Some at Chamber say rail plan stops short Reporter Fortville-McCordsville Also serving Mt. Comfort 50 CENTS Amounting to a hill By CHRIS SPECKMAN [email protected] McCORDSVILLE — Although the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization sent a representative to the latest Fortville-McCordsville Chamber of Commerce meeting, the proposed Indy Connect light and commuter rail project might not travel so far eastward. “It’s even apparent on the logo that it seems to stop short,” said McCordsville Town Council President Tom Strayer, noting the emblem for the project — which appears to represent Indianapolis and four doughnut counties — has lines outlining the transportation project, with the shortest segment stretching to the east. Before opening the floor for questions, MPO Principal Regional Planner Stephanie Belch detailed the initial draft of the Indy Connect map during her presentation to the Chamber Wednesday, March 24, at McCordsville United Methodist Church. The highlight of the draft is a commuter rail that stretches from 116th Street in Fishers southward all the way down to Main Street in Greenwood, stopping at Union Station downtown at its midway point, in addition to various other points of interest along the way. It also includes a light rail line that travels along U.S 40 from Hendricks County to the eastern border of Marion County near Cumberland. The blueprint also includes numerous new bus routes, with only one route traveling along XSEE RAIL, PAGE 16 Company faces complaints over mulch piles, says it’s waiting on state Page 15 THURSDAY, April 1, 2010 www.fortvillereporter.com www.mccordsvillereporter.com How to get there from here Each District 2 hopeful says he can help break council gridlock By CHRIS SPECKMAN [email protected] ! iday. Scrogham. If you don’t recognize the names, you don’t know Fortville. Although the race for the at-large Fortville Town Council spot features a few relatively new faces, the duel for the District 2 seat pits incumbent Phil Scrogham, who has held his post since 1996, against Bill Hiday, son of former town councilman and current Mt. Vernon School Board member Bob Hiday. Both men are running as Republicans. Other than ideological differences, the most striking distinction between the two involves the age gap; Scrogham is nearing 65 and Bill Hiday recently turned 30. In the May 4 primary, voters young and old will make an important call regarding Fortville’s future. PRIMARY 2010 College. He started his own business in 2006 called Hiday Custom Builders, which operates out of Fortville, following in the footsteps of his father Bob, who runs Fortville Poultry and Egg. Bill Hiday has been married to his wife, Shelly, since August 2007. His only political experience thus far involves stints on his church council and various leadership Phil Bill Scrogham boards in college. Hiday Why did you run for office? It’s no secret that things are broThe Fortville-McCordsville Reporter sat down with both men ken here in town. Anybody can sit in the race. Here are brief biogra- and complain about something, and phies of the candidates, followed by I get that they might not have a lot of time, but if you want something their answers to our questions. fixed, you have to do it yourself. I BILL HIDAY thought it was time to put my Bill Hiday marks the sixth gener- money were my mouth was. If I ation of his family to live in don’t go try to fix it, then I’m part of Fortville. He is a graduate of Mt. the problem. Vernon High School and Franklin It’s a shame that I’ve got to run HOME FOR EASTER Church’s new site has been long time coming Page 10 against a guy like Phil Scrogham. I’ve known him forever. I’ve known all of those folks on the council for a long time. I don’t have a thing with anyone on the council. We need to get things fixed, and they can’t get it done for whatever reason. I don’t have a personal beef with anyone up there. But it’s just not working. If you have five guys on the court and you can’t score a bucket, you need to start subbing. Right now, we’re stuck. We’re spinning our wheels. I’m telling you right now, they’d vote 3-2 on whether the sky is blue. There’s got to be some give and take. There’s some negotiation in everything. How would you try to fix the council? One of the big things is just XSEE HOPEFULS, PAGE 20 INSIDE THIS WEEK Obituaries .............................2 Tribute ..................................3 Opinion ..............................4-5 Calendar ...............................6 Church .............................7-10 Schools ..........................11-12 Classified .......................18-19 PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID FORTVILLE, IN PERMIT NO. 220 Page 20 Thursday, April 1, 2010 XHopefuls Continued From Page 1 getting along in general. Obviously, the folks on the council can’t get along with each other right now for whatever reason, be it personal vendettas or whatever. It is what it is. The fact of the matter is that the town’s suffering and we can’t get anything done because of it. I own my own business. You can’t act unprofessionally and expect to get results. At least I won’t, and I can’t. I’m not for micromanagement of the police department. (Town Marshal) Ben Kiphart runs the police department, and I don’t want him over my shoulder trying to tell me how to run my construction business. And I’m not going to tell him how to run his police department. What else would you do differently? In a town this size, as long as the police department shows up when you call them, and the trash gets picked up when you say it’s going to get picked up, and you’ve got water when you turn on the faucet and you don’t charge them an arm and a leg for it, people are going to stay pretty happy. We can’t continue to raise water rates. You maybe have to start cutting their costs. I’ve never seen a government agency run at 100 percent efficiency. It’s almost an oxymoron. I don’t know where the cuts are going to come from, but there’s fat to be trimmed. I can guarantee it. Last year, that council voted themselves and town employees a raise. Are you kidding me? I don’t care if it was $5. How many people in this town were laid off last year? I’m not going to sugarcoat it — it was arrogant. They justified it by saying that our pay scale is lower than comparable towns around us. But if my neighbor had a Corvette sitting out in the driveway, and he lives in the same sized house and we have the same job, does that mean I should go buy a Corvette? That’s silly. What is your vision for Fortville’s future? Fortville needs a little bit of a facelift, but we have to be able to pay for it. We’ve got to be able to run leaner and meaner. I think this town has a heck of a lot of potential. Every place around us is getting growth. I don’t want to be Fishers. I think we’ve got a great small town. At the same time, we’re less than a 10-minute drive to two major interstates and we’ve got Four Star schools: Why aren’t we getting good growth? We’ve been given all the tools to do this, and for some reason, we fight amongst ourselves. What have you learned from your father’s involvement in town government? Dad’s got an opinion about everything. My dad is a good example of most of the people in this town. Most people either have a real strong opinion, or they don’t care. And I’d almost rather take a bull-headed stubborn person who will stand up for their beliefs rather than someone who’s apathetic. I don’t want people to think that if they’re electing me, they’re electing my dad. He and I agree on a lot of things, but not everything. Not at all. Dad also said, “If you’re going to run and get on this thing, you better make sure your skin’s thick.” He said at the same time, “If you take your stand and get things done, it may ruffle feathers.” You don’t run for public office to make friends. You don’t get into business to do it, either. I’ve had to fire some of my best friends, and it stinks bad. But when the rubber meets the road, you’ve got to have results. It’s a personality type. It’s not for the faint of heart. PHIL SCROGHAM Phil Scrogham has served consecutive terms on the Fortville Town Council since coming on board in 1996. After growing up in Henry County, Scrogham moved to Fortville in 1971, where he ended up raising five daughters. Scrogham has been married to his wife, Gwen, an administrative assistant for the Mt. Vernon Community School Corp., for 33 years. Scrogham was a member of the Indianapolis Police Department for 31 years before retiring from the force in 2000. Since then, Scrogham said his time has been divided between his town council commitment and his 13 grandchildren. Why do you seek re-election? I thought a lot about it, and a lot of plans that are going on now, we started years ago. A lot of people don’t realize that it takes years to get projects done. I’d like to see some of them finished out, but we can’t do them until the road project’s done. I’d like to see some of this stuff get through. I worry about cutting some people. I think our town employees are worth more than their share. We take care of them, and they take care of us. I want to protect them. I hope that some of the new people that do get on realize that. What projects are most important to you? I want to make sure the road gets done. I want to make sure Main Street gets done. I want to see them redo the buildings down there and help the business owners get grants. A lot of them are in fairly bad shape and need a lot of upgrade. I’d like to see the elevator gone, too. We’ve been working on that forever, but there are so many regulations and hoops you’ve got to jump through. Do you think most people understand how difficult the job is? They have no idea. I didn’t either when I went on. You can’t gripe unless you go out and try to do some- LOCAL NEWS thing. You can tell people how it works, but they don’t believe you. What you think might take a couple months to a year might take four years. It drives you crazy. You served on the town council with Bob Hiday. What’s it like going up against his son? Bob is down on everything, which is good in a way. He makes you think about stuff. The difference between him and (current councilmen) Ron (Stafford) and Jeff (Ratliff) is that if he believes in something, he’s going to tell you. They flatly vote no without explaining it. That just aggravates all of us. It is weird when you start coming up against the kids of people you worked with. I think Bill would be good if he listens to the town manager and doesn’t take for granted what’s said on the street. But I worry about him taking his father’s side sometimes and wanting to cut, cut, cut. What has gone wrong with the current council? This year has been unusual. There are people on the council who have an agenda, and they’ve attacked the police department since they’ve been on there. That bothers me. If they explained their point, maybe I’d see it. But they don’t talk to me. We don’t discuss stuff anymore. You can’t get an answer out of them. I’m here for the town, and I always have been. It worries me the next election if they get a swing vote in there. You can’t come on the council with an agenda. Is this something that can be fixed with most of the same elected officials still in place? I think so. We’re getting there. It’s just that now we have the lawsuit hanging over us. It depends a lot on them. Why should people vote for you again? I think I’d still be good at it. I think this would be my last term if I get reelected. We’ve got some young people starting to come up. I’d like them all to stay involved. That’s what we need to pass on. We need people to volunteer their time, but it’s hard to do. Do you think your career as a policeman helped prepare you for your time on the council? I think so. You deal with a lot of people. And you realize a lot of the problems out there are ones that you can’t fix. One thing about a policeman is that they’re not afraid to make a decision. I think that makes a difference. Whether people like it or not, you’re going to make the decision. You’re always a bad guy. As a councilman, have you benefited from the free time that retirement affords you? I don’t get out and talk to a lot of people. That’s not who I am. But I’m always here if they want to talk. I get out and I look around, and I listen to people. I put a lot of work and study into the town. Whenever your tenure as a councilman comes to an end, how Fortville-McCordsville Reporter - Indiana will you look back on it? It was interesting. I think I’ve helped accomplish a lot. I used to go to a lot of the schools, and that’s where I got the idea for the economic development and the industrial park and the TIF program. That’s how we got the Main Street idea. These last couple years, we’ve still accomplished a few things, but we’ve kind of slowed down. It has a lot to do with the economy, too. 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