More Details on Stinson's Arrest Emerge

Channel 6 has an updated report posted on their website. In part it says:

According to a police report, Stinson was pulled over at 1:45 a.m. after Officer Michael Pigman saw his vehicle swerving on State Road 267.

"I could smell the odor of alcoholic beverage emanating from the driver's person, and his eyes were bloodshot," Pigman said in the police report.

Police said Stinson admitted being at Bubbaz Bar and Grill and another bar earlier in the evening.

Pigman said Stinson failed field sobriety tests and that his blood-alcohol content was 0.12 in a portable breath test.

Stinson told the officer that he had been drinking more frequently since his wife of 39 years left him unexpectedly.

Edited to add: WISH-TV also has a story on their website.

Retention Pond Standards Simply Must Change

A Decatur Township retention-detention pond claimed the life of a 5 year old girl yesterday.

WRTV, Channel 6, reports it this way (click here for article and video report):

A 5-year-old girl drowned in a retention pond on Indianapolis' southwest side late Monday night.

Indianapolis police were called to the 4300 block of Ten Oak Drive, just west of Kentucky Avenue, at about 9:20 a.m.

The parents of Chesney Allen told police that when they called a home where the girl had gone, accompanied by her older brother, to play at about 5:30 p.m., they found that she wasn't there.

"The friend she was going to play with was in time out, and Chesney had been sent home," said Sgt. Matt Mount.

When officers arrived, neighbors told them that the girl had been seen playing near a retention pond nearby with several other children.

Police checked the pond but didn't find the girl. When they checked for a third time after 11 p.m., officers and firefighters found Allen's body floating about 12 feet away from a dock, Mount said.

A firefighter pulled Allen out of the water. The girl was taken to Riley Hospital for Children, where she was pronounced dead early Tuesday morning.

There is quite a bit of tall grass around the pond, but there is no fencing. Authorities weren't sure when the girl went into the pond.

Nobody wants to see a life lost in a detention pond; not developers, not property owners, not City officials, not the community at large. We are all saddened and shocked and dismayed. But, that is not enough.

Several years back, a retention-detention pond in the Seerley Creek subdivision claimed the life of a young boy. Considering that Decatur is not all that developed, this should be a huge wake-up call to all of Marion County.

Our City ordinances require that swimming pools be fenced and locked, but nothing regulates fencing of man-made storm water ponds. An addtional approach to safe water retention is using underground pipes instead of depressions in the ground for holding storm water.

The lack of a fencing requirement just lowers the cost of development - in a dollar and cents sort of way. It doesn't doesn't weigh appropriately, the cost of a life lost.

I am all for development, but not development at any price. The City codes and the City ordinances need, no - must, be changed to required either fencing with access to rescue workers, or underground water retention facilities. We simply cannot afford the loss of any more children just to save a few dollars.