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An autopsy showed that a man who died the previous week in Greenwood was murdered. Douglas Anre Lee Lane, 20, a Johnson County resident, died of a gunshot wound to the head. The shooting happened at an apartment complex southwest of U.S. 31 and Fry Road.
What to call a new $10 million facility at Center Grove High School was a point of contention. The building was planned to include four basketball courts and a six-lane indoor track, but school officials didn’t want it to be called a fieldhouse.
2
A Bargersville man thought he was meeting a man he met through a friend to buy high-priced marijuana. But the drug dealer had no intention of giving him a pound of drugs. Instead, he planned to rob him of the $3,200 he had agreed to pay, police said.
A Greenwood woman walking on a sidewalk was punched in the eye and had her purse stolen during an early-afternoon robbery. The woman was walking home on Loews Boulevard, near Fry Road and U.S. 31 at 1:30 p.m. when a two-door car stopped beside her.
3
An Indianapolis man was in court to hear when he could be officially charged with murder. Marcus Hardy, 29, was arrested on a charge of murder. Police said Hardy killed Douglas Lane, 20, in Greenwood in a drug deal gone awry.
In less than two weeks, two high-speed police chases involving the same man caused more than $30,000 in damage to a Center Grove-area farm and to two vehicles on the southside, police said. After days of searching, police caught the man who managed to get away.
4
Email addresses that appeared to be from both Franklin and Greenwood city offices appeared on a list of accounts used on Ashley Madison, a website for married people who want to cheat on their spouse. In each case, the city investigated and found that the email addresses listed weren’t valid.
Southland Community Church was planning a two-phase expansion, which would make more space for the church to continue growing. The building, which formerly housed West Grove Elementary School, would start to look more like a church, senior pastor Steve Schellin said.
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If central Indiana won a competitive multimillion-dollar grant, Greenwood could be closer to getting fast, convenient, public transportation to Indianapolis and farther north, attracting more biotechnology companies and get new walking and biking paths along Madison Avenue.
8
A 7-month-old baby died after suffering a skull fracture, and a Franklin man was in jail. Christopher Potts, 20, 2030 Franklin Cove Court, Apt. 3, was arrested on a charge of battery resulting in death. Police were called to Franklin Cove Apartments, near King Street and Interstate 65, about an unresponsive baby girl. CPR had been started, but the girl was pronounced dead after being taken to Johnson Memorial Hospital.
9
A change in state law was having an impact on how much local governments collect in taxes from businesses, but officials weren’t sure exactly what the shift will mean.
Driven by population growth in the area, IU Health opened a new urgent care clinic in Greenwood, off State Road 135, south of Smith Valley Road.
10
A combination of medication, marijuana and synthetic marijuana led to the death of a Johnson County jail inmate earlier in the year. Officers with the Indiana State Police were investigating the death of Kyler Myers, 19, who died in May after he was arrested and booked in the Johnson County jail.
11
Enrollment in nearly all county preschool programs was full, and many had waiting lists, which in some cases was beyond what school officials expected. That led two school districts to expand their programs, and other program directors looking for more space to grow into.
12
If the Center Grove school district wants to build a $10 million facility, one resident wanted to be sure taxpayers would have a say in whether their money is spent on it. Frank Rossa started the legal process that would allow voters and residents the chance to weigh in on the plan to build a 59,500-square-foot student activities complex on the Center Grove High School campus.
14
For most of the previous decade, Johnson County ranked in the top 10 of all Indiana counties for the number of inmates sent to prison each year. The county’s place in the state had been as high as No. 5 and as low as No. 11. In 2014, Johnson County ranked third among central Indiana counties for inmates sent to state prisons, behind Hamilton and Marion counties.
15
A Franklin father was stressed out and angry when he threw his 7-month-old daughter into a crib with urine-soaked blankets, police said. Christopher Michael Potts, 20, wasn’t sure how hard he threw the baby.
The man convicted in a southside home explosion that killed a Greenwood teacher and her husband planned to appeal his two life sentences.
16
About 250 law enforcement officers worked together to arrest 50 people charged with drug dealing and aiding in drug-dealing offenses.
Thieves ransacked a Greenwood jewelry store after cutting a hole in the roof, climbing inside and cutting the wires to the alarm system. The Greenwood Police Department is looking for multiple suspects who robbed Alternative Creations and Company Fine Jewelers, stealing essentially every item in the jewelry store.
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Nearly 900 students would be impacted by a proposed redistricting plan for Clark-Pleasant schools, which would help make room for future growth.
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The parent company of one of the county’s largest employers agreed to plead guilty and pay a multimillion-dollar fine in a price-fixing case. A U.S. Department of Justice investigation found KYB Corp., the parent company of KYB Americas, worked with other companies to fix the price of shock absorbers sold to U.S. customers for cars and motorcycles.
A couple from Columbus had to make a pit stop in Franklin to give birth. The mother’s water broke, and the couple called an Indianapolis hospital to give them a heads-up that they were on their way, but once they got on Interstate 65, the woman realized the baby wouldn’t wait until they got to Indianapolis.
19
Police were investigating the death of a Franklin woman as a homicide. The body of Jessica Frazer, 25, was found in an apartment in Indianapolis, according to a report from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. She was a 2008 graduate of Franklin Community High School.
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Center Grove might have to build a new elementary school sooner than expected, with more than 150 additional students enrolling in the school district. The additional students were spread throughout the grade levels, but Center Grove also had its largest kindergarten population ever with 576 enrolled at the beginning of the school year.
22
Local officials were keeping a close eye for any signs of cracking or unusual wear in asphalt on roads and parking lots that was put down in the past year. The concern came after state officials said they were concerned about the quality of the asphalt and whether it would last as long as it should.
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Johnson County had a higher overdose death and hospital visit rate than the state, and local police and health workers said the drug causing the problems was heroin. That’s why local police began carrying Narcan, which reverses the effects of a drug overdose, and hospitals were already noticing improvements in the overdosing patients coming in.
24
Two Franklin schools were joining a growing list where all students get their own computers to read online textbooks and do assignments and class projects. The school district asked the Franklin Redevelopment Commission for $455,000 to pay for Internet upgrades at Custer Baker Intermediate School and 760 Chromebooks for all students at both the intermediate school and the middle school.
25
Greenwood’s new aquatic center made enough money to cover the costs of staffing, concessions and utilities and had another $260,000 to invest in future projects and upgrades to the facility. In its first summer, Freedom Springs Greenwood Aquatics Park took in nearly $730,000 in admissions, concessions and season pass sales.
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Work on a new Goodwill distribution center and outlet store was stopped after the company doing construction cut down more trees than had been promised in plans for the new facility. City officials said construction must stop until the city and company agreed to a new plan.
28
Local school districts were offering teachers raises between $300 and $3,000 in the current year. School officials and teachers unions were negotiating contracts for more than 1,500 teachers since this summer. Four districts’ contracts had been approved, and two more — Center Grove and Edinburgh — were expected to be finalized within the next month.
29
Greenwood would not collect about $300,000 for new parks and trails after a fee on new development was allowed to expire. The city’s park impact fee, which is charged on every new single-family home, was not renewed when a five-year plan on how to spend the money expired.
Franklin city officials were considering a new tax increment-financing district that would collect property tax dollars from a new Meijer superstore and a new Kroger Marketplace store.
30
Several items, including coins, a bottle of cough syrup, a GPS device, a digital camera, a credit card, a cellphone and a pack of cigarettes were stolen from 10 vehicles in White River Township overnight. Residents on Old Smith Valley Road, Welton Street, Hiatt Avenue and Turfway
