Looking for information on North Vernon/Columbus/Butlerville (Indianapolis, Greenwood: rental, buying a house)

[knjones]

My husband has accepted a job in Butlerville. I'm trying to find information about the nearby areas. What kind of shopping and entertainment is available? I also need information on schools. I have three elementary school age kids.

[domergurl]

We love it here in Columbus. The schools are good and it's a very nice town.

[Mike Dunn]

Here are a few links that may help in finding school information and ratings.

Great Schools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community

Schooldigger.com -- Search and compare elementary, middle, and high schools.

Indiana Public School Rankings

Good luck!

[Vision-Quest]

I know Columbus would be best for schools, the housing can be expensive though. North Vernon has cheeper housing and has decent schools but they're not great. Im not so sure on Butlerville though. Columbus has a showplace 12 movie theatre, 2 walmarts, sams club, circuit city, target, several starbucks, etc. etc. They have a mall aswell, but it's not so good mall, but there is Edinburg outlets up north on 65. North Vernon has nothing at all, theres a historic Vernon township, but North Vernon's downtown is completely vacant. Nothing to do in North Vernon at all, you would have to drive north on highway 7 to Columbus which could take 30 minutes because traffic is absolutly terrible on that stretch of 7. Theres historic Madison going south on 7 which is a huge tourist attraction but that would also take 30 minutes, (1 hour from Columbus). I would suggest living in Columbus, it's got good access to Indianapolis, where you can go shopping or go to several museums, even the Imax theatre is good aswell. It takes around 30-40 minutes to get to Greenwood from Columbus. (depending on where you would live in Columbus).
Good luck finding a new place!

[domergurl]

Originally Posted by Vision-Quest

I know Columbus would be best for schools, the housing can be expensive though. North Vernon has cheeper housing and has decent schools but they're not great. Im not so sure on Butlerville though. Columbus has a showplace 12 movie theatre, 2 walmarts, sams club, circuit city, target, several starbucks, etc. etc. They have a mall aswell, but it's not so good mall, but there is Edinburg outlets up north on 65. North Vernon has nothing at all, theres a historic Vernon township, but North Vernon's downtown is completely vacant. Nothing to do in North Vernon at all, you would have to drive north on highway 7 to Columbus which could take 30 minutes because traffic is absolutly terrible on that stretch of 7. Theres historic Madison going south on 7 which is a huge tourist attraction but that would also take 30 minutes, (1 hour from Columbus). I would suggest living in Columbus, it's got good access to Indianapolis, where you can go shopping or go to several museums, even the Imax theatre is good aswell. It takes around 30-40 minutes to get to Greenwood from Columbus. (depending on where you would live in Columbus).
Good luck finding a new place!

The only thing is North Vernon is a fantastic pizza place!

[VALover]

I would also discourage you from living in North Vernon. I lived there for a few years and didn't do well at all. I always liked Columbus and spent a lot of time there. We even considered buying a house there even though it would have added quite a bit of time to our commute.

[mkat321]

I third {fourth?} Columbus. We're moving there at the end of the school year for my husband to attend IUPUC and we are planning to stay if he gets a job in town or within a reasonable commute. It's a beautiful town, almost everyone we've met/talked to has been wonderful, very personable, helpful, and the cost of living is shockingly low given the close proximity to Indy.

[knjones]

Thanks for all the information. My husband will be working in Butlerville, so I don't want too far of a drive for him. Is traffic bad coming into Columbus in the morning or people leaving Columbus? I'm definitely concerned about the schools. I'm homeschooling my children now because the school where we live is not good at all. I would love to have them back in school again. I'm not concerned with there not being shopping and restaurants nearby. We are currently 100 miles from the nearest Wal-mart now. A 30 minute drive would be a breeze.

[mkat321]

The schools are excellent, even for special needs, which is kind of rare in Indiana. When I informed our autism coordinator that we were moving to Columbus, she was thrilled. I spoke Friday morning with the autism services specialist for Columbus and she seems very nice, listened to the Cliff's notes version of my daughter's educational & medical history and made some suggestions on smoothing her transition that we'd not thought of ourselves. Everyone I've spoken to at the schools and the main office except one woman who said she had only worked there a few days was very knowledgeable and everyone answered my questions and concerns with genuine honesty.

Traffic is a bit much to me, but I"m coming from an area where 4 cars in the same lane anywhere but near the manufacturing zone is considered heavy traffic most of the time. We were there during the rush period yesterday [3 p.m. to 6 p.m.] and we never waited longer than 1.5 cycles at any one light, and those only when turning. Turning across traffic to pull into the rental manager's office did make me a bit nervous but only because of the fact there were two lanes to cross and it seemed they alternated which one had traffic and which one didn't.

[Vision-Quest]

Originally Posted by knjones

Thanks for all the information. My husband will be working in Butlerville, so I don't want too far of a drive for him. Is traffic bad coming into Columbus in the morning or people leaving Columbus? I'm definitely concerned about the schools. I'm homeschooling my children now because the school where we live is not good at all. I would love to have them back in school again. I'm not concerned with there not being shopping and restaurants nearby. We are currently 100 miles from the nearest Wal-mart now. A 30 minute drive would be a breeze.

The traffic is horrible going from North Vernon to Columbus. Basically the residents in North Vernon work in Columbus because there is no where to work in North Vernon, and SR 7 is the only road to get there and i try to avoid driving that road at all times. But in the mornings going towards North Vernon, nobody gets in your way, because nobody in Columbus works in North Vernon, the only real place to work in North Vernon i can think of is wal-mart, and its the tiniest wal-mart ive ever seen! Jennings County schools are pretty bad, i wouldn't want my kids going there, because they would end up smoking just like all the other kids that go there. I would deffinantly suggest Columbus when you get the money. Have you tried Greensburg or Westport? I know Decatur County schools are much better than Jennings County. You might want to check those places. Greensburg is a great small town, and Westport is right off of SR 3 in southern Decatur County. You could also try Versailles, but US 50 isnt much better with traffic than SR 7. Commuting from Columbus would be about 35-40 min. So if you want a shorter commute you could try Greensburg or Westport.