Crew Car Wash, once known as Mike’s Car Wash locally before re-branding the company name in 2014, is building a new headquarters building in the area of I-69 & 116th Street in Fishers.  The City of Fishers and Crew released a joint announcement Friday morning.

Crew’s corporate headquarter is currently located in Fishers, on Hague Road, between 106th and 96th Streets.

“We look forward to working with the City on this exciting opportunity to provide a more convenient way for Fishers residents to experience our clean, fast and friendly service,” said Sally Grant, Crew’s Executive Vice President and third generation leader of Crew’s family business, in a city news release.  “We have been happy to call Fishers home for the past 15 years and are equally excited about potentially building a brand new Corporate Office and Training Center for all our team members who serve our internal and external customers every day.”

Crew Car Wash says it has plans to buy five acres from Sunbeam Development Corporation to build its corporate headquarters and a state-of-the-art car wash. Crew Car Wash intends to use this new location to establish new research and development facilities and training programs.

Both the new corporate headquarters and new car wash will be located along Exit 5 Parkway, just north of 116^thStreet behind the new Riverview Hospital and next to Top Golf. The project will be presented at April’s City Council meeting Monday.

The City is offering $1.72 million in incentives to Fishers City Council approval. The package includes a 10-year, 100% real property tax abatement and impact fee waiver for the headquarters building. If approved, the project will be presented at May’s Plan Commission meeting for approval.

“Crew Carwash is a Fishers institution, calling Fishers its home since 2004,” said Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness. “Working alongside them to not only identify a location that meets the vision of the City, but a permanent home for them in Fishers, demonstrates our commitment to supporting local businesses which value our smart, vibrant, and entrepreneurial business environment.”

The new Fishers Crew Car Wash is scheduled to open in 2020 with the headquarters building to be completed by 2022.

Hamilton County Reporter

Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Joe Weingarten wants the Election Board to turn over a bribery allegation, related to the Carmel mayoral race, to law enforcement.

Weingarten

Weingarten said in a letter to the Reporter, “I am extremely disappointed in the Hamilton County Election Board. I filed a formal complaint and a request for an investigation concerning an alleged bribe in the Carmel Mayors race where it was reported that one candidate was offered $140,000 not to run. So what does the Election Board do but kick this down the road to after the primary election?

“To me and I hope every voter in the county agrees a bribe to fix an election should be taken as an extremely serious matter. It is major breach of our election process.

“Just a few years ago you would think the world ended when one candidate stole political signs. This wound up being investigated by a special prosecutor from another county. Then a trial in another county, yet a $140,000 possible bribe does not seem to warrant any immediate attention.

“I once again ask that the County Election Board take immediate action to turn this over to an investigative law enforcement body.”

April 15th is the tax filing deadline, so once you have all that out of the way, the following day you can get an update on the construction plans for State Road 37 in Fishers.

The meeting is set for 6pm, Tuesday, April 16th, at the Delaware Township Community Center (9094 E. 131st St.)

The meeting agenda includes:

• Project schedule
• Marketing updates
• New project website
• Update on the design for the 146^th Street interchange
• Upcoming local projects

Kim Day has served as Assistant Principal at Fall Creek Intermediate School, and is preparing to take over as principal in August, after the Hamilton Southeastern School Board approved her appointment Wednesday night.

“That school is my family, those are my people.  They are truly my heart,” Day told board members.  “I’ve been so fortunate to be there for the last 6 years as assistant principal.”

Day will replace current principal Randy Schoeff, who has served as principal for 21 years.

The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board appeared once again ready to tackle the difficult decision on how to update their nondiscrimination policy, but had to postpone the consideration once again, this time due to the absence of Board President Mike Bottorff, who was attending to a last-minute family emergency.  With the board split on how to move forward on the policy issue, the matter will now move to the next board meeting April 24th.

Because the agenda item was removed at the last minute, Board Vice President Sylvia Shepler, presiding over the meeting in Bottorff’s absence, allowed the public to comment on the changes proposed in the nondiscrimination policy.

Nine people spoke, all urging board members to provide specific protection for named groups, including gender and sexual orientation.  Some speakers were students, including one that is transgender.  HSEA President Janet Chandler spoke on behalf of the teachers she represents, urging strong and specific protections.  Episcopal Minister, Reverend Patrick Burke, quoted scripture to make his case for strong, specific protections.  Parents and community members chimed in as well, all favoring strong nondiscrimination policy language.

The board was expected to consider at least two recommendations from the school policy committee Wednesday.  Now that will all be postponed to April 24th.

Samm Quinn took over the North of 96th beat for the Indianapolis Business Journal about one year ago.  I invited Samm to share with me in a podcast what she has taken away from the year of covering the northern suburbs of Indy.

A standing-room-only crowd at the Holland Park shelter house heard a presentation from Jacobs Engineering Monday night on several visions of a train, or trail plus train, along the Nickel Plate rail line.  There was talk of the value the Nickel Plate Rail has to the regional potential for train connections north of Indianapolis.  There was a lot of information about the value of the rail and how a rail and trail operation could exist together along the rail line.

Ty Mendenhall of “Save The Nickel Plate” said after the Monday presentation that this was not a feasibility study.  “Whether we go in that direction or not is going to depend on some of the feedback we get here tonight, and other things that happen,” Mendenhall said.  “Seems like things change day-to-day on this situation.”

Save The Nickel Plate is not anti-trail, according to Mendenhall.  His  concern is the regional impact a trails-only plan would have on the train network north of Indianapolis.

The Fishers City Director of Engineering, Jason Taylor, watched the Monday presentation and described the people pushing for the rail with trail along the Nickel Plate as interest groups not living in Fishers and not in touch with the Fishers community.

“The rail with trail project this group is proposing represents just 4% of the Fishers population’s wishes,” said Taylor.  “The residents do not want freight, and the City of Fishers does not support any proposal that leads to freight cars travelling through neighborhoods and running through our city, clogging traffic on major thoroughfares multiple times a day.  The City still stands by its independent, professional assessment that shows rails with trails is not realistic.”

The City of Fishers has included funding in the 2019 budget to begin constructing the trail-only along the Nickel Plate, beginning this fall.

The Redevelopment Commission approved a project agreement for the Browning Investments development along the north side of 116th Street, near the municipal complex.  Fishers Economic Development Director Megan Baumgartner said the boundaries for this part of the project will be North Street, Maple Street to the east & 116th Street to the south.  The four existing buildings along 116th Street will remain as part of this plan.  The city is providing a $250,000 incentive in order to rehabilitate those structures.  The city also negotiated provisions in the agreement with Browning Investments/CRG allowing existing rents to be maintained for the existing buildings, for tenants in the building now throughout the construction period, and that will also apply to any new tenants for those existing buildings.  There is a cap for future tenants in those buildings once construction is done at $15 per square foot.

“The city is committed to making this a location for affordable downtown retail space,” Baumgartner said.

The agreement calls for incorporating planning for the Nickel Plate  Trail.  The city is offering $500,000 for the planned public plaza north of the Nickel Plate Bar & Grill location.

This agreement encompasses $61 million in project investment, including 235 residential units and a parking garage with 329 spaces.  The city will have access to 55 of those spaces exclusively.

A Tax Increment Finance (TIF) backed bond of $25 million will be used for land acquisition, parking garage, the incentives for building rehabilitation & the public plaza, as well as $200,000 of infrastructure improvements along Maple Street.

Construction should begin on this project in November of this year.  Completion of the work should take about two years.

The Redevelopment Commission also approved an amendment to the economic development agreement with Knowledge Services, allowing an extension of the time to begin construction on their new building to September 31st, 2019.  The office building is to be be located near Navient, along I-69.

Fishers Director of Economic Development Megan Baumgartner told Redevelopment Commission members that initially, Knowledge Services was focused only on the office building, but that has changed.

“(Knowledge Services) turned from looking at just their office building to a holistic approach to their whole 17 acres,” said Baungartner.  “We have the commitment from Knowledge Services that this project is moving forward, there’s no question as to their commitment to doing this project, just wanted to be very thoughtful in their approach.”

Baungartner later told LarryInFishers “holistic approach” means Knowledge Services was initially focused on the office building itself, but the firm is now looking at the larger plans for the entire 17 acres of land.

The Fishers City Council passed a resolution March 18th approving the extension.  The Redevelopment Commission could not vote on the measure last month due to a recusal by a commission member that resulted in the lack of a quorum.

In other action, the commission finalized the master lease for the Hub & Spoke project and a professional services agreement with Launch Fishers to continue running the IoT (Internet of Things) Lab.

Vertical Horizon and Tonic will take to the stage, opening the 2019 Spark Fishers Fishers Festival at 7pm, June 28th.  The concert at the Nickel Plate Amphitheater will kickoff the two-day Spark festival.

The second day of the celebration June 29th features a 5K Walk/Run, a street fair, a patriotic evening parade, and a fireworks show.

The June 28th concert is free, but tickets are required. Those tickets will be available beginning in May.  You can get them through ticket stops and giveaways hosted by the City of Fishers and radio station 107.9 (The Mix).

The overall sponsor of the Spark Fishers Festival is First Internet Bank.

Jason Taylor had served as the Assistant Director of Engineering for the City of Fishers when the Indiana Department of Transportation came calling and offered Jason an opportunity to become Technical Services Director for the Greenfield District, and Jason accepted that job.  Then, Jeff Hill, Fishers’ Director of Engineering the past seven years, accepted a private sector offer and left his city job.

When it was time to replace Jeff Hill, Mayor Scott Fadness tapped Hill’s former second-in-command, Jason Taylor.  Fadness announced Monday the appointment of Jason Taylor as the Fishers Director of Engineering.

“Jeff Hill has built a great engineering department that has reduced traffic congestion in Fishers, increased our state and federal funding, and improved our city’s infrastructure during his time here,” said Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness in a city news release. “I have no doubt that under Jason’s leadership, these efforts will not be in vain. I look forward to having Jason back on the team as we continue to reinvest in our infrastructure to grow the quality of life here in Fishers.”

Jason Taylor was once a part of the Engineering Department staff while serving as  assistant director, and has the advantage of knowing those working under him very well.

“I’m humbled and excited to come back to the City of Fishers and be a part of the next chapter of our growing community,” said Taylor. “Under Jeff’s leadership, the team has made great strides in bringing Fishers’ infrastructure up meet the demand. With that foundation in place, I’m looking forward building proactive and innovative infrastructure that will serve this community for generations to come.”

Taylor will have plenty of work on his agenda, the biggest being the State Road 37 upgrade, which begins in earnest later this year.

He is a graduate from Purdue University with a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering and is a certified Professional Engineer in both Indiana and Ohio.

Jason, his wife Carri, and children, Dean and Linley, reside in Fishers.