Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This week on Beyond the Headlines, get a look at what's going on in Old Town Greenwood. A Franklin mom delivers one of the last babies at Johnson Memorial Hospital, UTVs to join golf carts on the streets of Edinburgh, and several Franklin businesses have been honored for historical preservation efforts.

Erika Malone 0:15

From the Daily Journal, this is Beyond the Headlines, a local news podcast focused on story shaping Johnson County.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Hello everyone, welcome to the podcast. It's reporter Halle Gallinett. We apologize for not having an episode last week. We had an issue, uh some technical issues behind the scenes, but now we're back. And we're here with our new intern, Nathan Litz. Nathan, say hello. Hello.

Welcoming our new intern

SPEAKER_01 0:38

And why don't you uh go ahead and introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Hi, so I'm Nathan Litz, as you have heard, and I am uh interning here at the Daily Journal for nine weeks. I am two weeks in so far, and uh honestly, I just have to say it is actually genuinely uh just great. I have it not only has it been, you know, just really good experience, but it has actually genuinely been a lot of fun. And that's really what I was looking for in this internship was, you know, I went to get all this experience, but also have a really good time as well. And that's exactly what I've found. Um so it's an honor to be here. Um I am a first year graduate or not graduate, I'm a first year at Bull State. Not there yet. Um and so I've just completed my first year at Bull State. I'm majoring in journalism and that's also been great. And I'm very excited for next year because I will be a editor for the lifestyle section of the Daily News.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

So I'm very, very excited for that. This is definitely gonna get me ready for that. And yeah, it's just been very different from college level, very fast. Um instead of writing a story every week, I'm writing a story once a day. And so, you know, I it's it's been the pace of it is uh definitely a learning curve, but I'm definitely getting used to it.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yeah, that's something I found out too um when I left the college newspaper and into the real world newspaper, I guess you could say, is that the deadline schedule is definitely a lot more tight.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

And you're reporting on like, you know, obviously a larger area seems like there's so much more breaking news and there's so much things that you kind of need to be on call for as opposed to, you know, a campus where um there's things like that, of course, but there's also just you're reporting on stuff that is just around the campus.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah. Yeah. And I understand that you're uh from Whiteland.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

I am. I am from Whiteland. I went I graduated from uh Whiteland High School. Um and yeah, I did the uh radio TV there uh for three years.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Oh, awesome. Great. All righty. Uh and as we are recording on a Thursday, how would you say your your week's been going?

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Pretty good. Uh I actually started this week not really knowing what I was I I felt like I didn't have a lot of stories and then uh a couple days went by and the week progressed a little bit, and uh I just got so many news stories and so much more stuff to do. And so I'm really, really glad that I um have been able to get all these interviews and uh just have everything kind of work out.

Erika Malone 3:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

So I have been working on a lot of stories and I've done a lot of stories so far, and they've been great. So how's your stories been?

SPEAKER_01 3:34

They've been going good. To add on to that, one thing that I've learned very quickly is when you think you have a day where you're not much is gonna be going on, something will happen. So always keep your your eyes peeled and your ears open.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, this week's been going well for me too. It's been very busy, uh covering meetings and such, but I think it's all going well and it's almost the weekend, so can't complain there. Yeah. And before we talk about the stories of the week, uh, we have a special feature with Old Town Greenwood Inc., who sat down with reporter Erica Malone. So let's get into that.

Erika Malone 4:05

Hello everyone,

In focus: Old Town Greenwood Inc.

Erika Malone 4:06

and welcome to uh Beyond the Headlines. We have a very special guest here today from Old Town Greenwood, Megan Yeegey. Welcome to our podcast. It's so nice to have you here. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Thank you for having me. I'm doing great.

Erika Malone 4:18

Awesome. Yeah. Well, I hear um you have some stuff to share with us. Um, but first let's talk about you guys did some rebranding from Restore Old Town Greenwood to Old Town Greenwood Inc. Um, so kind of tell me how did you how did this organization get started and what's um what's part of that shift?

SPEAKER_03 4:35

Correct. Yeah, so the organization started between 2010 and 2011. Jennifer Hollingshead, who still volunteers with our organization and is very actively involved, started at that time. The then mayor was considering tearing down some pretty significant buildings along Main Street. Okay. In Greenwood, which was the main driver behind that starting, she got really worried about that and started to raise public awareness and kind of get people behind the support of that not happening. Um, they wanted to widen the road, I believe. So that was a big talking point at that time. Um, she was obviously successful in hoping to have that not happen. That that didn't happen, of course, after that. Those buildings still stand. And uh, as far as I understand that after that, she kind of looked at what she had done so far and decided to move forward and do a little bit more with that and become an official Indiana Main Street.

Erika Malone 5:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

So the Tyre Party few um accomplishments since then. But as you mentioned, we did last year, we had a bit of turnover in our board and kind of were deciding on what we wanted our focus to be. So that's where we really sat down and decided that we wanted to rebrand. Of course, we were restoral town Greenwood. We got a lot of feedback on that because a lot of a big accomplishment of theirs were that they did help with the big facade project in Greenwood, helping a lot of those old town businesses uh fix up the the fronts of their buildings, and they were very helpful along with this the city and other other folks on that. But that was a lot of what they did. They were restoring the area. So we have the name, but then we got a lot of questions. Well, it's it's restored now.

unknown 6:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

So what are you doing? But we're so much more than that. So we just wanted to step back from that a little bit. It felt like time to change that and then to really, along just with the name change, you know, we were lucky to get a new logo when we also decided it was a really good time to look at our strategic plan, set back, see what we were doing with our organization, where we wanted our focus to be, and how we wanted to ship things towards the future. It was just kind of a good time with new board members coming in and just kind of to do a refresh and decided what made sense.

Erika Malone 6:54

Yeah. Well, and I know uh Main Street's uh main organization has always been to restore um historic downtown spaces. And you know, so now that you guys have restored those, you know, you kind of accomplished that mission, you've made that shift to promotion um and kind of bringing the downtown area to life. So uh from my understanding, you recently launched a large interactive mural project downtown. That was in February. Yeah, so tell me a little bit about that. I know um you had some artists, you know, there's some installation involved and things like that.

SPEAKER_03 7:25

Yeah, so we are still working on finishing up getting funding for that. So if anyone's interested in helping support that mission, but yeah, we uh identified with part of our strategic plan and our design committee identified that we really wanted to put some work into bringing some beautification projects to Old Town. We kind of just put a feeler out online, say, hey, any businesses? Do you have a wall? You want a neural? Do you want to be involved? And very quickly, Happy Hunts raised their hand and said, We've got a huge wall. We would love to have a mural. Uh we had identified an artist that we all really liked who had done uh a large-scale painting of a bunch of iconic spots in Greenwood and artist JB Bills. Jake Bills, yes, he's fantastic, and he sung a lot of our things in Indianapolis as well, local to Indianapolis. So we started talking to him and just really, really liked him and worked with Happy Hans on what we wanted that to look like with the city, you know, all the players. And he is uh with Festival Country, uh, who have been incredible partners to us, uh, talking with Ken Cosby, their executive director, um, on what we wanted that to look like. He his quish was really we don't just want a mural, we don't just want paint on the wall. That's all great, but we want to level this up. We need to make this very much a tourist attraction. Yeah, it has to be like a destination for people. So they have worked a lot with Expo Arts um on other projects in Franklin and beyond. Um, so we got them involved, but how can we level this project up? So that's where the 3D elements came in. They worked with JD really closely, identified some cool spots where those can come off the wall. Again, the building owners were really receptive to that. So cool. Yeah, the city sign off. So we're really excited about the concept. There will also be, it will have has some lighting elements to it as well. So it'll go at night. So it's really conceptually unlike anything I've ever seen before. It'll be really, really cool. And we're very excited about it. So yeah, just working on getting some further sponsorships.

Erika Malone 9:28

Well, can you tell me a little bit about what's next for the organization? What are some fun things you guys have in store?

SPEAKER_03 9:34

So we just finished up Community Cleanup Day, which was really exciting for the spring. We had that last weekend. We had over 60 volunteers come out and help us just clean up. We put some new planters along Main Street cleaned up. We're uh putting in a rock garden along Madison Avenue.

Erika Malone 9:49

So I think I saw a social media post of like the number of things you guys found that downtown. So there was some interesting items. It was fun.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

Uh one of our board members, actually, our vice president, turned trash take up into a scavenger hunt, which made it really for all the attendees who came and added this like level of competition to it to see what we could do, which is where we got all the most trash exactly. Yeah, so it was really fun. We found a lot of trash. Yeah. So people came and painted rocks, helped with the planters, saw collect trash. So that was really just a fun day of community. We're currently also in an initiative drink and dine for design. We got into six-week initiative. We had 12 area restaurants involved over the six-week period, um, where they were all offering different promotions where they were getting back towards the Miro project that we're just thinking of, yeah. So that was really cool. Um, a really fun way to get a bunch of the local businesses involved with us. And then coming up starting June 18th. So we have a new series called Arts in Old Town that's going to kick off this month that we're really excited about. Uh, the third Thursday every month, June, July, August, and September. We will have artists set up along Main Street. We will have live music. We have some community partners involved. So we've invited other 501c3s to come set up booths and show, you know, the community what they're all about. One of our asks from our community partners, though, was to also add in uh artistic elements as it is arts in Old Town. So every booth of theirs that you go to, there will be something kind of either hands-on or a demonstration or something that people can do that loops it back into the artistic experience. That was really fun. And then another huge part of what we're doing is a community art project. We had we'll have people painting rocks again to add on to the rock garden that we started. But also with that, um, we have another big art um installation on top of the mural that we were approved for. We got an another brand from Festival Country. It's called Amago, a living art experience.

Erika Malone 12:02

Yes, I was gonna ask you about the living art experience. So tell me a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

So there will be, as of now, the clan is it has 16 different structures, and they this is going throughout Old Town. In Old Town, they will be butterfly statues. But it's called a living art experience because all of the collagens of the wings can move around. There will be a ton of different artists involved. We do have a lead artist, Amy Barelli, a Teal Canary Art Studio, has worked with us, taken the lead on this. We really just it was a huge collaboration of us and Festival Country and Amy as the artist just had like a so awesome.

Erika Malone 12:44

Well, thank you, Megan, for uh coming on to a Beyond the Headlines. We appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

And if you want to learn more about Old Town Greenwood Inc., go to www.otginc.org, and we'll be back in a minute with more news.

Erika Malone 12:59

Want your business to reach our listeners in Johnson County and beyond? Reach out to the Daily Journal by calling 317-736-2730 to ask about our advertising opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

All

Franklin mom delivers one of the last babies at JMH

SPEAKER_01 13:13

right, welcome back, everyone. Now we have a story about a Franklin mom delivering one of the last babies at the Johnson Memorial Hospital. Ashley Pearson arrived at Johnson Memorial Health to deliver her third child and found the once busy unit nearly empty, with only one other mother present. But one of the final births, her son Oliver Vincent, uh born on June 1st, was among the last babies delivered before the maternity ward closed permanently.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

I actually did read that story uh yesterday, and I was I mean, that's gotta be shocking because I mean, like she said in the story that it was completely empty. There was, you know, with hospitals, there's uh so much chaos, you know, babies crying and the nurses moving around everywhere. And she said that there just was none of that. And she was like, Um, I've had two kids here, and um I thought it was weird seeing it, you know, not in this state.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Uh that had to be eerie.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Oh yeah. And so um I wanted to ask, uh, why is Johnson Memorial closing its maternity worth?

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah. So JMH announced in February that it would end uh OB services, citing low Medicaid reimbursement and insurance pressures. Uh it's part of a statewide trend. Uh JMH is the 16th Indiana hospital since 2020 to shut down its maternity unit. The maternity center closed on June 6th, ending nearly 80 years of maternity care. Expectant parents uh worked with doctors for months to shift to new providers before the shutdown, though.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Uh didn't Pearson have a special connection to JMH too?

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah. Uh the Pearson family has uh deep ties to JMH. Kyle's grandmother, Honey Child, was a longtime uh OB nurse. Pearson said she felt grateful to deliver a JMH one last time, uh, but saddened by the loss of a trusted team. And she fears that the closure will create hardships for mothers across Johnson County.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Oh wow. What else

UTVs to join golf carts on Edinburgh streets

SPEAKER_02 15:11

is going on this week?

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Yes, so UTVs are joining golf carts on the streets of Edinburgh after the Edinburgh Town Council advanced an ordinance allowing utility task vehicles on town streets.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

What are they changing exactly?

SPEAKER_01 15:22

So golf cart rules are now expanded. Um golf carts were already permitted, but the update adds UTVs, which are faster and built for off-road use. Operators must have a valid driver's license, insurance, and town registration. They must have headlights, taillights, brake lights, turn signals, and flashing lights, and kept in good working order.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

What else shouldn't uh residents know about this?

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yeah, so UTVs cannot be driven on sidewalks, trails, bike paths, estate highways, freeways, golf courses, construction sites, or private property without the owner's permission. Fines for penalties. Uh there's $150 for first offenses, $200 for second, and $300 plus possible impoundment for third offenses. Police Chief Doyne Little backs uh the ordinance. Uh he backed it during uh previous meetings uh on May 11th, but he cited resident interest and examples from nearby communities such as Columbus. The ordinance does not allow ATVs, dirt bikes, go-karts, or straddle type off-road vehicles due to safety concerns. That was something that Chief Little brought up a lot. Council members also asked for mandatory flashing lights, explicit speed limit compliance, and updated fee language. So a companion ordinance adding UTVs to the fee schedule also passed on also passed its first reading, and the final approval for that is expected at the next meeting.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

I will be interested in uh what happens with that next, just because uh I on my way home, uh I've been seeing so many golf carts it's summer, and so I think you know this uh is very timely for the even uh when I drive into Edinburgh to go to these meetings, I see golf carts in the parking lot and golf carts driving by on the road.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

So yeah, it definitely seems very popular. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Well, uh, we're gonna take a short break and then we'll be back with our round table.

Erika Malone 17:17

Like listening to this podcast, you can help support it. Subscribe to the Daily Journal at subscribe.dailyjournal.net to support your local newspaper and this podcast. Your support helps make everything we do possible.

Roundtable: Franklin woman revitalizes mom’s antique business

SPEAKER_01 17:33

And we're back with our round table. So first up, we have a story from you, Nathan, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:37

Yeah, so I wrote a story this week about a Franklin resident, Savea Booker, who has relaunched her mother's former antique business, the French Canary, bringing new life to the family passion.

Erika Malone 17:46

Oh, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Uh she really just has uh a lot of childhood roots in antiques. Uh, she went to festivals with her mom. Her mom also uh sold antiques, uh, and she can recall, you know, uh selling furniture out of her house and helping her mom with the business. And uh yeah, her mom uh sold uh French-inspired Chavis chic sort of style of antiques. Um so she also sold them from their own home too. So her mother uh had paused this business uh and uh this was because she um had her two sisters and uh it stayed a little in retirement for a while. And Zivea, about 10 years later, uh decided to come back to it after just renewing her love uh for antiques and wanting to pursue it as uh business. So yeah, she had developed her love for uh Victorian era aesthetics through her husband's passion for medieval and Greek history, and she really likes the uh style of Victoria era, uh, art and you know fashion. And uh, if you see uh on my story, there's some pictures from inside of her house that have this just overall um old kind of aesthetic. Uh everything's kind of wooden and you know, honestly, kind of how antiques should look.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Uh I love that style. It's so homey.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

It is. And I, you know, and the pictures that uh Zaveya had uh um allowed me to use for the story were amazing because um there's just so much style to it. And so I I really appreciated it. And so uh she had first sold uh clothes uh online and resold them um on uh you know just like websites like eBay and stuff like that. Um and uh she eventually shifted to antiques and that's when she decided to open a full shop. Um and so she uh had chosen to take up her mother's business um when she was looking for a name and she wanted it to be something that was meaningful to her, and of course, that was going to be her name was the French Canary, which is what her mom had named uh her business all those years ago. And um so now uh Booker had made a uh new logo and a full relaunch of the entire business, and now she sells furniture like uh her mom uh just out of her house. Um, and so you know, she's uh basically uh just living out her childhood a little bit, um, going to festivals and you know, uh just selling all these antiques from her house um just like her mom did.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Carrying on the legacy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

And so it's very cool to see her, you know, just take that up and uh just walk in her mom's footsteps. So Booker uh she and her husband were filmed uh for a feedback segment during Antiques Roadshow uh on June 1st uh at Newfields in Indianapolis. They do a uh feedback section at the end of uh their shows and they go to uh people who are running the stand and um get to see their antiques. So they uh got to present their antiques and were filmed, and so uh Booker uh says Ship at Real Award is meeting people and carrying on her mother's legacy through shared fashion.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Awesome. I love antiques too. Uh I'll have to uh take a look at her store sometime.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yeah, it's very cool. The paintings, uh just everything being so vintage and so uh, you know, just such such with a strong style is just uh amazing. And honestly, you can see that in her logo too. Uh she had told me that her logo, she wanted it to reflect what uh the uh uh business sold. And so it's it's also very vintage. And so it just has this overall style to it that's just honestly really pleasing, honestly really good to look at because it's just a relationship of hobby and profession.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Um uh do you have a Franklin story too, Hallie?

Roundtable: Franklin property owners honored for preservation

SPEAKER_01 21:57

I do, yes. Uh so Franklin property owners. Um, they were honored for preservation projects. Uh Franklin Heritage gave out their annual preservation awards. Uh, they recognized eight property owners and organizations for preserving historic architecture. Uh, the nonprofit, founded in 1983, they focused on protecting Franklin's historic downtown, and they have issued 153 awards since 1999. So the criminal defense team of Baldwin, Perry, and Wiley restored their 142-year-old downtown Franklin building, and they earned the Natural Beauty Award. The building was in severe disrepair with ivy, overgrown brush, and rod of wood had overtaken the structure before the renovation. So Franklin Parks and Recreation won best new construction in an in an existing historic area for its new $5 million active adult center, which incorporates bricks from the original building. Johnson County Golf Carts transformed a deteriorating building into a vibrant storefront, earning best adaptive reuse. But in Bloom Flores was honored for maintaining long-term use of the historic structure. Charles and Kimberly Hessman won Best Renovation for converting a former printing house into a home, which is just incredible. Susan Sereniger earned Best New Edition for adding steps in a ramp that blends seamlessly in with her historic home. Brian and Rebecca Carr received the Lil Charmer Award for preserving original architectural details. And the Franklin Public Arts Advisory Council and Discover Downtown Franklin were honored for the Monumental Memories Project, which displays historic photos of Main Street. Franklin Heritage Leaders praised awardees for strengthening the city's architectural identity and revitalization efforts, which I just think is incredible.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

I do think this is pretty wonderful just because in Franklin there are so many uh historic just buildings. And I really appreciate that there's just so many uh brick buildings and you know, um so many nice buildings to look at. Um speaking on the Bud and Loon Forest, I actually went there uh yesterday, or actually a couple days ago I went there, and um, I will say that the inside and the outside were pretty and kept in very, very good shape. So I'm really glad that they got an award. And uh I think that um they deserve recognition like this. Yeah.

Roundtable: South County Line Road project sees changes

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Um so lastly, I have an update on a South Side Road project that's been delayed amid some changes.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Yeah, go ahead and tell us about it.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

The South County Line Road The South County Line Road expansion west of State Road 135 has been pushed back as Indianapolis officials reevaluate the design. Um new traffic data prompted a redesign to ensure the corridor meets feature capacity and safety needs. Instead of two lanes each way, the new plan includes one lane in each direction plus a center two-way left turn lane. Wow, that's a lot. I think I got that right, though. Um The planned traffic signal at Morgantown Road is now expected to be aroundabout.

Erika Malone 25:04

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Um, yeah. Uh updated plans will be posted on SouthCountylineroad.com by mid-June. Uh community meeting will be held later this year after environmental document approval. Um bidding is now set for December 2027 with construction beginning in 2028. And as for the project as a whole, bridges over Pleasant Run Creek and Buffalo Creek will be replaced. Um plans include a new signal at Peterman, also known as Railroad Road, uh, and major grading work west of Morgantown to fix site distance issues. Um other uh street connections that are changing uh include Mount Pleasant East Street, which is turning into a cold-de-sac on the Greenwood side, Morris Road on the eastmost connection, uh, which is going to be at Cold-de-Sac on the Indianapolis side, uh, Mount Pleasant South Street, which is extending to Bluff Road, pedestrian upgrades, uh 10-foot multi-use trail on the Marion County side, and six foot sidewalk on the Johnson County side uh will include improved walkability and bike access. Uh quarter-wide uh drainage upgrades are included. Indianapolis is funding the project with federal assistance through NDOT, um, and agreements with Johnson County and Greenwood remain in place.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Awesome. All right, so it looks like we've got a little bit to go before people will start to see some changes on that.

Outro

SPEAKER_01 26:25

All right, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Beyond the Headlines and let us know what you'd like to hear by submitting your thoughts to newstips at dailyjournal.net. Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review. And tune in next time.