By HANNAH GUNNELL
James Coffman just completed his first year of his first term as Beech Grove’s mayor.
After purchasing the Eckstein Shoe Store on Main Street in 2012, Coffman got more involved in the community. He ran for clerk-treasurer twice and was successful the second time, in 2019.
“I worked pretty much hand in hand with Mayor [Dennis] Buckley,” he said. “It was his third term as mayor. I learned a lot from him. I had a front-row seat to the inner workings of local government, finances, and working with department heads and employees. That really helped me learn about the city and to see the efforts that were taken to continue the progress to improve the city.”
Buckley did not run for a fourth term, so Coffman decided to run for mayor. Perhaps Beech Grove’s biggest accomplishment of Coffman’s first year includes the completion of the new police station’s training center. The department is now fully staffed and they are paid the fifth highest salary of all departments in the state.
Coffman said the completion of the new facilities show the focus of the town is on public safety. And its location at the corner of Main Street and Emerson Avenue also brings in visitors to the abundant Main Street local businesses located within the heart of Beech Grove.
“They use that training facility for other [police] departments across the state — so they come to the City of Beech Grove, they use that facility, then they visit Main Street,” he said. “We’re very excited to have that corner of the block done.”
Other accomplishments of 2024 include continued work of the Hornet Greenway, a continuation of the Franciscan Trail; and the completion of a peanut roundabout at the intersection of Churchman, 25th and Perkins avenues. The town received grants from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization (IMPO) for both these projects.
Goals for Coffman’s second year include continuing to provide quality of life services to residents.
“[We want to] provide the best trash pickup and recycling pickup, pave our roads, and provide quality of life services like the trails and the parks and the community center and the senior center,” he said.
These projects including a large paving project in the spring, the official opening of the Hornet Greenway, and the planning/construction of more roundabouts (also with IMPO funding) at Churchman and Emerson avenues and Elmwood and Arlington avenues. .
Beech Grove is also completing a Comprehensive Plan. They’ve hired Rundell Ernstberger Associates about six months ago to begin planning work on the town’s future development. Developers typically ask towns for a comprehensive plan when they’re looking to bring in prospective businesses.
“Basically, ‘Where do we want to take our city in the next 20 years?’” Coffman said. “What’s the housing market? Where do we see investments? What type of development do we see is needed? What can we do to help improve Main Street? I’m excited about that.”
And Coffman’s final goal for 2025 is to continue to promote Main Street. Next Stop, Beech Grove is the town’s Indiana Main Street program, and Coffman is the president of that group too. Next Stop, Beech Grove promoted events like the solar eclipse and the Taylor Swift concert (the town renamed itself Beech Grove, Taylor’s Version for the weekend the pop star was at Lucas Oil Stadium).
“There’s so many great organizations out there, and working with them to do those events was so much fun,” he said.