Get ready to vote on a $29.9 million plan that includes building a new library in downtown Franklin.

The Johnson County Public Library board voted unanimously Tuesday to schedule a May referendum on the new branch.

Voters would decide whether to pay more in taxes for a project that involves building a library and two-story parking garage downtown, turning the existing Franklin branch into a new library headquarters and renovating the White River Township branch.

Board members said a new Franklin library would solve the space crunch at the current branch, help build up the downtown and serve as a community hub. Vice president Ray Jones said the countywide district should build a new Franklin library while construction prices were still low, since the economy was showing signs of recovering.

“I see this as an investment in the future,” he said. “We should invest in the future because we’ll never get the library built any cheaper than now. It will be hard on some but would be harder down the road.”

The project is estimated to cost the owner of a $142,200 home $26.64 more in property taxes per year. The increased taxes would be paid by most county residents, except those who live in the Greenwood and Edinburgh library districts.

• By JOSEPH S. PETE
  Daily Journal staff writer

Greenwood City Court Judge Lewis Gregory plans to set up a veterans treatment court that would be one of about 80 nation­wide, but the first of its kind in central Indiana. The program would try to rehabilitate veterans charged with crimes that resulted at least partly from their wartime service.

Greenwood was one of 30 com­munities nationwide this year to receive to a U.S. Department of Justice grant to set up its own veterans court to help troubled veterans who have broken the law.

“They have a different set of issues than most of the folks that we see,” Gregory said. “They appear to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder when they describe to our case managers that they’re anxious, afraid of loud noises, unable to sleep, having bad dreams and things of that nature.”

A veterans court would differ from a traditional court because it would require that veterans get counseling or other treatment as part of their sentence. They might not otherwise get the treatment they’re entitled to through the Veterans Administration, Gregory said.

“They seem to drift into crim­inal behavior as an outgrowth of what’s going on between their ears,” he said. “If any of this is attributable to their service to the country, we have an obligation to do what we can to help them.”

The Greenwood City Court is getting federal money that’s expected to cover the full cost of training in Buffalo, N.Y. Gregory, court staffers and planning group members plan to travel to New York for a few days to study the nation’s first veterans court.

Communities across the country, including Evansville, have set up specialized courts to serve the veterans returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Buffalo set up the first one in 2008, Gregory said.

The Greenwood City Court also has seen more Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have suffered psychological wounds such as post-traumatic stress disorder, Gregory said. They typically commit drug- and alcohol-related crimes or domestic battery, he said.

His court handled about 1,500 criminal cases last year and, in at least 15 of them, probation officers determined that wartime psychological trauma was a factor, Gregory said.

But the actual number of cases could be higher because veterans don’t always reveal that they’re having problems or experiencing symptoms of trauma, chief probation officer Jodie Rittman said.

“Normally the veterans aren’t telling us or disclosing it,” she said. “They can be a little standoffish about it because they still have that soldier mentality that they’re OK and don’t need any extra help.”

Greenwood’s recovery court has dealt with veterans who had post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, Rittman said. They become prone to substance abuse or get into domestic disputes.

“We’ve talked with them about an inability to reintegrate back into society and almost a kind of embattled mentality,” she said. “They have flashbacks, heightened awareness and are still concerned with their life at every minute.”

Veterans occasionally cope by self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, Gregory said.

They should be held responsible for any crimes they commit, but they also need treatment for the psychological and physical issues that cause them to run afoul of the law, he said.

“We cannot and should not overlook any criminal violations,” he said. “But if they went out and got messed up serving their country, we should get them help.”

The veterans court would refer defendants to evaluations and treatment at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Indianapolis. They would have to get treatment from the VA while following other requirements of being on probation, such as being subjected to random drugs screens.

Veterans also could be referred to take part in peer support group discussions offered by Warrior’s Hope, a Greenwood-based organization that offers counseling and peer support to veterans.

“This will address a need for a few young veterans who have gone afoul of the law,” said Loren Minnix, president of Warrior’s Hope. “They’ll get the type of help that they need. It’s a very crucial issue for those who have returned from deployment, and hopefully we can help them regain some normalcy.”

Veterans from every branch of the military would be eligible to go through the court, Gregory said. Veterans of any conflict, and even those who haven’t fought in combat, could participate in the treatment court.

Gregory said he’s still researching exactly how the court would set up, but said it would be part of the city’s recovery court that aims to help people overcome substance abuse. He expects that existing recovery court staff could handle all the duties of the new court and that it wouldn’t cost much to operate.

The Greenwood City Court could get federal grant dollars to pay operating expenses, but the court probably could cover all the costs with the money that’s already budgeted for the recovery court, Gregory said.

He expects to have the new veterans court set up by as soon as this summer. His hope is that Johnson County criminal courts eventually would refer any troubled veterans they encounter to the city court.

“Hopefully this will put individuals on the path to recovery from their injuries, get them reunified with their families, free of substance abuse, able to sleep at night and closer to the person they were before the service,” he said. “For the community, hopefully it will mean a reduction in crime, substance abuse and temper blow-ups. It should be a win-win.”

By JOSEPH S. PETE
Daily Journal staff writer

Call Star reporter Mary Beth Schneider at (317) 444-2772.

Drive along Interstate 65 near Whitestown and you’ll see new warehouses and offices in a massive business park.

Follow Interstate 69 through Fishers and you’ll pass by a new development that includes a corporate office campus, a farmers market, an outpost of a state university and homes.

Johnson County communities have hopes that they’ll be able to have some of the same success at new interchanges they’re building, annexing or expecting to arrive when I-69 does.

Greenwood, Bargersville, Johnson County and Whiteland all are making plans for interstate exits that will make the surrounding land prime for development.

Greenwood plans to build a $22 million I-65 exit the state recently approved at Worthsville Road, whileBargersville is banking on getting a new interchange at County Road 144 when State Road 37 becomes a new stretch of I-69.

Johnson County expects the state will build I-69 interchanges on Smith Valley Road and County Line Road.Whiteland wants to annex I-65’sWhiteland Road interchange, where the town wants to develop a new business park.

Planners said they don’t want to see a hodgepodge of truck stops, strip malls and billboards you could encounter at many interstate exits. They’re working on or hoping to soon start developing plans for how land should be developed around the interstate exits.

Greenwood, Whiteland andBargersville all studied how to have new business parks near their exits. They’ve talked about luring high-tech manufacturers and even medical research companies.

New interchanges present a unique opportunity to land large employers that could bring jobs and attract more people to the area, Johnson County Economic Development Corp. president and chief executive officer Cheryl Morphew said.

“There’s going to be locations for logistics because we’re in the sweet spot of distribution for the U.S.,” she said. “Manufact­uring would make sense because you’ve got a large number of people in the work force with that skill set, but it’ll be up to each community to determine what makes sense for their community.”

New interchanges could bring high-quality development that could mean good-paying jobs and property tax income, public policy consultant Mike Shaver said. Johnson County communities face crucial choices about what businesses they’ll allow and what visions they’ll have for prime ground along the interstate, he said.

Much of the development that naturally occurs around interstate exits caters to the long-distance travelers, said Barry Rubin, an Indiana University professor who specializes in economic develop­ment. People driving need somewhere to fill up their tank, grab a bite to eat and rest for the night.

But an interstate exit also can be ideal for other types of businesses, including warehouses or factories that depend on the highway system to ship goods, he said. They’re also often a good place for office parks, especially for research and development companies that might have to draw employees from a wide geographic area.

Developers have the final say over what gets built, since they finance it, Shaver said. But communities can set policies that encourage projects, such as a 725-acre mixed-use development off I-69 that brought 3.5 million square feet of office and industrial space to Fishers, he said.

Fishers and Whitestown, for instance, used tools such as land use requirements to encourage higher-quality developments and ban the types of businesses they didn’t want, he said. Fishers, for instance, doesn’t allow hotels near the interstate unless they include a conference center and a restaurant. Fishers also requires that gas stations be attached to convenience stores, restaurants or banks.

Communities also can establish boards to review projects to ensure they follow stricter architectural standards, such as that more brick be used, Shaver said. They also can offer tax incentives to the sort of businesses they want to attract, create special tax districts to build roads or other infrastructure to encourage development and hone a vision that they could share with developers.

But if that vision is too restrictive, communities could wait indefinitely for new businesses to come in, said Barry Rubin, an Indiana University professor who specializes in economic development. The free market ultimately will decide which businesses get built.

“It’s hard to dictate the exact nature of what businesses that come in,” he said. “That has a lot to do with what land is available, if the area’s already dense or an open space, and what sort of access it has to a market or the population.”

Bargersville, for instance, wants a business park when the state transforms State Road 37 into a new length of I-69 but fully expects that fast-foot restaurants also would come in, planning director Jonathan Isaacs said.

“We’re in the market for a business park-type of situation and want to attract the appropriate type of development, but you can’t escape highway-oriented development,” he said. “You’re going to see retail, convenience stores, gas stations, restaurants, that sort of thing.”

Bargersville is working on its land use plan and has discussed bringing in small factories, warehouses and potentially medical firms to an expected exit at County Road 144, Isaacs said. The town has talked to a developer about its vision and considered establishing a special tax district that would help pay for roads, sewer lines and water pipes new businesses would need.

The town also has discussed offering tax breaks for the type of businesses it wants to bring in, Isaacs said.

“For the most part it will have to be a partnership with the developer and the town and the community,” he said. “But you need a vision to work with when the developer walks in the door, so you have something to work with.”

Bargersville doesn’t expect I-69 to pass through town for about eight years and has time to refine its plans, Isaacs said. But the discussions so far have been that the town wouldn’t mind seeing the sort of development that cropped up near the County Line Road interchange in Greenwood, including a new OrthoIndy orthopedic hospital and hotels.

Whiteland hopes to attract warehouses, factories and offices after years of being passed over by companies that went to Greenwood and Franklin instead. The town wants a new businesses park on Whiteland Road a short distance west of the interstate, town manager Dennis Capozzi said.

A business park would let the town lure businesses similar to those that have located in Greenwood in recent years, such as Nestlé Waters North America and Southern Wine and Spirits, Morphew said.

Greenwood shaped the type of development that took place around its interchanges by imposing higher development standards, such as that businesses near the interstate have to have 75 percent brick masonry, more landscaping and be surrounded by grass, planning director Ed Ferguson said. The city, for instance, requires that dumpsters must be enclosed to improve appearances.

The city established those standards in the late 1980s at the Main Street exit and later extended them to the County Line Road interchange, he said. Greenwood also banned a variety of businesses from opening near the interstate, including more gas stations, truck stops or dealerships with outdoor showrooms.

“We’ve had people call about truck stops, mobile home parks, auto salvage yards right off the interstate, you name it,” he said. “But we’ve had to turn them all away.”

Greenwood has to decide whether to extend those same standards to the new Worthsville Road exit or adopt new ones that could be even more stringent, Ferguson said. The city hopes to encourage higher-end development that would result in tax income, jobs and high wages for residents.

“Whiteland and the Main Street exit already have enough truck stops,” he said. “There’s no reason for that at Worthsville Road.”

IF THEY BUILD IT, WHAT WILL COME?

The significance of interchanges

Interchanges create opportunities and challenges for communities with respect to land use and economic development.

With good local planning and land-use control ordinances, an interchange area can be an attractive, efficient community asset.

Without proper planning, interchanges tend to become eyesores because of cluttered signs, haphazard land use and traffic congestion.

Issues with interchanges

Ideally, the vision of the community determines land development patterns in interchange areas. Communities may wish to just to preserve interchange areas as open space consistent with the vision of the community.

Uncontrolled growth, however, can reduce the traffic-carrying capacity of the interchange. The resulting traffic congestion will reduce the access to adjacent property and reduce the potential for successful development.

Uncontrolled growth and proliferation of signs and billboards can serve as an unattractive gateway to a nearby community.

Consequences of not planning around interchanges

Through lack of planning, problems and issues have occurred at interchanges and approaches to major highways all across the United States. These situations can occur unless efforts are made to appropriately guide that development.

Incompatible groupings of land uses

Each major land use has a set of characteristics, which can have impacts to other uses. For example, industrial firms that generate heavy traffic or large amounts of noise, smoke or odors will make an area unsuitable or undesirable for residences or retail businesses. On the other hand, scattered residences make it difficult to assemble suitable sites for large commercial and industrial development. Rural planning and zoning may not anticipate the variety of urban uses attracted to highway interchange areas and incompatible development often results.

Intersecting highways

Shallow strips of development often include only those lots fronting on the intersecting highway. When access to the parcels behind the strip development is eliminated, they become landlocked and lose their development potential. Strip development also increases the cost of installing utilities.

Unattractive appearance

Interchange development should fit into the surrounding landscape. Disregard of the natural setting and an unrestricted proliferation of signs, billboards and utility lines can make the area unattractive. Too many signs confuse motorists.

Insufficient building setbacks

Where setback lines are not established, structures including parking lots may crowd up to the highway right-of-way line. This can obscure the line of sight required for safe driving, eliminate the possibility of service road construction and cause unnecessary private and public expense if the roadway is subsequently widened and the buildings must be removed. Adequate setbacks also provide for open space and aesthetic development.

Excessive number of access locations

Each driveway, street connection or access location on the intersecting highway creates its own set of potential traffic conflicts. These conflicts can and do cause congestion and unsafe driving conditions, so access should be controlled in highway interchange areas. Unrestricted access will curtail the traffic-carrying capacity of the highway.

Excessive traffic generation

Each business in the interchange area will generate local traffic. When the intersecting highway is already carrying a heavy volume of through traffic, local traffic created by new development may greatly increase congestion. In such cases, the traffic congestion potential of each new development must be weighed against its positive contributions to the community.

SOURCE: “A Guide for Community Planning in Interchange Areas,” Wisconsin Department of Transportation

By JOSEPH S. PETE
Daily Journal staff writer

The Greenwood City Council plans to spend $11 million in property tax dollars to pay for half the estimated cost of an Interstate 65 exit atWorthsville Road. Greenwood would take out a loan to pay for its share of a project that’s estimated to cost up to $22 million, while the state would pay the other half.

Redevelopment commission attorney Stephen Watson requested that the council give the project its first and also final approval at a meeting next month. The city is rushing to build its third interchange and hopes construction will start as soon as next year or in 2014.

Council members could continue to offer input on how the project is planned even after approving spending the money, council president Bruce Armstrong said.

Greenwood’s third interchange would attract businesses, lure more jobs, shorten commute times and kick-start an east-west route across the county, council members said.

The new exit is expected to spur a plan for a corridor that would move traffic from Interstate 74 in Shelby County to an eventual Interstate 69 in western Johnson County.

“This is going to affect economic development in Greenwood in a big, big way,” council member Thom Hordsaid. “It’s going to be a great asset that’s going to give us an economicboost.”

Mayor Mark Myers said that the new interchange should be a high priority and that Greenwood needs to move quickly to stay on top of the project.

“It’s going to mean so much to the eastside development, whether economic or residential,” he said. “Those are going to be huge. But it’s also going to take a great deal of traffic and alleviate the congestion on Main Street and County Line Road.”

Greenwood will pay for its share of the project with money that comes from a special tax increment financing district that collects property taxes from improvements in a certain geographical area and channels them back into road and other infrastructure improvements in the area. Schools, libraries and other local governments don’t get their share of that tax income.

The tax dollars are instead managed by a redevelopment commission that helps with building or widening roads to help lure new businesses and jobs.

Three years ago, the redevelopment commission voted to borrow about

$31 million to refinance debt and widen Worthsville Road to five lanes between the interstate and U.S. 31. The council also approved that loan.

But the road widening project got delayed because of uncertainty about when the state would agree to build a new interchange. The city still hasn’t borrowed the $31 million but could at any time without further approval, Watson said.As part of that loan, the city also would build an entrance off Sheek Road into the new Clark-Pleasant Middle School at 1354 E. Worthsville Road.

The new access road would allow parents to go from Sheek Road to the middle school without having to go on Worthsville Road. The alternate route should reduce congestion at the intersection, officials said.

Greenwood hopes to move traffic along Worthsville Road more quickly and that requires redirecting school traffic onto Sheek Road, Watson said.

Engineers haven’t estimated how much that work would cost. But the redevelopment commission should have enough borrowed money to cover that project and it also has cash in the bank, Watson said.

First, the city council must allow Greenwood to spend the $31 million in borrowed money on projects including the school access road and new I-65 exit, Watson said.

Both the city council and the redevelopment commission have to vote to allow that spending of special tax district dollars.

Armstrong said that a new interchange would be expensive, but that it would make residents’ lives easier by shortening the amount of time they spend in traffic.

“I see people stuck in traffic going south up to Main Street to get on the interstate,” he said. “They could have a quicker way to commute.”

A new interchange also could bring more businesses and jobs to Greenwood if the owners of surrounding farmland decided to sell their property, Armstrong said. Their land likely would appreciate enough in value that they’d give it up to developers, who could bring in factories and other businesses.

“There will be a huge economic impact when we get an exit to our business park,” he said. “This could bring a lot of prosperity.”

Greenwood and the Indiana Department of Transportation will build the new exit in 2014 if everything goes according to schedule, Watson said. Construction work ideally would start and finish that year, he said.

By JOSEPH S. PETE
Daily Journal staff writer

Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has filed legislation to keep redevelopment commissions from spending large amounts of money without city council approval.

Kenley sought a similar measure in the Indiana General Assembly’s 2011 session. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly but — viewed by some as a bill targeting one community — failed to even receive a hearing in the House.

So what’s different?

“There is more momentum behind it,” Kenley said, “and the need is more recognized in different parts of the state.”

While the issue came to a head in Carmel, redevelopment commissions elsewhere are now drawing criticisms.

Greg Walker, R-Columbus, said decisions made by commissions in Columbus and Franklin contributed to the ouster of those cities’ incumbent mayors in the Nov. 8 general election. Columbus’ commission has begun efforts to lure a sports complex near its downtown, while Franklin’s commission has tried to create a city green space near its downtown.

In both cases, Walker said, there was a perception of secrecy and concern over appointed officials spending taxpayer money. Mayors appoint the majority of commission members, who can use commercial taxpayer money for redevelopment efforts. Kenley and Walker both think elected city councils should make such financial decisions.

“I’ve had lots of discussions with other legislators about the fact this is not an isolated case,” Walker said. “I will continue to make that case with legislators I have influence with.”

Brainard, though, argues that elected officials are in control: mayors.

“Redevelopment commissions are responsible to the elected mayor and that system has worked well for Indiana,” he said. “It would appear that once more the legislature is trying to fix something that is not a problem.”

Brainard will begin his fifth term in January. Despite his opponents’ focus on the redevelopment commission’s spending, he emerged unscathed in GOP-dominated Carmel’s Republican primary in May.

In 2008, with money from a city council-approved bond running dry and the concert hall only partially completed, Brainard used Carmel’s commission to take the city $95 million deeper into debt to finish construction. His opponents have criticized the action because he bypassed the City Council, despite state law that appears to require its approval for debts. Brainard maintains the commission incurred the additional debt through “installment-purchase contracts” that do not require council approval.

“There has been debt accrued,” he said, “but the economic development benefits more than pay for the debt. This is really a question of who controls the debt — the elected council or the elected mayor.”

The Indiana Associations of Cities and Towns — on behalf of economic development — initially joined Carmel in opposing the 2011 legislation in the House. It’s unclear what role the group will play this time.

Rhonda Cook, the association’s legislative counsel, said the association had agreed to drop the opposition to the 2011 bill, after Kenley made several changes. One of those — which remains in the 2012 bill — allows commissions to use short-term debt to buy land. Some argue that commissions need to move more quickly on land deals.

Cook has met with Kenley about his current bill, but she said the association has yet to take a stance. Newly elected councils and mayors take office in cities and towns throughout the state Jan. 1, she noted, and the association wants to gauge their interests in that bill and others.

“I’m not sure,” she said, “what direction we will want to take.”

Regardless of the association’s decision, Kenley still expects to face hurdles in the House.

Rep. Phil Hinkle, R-Indianapolis, refused to give the 2011 legislation a hearing in his House Government and Regulatory Reform committee. But he no longer heads that committee, after details of his arrangement of a liaison with an 18-year-old male at a Downtown hotel became publicly known. It’s unclear what House committee will consider the legislation in 2012.

Regardless, Kenley said Speaker Brian Bosma was a bigger obstacle. While Bosma never commented publically on that legislation, Kenley said that Bosma opposed it. The speaker could not be reached Thursday.

“Hopefully, they will see the need,” Kenley said. “Awareness has begun to develop about what’s happening across the state. People are beginning to realize these things can be used in ways not intended.”

Written by

Chris Sikich

Lt. John Henderson, who has been with the department since 2001, was named as the next fire chief.

Mayor-elect Joe McGuinness said he selected Henderson because of his integrity and respect within the department.

McGuinness said he interviewed and spoke with more than 20 fire­fighters with the department, and Henderson’s name came up more than once.

“I trust he will make the right decisions and move our department in the right direc­tion,” McGuinness said.

Henderson replaces Jim Reese, who has been with the department for 27 years and was retained as chief when Mayor Fred Paris took office in 2008.

Henderson has been a firefighter for 15 years and previously worked for the Shelbyville Fire Department.

As chief, Henderson said he wants to focus on continuing to grow the department efficiently and better use technology.

In recent years, the city built two new fire stations, which he believes shows the value placed on the fire department by the city council considering the tough economic times, he said.

He wants to continue to ask for more growth in the department, such as new firefighters and more equipment as it is needed, he said.

“As chief, it is always your job to lobby for more help,” he said.

He also wants to focus on incorporating more technology into the department, such as by adding more computers at the stations so all firefighters and employees can check e-mail throughout the day.

Those e-mails could include information about schedules, rules and regulations of the department or updates they may need to know, such as if a fire hydrant is not working in a certain area of the city.

He wants firefighters to have access to that information throughout their shifts, he said.

He also would like to see the department use computers to improve the maps they have of the city and put computers in their firetrucks, which they could use on runs, he said.

Those changes would require more computers and more equipment, and he plans to work with officials to find ways to afford that, Henderson said.

He said he also wants to improve the morale of the department. In recent years, firefighters and other employees have taken on more duties as the city has had to cut its budget, he said.

Henderson said he hopes to find creative ways to try to bring in more funding and be more efficient with how that money is spent.

By ANNIE GOELLER
Daily Journal staff writer

The Indiana Department of Transportation approved the city’s third interstate exit at Worthsville Road, Greenwood Mayor Charles Henderson said Tuesday.

Construction is expected to start in 2014, he said.

Henderson had been making the case for an Interstate 65 exit at Worths­ville Road for nearly two years. This fall, he proposed a new deal that called for the city to pay for the design and land costs of the project if the state would start construction by 2015. He wanted an agreement in place by the end of the year.

The mayor, who leaves office next week, got more than he asked for, with the state laying out a time ­frame that calls for con­struction to start a year earlier.

“This, to me, is really the crown jewel; and I’m really excited,” Henderson said.

The city will pay up to $11 million, which is estimated at half of the project’s cost, Henderson said.

The money will come from a special tax-increment financing district, which collects property taxes from new development in a certain geographical area and funnels that money back into infrastructure projects, such as roads.

Henderson expects the interchange to spur further development in the area. The new exit fits with the plan for an east-west corridor to carry traffic from Interstate 74 in Shelby County to an eventual Interstate 69 in western Johnson County.

“To have that connection between those three interstates and coming through our own community makes us really the hub,” Henderson said. “It gets the future really looking bright.”

He said it will make Endress+Hauser, a major Greenwood employer, a showplace for the city.

The city will give the state a $2 million down payment in the coming months as paperwork is completed. The remaining $9 million will be paid when the state hires a contractor.

Henderson made the announcement at a special meeting of the city’s redevelopment commission.

Next, the commission and board of public works will begin approving contracts and updating other paperwork that allows money to be spent on the project.

The announcement of the city’s third interstate exit caps Henderson’s 16 years as mayor.

He was mayor in 1998 when the state finished construction on the I-65 exit at County Line Road.

“It’s an exciting day for me to know all the opportunities that lie out there,” Henderson said.

By MICHELE HOLTKAMP

Daily Journal

The problem is, few outsiders know about them. In the nine-county metropolitan area, Johnson County is the only one without a convention and visitors bureau.

Compare that with Hendricks County. Only slightly bigger in population — 145,000 vs. 140,000, according to 2010 census data — and square miles (407 vs. 320), Hendricks has full-time tourism staffers and a billboard and kiosks welcoming visitors at Indianapolis International Airport.

Johnson County has none of those.

“We’re not telling our story,” said Christian Maslowski, director of the Greater Greenwood Chamber of Commerce.

Despite the lack of a coordinated tourism effort, Johnson County hotels and restaurants will likely be packed when Indianapolis hosts the 2012 Super Bowl. Greenwood and Franklin are official Super Celebration sites; the University of Indianapolis, about four miles north of Greenwood, will serve as the practice facility for one of the competing NFL teams.

But, some say, the Super Bowl is a missed opportunity.

“We are missing out on the return visits,” Maslowski said.

Taxing tourism: A no go

The story goes back about two years, when a group of business leaders urged Johnson County officials to adopt a hotel tax to fund tourism efforts. The state gives counties the power to collect the so-called innkeeper’s tax of up to 5 percent, but the money has to be spent to promote local tourism through brochures, marketing, billboards and the like.

Johnson County officials were reluctant to attach their names to any tax hike, even a modest one. Some also wanted to see a portion of the money go toward fixing up the county’s parks, such as Hoosier Horse Park, built to host the 1987 Pan American Games equestrian events. But that would have required the blessing of state legislators and the governor.

The sides failed to reach an agreement, and the measure fizzled.

“I was kind of opposed to starting another bureaucracy where the innkeeper’s tax would come in and the bulk of that money would be consumed paying salaries and benefits,” said County Council member Ron West, who was leading the effort to use some of the tax for parks.

The president of the Indiana Hotel and Lodging Association said hotels support the 5 percent tax when the money is spent on tourism. They have concerns when the tax creeps higher or when it goes to amenities such as parks.

“If you are going to increase the price of what it costs to stay at a hotel, that money ought to go back to promoting the things that bring people to those hotels,” said John Livengood, the hotel association’s president.

Worth the money

Studies suggest spending on tourism pays for itself in the long run. Ball State University researchers found that for every $1 spent on tourism in Indiana, a county reaps about $15 in additional tax revenue.

Despite the payoff, Michael Hicks, one of the Ball State study’s authors, said critics like West make valid points.

“If you are a big destination location, promotion really matters,” Hicks said. “Not every county is going to have destination sites.”

When a county doesn’t have much to market, Hicks said, there’s no point in spending money on advertising. But it can still benefit from an innkeeper’s tax.

Counties should have more flexibility in how they use a hotel tax, Hicks said. They shouldn’t have to seek state legislative approval to use the tax to improve parks or install street lights.

“For a non-destination community, maybe you would have a hotel-motel tax that would fund the parks,” Hicks said.

For some communities, boosting the quality of life for the people who live there is a much better use of the tax money than slick brochures, Hicks said.

“If you have a really nice, quality place, people are going to visit,” Hicks said. “People do not visit places that are not good places to live.”

While Johnson County has failed to enact a hotel tax, Hendricks County has capitalized on its.

Hendricks County started collecting a tax in 1998, about the time a big amusement park was planning to move to the area. The project failed, but the county has used the revenue to build its brand.

Full-time staffers work to bring visitors — especially those headed to Indianapolis — over to Hendricks County attractions, including Lucas Oil Raceway and Chateau Thomas Winery.

“Visitors don’t know where the county lines are,” said Emory T. Lencke, director of the Hendricks County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We try not to think about county lines.”

Hendricks County has an 8 percent hotel tax — 5 percent goes to promote tourism, 1.5 percent to the development of a conference center in Plainfield and 1.5 percent goes to parks and fairgrounds.

The tax gave Hendricks County about $1.5 million this year.

The hotel tax allows Hendricks County to take advantage of its proximity to the Indianapolis International Airport. Sixteen of the county’s 26 hotels are in Plainfield near the airport, Lencke said.

“It (the hotel tax) is a hard sell because people think of it as tax dollars,” Lencke said. “But it’s revenue producing. It’s capital. We provide the opportunity for people to come and spend money. They don’t live here, but they might someday, and that would be a good thing.”

Relying on word of mouth

While the Johnson County leaders who pushed for the hotel tax in 2009 say they still support it, no one has yet announced plans to reintroduce the measure in 2012.

Meanwhile, the people behind some of the area’s top attractions say a coordinated marketing effort could bring more money into their businesses.

“I’m sure it would be a help,” said John Richardson, co-owner of Mallow Run Winery in Bargersville.

Mallow Run does its own marketing. The winery is part of the Indiana Wine Grape Council and is listed on the Indiana Wine Trail. It also has a billboard on Ind. 37 and a sign on I-65.

Richardson said the winery draws about 40,000 visitors annually, but he didn’t know how many are from out of town.

“We’re always working on (improving our visibility),” Richardson said. “Our most important thing is word of mouth. We have customers who bring in other customers, and that’s a great thing.”

Written by

Vic Ryckaert

IndyStar.com

Mayor-elect Mark Myers has met with the mayors of Indian­apolis and Franklin and the Bargersville Town Council. He said he hopes to work closely with them and patch up relations withBargersville after a lengthy court battle over land that went all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court.

Myers has been meeting with other elected officials, making contacts in state government and attending classes about how to run a city as he prepares to become Greenwood’s first new mayor in 16 years. He said his days have stretched from about 7 a.m. to as late as 10 p.m. since he left his job as a security consultant to focus on setting up his administration earlier this month.

Myers said he’s been working full time on the transition to ensure that he’s ready to start streamlining city government after he’s sworn in Jan. 1. His days have been packed with meetings, such as with the BargersvilleTown Council about how the two communities will coor­dinatedevelopment along State Road 135.

A team of eight volunteers is working out of three spare offices in the city’s eastside Emerson Way office building to help him prepare.

His transition team has been surveying city employees about what improvements can be made, working on initiatives such as how to improvecus­tomer service and reviewing whether positions are needed. The team is looking at eliminating jobs the city no longer needs and moving those employees to new positions, such as a sanitation engineer who would review building projects, Myers said.

They also are sorting throughrésumés for department dir­ectorpositions and the new controller’s job. Myers has gotten unsolicited résumésfrom as far away as the Cincin­natiarea since he defeated Mayor Charles Henderson in the May primary.

Even more have flooded in since he won the November election with 62 percent of the vote. Myers now is assessing whether any of those people should run the city’s 11 departments.

In many cases, the best candidate is the current director, he said.

He plans to keep most of the directors in place but expects to name new leaders Dec. 28. Myers said he wants to make an announcement before he takes office at the beginning of the year to let employees know what to expect.

Myers already has announced that he’s keeping Fire Chief James Sipes in his position and named John Lauthis new police chief. Those decisions were the most pressing because police and firefighters already have to deal with a lot of stress and don’t need the added stress of not knowing what will be going on in their departments for the next four years, he said.

A decision also had to be reached quickly with the police leadership because of all the unrest in the department, Myers said. The police department has been in turmoil because of several disciplinary cases and an overhaul in leadership, he said.

“Morale is pretty low,” he said. “Officers were pretty anxious wanting to know administration-wise whether things would change or stay the same. I felt our public safety people needed to know.”

All other changes in department leadership will be announced at the same time, shortly before the beginning of the year.

A new financial manager, known as a controller, likely won’t be named until next year, Myers said.

A committee that Mayor Charles Henderson appointed posted an ad that got more than 100 responses, Clerk-Treasurer Jeannine Myers said.

But Mark Myers was concerned that the city advertised the position without first running the requirements by him. He said he didn’t agree with a requirement that the controller live in the city of Greenwood because he thought it could rule out highly qualified candidates.

The delay could push back the hiring of the controller until a few weeks into January, but the clerk-treasurer’s staff could manage the city’s finances until then, Myers said. He said it was more important to hire the right applicant, since that person will be responsible for overseeing all the city finances, including of its sewer utility.

Myers estimates the new controller will replace utility accountant Pat Sherman as the financial manager of the sewer utility about six months into next year.

Having a single person oversee all of the city’s finances is just more cost-effective in a financially challenging time, Myers said.

But the transition likely can’t take place for about six months, since the new controller will need to get familiar with the city’s finances before tackling the sewer utility, Myers said.

By JOSEPH S. PETE
Daily Journal staff writer