Interesting & Sometimes Amazing Facts
It is amazing at how busy and the number of projects each of our City departments handle in the course of a year!
It’s hard to imagine…..BUT we SERVE
64,918 residents 25,212 households
4,544 under the age of 5 9,608 over age 65
12,010 between the ages of 5 & 18 4,100 veterans
38,756 between ages 18 & 65 Over 27.91 square miles
WOW
LEAF, LIMB & MULCH
Do you know if you live within the city limits and take a current copy of your sanitation bill you can do any of the following for FREE at the Waste Management facility adjacent to Fire Station 92 on Fry Road: Drop off limbs/ leaves or get free mulch loaded on your pickup or your trailer.
CITY DEPARTMENTS
AVIATION
Indy South Greenwood Airport (HFY) hosts two flight schools, aircraft rental service and an aircraft maintenance facility that provides 24-hour customer service. The airport’s proximity to both I 65 and downtown Indy gives us an advantage in luring pilots to our airport. Our average number of operations (landings and takeoffs) is over 35,000 per year.
We have an EAA Young Eagles chapter that offers free aircraft rides for kids ages 8-17.
A new AERONAUTICAL CENTER OF TECHNOLOGY (ACT) has recently been created and is located in a hanger on the north end of the airport. ACT is working with several local high schools to encourage students to pursue an aviation related career. The students will actually spend classroom and lab time (constructing an airplane) at the airport.
FLIGHT SIMULATOR
The ACT program wants to expand their training to include a flight simulator. A GoFundMe account has been set up by members of the local EAA chapter. This simulator will not only offer hands-on training for the ACT students but will also be of value to pilots satisfying annual requirements in order to keep their certifications. Several companies have expressed interest in using the simulator for pilots in their company. At this point, $2,000 has already been donated and another $6000.00 is needed in order to make the view look as realistic as possible.
Several pilots donate their time and fuel to fly patients to destinations for medical treatment or assist animals in getting from shelters to a new adoptive home that may be several hundred miles away. I’ve been at the airport when a plane arrived with an animal and handed the pet off to another pilot for the next leg of the journal to their new home. The animals are usually calm and seem to understand this is a good thing!
CODE ENFORCEMENT
What are some of the things Code Enforcement does? They handle issues related to public safety, e.g. refrigerators sitting outside with doors attached (danger to children & pets) a large bush at an intersection blocking ability to see traffic, a dead tree on private property leaning towards the street or an adjacent structure. They work closely with other departments to ensure follow-up on issues that overlap such as easement problems, illegal street parking, etc.
Code has a small staff of 2 seasonal officers and 3 full time officers. In 2022, they worked 3,455 reports up from 3,363 in 2021. The following is a breakdown of the cases handled: Nuisance 1620 and Property Maintenance 1341 (includes high grass/weeds, trash, recreational vehicles, fences, dead trees etc.) These two categories tend to have the majority especially during growing season. Other categories includes: Furniture & Appliances stored outside 303, Junk Vehicles 130 and referrals to other departments 217.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (CDS)
CDS is the integration of the Building, Engineering, Planning Divisions and Board of Zoning Appeals. All the divisions work together to help property developers, business owners, contractors and citizens develop the Greenwood area. CDS also handles the sign permitting process.
Planning has released a new RFP for a new Comprehensive Plan in 2023.
In 2022, total project value for commercial and residential: $283,815,626.97
Total Building Permits issued: 821
Total Square Footage added: 2,701,582
New Single-Family Residential Homes: 224
CDS received a total of 133 Planning Petition Applications
Of the 133 petitions 30 were either Residential or Commercial/Industrial site plans, the rest consisted of primary and secondary plats, commitment modifications, annexations, plat vacations, zone map changes, variances, etc.
A total of 362 acres were voluntarily annexed into the City of Greenwood in 2022.
Planning also updated some of their forms.
Other accomplishments in 2022 were:
Worthsville Road Phase 2, total construction cost – $9.6 million – Est Completion Summer 2023.
Stop 18 Improvements – Total Construction Cost – $359,897
2022 Annual Paving Program – Total Construction Cost – $1,323,871
2021 Community Crossings Matching Grant (CCMG) Paving Program – Total Construction Cost $1,090,215 (Split 50/50 with State of Indiana (Greenwood’s Share $545,108
Asset Management Plan Update and 5-Year Maintenance Plan Update completed. This asset management plan assesses the condition of pavement throughout the City and outlines a recommended 5-year maintenance plan to maintain or improve City’s pavement condition.
School Zone Safety Improvements – Total project cost $588,716 of which Greenwood had a 90%/10% split with the state. Fourteen schools received improvements (including Greenwood, Clark-Pleasant, Center Grove and Private Schools) All fourteen received school zone flashing beacons and improved school zone static signage. (School zone flashing beacons are remotely programmable to specific times of day, and help to improve driver compliance with school zone speed limits.
Smith Valley Road & Averitt Road Roundabout successfully funded through the Indianapolis MPO – Estimated Construction – $2,010,000. Currently in the design process – planned for construction in 2024. Funded through the federal aid process with construction cost covered at 80%
A roundabout at Averitt Road and Woodmen Boulevart (Greenwood High School Entrance) – is under design
Worthsville Road Section 1– Will improve Stones Crossing Road from Honey Creek Road to SR 135. First Phase of the Worthsville Road Corridor Project that has taken 10+ years to complete.
FINANCE
The Finance Department provides financial reports that are updated daily on the City’s website – www.greenwood.in.gov. This transparency is intended to let our citizens ensure that their tax dollars are being used appropriately and efficiently at all times.
The Finance Department is responsible for payroll (736 full-time, part-time and seasonal employees in 2022), accounts payable, accounts receivable, and utility billing/collection. We offer multiple ways to pay bills or contact someone for assistance. These are all listed on the website as well.
They continue to present a balanced operating budget to the City Council each year and maintain cash reserves to ensure the City can adapt to any situation that may arise. While some communities struggled during the COVID pandemic and delayed property tax payments, Greenwood was able to meet all of its obligations without delay or needing operating loans. Responsible financial management keeps our tax rates low while ensuring our citizens get the best services possible. As financial conditions change, Greenwood’s Finance Department is constantly reviewing and assessing what we need to ensure long-term stability for our residents.
FIRE
Effective January 1, 2019, our Fire Department has increased to a Class 2 rating from the Insurance Services Offices (ISO). ISO is an independent agency that evaluates the Fire Department. Our former rating was Class 4. Our residential and business community saw a slight decrease in premiums at renewal time.
Average Turnaround Time – total time from notification to the point of response
2018 – 1:29 minutes 2022 – 1:13 minutes
Responded to documented cardiac arrest – Average Response Time on Scene 4:37 minutes
In 2018 – 6,719 total responses of these 5,509 EMS related, 1,210 Fire related
In 2022 – 8,828 total responses of these 6,886 EMS related (w/95 cardiac arrest), 1,942 Fire related
Performed 846 Fire Inspections Total number of Fire Investigations – 19
Total Fire Loss for 2022 = $1,139,103.00 or 12.62 of total value
Fire has a new ladder truck on order. The new ladder unit will require a chauffer to maneuver the rear of the vehicle. You may have seen them out learning skills to maneuver the new ladder truck.
FLEET MANAGEMENT
Fleet Maintenance performs inspections, routine/preventative maintenance and repairs on over 325 vehicles and pieces of equipment for used by our staff. The technicians serve on 24 hour call for Police, Fire, Street and Sanitation or any other department that may need to work late hours or have an afterhours emergency. The Fleet Superintendent (FS) also assists the other departments in evaluating their vehicles and equipment along with the acquisition and disposal of City vehicles and equipment. The FS also handles all vehicle insurance claims for the City of Greenwood.
HUMAN RESOURCES (HR)
HR keeps our departments staffed. This summer alone Freedom Springs is looking to hire 80 Lifeguards and 60 Concessions personnel. Parks Maintenance is looking to hire 31 temporary Grounds Workers. Parks is looking to hire 25 Summer Camp Counselors and a plethora of other positions to keep Parks programs running. We must do drug testing which if done by a testing facility charges $46.50 per drug test, a $25 on-site collection testing fee plus a $15 fee assessed for outside collection sites per test.
Several years ago, the HR Director suggested becoming certified to perform testing in order to save the City money, which has proved very successful. By having HR staff collect saliva for rapid result pre-employment testing the cost is only $23. per test with NO administrative fee. Cost if pre-employment testing is done by outside provided based on 220 applicants $10,230. Cost done by HR certified staff $5,060…..SAVINGS $5,170. !!!! In comparison the savings amounted to $3,105.00 in 2018.
HR Director is also certified as the designee for FMCSA urine drug and alcohol test collection. Quarterly random urine drug testing and saliva alcohol testing for public safety, airport, CDL drivers, and safety sensitive positions is also completed by HR. Cost for the TPA would be $46.50 per drug test and $30 per alcohol test. HR supply cost required for staff performing test is $23 per drug and $15 per alcohol test.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT)
All of the city’s fiber backbone has been converted from 16G to 10 GB. We have a total of 60 wireless access points throughout our city to give citizens free Wi-Fi. Presently, we have 300 cameras throughout the City. We will soon be adding 47 cameras to the Fieldhouse Parking Garage and 15 more at the Airport for better coverage. We hope to soon be adding over 60 cameras to the Sports Park being built by I65 & Worthsville Road. These new cameras, along with the Parking Garage and Training Center at Airport will all be on the new Avigilon camera system which has build in analytics and has Artificial Intelligence (AI) features. Eventually, it will allow us to search for people on cameras for added security. Center Grove already has this system in place and it’s working great. Greenwood & Clark Pleasant schools are moving to this platform as well. It’s my understanding, this system would allow first responders to have visual images available from inside the building even before arriving onsite. It’s our prayer that we would never need to use this capability but it would be available if needed!
IT will soon be replacing some Comcast & Metronet connections with Verizon 5G . The monthly cost for Verizon is only $50, while the existing expenses range from $130 to $350 a month. The City’s has migrated our email to the cloud with Microsoft.
LEGAL
Our Legal Department provides in-house legal services and representation to the Mayor, the city’s executive departments, Common Council, Clerk’s office and all 11 of our city boards and commissions. Legal reviews all contracts, assists in drafting city ordinances and resolutions, drafting or reviewing internal city policies and procedures, plus representation of city and/or officials in legal matters. Our legal team helps collect outstanding fees such as overdue sanitation bills or establishing liens on property as a result of unpaid fees due to mowing high grass/weeds or other work required by one of our city departments.
In 2022, our legal team wrote 40 Ordinances, 28 Resolutions, 7 new Tax Abatements. Legal prepared 9 Resolutions for Board of Public Works, 16 for Board of Public Works, 16 for the Redevelopment Commission and 2 Resolutions for the Parks Department.
Attorneys and staff combined attended a total of over 150 public meetings each year from 2019- 2022. On average the department prepares 5-10 contracts a week.
PARKS & RECREATION
Do you remember the old pool suffering a deficit each year in the range of $80,000 annually mostly due to loss of water and the need to increase the amount of chemicals purchased annually, In 2018 Freedom Springs surpassed $1 million in annual revenue welcoming over 108,000 visitors. Also 2018 was the third consecutive year of record attendance. In 2018, a new “drop slide” feature was added! Freedom Springs has continued to surpass the prior year’s attendance with 110 thousand visitors in 2022. The Community Center had a transformation and is now home to Kid City. Attendance is up at the Center with 21,016 children having the time of their life. This attendance does not include adults visitors since they do not pay. Check it out with your child…Day passes are available!
Parks also coordinates the Amphitheater Summer Park Series early June through mid-August at 7:00 p.m. The series is free to the public with a different band each Saturday night.
Our Parks Department was in high gear these last few years. During the last four years, the skateboard facility at Northeast Park was totally replaced with a new surface and many new and challenging features. Quotes for an upgrade were in process when a group of skaters approached the city due to the lack of maintenance. The Parks Director and skaters worked together creating a totally new concept that’s now a reality! A Loop Trail was completed.
Old City Park is now a highlight in the downtown area sporting a 20 foot cube tower as the focal point, a new restroom, refurbished shelter, bocce ball court and many other great features.
The former middle school girl’s gym has been transformed into a new Fieldhouse. Much of the exterior of the gym along with a section of the basketball court from the boy’s gym still exists. A long awaited new ball field with 8 diamonds, a concession stand and splash pad are under construction near Worthsville Road & I 65 (completion expected in 2024).
As you can tell Parks is on the move with so many new and great programs while continuing with the established favorites. You can go online to the Parks section and check out their upcoming activities and events.
POLICE
The Greenwood Police Department coordinates the effort of various Neighborhood Crime Watch groups throughout the city. In essence, it could be a neighbor in a Crime Watch area that alerts the Police to something appearing suspicious….as the neighborhood may spot something appearing odd more quickly than an officer on patrol. Residents tend to know more about each other/neighbors and have potential of alerting the police prior to an illegal activity taking place. The Police would much rather be called and check a situation rather than getting a call and the victim or neighbor supply information indicating there were signs of concern beforehand.
In 2017, our officers responded to 31,092 calls, averaging 85 per day! A total of 3,013 people were arrested and of that, 60% resided outside of Greenwood. Our officers wrote a total of 6,645 citations. Lastly, there were 2,408 reported accidents in 2018.
In 2022, officers responded to 30,152 calls, averaging 83 per day. A total of 3602 people were arrested and consistently remains right around 60% that live outside Greenwood. Our officers wrote 3,602 citations. There were 1,571 accidents. There were 14,116 warnings issued.
Our officers purchased a bicycle for a child who had his stolen, raised money for a family displaced by a fire at Christmas time. They also partnered with The Social of Greenwood for a food drive.
SANITATION
Our Sanitary sewer system maintains nearly 600+ miles of pipe in the ground, ranging from 6” to 60” in diameter. The total average daily wastewater discharged to Citizens Energy Group in Indianapolis for 2022 was 9.98 Million Gallons Day or 3.64 Billion Gallons Year.
The city’s 2022 Sanitary sewer rehabilitation project is currently active, the project consisting of pipe lining, replacement of cracked and broken pipe and manhole reconstruction. The project is part of the city’s ongoing CIP to reduce Infiltration & Inflow from entering the city’s sanitary system. Project locations include Meridian Meadows, Stonegate Subdivision along with a few miscellaneous areas. Project cost per year is $1.5 M.
An issue of removing illicit connections to our sanitary sewer system continues to be a problem. Properties with downspout and/or sump pump discharge are not to attach either of these to the sanitary sewer system. It is very expensive to divert and drain stormwater type discharge into the sanitary sewer. This type of discharge does not need the expensive treatment that sewer contents require.
STREET DEPARTMENT
There is a map on the city’s website alerting you to the status of snow clearing “street by street”…..look under the Street Department on the city’s website.
We have approximately 224 miles of streets in one direction…so 2 lane x length of the street generates that many additional miles….and 4 lanes such as Emerson Avenue would be 4 lanes x length of the street. So it takes some calculating to figure the number of miles the Street Department clears of snow.
The Street Department Purchased 2,700 gals of paint. Of that 1300 were white. Our street department freshens the painted arrows, does street striping and a portion of the curbs each year. The street department keeps very busy each year with street sweeping 3-4 times in residential neighborhoods. Main roads are swept more frequently. Mow right of ways with four bush hog tractors, three zero turns and a walk behind mower. Weed eating has to be done from time to time.
Spot grinding, patching, paving and chuckhole patching keeps our city streets in good condition. They poured 232 yards of concrete, replaced 3,152 feet of sidewalk sections, 115 feet of curbing and installed three ADA ramps. ADA ramps are available, please call me if you need one in your area.
The Street Department also assists Waste Management run their leaf and limb pickup. Streets purchased another Grapple truck and were able to speed the limb pickup which meant the residents didn’t have to wait as long. They also assist with delivering barrels and cones for different city events throughout the year.
The Street Department is curious if you know of another city that runs a limb and leaf pickup the size of our operation plus has a tub grinder to allow their city to offer free mulch to their residents????
The Street Department would like to thank everyone for all the waves and thank you letters they get….especially during snow plowing season.
STORMWATER
The Stormwater Department manages the City’s stormwater utility, working to implement the Stormwater Management Program, protect critical infrastructure and improve the ecological health of our environment.
Our Stormwater system manages the runoff from rainfall. In nature, water flows from fields to streams to rivers and so on, but development has changed some of these natural flows. The stormwater system prevents flooding and limits pollutants flowing into streams and rivers.
In 2022, THEY COLLECTED 387.26 TONS OF DEBRIS FROM STREET SWEEPING!!!! Stormwater opened 310 service requests and closed 302. Opened 2260 work orders and closed 2,157. There were 47.99 tons of debris removed from stormwater pipes. Inspected (via CCTV) 8,214.72 feet of pipe which allowed jetting to be cut down to 4,630.41 feet.
They cleared 48 “hot spots” 873 times around the city. (Hot Spots are inlets highly susceptible of being obstructed, causing localized flooding). These are typically cleared before and during heavy rains. They contained 29 illicit discharge events. Typically hydraulic fluid breaks, sanitary line breaks/overflows, vehicle leaks, dumping of inorganic materials (chemicals, oil, paints, soap), concrete washout.
They conducted 491 Stormwater Management Permit inspections (commercial construction), conducted 1,532 Erosion and Sediment Control Inspections (residential lot construction), located 25,523 utility lines to prevent damage and contributed $10,586.00 to Public Private Partnerships (Pond improvements @ Clearbrook Village and Oldefield Estates, Educated 20,040+ people on importance of going green (newsletter, annual training, events and social media), finished construction on Nature Center, ready to hold programs in 2023 and lastly completed Honey Creek Bridge.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
As a result of our community participating in curbside recycling, we have reduced the amount of trash being taken to the landfill. Which in essence….helps us keep our trash, recycling, leaf & limb lower. Our curbside recycling pickup up 1,983.19 tons in 2017 and 2,167.25 tons in 2018 for an increase of 184.06 tons or 9%. Our curbside recycling increased to 2,441.55 tons in 2020, decreased to 2,117.93 in 2021 and decreased more in 2022 to 2,026.55. These decreases definitely can have an impact on what the scavenger service quotes us for removal if our trash tonnage increases.
Our trash tonnage in 2021 was 19,772.12 and in 2022 was 18,427.17. I’m not sure if this is because more people were eating out after the COVID restrictions were down as our recycling numbers did not increase as you might have thought. In addition, many residents look forward to the “Heavy Trash Pickup the last week of each month. It offers our community the opportunity to get rid of worn out or broken items therefore we don’t have the accumulation of “stuff” in our garages, yards or along the back or sides of our garages. Never the less….THANK YOU FOR YOUR RECYCLING EFFORTS…..IT DOES HELP US TO HAVE SMALLER INCREASES AS WE MOVE FORWARD IN EXTENDING CONTRACTS!
Don’t forget about the Waste Management for limb drop off: Located adjacent to Fire Station 91 is open from March 2, 2023 till December 2, 2023. The hours are Mon – Fri 10:00 – 2:00 and Saturday 8:00 – 4:00. Service is FREE – Just remember to take a recent copy of your Sanitation bill.
LOCAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Last but not least…..Did you realize that our local chamber of commerce, Aspire Johnson County, and the City of Greenwood have worked hand-in-hand on several projects to sustain and grow jobs in the city? The relationship between the Chamber and the City is also important to the overall progress of each.
INTEGRITY MATTERS even when it may not be the politically correct thing to do!
Proudly Paid for by The Committee to Re-Elect Linda Gibson