By Al Stilley
Editor

With Cummins Inc., coming to Greenwood with a futuristic hub for digital and information technology, it finally opens the door for development of problematic land at the southeast corner of I-65 and County Line Road.

Cummins Inc. CEO Tom Linebarger announced Thursday that the Columbus-based global company would build a $35 million facility at that site for expansion of its digital and information services internally and for customers.

Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said that the hub would have 500 employees with an average salary of $100,000 per employee.

Myers and Greater Greenwood Chamber of Commerce president Christian Maslowski agreed that it would spur immediate interest in an area that Cabela’s, GoodSports Enterprises Global and Gershman Partners/Indy Fuel publicly sought but backed out due to finances.

Maslowski emphasized that the area’s 100-plus acres is ripe for non-warehouse and non-retail growth.

“This will open up an area that is now primed for multiple types of development,” Maslowski said. “The big plus is that it provides diversity in land use and will benefit Greenwood tremendously.”

Cummins Inc. would occupy 31 acres of land for its expansion into Greenwood. Myers grinned and said that Greenwood becomes the “heart” of the “Cummins Corridor” on I-65 that includes facilities in Indianapolis, Columbus and Seymour.

The 100,000-square foot facility planned for Greenwood will house 500 employees with an average annual pay of $100,000.

“Getting a leading corporation to relocate into the Greenwood market, for us, is absolutely huge,” Myers said. “It also is a model for corporate-community partnerships.”

The partnership also includes a one-million-dollar grant from the City of Greenwood to Central Nine Career Center specifically to expand courses for high school students studying information technology and interactive media.

Outgoing Central Nine director Nicole Otte emphasized that in the future some graduates in those fields from Central Nine would be trained to be hired immediately by Cummins Inc.

Myers and Linebarger were among five speakers Thursday, including Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Indianapolis  Mayor Joe Hogsett, and Columbus Mayor Jim Linehoop. The announcement was made during Cummins Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Expansion in Columbus with its electrification program will enable Cummins to become an industry leader in electrified power trains to replace diesel power in city buses and delivery vehicles.

Greenwood would become the hub for more data and services through electronics to fix any issues on the road as well as developing new digital technology.

Linebarger praised the City of Greenwood and said, “Mayor Myers and his team did an outstanding job assuring us that Greenwood is the place to locate. Our intent is to be an asset to the community and be glad that we are a part of that community.”

Cummins would be able to expand the footprint at its Greenwood location in the future.
The company is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

By Al Stilley
Editor

“The world needs more beauty.”

With that stated belief, Beck Service Center co-owner Ben Stallings had been looking for an artist for several months when a chance meeting with an artist from New Orleans in January took place.

Young mural artist Henry Lipkis spotted a used Honda Civic online at a Southside car lot and had also looked up a vehicle service shop online that could look it over. He stopped by Beck Service Center at 6025 Madison Avenue and began talking with Stallings.

“The car needed some work which we did, but he was an artist and I looked at some of his work online,” Stallings said. ‘It turned out; he was the right guy after all.”

Lipkis returned to New Orleans for his busiest time of the year, Mardi Gras, and made the return trek to the Southside in early May.

“I sent him (Lipkis) an estimate by e-mail that we agreed upon,” Stallings recalled. “I had wanted something done to those walls that added beauty.”

Lipkis returned earlier this month with his truck, variety of paints, spray paint-gun and compressor.

He painted the two north walls on the commercial business center at the corner of Edgewood and Madison avenues and paid homage to Indiana’s vast farmlands that are the heart of Hoosierland.

It took him more than a week to paint the two walls that are 18 feet high and 60 and 130 feet wide. The colorful walls are visible to motorists and passers-by who are east- or west-bound on Edgewood Avenue.

Previously the one wall had a few small paintings, but Stallings wanted a mural that would stand out and add beauty to the northside of the building that houses The Toy Drop, Subway and Beck Service Center.

Thanks to a chance meeting between a New Orleans artist and a Southside business owner, two exterior walls of a Southside business center are now  attracting attention of motorists and passers-by at the southeast corner of Edgewood and Madison avenues.

Lipkis said he wanted to be an artist in high school and later studied illustration.  He specializes in acrylic and spray artwork, and paint on canvas.

“It was somewhat challenging because of the weather,” Lipkis said. “It took a little bit longer than I had planned, but I think everyone will appreciate it.”

He has collaborated with several groups in the 9th Ward and Mardi Gras Indians to for many cultural  illustrations and wall murals.