Honda plans taking shape

Adam Huening

July 04, 2006 11:12 am

— Forget Lola. Decatur County is changing the words to a the tune - “Whatever Honda wants, Honda gets” - and that’s how it went at the Monday meeting of the Decatur County Commissioners.
Before hearing from Joseph Scimia of Bakers and Daniels, LLC, the firm that represents Honda, the Board made appointments to their newly formed Redevelopment Commission to handle the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) district that is being created in the county. The Commissioners selected five members of the community to serve the state-law mandated one-year term limit on the Commission. Don Schilling; Mark Schabel; Brad Buening; Dan Wilson and Mike Walker will all serve on the Board until Dec. 31, 2007, at which time new members will need to be appointed by the Commissioners. The next step is all business.
“Great, we’ve got the people in place so we can get to work,” Board president Jerome Buening said.
The Board will assemble sometime later this month and meet with Rick Hall, an attorney for Barnes and Thornburg, LLP, who has been hired to assist the Redevelopment Commission in its initial stages.
With a TIF district most likely to center around the Honda site in the works, Scimia brought a petition before the Board to further define the area that will be the new home of its massive assembly plant. Scimia, speaking on behalf of Honda, was asking the Commissioners for a road vacation on County Roads 350 West, 300 North and 320 North on the north side of the property. In regards to 350 and 320, Scimia wants a complete abandonment of these roads since they cut through the property and will lack purpose.
“One runs along the Conrail line and it doesn’t really go anywhere,” Scimia said.
Scimia noted these two roads interfere with conceptual plans. One of the roads dead ends on the property and the other would cut very near to one of the six proposed lakes. He also noted they are rough gravel roads, have a couple of bridges that would need replaced. Instead, his clients feel it would be better to abandon these roads than to keep them.
However, 300 North is a different story. It is the main road to the town of Adams from U.S. Highway 421 but cuts straight through the Honda site. Scimia explained Honda is planning to use this road as the main entrance from 421 to its new facility and the old road will be re-routed. In their plans, 300 North would exit 421 along the north edge of the site, go around Highpoint Orchard, which was not purchased by the automaker, and run along the backside of the north property line where it will reconnect to the existing road on the way to Adams. Scimia noted the there is an alternate route for the people of Adams via County Road 450 West, which connects County Road 240 Northwest and Vandalia Road but his clients understand the impact of this request.
“We understand the issue with 300 North because it is the main avenue people travel to Adams,” Scimia said. “We won’t close it until the new one connects to 421. The reason we are seeking this is to allow the project to develop as planned.”
Since Scimia and Honda have done all of the necessary work and assured the county it would make efforts to keep traffic running smoothly, the Commissioners agreed with the assessment and voted to allow the vacations to take place.
Scimia also caught the Commissioners up on the approval from Wednesday’s zoning and planning meetings. According to their conceptual plans, the Honda facility will have a massive production building, rail access, shipping yards, lakes, green buffer zones, three U.S. 421 access entrances and a short test track.
“Every car that comes off the assembly line is given a test run on the track,” Scimia explained.
The Commissioners thanked Scimia for the short presentation before he left. As soon as the locks on Scimia’s case clicked shut, the Commissioner’s Room, which was full of interested citizens, cleared out. There was only one item left on the agenda, and like Captain and Tennile trying to follow the Rolling Stones, Michael Curran of Pitney and Bowes Co., stepped to the Commissioner’s table.
Curran presented a potentially-beneficial proposal involving the way the county sorts and sends out its mail. According to Curran, the county could save two cents per piece of mail on postage by allowing his company to disperse it from a central location. The Commissioners seemed intrigued by the proposal but wanted further information. Curran agreed to crunch some numbers and survey staff to give them an idea of the true savings.
“You have our blessings, just get back with us,” member Charles Buell said.
In addition, Buening read a letter from the Department of the Interior. After much research and work by County Prosecutor Bill Smith and Melanie Maxwell of the Decatur County Tourism Department, the Decatur County Courthouse was accepted on the national registry of the Underground Railroad Network of Freedom. All the Commissioners offered their appreciation for the efforts and expressed their happiness the building has some more recognition for its historical significance.
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