10. Fight causes Trafalgar Town Council shake-up
A fight following a Trafalgar Town Council meeting in January resulted in criminal charges against a town council member, a surge of interested candidates and a shake up of town leaders.
David Moore was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after he shoved fellow council member, Jeff Eisenmenger, against a wall at the town hall.
Moore entered a pretrial diversion program for the incident, which had an effect on the town’s political landscape.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryCouncil president Jason Ramey rallied for change, and 12 candidates filed for council seats in the primary election about four months after the fight. Ramey and Eisenmenger retained control of their seats. Moore was voted out.
9. New Center Grove school and redistricting efforts
Walnut Grove Elementary School, Center Grove Community Schools’ sixth elementary school, opened in August.
Before that, in the spring, school officials needed to redraw the district’s interior boundaries to ensure no schools were overcrowded.
To prepare for the opening of Walnut Grove, school officials moved 1,218 elementary school students and 141 middle school students to different schools during the fall.
The school board approved the redrawing of school boundaries in March, after several public meetings involving the school board and the community over the course of about six months.
The final recommendation moved fewer students than any of the previous scenarios. The two scenarios presented to Center Grove residents in January each would have moved more than 1,350 students. The final recommendation also moved families in 10 neighborhoods back to their original schools.
8. Greenwood sees economic development successes
It was a big economic development year for the county’s largest city.
Greenwood’s long-time wish to recruit a tech employer, and its work to develop a key piece of real estate near the interstate both came to fruition this year with the news that global manufacturer Cummins Inc. is expanding into the city.
The company announced plans in May to build an information technology and digital hub in Greenwood, at the southeast corner of Interstate 65 and County Line Road. The 100,000 square-foot office building is expected to bring at least 500 jobs that pay, on average, $100,000, including benefits, with the possibility of up to 1,500 jobs if a second phase is built.
Cummins is committing at least 500 employees initially but expecting to employ closer to 750 people in Greenwood. The city gave the company taxpayer incentives valued at more than $10 million.
The city’s new Amazon facility opened in September. Up to 1,000 employees were expected to be hired, making Amazon the largest manufacturing employer — and one of the largest employers — in Johnson County.
7. Mrs. Curl owner faces child pornography charges
An iconic Greenwood ice cream shop remains open under different leadership after its owner was arrested in April on child pornography charges.
Mrs. Curl Ice Cream Shop and Outdoor Cafe owner John Cassin is charged with two Level 5 felonies for viewing and downloading pornographic images of girls as young as babies, he told police during a months-long investigation that began in 2018.
He has since “stepped aside” from his role at Mrs. Curl.
Cassin was arrested at the ice cream shop that has served patrons at its current site on Meridian Street for more than five decades. He bought the business in 1997. He bonded out and a jury trial is scheduled for March, according to online court records.
A cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led to an investigation by Greenwood police, according to court documents.
Police searched Cassin’s Whiteland home, including all of his computers and mobile devices, on March 20 for traces of child pornography, court documents said. Investigators also found numerous child pornography images on a Mrs. Curl user account, according to court documents.
News of the arrest and allegations spread quickly. Mrs. Curl has long been a staple in the Greenwood community.
6. Voters say yes — and no — to school referendums
After voters passed a Clark-Pleasant Community Schools referendum in November 2018, which allowed the school district to spend more money on mental health and school security through a property tax increase, more Johnson County school districts followed suit this year, but only one succeeded.
Franklin Community Schools also had a successful referendum with 63 percent of voters approving a property tax hike in May that allowed the district to raise teacher salaries and provide mental health support. Voters will see the tax hike of 23 cents for every $100 of assessed property value take effect in 2020.
Center Grove Community Schools attempted to pass a tax hike of 11.5 cents for every $100 of assessed property value, but 63 percent of voters decided against the measure, forcing the school district back to the drawing board. It would have used the $24.8 million raised over eight years to fund additional school security and mental health support, school officials said.
Edinburgh Community Schools is also pondering a referendum to raise teacher salaries, which currently start at $36,100, the second-lowest in the county.
5. Some face four new taxes; jail expansion approved
For some pockets of Johnson County, the tax increases kept coming.
The frequently overcrowded Johnson County jail needs expanded, the state has ordered. The Johnson County Council approved a .20% income tax on county workers to pay for an expansion that is set to cost about $23 million, and a committee of county officials moved plans to get an expansion built. Construction is slated to start in the spring.
In December, council members voted in favor of a property tax increase of 2.5 cents for every $100 of assessed value to pay for a new Clark-Pleasant branch of the Johnson County Public Library. Nearly very property owner in the county, except those in Greenwood and Edinburgh, will pay the tax.
Residents who live in Clark-Pleasant and Franklin school districts are also in the beginning stages of paying additional property taxes after voters approved two separate referendums.
And an additional income tax to help pay for road improvements ahead of Interstate 69 being built through Johnson County could be coming in early 2020.
4. Four locals die in plane crash
On Oct. 3, a small airplane left the Indy South Greenwood Airport bound for Lansing, Michigan. The plane carried six passengers, and had been chartered to take employees of local business The Engineering Collaborative and a contractor to do a site visit.
But the plane crashed within yards of the Capital Region International Airport in Lansing, and resulted in the deaths of five people, four of which were Johnson County residents: John Lowe, of Greenwood; Neil Sego, of Trafalgar; and Tim Clark and Joel Blevins, both of Franklin.
Plainfield resident Zechariah Bennett also died in the crash. There was one survivor.
An investigation into the crash by the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the plane was over its weight limit when it took off, though that is not being singled-out as a contributing factor. The cause of the crash has not been determined.
3. Environmental contamination cleanup continues
Franklin officials continued to work with environmental agencies, including the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, to address potentially harmful contaminants that had been found on the east side of the city.
Testing of vapors coming from the ground found varying levels of TCE and PCE, volatile organic compounds that can have negative health effects. That testing has been ongoing since 2018.
In March, two Franklin schools, Needham and Webb elementary schools, reported higher-than-recommended levels of the compounds. The schools both closed for an eLearning day on March 21, the last day before spring break. Further testing found the levels had decreased, and in June, the schools installed a depressurization system at Needham and Webb that would lower levels of the organic compounds in the ground underneath the two schools.
During the summer, work was started to remove sewer lines along Forsythe Street. Contamination has been found in the dirt surrounding the pipes, and crews dug up the street, excavated and removed contaminated soil and replaced the line.
Public concerns persisted, and in November, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management revealed a map showing a second plume of chemical compounds on the northeast side of the city. A series of community meetings were held to answer questions and attempt to ease concerns.
Also in December, residents impacted by the ongoing contamination and cleanup efforts filed a lawsuit against the company believed to be responsible for the contamination. They’re seeking damages from Amphenol and other companies they say are responsible for releasing chemicals into the community then covering it up.
2. Voting changes persist
County election officials spent the year figuring out what to do about its election vendor and equipment after its former vendor, Election Systems and Software, failed voters during the November 2018 election.
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved entering into two separate agreements with MicroVote, the central Indiana vendor that rented equipment and services to the county for this year’s elections. They will take on the role of permanent election vendor for at least the next four years.
The board’s November vote was the final step in a year-long process to remedy the mess that was left behind after last November’s election, and a years-long debate about whether new equipment was needed.
The county is spending about $1.5 million on services and equipment, including 320 voting machines. The Infinity Voting Machine with VVPAT — Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail — is the newest system MicroVote has to offer, and was certified by the state in July.
1. Prosecutor removed; new prosecutor named under dubious circumstances
Former Johnson County Prosecutor Brad Cooper pleaded guilty to four criminal charges, including felonies, after a domestic battery incident in early March at his Trafalgar home.
It ultimately resulted in his arrest, removal from office and multiple scheduled caucuses to replace him.
Cooper pleaded guilty to criminal confinement, identity deception and official misconduct — all Level 6 felonies — and a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery. The charges were filed in April.
Cooper did not serve any jail time, but was sentenced by a Hancock County judge to 540 days of supervised probation, according to the plea agreement.
Cooper had been under Indiana State Police investigation since March, when a resident of the Trafalgar area called police to report that a woman had been battered and had fled to their home seeking help. Cooper’s name was not released by Indiana State Police during the course of its investigation and did not become public until the charges were filed in April.
Cooper confined his fiancee, struck her and used her phone to pretend to be her while sending messages to someone else, according to court documents filed by special prosecutor Doug Brown, who is chief deputy prosecutor in Decatur County.
Cooper also committed official misconduct by committing identity deception during the criminal investigation for domestic battery, court documents said. The specific details, such as how the woman was confined and struck, have not and won’t be released because Cooper agreed that there was probable cause to charge him, Brown said.
Cooper, who had been the county’s prosecutor since 2009, was arrested and booked in at the Johnson County jail briefly. He was released on his own recognizance without having to post a bond.
In August, the county’s longtime chief deputy prosecutor Joe Villanueva, who had been leading the office in the interim, was named prosecutor.
Villanueva was selected by 119 Republican Party precinct committee members or vice committee members in a caucus. He was sworn in immediately and will serve as prosecutor through the end of 2022.
It was the party’s second attempt to name a prosecutor to replace Cooper, who was formally removed from office in July. A previously scheduled caucus was canceled after the party and candidates had already assembled because the party did not believe any of the six candidates had filed all of the required paperwork.
One of the candidates, James Ackermann, filed a lawsuit claiming he had, and that he should have been named prosecutor the night of the first scheduled caucus. A Shelby County judge threw out that lawsuit in November, saying Ackermann should have taken his grievances up with the state Republican Party, not the courts, and that the lawsuit filed by Ackermann against the county Republican Party was uncharted territory.
Ackermann was the only candidate who had completed two forms required by state law to be a candidate for prosecutor, yet party chairwoman Beth Boyce told the more than 100 precinct committee members gathered at the first scheduled caucus on Aug. 15 that none of the six candidates for the job had filed the forms that were needed to be eligible candidates.
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In a special section, we offer a month-by-month review of the 2019 timeline of noteworthy events in Johnson County and present some memorable photographs of the year.
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