During the Nov. 11 Seymour Common Council meeting, two companies received unanimous approval of two 10-year tax abatements for personal property.
Guardian Bikes and Cummins Inc. will make investments totaling over $23 million to the industrial development of the city.
A tax abatement occurs over a 10-year period in which companies pay 10% more on taxes each consecutive year. Companies do not pay any property taxes on the improvements in the first year of a tax abatement.
Jim Plump, executive director of Jackson County Industrial Development Corp., spoke on behalf of each company.
Guardian Bikes, located at 2230 D Ave. East and 845 A Ave. East in Freeman Field, is investing $15 million toward equipment that will allow them to manufacture bike frames, which are currently being imported from China.
Sam Markel, vice president of operations and manufacturing for Guardian Bikes, said the company has been importing bike frames since 2022, and with tariffs likely to increase within the next year, he wants to focus on bringing frame production to the U.S.
“In 2023, we manufactured 96,000 bikes. In 2024, we will end with 385,000, and we are projected to manufacture 500,000 bikes in the next year,” he said.
This project will begin Dec. 1 of this year and continue to the end of 2025, creating 40 new jobs with a $4.3 million payroll. The new jobs will be a combination of six-figure salary positions and hourly jobs in the low $20 per hour range.
The company will retain its current workforce of 204 workers and with current tax rates will pay over $360,000 over the 10 years.
They sell direct to consumers with distribution centers in California, Seymour and Pennsylvania.
Cummins Inc., located on 800 E. Third St., is projecting a new investment of $8,296,032 from now until the end of the year for capacity expansion of the Hedgehog line.
This project dates to 2010 and has continued to grow over the past 14 years, Plump said.
While no new jobs were promised, Cummins will maintain its current workforce of 881 employees with a payroll of more than $71 million.
The company will pay just under $350,000 a year on the investment, and along with a $5.8 million investment from earlier this year, the total investment for the project in 2024 is more than $14 million.
In similar business, the council’s industrial development committee comprised of council members Seth Davidson, Drew Storey and Chad Hubbard presented ordinance 150.38 that will allow companies the option to invest in community needs.
In reviewing the ERA evaluation ordinance for companies that want to obtain a tax abatement, the committee produced a Quality of Life Investment Opportunity List.
Davidson said this will be an opportunity for companies to invest in the community through certain projects or community needs.
“For example, if parks and recreation needs 40 new benches, a company could help with that investment if they so choose,” he said.
While participation in the investment opportunities is not required to obtain a tax abatement, this will give incentives to companies to invest not just in economic growth of the city but fulfill community needs.
Davidson said the list is still in the works, but the committee plans to sit down with various organizations, such as United Way, Jackson County Industrial Development Corp. and the Community Foundation of Jackson County.
“Once it gets through the second read, we will hammer out the details,” he said.
New Councilman Bob Beatty said this is a step in the right direction to see a return on investment from these tax abatements.
“The county has 81 tax abatements for next year,” he said. “We are giving incentives to these companies in the form of tax abatements, and we should be able to offer them the opportunity to participate in some of the other programs we have.”
State District 69 Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, gave his thoughts on tax abatements.
“They are a good tool to have in your toolbox, but you have to be careful with them,” he said. “We are seeing a lot of services go underfunded because we are not seeing a revenue go into them that could be.”
Lucas suggested council adopt an ordinance where the total amount of tax breaks the company receives is publicly stated.
The first year of an industrial maintenance training program in Jackson County has been deemed “a smashing success.”
Dave Tucker, vice president of workforce development and community services for Vincennes University, shared that summation Nov. 13 during an open house for the training lab at the Jackson County Learning Center in Seymour.
The collaboration between VU and the learning center has provided high-impact training to local industries, delivering 12 distinct courses and awarding 94 certificates to 52 individuals.
“It took us awhile to get this thing going, and that’s the way projects go,” Tucker said.
“When I first came to Seymour and started talking to Jim (Plump, executive director of Jackson County Industrial Development Corp.) about how you make one of these projects successful, I boil all these projects down to just a few really key, important ingredients,” he said.
First is community support. Tucker said that included Plump, Dan Davis with the Jackson County Education Coalition and Community Foundation of Jackson County and Seymour Mayor Matt Nicholson.
“You’ve got to have the community behind it, not only with its moral support but also with some resources that have to come with that,” Tucker said. “We got just the perfect support from the community.”
A training provider is crucial, too. That was VU.
“An entity that had done this before,” Tucker said. “We knew what we were doing. We knew all of the pieces that had to come together from the standpoint of what kind of equipment do you have to have, what kind of facilities do you have to have, what kind of faculty do you have to have to put this thing together, and so we brought that piece, and thank you very much to you who supported it.”
The 1,600-square-foot lab includes more than $1 million in equipment used for instruction of electrical and mechanical maintenance.
Brian Sawyers, site director and instructor, said that room is “busting at the seams” but has been able to overflow into the next room for training.
Tucker praised Sawyers for his leadership with the program. Since this is not a VU campus and it’s considered an outpost, he said Sawyers is a one-man show, handling everything from information technology to human resources to finance.
Tucker, though, said Sawyers has received support from various people.
“When it came to ‘How are we going to make this a success from Day 1?’ Brian came in and he’s been our guy,” Tucker said. “He’s been a great instructor, which is what we were looking for first as we developed the curriculum and rolled it out.”
Tucker said Sawyers also has been a great ambassador to the community and has helped the students along the way, whether they have taken one class or all four currently offered.
“Brian, I can’t thank you enough for everything that you’ve done during this year to make it a success, and we look forward to years and years more of building on what we’ve done in the last year,” Tucker said, drawing a round of applause.
Also important are local employers that support the program.
Plump said the Aisin companies of Jackson County, Cummins Seymour Engine Plant and Valeo stepped up early on by committing funds to this program.
Then local officials could apply for Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative funds from the state, and they received that.
Plus, they had the support of the Seymour Redevelopment Commission, city of Seymour and Jackson County Education Coalition.
“We had and continue to have the support of the big three, which put behind resources (and) committed sending people to this program,” Tucker said. “Aisin and Cummins and Valeo, thank you very much for all of that.”
Those companies also helped develop the right curriculum for the program, he said.
“Then right behind that came the other employers that have participated so far in this program, and it’s going to take all of the employers that employ industrial maintenance and automation techs to keep this thing going in the future,” Tucker said.
Representatives from nearly 10 local companies attended the recent open house and were able to tour the lab, talk to VU officials and learn more about the program.
“I can’t thank everybody in this room enough for everything that you’ve done to kick this thing off to make it a success for the now 13 months that we’ve been training,” Tucker said. “We’ll do everything we can do to continue to make it a success.”
Plump said the South Central Indiana Talent Region was awarded $30 million in READI funding and also received the same amount for the second round. Again, a portion will be used for the VU program.
He described VU starting to offer courses in Jackson County as “one of the biggest stories of the year.”
“Some of the things that we were able to put in place years ago are now paying dividends to many of you — company representatives, you who have taken classes and you who continue to support,” Plump said. “We really came together and put this program together, so thank you to everyone.”
From Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, 286 Seymour High School seniors participated in mock interviews with local business professionals.
Once the school submitted the names, career interests and availability of the seniors, JCIDC grouped them into categories and found people in the community who work in their field of interest to interview them.
In all, 60 business professionals conducted the interviews during the weeklong effort.
They reviewed each student’s résumé on their Chromebook, asked them questions and filled out an evaluation form to give them feedback. This was a great opportunity for the students to gain experience so they are ready for an interview in the real world, and it was beneficial for the interviewers because they relate to the students, make connections and discover future employees in their field.
Here are the employers and representatives who participated…
U.S. Army: Marc Collins
Child Care Network: Kelly Doerflein
Goecker Construction Inc.: Arin Hupp
Exist Salon & Spa: Sarah Luedeman
The Tribune: Erika Malone and Dakota Locker
Excel Manufacturing Inc.: Aimee England
Ivory & Lace Weddings: Brittany Snowden
Indiana State Police: Stephen Wheeles
Crothersville Community School Corp.: Amy Schleter
Seymour Animal Hospital: Amy Birk
Immanuel Lutheran Church: Matt Nieman
Crane Hill Machine & Fabrication Inc.: Drew Royalty
Jackson County Emergency Medical Services: Nate Bryant
Schneck Medical Center: Jennifer Kinnaird, Michelle McCool, Lonnie McCool, Holly Wischmeier, Jennifer Holtman, Jamie Napier, Kim Cox and Aeriel Richardson
Lorenzo, Bevers, Braman & Connell: Denise Connell
Cummins Seymour Engine Plant: Craig Fisher, Chad Gray and Raquel Avelar Batistucci
Seymour Community School Corp.: Mika Ahlbrand, Lisa Ferguson, Talmadge Reasoner, Brandon Harpe and Wendy Nicholson
Hague & Zabel Funeral Home: Miko McRoy
Seymour Police Department: Brandon White
FBI: Todd Prewitt and Rusty Warlick
Jackson County Chamber: Dan Robison
3 to 1 Video: Shaun Kendall
Jackson County REMC: Christina Schoenherr
Premier Companies: Katie Hillian
Ava Presley: Brandy Hampton
Aisin USA Mfg. Inc.: Marnie Dirks and Tommy Blakley
Bob Poynter Family of Dealerships: Skylar Prange
Dr. Tamara Hiester DDS: Rachel Amos
Walmart Transportation: Ramona Gaines, Jason Bickham, Rick Quintero and Scott Cortner
JCBank: Angie Martin and Karen Haas
FPBH Inc.: Dan Wright
Lannett Co. Inc.: Allie Hurr
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Indiana Realty: Roger Wessel
Kevin Bell Photography: Kevin Bell
WXKU/WZZB: Kelly Trask
Freeman Municipal Airport: Colin Smith
Indiana Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division: Blake Everhart
Community member: Bonnye Good, George Weir and Rosemary Weir
JCIDC’s 40th anniversary celebration event was Oct. 29 at The Copper Top in downtown Seymour.
The event featured social hour, dinner by First Class Catering and a program featuring keynote speaker Mark Emkes, a Seymour native and former CEO of Bridgestone Americas.
Also during the program, JCIDC’s only executive director in its 40-year existence, Jim Plump, was presented the Distinguished Hoosier Award by District 44 Sen. Eric Koch on behalf of Gov. Eric Holcomb.
Plump and JCIDC board President Kevin Gabbard also spoke.
Plus, the inaugural class receiving the JCIDC Lifetime Achievement Award was recognized. They are Mike Tormoehlen, Carl Shake and Gerald Armstrong.
Tormoehlen also was presented the Elmore-Kilgas Award.
Finally, a donation was made to the Seymour High School Class of 1971 Scholarship Fund. Emkes was a member of that class.
Thanks to all who attended the event, and thanks to anyone who has contributed in some way to JCIDC’s 40 years.
The event sponsors were Duke Energy, First Financial Bank, Goecker Construction Inc., Jackson County Visitor Center, JCBank, Kocolene Development Corp., Old National Bank, Royalty Companies, Schneck Medical Center, SIHO and Vincennes University.
The annual senior mock interviews began Oct. 28 at Seymour High School.
Forty-three seniors participated in interviews with local business professionals. Career interests included military, child care, construction, cosmetology, journalism, photography, manufacturing, event planner, social studies, law enforcement and chef.
JCIDC would like to thank Marc Collins with the U.S. Army, Kelly Doerflein with Child Care Network, Arin Hupp with Goecker Construction Inc., Sarah Luedeman with Exist Salon & Spa, Erika Malone with The Tribune, Aimee England with Excel Manufacturing Inc., Brittany Snowden with Ivory & Lace Weddings, Bonnye Good, Stephen Wheeles with the Indiana State Police and Amy Schleter with Crothersville Community Schools for taking time out of their schedules to interview these seniors.
We also want to thank Seymour High School officials for helping coordinate the effort.
“I’m just a girl who is breaking barriers. Try and keep up.”
That message was on stickers that were part of a swag table at the inaugural Jackson County Girl Powered Workshop on Oct. 23 at Seymour Middle School.
The 31 girls in grades 7 to 12 from eight county schools attending the event serve as proof that robotics and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) aren’t just for boys.
According to the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, Girl Powered Workshops engage and inform young women about STEM and robotics opportunities available to them.
Any time in October, teachers, coaches, event partners and mentors are invited to host a Girl Powered Workshop to honor International Day of the Girl.
Amy Jo Miller Kuzel, who coaches the robotics teams at Seymour Middle School and Seymour High School, said she found out about the opportunity from an email.
“Every year, I’ve been like, ‘I want a girl-powered team,’ and (the girls on the robotics teams) are like, ‘I know,’” she said, smiling. “Then finally this year, that’s when all of the high-schoolers were like, ‘Let’s band together.’”
The workshop was a perfect opportunity to do just that.
“I saw an email and I was like, ‘Hmm, what’s this girls workshop email all about?’” she said. “I asked about it, and it seemed like it was just get together, it could be anything you want, it didn’t cost anything. You just need a host to host it.”
Miller Kuzel created a flyer and emailed it to local robotics coaches and Jackson County Industrial Development Corp.
From there, it went out to local companies in hopes that female engineers could attend.
In the end, she wound up with girls to attend and also female engineers and others from local industries, including Cummins Seymour Engine Plant, Walmart Distribution Center and BSM Groups.
Plus, Walmart donated supplies, Jamie and Michael Baker bought pizzas and stickers and VEX Robotics and Optimus donated swag.
“The community support was so warming and engaging,” Miller Kuzel said. “They were just like, ‘We want to help.’ This is just so cool. It makes it easy. I was thinking, ‘Oh, (the girls) will watch a movie, they’ll sit around and talk.’ OK then I was like, ‘But we’ve got to have activities.’ It’s just perfect.”
After all of the girls arrived, Miller Kuzel had them find others their age they didn’t know and form groups to rotate between four stations.
At one, they made a rubber band catapult to practice launching and resistance with rubber bands.
At another one, the goal was to improve on a poor design of a rubber band car.
“They have to build that and maybe redesign, and there’s not all the parts, so they have to figure out how to replace when you don’t have something,” Miller Kuzel said.
The raspberry pi station involved building a miniature computer on a circuit board, and the binary bracelets station had them using different colored beads to do binary code with their name.
One purpose of forming groups was to practice the interview process, Miller Kuzel said.
“I want them to actually be comfortable talking to and interviewing the adults,” she said. “That was the big thing, career pathways, seeing what their careers are.”
Another purpose was to recognize other girls so they can work together with them at robotics competitions.
“They are going to look better to the judges by knowing each other and being able to pal around with them,” Miller Kuzel said.
Who knows? They could wind up as an alliance at a competition.
“A girl-powered alliance,” Miller Kuzel said, smiling.
Each station was manned by employees of Cummins, BSM Groups and Walmart.
Lauren Ferrenburg, a machining engineer at the Seymour Engine Plant, helped at the raspberry pi station. The Columbus native has worked for the diesel engine maker for three and a half years.
She said she was drawn to engineering because the possibilities are endless.
“There’s always room for improvement. There’s always room for innovation, lots of collaboration,” she said. “It’s really been great to be able to see your work come to fruition.”
She works in the machining center on the high horsepower block line of the worldwide company’s largest engine, the 95-liter QSK95, known as Hedgehog.
“It is amazing,” she said.
As a female engineer, she was happy to be invited to the workshop just for girls.
“Whenever I was in high school, I was one of very few girls that were in engineering, and so I really wanted to give back and be able to help our future women engineers,” Ferrenburg said. “Stuff like this just makes me very happy because I get to see in a way my former self as my now self, knowing and seeing that this is our future of our next wave of women engineers.”
She was impressed with the turnout.
“That is so invigorating to me,” Ferrenburg said. “Even when I was in college at the University of Louisville pursuing my BSME (Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering), I was one of maybe five women in my 25-person class, so it makes me so happy to see further equity for women in this field.”
SMS seventh-graders Bella Stair and Mackenzie Sellers were among the workshop’s attendees.
Bella started robotics at a young age, while Mackenzie has done it for two years.
“I’m on the robotics team, and I’ve been doing robotics since I was really little,” Bella said. “I got my first robotics kit whenever I was 5, and I loved doing it. I always liked math, and then for Christmas, my parents got me a little robotics kit, and I fell in love with it and I signed up to be in robotics camps.”
Mackenzie said she was drawn to robotics because she likes to build.
“I was good friends with the coach, and the coach was like, ‘Hey, how about you try this out?’” she said. “I was friends with his daughter, too, so I went and I tried out last year, and he said, ‘So now, you use your sassiness and your bossiness and you’re a good team leader.’ I was the first one last year to get my robot moving.”
Both girls liked having an opportunity to gather with other girls with a common interest.
“A bunch of girls can get together, and you don’t have to know them yet. You can get to know them, and you can make new friends,” Bella said.
“It gets more girls interested in it,” Mackenzie said. “I know I’m not alone.”
Miller Kuzel summed up the reception for the first year of a Girl Powered Workshop locally.
