“I had no idea,” I said to Dr. Dan Schenk for perhaps the third time on a recent Friday morning tour. The morning had started in a conference room, and before the tour began I was completely bowled over (not easy after winter) by what Ivy Tech Community College means to our community and region through a brief PowerPoint presentation.

As we walked the immaculate hallways and ventured into classrooms, two things immediately struck me. The first was that the majority of the students were non-traditional and of all ages. The second was that the vast majority of the coursework was what I would refer to as very hands-on. In academic settings that sometimes teach theory versus reality, the reality here is that students are performing actual world tasks in an academic setting, utilizing the latest state-of-the-art equipment.

In the automotive lab that day, students were gathered around an engine (one of many donated by Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana) working with their instructor. In the welding area, sparks arced as Dr. Schenk explained that as soon as most welders receive certifications, they are recruited by area companies that know Ivy Tech graduates have the necessary skills to help their companies succeed — the need for the workers is immediate. At the This is IT Gala on April 20, culinary arts students will prepare appetizers for the assembled guests. Last year, guests referred to the dishes as “extraordinary.” In our feature “Industrial Strength” (page 30), I think you will be a bit surprised at what is going on out on N. First Avenue. You might even say, “I had no idea.”

Also inside, you will find the 2012 Vectren Foundation Annual Report entitled “Everyday opportunities. Extraordinary outcomes.” The report serves as a reminder of the contributions that Vectren Corporation makes in the communities it serves.

The give back from our local utility is not only impressive but also extremely impactful, especially to our nonprofit corporations. Over the last few years, many of these nonprofits have endured cutbacks and, in some cases, hardship. I know I see Vectren consistently taking a leadership role in many different roles in our region, and it is appreciated by many.

After 30 years of service to WNIN and our community, David Dial is retiring as president and general manager of WNIN Tri-State Public Media Inc. We profile him in “Back Talk” (page 68).

A new successor will be named April 15. What Dial has accomplished is impressive, and he will long be remembered as the face of WNIN. Thanks, David, for your terrific years of service to our community.

As always, I look forward to hearing from you.

Todd A. Tucker
Publisher

A trailblazer in local health care, a motivated worker, and a caring mentor — these are just a few ways to describe Evansville native Marjorie Soyugenc, former executive director and CEO of the Welborn Baptist Foundation. Soyugenc passed away from an extended illness on Nov. 28, 2012, yet through her dedicated work she has left an important mark on this city and its people.

Evansville Business featured Soyugenc in “Back Talk” in the October/November 2007 issue. When asked how she stays motivated, Soyugenc replied, “I have never experienced lack of motivation for any work I’ve ever done. I simply believe in what I’m doing.”

This tireless work ethic was how Soyugenc brought so much progress to health care in the Tri-State. Among her many accomplishments while she was president and CEO of the old Welborn Baptist Hospital (1986-1999), Soyugenc is credited with introducing LifeFlight helicopter medical services as well as MRI services to Evansville. Through her work with the Welborn Baptist Foundation (which she headed from 1999-2008), more than 400 grants totaling more than $24 million were awarded primarily to nonprofit health care organizations. Soyugenc also helped grow the foundation’s assets from $90 million to $120 million — an increase which made it the largest private foundation in southwestern Indiana.

Soyugenc devoted time to many worthwhile groups and programs throughout her life. In Southwestern Healthcare’s 2012 Annual Report, she was recognized as a longtime board member and advocate. “She was a visionary leader who broke new ground in many areas during her illustrious career,” the opening letter of the report reads. “Her expertise in administration, mental health, and business management was invaluable to our organizations. [She] will be missed both personally and professionally.”

In the “Back Talk” story, Soyugenc revealed how she always felt she was destined to be a leader, even as a child daydreaming of the Lone Ranger. “I was always on the lead horse of a large group of riders out to address truth, justice, and the American way,” she said. In her own way, by providing vital health care resources and sound advice to the people of this community, she achieved her dream.

When Nicholas Goodman moved back to Evansville in 2010, he wanted to accomplish three things: start a family, buy a house, and open a business.

So far, he and his wife, JoAnn, are three for three. Their baby was born in late March, they bought a house, and they started a business on the same property.

Old Town Ladies and Gents opened its doors on Feb. 2 and is situated on the main floor of their 1889 Victorian home at 400 SE Second St.

“The name was chosen out of recognition to the old Downtown Evansville,” Goodman says. “And it just had a nice ring to me.”

Growing up in Evansville, Goodman says he has always loved the Downtown area because of the city’s potential. After graduating from F.J. Reitz High School, he then went on to pursue an art degree from the University of Southern Indiana, graduating in 2005. Goodman then moved to Santa Rosa, Calif., to be a carpenter.

“I couldn’t find work out West, so I came back to Evansville,” he says. “But then I couldn’t find work here, either, so I began thinking about a new profession. I have messed around with hair since back in my middle and high school days, doing fades and cutting a majority of my friends’ hair, and I got into it a lot more in college. So I thought, ‘Why not pursue hair cutting?’” Both Goodman’s grandmothers were professional hairdressers, and his father, Charles Goodman, also cut Goodman’s hair growing up — so you could say it runs in the family.

Goodman then found himself going to school on the East Side at Salon Professional Academy, where he received his license. He moved to Portland, Ore., for 1 ½ years before returning to Evansville. He and JoAnn finally settled on their current location after looking at numerous places around the Downtown area.

“I did a lot of remodeling and restoring to the house to get it back to its Victorian look,” he says. “With a lot of help from family and friends, I was pecking away on an average of about 70 hours a week.”

Meanwhile, Goodman also was hired as an instructor at the Salon Professional Academy, where he found his staff, Anna Iaccarino and Brooke Slaton.

“(They) were both students of mine, and I picked them out of several hundred students because they showed great potential,” he says.

Besides the refinished hardwood floors and the other beautiful renovations, customers will also notice antiques ranging from vintage barber chairs to a chrome hair dryer from the 1950’s. “I’m wanting to help bring back the mom and pop shops that used to bring the Downtown area to life,” he says. “I’m hoping Old Town can generate enough clients to where I can pursue opening a second location.”

Old Town Ladies and Gents can be reached at 812-449-0706. The business also has a Facebook page.

It’s that time of year: Bleary-eyed CPAs are racing toward the April 15 tax deadline in hopes of satisfying the IRS, not to mention clients who have dumped a box full of receipts on their desk.

While many local residents have likely already filed their taxes, it never hurts to become more organized. The result will be quicker filings and a lower tax preparation bill, says Leigh Ann Weinzapfel, a certified public accountant with Weinzapfel & Co. LLC in Evansville.

“Most of our clients are great, but sometimes I see too much information,” Weinzapfel says. “It’s important for people to keep their receipts, but I don’t need a shoe box filled up with a year’s worth of receipts. Putting that information on a spreadsheet will save the tax preparer time, and that saves the client money.”

Here are 10 categories of items that Weinzapfel does want to see:

1. Three years’ worth of federal and state returns.

2. Information on dependents, including Social Security numbers and child care expenses.

3. W-2, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, and 1099-B forms. These cover wages, income from interest, dividends, and stock transactions.

4. Business income and expenses, including 1099-MISC for sole proprietors, and Form K-1 for shareholders and partnerships.

5. Retirement plan withdrawals/contributions, plus Social Security benefits (1099-SSA).

6. Income and expenses related to rental properties you own.

7. Itemized deductions. Supporting documents are needed for all charitable contributions, and receipts are required for $250 and above. Don’t forget about unreimbursed business expenses (uniforms, dues, investment expenses, tax preparation fees, safe deposit rentals) in addition to the usual deductions of mortgage interest, medical, state and local income taxes or sales tax, real estate taxes, and personal property taxes.

8. Form HUD-1 if you bought or sold a house, regardless of whether a taxable gain or loss occurred.

9. For those who pay throughout the year, a list of estimated federal and state taxes paid.

10. Copies of any IRS or state revenue department correspondence.

“Probably the most overlooked deduction is excise tax on our vehicles,” according to Weinzapfel. “For the average family, that’s a $200 to $400 deduction — not a lot, but enough that it’s worth noting.”

Unfortunately, April 16 is not a party day in the Weinzapfel offices. Extensions occasionally must be filed with the IRS, and businesses often have later reporting deadlines. “Oct. 15 seems to be the end of tax season,” Weinzapfel says. “If we’re going to take the family on vacation somewhere, that’s usually the earliest we can get away.”

Just in time for it to start all over again.

Leigh Ann Weinzapfel may be reached at 812-474-1015 or www.weinzapfel.com.

They lay down the law. And now that the Evansville Police Department has upgraded to 2013 Dodge Charger squad cars, many officers have laid down their pens and papers, too.

The new squad cars replace older models of the Crown Victoria and are outfitted with a variety of new technological perks, according to Paul Gelzleichter, fleet manager for the Evansville Police Department. For instance, officers have ready access to laptops just to the right of the steering wheel. These laptops give officers direct access to central dispatch through an intranet system only accessible to police officers and staff. The laptops contain information about warrants and arrest records, and they allow officers to quickly fill out speeding tickets that are then printed out on a printer underneath the center console.

The new logo consists of a blue stripe through the center of the word “Police” and is intended to relay the idea of the Thin Blue Line, a term for police forces, Gelzleichter says.

Some patrol cars have Digital Ally cameras that run through the rear view mirror in the front of the car. This is a video camera that stores memory on a flash card, which can be loaded onto a computer at the police department.

Additionally, the new Dodge Chargers have rumblers that are hooked up to the vehicle sirens. These rumblers emit sound and vibrate surrounding cars at a very low frequency, alerting drivers who may be distracted by their radios or phones.

“They are a safety issue for the public,” Gelzleichter says.

The new squad cars have a redesigned light bar. Instead of a simple I-shaped bar, the new light bar is in the shape of a V. This new design increases the visibility of the light bar, making it easier for people to see the flashing lights from several different angles.

“That’s the main thing that we shoot for, is to make everything as safe and reliable as we can, for the people and the police department,” Gelzleichter says.

Bruce Flener may have started out as a bus driver for the Metropolitan Evansville Transit System. Yet after 19 years, he’s easily become a tour guide and a conductor, too.

“We all wear a lot of hats,” the 61-year-old says.

These days, Flener drives the vintage trolley, an hour route that connects Downtown Main Street to North Main Street stopping at libraries, museums, and the Ford Center.

“I have driven (all 17 fixed) routes, and driving the vintage trolley is both a privilege and an honor because it is one of the most desirable routes,” he says.

Many may not know, however, that the Downtown vintage trolley is actually not vintage at all. It was made to look antique and was added to the METS department in 2012. The vintage trolley is also wheelchair accessible and can easily be lowered closer to the ground by the push of a button.

The METS department was created in 1971 in order to address the growing need for public transportation, and since that time it has transported more than 45 million passengers. Over the years, buses have been added and routes have been changed to accommodate the needs of passengers, according to Tony Kirkland, METS Director. “We strive at giving passengers the best possible service,” he says.

One of METS’ goals is to ensure that all passengers will get to their destinations safely and in a timely manner.

“I try my hardest to be on time and give passengers good service,” Flener says. “The load fluctuates from hour to hour, and a lot of times people don’t know exactly where they are going, but that’s where I can help.”

He knows what it means to be a bus passenger, too. Growing up in Evansville, Flener said he can remember when he and his mother would take the bus from store to store to shop Downtown.

“You really have to be a people person to do this job,” he adds. “I enjoy waking up everyday knowing I will get to hear passengers’ stories. It’s amazing. I couldn’t ask for a more rewarding career.”

Whose Site Is It? There are websites for people who want to find a date. And then there are websites for people who just want to find a new friend.

Meetup.com bills itself as the world’s largest network of local groups, and it’s now here in Evansville. So far, there are groups for women who love to read; men and women in their 20s; people who play video games; parents with small children; political groups; and more.

Meetup.com “makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face.”

Here’s how it works: First, you register for free. Then, you fill out your profile based on your interests. There are many categories to choose from, including career and business; education and learning; outdoors and adventure; parents and children; politics and activism; and more.

If there is no group for your particular interest, don’t worry. Meetup.com is becoming more and more popular, which means you may soon find someone who shares your hobby. In fact, new members who ride motorcycles on the weekends, for instance, can request notification when a fellow motorcycle enthusiast starts a group.

Additionally, the site will email you updates of upcoming Meetup.com events you have an interest in. The site doesn’t send out too many emails per month, either. There’s also no pressure to take part in an activity that you may not have time for.

According to its website, Meetup’s mission is to revitalize the local community and to help people around the world self-organize.

“Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference,” the website says.

Don’t Miss: Meetup is just one way to connect with the world around you, and one of its many advisors is author, teacher, and documentarian Douglas Rushkoff. A technology and media commentator for CNN, he focuses on the ways people, cultures, and institutions create, share, and influence each other’s values.

You likely wouldn’t suspect a thing. After all, like you, lots of people go to coffee shops to work on their laptops. Yet it’s a fact that these same people sitting to your right and left may be using that unsecured Wi-Fi connection to snoop through your files on your own computer. This is why it’s important to protect yourself.

I know. I spent five years of my information technology career traveling all over the country performing security audits. Companies paid me to sit in their parking lots with a laptop to try to hack into their wireless networks. If I succeeded — and many times I did — I then told the IT staffs at these companies how I did it. Surprisingly, many businesses made silly mistakes that allowed someone like me to “get in.” And this is not just a problem for businesses. It’s also an issue for homeowners, and for people who use free Wi-Fi while sipping coffee in donut shops, or at airports. So here’s how to protect yourself.

When you’re going to use a public hotspot, it’s important to make sure that you keep network discovery and file or print sharing turned off. There’s no need to place yourself at risk by having it turned on, even if you feel safe by having password-protected file activated. If you have network discovery turned off, your mobile device won’t even show up when someone goes searching for other computers through network neighborhood. Visual Basic shell scripts online can be run against a password-protected file share to hack out a simple username and password in a matter of minutes. Only when you are at home or behind a corporate firewall should you feel safe to turn network discovery, file and print sharing — password protected or otherwise — back on.

Here’s how to protect yourself if you are using Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel (if you’re using Windows 8, press Windows-Q, and type in “control.” The Control Panel icon should appear.)

2. Select “Network and Sharing Center” (or “Choose Homegroup and Sharing Options” on Windows 8), then click on “Change Advanced Sharing Settings.”

3. Under “Private Current Profile,” check “Turn off Network Discovery” and “Turn off File and Print Sharing.”

4. Click the down arrow to show the Guest or Public network settings.

5. Check “Turn off Network Discovery” and “Turn off File and Print Sharing.”

6. Click the down arrow to show the All Networks Sharing options. Check “Turn off File and Print Sharing.”

7. Click “Save Changes.”

To turn off file sharing for a Mac, follow these steps:

From the Apple menu, click System Preferences. In the System Preferences window, click the Sharing icon. You will see the Sharing window. Confirm that the check box in front of File Sharing does not contain a check mark.

If it does, click to remove it. Removing a check mark will disable file sharing on your computer.

If you follow these steps, no one will see your device the next time you connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Allen Van Hoosier is a senior Linux and Unix systems analyst for SS&C Technologies Inc. He may be reached at 812-266-2045, 812-459-9929, and gvanhoosier@sscinc.com.

For years, soccer players in Evansville have played in the rain, mud, and cold weather. Now, they don’t have to.

The CMTC Soccer Center, an indoor facility located at 2200 Lynch Road just east of U.S. 41, opened Feb. 1. It gives young and passionate soccer players in the Evansville area the opportunity to play and train throughout the year.

The facility contains two turf fields as well as a second-level viewing deck to watch games and practices. There is also a kickwall for technical training. This three-sided wall allows players to perfect their foot skills on their own without another player having to kick the ball back to them.

“The vision was to create a place where kids or adults could play soccer any time they wanted to,” says Steve McCullough. “We want to provide the soccer player the chance to play pickup (soccer) like you find pickup basketball games.”

McCullough owns the facility with Robert Bennett and Four S Properties LLC. McCullough and Bennett had dreamt of the facility for three to four years before it became a reality.

“We literally started putting turf down the Monday after Thanksgiving of 2012,” says Robert Bennett. “We’ve come this far in six months and we have other things up on the drawing board right now.”

The CMTC soccer center offers many different programs for boys and girls of several different age groups. Both indoor fields are available for any team to rent. The facility has personal training. Players are able to enhance their speed, agility, strength, and conditioning. The center offers group training and camps.

Evansville Soccer Club provides men’s and women’s coaches. For men, there are two from the University of Evansville, three from the University of Southern Indiana, and Fred Schmalz, a former UE coach and UE Hall of Fame recipient. For women, there is one USI coach.

“We have 30-40 people playing every night of the week now,” McCullough adds. “We hope we create an environment where they want to come here all the time, throughout the year.

Rates for teams and individuals vary, as do the facility’s hours, McCullough says. For more information, call 812-434-2210 or visit the CMTC Facebook page.

The 45th Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas is host to up-and-coming technologies, gadgets, and gizmos. Each January, manufacturers and entrepreneurs gather to showcase everything as big as TVs to smartwatches, a new wave of strapping Bond technology that tethers our wrists to our phones.

i’m Watch, $349
imsmart.com
Headlining innovation and a sleek, elegant design, the i’m Watch is the perfect supplement for iPhone users. Using Bluetooth technology, this Italian-made watch tethers directly to your phone, sending push notifications, text messages, important emails, and social media updates straight to the touch interface.

Weighing in at 95 grams, you can choose between seven vibrant colors and styles: aluminum, titanium, and the exclusive i’m Watch Jewel silver or gold.

The i’market allows users to download apps directly to their watch. With a built-in speaker and microphone for hands-free calling, the i’m Watch has all of the necessary applications.

Pebble, $150
getpebble.com
A result of a $10,266,845 Kickstarter project, Pebble is an inventive and fresh take on the smartwatch. Using an easy-to-read E-paper display, the watch can last for a week with your choice of watch face. Connecting to both iPhone and Android phones, Pebble is a minimalist smartwatch with unyielding potential for app developers and the everyday user.

Much like the i’m Watch, the Pebble pushes texts, emails, and messages straight to your wrist with built-in vibration. Utilizing its versatility, the Pebble can track speed, distance, and pace data for cyclists, runners, and swimmers (and it’s waterproof). Imagine driving to work in the morning and, with nothing more than a quick touch of a button, your Pebble can change your Pandora track streamed to your car.

With its replaceable watchbands, the Pebble is a sure thing for a range of users. At $150, it is currently available on backorder.

Martian Watch, $249-$299
martianwatches.com
Style, technology, and function are blended together in the three Martian Watches. Keeping with the typical analog display, these watches connect to most Android smartphones, iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads. With top of the line voice recognition and a speaker, the watch can display texts and email, read them out loud, then allow you to speak directly to Siri or other voice recognition programs to reply.

The $299 Passport Watch is as sleek as it gets. Other models include the $299 Victory and the $249 G2G.