The week before Christmas, we asked the Brown County Democrat’s Facebook readers and fellow newspaper staff members what they considered to be the biggest stories of 2018 — however they wanted to define “biggest.” These are the 10 topics that ranked the highest:
1. The drug crisis
Brown County lost three more people to drug overdoses last year as the community continued to work to fight addiction.
The first fatal overdose of 2018 was in January when a 35-year-old man was found dead in bed, having accidentally overdosed on fentanyl.
In May, a 64-year-old man was found in his Nashville apartment by a friend. He had died of an accidental overdose of multiple medications.
In August, a 24-year-old Brown County man was found unresponsive in bed by a family member. He died of a heroin overdose.
Early this year, The Democrat began a series highlighting this issue titled “Addicted and Dying.” We talked with parents who lost their child to an overdose, grandparents raising their grandchildren due to addiction, churches who have chosen to minister to people affected by drugs, former addicts who now spend time counseling others in jail and in the community, and people involved with the court system who see all these stories play out.
Opioid addiction was also an issue this election year, with candidates for judge and prosecutor discussing the impact on the community along with ways to help prevent it from getting worse, like establishing a drug court here.
Around the one-year anniversary of losing their son, Caleb, to an overdose, local couple Cory and Michelle Joy hosted Hope Fest at the Brown County home where Caleb died. The couple is working with the board of Do Something Inc. to start a Launch House there, which would be a hub of resources for anyone needing help to overcome an addiction.
2. Broadband expansion
Brown County took a leap into the 21st century in 2018 as two more companies announced they were bringing high-speed internet here.
SCI-REMC and Jackson County REMC both took advantage of local government incentives to extend broadband service to their electric customers in Brown County.
In March, the county commissioners and county council passed a measure that gives business personal property tax exemptions to companies that build that infrastructure here, and that offer made an impact on both rural electric companies’ decisions to bring high-speed internet to this county.
Phase 1 customers were to have service starting sometime in early 2019, SCI-REMC said in July.
Local company Mainstream Fiber also is continuing to extend broadband service; it was the first company to do so in Brown County in the early 2010s when it built Brown County Schools’ network. Earlier this month, Mainstream announced it was expanding service to Lake LaSalle, Hoover Road and part of State Road 46 West.
A local man is now leading the deployment of broadband statewide. Scott Rudd, the former Nashville town manager/economic development director, was hired in August for this new job in the lieutenant governor’s cabinet. He had led a Brown County broadband task force for several years.
3. Maple Leaf project progresses
The doors are set to open at the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center this year. Starting in late summer, it will host musical performances by local and national acts of different genres, including country and rock.
Plans to build the 2,000-seat, government-owned music venue were first announced in June 2017. Late in 2017, the purchase of the land was finalized. The county took out a $12.5 million loan to do it all.
In July, ground was broken in the field near the Brown County YMCA. Walls have risen throughout the fall and winter.
The venue will contract with Live Nation to book 26 major shows a year. In November, Dana Beth Evans was hired as the executive director, and she will be responsible for filling out the rest of the calendar with acts.
Some residents scrutinized the way the project came about, including a former member of the Maple Leaf Building Corporation. In April, Bill Austin resigned from the board, and in an interview with The Democrat, brought up some concerns about transparency.
The Maple Leaf Management Group now meets almost every Tuesday in committees or as a board to discuss the project and take votes. The building corporation does not have a set schedule; it meets publicly as needed.
One of the main concerns residents have had about the project is how it is being funded. The innkeepers tax, which is paying back the loan if concerts don’t make enough to do so, also funds the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. The CVB promotes tourism throughout the region.
In December, the Brown County Convention and Visitors Commission approved a new contract with the CVB, guaranteeing it $712,500 annually for the next five years. If any of that is spent on the Maple Leaf, the CVB will be reimbursed from the venue’s excess revenue.
4. Andy Rogers dies
Nashville’s business community lost its patriarch over the summer. Frank “Andy” Rogers, owner of landmarks such as the Nashville House, the Professional Building and several historic buildings downtown, died on July 19 at age 87.
Rogers’ impact on Brown County was far-reaching. He was perhaps best known as the owner of the Nashville House restaurant. Rogers also built the Brown County Ramada Inn, now known as The Seasons Lodge and Conference Center, then rebuilt it after half of the rooms burned in January 2007. He also owned the Brown County Inn until selling it a couple years ago.
In the 1960s, he also leased and managed the Abe Martin Lodge in Brown County State Park. In the 1970s, he bought and remodeled the Old Hickory Inn on Van Buren Street and reopened it as The Ordinary restaurant and tavern.
He was a leading advocate for better access to health care, helping to money to bring a medical clinic to town. He also helped to bring Brown County Health & Living Community, the county’s first nursing home, to Nashville.
Throughout his nearly 60 years in the business community, he was president of the Nashville Town Council, Brown County Board of School Trustees, town water utility and Brown County Federal Savings and Loan Association; served on the Brown County Public Library Board, Area Plan Commission, the steering committee that made the Brown County YMCA a reality, and the state board of tourism; and took leadership roles with the Brown County Community Foundation, county election board, Brown County Partnership and Sycamore Land Trust.
Other contributions of his were known only as “anonymous.”
In 2011, Rogers received the county’s highest honor for volunteerism, the John D. Rudd Award.
“Andy saw the need, once the highway was put in, to get people here and get them to stay, and he put in the money and time,” said longtime friend “Buzz” King. “… All these hotels that are here … none of that would have happened as quick if he hadn’t taken the bull by the horns.”
“He kind of shaped the face and the look of Van Buren Street, and we have to be grateful for that,” added James T. Roberts. “Otherwise, we’d be just another southern Indiana town with a Jiffy Mart.”
5. Waste disposal talks continue
In the spring, residents and the Brown County Commissioners dismissed a new draft of the county’s septic system ordinance. It had been under development since 2015.
Since that packed March meeting, a new septic law committee has been put in place to gather more data and revise the ordinance. Until they finish their work, the arm of the county health department that deals with septic systems is operating under rules put in place more than 20 years ago.
Most Brown County homes and many businesses use individual septic systems to collect and treat their wastewater. Only three areas of the county, Nashville, Gnaw Bone and Helmsburg, have central sewage treatment systems.
Local economic development leaders have maintained that expanding sewer access is critical to keeping Brown County alive and thriving.
Another group, the Brown County Regional Sewage District board, has been making progress this year toward another long-running project: Getting sewers in the Bean Blossom area. Their work has been running parallel to the septic ordinance committee’s work, as gathering better data about where septic systems are, how well they are functioning and what the area’s needs may be in the future is at the foundation of both projects.
Answering “why” and “how” questions will be important to getting both projects going. Residents at the Bean Blossom sewer meetings and at the March septic ordinance meeting have been raising concerns about whether sewers are really needed, how septic systems are deemed to be failing, what happens when someone makes a complaint about wastewater disposal, and how much sewer service or a new septic system would cost them.
6. Nashville House closes
No more apple butter. No more fried biscuits. No more horehound candy from the Old Country Store.
In October, the doors closed on the 91-year-old Nashville House restaurant downtown.
The business passed into the hands of the five Rogers daughters after owner Andy Rogers’ death in July. On Oct. 17, Gina Sarah Rogers announced on the restaurant’s Facebook page that the Nashville House would close on Oct. 28. She called it “the end of an era and very heartbreaking” — echoing the words of many past patrons who also mourned its closure.
The original Nashville House was built just before the Civil War, in 1859, and served as a hostel and tavern. Jack Rogers, Andy’s father, bought it with a partner just after Christmas 1926. It also housed a gift shop, the Brown County Folks Shop.
On Sept. 24, 1943, all of the building but the fireplace and fire escape were destroyed in a fire. It was rebuilt and reopened in December 1947, and was rebranded as a restaurant and gathering place with a large lobby and massive fireplace. As tourism to the county grew, it was often out-of-towners who visited.
According to public records, the restaurant and country store have not changed hands since the closure was announced. The future of the building and business are still unknown.
7. Brownie’s closes
During Brown County’s busiest tourism month, it was announced that Brownie’s Bean Blossom Family Restaurant would be closing due to septic system problems.
About 16 years ago, Ed Brown and his late wife, Shirley, bought the restaurant and worked to transform it over the years it into the landmark it became.
It closed on Oct. 31. Brown chose to close rather than go on pump-and-haul or replace his septic system again. Sewer service isn’t yet an option in Bean Blossom.
The restaurant’s septic system was inspected on Oct. 11 and was found to be in “total failure”. Around 2013, the septic system also failed, and Brown — who is also a certified septic system installer — replaced it with a Presby system. But that system failed within the first year, he said.
Brown’s regular customers and staff were all shocked by the news that it would close.
Brown said he would sell if someone offered $350,000 to $400,000. However, he also said he would reopen if a sewer system is built that he can hook onto.
8. Matt Stark returns to BCHS
After five years away, Matt Stark returned home to the halls of Brown County High School. He became principal again over the summer.
Former BCHS Principal Shane Killinger changed jobs to serve as principal of Sprunica Elementary School, replacing Abbie Oliver, who took a job as principal of Pleasant Crossing Elementary School in the Clark-Pleasant School District.
Stark was hired right out of Purdue University to teach social studies at Brown County. He taught for 10 years before taking over as principal at the high school for another 10 years.
Stark had left BCHS to take another principal job at Urbana High School in Illinois.
“I am approaching coming back as principal not as, ‘We’re going to make it like it was in 2013,’ but really spend time learning from our students, learning from the staff, learning from families, learning about, ‘What is Brown County High School doing well? What are things we need to work on and improve?’” he said in July.
Stark said he planned to push students to advocate for themselves and their school. “My entire career I’ve believed in student voice. I want to find ways to formalize that more to students. I’m a big believer that this is their high school.”
9. New justice center talks continue
Discussions will pick back up again this year about the future of the Brown County courthouse and related offices.
The estimated price tag: $650,000 to $750,000 just to do work on the 144-year-old courthouse, such as making it compliant with the Americans with Disability Act; replacing doors, windows and fixing brick mortar; and repairing and restoring the outdoor stairway at the front of the building.
The group also recommended moving court offices out of the courthouse and other county-owned buildings into a new “justice center” that would go up next to the Law Enforcement Center on State Road 46 East. That would cost an estimated $6,750,000 to $7,250,000, not including “soft costs” like professional and financing fees, the group said.
Adapting the courthouse to a new use would be an additional cost.
The conversation about how to preserve and protect the historic courthouse, yet continue to put it to public use, has been going on among county leaders for at least nine years. Back in 2013, the county commissioners and county council sought to borrow up to $8.25 million to build a 17,400-square-foot addition to the courthouse, but taxpayers soundly defeated that proposal with a remonstrance.
Greater security has been the most pressing need in the current courthouse, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Starting in April, entrance was restricted to only one door, where a metal detector and a new security guard were placed. Ease of accessibility and overall space continue to be issues.
10. School district gets $500,000 grant to ready students for life
Over the summer, Brown County Schools received a $500,000 grant to make sure Brown County students are prepared to tackle life after graduation no matter the path they choose to take.
Plans for the money include implementing STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education at all grade levels, funding an Eagle Manufacturing center at the high school, and rebranding the Brown County Career Resource Center as an educational hub for everyone, not just adult students.
Christy Wrightsman was hired last summer as the district’s Regional Opportunity Initiative Ready Schools coordinator; she now serves as the director of the CRC.
Wrightsman and teams of community members and educators conducted 115 interviews with more than 130 local people to understand local issues they needed to address with an ROI grant.
The three “pillars” they came up with were: “The ready student”; innovative teaching and learning; and community and regional engagement.
“We recognize that one of our primary responsibilities is to positively impact the economic prosperity of our community and our region by graduating learners who have the skills and dispositions to be ready for the 21st century workforce,” explained Superintendent Laura Hammack. “We will be working very hard to intentionally prepare our graduates … to meet that responsibility.”
