Intro

Erika Malone 0:00

This week on Beyond the Headlines, Resident Feedback. Franklin residents influence edits to the Innovation Park project, which is moving forward. Campaign finance with about two weeks to go until election day. What are local candidates spending their campaign funds on? And local students spotlighted, Indian Creek's Creek Cattle Company featured in a new student-led business report. From the Daily Journal, this is Beyond the Headlines, a local news podcast focused on story shaping Johnson County. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Headlines. It's me, Erica Malone, here with my coworker, Noah Crenshaw. How are you doing?

Noah Crenshaw 0:38

You know, it's going good. How about you, Erica?

Erika Malone 0:40

I'm doing great. Had some nice weather this week, been busy as well. Yes. We're on the the daily news grind.

Noah Crenshaw 0:50

Absolutely.

Erika Malone 0:50

110%. I think I say you tweak. I think it should just be your catchphrase at this point that the news never stops.

Noah Crenshaw 0:57

I mean, because it's true.

Erika Malone 0:58

It is true. Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 1:03

Then you're in trouble.

Erika Malone 1:05

We uh we don't want the news to stop. Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 1:08

Yeah. Um the newspaper will no longer exist if there was no news.

Erika Malone 1:13

So subscribe to the Daily Journal today. Anyway, let's get into it about what's happening in Johnson County this week, shall we?

Neighbors influence edits for Innovation Park

Noah Crenshaw 1:21

Yes. So first up is something uh we've it's been hotly discussed in Franklin for the last I was gonna say several months, but it's been like over a year now, which is the Innovation Park project. You know, it's advancing, and neighbors influence several edits to the plan, and they're kind of starts supporting more. They still have some concerns and questions, but you know, they're overall supportive, which kind of changed compared to past meetings.

Erika Malone 1:49

I will say it's nice to see, you know, kind of people exercising their civic duty and you know influencing changes to big projects like this.

Noah Crenshaw 1:57

Yes, and also I think it's interesting that there actually were some changes because you don't always often hear about that. And this is one time where the feedback actually led to some change, especially from what was, you know, a more private kind of side of it. Absolutely. So on Monday, after about an hour of discussion, the Franklin City Council UNASA approved the planning and development plan for Innovation Park, which is a project from Franklin College. And these residents, sorry, if in case you're wondering who are saying these neighbors, these residents are from Jefferson Meadows, which is off Jefferson Street. So you know it's right near this massive project.

Erika Malone 2:37

Right.

Noah Crenshaw 2:37

And um, they said they will trust the city and college as long as the PUD plan is followed exactly, which is kind of what I was getting at.

Erika Malone 2:44

Yeah, nice. Well, uh, kind of tell me, as someone who uh hasn't been familiar with how long this project's been going on, what does Innovation Park include?

Noah Crenshaw 2:52

So it's about 250 acres of land that's I believe is that is owned for the most part by Frank and College, I believe, to best of my memory. It's being rezoned for this, like kind of what we said, the calling Innovation Park. There's a lot of different uses. You know, there's gonna be like green space, office, and quote, innovation uses, mixed use development, single family, multifamily housing. It's uh designed to address housing gaps and technology job gaps here on the south side.

Erika Malone 3:21

Interesting. Yeah, and they like you said, they approved the plan unit development, which I think we kind of abbreviate to PUD in certain cases. So, but why does a PUD matter in this circumstance?

Noah Crenshaw 3:34

Generally, PUD is a lot of flexibility outside of normal city code because of the uniqueness. Like this, as I said, like there's like, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, at least six uses all within one development. And you know, if you try to do each one individually, it would it's a lot of complicated things. So PUD kind of lets you be more flexible, especially, you know, like if needs change and like if something doesn't need to be a certain standard because of how it is. And you know, what's interesting about this one is some of the flexibility Franklin College and the developers have chosen to actually go stricter than city standards, which I thought was interesting. So, like, they're gonna actually have more brick and stone than what the city requires at the minimum. Stronger buffering, so like trees and fencing. I don't know if there's fencing, but stuff like that, as center what buffering is. They've also added a design review committee on the Franklin College developer end. Um addition to it, the design being reviewed by city staff, planning staff. So like the planning staff always have to review the design plans, but Franklin College having another layer before that is also interesting, kind of shows that they're taking what residents were concerned about and taking it to heart and trying to make this um I think uh Carrie Prathor, the college president, he said something about like big or um Tim Oaks, the attorney. One of them says something at the meeting about how like they want to be a good neighbor and like they want this to be good for Franklin. So it shows they're making an effort.

Erika Malone 5:12

There's a lot of oversight, which is, you know, is good for projects like this. Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 5:16

And so Franklin College has owned this land, it's adjacent to campus for about 20 years. And kind of what I was saying, the leaders have emphasized it's not a quote, build it and leave it project. The college is next to it. They have significant involvement, they want to be a good steward, be a good neighbor. And to them, the reputational financial community impacts matter long term, which is I think eased a lot of residents' concerns. And this whole idea of Innovation Park is modeled after something that Purdue has called Discovery Park, Purdue and uh West Lafayette.

Erika Malone 5:48

Oh, I was just up there last weekend, which we'll get into later in the round table as to why I was up there.

Noah Crenshaw 5:53

If she was not there for work, I promise.

Erika Malone 5:55

Yeah. We were not doing that kind of uh we were not doing that kind of outreach. Um that's a little far for us.

Noah Crenshaw 6:02

But in terms of Innovation Park, you know, it's focused on attracting small and mid-sized tech innovation businesses. And, you know, through with the collaboration of the college and the college's involvement, you know, it creates opportunities for student internships and real warning for them. And for the community, it creates local high salary jobs and provides economic development for Franklin and the greater Johnson County region. So do you want to talk about the housing a little bit?

Erika Malone 6:29

Yeah, so uh as far as I know, these uh apartments are kind of intended to add uh more diverse housing options um and serve renters by choice and not just necessity. This will also buffer like single family homes from commercial uses. Yeah. A lot of residents are wanting more diverse housing options here.

Noah Crenshaw 6:49

So and there's also some single family homes in this too, but the buffer was kind of the buffer between single family and the uh more industrial, not industrial, but uh the tech, the innovation tech focused businesses is what I meant to say. I apologize. But residents were concerned about the potential for subsidized housing in the future, and so Franklin College made a binding commitment, which is of their own free will, the city they weren't required to do it, yeah. And the city emphasized that like they couldn't, this is all Franklin College, that they it wouldn't be the case, that there would be no like outside of like maybe like student financial aid. Yeah. Um, because obviously that's technically a subsidy, there would be nothing outside of that. And this commitment, because it's a legal commitment from the college that they voluntarily made, it stays with the land even if the ownership changes.

Erika Malone 7:43

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 7:44

And so these single family homes, in case you're curious, these are not exact. This is trying to get to what some people have called a middle gap. And so these home prices are between$500,000 and a million dollars.

Erika Malone 7:58

Yeah. So a little, a little on the higher side. Yes.

Noah Crenshaw 8:01

They're about 60 to 80. There was a debate among with some of the city council members and the developer about uh custom homes versus, you know, what sometimes people call tracked homes or like cookie cutter, like traditional stuff vision.

Erika Malone 8:18

Where, you know, they all look the same kind of. Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 8:20

Uh and there are a lot of lot size and uh density comparisons. Uh council member Sean Taylor pushed for more custom home and larger lots. But Andrew Greenwood, who is coincidentally Barb's little town council member, but he's not and not real at this meeting. He is a developer for hash development. He was there they're working with Bracken College on this project.

Erika Malone 8:40

Oh, okay.

Noah Crenshaw 8:41

Said there just wasn't enough of an interest because from they apparently had reached out to some local uh developers who do custom homes and there just wasn't really interest in that at this time.

Erika Malone 8:52

Oh, okay.

Noah Crenshaw 8:53

Uh but at least based on the market right now.

Erika Malone 8:56

Residents uh also had some some concerns as well as regarding an intersection. So talk a little bit about more about that.

Noah Crenshaw 9:02

Yeah, so one intersection is where Milford Drive meets King Street. There are just a lot of safety concerns, especially if they're trying to turn left because it's a busy street. That's where it's four way. The speed limit on King is 45 miles an hour. There was also some immediate issues where there was some work done, and I guess from what it sounds like, the turn signal lane, like arrows on the ground, or you know, like they paint those on. It just wasn't replaced, and there's supposed to be a left turn lane, and the city wasn't aware that uh whoever had done the work for them just didn't do that.

Erika Malone 9:37

So they're missing that. I'm sure that's confusing.

Noah Crenshaw 9:39

Yeah. Um so this because I think no one knew until Yeah. Well, at least none of the people at the council meeting knew until this came up. That's right. And that's been fixed. Um But there's also, you know, there's still concerns about trying to turn onto that intersection because left turns are just naturally dangerous in general, especially because right now there's just a stop on Milford. There's no stopping traffic on King Street. So a traffic study is required as part of this development process. And uh if that study determines that a traffic signal is needed in that area, the city said they would probably install roundabout instead.

Erika Malone 10:16

Oh, okay. Yeah. Interesting.

Noah Crenshaw 10:19

That they there's a preference for roundabouts just because of how they flow traffic easier compared to a traffic signal where possible.

Erika Malone 10:27

Right. Yeah. So what comes next and what uh should residents know about uh the innovation park project for the future?

Noah Crenshaw 10:35

Well, um kind of like what I said earlier, you know, the residents they the nearby neighbors of Jefferson Meadows, they influence this. They influence changes to the plan, and officials, including some city council members, acknowledge that at the meeting on Monday, especially when it came to how they influence the design standards, housing commitments, and ongoing oversight expectations. And going forward, there's a lot of oversight. There's a lot of approvals still. They sought to approve the primary plat, which is the subdivision of the land, secondary plat, the construction plans, all those need approvals internally from the city and then from boards and so on, etc. That and these multiple layers of oversight include the city planners, the plan commission, the city council, the Franklin College Design Committee. There are some state agencies involved, drainage will have to be handled by the county, and there's a county boards, county surveyors involved. So a lot more steps. Yeah, and the BCA, the Board of Zoning Appeals could be involved if they need anything down the line. If some rules change, you know, zoning variances come up as you go through this. Like there's gonna be a lot of hot things, yeah, side opportunities where things could change, you know.

Erika Malone 11:44

Yeah, and probably more opportunities for the public to get involved, right?

Noah Crenshaw 11:47

Yeah, I mean, for some of these, yeah, but like I can't really say until until it happens.

Erika Malone 11:52

Yeah, yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 11:53

Because it really just depends on what happens.

Erika Malone 11:54

Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 11:55

And that's not something we know.

A look at Senate District 41's campaign finance reports

Erika Malone 11:57

Yeah. Well, what else do we got? We're getting towards the end of our election coverage, and you've been really digging into campaign finance reports this past week. Uh so how is your mental health doing?

Noah Crenshaw 12:11

I'm actually doing good. It's just there's a lot of reports from all levels, a lot of reading, and that took some time. So, but let's talk about what uh candidates are spending ahead of this on May 5th, shall we?

Erika Malone 12:26

Yeah, I think uh it's something uh often maybe people don't think about that how much uh candidates are spending, and that we reporters do look at that stuff as well.

Noah Crenshaw 12:35

Yeah. And so for this one, I'm gonna focus on just Senate District 41.

Erika Malone 12:40

Um it's a tension-filled race.

Noah Crenshaw 12:43

Yeah, it's a very uh heated and uh contested race in a Republican primary for that district. It's uh Republican comic Greg Walker versus a state rep or Greg Walker of Columbus versus uh state rep Michelle Davis of Whiteland. And so, you know, Walker, he initially said he wasn't gonna seek re-election, but he changed his mind. And so initially it wasn't there might have been a primary with a few other candidates who have floated outside of Davis. Davis made it known very early on that she was gonna run for it. And then when Walker rejoined the race, it kind of just became a the ideas of other people possibly joining on the Republican side disappear and just became a Davis versus Walker kind of showdown. I hate to use that kind of phrasing, but it's really his how it's sounding like right now.

Erika Malone 13:30

Yeah. Well, uh, what are they uh what are tell us a little bit about the numbers that they're fundraising.

Noah Crenshaw 13:36

So Walker has raised more than$226,000 compared to us Davis's uh roughly$60,000 since January. He's also reported some additional large contributions after the reporting deadline, which is influencing his financial ability. Uh like one was$165,000. That was another couple large contributions. Just a single donation or like collectively? I believe if I remember right, it was two that equaled that. Okay. But you know, despite raising Les Davis's match Walker spending case, because these are two candidates who've run for before, you know, you have cash from your in your King Payment account from over the years. But the real interesting thing is you may think, well, we've all seen the ads about Walker and Davis, or a lot of ads and mailers, so you would probably be surprised by that number. And well, most of those have not come from Davis. They've come from like the ones about Michelle.

Erika Malone 14:37

The the really I I would say the really controversial ones.

Noah Crenshaw 14:41

The yeah, yeah, the really heated ones, I guess I would say. Um, those have not really come from those come from outside groups. Um, national and state conservative groups who are spending a lot of money to not just in this race, but a lot of races where it ties back kind of redistricting the incumbent senators or some representatives too, but primarily it's been senators for the most part, who voted against the congressional redistricting last uh winter. Right. And Walker voted against it, Davis voted for it.

Erika Malone 15:16

So that's kind of the main point that they're using in that and South.

Noah Crenshaw 15:19

Then there's been a lot, like Bronze endorsed Davis, Trump's endorsed Davis, Jim Banks, I think, also endorsed Davis. And, you know, there's just been a lot of outside conservative groups pushing a lot of money to get the people who voted for redistricting re-elected and those who are elected or re-elected, um, and those who didn't out. And so it's definitely in the millions now and the uh statewide, but in this this at least this district, it's definitely in the thousands. Oh wow.

Erika Malone 15:52

Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 15:53

And so it's largely aimed at influence this money for the advertising. It's largely aimed at influence voters uh through advertising and not direct campaign contributions, which gets to what I was saying about how Davis's numbers may not equal the amount of ads you've seen. Like she sent some out, but at this not at the same level all these outside groups have who are kind of I wouldn't say doing they're not doing on her behalf per se, but they're doing it for her benefit because of their own.

Erika Malone 16:22

Because of their yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 16:23

Yeah.

Erika Malone 16:24

Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 16:24

Um and so, like I said, redistricting is the fault line, and you know, that vote positioned Walker as a target for national conservative organizations, turning point action, club for growth, win it back. They've all done uh there's Hoosier Leadership for America, which is affiliated with Jim Banks. They've also um another state one is American for Prosperity's Indiana. All these have all been trying to bet uh running ads for Davis's benefit.

Erika Malone 16:55

And I think for our listeners, it might be uh interesting to know if you know, if you've received some of these mailers, you can look on the mailer that where it says paid by political action committee, you know, win it back to action.

Noah Crenshaw 17:07

And that's something I would recommend everyone does because if you're curious, that's how you can see, you know, whether the candidate paid for or if it was someone else, because they're required to put that by law. Yeah. Not the state law, federal law, state law. And it kind of can send you down a rabbit hole if you're one of those people who is interested enough in that kind of thing. You can do a deep dive in the the groups and all that.

Erika Malone 17:28

Yeah, absolutely. Well, what does their uh campaigning kind of look like now uh with all this heated tension?

Noah Crenshaw 17:35

Well, some of the the initial ones were it's kind of just shifted from resume building, like touting policies, to uh being more negative or attack ads. And it's from both sides. Walker's were kind of initially more like promoting him, and then recently that's still promoting him, but also attacking Davis at the same time. Like he's had some that have accused her of being controlled by Washington and big tech when it comes to data centers. Whereas the ones for Davis' benefit, including some from her herself, have kind of accused him of being weak on conservative social issues, you know, not voting for ways certain things that they say a conservative Republican should.

Erika Malone 18:22

The outside PACs have definitely gone, I would say Which if people don't know PACs are political action committees.

Noah Crenshaw 18:30

Like those groups I said that named it earlier, those are all political action committees of some sort. They have been what I would say is more I don't want to I guess I say aggressive, yeah. Uh with their messaging because some have labeled Walker a rhino, which is a term for Republican in name only, and they've also called him an American last Republican kind of instead of an America first Republican, which is something we've heard. Yeah, and kind of from Trump's agenda. Yeah. And the pro-Davis advertising has heavily featured Trump's endorsement, which is to be expected, because I mean, how often does the president endorsing state house candidate compared to a federal candidate?

Erika Malone 19:10

Right.

Noah Crenshaw 19:11

And political experts say, and I talked to Laura Malifro Marifeld Wilson from the University of Indianapolis, uh, Trump's backing combined uh with heavy spending can erode the traditional incumbency advantage because incumbents tend to have an advantage because they've already been in office. People already know them, they know like how they'd be as a lawmaker.

Erika Malone 19:33

Yeah. Well, and um and Walker, he's been a 20-year incumbent and he's deeply familiar with voters, especially in the Bertholmney County area as well.

Noah Crenshaw 19:41

Yeah, but then you have and this is unusual though, and I brought it up with uh Dr. Wilson because Davis, compared to some of these other races, Davis is already a state rep. She is already kind of known, she's known here in Johnson County, but she's also kind of known for some of the legislation she's done because she's already been in office. She's currently in office still.

Erika Malone 20:00

Right.

Noah Crenshaw 20:01

And so it's just unusual.

Erika Malone 20:03

Yeah. So why I know in your story this was this race was kind of described, you know, by political as experts as unusual. So what does how why does this race feel unusual and what's kind of at stake here?

Noah Crenshaw 20:18

Well, all these races right now, and this one is unique in its own ways, like I just said, is you know, from what uh Dr. Wilson said, it's kind of it's rare for a party to aggressively target its own incumbents, which is what's happening. Um when and like now I'm not talking when I say party, I'm talking about like local or state, it's just me like the party in general, like the Republican, in this case, like the Republican Party in general. And, you know, what's also is unusual is the scale, the coordination, and the negativity coming from this outside spending, which is marking a shift in how these primaries are being fought here. There hasn't really been anything like this to this level. Oh, and like widespread.

Erika Malone 21:04

At least, you know, yeah, I know on the local level. It's kinda we kind of see it more on the on the national level.

Noah Crenshaw 21:11

Yeah, it comes to like national offices, but nothing for like this kind of level race. And these ads matter particularly in primaries because it's the party's nominee for whoever faces the Democrat or whatever parties come up in the fall. And in traditional and historically, Nanists tended to vote Republicans, so it's also matters in that aspect of this might be the person who will be your next senator even after November, just because of how things tend to shi to not say shift, but tend to result as. These ads matter more primary because there's generally fewer debates in town halls. There were some this year, which was there were a lot of in general, not just with this race, but like in general, there were a lot of debates in town halls uh this year across the state. But generally that isn't always The case and there tend to be fewer compared to like a another time of year. And also voters just tend to be less engaged. That's been a problem, or apathy's been a problem for a long time.

Erika Malone 22:09

Yeah, there's always a low, or not always, but most often than not, a low voter turnout.

Noah Crenshaw 22:14

Especially for primary.

Erika Malone 22:15

Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 22:16

Especially when it's a non-presidential election and this is not a presidential election. These negative ads can also be really effective because voters aren't always going to do their research. And they can also be effective because like they can include information that is from what she said, you know, like technically correct, but like it isn't like the whole picture.

Erika Malone 22:38

It's leaving out context.

Noah Crenshaw 22:40

Yes. Or it could oversimplify things. And in this case, that not just this race, but these races in general, you know, are kind of testing whether Republican voters are in this area and across the state are guided more by the local familiarity and experience or national conservative movements and endorsements. But again, the District 41 one's very unique where there's both elements of both.

Erika Malone 23:06

Like on both sides. Yeah. So I think with this race in particular, it might see how Indiana Republicans will vote based off of you know who's you know the incumbent or what kind of endorsements matter.

unknown 23:21

Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 23:21

And Linda said this is one of the ones she's watching just because it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Erika Malone 23:26

Yeah. Yeah, it'll be.

Noah Crenshaw 23:27

Especially because of that unique dynamic of you have two people from the state house uh facing each other from different chambers.

Erika Malone 23:34

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and we'll be following along with the outcome of that as well as uh election day New Year's Closer, right?

Noah Crenshaw 23:41

Oh yeah.

unknown 23:42

Yeah.

Creek Cattle Co. featured in student-led business report

Noah Crenshaw 23:42

But uh let's shift away from the election for a little bit and let's talk about students and cattle. You wanna take the lead, Erica?

Erika Malone 23:52

Students and cows, not the same thing. Although I would hope. You can have a herd of students and a herd of cattle. Anyway. So for people that don't know, Indian Creek has their own uh fully operated livestock operation, which is called Creek Cattle Company. And they were reach recently highlighted for its hands-on student-driven approach to education through a new Ascend Indiana report on successful student-led businesses.

Noah Crenshaw 24:22

Oh wow. So can you explain what a student-led business is? Because we all might have a different idea of what that is.

Erika Malone 24:27

Yeah, and uh they're starting to be more common now, uh, at least within central Indiana. They're kind of defined as real or simulated enterprises, primarily designed, managed, and operated fully by students. They count towards Indiana's approved work-based learning requirements tied to the new diploma seals that we're um gonna start seeing starting with the class of 2029. So these student-led businesses are gonna work in tandem with these new diploma requirements as well.

Noah Crenshaw 24:57

Okay. So, what exactly is Indian Creek's business? What is the Craig Cattle Company?

Erika Malone 25:02

Yeah, so like I said before, it was a it's a fully functioning student-led livestock operation and agriculture business. So they mainly uh they focus on on livestock, you know, caring for the cattle, but they also do um they grow crops and things like that. And these students manage the physical care of the cattle and also business operations, including sales and planning. This was launched in 2018, and since then, more than 30 head of cattle have been raised, and nearly 10,000 pounds of beef have been processed. That's a lot. Yeah, that is a lot, and a lot of it is you know attributed to the school uh as their primary customer. So they get to eat to their own beef. Uh, I think once or twice a month they have hamburgers, meatball subs, like you know, whatever beef they can use for that. And they sell it at uh market price for cafeteria meals. So and outside retail's uh sales have generated$15,000 in revenue so far.

Noah Crenshaw 25:59

Yeah, so it's kind of like a self-funding program in a way.

Erika Malone 26:01

It is. Yeah, it's fully operational and the uh sales that they receive, not just from the school, but they also sell to outside uh businesses as well. It's all goes back into funding the program.

Noah Crenshaw 26:13

And so what does the report that you looked at say about the effectiveness of these student-led businesses?

Erika Malone 26:20

Yeah, so the student-led report really focused on how hands-on learning uh experiences like this remove barriers, and research shows employers really value work-based learning. About 88% plan to continue with work-based learning programs, and 61% actually want to expand them. But with these barriers, more than 80% uh report certain barriers such as lacking capacity, scheduling conflicts, and maybe financial and structural hurdles. So programs like the Creek Cattle Company and Inn Creek can really remove these barriers by embedding learning directly into the school day. So they take this as part of their school day. They're managing a business, which I feel like is pretty cool. These students also built communication and teamwork skills, leadership and accountability, and time management, and also find confidence in themselves uh when they get out into the real world.

Noah Crenshaw 27:15

Yeah, and those skills are definitely needed in the real world.

Erika Malone 27:18

Yeah, absolutely. And I've been out to the Creek Cowdown Company barn. I haven't pet a cow yet, but um, it's pretty cool.

Noah Crenshaw 27:25

Have you asked?

Erika Malone 27:27

I haven't asked, but I'm sure they would let me.

Noah Crenshaw 27:30

With well, I mean, if you ask permission.

Erika Malone 27:32

Yeah, I'm sure they will.

Noah Crenshaw 27:34

So just gotta find the time.

Roundtable: Earlywood I-65 interchange study

Erika Malone 27:36

Yeah. Well, I think if that's all the stories that we got for you, but let's move on to our round table, shall we?

Noah Crenshaw 27:45

Yeah. And first we're gonna do an update on something we kind of brought up a few weeks ago when we're talking about Franklin's uh comprehensive plan.

Erika Malone 27:52

Mm-hmm.

Noah Crenshaw 27:53

So we had mentioned how it also had talked about the idea of an interstate interchange on at Earlywood between uh the Frank the existing one at King Street and Franklin and Whitland.

Erika Malone 28:04

Yes.

Noah Crenshaw 28:05

Um, some steps were made toward that, specifically uh funding a study to determine whether it's needed now or in the future. Uh Franklin and Johnson County are jointly funding that. They're working on approvals right now. Franklin approved it this week. The county is going to be approving or is gonna be up for approval with the county next week, the county commissioners.

Erika Malone 28:26

Okay.

Noah Crenshaw 28:26

Uh and so we kind of hinted on this, but this is kind of like a refresher. The idea of the interchange is to deal with, you know, f the increases in traffic and people that would be caused by extra development in the not extra, but additional development in the Franklin and Whiteland areas, particularly between those two interstate interchanges that already exist. The study's gonna cost up to 50, or sorry, up to 500, that's a big difference, up to$500,000.

Erika Malone 28:56

An extra zero, Noah.

Noah Crenshaw 28:58

Split evenly between the city and county. They're aligning early, the leaders of both the sit Johnson County and Franklin, which is signaling a shared their shared economic infrastructure interests. And uh this area is not technically some of it's in Franklin's limits, the general area they're studying, but some of it's in the county, and the county also has a tax increment financing district along R65 and the parts that are in the cities. So that's kind of necessitating a need for collaboration as well. City officials have said the years of growth have changed the conversations with NDOT and regional planners. Uh they were initially lukewarm, but Johnson County has been booming the last decade or so. And so now the idea is like, well, or now the leaders are like, well, maybe maybe we do need this. Yeah, maybe maybe we can help, you know. That's basically what that's kind of what it sounds like. And congestion at the Franklin and Whitland exits are becoming more noticeable, especially during peak hours like rush hour when people are getting off work, coming back home.

Erika Malone 30:01

Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 30:02

Now, to be clear, this this is just a study. It's not gonna improve an exit. It's not gonna mean the exit's happening like tomorrow. It's not it's just they're just studying it. Yes, they're gonna analyze traffic, growth projections, and scenarios, both with an interchange there and without to see like if it's needed. And that study could recommend it an interchange within five, ten, or twenty years or longer, or shorter.

Erika Malone 30:30

Or not one at all.

Noah Crenshaw 30:31

Yeah, like it's it's all open to debate. I do think with the growth does continue, it's probably gonna lean more towards an interchange.

Erika Malone 30:41

Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 30:41

Yeah, but we'll see what happens personally. And you know, there's also some other uh things behind us like an Orwood exit kind of lock development potential for hundreds of acres.

Erika Malone 30:52

Because that's all farmly and currently out there right now area.

Noah Crenshaw 30:56

But some residents do worry could also bring congestion and sprawl, similar similar to the Whiteland Road interchange. But the interchange does happen. Franklin leaders say they would guide development carefully. They emphasize it wouldn't allow truck stops at all.

Erika Malone 31:11

Because I know that's that's common at the Whiteland Road interchange.

Noah Crenshaw 31:14

Yeah, there's two over there already. And they want a more controlled gateway feel. If I remember right, uh Franklin here, Steve Barnett kind of said it would look like think like the gateway kind of feel we have at the King Street X and Franklin, something like that.

Erika Malone 31:27

Oh, okay.

Noah Crenshaw 31:28

Like, you know, with those monument signs and the flowers and the trees. Yeah, stuff like that.

Erika Malone 31:34

Yeah, that would be nice.

Noah Crenshaw 31:35

Um as you're going into town towards down too.

Erika Malone 31:38

So I know yeah, we touched on it last week just saying that that was something they're looking into, and now we have a little more information about that.

Noah Crenshaw 31:44

Yeah, it's a coincidental time.

Erika Malone 31:45

Yeah.

Roundtable: Franklin Liberty Tree planting this weekend

Noah Crenshaw 31:46

I I wasn't expecting it to come up like the next day, but I'm not the Franklin reporter. Um but uh speaking of Franklin, uh Franklin is just getting a lot of they there's a lot happening in Subic.

Erika Malone 31:57

There is a lot happening, and uh like I said, this episode comes out on Saturday, so today, technically, Franklin is planting four historic liberty trees to mark the United States 250th anniversary, also known as America 250.

Noah Crenshaw 32:11

Yeah, and we've talked about this a few weeks ago too, so we're just bringing it back with an update.

Erika Malone 32:15

We're just bringing it back up. Uh, I will be out there uh at they're gonna do a public ceremony and a final tree planting, which will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday. Um so today, so if you're listening to this before 10 a.m., make your way over to Young's Creek Park at the drivehubler.com amphitheater with and then uh if you also want to look at some other Liberty trees, there's gonna be some at Blue Heron Park and a small park along East Jefferson Street. Like I said, I will be there. So if you're listening to this before 10 a.m., come say hi. Maybe if you want to be in the story, let me know.

Noah Crenshaw 32:48

Yeah, uh, but uh we should probably give a quick refresher on what the Liberty Trees are, right?

Erika Malone 32:52

Yes, so Liberty trees were a revolutionary era gathering places symbolizing resistance, freedom, and community, you know, from the British uh, you know, I'm so bad with history, but British rule. Yeah, the British rule. Um and these disease-resistant uh American elbow hybrids are gonna be honoring the original Liberty Tree that's in Boston. So, and this event's also gonna include a bugler, Boy Scouts presenting the colors, and remarks from city leaders. Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, so it should be uh should be a good day, hopefully no rain. And come out and say it. I know. I'm I'll knock on wood later, I promise. Oh, and I don't want to I don't want to mess up the audio.

Noah Crenshaw 33:34

Okay.

Roundtable: Early voting expands

Erika Malone 33:35

Anyway, so yeah, uh come say hi, uh, you know, Saturday before 10 a.m. That's when it starts, and yeah, uh it should be fun. So what do you got for us?

Noah Crenshaw 33:45

Lastly, uh earlier I said uh we were talking about the campaign finance. I said there might be a little bit more election.

Erika Malone 33:52

Yeah.

Noah Crenshaw 33:53

There's there's one there's one important thing.

Erika Malone 33:55

He's like, let's steer away from elections. Actually, now we're back.

Noah Crenshaw 33:57

Yes, yes, because there's another important thing happening this weekend, which is where it's been ongoing, but early voting expands this weekend on Saturday. If you want to vote, you can go to the courthouse in Franklin from 8 to 3 p.m. this Saturday and also Saturday, May 2nd. And this is in addition to the hours I've been ongoing and continue to ongo next week from 8.30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. You can also vote on May 4th from 8 a.m. to noon. But also early voting expands even more because we're gonna have some satellite sites opening across the county, so you don't have to necessarily go down to Franklin if you don't want to. So the White River Library Branch, the Greenwood Public Library, the Trafalgar Library Branch, and the John R. Drybrad Community Center in Edinburgh are all also opening for early voting. Um it'll be similar hours, 8 to 3 this Saturday, and also Saturday, May 2nd. Um, where the hours and days do differ is during the week. Um, so next week they're on new open April 30th to May 1st, which is that um Thursday, Friday, um from 10 to 6. So keep that in mind. The hours may differ. You can also you can check the county's website, you can check our past stories, you can also go to Indiana Voters.com for the nearest centers near you and updated hours.

Erika Malone 35:15

Yeah. Make sure you get out and vote.

Noah Crenshaw 35:17

Yes. And you should also keep an eye out and an ear. I did put eye, that's my bad for habit for next week's episode, because nearly all of it will be devoted to an election preview.

Erika Malone 35:29

Yay!

Noah Crenshaw 35:30

Yeah, and I say nearly all because I originally planned for it to be fully devoted, but we're gonna have potentially a new uh recurring host here because we have a new reporter starting next week. And we want to introduce you to her and have her introduce herself to you all.

Erika Malone 35:48

Yeah, so we'll keep had it changed my plans a little bit. We'll keep her name under wraps so we can surprise everyone, but you'll see it in Tuesday's newspaper. Yes. So really not that.

Noah Crenshaw 35:59

We'll announce it in a newspaper too, but the epit the podcast is different than the newspaper.

Erika Malone 36:03

Really, yes. We're excited, we're excited to have a new reporter join us and uh on this podcast so Noah can uh go back to being the producer.

Noah Crenshaw 36:12

Yes, I will I will still be here. I'll come I'll chime in every now and then. Yeah, but I do it's been fun seeing this side, and so I can learn a little more and how I can have you guys do stuff better. Or I definitely could have been a better host and myself personally.

Erika Malone 36:27

Yeah, you did you've been doing great. You've been doing great. And I'm glad that we'll all be able to, you know, kind of share and sharing this experience too.

Roundtable: Center Grove Red Alert Robotics

Noah Crenshaw 36:34

Yes. Um, but before we go, we do have a last minute note about Centergrove Robotics.

Erika Malone 36:40

Yes, they're going to the they just won uh last weekend, they won the state uh championship uh for the first Indiana robotics um organization. They won the state title along with two other um top performing teams and are going to the world championship on Wednesday um to compete against teams all over the crunch all over the country. So wish them luck.

Noah Crenshaw 37:06

They just went to state last weekend, right?

Erika Malone 37:08

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Outro

Noah Crenshaw 37:10

So we we wish them luck and we wish anyone else, all the other teams who are going who are local for sport other sports outside of the robotics and yeah, so any other sports going on this weekend and next or right now. So um, and if um you guys have any ideas or any things you'd like us to mention or write about or highlight on this podcast, please reach out to let Erica take away with how you can do that.

Erika Malone 37:36

Yeah, so uh we won't, you know, I just want to thank everyone for tuning in for another episode. And if there's uh anything you would like to let us know, we're here. Uh you can submit your thoughts to news tips at dailyjournal.net and follow us wherever you get podcasts. We're now on Apple, uh, Spotify, uh, iHeartRadio. We we just got on iHeartRadio now.

Noah Crenshaw 37:58

Yes, yes, after some glitches or not getting an email to verify something, but we're good now.

Erika Malone 38:03

Yes, yes. So you can find us wherever you get podcasts and please leave a review. We want to know how we're doing. So, and uh we hope you guys will tune in next time.

Noah Crenshaw 38:13

And thank you all for listening.

Erika Malone 38:15

Yeah.