INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — Connecticut-based GXO Logistics Inc. (NYSE: GXO) says it plans to hire more than 2,100 workers in the Indianapolis area to staff its two facilities during the holiday season. The company operates facilities in Lebanon and Clayton and will be hosting hiring events at each location.
GXO says it has open positions for material handlers, operations supervisors, robotic technicians, engineers, among others. In addition to holiday help, the company says it is hiring permanent, full-time, part-time, hourly and salaried roles.
GXO Hiring Event locations:
Lebanon: 135 South Mt. Zion Rd. Every Tuesday from 10:00am to 4:00pm
Clayton: 2121 Gateway Pt. Tuesdays from 9:30am to 5:30pm and Fridays 9:30am to 3:00pm
The company says it is looking to fill 9,000 jobs across North America. GXO says it is increasing the use of automation across its operations. The company says it plans to deploy 3,100 robots in North America by the end of 2021 and open nine new automated sites in the U.S.
CLAYTON, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — The executive director of the Hendricks County Economic Development Partnership says the addition of a new distribution center from Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) will put more focus on an area that is building a reputation for logistics and e-commerce. Apple this morning announced plans to invest $100 million for the facility in Clayton, which will create nearly 500 jobs by the end of 2024. Brian Bilger says the fact that Atlanta-based Core5 Industrial Partners had a 1 million-square-foot spec building available is what attracted Apple to Clayton.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Bilger said the project will continue to fuel growth in the area.
“That whole corridor in [State Road] 39 and [Interstate] 70 is just exploding with e-commerce and it’s been going on for some time with e-commerce and fulfillment, especially with the pandemic,” said Bilger. “Having a name brand now, Apple, just shines a lot more light on it.”
The Apple facility will be operated by Connecticut-based XPO Logistics Inc.’s (NYSE: XPO) Supply Chain division. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. says XPO has already begun hiring for a variety of positions.
Bilger says Core5 is also building another 1 million-square-foot building behind the Apple facility, and a 500,000-square-foot building across the street has already been completed.
“If you drive on 39 and see the amount of buildings going up out there, that is a logistics sweet spot; actually it’s more e-commerce,” said Bilger. “And that’s going to really grow. The pandemic’s really shined a light on that with tangible goods and shipping stuff. That business model is only going to increase.”
The town of Plainfield has seen much growth in logistics and e-commerce development over the last few years. Bilger says the town is essentially maxed out for space and the natural progression was to move further west along I-70 into the Clayton area.
A time frame for the beginning of operations at the Clayton facility was not provided.
CLAYTON, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — Indianapolis-based GDI Companies has begun construction on a more than 1 million-square-foot speculative building at Hendricks Gateway Park in Clayton. The industrial real estate developer and construction company says the facility will be its third to be constructed at the logistics park within the last year.
The building is being constructed for Atlanta-based developer Core5 Industrial Partners. GDI says it will be cross-docked with 11 dock positions, 40′ high clearance, 222 trailer parking spaces and 577 car parking spaces.
Construction on the new facility is expected to be complete by next August.
GDI is nearing completion of work on another more than 1 million-square-foot spec building, as well as a 440,000-square-foot facility.
Work began on the first buildings in the summer of 2019. At the time, GDI Chief Executive Officer Terry McCardwell told Inside INdiana Business demand for more warehousing and distribution space has fueled rapid growth in Hendricks County.
CLAYTON, Ind. (WISH) — A family from Hendricks County is sharing the details of a terrible accident, hoping to spare others the same heartbreak of using a lawnmower around children.
The injury risk is a sad reality doctors see too often in the summer months.
2016 was the year life changed for the Dixon family.
Jeff Dixon, who is the Liberty Township Fire Chief, started the lawn mower and told his two young sons to stay inside and watch a movie. But they only listened for so long before they made their way outside. It’s a day Dixon remembers clearly.
Evan Dixon loves to play baseball. He practices hitting balls with his brother on a daily routine.
“Here we are in 2020 and he’s running around playing like nothing ever happened,” Evan’s dad said.
It was March 30, 2016.
“In just a blink of an eye, they were behind my lawnmower and Evan was underneath and I thought maybe I killed my son,” Jeff Dixon said.
Jeff’s wife is a paramedic and heard the call.
“I thought maybe he might not make it,” Dixon said.
Dixon’s training kicked in.
“In years of being a firefighter and EMT, it tells me that what just happened is not a scrape or needs stitches, it’s very significant,” he said. “As a father, I’m destroyed.”
It’s a moment that still brings tears.
“We were this close to having a child without a leg,” Dixon said. “We were this close to something more tragic happening.”
The accident left Evan with no toes on his left foot and a big scar on his knee.
“Sometimes I don’t notice it, unless I don’t have socks on,” the fifth grader said.
A big hurdle was learning to walk again.
His father never left his side.
“He’s a great father,” the 10-year-old said.
It’s an accident the father of two wants to make sure doesn’t happen to another child.
“Kids do belong inside,” Dixon said. “When the grass is being mowed, they need to be inside with adult supervision to make sure they don’t get back out.”
The injury is not stopping Evan. He has dreams of becoming firefighter just like his dad.
But for now, baseball comes first.
The Mill Creek West Elementary student spent nine nights at Riley Hospital for Children and had multiple surgeries and skin grafts.
He wears a prostetic shoe insert for his toes to fill the gap. Other than that, his parents say there’s nothing he has to do different than any other child.
CLAYTON, Ind. (WISH) – A central Indiana mother is an advocate for everyone to become an organ donor after her daughter recently received a life-saving organ donation.
Willow Allen, 8, was born with Biliary Atresia. That is a condition where the bile ducts do not form properly and do not rid the body of toxins like it should.
Her condition took a turn for the worse back in December. That was when a mass was found in her liver and she was experiencing extreme itching, a sign her liver was failing. Her mother Nicki Hurt said her daughter would wake up in the middle of the night bleeding from the itching.
“She was declining. Her itching got really bad. We took her in and she had a mass in her liver.
She was getting one to two hours of sleep at most at night. The itching was just unbearable for her,” Hurt said.
She was added to the liver transplant waiting list in February. After only nine days, she got her transplant.
“The way that the organs are allocated, in particular the liver, whoever it is who’s the sickest, we have a scoring system, gets the next liver,” said her doctor, Richard Mangus, who is also the Surgical Director of Liver Transplants at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health.
Mangus said Willow’s itching symptoms went away almost immediately after the new organ was put in her body.
“Children with this disease will almost always need a transplant at some point. Sometimes when you go into liver failure you start to have swelling, you can have bleeding, you can have things like that. For Willow, it was unusual because she had the itching all over,” he added.
Now that Hurt’s daughter has had her life changed forever, she is a major advocate of organ donation.
“It’s an emotional roller coaster when you get that call that there is a liver available because someone has lost a loved one and they’re grieving but you have a loved one that needs the life-saving organ. It’s a gift and her life has changed forever,” she said.
Riley staff said there are about 19 children on the waiting list in Indiana who need an organ donation.
“It’s really important that each individual signs up to be a donor because you never know if something’s going to happen. We desperately need them and we need them that size because that’s what fits into the children,” Mangus said.
To learn more about organ donation, click here.
CLAYTON, Ind. (WISH) — Three people were in stable condition after a single-auto accident near Clayton on Thursday night, firefighters said.
The Plainfield Fire Territory posted photos on its Facebook page from the accident. The accident occurred on Hendricks County Road 1000 South, which is in southern Liberty Township, although the post did not provide additional details on the location.
One of the three people was taken from the scene in a medical helicopter, the post said.
No additional details were immediately available.
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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A stranded driver got a Thanksgiving surprise that created a memorable meal and a lesson for two Indiana State Police troopers.
Trooper Daniel Criswell is training Ty Mays. For three months, no lesson stood out until the pair pulled over on Interstate 70 Wednesday.
“I don’t know why this guy stuck out so much,” Criswell said. “I think because it was a holiday, and I truly felt like he didn’t have anybody — he really didn’t.”
The two approached a driver in a disabled van near the airport. “He was very humble, very kind,” Mays said. “It’s one of those people that you just feel for. You had that feeling that he was just great man in a bad spot.”
“He just wanted some guidance,” Criswell added. “He was very respectful, very humble, and he didn’t want much.”
The troopers moved his vehicle to the shoulder, got him something to eat and left. But the kind deeds didn’t end Wednesday.
“Of course, everybody is saying what they’re thankful for, and I thought, how can I help someone else be thankful today?” Criswell said. “He came to my mind, and I wanted to help him.”
Criswell went back to I-70 on Thanksgiving Day and found Daniel Breaux asleep. “You always want to err on caution on who you deal with,” Criswell said. “I had a pretty good feel for this guy, and I was just going to go with my instincts.”
He decided to pay for parts and fix the van at his house. The problem: finding a tow company to move it.
Enter D&D Auto and Towing. “Sometimes it’s not about making money, it’s about helping people, and that’s what we like to do,” D&D Auto and Towing co-owner Nickolas Davis said.
The company not only moved the van on a holiday, but didn’t ask for money. “The guys that deserve the credit are the troopers, the ones that really started this chain of events,” Davis said. “They deserve the credit, we just saw an opportunity to help somebody and lend out a helping hand.”
As Criswell’s family worked on the van, they invited Breaux to dinner. But the van’s problems were worse than they expected.
That’s when Criswell’s brother stepped in. “He offered to give him a truck he didn’t use, and that kind of caught everyone by surprise,” the trooper explained.
A chance encounter that not only gave a stranded driver a way home, but a lesson this trooper hopes will show his trainee what it means to be an Indiana State Police trooper. You may not know that it’s going to happen, but at the end it kind just plays out,” Criswell said.
Criswell spoke with Breaux Friday. He’s expected to make it home late Friday night.
HENDRICKS COUNTY,Ind. (WISH) – On 600 East in Hendricks County nearly every home on the street had some sort of damage.
“We always felt like we were safe because we’re down in the valley here. We thought it would go over us,” said Helen Scmutte, who lost ten trees.
But on Monday, a tornado swept right through their street, in a matter of seconds.
“It was gone, 10 seconds it was gone,” said Schmutte.
“We were just very blessed that it just came and went that fast,” said Barbara Alexander, who also lives on the street.
However, that was not without leaving behind a trail of snapped branches, downed power lanes, and ripped off siding.
“We were blessed that it didn’t stay any longer because we have nail pops on our walls where suction pressure in the house was trying to take the roof off I believe,” said Alexander.
In Clayton, just southwest of Avon, is where it’s believed the tornado first touched down, skipping through a soy bean field, toppling a 30-foot trailer and taking out a garage. A man and his mom were in the garage when the storm came through. They were not injured, and the main house wasn’t damaged.
The storm system eventually made its way up to Howard County and there are no reports of injuries or fatalities.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis police have arrested a man for a 33-year-old woman’s murder last year.
Tafari Clay, 21, of Indianapolis was arrested Friday for the killing of Hilary Acton of Clayton in June 2015, according to IMPD.
Clay was charged with murder, robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.
He was taken into custody without incident.
Police said last year Acton was likely shot during a robbery.
CLAYTON, Ind. (WISH) — A new facility in Hendricks County is helping small businesses grow in an area where the opportunity may have not been there before.
The idea of a shared commercial kitchen is not new, especially in big cities. But in rural Hendricks County, there wasn’t an option until recently when a baker and jerky-maker teamed-up to open Westside Commercial Kitchen Co-op.
“I was a farmer that sold vegetables at the farmers market,” Robin Teasley said.
But eight years ago, a bad spring left Teasley baking to fill her table at the market.
“I did it out of our house and we had five ovens and we have five kids,” Teasley said.
Before long, her sweet sourdough bread pushed out the produce.
“It got to be overwhelming and I needed a kitchen,” Teasley said.
That’s where Michelle Twadell came in, a jerky maker whose business is anything but drying up.
“All we’ve done is grow,” Twadell said.
Now, Indiana Craft Jerky and Teasley’s business, Grandma’s Oven, share Westside Commercial Kitchen. It’s located in Clayton, which is just west of Plainfield in Hendricks County.
“Then we started adding more people,” Twadell said.
Teasley said the kitchen bridges a gap for those with small businesses that are outgrowing their home, but aren’t ready to open a store front.
“This is the middle step ground, that we didn’t think we’d ever be able to do,” Teasley said.
And with several small businesses all supporting each other, the women said it’s a recipe for success.
“They may only come in here twice a month and are here four hours doing what they need to do to prep, but they can put their stuff at Marsh in the local section,” Twadell said.
Those in the co-op are now selling their items not only at farmers markets, but local stores, festivals, at special events like weddings, and Twadell is even shipping her jerky off to a Chicago hotel as a specialty item.
“It gives us the stepping stone to go into a full-fledged bakery if we decide to in the future because we can save the money and build the business,” Teasley said.