of a piece of wood on a lathe for what will be a bowl. Bear, who also teaches industrial arts at Madison consolidated High School has been creating wood crafts, from bowls to boats, chairs to cabinets in his shop for more than 30 years. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

David Bear uses a lathe to make a wooden beer cozy. Bear creates some items for gifts, some for sale and some just for himself. A recent project was to recreate the folding chairs that were used by generals in the Civil War. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Robert Stewart is encouraging the men of Madison to begin growing out their facial hair and join the "Brothers of the Brush" for the Madison Bicentennial. Buttons can be purchased by men who would like to participate, the proceeds from the donations and sales all go to the Fresh Start Home, a therapeutic youth home in Madison. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A group of local 16 to 22 year olds walked downtown Madison singing Christian praise and worship songs on Thursday afternoon. Event organizer Stephan DeLorenzo said one of the reasons for the praise walk was to show that teenagers can make a positive impact on a community. "We're not a lost generation," DeLorenzo said. "We are people of faith and we feel called to share that with others."
Before the walk, DeLorenzo told the participants that they are not limited to sing praises to Jesus only when they are in a church building. He also encouraged them to do everything as worship to the Lord not only singing. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Gunnar Deatherage, a 2008 Southwestern High School graduate, is hoping to reap success from what he sews and designs. One of the dresses that Deatherage designed was recently purchased for a high profile derby party. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Fred Harrell is the oldest surviving person from the Madison school board. Harrell served on the board for 30 years. During a recent interview, Harrell discussed his memories in education and his theories as to the challenges in education today. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

An iris soaks in the sun in the garden of the Iron Gate Inn on Saturday. The storm clouds that rolled through the Courierarea on Friday thinned out on Saturday and Sunday for a sunny, opening weekend of the Madison in Bloom garden tour. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Joe Craig, of Craig Buick and Toyota, said his lot was buzzing with activity on Monday, but not with the kind of crowd he would like to see.
Early in the afternoon a large swarm of honeybees began to hover near the service department before finally coming together around the queen near the hinge of a door on an old storage shed.
After several calls, to local bee keepers, Craig contacted Ted Chatham of Hanover to take care of the intruders.
"This is the time of year for it," Chatham said as he began disturbing the bees with sugar water spray and a small hand broom.
Chatham said he had just given his number to the Madison Police Department in case anyone was having problems with the local bees.
"I've had three calls so far this year."
After spraying the bees with the sugar water, which Chatham said is a good way to calm them, he simply brushed them off of the outbuilding and into a hive box on the ground below.
Chatham, who did all of the work without a mask, gloves or long sleeves, finally found the queen bee inside the building and placed her in the box.
"I'll leave the box here," said Chatham, "and they'll all be off the building by tonight." (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

See Above Caption. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

See Above Caption. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

John Trout works on a painting in his studio in Hanover. Sometimes painting to a classical music piece, sometimes to jazz and even to bluegrass, Trout picks one song and paints to the same song played repeatedly while working on a new painting. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Every wall, every door and even areas of Trout's ceiling are used as display areas for the hundreds of paintings that he has created. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Autumn Frisque, 5, smiles at the cheering crowd while racing in the annual Head Start 500 at the O.V.O. Child Development Center on Wednesday. The race car boxes were created by the children and their parents, and the youngsters ran in heats of three to four children. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kentucky Chautauqua speaker Jim Sayer portrays Abraham Lincoln during the Wednesdays at One presentation at the Carroll County Public Library. The program, which is part of the Kentucky Humanities Council, recounts everything from Lincoln's birth to his assassination. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

James Hall measures out ammonia for a series of tests to wastewater samples at Environmental Laboratories on Friday, May 8. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Brigid Kaelin, of Louisville, uses everything from the guitar and accordion to a saw to accompany her singing in what she describes as "Alt-Country Cabaret" on the second day of the 2009 Ohio River Valley Folk Festival at Bicentennial Park on Saturday. Fans dealt with discouraging deluges of rain in between pockets of sunshine Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Sarah Day, 12, and other members of Girl Scout troop 1667, place flags into the ground next to grave stones at the Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Monday. The flags are planted each year in the week leading to Memorial Day. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jeri Johnson, 11, left, Jerica Kenworthy, 11, and other members of Girl Scout troop 1667, place flags into the ground next to grave stones at the Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Monday. The flags are planted each year in the week leading to Memorial Day. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Ruby Rowlett discusses her experiences from more than a half century of working with local lawyers. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Ruby Rowlett reminisces with attorney Rob Barlow about the changes that have come to the office since she began as a legal secretary when she was 18. Rowlett says she thought of her office as being technologically advanced when she started working because they had electric typewriters. Later she said she wasn't quick to adopt newer computer systems. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Workers spread cement around the Broadway Fountain on Friday. The area around the fountain is being repaired due to large broken areas of the old concrete. The bricks that used to inlay the area will be put back into place. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

In character as James Madison, John Douglas Hall mingles with John Muessel, left, and Bob Canida, right during the 2009 Historic Madison, Inc. Members' Annual Dinner on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Graduates wait for the processional to end before taking their seats at the 176th Hanover College Commencement ceremony on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Chris Perry waits with the other graduates for the beginning of the 176th Hanover College Commencement ceremony on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Graduates Justin Maltsberger and Autumn McClatchey share a laugh while waiting under the shade of a tree before the start of the 176th Hanover College Commencement ceremony on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Josh Jordan captures a picture of himself in the reflection of the sunglasses worn by his friend, Hanover College Graduate Brooks Ahlfenger, prior to the 176th Hanover College Commencement ceremony on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Graduates Daniel Steele, left, and Bobby Smart wait on a bench near their friends before the beginning of the 176th Hanover College Commencement ceremony on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Riley Carroll, 3, of Louisville, leans on her mom, Nikki and waves flags during the Memorial Day Service at Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Monday. Riley Carroll's grandfather is buried at the Madison cemetery and her dad, Shawn, is following in his father's footsteps by joining the U.S. Marine Corps this week. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Workers from the Louisville, Ky., based D&M Masonry have begun work on repairing damage to the Trinity United Methodist Church building. Church trustee Tony Waltz said the damage occurred during in the wind storm last September. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

April 2009 Photos

2009-05-28T12:45:00.009-04:00

Sorry they are late. I'll try to post May pics sooner. Here's April Photos in no particular order.

Science teacher Kirsten Carlson explains proteins to her class of ninth graders at Madison Consolidated High School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Science teacher Kirsten Carlson finds an outlet for her creative and artistic side through performing music. The saxophonist says that not all scientists or science teachers fit into the nerdy stereotypes of the past. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Science teacher Kirsten Carlson oversees freshman Jennifer Bates as Bates works a formula on the overhead projector at Madison Consolidated High School. Carlson attempts to make everything she teaches as applicable as possible to help the students with understanding and retention. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

After attaching ropes to the top, Cinudio Jimenez, climbs off the large tent during the preparation for Tuesday night's Kelly Miller Brothers Circus on the grounds of North Madison Christian Church. The traditional tented circus and will feature performances from elephants, horses, clowns and more. The Hugo, Okla., based circus will go almost 10,000 miles and perform in more than 200 locations in North America in its 2009 season March to October. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Hector Perez guides the placement of a support post in the large tent during the preparation for Tuesday night's Kelly Miller Brothers Circus on the grounds of North Madison Christian Church. The traditional tented circus and will feature performances from elephants, horses, clowns and more. The Hugo, Okla., based circus will go almost 10,000 miles and perform in more than 200 locations in North America in its 2009 season March to October. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Marco Antonio uses ropes to connect the roof and side walls of the big tent during the preparation for Tuesday night's Kelly Miller Brothers Circus on the grounds of North Madison Christian Church. The traditional tented circus and will feature performances from elephants, horses, clowns and more. The Hugo, Okla., based circus will go almost 10,000 miles and perform in more than 200 locations in North America in its 2009 season March to October. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A crew of workers pulls the first few posts up on the large tent during the preparation for Tuesday night's Kelly Miller Brothers Circus on the grounds of North Madison Christian Church. The traditional tented circus and will feature performances from elephants, horses, clowns and more. The Hugo, Okla., based circus will go almost 10,000 miles and perform in more than 200 locations in North America in its 2009 season March to October. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Daniel Buechlein, Archbishop of Indianapolis, presides over the annual Senior Mass at St. Patrick's Catholic Church for the soon to be graduates of Shawe Memorial High School on Monday.
During the Mass, the Archbishop made note of the 175th anniversary of the Archdiocese of
Indianapolis, which was originally called the Diocese of Vincennes, by recounting the beginnings of the Archdiocese.
The Diocese originally included all of Indiana and a large portion of Illinois.
Special mention was made of Simon Bruté, the first bishop, who started his ministry with only three priests. The last mass that Bruté conducted was actually in Madison. Buechlein said the Bishop was barely able to stay on his horse to arrive in Madison and when He returned home, he died of tuberculosis.
Returning the focus from history to the students' future, Buechlein extolled the students for their hard work throughout school and encouraged them to continue to strive for excellence in what ever they feel called to do, adding at the end that he hoped some of the men might feel called to go into the priesthood.
"Somebody's got to be ready to replace Father John (Meyer)," Buechlein joked. "Every time I come down to Madison he's got more gray hair." (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Stephanie Hellmann, from left, Connie Partington and Betsy Vonderheide, stay in character while carrying on a conversation as Delia Webster, Sara Tittle Bolton and Drusilla Cravens at the Art Jam on Main Street on Friday. The three were a few of the many re-enactors representing important figures from Madison's past. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tony Blade, left, and Chuck Hughes work to repaint the windows of Christ Episcopal Church on the Mulberry Street side on Thursday. While the economy has taken a downturn for many, Bladen said he is already booked throughout the summer. The center window was damaged in the September 15, 2008 hurricane. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Dupont Elementary fifth grader Katie Mason carries a trash bag as her classmates scan the area for trash near a creek passing the school. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Dupont Elementary fifth grader Bryce Ford hauls a large bag of trash and recyclables back to the school as he and his fifth and fourth grade schoolmates cleared litter from the streets of Dupont as an Earth Day project on Wednesday. The students picked up bottles, cans, food wrappers, old clothing, countless cigarette butts and other debris. Some of the bags had so much trash that it took two students to carry them. After the students got back to class they sorted the recyclables out of the trash and used a worksheet to analyze their findings. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Dupont Elementary fifth grader Reece Dryden puts a bottle into a trash bag held by fourth grader Marey Sampson while the two work with their schoolmates to clean up the streets of Dupont on Wednesday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The Heaven's Light praise group bassist Leigh Stephenson practices with the group at the New Life Community 1st Assembly of God Church in Bedford, Ky. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Earthworms crawl around in a compost heap in Madison. The worm castings (waste) produce nutrients in the soil. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Diana Dearing peruses books at a vendor's table at the 11th annual Bits & Pieces Quilt Show at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. All proceeds from the show go to scholarships in Jefferson County. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Lukas Shepherd, 6, and other children fly kites they made at Clifty Falls State Park on Saturday. the event was hosted by the park and the Hoosier Kitefliers Society included both the kite making workshop at the nature center and the annual kite fly near the north entrance to the park. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Christan Turner, right, has moved her modeling and talent agency, Pinnacle 10, from Madison to the Starks Building in Louisville and is finding opportunities for Hanover resident Rebecca White and other clients in the city. Turner, who still lives in Jefferson County, says she still has a heart for the area and is always looking for ways to promote Madison. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Finding a break in the dreary weather that had hovered in the area in the last week, Mike Stucker, of Madison took his son, Michael, 5, out for an afternoon of fishing at Kruger Lake at Jefferson Proving Ground on Thursday. The weather is forecasted to remain warm and sunny until Sunday, allowing for more chances for father-son excursions. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Nadja Boone, community relations director at King's Daughters' Hospital, center, talks about the digital x-ray technology that the hospital uses as attendees of the Industry Possibilities & Opportunities event pass by the KDH booth. Tara Howard, left, is a recent high school graduate who is now in the radiology program offered at the hospital and is learning to use the modern equipment. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kenny Barron uses a small brush to create rough timbers on the wall of an old barn from his imagination in a makeshift studio in his home. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kenny Barron studies the canvas before making his next brush stroke on a painting. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kenny Barron uses a small brush to create rough timbers on the wall of an old barn from his imagination in a makeshift studio in his home. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kenny Barron uses a small brush to create rough timbers on the wall of an old barn from his imagination in a makeshift studio in his home. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Kenny Barron discusses his artwork while painting a landscape with two old barns and a small pond. Barron laughs and shakes his head no when asks if he would consider joining an art group or sell his work at an exhibition.
A self-taught painter who works exclusively in acrylics, Barron began painting during rehabilitation from heart surgery after her retired. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tammy Quick sings a Tracy Chapman cover during her performance at Joeyg's Restaurant & Nightclub on Saturday. Quick was one of nine acts that participated in a benefit concert at the club to raise money for this year's Ohio River Valley Folk Festival. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A raccoon climbs along the top of a tree on the 900 block of West Main Street on Thursday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Morris Gill loads a hot dog up with chili for customer Don Morris, left, at his stand on Main Street near the municipal parking lot on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Morris Gill sells hot dogs plain, and loaded with chili and cheese at his stand on Main Street near the municipal parking lot on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Sydney Sandlin, 10, carries a vase of flowers through the kitchen of her family's new home in Dupont. Sydney, her brother Mitchell, 13, and their mother, Sonya Sandlin were the recipients of the newest Heart of Madison Habitat for Humanity home in Jefferson County, which was dedicated in a ceremony on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A ball rolls toward its target at this year's Bowl for Kids Sake at Ten Pin Alley on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Mischell Neher, bowls for her team, the E.O. Muncie Hula Girls at this year's Bowl for Kids Sake at Ten Pin Alley on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

This year's graduation services at Madison Consolidated High School is likely to be a cooler event as the junior high and high schools had new air conditioning units delivered on Tuesday. The new air conditioners are being installed by Terry's Heating & Cooling and were put into place with the aid of air lift services from St. Louis Helicopter from Sellersburg, Ind.
During the lifts, the students had to be moved away from the area the helicopters were flying over. At the high school that meant moving the students to another side of the school. Due to the location that the units were to be installed at the junior high, the students there had to be evacuated from the school during the lift. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jim E. Gregory sorts through the bottles of essential oils that he uses to create the fragrances for his various soaps. Gregory is a Hanover College student in the Center for Business Preparation program. He says that he didn't want to stand still only soaking up information while in school without putting it immediately to use, so he looked for a entrepreneurial endeavor that would allow him to hone his skills. It was in that spirit that Esoteria Soap was created. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Don Wells and Kurt Kahl, of the Madison Area Bike Club, travel north on Breeding Road in Lancaster Township on a ride from Jefferson Proving Ground to Dupont on Monday. The riders take different routes throughout the week. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Don Wells and Kurt Kahl, of the Madison Area Bike Club, travel north on Breeding Road in Lancaster Township on a ride from Jefferson Proving Ground to Dupont on Monday. The riders take different routes throughout the week. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Hanover College student Ellen Flach discusses her inspiration for her work on display at the college art gallery on Friday. Her presentation, along with classmates Kristen Croxton and Erin Radtke's presentations concluded the student art exhibit for the three students. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

March 2009

2009-04-07T10:47:00.008-04:00

A crew from Construction Technology Laboratories Group and Bridge Inspection Systems hang from a platform between the deck of the Madison-Milton Bridge and the Ohio River on Monday as inspection of the piers continues. The piers are being inspected and tested to determine the feasibility of reusing them for a new bridge to connect Jefferson County, Indiana and Trimble County Kentucky. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Rick Campbell, Libby DeVore and other workers from Madison Precision Products pick up trash from the roadside along 421, Michigan Road and Dawson Smith Road on Friday. DeVore said they were doing the work as a way of being "good neighbors" in the community. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Donnie Malcomb wears a face of dejection as the outcome of Madison's game against Scottsburg and the end of the Cubs season becomes evident in the end of the third quarter on Friday night at Madison Consolidated High School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Luke Jones, of Madison moves between Scottsburg's Tyler Patton, left, and Dj Myers, right, in the third quarter of their game on Friday night at Madison Consolidated High School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Donnie Malcomb, of Madison, looks for a way around Scottsburg's Ben Everett in the first quarter of their game on Friday night at Madison Consolidated High School. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Prayer leaders read from Romans 12: 14-21 during the World Day of Prayer service at Madison Presbyterian Church on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The boys from the Carroll County High School Leadership Institute wait in a holding cell in the Carrollton County Regional Detention Center during their tour of the justice system in the shoes of a criminal on thursday. The girls were put into a separate holding cell. No actual offenders were in the cells with the students. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

E.O. Muncie first grader Antonio Martinez sits behind his company of small plastic army men, jeeps and tanks in the school gymnasium for Hobby Show on Friday.
Martinez and all his classmates from the four first grade classes presented their hobbies, collections and points of interest at the school's Hobby Show.
Each display required the students to write a short story, bring in related books and set up a sort of show and tell booth. With all of the students in place at their respective stations, the other students, teachers and parents made their way around the room and the youngsters told all about their hobbies. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Indiana poet laureate Norbert Krapf recites a portion of his work during his book signing and reading visit at the Village Lights Bookstore on Saturday. Krapf's friends, Madison singer-songwriters Greg Ziesemer and Kriss Luckett-Ziesemer, also entertained the packed room with original music in between the readings. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Byron Gorrell comes to life as Ben Franklin during the annual wax museum program at E.O. Muncie elementary school on Friday. The presentation includes each third grader taking on the role of a historic figure of their choice, dressing like their character, creating a display board of information and reciting (with the help of cue cards) a short biography of the person they are portraying. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Austen McElrath portrays a pint sized Martin Luther King, Jr., during the annual wax museum program at E.O. Muncie Elementary School on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

George Washington, a.k.a. Gage Brewer, waits for his audience at the beginning of the annual wax museum program at E.O. Muncie Elementary School on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tony Bushong and Trajan Mack portray Davy Crockett and Jesse Owens respectively, to a roving group of spectators at the annual wax museum program at E.O. Muncie Elementary School on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

David Pennybaker, of Milton, Ky., waits for a ride near where he made an emergency landing with his Cessna 150 airplane on Sunday. The pilot said he had been flying his plane for about an hour when his engine began to sputter and he had to find a place to put it down.
"You can't do anything about an engine failure," Pennybaker said. "I had plenty of fuel."
The airplane was brought down in the field used for the driving range at Clifty Golf Range at the east junction of state roads 56 and 62 near Hanover.
Pennybaker, who was the only one in the airplane, said the front landing gear bent back in the mud, causing the nose of the plane to tip down.
no one was injured in the landing. (Staff Photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The official beginning of Spring was on Friday. A drive through the Courierarea provides perusers with a plethora of pastel picture opportunities. These buds and blossoms in a Tulip tree behind the Madison City Municipal Building actually began to bloom a couple of days before the seasons changed. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Hanover College sophomore Alyssa Zaid, originally of Hammond, Ind., soaks in the sun like the daffodils surrounding her at The Point on the college campus on Friday, the first day of Spring. The the daffodil bulbs were planted last October in the area looking over the Ohio River as a memorial to friends, faculty, staff, family members and others connected to Hanover College who have passed away. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Green foliage overtakes a dead tree stump, bringing some of the first hints of color to Clifty Falls State Park on Friday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jesse Stickle, right, interviews Bob Scudder and others during a session of interviews at Manpower in Madison on Friday. Stickle is looking to fill supervisor positions for his Columbus, Ind., based business Quality Manufactors Inspection, which does medical and automotive production sorting. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

{for Wedding Tab} In a time of financial uncertainty, brides and grooms to be can still find quality and beauty on a budget, like this $299 wedding dress from Weddings & Proms in downtown Madison. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

{for Wedding Tab} Finding the right engagement ring like one of these at Gold 'N' Treasures, or from another local jeweler may be one of the more important decisions to be made on your ways to nuptials. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Madeline Frasure, from left, her sisters, Jordan and Elly, her father Mike and mother Louise, all from Lebanon, Ind., take in the view of the Ohio River Valley from the observation tower in clifty falls State Park on Monday. The Frasure sisters are on Spring break from their schools and the family visited Madison as part of their vacation. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Mackenzie Scales, 3, collects small plastic Easter eggs during the annual egg hunt at the Hickory Creek nursing home on Saturday. Scales mother said that last year the youngster got scared when she saw the Easter bunny and didn't end up getting any eggs. this year she filled her basket.
Hickory Creek held their egg hunt early this year in order to keep from conflicting with the Big Brothers big sisters Bowl for Kids Sake on Saturday, April 4.
This year there were 2,200 plastic eggs, filled with candy and distributed into areas for different age groups to search out. There were also games, refreshments and pictures with the Easter bunny inside and an inflatable bounce castle near the parking lot. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Preston Abbott, 5, smiles at the Easter Bunny during a visit before the kickoff of the annual egg hunt at the Hickory Creek nursing home on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Aleigh Wilson, 2, and other children search high and low for Easter eggs during the annual egg hunt at the Hickory Creek nursing home on Saturday. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Update

2009-03-02T11:24:00.009-05:00

Hey folks. Thanks for stopping by. I've been away for a while and I'm trying to get back to a monthly update, here's a bunch from February.

Bobby Phillips, of the Jefferson County Highway Department, waits in his cab as co-worker Bill Hopper loads about eight tons of cinders into Phillips' truck.

Bobby Phillips, of the Jefferson County Highway Department, stops to talk to plow driver Dean Moreland about an area where the snow had blown back over the roadway.

Bobby Phillips, of the Jefferson County Highway Department, traverses the slick passage along Lick Branch Road during his rounds with his cinder truck.

Bobby Phillips, of the Jefferson County Highway Department, radios in to the county garage while on his way to drop cinders on Deputy Pike.
Bobby Phillips, of the Jefferson County Highway Department, uses a shovel to scrape the cinders from the sides of the bin on the back of his truck before completing the second half of his route.

Lydia Middleton Elementary student Logan Arnold went hog wild with his representation of a meat packing plant. The information card for Arnold's diorama included the information that in 1852 Madison meat packing plants processed a record 130,730 hogs.

Emergency vehicles are parked in front of the inferno of the Elks Lodge in a diorama created by Casey Jones, a student at Lydia Middleton Elementary School.

Shannon Dattilo's kindergarten class at Southwestern Elementary School has a Zoo Phonics word wall that she uses to reinforce the concepts of the program. Dattilo has a stuffed animal next to each letter that corresponds to the animal characters, including "Peewee Penguin," from the program.
Jesse Campagna, 5, finds the word omnivore on a science worksheet in Dawn Brandon's kindergarten class at Southwestern Elementary School. The children are using the concepts from Zoo Phonics to help distinguish words in various areas of their schooling.

Freshman James Wylder visited the Hanover College Art Gallery's exhibit of selections from the school's Private Art Collection last week. The exhibit, made of four separate groupings, features artists from the 17th-20th centuries including Pablo Picasso, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, and Francisco de Goya.
According to Associate Professor of Art Leticia Bajuyo, the four groupings were curated, researched, and installed by senior Art History majors Brooks Ahlfenger, Sarah Carman, Amy Dunham and Erin Radtke.
The exhibit is closed this week for the college's winter break and it will re-open on Monday, March 2. The show will then remain open on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. from March 2 through its conclusion on Friday, March 13.

Charles Beasley plays a selection of gospel songs at a special concert at St. Stephen's A.M.E. Church in Hanover on Sunday. The gospel music concert was one of several Courierarea events held in February for Black History Month and showcased Beasley's talents on the keys and his tremendous voice as well as guest solos by Carolyn Hardville, Velinda Sanders and Debbie Hill.

The shutters on the Madison — Jefferson County Public Library would fit in the "appropriate" category in that they are attached to the window and not the masonry.

K-4 student Whitley Cummings, 4, raises her hands as sings "Open the Eyes of My Heart" during the dedication ceremony for the new gymnasium at the Christian Academy of Carrollton on Friday morning. The academy is also celebrating their 20th anniversary and had a reception in the gym on Friday night.

Visitors, staff, faculty and students stand and sing during the dedication ceremony for the new gymnasium at the Christian Academy of Carrollton on Friday morning. The academy is also celebrating their 20th anniversary and had a reception in the gym on Friday night.

First graders Victoria Nelson and Kyle McCormick pray with their school mates and the visitors in attendance at the dedication ceremony for the new gymnasium at the Christian Academy of Carrollton on Friday morning. The academy is also celebrating their 20th anniversary and had a reception in the gym on Friday night.

Macy Lyons, 10, of Madison, hurls the ball toward the pins during a bowling class at Girls Inc. on Monday. The class program is called "Get Ahead with Bowler's Ed In School Bowling" and is led by Glen Pavy, of Ten Pin Alley. Pavy said he hopes to bring the indoor bowling into the physical education classes at local elementary and middle schools.

Amilia Weber, 8, and Courtney Abbott, 9, study the pins before hall throws the ball during a bowling class at Girls Inc. on Monday. The class program is called "Get Ahead with Bowler's Ed In School Bowling" and is led by Glen Pavy, of Ten Pin Alley. Pavy said he hopes to bring the indoor bowling into the physical education classes at local elementary and middle schools.

Fourth grader Caleb Denton plays guitar and sang "Blessed Be Your Name" and came in as the first place winner in the instrumental portion of the Southwestern Elementary School talent show on Thursday night.

William Holcroft said he first noticed his wife, Hickory Creek resident Verna Holcroft, many decades ago as she ran across Main Street in her swim suit. The couple has now been married for 62 years and will celebrate their 63rd anniversary in May. The Holcroft's and two other couples renewed their vows at Hickory Creek with Mayor Tim Armstrong officiating.

Mayor Tim Armstrong leads William and Verna Holcroft, Glenn and Alda Burke, and George and Leona Tilley in a ceremony renewing their wedding vows on Friday at Hickory Creek.

Peter Woodburn studies possible bridge locations that were on display during a Madison-Milton Bridge project meeting at the Brown Gym on Thursday night.

George Taliaferro, the first African American drafted by the National Football League, talks about his journey from first days on the field at Gary Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana.

George Taliaferro, the first African American drafted by the National Football League, holds up a sign of the past during a Black History Month presentation at the Madison Jefferson County Public Library on Monday. The sign was once used to designate where African American people were allowed to sit at a movie theater in Bloomington, where Taliaferro went to College.

Drummer Dwight Dozier performs at the Black History Month program "An Evening of America's Music: Jazz" at the Historic Madison, Inc., A.M.E. Church building on Saturday night. The event included short introductions between songs highlighting the evolution of Jazz in America. The songs crossed the gamut and most included impressive solos from each of the musicians.

Soldiers look up to the large screens and watch the multimedia presentations as well as the live performances from their places in formation on the floor of Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday.

Taking a Break

2008-05-28T08:08:00.003-04:00

Hello friends,

If you visit this blog often, you may have noticed a lack of updates lately. The fact is I have been distracted by better things right now so I am taking a break for a time. Take care.

Seeing Red

2008-05-07T14:46:00.001-04:00

Girls Inc. members Alexa Kahn-Woods, 6, left, and Ansley Crutchfield, 7, pose for a portrait with a plethora of piggy banks that will be used in the organization's fund raising activities this year. River Valley Financial Bank provided the little red plastic piggy banks, which will be "adopted" out for $5 to families, businesses, classrooms and individuals in the community. Once full of change, the piggy banks can be brought in to Girls Inc. be unloaded and then taken home to be filled again. Each time the piggy banks are brought in, their progress will be charted. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Jazz Night

2008-05-01T09:19:00.002-04:00

Saxophonist Rob Nickerson plays a solo while performing with Jazz artists Dwight Dozier, Gerald Tolson, and Natalie Bozyink at the Historic Madison, Inc. A.M.E. Building Museum on Monday, March 3. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Your Story — Zach Walker

2008-04-30T08:06:00.004-04:00

Zach Walker interacts with a loud bald eagle during feeding time at the Raptor Center at Hardy Lake on Friday, March 28. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Zach Walker feeds a Red Tailed Hawk at the Raptor Center at Hardy Lake on Friday, March 28. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Zach Walker takes a one-legged Red Tailed Hawk to a large flight cage where the raptor will redevelop muscles needed for living in the wild, which it lost during recovery from his injury. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Zach Walker takes a one-legged Red Tailed Hawk from its indoor cage to a large flight cage where the raptor will redevelop muscles needed for living in the wild, which it lost during recovery from his injury. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Zach Walker loads thawed out mouse, rat and chick carcasses into plastic bags. The dead animals are used to feed the plethora of birds housed at the Raptor Center at Hardy Lake on Friday, March 28. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Daffodil Days

2008-04-28T00:21:00.002-04:00

Dee Comstock cuts the stems of bundles of daffodils that would later be delivered throughout the community on the last day of Daffodil Days, Thursday, March 20. Once the stems were cut, the flowers were placed into a can of water to start the blooming process.

16,500 daffodils were delivered in one of the largest local fundraisers of the year for the American Cancer Society.
Daffodil Days not only raises money for the ACS, it also raises awareness to the education, advocacy, research and services available from the ACS to those fighting cancer. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

National Guard Homecoming

2008-04-28T00:04:00.002-04:00

Welcome Home Daddy: Garrett Seibert, 3, of Florence, Ky., sits on his dad, Spc. James Seibert's lap during the welcome home ceremony for the soldiers of the Carrollton based Kentucky Army National Guard Alpha Battery, 2nd Battalion, 138th Field Artillery unit in Louisville, Ky., on Thursday, March 6. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Five year old Gunner Fields sits wrapped up from the cold and content on his father, Staff Sgt. Jason fields' lap on the first day the two had seen each other since the deployment of the Carrollton based Kentucky Army National Guard Alpha Battery, 2nd Battalion, 138th Field Artillery unit. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Welcome Home Son: SSG Rob Proctor of the Carrollton based Kentucky Army National Guard Alpha Battery, 2nd Battalion, 138th Field Artillery unit hugs his mother, Donna, and looks forward for his wife Sheri as he and his fellow soldiers were welcomed home in Louisville on Thursday, March 6. The 138th was deployed to Afghanistan since last year. Proctor, who now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, grew up in Trimble County, Ky. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Seth Saved A Calf

2008-04-17T14:45:00.002-04:00

Nine-year-old Seth Brawner poses for a portrait at the opening of a cave in Shelby Township where he had rescued a calf on February 28. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Called Out by a Reader

2008-04-15T09:07:00.008-04:00

Home from college for spring break, Carlos Smith, right, paid a visit to his former "big" Tim Harmon. The two were paired together about seven years ago from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Jefferson County. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

The other day after the photo above ran, we got a comment on our Web site asking what was up with the high camera angles in so many photos. After looking back I did notice quite a few and here’s how I responded via e-mail:

Thank you for your comment about the photo with the Big Brothers story.
I went back and counted 10 times in March that I did shoot from a high angle for a photo that I then turned into the editor. While I can also count at least as many photos with low and mid-angles, those lower angles are not as eye grabbing.
There are times that we photographers get into a particular style or method of shooting that can quickly become a rut if we don't realize that we are over doing it.
As far as this shot specifically, I climbed up to eliminate distracting backgrounds that may have taken away from the people in the photo. Anytime I can use the background (if the back ground helps to tell part of the story) I use it. But in this case there was nothing in the environment I found that told the story so a solid color background was the best I could do.
Anyway, I was happy to see that someone with a sophisticated eye had something to say about my photos. I appreciate any constructive criticism or words of encouragement that the readers of the Madison Courier can contribute.
Please continue to provide feedback whenever you can.
This paper is your paper and we like to encourage interactivity.

Sincerely,

Ken Ritchie

Here are some of the other shots from the last month:

After the Snow

Rainy Day

Book Fair

Megan at the Beef Show

Your Story — Brenda Evans

Exchange Students in Madison (Digital Illustration)

Cinders for the Road

Fixing the Sidewalk

Painting Red Cross Posters

Elementary School Historical "Wax Museum"

Inmates Help City Prepare for the Flood

Your Story — Bob Schultz

And Me Without My Swim Trunks

2008-04-08T08:47:00.003-04:00

After making sure that I was all right, and not in need of medical assistance, Keith Hartman and James Lee of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office shared a laugh over my predicament. The truck that I had originally been sent out to photograph can bee seen in the background. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

One rule of journalism: Don't become part of the story. That was the reminder that nearly every clever co-worker gave me when I returned to work Wednesday morning.
I've already broken that rule, so I'll just dive right into the story.
I got a call from my editor at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. He told me there had been several problems reported on the roads due to high water. He needed a photograph to go along with a story in that morning's paper. He told me to head to Deputy where a truck was half underwater in a ditch off State Road 3.
I drove from my home to the scene. With the important rule of journalism in mind, I kept my speed low to avoid hydroplaning.
When I saw the blinking hazard lights on the Ford in the ditch, I began looking for a place to pull off the road so I could get to work and get back in time for deadline.
As luck would have it, there appeared to be a large flat area just across the road where there was enough room to turn around and park.
I should say at this point that while going to an accident scene, my mind is on what lenses I might want to use, what camera settings I should start with and what angles I should be looking for. Where to park is not usually top on the list. I should also say that, since it was still early, the light was not great.
Yes, these are excuses.
It turns out that the field I saw was not actually a field at all, it was a creek that had overflowed - forming a small pond. What I saw was actually a dense covering of hay or straw camouflaging the surface of the pond.
Talk about a sinking feeling. As I sat in my car - now at a 30- to 45-degree angle in the ditch with the front end submerged and water seeping in up to the edge of the front car seats - I figured out that I wasn't going anywhere. Deadline was not going to be met.
I called my editor and let him know the situation, and I waited for the tow truck that had been called for me.
Later, Keith Hartman and James Lee of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office drove up on the scene and asked if I was OK. Once I told them I was, they laughed and began some of the joking that would continue later from my colleagues at the newspaper. They stuck around to wait for the wrecker truck with me.
While waiting, I thought about all of the accidents that we cover - some serious, some not so serious - and how it only takes that split-second, a moment of unfocused thinking to change your day for the worse.
I was lucky: The only thing hurt was my car, and subsequently my wallet.
Many people are not as lucky. Whether they have totaled a car because they were trying to answer their cell phone, or been hit by another car where a driver was trying to steer and eat at the same time, such innocuous situations can become destructive and sometimes life changing.
A lesson to be learned, as pointed out by clever reporter: If you see a ditch on one side of a road, there's probably another ditch on the other side.
Be careful and drive safely. (Story/©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

This is not a field: A thick layer of hay and straw camouflaged a large pond of water that had formed around the ditch off of State Road 3 near Deputy on Wednesday morning. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A Man Named Lil’ Chad, from M&M Towing, pulls my car out of the ditch. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Pint Sized Songwriters

2008-04-07T09:47:00.002-04:00

Canadian singer and songwriter Katherine Wheatley asks the second grade students at Pope John Elementary School what aspects of building the Madison Railroad Incline should be included in their song. Children from Jefferson County schools will be writing songs with the help of Wheatley. Some of the songs will be included in Madison's Bicentennial celebration next year. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Canadian singer and songwriter Katherine Wheatley and her fellow song writers, second graders of Pope John Elementary School, sing a song they produced for the upcoming Madison bicentennial. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Lydia Middleton Elementary second grader Coley Arvin looks to Canadian singer and songwriter Katherine Wheatley as she points to a student with a raised hand for suggestions on rhymes for a song about President Madison on Monday, February 18. Wheatley's plan to have a concert of bicentennial themed songs written by local students this Thursday at Madison Consolidated High School has been cancelled due to scheduling setbacks caused by the two-day snow cancellations last week. The concert will be rescheduled to a different date. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Illustration for Solicitation

2008-04-03T22:37:00.002-04:00

Michael Green poses for an illustration about the time-honored remedy of chicken soup for the common cold. Let us know your traditions for beating a cold or flu — or for preventing getting sick in the first place. (Digital photo illustration/©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

A friend told me that I made the “sick” guy look like a hobo. I tried not to take offence, even though that is my hat and scarf.

Your Story — Steven Lizotte

2008-03-31T07:44:00.004-04:00

Steven Lizotte puts away cases of single use boxes of laundry detergent after refilling the dispenser at the Scrub Board Laundromat in Madison on Friday, February 1. Lizotte began working at the Scrub Board, owned by his mother after returning home from more than six years in the U.S. Army. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Steven Lizotte refills a dispenser of single use boxes of laundry detergent at the Scrub Board Laundromat in Madison on Friday, February 1. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Steven Lizotte takes a smoke break in front of the Scrub Board Laundromat in Madison on Friday, February 1. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Steven Lizotte holds the door open for regular customer Brenda Brawner at the Scrub Board Laundromat in Madison on Friday, February 1. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Steven Lizotte talks with his grandmother and co-worker, Catherine Stevens, while they wait for a load of laundry to finish its cycle at the Scrub Board Laundromat in Madison on Friday, February 1. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

He’s in the Jailhouse Now

2008-03-23T23:10:00.002-04:00

Dave Taylor, author of “Murder in the House of God!” poses for a portrait near the oldest cells in the Jefferson County Jail. Taylor's book recounts the murder trial and eventual hanging of John W. Beavers in Jefferson County more than a century ago. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

New Police Dress Code

2008-03-23T10:10:00.002-04:00

After the Madison Police Department's new winter dress code that includes a tie was implemented on February 1, Captain D.J. Stephan, left, and Patrolman Tyson Eblen took it one step further and brought out the eight-point duty caps in lieu of the ball caps that are commonly worn by MPD officers. The more formal headgear is not a required part of the uniform, but Captain Stephan said the ball cap doesn't look right with a neck tie. Patrolman Eblen said the hats will disappear in the summer, when the tie is not mandatory. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

As Close To Shooting Sports As I Usually Get

2008-03-16T20:43:00.003-04:00

As rain falls from above, Bill Ricketts hits balls from the new heated driving range shelter at Cozy Acres Golf Complex on Tuesday, February 5. Ricketts said he had been waiting for a coat of paint to dry and needed something else to do. He said he began golfing again about four years ago and is glad that it is never to rainy and never to cold to take out the clubs. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)

Tag & Scan

2008-03-16T20:36:00.002-04:00

Dennis Grey does a retinal scan for Jefferson County 4-H cows that may go to the Indiana State Fair this year. The scanning and ear tags were put on the cattle on Saturday morning at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. (©Ken Ritchie/The Madison Courier)