1. A Whiteland family knows all
too well the loss suffered by the
parents, siblings and loved ones of
Pfc. James A. Waters.
Lloyd Proctor lost his son, Staff
Sgt. Joseph E. “Joey” Proctor, in
May 2006 when a truck filled with
explosives detonated, killing him,
while he was serving in Iraq.
Proctor doesn’t know the family
of Waters, 21, a 2008 Whiteland
Community High School graduate
who was killed Friday when a
bomb exploded in Kandahar,
Afghanistan. Waters’ family now
A
Center Grove area resident experiments
with different ways to drive across
Greenwood so he doesn’t get stuck in
traffic.
While running errands, Brian Smith some-
times has to idle amid the throng of vehicles
where U.S. 31, Smith Valley Road, Madison
Avenue and Meridian Street converge in
Greenwood. But he tries to avoid
that area when he can because
he believes it has some of the
worst congestion in the city.
He’s right.
An Indianapolis Metropolitan
Planning Organization study
found that drivers face the lon-
gest backups during the morning commute at
the Main Street interchange of I-65 and where
Smith Valley Road intersects with U.S. 31 and, a
few hundred feet away, with Madison Avenue.
More and more people have been using roads
that haven’t been widened or improved to deal
with the heavier traffic in years, Greenwood
planning director Ed Ferguson said.
Those two Greenwood areas rank as the most
congested in Johnson County and south of
Interstate 465, according to the planning organi-
zation’s study. About 34,400 vehicles a day get on
or off the interstate at Main Street, while about
47,000 vehicles daily pass through the intersec-
tion of Smith Valley Road and U.S. 31.
Mike Heffner, who owns Express Employment
Professionals located at that intersection, said
the congestion is worst when people come home
from work. A line of westbound cars often backs
up past Craig Park on Smith Valley Road, since
FEVER-STORM
Woods won’t play in British Open B1Find which team won at Conseco W d ’t l i B iti h OO B1
TIGERSTILLRECOVERING
WNBA B1
Radio host
humbled by
honors B1
WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2011 75 centsJohnson County, Indiana
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DAILY JOURNAL
Classifieds....................B6-B8
Comics...............................B5
Editorials............................A4
Obituaries..........................A5
Police,fire.............................A3
Sports............................B1-B4
Southside............................A3
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INDEX
WEATHER
Today
Skies: Partly cloudy
Temps: High 89; low 67
MAP, PAGE A8
Greenwood
Helen C. Mellen, 86
Larry S. Williams Morgan, 62
Morgantown
Dwight Douglas Scott, 46
Elsewhere
Richard N. “Dick” Holman, 71
Robert G. Lain, 82
Anna L. Steenberger, 77
Robert Eugene Taylor, 70
DEATHS
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‘Part of something bigger’
Team mourns fallen Warrior
While much of Johnson
County celebrated America’s
freedom with an extended
Fourth of July holiday, a tight-
knit group of friends and family
in the Whiteland school com-
munity was grieving over its
price.
Word about Friday’s death of
Pfc. James A. Waters, a 2008
Whiteland Community High
School graduate, while in battle
in Afghanistan spread quickly,
bringing a somber and poi-
gnant tone to an otherwise fes-
tive time.
“I think it puts everything in
(SEE TEAM, PAGE A5) (SEE FAMILY, PAGE A5)
Builder
says
lawsuit
settled
Allen: Loans on
southside project
being reworked
A Greenwood home builder says
he has made an agreement with
the bank that
filed a foreclo-
s u re l aws u i t
against him for
not paying back
more than $14
million.
M & I B a n k
filed a civil law-
s u i t a g a i n s t
builder and com-
mercial developer Greg Allen
after he failed to repay two loans
for $9 million and $5.5 million that
he borrowed in 2008.
The loans were to develop a
more than 60-acre piece of prop-
erty at the northeast corner of
Emerson Avenue and County Line
Road on the southside. The site is
planned as a mixed-use develop-
ment, which will include restau-
rants, retail shops and medical
office buildings, and development
there continues, Allen said.
Allen said the lawsuit is expect-
ed to be dismissed soon because
he has worked out a payment
arrangement with the bank.
Cynthia Reese, an attorney for
the bank, declined to comment on
the lawsuit. A bank spokeswoman
was unavailable Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed in Marion
County Superior Court in late
June.
According to the lawsuit, Allen
owed the full $9 million on one
loan, plus $291,812 in interest and
$3,874 in late fees. He also owed
$3.8 million of the $5.5 million
loan, plus $32,064 in interest and
$1,065 in late fees.
Allen said the lawsuit stemmed
from financial difficulties in
recent years. He has filed a civil
lawsuit against two former
employees, claiming they took
nearly $1 million and possibly
more.
He recently ceased operations
on his two home-building compa-
nies, Princeton Homes and J.
Greg Allen Builder, because of the
same issues. But work continues
in his commercial development
C-P students to learn life skills in unique classroom
Students will learn to cook meals
for themselves on the Clark-Pleasant
Middle School classroom’s oven.
They’ll use a washer and dryer
and practice measuring soap and
doing their own laundry. They’ll have
to vacuum and dust, too.
The new school’s essential skills
room is being designed as an apart-
ment to teach seventh- and eighth-
grade special needs students how to
cook, clean and master tasks they’ll
need to live independently one day,
teacher Terri Widener said.
Whiteland Community High School
has a similar room with a kitchen and
laundry facilities, but it does not have
a living area. Widener knows her stu-
dents will get to practice life skills
once they get to high school, but she
doesn’t want them to wait that long.
Special needs students need to prac-
tice washing dishes, cleaning mirrors
and measuring flour and sugar over
and over again before they can
remember how to do them, she said.
“The more practice they have, the
better off they’ll be and the more
confidence they’ll have in their abili-
ties,” she said.
Widener spends at least five class
periods a day working with about 10
moderately and severely handi-
capped middle-schoolers. She teach-
es them math, reading and writing,
but her goal is for them to learn
practical lessons that will help them
become independent.
In her class, students learn how to
brush their teeth, comb their hair,
dress themselves and tie their
shoes. They learn how to form
friendships and talk to other teens.
Widener works with them on every-
day math skills, such as counting
money, telling time and measuring
with a ruler. They collect recycla-
bles for the school and take trips to
the grocery store to practice what
they learned.
She has wanted to teach them how
to cook, clean and do laundry in
preparation for what they’ll learn at
the high school. But her classroom
(SEE SKILLS, BACK PAGE)
(SEE LAWSUIT, PAGE A6)
Increasing commuter vehicles in Greenwood leads to life in the ...
SLOW LANE
Traffic comes to crawl at key city points
(SEE TRAFFIC, BACK PAGE)
Some delays
Significant delays
Severe delays
Traffic congestions
STORY BY
JOSEPH S. PETE
PHOTOS BY
SCOTT
ROBERSON
Proctor family reaches out
BY ANNIE GOELLER
DAILY JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
agoeller@dailyjournal.net
BY BOB JOHNSON
DAILY JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT
TIGHT SPOTS
Here are the intersections in
Johnson County that a plan-
ning study identified as having
the worst congestion:
Significant delays
• Main Street exit to Interstate
65 in Greenwood
•Where Smith Valley Road
intersects with U.S. 31 and
Madison Avenue in
Greenwood
Some delays
• State Road 135 and County
Line Road
• State Road 135 and Olive
Branch Road
• U.S. 31 and County Line
Road
• U.S. 31 and Madison
Avenue
• U.S. 31 and Whiteland Road
• Emerson Avenue and Main
Street in Greenwood
• Emerson Avenue and
Worthsville Road in
Greenwood
BY BETHANY TABB
DAILY JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
btabb@dailyjournal.net
“The more
practice they
have, the better
off they’ll be and
the more
confidence they’ll
have in their
abilities.”
Terri Widener
Clark-Pleasant Middle
School teacher on
special needs students
BY ANNIE GOELLER
DAILY JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
agoeller@dailyjournal.net
ALLEN
AT A GLANCE
Family members are
planning a funeral for Pfc.
James A. Waters, 21,
who was killed Friday
while serving in
Afghanistan.
They are finalizing the
date but expect the funer-
al to be at Whiteland
Community High School,
where Waters graduated
in 2008, family spokes-
man Steve Swails said.WATERS
Madison
Avenue,
Smith
Valley Road
and U.S. 31
Main
Street and
I-65
U.S. 31 and
Stop 11 Road
Emerson
Avenue and
Southport
Road
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WEB EXTRAS
County
Average
commute
time in 2009
Average
commute time
in 2010
Boone County 23.1 minutes 23 minutes
Hamilton County 25 minutes 25.3 minutes
Hancock County 27.4 minutes 25.9 minutes
Hendricks County 25.8 minutes 25.6 minutes
Johnson County 25.2 minutes 24.7 minutes
Marion County 22.1 minutes 23 minutes
Morgan County 28.6 minutes 28.3 minutes
Shelby County 23.8 minutes 21.8 minutes
HOW LONG IS YOUR COMMUTE?
Here’s a look at the average one-way commute times for
Indianapolis and surrounding counties: