Star Financial Bank Interactive teller machine approved
McCORDSVILLE — An Indiana-based bank plans to bring an interactive teller machine to McCordsville ahead of a full-fledged branch within the next five years.
Star Financial Bank, which has 40 locations in central and northeast Indiana, will erect the ITM on the south side of West Broadway, just northeast of the McCordsville Commons strip mall housing Chicago’s Pizza, CVS and several other businesses.
Ryan McIntosh of Star Financial Bank said during a McCordsville Board of Zoning Appeals meeting on April 1 that ITM users can speak directly to Star Financial Bank employees working at other bank locations between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. After hours, it becomes a normal automated teller machine, he added.
The town’s board of zoning appeals approved exceptions to zoning rules the bank needed to move forward with the project. If the bank doesn’t develop a branch on the site within five years, officials will revisit the matter and the bank will be able to seek an extension.
NineStar network handles extra customers, work load
GREENFIELD — NineStar Connect’s fiber optic network serving all of its members and customers in east-central Indiana is holding up to the extra traffic that businesses, stay-at-home workers, e-learning students and Netflix bingers can throw at it, the Greenfield-based utility co-op said in a news release.
Total usage is up over 58% in March 2020 verses March 2019. The second half of March 2020 saw a 767-terabyte increase in traffic over the first half of March. To put this in perspective, 767 terabytes is equivalent to 171,128 high-definition DVD movies. And NineStar’s network is scaled to handle much more traffic than what is being used today.
Indiana home sales decrease, house prices increase
HANCOCK COUNTY — Monthly real estate stats from an Indianapolis-based real estate firm for March 2020 show a 13.1% decrease in the number of homes sold in Hancock County. However, the average home sales price increased — up 7%, to an average of price of $227,624, compared to year-to-date 2019.
F.C. Tucker Company’s monthly real estate stats also show that home sales decreased slightly throughout March 2020 throughout a 16-county central Indiana region, while home prices continued to increase and inventory continued to decrease.
Pended home sales decreased 3.5%, but the average home sale price for the region in March was $239,714, an increase of 9.8%. The year-to-date average home sale price also increased, by 8.8%, to $229,889. Home inventory decreased by 9.9% compared to this time last year.
Unemployment spiraling downward even before pandemic
HANCOCK COUNTY — Before COVID-19 sent the economy into a tailspin, unemployment maintained its downward trend in Hancock County, according to figures recently released by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
Hancock County’s unemployment rate in February 2020 was 2.8%, down form 3.4% in February 2019 and 3.1% in January 2020.
That placed Hancock County 75th on a list of Indiana’s 92 counties ranking unemployment from highest to lowest. Crawford County topped the list, at 5.6%, while Martin County had the lowest unemployment rate, at 2.4%
Indiana’s unemployment rate was 3.4% in February 2020, 3.9% in February 2019 and 3.6% in January 2020.
The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.8% in February 2020, 4.1% in February 2019 and 4% in January 2020.
Rates are expected to skyrocket when March numbers are reported
