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Greenfield Central High School
receives program excellence award
Hancock
County 3rd fast-growing county in the state
McCordsville
forges its identity
Firm
to employ 200 by 2010
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G-C
tech program a three-time winner
March 1, 2008
Daily Reporter,
Greenfield, Indiana
Derek R. Smith Staff writer
Greenfield-Central has received another accolade for its
high school's technology program -- the program excellence award of the
International Technology Education Association.
G-C is one of fewer than 50 programs worldwide to receive the award,
according to a news release by ITEA, a Virginia-based organization for
technology and engineering educators.
"This is the third time in 25 years that we've received this
award," said Gary Wynn, department chair of the GC technology
education program. "We've strived to develop a curriculum that
prepares students for the outside work or their (university)
education."
Many of G-C's students have gone on to study engineering at universities
like Purdue after studying in G-C's technology education program, Wynn
said.
G-C students can take courses geared to a variety of technology and
engineering disciplines -- from civil engineering to aerospace
engineering. Classes range from communication processes to construction
systems to transportation processes.
Wynn said the curriculum is designed for students of all skill levels --
from collegebound engineering students to students with special needs.
Part of the success of the GC's technology education department has come
through its participation in Project Lead the Way, a rigorous program
that requires students to learn math and science through hands-on
projects.
PLTW students can take courses in digital electronics, biotechnical
engineering and engineering design and development, among others.
One hands-on project that GC students have competed in is the
supermileage challenge, where they compete with teams from other schools
to build the most fuel-efficient car.
Another project is FIRST Robotics, where the students design a robot to
complete a designated series of tasks.
This fall, G-C will be honored in the Project Lead the Way yearbook as
one of the top 15 PLTW programs in the nation, Wynn said.
"It's a combination of all that we do (that allows us to earn such
recognition),' he said. 'We are a comprehensive engineering technology
program.'
Photo provided Gary Wynn (left)
receives Greenfield-Central’s program excellence award from the
International Technology Education Association. G-C was one of fewer
than 50 programs worldwide to receive the award. It is the third time
that G-C was received it.
---Reproduced with the permission
of editor, Daily Reporter-Hancock County, Indiana
March
21, 2008
Hamilton
takes top spot in county
headcount
The Census Bureau released its annual population
estimates for 3,141 U.S.
counties on Thursday. Among the highlights:
Indiana's gainers and losers
Hamilton
County
-- once again -- is the fastest-growing county in
Indiana
and the 23rd fastest-growing in the nation.
The state's
five fastest-growing counties (the others are Hendricks,
Hancock,
Johnson and Boone, in that order) accounted for 64 percent of
Indiana's total population growth from 2000 to 2007. Each county had more
births than deaths in seven years, and together added more than 149,000
residents, said Matt Kinghorn, economic research analyst at
Indiana
Business
Research Center, Bloomington.
A look at the gains and losses across the state
and metro area:
Also of note in Indiana
Baby booms: Average birth rates in LaGrange, Adams
and
Elkhart
counties were the highest among Indiana's 92 counties, topping 17 births per 1,000 residents between 2000 and
2007.
Researchers say those counties are home to much
of the state's Amish population, which tends to have larger families.
Highest death rates:
Three of the top five Indiana
counties with the highest average death rates span the state's western
border -- Vermillion, Knox and Sullivan.
Vermillion was tops, averaging 13.6 deaths per
1,000 residents between 2000 and 2007. Knox and Sullivan counties ranked
fourth and fifth, following Fayette and Henry counties.
The western-tier counties had few newer, younger
residents moving in and ranked among the highest in overall median age
during the period.
Immigrant magnets:
Tippecanoe and
Monroe
counties, home to two of
Indiana's major university campuses, ranked among the top 5 counties in the
state in the average rate of international migration -- people moving in
from outside the U.S.
Tippecanoe
County
ranked
first, averaging nearly six international migrants per 1,000 residents
since 2000. Monroe
County
ranked fourth, with a 3.6 per 1,000 average. Rounding out the top five:
Clinton, Elkhart
and Noble counties, three areas where large industries may be magnets
for foreign residents, researchers say.
The national picture
Seventy of the nation's fastest-growing counties
from July 2006 to July 2007 were in the South, the U.S. Census Bureau
reported Thursday.
Just eight of the fastest-growing counties were
in the Midwest (including Hamilton
County); 22 were in the West.
Fastest grower:
Arizona
's
Maricopa
County, which includes Phoenix, added the most people in that period -- 102,000, bringing its
population to nearly 3.9 million.
Most populous:
Los Angeles
County
held on to that title, with 9.9 million people, though its population
dropped 2,000 over the year.
--- Star and news service report
Next Stop
McCordsville, recently unveiled McCordsville's new logo at the Indiana
State Museum.
McCordsville
forges its identity
March 20, 2008
Indianapolis Star/News, The (IN)
Town
works on becoming a destination
Bill McCleery bill.mccleery@indystar.com
With
development fast changing the landscape of McCordsville, town leaders
want to ensure the community maintains a distinct identity despite
blending into the city of
Lawrence
to the west and the town of
Fishers
to the north. The town also sits in close proximity to the town of
Fortville
.
Earlier this
month, town officials unveiled a new slogan -- "Next Stop
McCordsville" -- and a new logo featuring a trolley car. The slogan
and logo pay tribute to the town's history as a stop along the
interurban rail line and also express town leaders' ambition to make
McCordsville a destination -- a "stop" -- rather than just a
place commuters pass through.
"We
want to let people know we've got a vision and an economic development
plan," said Town Manager Tonya Galbraith. "We want people to
be able to identify McCordsville."
Part of the
process of attracting quality commercial and residential development,
said Town Council member Brent Barnes, is achieving an identity through
"branding."
"McCordsville
is taking the approach of trying to attract economic development that
will enhance the quality of life for people living here," Barnes
said. "We're being proactive. We want to be diverse and attract a
good mixture of industrial, commercial and neighborhood
development."
The branding
effort cost the town about $31,000, Galbraith said, as it worked with a
consultant and paid various other fees related to printing fliers and
other promotional material. Town officials raised about $17,000 in
private donations, she said. Town officials unveiled the new logo and
slogan at a special event earlier this year at the
Indiana
State
Museum
.
The logo and
slogan are just the latest in a series of initiatives to enhance the
town's image and market its increasing options for people looking for
dining, shopping and entertainment. The Fortville-McCordsville Chamber
of Commerce, for example, in 2005 launched the "By Air, By
Rail" Festival, which celebrates the town's transportation roots
and provides a yearly summer event for residents and visitors.
This year's
festival will be July 18-20.
The efforts
to bolster the town's identity coincide with a recent surge in the
number of businesses opening, including a CVS store, Greenfield Banking
Co. branch and an Italian restaurant called Goodfellas. A Meijer store
is in the works, expected to open within a year.
The
businesses have followed housetops, said Sherry Dwelle, of the
Fortville-McCordsville Chamber of Commerce. The town's population has
surpassed 4,000, and many housing subdivisions also have sprung up in
the unincorporated areas just outside the town's limits.
"Any
time you have a growing area, that's good for business," Dwelle
said.
On March 26,
Dwelle added, Galbraith will speak about recent trends in McCordsville
at the Chamber's noon meeting at
McCordsville
Town Hall
, 5759 W. Broadway.
For more
information, go to the Chamber's Web site at
www.fortvillemccordsville.com or call (317) 448-1034.
Call
Star reporter Bill McCleery at (317) 444-6083.
---Copyright (c) The
Indianapolis
Star. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett
Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc
Firm
to employ 200 by 2010
Indianapolis Star/News, The (IN)
| January 31, 2008
Freije Treatment Systems; Mount Comfort
By Bill McCleery
billmccleery@indystar.com
A company that earlier this year announced plans to locate in
Mount Comfort says it will employ 200 people at its site by
2010.
Freije Treatment Systems, which currently employs about 25
people, plans to complete its move to the Mount Comfort
Industrial Park by the end of February.
Gov. Mitch Daniels accompanied the firm's CEO, William F.
Freije III, at a news conference last week. Daniels said the
firm represents the kind of success story that boosts Indiana's
economy.
"(This is) a homegrown business," Daniels said.
"It starts with a customer's problem. It involves that
spark of innovation and ingenuity to create something better and
greater than anybody had before."
The company specializes in salt-free, environmentally
friendly water-treatment systems -- an invention of William
Freije that uses electronic technology to neutralize the charges
of certain minerals in water, causing them not to bond together
and create hardness in water.
The company will lease 34,383 square feet at the Mount
Comfort site and invest more than $2 million in the facility,
Freije said. The company is moving from its current site near
75th Street and Hague Road on the Northeastside of Indianapolis.
Manufacturing will occur at other locations, Freije said. The
headquarters will employ specialists in engineering, sales and
accounting, among other areas. Compensation will range from
$40,000 up to six-digit salaries, officials said.
Economic development officials expressed enthusiasm not just
for the number of new jobs being created by Freije, but for the
type of jobs.
"The jobs Freije is creating are the kind of
knowledge-based, highly skilled, high-paying jobs that any
community would like to see locate in their city, town or
county," said Dennis Maloy, executive director of the
Hancock Economic Development Council.
When Precedent developed the Mount Comfort Industrial Park,
Maloy said, many involved with the project anticipated
attracting warehouses and logistical hubs. While that vision has
transpired, the development also has attracted more
sophisticated operations involving high-tech and other
industrial jobs, Maloy said.
Those are the types of jobs Daniels said he wants to attract
statewide, especially those involving companies engaged in
creating new products from the first stages of research and
development.
"This kind of business with a better mousetrap -- new
technology that has beaten the rest of the marketplace with such
an innovation right here at home -- has the potential to grow
explosively," Daniels said. "If you can go from 15 to
200 (employees) in such a short period of time, you can go from
200 to who knows where.
"As we see these companies sprouting and growing perhaps
exponentially, that's when we'll know the Indiana economy is
firing on the cylinder that matters most."
Call Star reporter Bill McCleery at (317) 444-6083.
---Copyright (c) The Indianapolis Star. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank,
inc. Record Number: ind127672528
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