I gripe about plenty on this blog, but I would like to take this opportunity to praise our Town Clerk/Treasurer, Monty Combs and the general approach that our town takes to the development of small business.
I had a conversation with Mr. Combs a few months ago regarding small business startups in Speedway. He made a point to tell me that regulating business just for the heck of it is not on his agenda. He has no power politics to push that I can tell, and that is to the benefit of the town and anyone looking for a dynamic place to start a business. Now, Speedway is assuredly not Silicone Valley; it's not crawling with venture capital. Nonetheless, Mr. Combs went out of his way to express to me that Speedway is not looking to regulate small business out of existence.
As a small juxtaposition, I represented a client who wanted to use her property up in the Geist area for a slightly different business purpose than the one she already ran there. By way of background, she runs a plant nursery/garden center up there and wanted to run a small wedding venue at the nursery. It's a bucolic location and I believe it would have gone over well.
Of course, the Town of Fishers and the local zoning board decided to send them a cease and desist letter. We applied for a variance from the zoning laws, and were unanimously denied. Mind you, the property in question was on a main street adjacent to retail commercial property.
But I'm rambling.
My point is that Mr. Combs is NOT in the business of shutting down small businesses. He is NOT in the business of handing out millions of dollars to developers who likely don't need the money to do the project (see Fishers/IKEA).
He does seem to be in the business of staying out of people's way and allowing them the freedom to do that which will enrich their lives to the maximum degree, as determined by individual people for themselves.
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