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Wood panels lined with Owen County history, donated decorations and reused booths make up the new family restaurant in Spencer, Indiana along State Road 46.
For Jenifer McCart and Andrea Davis a sense of family is important, and that's what they aim to bring to Owen County in their new restaurant, Busy Bee Cafe.
The two cousin owners, after working together at Crossroads 46 Diner, started their family-owned restaurant, opening it March 27.
The cafe stemmed from McCart's desire to start her own food truck, and when Davis learned of McCart's idea, she decided to join in. As other servers heard of the idea, McCart and Davis decided to think bigger and own a restaurant instead.
At the restaurant they employ friends and family, but their family sentiment spreads to their customers.
"I just purely care about the customers," Davis said. "Another main reason why we did this is because we want to be able to give to the low income side of this community."
McCart added it's important to have affordable meals that are quality and aren't frozen and processed. Busy Bee provides homemade meals along with having local ingredients.
For both McCart and Davis, it's important to give back to their community, using all of their resources they have in their arsenal to help.
Davis said they aren't "trying to be billionaires," but they enjoy seeing their customers come in and then "leave with a smile on their face and a full belly," said McCart.
Recently, the two set up a program to give veterans discounts at the restaurant.
This desire to have a family connection in their restaurant comes from their history in Owen County and their time at Crossroads.
The sense of community and family has spread to the design of Busy Bee as well with donated decorations, furniture, and local history decorating the walls.
There's a mix of family photos and photos from the Owen County Public Library's archives along the walls. Davis hopes to cover the walls with photos and decorations.
To Davis, who was in charge of decorating the cafe, history is important to her. To her, it's important to show where she comes from as well as bringing nostalgia into the cafe.
She also feels that the history on the walls reflects what Busy Bee stands for and what a community can be.
"Community is a team and everybody has to look out for each other," Davis said. "With everything in the economy, in the world, and how hard everything is and everybody's just trying to make it. We have to look out for our own and make sure that we're putting it back into the schools, putting it back into our own places and our own people here."
For Davis and McCart, community is the passion behind the restaurant and what started it. The nicknames they've given their customers and local veterans is a backbone of what the restaurant is.
"We have nicknames for all of our customers and our vets that come in that have no place to go for Thanksgiving, and we truly care about them," Davis said.
This care has extended to McCart inviting some veterans to her own Thanksgiving.
"I grew up poor in certain times of my life and couldn't afford certain things," Davis said. "So, it's like when I know that a lot of this community does struggle, but I want them to be able to come in, talk to your server, have a conversation because sometimes they will come in twice a day and you're only open from 6 [a.m.] to 3 p.m., and they want to come in twice a day just to be able to talk to somebody, and so that's where the girls and the service, I mean, that's the whole point of having the servers to be able to have that relationship with them rather than just going to fast food getting what you need."
The name, Busy Bee, comes from a mix of things. It started from McCart's bee tattoos Davis liked, as well as the saying "busy bees." A saying the two cousins relate to as they've worked in the food industry.
"We were servers nine months ago or however long ago, and running through the aisles and what we are," Davis said. "We're constantly looking like bees running around."
Taking the name, a theme of black and yellow was made with foods incorporating the words honeycomb, hive, and bumblebee.
In the future, Busy Bee hopes to expand their business hours. Currently, the restaurant is open from 6 a.m to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Saturday and 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Friday. They plan to stay open later on Thursdays and Saturdays, along with the current Friday time.
Along with extended hours, they hope to utilize their stage area and have local bands perform as well as potentially having karaoke nights for children. Those are just some of the ideas the two have, but to them, their space provides endless possibilities.
With coffee and the community as their source of motivation, Davis and McCart are focused on growth.
Two of the three Owen County Commissioners are new to their positions. Those new commissioners are former sheriff Sam Hobbs and David Risk.
In fact, the only commissioner who isn’t new to the position is Gary Burton, the board's former president.
At the beginning of the commissioners’ first meeting of 2025, held on Jan. 9, Hobbs was unanimously elected president of the board, and Risk was unanimously elected vice president.
Immediately following the reorganization, Hobbs gave a monologue about what can be expected from the board moving forward.
“It’s going to be kind of a lengthy meeting. We got a lot to go through. I’m not here to upset the apple cart with anybody, but I’m going to. It’s just the nature of the beast,” Hobbs began. “I base my faith off of God being in control because He is. We’re just here to do His will and try to make the best of a community that is falling apart.”
After sharing his long-standing attendance at these sorts of public meetings, Hobbs commented on a trend.
“The thing that I’ve seen in the last several years of coming to the meetings and stuff like that is the discord and dislike between the employees, whether you’re elected or appointed or whatever, has turned into a hatred. And it’s going to end. The reason I say that is we’re a team here together,” Hobbs said. “We were elected to serve the people and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. The people have a voice. You’re taxpayers. You’ll have a voice in every commissioners’ meeting. That’s only right. I expect your ideas, your vision, your goals and your solutions to some of the problems that we have.”
Hobbs then quoted Proverbs 23:19.
“This county is going to have a vision for everybody, not just for self-centered seeking thumb-sucking selfish people. I won’t tolerate it. I won’t tolerate rude behavior from nobody,” Hobbs said. “I’m in no way here to tell anybody to pack up and get going. If you’re not doing your job that’s required of you, there’s going to be a problem.”
Hobbs then said that employees are the county’s biggest liability and the county’s biggest asset.
“We’re going to work together as a team,” he said.
He then reiterated that the commissioners do not have any authority over other elected officials. He also said that commissioners should allow for autonomy and leadership from the county’s department heads saying they have a business to run.
Hobbs was clear that department heads could and should ask for guidance and help from the commissioners when needed and said the commissioners will not interfere unless asked or unless there is an issue.
“I’m new at this part [being a commissioner], but I’m not new at being around here. I’ve seen how some people have been treated and mistreated, and rest assured of one thing. That’s coming to an end, like real soon,” Hobbs said.
Then, instead of making the usual first meeting of the year liaison appointments, Hobbs announced that those appointments would not be made until February. He cited a “legal problem” but did not go into details.
“There’s some things facing this county that is going to be revealed in the next 30 to 60 days that could change the whole outlook on certain things,” he said.
One and only one liaison appointment was made, and that was for Risk to serve as the liaison for the highway department.
“Gary cannot do that because his wife works there,” Hobbs said.
Until appointments are made in February, Hobbs said that he would serve as the liaison for the auditor’s office and appointed department heads. He noted that elected officials can go to any of the commissioners that they want.
The commissioners then began with the routine business of approving the meeting minutes and claims.
In both this meeting and the Jan. 23 meeting, the commissioners addressed the extensive and inappropriate amount of out-of-cycle claims.
The board then went on to new business.
“This is where the rubber is going to meet the road for some of you,” Hobbs said, adding that it was unfortunate that not everything was going to be good news.
The first matter that was addressed was the contract with Dana Kerr for his services as county attorney.
“We’ve been through this for a couple of months. The current attorney is not here today. He is sick. We wish him the best in his recovery,” Hobbs began. “Dana is not here today, but we have to proceed with business. This has been discussed briefly in a couple commissioners meetings. The contract that the current attorney has is on a week-to-week basis at the moment.”
“Mr. Kerr’s last day will be Jan. 31. I’m not going to sit here and bad mouth him, run him down or anything like that. He did what he did and done what he’s done for what he thought was right. He’s an attorney. I do feel and I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mr. Kerr was led down a couple roads that he shouldn’t have had to go down. That’s my two cents worth. I think if Mr. Kerr had things to do over again, they would be done different. Again, this is my opinion.”
With that, Hobbs moved to relieve Kerr of his duties as county attorney as of Jan. 31. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
“This is not the end of this story,” Hobbs said.
After allowing him to introduce himself, the commissioners hired Tony Overholt from Frost Brown Todd Attorneys in Indianapolis. Overholt has served as the attorney for the county council. The commissioners hired Overholt, who has been an attorney for 30 years, for six months. Overholt has experience representing local government.
Overholt will be paid between $350 and $375 per hour.
There is $160,000 budgeted for the county attorney. Under Kerr’s extended 2022 contract that served from week to week until the end of January, approximately $13,000 would have been spent from the $160,000 budgeted for county legal expenses.
The council separately has budgeted approximately $40,000 for their legal expenses, as Kerr did not represent the council.
At the high end of Overholt’s rate, the county commissioners would have a total of 392 hours before exceeding the appropriation. This translates to a weekly average of roughly 7.5 hours per week without going to the county council for an additional appropriation.
During the approximately four-hour first meeting, the commissioners also:
The commissioners also held a joint meeting with the Owen County Council on Jan. 23. A story on that meeting will be made available soon on The Owen News website, theowennews.org. The commissioners met again yesterday, Feb. 6, and they will meet again at 6 p.m. on Feb. 20 in the second-floor Commissioners Room of the Owen County Courthouse, 60 S. Main St., Spencer.
In celebration of its 31st anniversary, the Owen County Community Foundation (OCCF) is thrilled to announce the return of the $1 for $1 Anniversary Match Campaign, building on the incredible success of last year’s 30th anniversary event.
In 2024, nearly $200,000 was raised to support local nonprofits serving Owen County. This year, OCCF invites donors and nonprofits to make an even greater impact.
Running from Feb. 1 through Feb. 28, this match campaign offers a $1 for $1 match for donations made to Agency and Designated funds established at OCCF. These funds specifically support the work of nonprofits serving Owen County, providing them with both immediate resources and long-term sustainability.
“Spencer Main Street, Inc., took a big step forward in 2024 by establishing an agency fund with ‘our’ Owen County Community Foundation,” Julie Coffin, President of Spencer Main Street, Inc. said. “I think we don’t even realize yet how this strengthens our organization in terms of keeping us sustainable and giving us longevity. And those are vital qualities to have because we intend to keep working to make sure that Historic Downtown Spencer continues to be the heart and center of our community for another 205 years. The first word of our mission statement is ‘collaboration,’ and we are so grateful for OCCF’s support and collaboration as we all go forward!”
How the Match Works
For every dollar donated to an eligible fund, OCCF will provide a matching gift, which is designed to strengthen nonprofits in two ways:
This model allows nonprofits to meet immediate needs while building a stable financial foundation for the future.Participating Funds
Only Agency and Designated funds are eligible for the match. These funds support a wide range of causes, including youth development, historic preservation, animal welfare, community health, and more. A full list of participating funds is available on the OCCF website or by contacting the OCCF office directly. As of Feb. 5, the following funds were included in the matching campaign:
How to Donate
Organizations can accept donations in the following ways:
Join Us in Building a Brighter Future“The success of last year’s 30th Anniversary Match Campaign was a testament to the generosity and commitment of our community,” Karah Bobeck, OCCF’s Programs and Communications Director said. “We’re excited to offer this opportunity again and look forward to seeing the incredible impact it will have for Owen County nonprofits.”Nonprofits interested in participating in this campaign and establishing a fund at the OCCF, should contact the OCCF’s office at 812-829-1725.
A Gosport home was destroyed by a fast-moving fire that broke out around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
The first wave of firefighters and emergency personnel arrived on the scene a short time later to find heavy smoke billowing from the roof and flames engulfing the front porch of the home at 246 E. South St.
Homeowner Bryan Rogers was at home when the fire broke out and was reportedly unharmed, declining medical treatment at the scene from the Owen County Emergency Medical Service.
The American Red Cross was later contacted to help meet Rogers’ immediate emergency needs.
According to the Gosport Volunteer Fire Department, a cause for the fire was undetermined.
Firefighters estimated around 30,000 gallons of water was used to battle the morning blaze.
The Gosport VFD received mutual aid from the Owen Valley Fire Territory, Bean Blossom Township-Stinesville VFD, Owen County Sheriff’s Department and the Owen County EMS.
Fire personnel were called back to the scene around 12:30 p.m. where they were able to quickly squelch the rekindled debris at the home, located on the southwest corner of East South and South Second streets.
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