The Greenwood City Council is considering giving out an additional $100,000 school safety grant using federal funds.
Federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, will be used to create a single $100,000 grant to Central Nine Career Center to fund security equipment or programs. The ordinance, which is sponsored by council members Drew Foster and Ezra Hill, was introduced by city controller Greg Wright during Wednesday’s city council meeting.
“The mayor’s office met with some folks from Central Nine and came up with a plan,” Wright said. “We’re looking to do a $100,000 grant … toward security. (It’ll) probably be cameras and other types of security equipment.”
This is the second use of ARPA funds for school security grants in as many months. In October, Mayor Mark Myers introduced a $1 million grant program for the city’s three public school districts — Center Grove, Clark-Pleasant and Greenwood — to enhance security efforts with hard measures. The city council unanimously approved this program.
The earlier grant program equally divided the $1 million in ARPA funds between the three school districts. Each district will be reimbursed up to $333,000 in security costs for items like cameras, system upgrades and physical security structures, according to city officials.
Like the earlier grant program, the $100,000 grant would be reimbursable, Wright said. C9 will be required to spend the money first and then apply for reimbursement through the city.
The ordinance would normally undergo two more readings before final passage, however, the city council unanimously voted to both suspend the rules and push the ordinance through after the first reading. A public hearing on the ordinance, along with final approval will take place on Nov. 21.
In other business, the city council unanimously approved waiving noncompliance for $7 million, 10-year tax break granted to MREIC Indy In 3 in 2019.
MREIC is the current owner of a 615,000-square foot warehouse located along South Graham Road in Greenwood that is being leased to Amazon. Officials were expected to invest $45 million for real estate improvements and $35 million in machinery and equipment.
The deeded owner of the land, MREIC Indy IN 3, was originally found in noncompliance of the original tax abatement agreement and was facing termination because the company did not file a compliance form for next year’s tax benefits, and because someone had filed a commercial property appeal for the parcel of land granted the tax break, city officials say.
Last month, David Webb, industrial portfolio director for Industrial Logistics Property Trust, told the city council that they were first made aware of the issues following news reports last month. The trust is the owner of the land.
After speaking with their own employees and Amazon, along with checking their records, trust officials discovered Amazon incorrectly filed a request for the property appeal, Webb said.
Webb also told the council that the trust was unaware that the CF-1 needed to be filed. The trust had bought MREIC earlier this year, and this information wasn’t communicated.
Webb later informed the council they had the completed CF-1 in hand and gave it to them. According to the form, the company had exceeded both jobs and salary commitments, city officials said.
With the noncompliance now waived, the company will continue to receive the tax abatement benefits for the rest of the 10-year period.
