The Anderson area is what journalists sometimes refer to as a good news town. That’s not to say that the news is always good, but to say that there’s plenty of it.
When such a large community (about 130,000 people live in Madison County) is in economic flux, as ours is, the news of political wrangling, corruption, business openings and closings, and the like, can come fast and furious.
The past few weeks, in particular, have brought an avalanche of important and interesting stories. Here’s a recap of the good, the bad and the ugly (find the details of these stories by visiting www.theheraldbulletin.com and using the search function):
The Good
u Ivy Tech will build a new campus in Anderson along Interstate 69. While some have lamented that Ivy Tech didn’t chose to build downtown, the interstate site is easily accessible from Anderson and offers high visibility for the campus.
u Anderson’s Bright Automotive has landed a deal with the U.S. military to demonstrate its plug-in hybrid commercial van, the Idea, for possible adaptation to the military’s non-combat vehicle fleet. Bright’s future, for now, still awaits the Department of Energy’s decision on its application for a $450 million loan to bring the Idea to mass production.
The Bad
u Centaur, the company that owns Hoosier Park, announced that it had defaulted on a loan payment and that two affiliated entities in Pennsylvania had filed for bankruptcy. Hoosier Park officials assured the public that the operations of the Anderson racino would be unchanged and no jobs would be cut.
◆ Anderson and Alexandria city councils and Madison County Council, all citing projected budget deficits, raised the county option income tax from 1.25 percent to 1.75 percent of earnings.
The Ugly
u The state has suspended the license of Middletown physician Phillip Foley, whose narcotic prescription practices are the subject of a high-profile investigation.
u The Town of Chesterfield, according to a state audit, was stripped of $259,000 — about a quarter of its annual operating fund — over a two-year stretch by five former town officials who are alleged to have filed bogus expense reports.
u u u
What will this week bring? Hopefully more good news, probably more bad news and likely more ugly news. Whatever the variety, we’ll report it in the pages of The Herald Bulletin.
u u u ‘
Jeane Atkinson wrote this response to the question I posed a few weeks ago about readers’ favorite pages:
“There are three columns I make sure I read weekly: Yours, that [Rod] Richey guy and the History page. I am a lifetime resident of North Anderson (returned to the home my parents built in 1941), and I love the history of this town and of Indiana. I appreciate your column because you do not seem to avoid issues that arise and your comments seem unbiased and straightforward. I like the columns Rod Richey creates because he seems to have a sense of humor (dry and sarcastic) that I really appreciate.”
Smart woman, that Jeane Atkinson!
Editor Scott Underwood’s column appears Mondays in The Herald Bulletin. Contact him at scott.underwood@heraldbulletin.com or 640-4845.
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