By Chris Schilling, The Republic

cschilling@therepublic.com

   Parents behind on their child support payments will have a $100 bounty out for information about them while a retired police officer tracks them down for authorities.

   Bartholomew County Prosecutor Bill Nash hopes the two-pronged approach, made possible by separate contributions of federal money, will bring more parents in line with what they owe to their children. 

   The retired police officer will be contracted with by using a $13,000 grant from Human Services Inc., which received a block grant as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

   The $100 rewards come from "incentive money" the prosecutor's office receives for its performance in collecting child support each year.
   Nash said his office has about 200 civil arrest warrants, known as body attachments, issued by local courts for parents who are delinquent in paying their child support. 

   The prosecutor's office had been spending some of the incentive money on ads in The Republic that showed pictures and information of wanted parents. 

   However, Nash said the ads have not generated enough information to decrease the backlog of body attachments, and he decided to offer a reward for credible information to attract more attention. 

   The ads are published once a month, and the reward money goes to the first person who gives credible information that leads to the person.

   Information gained from running the ads will supplement the work of Randy Aspenson, a retired 24-year veteran of Columbus Police Department.

   Aspenson will not have authority to arrest the wanted individuals. 

   However, local authorities will have officers available to make arrests. 

   Bartholomew County has a backlog of about 3,000 civil and criminal warrants, which the sheriff's department is responsible for serving. 

   More than 1,000 of the warrants are from civil cases, including the 200 child support cases. 

   The county will receive the grant money in monthly installments of $1,625 for eight months. 

   As a contractor, Aspenson can work his own hours and will submit invoices to the county based on his monthly activity. 

   Aspenson will bill at a rate of $25 per hour. At that rate, the grant will pay for 520 hours. 

   The program starts this month and ends in September, Nash said. 

   The prosecutor's office has a balance of $80,000 in incentive money and expects another payment this year for last year's performance. 

   Nash said the federal government also will reimburse 66 percent of any incentive money spent through Sept. 30.

   If a $100 reward is given for information, the prosecutor's office will be reimbursed $66.