At FCN Bank's Annual Shareholders Meeting, the Board of Directors announced some very big news: FCN is constructing a new location on New Haven Road in Harrison, Ohio. The new bank location, which will be open for business in the Fall of 2007, is on the lot directly in front of Home Depot, to the left as you pull into the Home Depot parking lot. The ceremonial ground breaking was Thursday, April 26, and the serious ground breaking of site preparation is already in full swing.

The FCN Board, consisting of Chairman Randall Listerman, Keith Tebbe, Jane Ludwig, Kenneth Wanstrath, Edwin Roberts, Ronald Knueven, and President and CEO Arthur K. Hildebrand, made the decision to expand to Harrison as part of positioning the bank for the 21st Century.

"This location in Harrison was chosen with convenience for the customer in mind," said FCN President and CEO Arthur K. Hildebrand, "Near to the I-74 interchange, and near to many popular businesses people use for errands and shopping. We are aware of the time demands on people today, and the importance of being convenient for our customers."

Hildebrand continued, "Local residents who work in Ohio may have a real difficulty in getting back to town in the evenings to do their banking and other errands. Likewise, on a Saturday morning, you may not have time to drive back to Brookville to do your banking, if you have a day planned down in Cincinnati. Our Harrison location will add great convenience for all local residents, and especially those in the eastern and southern parts of Franklin County, as well as everyone who lives near Interstate 74."

FCN Chairman Randall Listerman, grandson of former bank president Charles Masters, explained more of the decision. "Strength and stability have made FCN a respected financial institution since our founding in 1901, and this move will strengthen FCN greatly. The decision to go to Harrison was made after long and careful consideration. We initiated economic studies of a large area of Southeastern Indiana and Southwestern Ohio, looking at economic growth, real estate development, commuter and traffic patterns, and census data. We also took a survey of the preferences of existing FCN customers."

The decision to locate in Harrison is in part based on FCN Customers themselves. In 2006, FCN conducted a Customer Survey asking various questions about banking and customers' preferences. Everything from rates, to hours and locations, to ATMs and online banking were included in the survey. Also included in the survey was a listing of many area towns, with check boxes for the customers to rank how often they visited each town. The results of this survey showed that Harrison was the community most often frequented by FCN customers, scoring the highest from a list of 20 area communities.

"We all are excited about the new branch," said FCN Marketing Director Jim Suhre. "I'm very happy that FCN is responding to customers' requests in such a big way, but I'm also happy for the Whitewater River Valley and the entire local area. We are headquartered in Brookville, and employ many people from the surrounding area. FCN's expansion is part of a larger picture of people working to keep this area as a center of economic ownership and control, and add to the prosperity of the entire Whitewater Valley."

President Hildebrand echoed the importance of local ownership. "FCN aspires to be the bank of the local area, not to be part of a huge banking conglomerate. There is no good way that a bank headquartered hundreds of miles away can provide as good as service, or know the community as well, as one headquartered locally. We feel that Harrison will allow FCN to compete with the large bank chain in convenience, while maintaining the advantage of local ownership and support of the local community. Just over the hill from Harrison are people who live in the Franklin County School District, as well as the East Central School District. Previously, FCN was not very convenient for many of these people, who, while they live in our county and their kids attend local schools, much of their employment and shopping occur in the Cincinnati metro area. Likewise, there are people who live in Harrison who work out in Indiana, in Batesville and other employment centers. FCN Bank is now a great option for them."

The new building will have architecture similar to the FCN Batesville office, while echoing some of the modern architecture seen in the Harrison Library and Harrison High School. It will have a tall gable over tall glass windows at the front of the bank, two smaller gables on the New Haven Road side and Biggs Boulevard side of the bank, and the familiar FCN green color for the roof. The building will also utilize creek rock similar to that of the Brookville Drive Up and the Batesville FCN offices. Construction is being done by Maxwell Construction, a successful and local construction company for commercial and industiral properties with offices located in Batesville and Greendale.