City appoints new school board member
GREENCASTLE -- With the selection of three candidates who all council members seemed to consider worthy, the Greencastle Common Council chose its appointee to the Greencastle Community School Board Tuesday evening.
Monica Fennell will serve the community on the school board for the next four years. The council chose Fennell by a 4-1 vote over Jeffrey Boggess and Wesley Sampson.
Before nominating Fennell, Councilor Jinsie Bingham thanked all three candidates for their interest.
"She (Fennell) brings a wide range of expertise to the board," Bingham said. "They all answered the questions very well, but she just stuck out to me a little more."
Councilor T.J. Smith seconded the nomination.
With the voting complete, Councilor Phyllis Rokicki thanked all three candidates and encouraged Boggess and Sampson to continue pursuing their interests in serving the community and the schools.
"I want to thank the three applicants. They were all outstanding," Rokicki said. "We could use all three of them working for the schools. I encourage the other two to be involved."
Councilor Mark Hammer, who cast the one dissenting vote, said it was an expression of his support for another candidate, nothing against Fennell.
"I'd like to say my vote was not against Monica, just for another candidate," Hammer said.
Fennell joins fellow city appointee Dr. Bruce Stinebrickner, who has served on the school board for the past two years.
Following a public hearing to open the meeting, council approved a resolution declaring an economic revitalization area at Chiyoda USA Corporation, 2200 E. State Road 240, Greencastle.
The plant is planning to invest about $665,000 in new injection molding equipment. The purchase of the equipment should help retain the 151 employees currently at the facility.
The declaration of an economic revitalization area will give the company a seven-year tax abatement on the new equipment.
Putnam County Economic Development director, as well as five representatives of the company, came before the board on Tuesday.
"No tax money is being given up; the taxes on the new equipment will be phased in over the seven years," Dory said.
Dory said despite the tax abatement, Chiyoda will be paying approximately $29,000 in tax revenue on the new equipment over the next 10 years.
Council approved a number of special requests, including street closures for both Greencastle Custom Cycle and DePauw University. Greencastle Custom Cycle's closure will be Columbia St. from Jackson to Indiana. The closure will be from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Aug. 28.
The closure coincides with the Run for Fun motorcycle ride and will be a chance for the shop's owners, Scott and Lisa Eaton, to thank their customers.
"We'd like to keep it at our shop so they can feel more at home," Lisa Eaton said.
DePauw requested the closure of College St. from Olive to Hanna from noon to midnight on Aug. 28 as part of orientation activities.
There were also a number of noise ordinance waivers as part of orientation for events on Aug. 21, 23, 26 and 28.
Parks and Recreation director Rod Weinschenk requested the patience of the public as repairs are going on around Robe-Ann Park.
"I'd like to ask the public to bear with us. It's going to be torn up for a while," he said.
Besides some road repairs, there will be work done on a number of trees, including the removal of three dead trees and one still living, but badly leaning. Another tree not leaning so badly will be trimmed to help straighten it.
Weinschenk said the work should be completed in the next two weeks and should have no effect on Celebrate "4" activities.
Mayor Sue Murray reported some bad news from the Indiana Department of Transportation from a recent letter. After a traffic study at the intersection of Veteran's Memorial Highway and Percy Julian Dr., the state has once again determined traffic signals are not necessary.
"I'm a bit incredulous about it," Murray said. "That was a large disappointment after three months of waiting."
"I just hope it doesn't take some sort of tragedy or something major to get something done," Hammer said.