This semester, JCIDC is excited to have Seymour High School senior Parker Thompson on staff as an intern.
Through the school’s Work Based Learning program, he will spend part of each weekday working in our office for the second semester after spending the first semester at Valeo in Seymour.
He will see how we work with local industries and promote development, and he also will learn how the Workforce Partnership works with local schools and the community to offer programs for students. We already have discussed potential projects for Parker so he will be able to take ownership of them and take that experience with him as he moves forward in life.
Parker said he wants to learn about what JCIDC does and how the organization interacts with companies around Jackson County.
“Indiana University is where I think I’m going to go, and I believe I want to do something business management-related, and I think this could confirm or deny it,” he said.
Parker is a three-sport athlete at SHS, and after graduation, he plans to study business management and get accepted into the IU Kelley School of Business.
“My dad, he has been a part of that for his entire life. That’s what he majored in, so I thought that sounded interesting,” Parker said of choosing a college major.
In terms of choosing a college, he said, “I’ve always been an IU fan. Bloomington, it’s a great city. I went to IU games. It’s just a cool campus.”
Parker is the son of Matt and Kara Thompson. He has a younger brother, Dane Thompson, who is a freshman at SHS. Both brothers play tennis, basketball and baseball for the Owls.
More than 600 eighth graders from around Jackson County attended the Reality Fair on Dec. 6 at Seymour Middle School.
A Reality Fair is a simulation of an adult’s financial life that allows youth to experience making financial decisions and managing money. They can experience what it is like to manage an account at a financial institution, make money-related decisions, obtain a loan, manage debt and more. For the youth, a Reality Fair can be an eye-opening, exciting and fun way to build financial knowledge and skills.
After being assigned one of 18 different types of jobs, they visited 12 booths: Pets, health care, transportation, housing Part 1, housing Part 2, household spending, the unexpected, credit card, bank, sharing and charitable gifts, children and cellphone.
There were 68 volunteers from the community who manned the booths in both gyms to help students make decisions. There were three hour-and-a-half sessions.
This was the second year for the event. Last year, only SMS students attended. This year, they were joined by Brownstown Central, Crothersville, Medora, Immanuel Lutheran, St. John’s Sauers Lutheran, Lutheran Central and Sandy Creek Christian.
Thanks to all of the students and staff from each school who attended or helped with this event, SMS for hosting, all of the community volunteers for working at the booths and the Seymour High School Jobs for America’s Graduates students and specialists for assisting at the event. It takes everyone to make this a success.
Mecanum wheels allow savvy robot designers to create drivetrains capable of moving in any direction using a standard chassis shape.
Seymour High School’s Team 31330C implemented those wheels on its robot this season, and that move resulted in an award during the second competition of the 2024-25 season.
During the Trinity VEX V5 Robotics Competition November Qualifier on Nov. 23 at Immanuel Lutheran School in Seymour, the team, consisting of freshman Matias Barrios and sophomores Nikita Cox, Leo Holle and Kellan Stanfield, was selected by the judges as the Innovate Award recipient.
The award recognizes an effective and well-documented design process for a novel aspect of a team’s robot design or gameplay strategy.
The submission of an engineering notebook is a requirement for the Innovate Award, and the team that earns the award also should be among the top contenders for the Design Award.
An interview with the judges and gameplay observation by the judges during the tournament also played into the award.
Cox said the mecanum wheels allow their robot to go in eight directions, and that applies well to this year’s game, High Stakes.
The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring rings on stakes, placing mobile goals and climbing a ladder at the end of the match.
“Last year, (the game field) had a barrier in the middle and it wasn’t really open for mecanum because it was just closed, but there are no obstacles in the middle (this year),” he said. “I based it off that type of field. It’s open to do mecanum.”
The team went 4-2 and placed fifth out of 25 teams in the tournament hosted by Trinity Lutheran High School.
“What I think we did was get what we called a hammer because it could clear the corners and it looks like a hammer in general,” Cox said of a unique feature of their robot. “Also getting the drive to work better because it didn’t strafe well. Now, it strafes good.”
Holle said their robot has a few features many teams don’t have.
“We just stood out a lot,” he said.
Cox and Stanfield were on a team together last year, but this is the first year for them to be teammates with Holle and Barrios.
“It’s perseverance,” Cox said of what’s good about this year’s team.
“We’re really good fixing any problems,” Barrios said.
“And if there’s a problem, we’re really good at working together,” Cox said. “We all really have a diverse skill set, but we’re more specified in one, so if someone can’t code … someone will take their place for a bit, and once they get back, they’ll be able to do it.”
The team improved its record and ranking from the first tournament Nov. 2 to the latest one, so the boys feel good moving forward.
Their goal? Score more stakes and climb higher on the ladder.
“We want to eventually climb all the way up,” Cox said, noting it would double their points from the first level of the ladder.
“We’re trying to get a hang, which will actually improve our chances for another innovation to get to the top,” Holle said.
Seymour High School had four other teams competing in the recent tournament, and Jackson County also was represented by one Seymour Middle School team and four Trinity Lutheran teams.
Other teams were from Henryville, Indianapolis, Zionsville, Washington and Floyds Knobs.
The tournament was an official state qualifier. The only team to earn a spot at state in March was the Excellence Award winner, which was Team 7701R from Zionsville Community High School.
The tournament champions were Team 7701Z from Zionsville and Team 91976A from Washington Catholic High School, who defeated Seymour’s Team 31330D and Trinity’s Team 1483C in the championship.
Team 7701Z also won the Design Award and was the robot skills champion, while Team 621B from the Marion County STEM 4-H Club received the Judges Award.
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
