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DAILY JOURNAL
dailyjournal.net
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Johnson County, Indiana
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015
Shorter ISTEP tests not done deal
School officials focus on preparing students, not length of exam
Today
Skies: Wintry mix
Temps: High 44; low 16
MAP, PAGE A8
BREAKING NEWS
Police: $2 million in cash,
cocaine found in hotel
More than $2 million in
cash — packaged and
loose — was found in a
Greenwood hotel room
during a search last week.
Police also found four cellphones, about 20 kilograms of cocaine and a
binder with multiple documents, according to the
search warrant filed in
Greenwood city court.
The items were found during a search of a room on
Feb. 3 at the Red Roof Inn
on Sheek Road in
Greenwood. Officers from
multiple police departments, including
Greenwood and state
police, searched the hotel
room as part of an investigation into drug trafficking.
Police have said the man
they arrested, Dewayne
Lewis, 40, Greenwood, told
officers he was paid to
transport drugs and cash
by a group from Fort
Wayne, according to court
documents.
As part of the investigation,
police searched Lewis’
hotel room after a woman
dropped off a black bag
and a police dog detected
drugs in the room.
Inside, they also found
boxes of storage bags,
notepads and a wallet,
which had identification
cards, bandages and 10
$2 bills, the warrant said.
BY TOM LANGE
DAILY JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
The Indiana Department of Education is telling schools to continue plans to begin the ISTEP
later this month, and that any
effort to shorten the length of the
test could require legislative
approval.
The state department of education is challenging claims by Gov.
Mike Pence that it wasn’t open
about how the test has changed.
Department
of
Education
officials said the state board of
education was told six months
ago the number of questions that
would appear on this year’s test
— but not the length of time that
it would take Hoosier children
age 8 to 14 to complete the test.
The length of the test has
STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESSES
Franklin, Greenwood mayors
praise progress, discuss plans for 2015
ON RIGHT PATH
MARK MYERS
JOE McGUINNESS
Beech Grove
Franklin
Virginia E. Forbes, 87
Gerald C. Pickett, 87
Greenwood
Rebecca L. Fair, 53
Gabriel Jacob Robert
Neace, 3 months
Indianapolis
Jamie S. Cramer, 62
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INDEX
Classifieds..................B6-B8
Comics.............................B5
Editorials...........................A4
Obituaries.........................A5
Police, fire..........................A3
Sports........................B1-B4
Southside..........................A3
TV listings..........................A7
Weather............................A8
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DAILY
of public instruction Danielle
Shockey said Tuesday that neither the governor nor the state
board of education should have
been surprised, because they
were told in August that the test
would be longer.
(SEE TESTS PAGE A2)
Goodwill
gets OK
from city
Agency agrees to
8 conditions set
by Greenwood
BY STEVE GARBACZ
DAILY JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
DEATHS
Sherry Hankins, 67
grown to about 12 hours and in
most cases doubled, which Pence
said during a news conference on
Monday shocked and outraged
him and parents.
But Indiana Department of Education spokesman Daniel Altman and deputy superintendent
Foundation for
responsible growth
BY STEVE GARBACZ
RECOUNTING
SUCCESSES
BY STEVE GARBACZ
«Franklin
DAILY JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
T
his year in Franklin can be
summed up with two words
familiar to residents: Under
construction.
Whether roads, sidewalks, trails or
new businesses, Franklin is going to
keep building them all, Franklin Mayor
Joe McGuinness said in his annual state
of the city address.
The city will launch the first phase of
a $20 million project to rebuild Jefferson and King streets, one of the biggest
infrastructure projects in Franklin’s
history. But that’s not until August,
after the city wraps up the last piece of
construction on North Main Street,
approves a stormwater plan focused on
fixing issues in creeks and streams and
solving drainage problems, plotting
future growth around Interstate 65 and
continuing to design more than 4 miles
of new trails.
All of that is coming after the city
worked on North Main Street and built
its first roundabout, made major road
and sidewalk upgrades to downtown
streets, announced six major industrial
(SEE GROWTH PAGE A8)
‘The Greenwood way
of solving problems’
»Six industrial
projects were announced, leading
to at least 230 new
jobs in the city.
»Franklin finished
2014 with a
surplus of about
$650,000 in tax
dollars, which went
into savings.
Greenwood»
»Getting the ULTA
Cosmetics
distribution center
at Main Street,
which will bring
more than 500
jobs
»Starting construction
on the Worthsville
Road widening
project and new
interchange
MORE, A5, A8
DAILY JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
F
or the past three years, Greenwood has been spending within its
means and finding inventive ways
to replace equipment or rebuild
infrastructure, the mayor said.
That’s the path on which Mayor Mark
Myers said he wants to keep the city.
Greenwood finished 2014 by spending
$400,000 less than it collected in taxes
and tucked away $300,000 into savings.
The city is saving $120,000 per year
in expenses since moving into the
new city center, collected more than
a half million dollars in utility liens
last year and is building millions of
dollars worth of projects with funds
from the city’s tax-increment
financing, or TIF, districts.
Meanwhile new businesses are
opening, such as ULTA Cosmetics,
which is bringing more than 500 jobs.
The city is expanding trails, upgrading
parks and opening a new aquatic center
to improve quality of life, Myers said.
The city is catching up on major
maintenance issues, such as aging
sewers and drainage, before they
become a larger expense, he added.
Photos by
Scott Roberson
(SEE WAY PAGE A5)
A new Goodwill warehouse and
outlet store will be built in
Greenwood.
After the city council blocked
the project about two months
ago, Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana agreed to a list of
eight conditions above and beyond what would normally be required by the city in order to
build the 125,000-square-foot
building on Emerson Avenue.
That list includes using highquality building materials, limiting truck docks, keeping existing trees and paying full
property taxes, instead of claiming an exemption as a nonprofit
organization.
The board of zoning appeals
approved the project 4-0, allowing the company to run a retail
outlet store in the larger warehouse. Those types of shops typically aren’t allowed on industrial
land near Interstate 65, which is
why Goodwill needed the city’s
approval before the development
could be built.
Greenwood City Council member David Hopper spoke against
the project, saying it would hurt
surrounding businesses and that
he didn’t feel the building fit in
the long-range plan for that area
and that Goodwill sells “trash”
by the pound at the outlet stores.
Goodwill worked with the city
and neighbors to address any
concerns, which is why no one
but Hopper opposed the project,
said attorney Joe Calderon, who
was representing Goodwill.
“We have put in everything
staff has wanted and what our
south adjoiner wanted and
made this a better project,”
Calderon said.
The large industrial building
will be used mostly for storage
and shipping. Goodwill will bring
items that haven’t sold at other
stores or are out of season to the
warehouse.
Some of that merchandise will
be offered in the outlet store,
where shoppers can search
through items and purchase
them by the pound, instead of
paying for each item.
The building will be built in the
middle of the Greenwood Springs
business park, south of County
Line Road, off Emerson Avenue.
The site has been used since the
1930s for petroleum or fertilizer
storage, has a pipeline running
through the north side of the
property and also has some
(SEE GOODWILL PAGE A5)
Proposed fire station would cost more than $1 million
BY ABBY ARMBRUSTER
DAILY JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
A southern Johnson County fire department wants to build a new fire station at a cost of more than $1 million.
The new building would include
space for administrative offices,
sleeping quarters and eight fire
trucks. It would replace a more
than 40-year-old building, Hensley
Fire Protection Board president
Mike Hodge said.
The fire district serves about
48 square miles and nearly 4,000
residents in Hensley Township and
portions of Union and Franklin
townships. The Trafalgar Volunteer
Fire Department, which serves the
district, makes about 400 runs per
year for fire and medical emergencies, Hodge said.
With the new fire station, the district would be able to handle projected growth during the next 40 to
50 years, Hodge said. The Trafalgar
Fire Department is currently
staffed by volunteer firefighters,
but eventually the department
would like to offer paid staff positions, officials have said.
The fire department also has
five fire trucks, but officials said
they hope to expand the fleet as
needed in the future. Some of the
fire trucks are too big to fit into
the current fire station, officials
have said.
The new station is projected to
(SEE FIRE PAGE A5)
CHECKING VITALS
A new fire station is planned to be built on State Road 252 in
Trafalgar. No blueprint has been made for the new structure yet,
but land was purchased last year.
Runs Trafalgar Fire DepartSimilar projects
ment made last year: 400
Cost of two most recent fire
Square miles served: 48
stations that were built in
Johnson County:
Firefighters: About 20
Cost of land for proposed fire Two Franklin fire stations:
$1.25 million and
station: $275,000
$1.7 million
Cost of new proposed fire
Bargersville fire station:
station: $1.6 million
$2.1 million
Cost of new fire truck: $600,000