CITY LOOKS AT $19.4M LAFAYETTE THEATER RENOVATION

A few days after local and state historic preservation boards signed off on exterior renovations for the Lafayette Theater – including to its iconic marquee at the corner of Sixth and Main streets – the city made moves Thursday morning to finance an estimated $19.4 million overall rehab of the former movie house into a downtown entertainment venue.

The construction inside and outside the building at 600 Main St., slated to start in August and wrap up in March 2028, would include new first- and second-floor seating, lighting, sound and stage equipment for a venue ready for Civic Theatre productions, concerts and other events.

The work comes seven years after the city picked up the property for $290,000 in 2019 with hopes of preserving it and making it part of a portfolio of Lafayette-owned entertainment venues, which already includes the Long Center for the Performing Arts on Sixth Street and Columbian Park’s Loeb Stadium.

“We knew it was going to be expensive,” Dennis Carson, Lafayette’s economic development director, said Thursday. “We didn’t know exactly how much until we got into it. But to make it something that is going to be viable for use and an asset for the community, it’s going to take this much money to get it there. We didn’t want to do it just part way.”

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West Lafayette officials visit SK hynix in Korea: A debriefing

As construction ramps up on SK hynix’s $3.87 billion high-bandwidth memory assembly facility north of Kalberer Road, a contingent from West Lafayette City Hall joined company officials who traveled to South Korea in early June to get a closer look at operations there and what to expect here.

The visit included stops at SK hynix sites in Icheon and Cheongju to tour chip-making facilities and an advance packaging plant that will be similar to the 340,000-square-foot project expected to open in 2028 on 121 acres along the north side of West Lafayette, between Yeager Road and County Road 50 West.

Here are some of the takeaways from a debriefing last week city officials who spent four days in South Korea.

The impetus for the trip

Mayor Erin Easter said the city had been having conversations with SK hynix officials for months about what she called an appropriate time to visit the company’s sites in South Korea.

“We had heard from a lot of people around the time of the rezone (in May 2025), well, if somebody could just go there and put eyes on it, that would make me feel better about it,” Easter said. “So, we knew that at some point we wanted to go and see the facilities. …

“We also knew that we have a lot of relationship building to do with a community that is based on relationship building – both within the city of West Lafayette and with our partners in Korea,” Easter said. “That was a strong component of why we would go. But also recognizing things are in motion at the moment, and we need to make sure that we have cultural understanding, we have systems of process understanding, and we have emergency response understanding of how the facilities in Korea work, and what we can expect.”

She said the relationship building would continue to be important as the facility is built and eventually opened in 2028.

“It’s important to be contemplative and to give everyone enough time to really think through a system or process or request,” Easter said. “Creating those relationships long-term help that process of decision making, especially when it’s joint decision making. In the case of fire response, for example, there will be a lot that is joint decision making, so being able to understand each other a bit better culturally will help long-term with other decisions.”

Let’s start there: On emergency planning

Questions about safety and emergency response have been steady drumbeats for neighbors who have staged pop-up protests around SK hynix’s site and raised concerns monthly city council meetings about “hot zones” from the industrial site spreading into nearby subdivisions if something goes wrong at the facility.

West Lafayette Fire Chief Jeff Need said the timing of the trip synced with safety features being submitted for review during the construction. Tony Schutter, WLFD’s deputy chief of inspections who was part of the city’s delegation on the trip, said he’s “right in the middle” of that process now.

“Their systems are different – they operate differently than ours,” Need said. “A lot of the questions we have asked, the visit provided answers. Now we understand the perspective they’re coming from on a gamut of different things. … Now, when they’re talking about something, I can see it. It’s not just on a piece of paper. It’s multi-dimensional.”

Schutter said it’s been a learning curve for SK hynix, too, as the company meshes its planned operations with local building codes.

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Clear some space for cucamelons and candy onions

By Carol Bangert/For Based in Lafayette

Occasionally, I hit the farmers market with a list of five or six things I need for the week ahead. It’s a W when I walk out with those items secure in my reusable shopping bag. But it’s more fun to approach the market with no expectations – that’s when the real magic happens. In late June, as a lot of spring produce steps aside for summer’s cornucopia, you’re sure to be surprised and delighted.

Last week, that approach rewarded me with three summer treasures: cucamelons, candy onions and the first red potatoes. Oh, and let’s not forget baby carrots – although I’d like to. Baby carrots are the best kind of carrot for someone who doesn’t even like them. The smaller the better, I say. But I digress.

Cucamelons

At Bear Fruit Farm, I spied cucamelons, among the most adorable produce you’ll come across at the market. Cucamelons are cucumbers that look like tiny watermelons. They’re tart, bright and crunchy, great in salads and stir fries, pickled or eaten out of hand. Chad Scott at Bear Fruit Farm says the tiny cukes are happy sitting on the counter for a day or two but benefit from refrigeration if you’re using them later in the week.

Candy onions, red potatoes

J. Abby Abbott-Rider at Thistle Byre Farm has a gorgeous display of produce right now, but two items grabbed my attention: Candy onions and summer’s first red potatoes. Candy onions, as the name implies, are sweet and come in red and white varieties. Abbott-Rider says they work well in sautés, served alongside meats, in stir fries and even tossed fresh in salads. They’re not pungent like other onions, so eating them raw shouldn’t freak you out. I bought a hefty candy onion, cut the white bulb into thin slices and sautéed them in butter on very low heat. The resulting caramelized onions were ready to use as a topper for burgers, tucked inside a grilled cheese sandwich or with a slice of cheese on a favorite cracker. I could go on and on about this luscious condiment, but you get the idea. Store any unused fresh onions wrapped in the fridge – but I’m confident you’ll find lots of uses for this sweet summer allium.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that when it comes to red potatoes, I don’t need to do a deep dive. You likely have favorite recipes and techniques for roasted potatoes or potato salads. But here’s an idea from Abbott-Rider: Sauté sliced new potatoes with candy onions in oil; then top with fresh dill. Chef’s kiss.

Carrots. Yay.

I’ve confessed before that the only vegetable I don’t like is carrots. I’m not sure the reason, but I think it goes back to my childhood. My mother, a girl from the Deep South, was an exceptional cook, and her fried chicken is the thing of folklore. But she did a disservice to me – and a greater one to carrots – by the way she prepared them: cooked beyond recognition and fancied up with butter. Ech. My siblings don’t remember them that way, but that memory is burned into my brain. Carrots have been a deal breaker ever since.

However, baby carrots are in season now, and I write about in-season produce. So, being the farmers market soldier that I am, I bought one bunch of orange and one bunch of red baby carrots at Fairstream Farms. Owner Daniel Fagerstrom (who likes carrots) agrees that they taste best when they’re fresh and small. I can handle carrots like that, usually raw with hummus (my go-to for raw veg). Fagerstrom suggests using the greens (which are vibrant and green and nutritious looking) in a pesto. While buying my bunches, I ran into a friend from high school who stopped by Fairstream specifically to purchase carrots – who does that? When I told her carrots weren’t my thing, she gave me a look of mild disbelief. I shrugged it off. She recommended I parboil carrots, then add them to a sauté with snap peas, salad turnips and green onions (now you’re talking) or sautéed with butter and topped with honey, cranberries and pecans. Sold!

Full disclosure, I’ve eaten the baby carrots I bought with hummus, and I made pesto from the greens. The pesto is a revelation – fresh, grassy and slightly peppery. It has joined the team of homemade pestos in my rotation, and I’ll definitely make it again.

The summer market is truly astonishing, and the culinary adventures are endless. The next time you make a trip to an area farmers market, throw caution (and your shopping list) to the wind, and see what surprises await.

On the way out: Asparagus. This early spring veg is enjoying its final days at the market.

Be on the lookout for: Blueberries. A few vendors hinted that these summer jewels will be making an appearance soon.

In the next Market Report: Shopping the rainbow

Other late June produce at the market includes:

• Asparagus

• Cabbage

• Bok choy

• Baby carrots

• Cucamelons

• Beets

• Red and green onions

• Garlic and garlic scapes

• Radishes

• Salad turnips

• Bok choy

• Greens (kale, mustard, arugula, lettuce varieties, microgreens)

• Lots of herbs ready to pot or place in your garden (Mint, oregano, basil, cilantro, sage, lavender, thyme, chives)

• The first green beans

• Greenhouse tomatoes

• Greenhouse zucchini and yellow squash

DAYS/HOURS FOR THE MARKETS

West Lafayette Farmers Market: 3:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, through October. The market is held at Cumberland Park in West Lafayette with more than 50 vendors.

Lafayette Farmers Market: 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturdays, through October, on Fifth Street between Columbia Street and mid-block to Ferry Street, and Main Street between Fourth and Sixth streets.

Purdue Farmers Market: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursdays, through October. The Purdue Farmers Market is held on the Memorial Mall on Purdue’s campus. This market is a concession-heavy market that allows students, faculty and staff to have lunch options in a unique outdoor setting.

Carol Bangert, editor of Greater Lafayette Magazine, has been a regular at Greater Lafayette farmers markets for more than 20 years. From May through October, she’ll scout out in-season produce at the markets and report back on fresh finds and how to use them.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

EARHART MURAL: ‘DOES IT NOT MAKE YOUR HEART JUST SING?’

After the podium was rolled away, chairs were packed up from the dedication of a new Amelia Earhart mural on the side of Wanderlust Coffee Roaster and all but a few of the dozens of people who’d turned out Tuesday evening had filtered their way across downtown Lafayette, artist Zach Curtis was wheeling a lift to the wall outside 835 Main St. to get back at it.

“I can’t pass up this opportunity,” Curtis said, after posing for a couple more pictures and apologizing, again, for “anyone down wind of me right now.”

“The sun has just been cooking me for the past 12 hours or so, I’d say,” Curtis said, smiling in a T-shirt with cutoff sleeves, a wide-brimmed hat and gray works pants colored by the remnants of days with spray paint cannisters.

The mural started last week, depicting the famed aviator and Purdue legend, still had a few days to go in a project backed by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette and the Indiana Arts Commission, among others.

But it was far enough along to win praise, along with promises to swing back around by the end of the week to see the final product.

“We hope this community will embrace this effort and help make this mural a destination,” Diana Vice, a DAR member helping to head up the mural project, said.

The mural is a return engagement for Curtis, a Detroit-based artist who was commissioned to create a mural of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and John F. Kennedy a block away, near the corner of Main and Seventh streets, in 2025. The follow-up to a work dubbed “Three Great Men” was designed to be dedicated to historic woman with local roots.

Earhart fit the description, given her fame when she was recruited to Purdue to be a career counselor for women students on campus in the mid-1930s. University donors had helped raise the bulk of the money needed for the Lockheed Electra 10-E Earhart used as a “flying laboratory” she used in an attempt to fly around the world. Earhart was a world sensation when her flight went missing 1937. Earhart, her co-pilot Fred Noonan and the plane have not been found and recovered since then.

Curtis’ in-the-works mural depicts Earhart in a series of three portraits, along with the Lockheed Electra, against a backdrop of clouds. Tuesday’s dedication included bits of history soaked in inspiration from Earhart’s story, along with crowd rendition of “‘Melia,” a song written in 1932 in honor of her solo trans-Atlantic flight and led by local performer Audrey Johnson.

“It is so apropos that the Amelia Earhart mural is painted on the wall of a coffee shop named Wanderlust,” Angie Klink, a Lafayette author among those organizing an Amelia Earhart Festival, said. “Earhart flew because she exuded wanderlust.”

Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush, a Lafayette resident, told the crowd that Earhart was someone talked about all the time in her home when she was growing up, as someone her dad loved. Rush said that when she came to Purdue she continued to learn about the doors Earhart opened by showing what could be done. She said the fascination never waned.

“Little girls need to know that the sky is the limit,” Rush said. “Seeing her flying here on this wall … does it not make your heart just sing?”

Curtis said he felt humbled by the support, in the past week and dating back to his work in October 2025, from the community as he’s painted. He said people had been delivering him food, encouragement while he was on the lift and “coffee from probably every coffee place in town.” He thanked people for “kind of adopting me as an unofficial son of Lafayette.”

“I’m just so grateful to be here right now and to be honoring such an amazing woman who’s done so much, obviously, for the history of this town,” Curtis said. “I can’t wait to finish this for you.”

For more

CHIANG’S FAREWELL AT PURDUE: ‘THE RIGHT PLACE, THE RIGHT TIME TO BE SO LUCKY AS TO GET TO KNOW SO MANY OF YOU’

Monday afternoon was all about memories of bringing three kids into Westwood to make it a functioning family home out of the Purdue president’s residents and making sweeping invitations to several hundred campus and Greater Lafayette community members to make the trek to visit in Evanston, Illinois, during a Purdue Memorial Union Ballroom send-off for Purdue President Mung Chiang and Dr. YingKei Hui, his wife and university first lady for the past 3½ years.

“Kei and Mung have meant so much to the community,” Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski said, as he gave them a locally crafted vase as a going-away gift just over a week before Chiang leaves West Lafayette to join Northwestern University as president.

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A NEW, OLD LOOK FOR THE LAFAYETTE THEATER MARQUEE

Restoration work on the Lafayette Theater marquee, an iconic downtown landmark at Sixth and Main street, received hesitant blessings of Indiana Landmarks and the Lafayette Historic Preservation Commission, provided that new video technology being incorporated into the sign is used to replicate the current look and nothing more.

The marquee restoration, part of a larger project to make exterior repairs to the city-owned theater’s façade, roof and entryways, got the certificate of appropriateness needed Monday night from the Historic Preservation Commission, on an 8-1 vote.

The approval came with a condition that the city draft a policy that will govern how video components display upcoming shows so it doesn’t fall back into, as an Indiana Landmarks official said, a rotating collection of streaming messages and time and temperature readings.

Instead, the digital video board would use a backdrop and fonts – with in black or red, only – as the lettering currently placed by hand across the front and two sides of the sign facing Main Street.

“The decision to approve that as part of the overall exterior renovation plans was a difficult one to make,” Tommy Kleckner, Indiana Landmarks Western Regional Office director, told the Historic Preservation Commission Monday.

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A few notes heading into a new week …

EARHART MURAL STARTS TO POP: Check out the progress through Sunday afternoon on Detroit-based artist Zach Curtis’ mural of aviator and Purdue legend Amelia Earhart on the west wall of Wanderlust Coffee at 835 Main St.

The project – started last week, featuring portraits of Earhart and the Purdue Research Foundation-funded Lockheed Electra 10-E the pilot was attempting to fly around the globe when she disappeared in 1937 – continued to dodge rain that came through Sunday afternoon and evening.

A mural dedication is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 23, at Wanderlust Coffee, 835 Main St. – though work might continue beyond that.

Here’s more about how the project came about and about Earhart’s role in Purdue history.

DIEGO MORALES BUMPED FOR THE GOP’S NOMINEE FOR SECRETARY OF STATE: Secretary of State Diego Morales, who has found himself a target of his own party and a string of disappearing high-profile endorsements in recent weeks, wound up an also-ran at this weekend’s Indiana Republican convention. Tom Davies, reporting for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, had this: “Indiana Republicans picked Max Engling on Saturday as their secretary of state candidate, capping a 31-day ascent from little-known political staffer to nominee for statewide office. Engling won the nomination on the state GOP convention’s second ballot, finishing ahead of Knox County Clerk David Shelton as incumbent Secretary of State Diego Morales came in a distant third. His victory puts him on the November election ballot against Democrat Beau Bayh, Libertarian Lauri Shillings and a likely independent bid by former Republican Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. Engling said despite the convention contest he was ready to extend Republican control of the office that oversees statewide voting practices.” Read the rest here: “Engling captures Republican bid for Indiana secretary of state.”

RECOUNT CONTINUES THIS WEEK IN INDIANA SENATE DISTRICT 23: Secretary of State Diego Morales might not be his party’s nominee, but he’s still chair of the Indiana Recount Commission, which is knee deep in a recount of state Sen. Spencer Deery’s three-vote victory over Republican challenger Paula Copenhaver for the GOP nomination in Indiana Senate District 23.

Just to recap: Deery’s margin of victory – 6,337-6,334 – remained the same from the May 5 Republican primary after the recount finished last week in Tippecanoe, Vermillion and Parke counties.

Next up are the three other counties included in Senate District 23: Montgomery County on Monday, June 22; Warren County on June 23; and Fountain County on June 25 and 26.

Last week, Evan Norris, a Zionsville attorney appointed recount director in Senate District 23 and two other races across the state, said he plans to assemble a report of the recount results, along with any disputes, and present that to the three-member Indiana Recount Commission. That hearing date hasn’t been set. Norris said it likely would come after two other recounts are finished by July 1, too.

Still in play: Copenhaver has challenged the results in precincts where her lawyers contend they’ve found evidence of left-leaning voters crossing over to pull a Republican ballot to sabotage her President Trump-backed campaign. Copenhaver’s challenge filed with the Indiana Recount Commission called it “tampering,” subverting a little-known state election law, asking to subpoena up to 14 voters to testify under oath about their votes. Deery’s campaign has called the demand egregious. Voters targeted for potential subpoenas have told Based in Lafayette they’re weighing their options if they are called to testify.

The three-member Indiana Recount Commission would decide what do about Copenhaver’s ballot disputes once this week’s recount is done.

For more on the stakes and the recount so far:

WBAA SIGNAL WILL BE SHARED IN THE REGION: Starting July 6, WBAA’s public radio signal out of West Lafayette will be simulcast with Lakeshore Public Media, based in Merrillville in Northwest Indiana. The move, announced last week, is another in a series of cost-cutting measures as public radio deals with cuts to funding and a 38% drop in revenue for Lakeshore Public Media.

“This simulcast represents a creative and collaborative solution to ensure public radio continues to serve our region,” Nancy Clifford, interim president and CEO of Lakeshore Public Media, said in an announcement posted on Lakeshore Public Media’s site. “While the funding landscape has changed, our mission has not. Partnering with WBAA allows us to maintain essential services while exploring sustainable paths forward.”

WBAA, which has been under WFYI’s umbrella in Indianapolis since Purdue turned over the station, won’t see changes in programming, according the announcement. Read more here.

SCHOOL BOARD AND PARTY LABELS: Last week’s deadline for school board elections in three Greater Lafayette districts didn’t produce the party labels a new state law was designed to nudge candidates to adopt. All candidates in Tippecanoe, Lafayette and West Lafayette school board races will appear with “non-partisan” tags on November ballots, rather than running under Republican, Democratic or Independent labels.

That wasn’t necessarily the case in Indianapolis-based school board races, according a report compiled by MJ Slaby at Chalkbeat. From Slaby’s reporting: “Of the 58 candidates competing for 31 seats on 10 school boards across Marion County, more than half decided to list a party affiliation, with 22 Democrats and 9 Republicans. Seven candidates are Independents and 20 chose to be nonpartisan. For Indianapolis Public Schools, 12 listed Democrat and two are Independents.” Here’s more from Chalkbeat.

And here’s more from a BiL edition from last week on who’s running in LSC, TSC and West Lafayette:

AND, IN CASE YOU MISSED IT …: After years of waiting on the return of the carousel at Lafayette’s Columbian Park, the reviews of the first rides Friday: ‘Glorious.’ Here’s more:

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

The new Columbian Park carousel cranked up for public rides for the first time Friday morning, returning a feature last seen in Lafayette’s central park more than a quarter-century ago.

“Just a glorious ride on a – look out there – glorious day,” Sandra Dale, a Lafayette resident who brought three grandchildren for rides after Friday’s ribbon-cutting, said. “It’s so nice to have this back.”

Crowds lined up at the carousel building, finished several years ago, to ride one of the 30 fiberglass animals on a 38-foot diameter carousel that had been through a series of fits and starts dating back nearly a decade.

“This is such a very special day that we have been working on and that I know, from being born and raised here in this community, means so much to generations of people before us and the ones going forward,” Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski said. “For many residents, the carousel has always been a special place in their memories of Columbian Park. … What excites me the most is knowing that this new carousel will help create new generations of memories.”

The last carousel was removed in 1998 as part of a Columbian Park renovation that included the addition of the Tropicanoe Cove aquatics center nearby.

A new park master plan that included the eventual renovations at Memorial Island and rebuild of Loeb Stadium had a carousel returning near its original spot – between entrances to Columbian Park Zoo and Tropicanoe Cove, just past the stadium wall in right-centerfield – in 2020.

That timetable was delayed twice, as companies brought in to do the work – including initial plans for carved, wooden carousel animals – weren’t able to deliver. The one delivered in time for Friday’s dedication was designed by San Franciso-based Barrango Carousels, featuring figures of a tiger, elephant, gorilla, snow leopard, giraffe and other more exotic animals beyond horses, along with two ADA chariot-style benches for riders.

The cost was roughly $780,000.

Claudine Laufman, Lafayette parks superintendent, said there’d been a steady drumbeat to bring back a carousel, nearly to when the original one was removed. The late Vic Klinker, a Lafayette Parks Board member for 39 years, was particularly persistent. “He asked about it all the time,” Laufman said. (State Rep. Sheila Klinker, Vic Klinker’s wife, was at the dedication and rode an elephant in one of the carousel’s first go-rounds Friday morning.)

Laufman said she received a cold call in 2019 from David Stevenson, a Lafayette business owner, who offered to donate the money needed for the carousel after reading about how it was part of Columbian Park’s renovation ideas. A plaque honoring David and Connie Stevenson’s contribution is on one of the carousel building walls.

Diane Stevenson Gorman, a daughter of the Stevensons, said her family would attend reunions in other Indiana communities that included trips to a carousel.

“Riding a carousel was always a cherished tradition,” Gorman said. “Those joyful memories inspired us to share our love of carousels and bless Columbian Park with one of its own.”

Laufman said the brick carousel house, built in 2022 for roughly $1.7 million, was designed with glass overhead doors for airflow on nice days and architecture that would blend in with the zoo and other Columbian Park attractions.

Laufman said the carousel was designed in the style of those made by the Dentzel Carousel Co. before the end of the 1920s, in particular one in Glen Echo Park in Montgomery County, Maryland. The carousel has nods to Lafayette history, including fleur-de-lis and stars painted on some of the ride’s animals.

“Things that tie it to Lafayette and the ‘Star City,’” Laufman said. “Those are slight details that make it unique to us.”

After a ride Friday, Gorman said her late mother, an artist, would have appreciated the color and feel for how it came together.

“My mom would have loved all that detail,” Gorman said. “She would have loved it all.”

• If you go: Rides on the new carousel will be free until 7 p.m. Friday, June 19. After that, they will cost $3, available from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. during the park’s peak season.

THIS AND THAT …

THOSE BATTLE GROUND DETOURS: Forgive the folks in Battle Ground if they’re feeling a bit more hemmed in than usual.

Pretty Prairie Road, northeast of Battle Ground, will be closed Monday, June 22, between Tyler Road and Grant Road, as the county begins work to decommission the Pretty Prairie dam, according to the county highway department. The Pretty Prairie dam is one of two the county targeted in 2022 for a local share of federal American Rescue Plan Act money. The other was Marsh Lake Dam along County Road 900 East. The project is expected to last until Oct. 20.

A couple of other projects are factoring into routes to and from Battle Ground:

• The bridge over the Wabash River, on North Ninth Street road near Davis Ferry, is in the midst of a series of closures. The first one, started at the beginning of June, was to allow crews to build a platform under the structure to do utility relocation. The second closure is scheduled to start in early September, according to the county highway department, and last until June 5, 2027. Work will include demolition and reconstruction of the bridge.

• The one-lane Indiana 225 bridge, east of Battle Ground, remains closed. Work started this spring on the 664-foot bridge built in 1912 after it had been closed for structural issues in 2022. The Indiana Department of Transportation said earlier this year that the bridge is expected to be ready to reopen by the end of 2027.

Make note if you’re heading to next weekend’s Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering at the Tippecanoe Battlefield in Battle Ground.

Speaking of which, for more details about the Fiddlers’ Gathering – along with other stuff coming up, including Saturday’s Taste of Tippecanoe in downtown Lafayette – check out this replay of Tim’s Picks.

A PIECE OF LBC: We’re over here debating over lots of branded glassware and assorted artifacts from the walls of Lafayette Brewing Co., now available in an online auction running through the next week. LBC closed Dec. 20 after more than three decades at 622 Main St. Not sure we’re ready to haul one of those second-floor pool tables down to ground level, but if you are … they’re ready for you. Bidding on memorabilia continues through 6 p.m. June 26, with bids on restaurant equipment running into noon June 27.

» While we’re on the subject of craft beer, the 14th annual Beers Across the Wabash – rebranded this year as Beers & More Along the Wabash, what with the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge expected to be closed to major events during renovations later this summer – is looking for volunteers for the Aug. 29 festival at Riehle Plaza in downtown Lafayette. To sign up, go to: https://forms.gle/AyiVuFHoPpGBYrq4A. For more about the event and for tickets, check: https://app.promotix.com/events/details/Beers-and-More-Along-the-Wabash-2026-tickets. Proceeds go to Food Finders Food Bank.

STILL IN PLAY: EXTEND YOUR BASED IN LAFAYETTE SUBSCRIPTION BY CHIPPING FOR CASAs FOR KIDS FUND

The 2026 edition of the Subaru CASA Cycling Challenge, a 24-hour event held Aug. 8-9 at the two-mile Subaru of Indiana Automotive test track in Lafayette, will again have a version of Bangert Brothers team there to put in some laps in support to the CASAs for Kids Fund here in Tippecanoe County. Trust us, we’re still getting organized, but we’ll be there.

The CASAs for Kids Fund is set up for abused or neglected kids who wind up in the court system and in foster care, offering funding for clothing, bedding, school band instruments, field trip or summer camp fees, dance class, equipment to join sports teams and other things the system can’t provide. The CASAs for Kids Fund gets them that stuff and gets them that much closer to a normal life as a kid. And fundraising tied to the 24-hour ride gets the CASAs for Kids Fund geared up for the next year.

Just like last year, I’ll add a free month to your full-access Based in Lafayette subscription for a donation of any amount to the Bangert Brothers team or team members.

In 2025, Based in Lafayette readers kicked in more than $5,400 to CASAs for Kids Fund, via the Bangert Brothers team.

If you’re game for the 2026 version, here’s the link.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

LITTLE COMPETITION, NO PARTISAN ‘R’ OR ‘D’ IN LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD RACES

A new Indiana law meant to push candidates to run partisan campaigns in school board elections didn’t find traction in Greater Lafayette’s three school districts by Thursday’s deadline to file to be on the November 2026 ballot.

The noon Thursday deadline showed candidates for Lafayette, West Lafayette and Tippecanoe school board all filing as non-partisan, when given the choice of running under Republican, Democratic or Libertarian labels.

One district will wind up with a vacancy on the ballot for one of its school board seats.

Here’s how things stack up.

Lafayette School Corp.

The school board will have no contested races and one vacancy after the November election, with three candidates filing for four seats. They are:

• District A: Gary Mueller.

• District B: Incumbent Brent Clemenz.

• District D: Incumbent Oscar Trujillo.

• District C: No candidate filed in District C, which covers much of the southern portion of LSC. Bob Stwalley, a longtime school board member, said it had been his intention to step down after this term. “However, no one else ran, either,” Stalley said Thursday. “Under Indiana law, I hold the position. I will do so for one year or so while we look for a suitable replacement.”

The LSC school board faced a similar issue in 2022, when then-board member Allison McKay fell short of the signatures required to get on the ballot. Her seat appeared with no candidate in that election. The school board, which under state law is responsible for filling vacancies, selected her to remain in the seat after the election. The school board would be charged with filling the District C seat after the 2026 general election.

Not filing for re-election in LSC: Current school board member Steve Bultinck, who lost a re-election bid in 2022 before being brought back to the board after McKay stepped down when she left the district. “At 70 years of age,” Bultinck said, “I feel it’s time for a younger generation to step in and am riding into the sunset.”

Tippecanoe School Corp.

Incumbents filed for re-election in the three seats on the November ballot. Each will face no challengers.

• District 1: Holly Keckler. District 1 includes Wabash Township and a portion of Shelby Township.

• District 2: Josh Loggins. District 2 includes Tippecanoe Township.

• District 3: William Sondgerath. District 3 includes Washington and Perry townships.

West Lafayette Community School Corp.

As the district looks to renew a property tax referendum in the general election, four candidates filed for three at-large seats on the ballot. They include: Incumbents Dacia Mumford and Laurence Wang, along with John Robinson and Maria Koliantz. The West Lafayette school board also is in the process of picking a replacement for Rachel Witt, who announced last week that she planned to step down July 31 because she’s moving from the district.

The Indiana election calendar gives the parties until noon July 3 to select candidates to fill vacancies on the general election ballot if there are any left from the primary. But that doesn’t apply to party vacancies for school board seats, according to Angie Nussmeyer, co-director of the Indiana Election Division.

Nussmeyer said the change in state law allows a party to fill an elected office vacancy should a Democratic or Republican school board member resign after taking office in 2027. She said that beside running as a write-in candidate, the school board filing period is closed.

INDIANA SENATE DISTRICT 23 RECOUNT UPDATE

Vote tallies did not change in Indiana Senate District 23 as a State Board of Accounts finished a review of ballots in two more counties Wednesday, according to candidates and precinct documents compiled by the recount director.

State Sen. Spencer Deery’s three-vote margin stands in the May 5 Republican primary against challenger Paula Copenhaver after the recount finished in Vermillion and Parke counties Wednesday. A recount in Tippecanoe County, the first of six counties in Senate District 23 done in the process, showed no changes to final numbers Tuesday, either.

The recount process went quickly enough Wednesday morning in Vermillion County that the team moved to Parke County to do work that day, rather than on Thursday, as previously scheduled.

Next up: Montgomery County on June 22; Warren County on June 23; and Fountain County on June 25 and 26.

Deery won the race by a count of 6,337-6,334. The winner of the race will face Democrat David Sanders and independent candidate Joshua Brant.

Copenhaver requested the recount. She also has challenged the results in precincts where her lawyers contend they’ve found evidence of left-leaning voters crossing over to pull a Republican ballot to sabotage her President Trump-backed campaign. Copenhaver’s challenge filed with the Indiana Recount Commission called it “tampering,” subverting a little-known state election law, asking to subpoena up to 14 voters to testify under oath about their votes. Deery’s campaign has called the demand egregious. Voters targeted for potential subpoenas have told Based in Lafayette they’re weighing their options if they are called to testify.

Earlier this week, Evan Norris, a Zionsville attorney appointed recount director in Senate District 23 and two other races across the state, said he plans to assemble a report of the recount results, along with any disputes, and present that to the three-member Indiana Recount Commission. That hearing date hasn’t been set. Norris said it likely would come after two other recounts are finished by July 1, too.

The three-member Indiana Recount Commission would decide what do about Copenhaver’s ballot disputes stemming from the recount.

For more

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

By Tim Brouk / For Based in Lafayette

Chauncie, Cicada and Bats Outta Hell, 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 19, North End Pub, 2100 Elmwood Ave., Lafayette — One of Purdue University’s longest standing bands is plying its trade on the east side of the Wabash River this summer. After rocking The Spot Tavern in May, Chauncie will present its funky pop rock stylings at North End Pub for the first time. While 60% of the band has already graduated from Purdue, the seniors left ensure more local gigs for this standout Boilermaker band. Chauncie will join fellow West Lafayette rockers Bats Outta Hell and youthful Lafayette jam band Cicada. $10.

Taste of Tippecanoe, 5-11 p.m. Saturday, June 20, downtown Lafayette — Like the perfect menu, the Taste of Tippecanoe has something for everyone both in terms of eats and beats. The 2026 edition of one of downtown Lafayette’s biggest summer festivals will showcase 33 local and area restaurants, food trucks, breweries and wineries.

The hungry ones will have meats (City Barbecue, Kokomo Meat Market), sweets (Beverly Ann’s Cookie Truck, Gibson’s Shaved Ice, Glover’s Ice Cream, Kona Ice, Something Sweet), Italian (Paretta’s), Mexican (Dos Amigos, Gaba’s Tacos, Gordo’s Truck, Nom Nom Tacos), Indian (Taste of India), Korean (Bibibop, Flaming Kuma), soul food (Honey’s), pizza (Arni’s, HotBox, Wildfire 348), Indiana favorites (Digby’s Pub and Patio, Jake’s) and much more to choose from. Thirsty ones will have People’s Brewing Company, Capo Wine Bar, Latea, The Old School Tap, Thieme & Wagner Brewery, Wildcat Creek Winery and Travelin’ Tom’s Coffee Truck. With all that drinking and eating, everyone better boogie those calories off to the sounds of pop-country (Levi Riggs), blues-rock (Jason Wells Band), acoustic guitar virtuosity (Michael Kelsey Band), R&B (Tonio Darnell), big band (Indianapolis’ Hickey Shanafelt 9ollective), dance music (DJs Los and MMJ), and more. With this buffet for the senses, the most important aspect of the Taste is that proceeds go to The Arts Federation and the organization’s mission to provide financial support for artists and arts organizations in 14 surrounding counties as well as arts programming and classes at the downtown visual and performing arts venue.

Depot Stage

• 5 p.m. — Dream Slice

• 6:30 p.m. — Hickey Shanafelt 9ollective

• 8 p.m. — Levi Riggs

• 9:30 p.m. — Michael Kelsey Band

Market Stage

• 5:15 p.m. — Victor Lee & the Fluffy Biscuits

• 6:45 p.m. — Tonio Darnell

• 8:15 p.m. — Jason Wells Band

• 9:45 p.m. — Jennie DeVoe

Digby’s Pub & Patio

• 5 p.m. — Joe Deckard

• 6 p.m. — Kyle Bellinger

• 7 p.m. — Briton Weise

Taste After Dark Stage

• 8 p.m. — DJs Los and MMJ

Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering, June 26-28, Tippecanoe Battlefield, Battle Ground — Now under the fine direction of Mom&Pop Productions, the 2026 Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering is bringing the star power this summer. Headlining the weekend long festival is Grammy Award winner Michael Cleveland, a blind fiddler whose fireworks on the fingerboard would have sent him viral a zillion times over if YouTube and social media existed back in the 1990s when he was first discovered as a 13-year-old prodigy who electrified on an episode of “Grand Ole Opry.” Check out this amazing video of a young Cleveland jamming backstage with Doc Watson, the legendary bluegrass guitarist and vocalist. This is a huge get for the Gathering and Greater Lafayette in general. Also joining in on the fiddlin’ fun will be Michigan hot jazz ensemble Djangophonique, Tennessee old-time dance band Stones River Reelers, returning Eastern European gypsy punk band Fugu Dugu, and loads of local pickers and fiddlers populating open stages and workshops throughout. Daily tickets and weekend passes.

June 26

• 7 p.m. — Bahler’s Golden Age

• 8 p.m. — Djangophonique

• 9 p.m. — Stones River Reelers

• 10 p.m. — Steam Machine

June 27

(Free events)

• 9 a.m. — Workshops

• 10 a.m. — Children’s concert with Mark Lyons

• 10:50 a.m. — Children’s concert with Bobcat Opossum

• Noon — Open stage

(Ticketed)

• 2 p.m. — Zacbé Pichardo and Irekani Ferreyra

• 3 p.m. — Stones River Reelers

• 4 p.m. — Travelers Dream

• 5 p.m. — Bobcat Opossum

• 6 p.m. — Square dance (free)

• 7 p.m. — Steam Machine

• 8 p.m. — Djangophonique

• 9 p.m. — Ashlee Watkins & Andrew Small

• 10 p.m. — Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper

June 28

(Donations only)

• 10 a.m. — Workshops

• Noon — Open stage

• 1 p.m. — Mark Stoffel’s Kitchen Table Crew

• 2 p.m. — Ashlee Watkins and Andrew Small

• 3 p.m. — Fugu Dugu

• 4 p.m. — Sendoff jam / Farewell / Closing bell

Pride Is a Protest drag show, 9 p.m. June 26, The Spot Tavern, 409 S. Fourth St., Lafayette — It’s pretty punk rock to be a drag performer these days with the current political regimes in Indianapolis and Washington, D.C., which is why an upcoming drag event will not only entertain but unite. “Pride Is a Protest” will feature drag queens and kings performing their routines with the mindfulness of protest being at the heart of Pride. Some of the early activists of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement were drag performers and this event will pay tribute. But it will also look ahead to overcoming homophobic policies and agendas of today. Indianapolis beatmaker DJ Flyyweight will supply the beats with Petra Sematary, Sister Salacious, Gussy and Ultraviolet slated to perform. $10.

The Band Loula, 7:30 p.m. June 27, Long Center for the Performing Arts, 111 N. Sixth St., Lafayette — With Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering picking in Battle Ground, downtown Lafayette will provide a bluegrass experience too. Georgia duo The Band Loula will make its local debut on the historic Long Center stage. Friends not lovers Logan Simmons and Malachi Mills perform a stripped-down sound that showcases the musicians’ tight vocal harmonies. The band made its “Grand Ole Opry” debut a year ago after successful opening slots for the likes of Dierks Bentley, Zach Top, Elle King, Ashley McBryde and Brothers Osborne. One Osborne, John, co-produced The Band Loula’s first EP, “Sweet Southern Summer,” along with Greg Biek (Little Big Town). $31-$53. Tickets.

BONUS CUTS …

Greater Lafayette’s Juneteenth 2026, 1-5 p.m. Saturday, June 20, Lafayette’s Columbian Park. The Hanna Center hosts the annual celebration of Juneteenth, marking the day, on June 19, 1865, when word of the Emancipation Proclamation was delivered to Galveston, Texas. President Abraham Lincoln had proclaimed the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States as of Jan. 1, 1863, more than two years earlier. Texas was the last Confederate state to have the proclamation announced. Saturday’s event, dubbed “Sounds of Freedom,” will feature music, storytelling, free food, family activities, a Double Dutch demonstration and a resource fair. Free. For more details, go to juneteenthgl.com.

Summer Movie Night Series: “Back to the Future,” 9 p.m. Friday, June 19, Tippecanoe County Amphitheater, 4449 Indiana 43 North, West Lafayette. Admission to the 1985 flick is free, with donations of personal care and hygiene products, clothing, household essentials, child care items (diapers, wipe, school supplies) or non-perishable food items for local nonprofit agencies. Gates open at 8 p.m., with food trucks and free popcorn on hand. For more details, go to Summer Movie Night Series on Facebook.

Tim Brouk is a longtime arts and entertainment reporter. He writes here (almost) weekly, tracking things to do for Based in Lafayette.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

Zach Curtis, a Michigan-based artist behind the mural of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and John F. Kennedy that peeked out over the corner of Main and Seventh streets in 2025, is back in downtown for the next week to work on a new mural – this one of aviator and Purdue legend Amelia Earhart.

Curtis spent Wednesday morning spraying two coats of primer on the two-story block wall outside 835 Main St., home of Wanderlust Coffee Roaster, as he tried to beat the rain to get prep work done for what’s expected to be a week’s worth of work.

He said the next rounds would be painting a background before getting into a few days of sketching and then into the rest of the mural.

“The boring things, now,” Curtis said while working from a lift Wednesday morning. “The fun stuff after that.”

Plans for the Earhart mural came shortly after Curtis finished work of the Douglass/Lincoln/Kennedy piece in October 2025, as a project commissioned by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the city and others.

“After that one was up, we received a lot of positive feedback – it was so great,” Diana Vice, a DAR member helping to head up the mural project, said this week. “We heard from a lot people who said they appreciated it, too, but what about the great ladies of Lafayette?”

Read more

Timing is everything: Scapes and snap peas

By Carol Bangert/For Based in Lafayette

In Robin Wall Kimmerer’s thoughtful little book “The Serviceberry,” the author, describing Indigenous peoples, writes, “Instead of changing the land to suit their convenience, they changed themselves. Eating with the season is a way of honoring abundance, by going to meet it when and where it arrives.”

Isn’t that precisely what the farmers market invites us to do?

Sure, you can shop “seasonal” produce at the grocery store, but was it grown locally? Or did it cross time zones to find you? I promise that nothing a grocery store has to offer, no matter how beautiful and ripe and alluring it may look, compares to something in-season and fresh from the ground. A few beautiful examples are here for a short time at our farmers markets, and now’s the time to honor their abundance.

Don’t let these escape

Several farmers displayed bunches of stunning, bright green shoots. At first, I thought these were out-of-control spring onions. Wrong. These were garlic scapes, the green stalks that emerge from the center of garlic bulbs. Scapes have a subtle garlic flavor and are great in myriad dishes. Every farmer I spoke to was happy to talk about them.

Brittani Atchley of Atchley Farm uses raw scapes scattered atop soups and pizzas; sautéed with asparagus; or lightly battered and fried. Chad Scott at Bear Fruit Farm uses the larger shoots in pestos and the smaller ones in sautés or on the grill. “They are great in stir fries and Asian cuisines. Try them blanched with soy sauce,” he suggests.

To store, wash the scapes, cut off the tough bottoms, place them in an unsealed plastic bag in the fridge, and they’ll last a few weeks. You also can place them in a jar of water in the fridge (like you would asparagus) with similar results. They can be frozen as well. Scapes are in season now through mid-summer. I’m guessing you won’t find garlic scapes at the supermarket, so pick some up while they’re around.

Snap these up

I was thrilled to see the first sugar snap peas of the season at the market. These pudgy green pods are a quintessential taste of late spring – trust me, the bag you pick up at the grocery store doesn’t stand a chance against snap peas fresh from the field. If you’re new to snap peas, don’t waste your time removing the peas from the pod. The pod is edible, although you’ll want to remove the stringy membrane along the seam. They are great raw with hummus or just a sprinkle of salt. Serve them raw on a crudité, blanched, sautéed or roasted. In my opinion, though, the less you mess with snap peas, the better.

J. Abby Abbott-Rider at Thistle Byre Farm has edible pea pods, which are pale green and curvy, but they are essentially snap peas. Abbott-Rider likes them raw, steamed and in stir fries. The vendor at the Weathered Plow suggests enjoying snap peas with ranch dressing (probably a great strategy for beginners), roasted or sautéed.

This cool-season crop won’t be around for long, so grab some while you can. Store sugar snap peas in a sealed bag in the fridge. They’ll last about a week, but I’m betting they’ll be gone by then.

Consider including these in your meal plans:

• Cabbage: Don’t overlook this hefty spring veg. Cabbage is delicious steamed, roasted, sautéed or turned into sauerkraut. Cabbage is a space hog, so store it on your countertop until ready to use. Refrigerate any left over. Chop a head of cabbage into large chunks and freeze them raw. They are a great addition to a winter minestrone when the snow is flying in January.

• Bok choy: Daniel Fagerstrom of Fairstream Farms calls bok choy “the most versatile green you can use.” It’s great fresh – treat it like celery with a smear of peanut butter – and works beautifully in stir fries, soups and sautés. Bok choy is a nutritional powerhouse, and Fagerstrom dubs it “the calcium queen.” The greens store well in the fridge for weeks.

• White beets: Scott of Bear Fruit Farm pointed out fresh-picked white beets. Not as earthy as familiar red beets, the white variety is sweet and makes a beautiful puree. Added bonus: working with white beets won’t leave you looking like a knife-wielding serial killer.

In the next Market Report: Facing my garden nemesis.

Other early June produce at the market includes:

• Asparagus

• Cabbage

• Bok choy

• Baby carrots

• Beets

• Red and green onions

• Garlic and garlic scapes

• Radishes

• Salad turnips

• Bok choy

• Greens (kale, mustard, arugula, lettuce varieties)

• Lots of herbs ready to pot or place in your garden (Mint, oregano, basil, cilantro, sage, lavender, thyme, chives)

• Rhubarb (near the end of the season)

• Strawberries

• The first green beans

DAYS/HOURS FOR THE MARKETS

West Lafayette Farmers Market: 3:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, through October. The market is held at Cumberland Park in West Lafayette with more than 50 vendors.

Lafayette Farmers Market: 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturdays, through October, on Fifth Street between Columbia Street and mid-block to Ferry Street, and Main Street between Fourth and Sixth streets.

Purdue Farmers Market: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursdays, through October. The Purdue Farmers Market is held on the Memorial Mall on Purdue’s campus. This market is a concession-heavy market that allows students, faculty and staff to have lunch options in a unique outdoor setting.

Carol Bangert, editor of Greater Lafayette Magazine, has been a regular at Greater Lafayette farmers markets for more than 20 years. From May through October, she’ll scout out in-season produce at the markets and report back on fresh finds and how to use them.

THIS AND THAT …

POSTPONED: THE RETURN OF THE COLUMBIAN PARK CAROUSEL: We all know you’re excited to check out the long-awaited return of the carousel at Lafayette’s Columbian Park. But hang on.

The city is pulling back on Wednesday’s grand opening in anticipation of heavy weather through the day.

A ribbon cutting is now set for 10 a.m. Friday, June 19, at the recently built carousel building between the entrances to the Columbian Park Zoo and Tropicanoe Cove. Rides the rest of the day will be free.

After Friday, rides will cost $3, available from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. during the park’s peak season. The park has been without a carousel since 1998, when the original was removed for Columbian Park’s renovations. Designed by Barrango Carousels, the new carousel features 30 hand-crafted animal figures and two ADA chariot-style benches for riders.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

RECOUNT STARTS WITH COPENHAVER’S BALLOT DISPUTES IN INDIANA SENATE DISTRICT 23

Paula Copenhaver’s legal team set their strategy Tuesday in the first of six counties targeted for an Indiana Senate District 23 recount expected to last until at least June 25 – with results not determined until a week or more after that in what, for now, stands as a three-vote victory for state Sen. Spencer Deery in the May 5 Republican primary.

Over the course of seven hours in downtown Lafayette, Copenhaver’s backers disputed all ballots cast in six of the 32 Tippecanoe County precincts in the sprawling state Senate district, each containing some of the 14 voters her campaign singled out and accused of tampering with the primary by illegally crossing over and pulling Republican ballots to upend her Trump-backed campaign.

Evan Norris, a Zionsville attorney appointed recount director in Senate District 23 and two other races across the state, did not release the final, precinct-by-precinct tallies of Tuesday’s work, before dozens of State Board of Accounts headed for Newport in Vermillion County for the second day of the recount Wednesday.

But Ted Nolting, an attorney for Copenhaver, and Samantha DeWester, representing Deery in the recount, said tallies remained the same in the race as those that the Tippecanoe County Election Board certified May 15.

Deery won the race by a count of 6,337-6,334.

Copenhaver’s primary run featured the former Fountain County clerk as Trump’s pick to go after Deery, a West Lafayette Republican, for his opposition of mid-decade redistricting that the president and White House allies wanted to see happen in hopes of beefing up Republican seats in the U.S. House. The race drew unprecedented campaign spending, including dark money estimates of more than $2 million aimed at Deery and $3 million overall. (By comparison, Deery’s contested primary in 2022 just topped six figures.)

Deery was one of two Republican state senators who survived being targeted by Trump-backed candidates. Five others lost in the May 5 primary.

Deery and Copenhaver did not attend Tuesday’s recount.

Beyond a straight rerun of ballots in the Senate District 23 primary, Copenhaver is challenging the election, saying voters violated a little-used state law when they pulled ballots.

Indiana allows someone to pick a party’s primary ballot when they arrive at the polls. State law, though, stipulates that that they are supposed to pick a ballot that matches a majority of that party’s candidates in the last general election or intend to back that party’s candidates in the upcoming election. That state law, rarely if ever employed, provides a way to challenge someone at the polling place looking to pull a crossover ballot, requiring the challenger, poll workers and the voter to sign affidavits before the voter is given a provisional ballot.

Copenhaver’s attorneys contend there are ways to challenge a crossover voter after the polls close, too, arguing that “as with most constitutional rights, however, ballot secrecy is not absolute.” In this case, they argued that voters singled out in Copenhaver’s challenge were left-leaning, non-Republicans who made comments on social media or in a post-election edition of Based in Lafayette that “are indicative of a purposeful effort by one or more individuals to personally cast and/or to encourage other to cast invalid votes for candidate Deery.”

Copenhaver’s team has asked the Indiana Recount Commission to subpoena 11 of the 14 voters initially called out and have them testify under oath about who they voted for. (Her attorneys have backed off somewhat after grabbing names of three people who commented on social media accounts despite that they live and apparently voted in a neighboring state Senate district.)

DeWester repeated Tuesday that the demand was outrageous.

No decision on the disputed ballots were made Tuesday. Norris said the same would go for any disputes filed when the recount process goes to Vermillion County on Wednesday; Parke County on Thursday; Mongomery County on June 22; Warren County on June 23; and Fountain County on June 25 and 26.

Norris said at the end of that schedule, he would assemble a report of the recount results, along with any disputes, and present that to the three-member Indiana Recount Commission. That hearing date hasn’t been set. Norris said it likely would come after two other recounts are finished by July 1, too.

“All those disputed ballots will be sent to the Recount Commission, and it will be up to the parties that disputed it to bring up their arguments as to why that ballot should or shouldn’t count,” Norris said Tuesday.

Timelines laid out by Norris in an order issued a week ago gave both sides until June 26 to file responses or objection to Copenhaver’s demand to make voters testify. He said Tuesday that it would be up to the Recount Commission to make the call about whether to issue subpoenas.

Tuesday’s recount was slow going early, as staff from the State Board of Accounts found its footing.

“Now that the team has gotten this one under its belt, I think the process will go smoother,” Norris said.

Indiana State Police troopers were stationed in the Tippecanoe County Office Building to guard the process and the ballot materials.

Secretary of State Diego Morales, who is one of three Indiana Recount Commission members, briefly stopped in downtown Lafayette to observe the process and then to speak to State Board of Accounts staffers doing the recount during a closed-door session over carryout lunches.

For more coverage

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

Q&A: A NEXT STEP THIS WEEK IN COMMUNITY PLEDGE ON HOMELESSNESS

A grassroots effort started more than a year ago to take on homelessness in Greater Lafayette and the problems that come with it takes another step this week.

Lafayette Urban Ministry and other local nonprofits will host a series of sessions Wednesday and Thursday with James Mathy, housing administrator for Milwaukee County in Wisconsin, to discuss concepts used in his county to help find suitable housing for more people who don’t have it.

Mathy was featured in “Beyond the Bridge: A Solution to Homelessness,” a documentary that spurred a recent push for a community pledge to end homelessness in Greater Lafayette.

As part of his visit, Mathy will be at community open forum from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, at Connection Point Church, 2541 Cumberland Ave. in West Lafayette. He also will be part of discussions tailored for healthcare, government, business, judicial and other leaders this week.

For more details and free tickets, go to: www.lumserve.org/beyond-the-bridge.

Pablo Malavenda, part of the Greater Lafayette Beyond the Bridge Steering Committee, said the hope is the Mathy will offer more traction to the local push by offering ideas that have worked in other places.

Here, Malavenda tells how the community effort, with hundreds of people signed on the community pledge, has gone and where it’s going next.

Question: For those unfamiliar, how did the Greater Lafayette Leadership Council on Homelessness come about, and how does the Beyond the Bridge series of discussions fit in with that?

Pablo Malavenda: In 2024, a small group of local service providers, including myself, attended a screening of “Beyond the Bridge: A Solution to Homelessness” in Indianapolis. It was a powerful experience and an encouraging example of what was possible. As we left, there was a shared sense that this conversation was great news for Indianapolis, but it needed to happen in Greater Lafayette too.

I reached out to the filmmakers through social media and learned it would be possible to bring the film here. From there, I began conversations about forming a local steering committee. The response was immediate and enthusiastic – especially with the members of the Greater Lafayette Homelessness Prevention & Intervention Network.

Each step of the way, we set simple goals and hoped the community would respond. The initial goal was modest: form a steering committee, raise funds and host a screening during National Homelessness Awareness Month in November. The response exceeded expectations. Community leaders quickly stepped forward to serve on the committee, support the effort and help raise the necessary funds. Not only did we meet our goal, we surpassed it. More importantly, the community showed up — hundreds of people from across sectors came together, engaged deeply and demonstrated a clear desire to understand and be part of solutions.

The defining moment came at the close of the November 2025 screening. Instead of ending, the conversation continued. People stayed, formed small groups, asked questions and immediately began discussing what action could look like locally. The shift from awareness to problem-solving was unmistakable. That moment made it clear this was about more than a film screening. It marked the beginning of a broader community conversation that continues today.

That momentum carried into a Community Open Forum in March 2026, which brought together more than 150 participants. The forum focused on understanding the local homelessness response system, identifying gaps and strengthening coordination across sectors. It became a working session for the community — moving beyond awareness toward alignment, collaboration and next steps.

Question: How many people took the community pledge?

Pablo Malavenda: The Beyond the Bridge Community Pledge has been signed by nearly 200 individuals, with approximately 90% residing in Tippecanoe County. Signatories include elected officials, service providers, faith leaders, business leaders, university representatives, healthcare professionals and other community members who believe Greater Lafayette can do more to address homelessness.

Question: And what’s the expectation for those who signed on?

Pablo Malavenda: To clarify, the pledge serves a specific purpose, but if the question is, “What’s the expectation for those who signed on?” – the answer is simple: become more actively involved — this week and beyond. Signing the pledge is an important first step, but meaningful change will require ongoing engagement from individuals across the community.

The purpose of the pledge is to demonstrate community support for the formation of the Greater Lafayette Leadership Council on Homelessness. Homelessness is a complex challenge that no single organization, government agency, or sector can solve alone. If our community is serious about ending homelessness, the next step is clear: creating a Greater Lafayette Leadership Council on Homelessness that brings leaders together around a shared vision, common goals and coordinated action.

The proposed Leadership Council would be a cross-sector body of civic, business, healthcare, nonprofit, philanthropic, government, faith and lived-experience leaders dedicated to advancing a communitywide strategy to prevent and end homelessness. The council would not replace existing organizations or services. Rather, it would align efforts, identify priorities, remove barriers, strengthen collaboration and track progress toward measurable outcomes.

The steering committee has identified the formation of a Greater Lafayette Leadership Council on Homelessness as the logical next step in the “Beyond the Bridge” movement. The film screening, community open forum, pledge campaign and community conversations with James Mathy have all been building toward this moment. Greater Lafayette has the compassion, expertise and resources needed to make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring. The question is not whether we care. The question is whether we are ready to take the next step.

Question: Since those initial discussions, where do things stand? What has been accomplished so far?

Pablo Malavenda: The steering committee regularly brings together CEOs, executive directors, faith leaders, healthcare professionals, service providers, business leaders, and local and state elected officials. Just as importantly, the conversations have moved beyond awareness and toward solutions.

We have developed a shared understanding of the issues, common language for discussing homelessness and a set of emerging goals that unite people from very different sectors. Along the way, relationships have been built, partnerships have formed and several collaborative efforts have emerged outside of the committee itself. Participants now have a much better understanding of one another’s work and how their organizations fit into the broader community response.

We have also benefited from ongoing guidance from the filmmakers behind “Beyond the Bridge,” Don Sawyer and Tim Hashko, who continue to participate in meetings and provide encouragement and expertise. In addition, our network has expanded beyond Greater Lafayette to include valuable connections with leaders, service providers and advocates in Indianapolis and throughout Indiana.

In many ways, the foundation is being built before the structure itself. While the Greater Lafayette Leadership Council on Homelessness has not yet been formally established, the relationships, trust, shared vision, and community support needed for its success are steadily taking shape.

Question: How does James Mathy’s visit this week fit in with that?

Pablo Malavenda: James Mathy’s visit is really about moving from conversation to action.

Over the past 18 months, the steering committee has worked to build awareness, relationships and community support. Now the challenge is engaging the broader community and bringing key stakeholders together around a shared strategy. If Greater Lafayette is going to make meaningful progress on homelessness, it will require support from across sectors — local government, the judiciary, housing providers, healthcare systems, businesses, faith communities, law enforcement, philanthropy and people with lived experience.

We are fortunate to have many outstanding programs and dedicated organizations already doing important work. The challenge is not a lack of compassion or effort. The challenge is coordination — creating a system that can rapidly move people from homelessness to stable housing while providing the support needed for long-term success. This can be accomplished with the formation of the Greater Lafayette Leadership Council on Homelessness.

James Mathy brings credibility because he has done this work. He has spent decades in the trenches, helping lead efforts in Milwaukee that reduced homelessness by 45 percent. He has also worked with communities across the country and has seen firsthand what works, what doesn’t and what it takes to build an effective, coordinated response.

In many ways, our message to the community is simple: don’t just take our word for it, and don’t rely solely on what you saw in a documentary. Come hear directly from someone who has achieved measurable results. Ask questions. Challenge assumptions. Engage in the conversation. If we are serious about ending homelessness in Greater Lafayette, there is tremendous value in learning from someone who has helped other communities do exactly that.

Question: What are your hopes for the conversation this week and where it will lead?

Pablo Malavenda: Like every stage of this process, our goal is fairly simple: bring the right people together and build the commitment needed to take the next step.

If Greater Lafayette is serious about ending homelessness, leaders from government, housing, healthcare, economic development, planning, philanthropy, faith communities and homelessness services must work from a shared strategy. Our hope is that these conversations create the momentum necessary to form a high-functioning, engaged Greater Lafayette Leadership Council on Homelessness.

We are seeing this model work in other communities, including Indianapolis, where strong partnerships among local government, philanthropy, service providers and faith leaders have helped drive meaningful progress. The lesson is that no single organization can solve homelessness alone.

There are still important questions to answer. What organization should convene or support the Leadership Council? What resources will be needed to sustain the work? How do we ensure accountability and long-term commitment? Those are exactly the kinds of conversations this week is intended to advance.

Success is not necessarily leaving with all the answers. Success is leaving with a stronger commitment from community leaders to move forward together. If these conversations lead to the formation of a Leadership Council and the beginning of a communitywide strategic planning process, that would be a tremendous step forward for Greater Lafayette and a clear signal that our community is committed to making homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring.

Question: How can people get involved, both this week and beyond?

Pablo Malavenda: There are several ways people can get involved, starting this week.

First, attend the Community Open Forum with James Mathy on Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Connection Point Church in West Lafayette. It is an opportunity to hear from a nationally recognized leader who has helped communities achieve measurable reductions in homelessness and to be part of the conversation about what is possible in Greater Lafayette.

Second, sign the Beyond the Bridge Community Pledge. The pledge demonstrates public support for a coordinated, community-wide effort to prevent and end homelessness.

Third, help spread the word. Invite colleagues, friends, neighbors, and community leaders to attend events, learn more, and engage in the conversation. Share information on social media and encourage others to get involved.

Beyond this week, we hope people will continue to elevate this issue in their spheres of influence. Talk about it at civic meetings, professional associations, faith communities, candidate forums, neighborhood gatherings and public meetings. Encourage elected officials, business leaders, university partners, healthcare professionals and faith leaders to be part of the solution.

One of the most encouraging things we have learned over the past 18 months is how many people believe Greater Lafayette can do this. Communities such as Houston, Milwaukee and Indianapolis have demonstrated that coordinated leadership and shared commitment can make a real difference. We believe Greater Lafayette has the talent, compassion, and resources to do the same. But it will take all of us moving from awareness to action.

Question: What other context should people know?

Pablo Malavenda: One thing people should understand is that this effort did not begin with a government initiative, a major grant or a formal organization. It started with a small group of people who traveled to Indianapolis to watch a documentary and came back convinced that Greater Lafayette could have a different conversation about homelessness.

What has happened since then has been entirely community-driven. A group of people came together voluntarily to form a steering committee, raise the necessary funds, and organize events that have been offered free of charge to participants. No one on the steering committee is being compensated for this work. Many of us do it in addition to our full-time jobs because we believe it is important for our community.

Another important point is that this effort is not about criticizing what already exists. In fact, one of the biggest lessons we have learned is how many outstanding organizations, programs and dedicated professionals are already working to address homelessness in Greater Lafayette. Our community has tremendous compassion, expertise and resources.

The conversation has always been about building on those strengths. The goal is to educate, raise awareness, strengthen relationships and explore how we can better coordinate our efforts around a shared vision. Along the way, organizations and leaders have set aside territorial interests and focused on what is best for the community.

Perhaps the most surprising thing has been the response. We hoped people would engage, but we did not anticipate the level of interest, commitment and optimism we have seen over the past 18 months. That tells us people believe progress is possible. They see examples from communities like Houston, Milwaukee and Indianapolis, and they believe Greater Lafayette has the potential to achieve similar results if we are willing to work together.

At its core, this movement is built on a simple idea: homelessness is solvable, and now is the right time for Greater Lafayette to take the next step.

• If you go: For more details and free tickets for the Beyond the Bridge community forum, 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, go to: www.lumserve.org/beyond-the-bridge.

THIS AND THAT …

THE RETURN OF THE COLUMBIAN PARK CAROUSEL: The long-awaited carousel at Columbian Park will open Wednesday evening with free rides for its grand opening. Columbian Park will host the event from 5-8 p.m. at the recently built carousel building between the entrances to the Columbian Park Zoo and Tropicanoe Cove. The city will cut a ribbon at 6 p.m., with free rides after that. Starting Thursday, June 18, rides will cost $3, available from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. during the park’s peak season. The park has been without a carousel since 1998, when the original was removed for Columbian Park’s renovations. Designed by Barrango Carousels, the new carousel features 30 hand-crafted animal figures and two ADA chariot-style benches for riders.

EXTEND YOUR BASED IN LAFAYETTE SUBSCRIPTION BY CHIPPING FOR CASAs FOR KIDS FUND

The 2026 edition of the Subaru CASA Cycling Challenge, a 24-hour event held Aug. 8-9 at the two-mile Subaru of Indiana Automotive test track in Lafayette, will again have a version of Bangert Brothers team there to put in some laps in support to the CASAs for Kids Fund here in Tippecanoe County. Trust us, we’re still getting organized, but we’ll be there.

The CASAs for Kids Fund is set up for abused or neglected kids who wind up in the court system and in foster care, offering funding for clothing, bedding, school band instruments, field trip or summer camp fees, dance class, equipment to join sports teams and other things the system can’t provide. The CASAs for Kids Fund gets them that stuff and gets them that much closer to a normal life as a kid. And fundraising tied to the 24-hour ride gets the CASAs for Kids Fund geared up for the next year.

Just like last year, I’ll add a free month to your full-access Based in Lafayette subscription for a donation of any amount to the Bangert Brothers team or team members.

In 2025, Based in Lafayette readers kicked in more than $5,400 to CASAs for Kids Fund, via the Bangert Brothers team.

If that sounds like a deal for 2026, here’s the link.

For more information about the event, check here.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

MEDIA, PUBLIC ASKED TO LEAVE HEARING CONNECTED TO JUDGE’S SHOOTING

A pretrial hearing for Thomas Moss, a Lafayette man at the center of an alleged plot that included the Jan. 18 attempted murder of Tippecanoe Superior Court Judge Steve Meyer, was closed to the public Friday morning to discuss what a judge said was a “very contained topic” that could affect the potential jury pool.

Cass County Superior Court Judge Lisa Swaim asked media and other public to log out of a Friday morning hearing over Zoom, after Moss’ attorney and a deputy prosecutor agreed that the matter – not identified on the public-facing docket, specifically referenced in court or identified as whether presented by the prosecution or the defense – was best discussed in a closed session.

“I don’t talk about this even lightly in any way, shape or form,” Swaim said before asking anyone other than Moss or the attorneys to leave a video session in her Cass County courtroom.

“I believe the public has a right to know and right to see all of the aspects of a public trial like this,” Swaim said. “But I’m also very careful about the administration of justice, in terms of anything that might affect the possible venire.”

Deputy prosecutor Elyse Madigan said the substance likely will “become more public down the line.” Moss’ attorney, Mike Cunningham, after speaking privately with Madigan by phone, said the matter could affect his ability to represent Moss.

Swaim pointed to two cases as precedent for closing the hearing.

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DEMANDS MOUNT FOR ‘NO KINGS’ ACCOUNTING ON POLICING FOR MARCHES

A Tippecanoe County Council member this week fended off accusations of conflict of interest for her role in organizing No Kings demonstrations, as a group of residents continued to press for an accounting of the public safety costs put into setup and security for a series of local marches tied to nationwide events since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in 2025.

Lisa Dullum, a Democrat who represents the West Lafayette-based District 4 on the county council, said during a council meeting Tuesday that her work with Greater Lafayette Indivisible wasn’t in conflict with her elected role on the county’s fiscal body – including when it came time to be in the room with police and others as they came up with security plans for march routes ahead of No Kings events.

Dullum also pushed back on insinuations that demonstrators, backed by free speech and assembly protections in the First Amendment, should have to pay for policing and other services. She said she took that as, essentially, an effort to shut down certain kinds of protests.

Frank Hannan, a Wabash Township resident who has spent recent months raising questions about the costs of No Kings marches and other demonstrations, says he wasn’t trying to stop anything. But he said he questioned whether a county council member – someone who wields some power to get things done at the county level – who also is the organizer of an event that will call for police overtime and other costs is a conflict of interest.

“I have never once questioned anyone or any group’s right to hold these protests,” Hannan, who is running as a Republican for Wabash Township Board in the November election, said. “I have continually urged county officials to provide protesters, residents and businesses the maximum protection being necessary.”

Hannan, who said he didn’t agree with the messages carried by the No Kings marches, and others have used public comment portions of county council and city council meetings on both sides of the river to ask about the costs of protests and press for local budgets to include line items in coming years to anticipate and account for future marches. He also has questioned who has been in charge of selecting march routes and whether protests need to wind through both cities and around the courthouse, which forces resources from Lafayette, West Lafayette and the county to be involved.

“I have asked for transparency,” Hannan said. “I have championed the rights of residents and taxpayers to know how much the protests are costing them, and that’s all I have done.”

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What are you up to this weekend? It starts here with …

By Tim Brouk / For Based in Lafayette

Lafayette Citizens Band with Lafayette Flute Choir, 6:40 p.m. Thursday, June 11, Columbian Park Stage — The Monsters of Lafayette Community Bands might be pushing it but still there will be almost 100 musicians on-stage tonight when the Lafayette Citizens Band and Lafayette Flute Choir team up again for a free concert on the Columbian Park Stage. Summer is here and the musicians will offer family-friendly summer tunes in the beautiful setting of Lafayette’s historic park.

“Helden Horns,” 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 11, Rat Pak Venue, 102 N. Third St., Lafayette — The final Lafayette Symphony Orchestra event of the 2025-26 season will feature a quartet led by horn player Drew Wright. His unique arrangements of pop songs and classical compositions will feature the horn prominently giving the music a new spin. $20. Tickets.

Wabash Summer Bash Vintage Market, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, June 13, Golden Avenue Vintage, 525 Wabash Ave., Lafayette — Seventeen vintage clothing, jewelry and accessory sellers from Greater Lafayette and beyond will converge upon Wabash Avenue for Golden Avenue Vintage and Flow Collective’s first Wabash Summer Bash Vintage Market extravaganza. The freshest threads from yesteryear will shine while area food purveyors KNOW Eatery, Piehaus and Zephyr Garden will help create a festive environment.

Mosey Down Main Street, 6-11 p.m. Saturday, June 13, downtown Lafayette — Watch out for running dinosaurs at the June edition of the Mosey Down Main Street summer street festival. The annual Dino Dash will kick off the event with local folks representing community organizations dressed in inflatable dinosaur costumes racing through the Mosey grounds. Organized by First Farmers Bank & Trust, participating organizations’ entry fees will go to Lafayette Adult Resource Academy’s Educational Opportunities. Also look out for more than a dozen bands, numerous food purveyors, many community organization booths and that Mosey community togetherness.

• Here’s an interactive map to the band lineups, vendors, food trucks and the rest:

Lafayette Roller Derby, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 13, Tippecanoe Country Fairgrounds, 1406 Teal Road, Lafayette — Celebrate Pride Month and the pride of your Lafayette Roller Derby squad, the Supernovas. These tough and athletic skaters will jam against the Irish Hills Bombshells, all the way from Jackson, Michigan. The hard-hitting event will also feature food trucks, raffles and a pre-bout drag show featuring the talents of AlexaPro, Tad Strange, John Swallow, Sister Silly and more. $12. Tickets.

Tim Brouk is a longtime arts and entertainment reporter. He writes here (almost) weekly, tracking things to do for Based in Lafayette.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

LAFAYETTE’S BICENTENNIAL SCULPTURE GETS LONG-AWAITED DEDICATION

City officials and donors successfully timed it out to dodge a set of thunderstorms Tuesday evening that threatened to add one more delay to the dedication of “On the Banks of the Wabash,” a sweeping, stainless steel sculpture and plaza meant to mark Lafayette’s 200^th birthday at the corner of South Ninth and South streets.

The artwork by California-based the Cliff Garten Studio arrived in November 2025, later than first anticipated and at the tail end of Lafayette’s Bicentennial year. But it took until the warmer spring weather to get sidewalks finished, planters placed and narrative plaques installed – along with a selfie stand to get an angle aimed toward downtown – in the past few weeks to set up Tuesday’s dedication.

“We’ve been working on this a long time,” Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski told donors and a team of people who shepherded the selection, placement and landscaping for the project since 2024. “Your efforts will have a lasting impression on our community.”

About the sculpture: Dennis Carson, the city’s economic development director, said the piece was chosen in 2024 from among 24 submissions to a Bicentennial Public Arts Selection Committee. “After rigorous review,” Carson said, “one stood out above the rest.” Among the features of the piece designed by Cliff Garten Studio and fabricated from 25 sheets of stainless steel by Metal Arts Foundry, a company from Lehi, Utah:

• As the project rolled out, Garten said the shape and “the flowing continuous curves of the sculpture parallel the meandering path of the Wabash’s waters” – saying it was meant to be “an archway that could serve as the ‘frame’ of a stage or as the focal point for city events.”

• From the original submission, Garten wrote, “by understanding the Wabash as this ever-changing element of nature we gain the perspective that it holds within its riverbed an eternity of moments, an unimaginable number of small histories that could never be expressed in one fixed moment. The Wabash is thus a symbol of constant change and a collection of the histories that have taken place in Lafayette. This symbolism is another reason we believe the Wabash would be a pertinent symbol to commemorate Lafayette’s bicentennial.”

• The sculpture features excerpts from the first verse and chorus of “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away” by Indiana native Paul Dresser and the state song of Indiana, laser etched into the piece. Tuesday evening, Audrey Johnson, founder of the Of Thee I Sing project, led the crowd in a rendition of the song.

• The etched letters of “Lafayette” are made up of key words and phrases crowdsourced after the sculpture was commissioned through community meetings, school projects and social media. “This sculpture is quite literally built from your voices,” Carson said.

  

• The sculpture is lighted from the inside, so the etched words and letters are illuminated at night.

Money to pay for it: Carson said donors paid for the $500,000 commission, plus enough above that to go into a new endowment through the Community Foundation of Greater Lafayette to pay for maintenance and preservation of the piece and other public artwork in the city. (In November 2025, when pieces of “On the Banks of the Wabash” arrived and were being assembled, Carson said the city had raised roughly $943,000 in private donations.)

A time capsule: The site includes a time capsule buried with instructions to open in 2125 during Lafayette’s Tricentennial. (“We hope you can join us then,” Nate Barrett, the M.C. Tuesday night, said.) The safe includes a letter from Roswarski to his successor a century from now; a copy of “200 Years of Tippecanoe County,” a book released in 2025 to mark the Bicentennial; photographs from community events; winning poetry and essay entries from local schools; a copy of Greater Lafayette Magazine; and assorted promotional items from businesses produced to mark the 200^th birthday.

The space will be available: The ground at the southwest corner of Ninth and South streets – once home to a Village Pantry convenience store and now a city pumping station – will be available to host gatherings and performances. Details on how to reserve what’s now being called Bicentennial Park are still in the works.

THIS AND THAT …

WEST LAFAYETTE SESSIONS ON EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROJECT: West Lafayette will host a pair of public sessions, including one Wednesday, June 17, to get feedback on priorities for an early childhood education center being considered on the northern edge of the city. The city has been looking to put an early childhood education center that could accommodate between up to 125 slots in a roughly 10,000-square-foot facility, just east of Fire Station No. 3 and across from the John Dennis Wellness Center. That followed an agreement, approved in May 2025, that saw Purdue Research Foundation donating three acres along Kalberer Road to the city. StudioAXIS, an Indianapolis-based firm hired by the city, has been studying programming, design and estimated costs, including the potential for providing third shift care. The city’s redevelopment commission has not locked in any proposal, as it considers whether a city-backed project could work.

The public sessions will be 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, and 6-8 p.m. Sept. 2, both at West Lafayette City Hall, 222 N. Chauncey Ave.

‘BEYOND THE BRIDGE’ HOMELESS CONVERSATIONS CONTINUE: Lafayette Urban Ministry and other local nonprofits will host a visit next week from James Mathy, housing administrator for Milwaukee County in Wisconsin, to discuss concepts used in his county to help curb homelessness. Mathy was featured in “Beyond the Bridge: A Solution to Homelessness,” a documentary that spurred a recent push for a “pledge” to end homelessness in Greater Lafayette.

Mathy will be part of a community open forum from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, at Connection Point Church, 2541 Cumberland Ave. in West Lafayette. For more details, go to: www.lumserve.org/beyond-the-bridge.

ANOTHER EXTENSION IN SOLAR PROJECT CHALLENGE: This week, a judge granted another extension of time to give the companies tied to the Rainbow Trout Solar Project and the county’s Board of Zoning Appeals a chance to deal with a remaining issue they are attempting to resolve without the need for court intervention ahead of a judicial review requested in September 2025.

The companies are looking for a judge to review the Board of Zoning Appeals’ 5-4 vote in August 2025 to reject its 1,700-acre, 120-megawatt solar farm in the western part of Tippecanoe County. That case includes a group of 11 neighbors who have been allowed by a judge to intervene in the court filings to make sure their objections to the proposed project are presented. No trial date had been set, as Tippecanoe Circuit Court Judge Sean Persin this week granted an extension to July 8 to settle the matter on what materials from the BZA case will be submitted to the court. The court filings do not indicate what the sticking point is, after a series of extensions allowed by the court, dating to December.

The proposed Rainbow Trout solar project prompted a recent review of Tippecanoe County’s utility-scale solar zoning codes. Here’s more on those and more on the request for judicial review:

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

Beets and kale: Nowhere to hide

By Carol Bangert/For Based in Lafayette

A month into the farmers market season, I continue to be excited by the rollout of new produce. What I discover each week prompts kitchen inspiration. Mid-spring produce ranges from the sweetness of strawberries to the pungent bite of spring onions to the earthy tones of turnips and carrots. I hope you continue to hunt out your favorite produce as the days edge toward summer. Now’s also the perfect opportunity to try something new, plucked fresh from area farms.

A few of my favorite spring items, however, have been no-shows this season, namely rutabaga and kohlrabi. This news was met with shouts of joy at my house, at least from the veggie-averse contingent. But I high-fived myself when I spotted two versatile and tasty vegetables that are much maligned. We’re talking beets and kale. The shouts of joy were silenced.

Beets and kale come from different produce families (root vegetables vs. leafy greens), but they have two things in common: you either love them or hate them; and when you cook with them, they have nowhere to hide.

One thing I love about rutabaga and kohlrabi (besides their funky names) is that they can be steamed then tucked into cheese sauces, added to mashed potatoes and tossed into soups and stews, and no one is the wiser.

This doesn’t work with beets and kale. They shout, “Ta-da!” no matter what cooking method you employ. Trust me, I’ve tried and failed epically.

I’ve come to realize that the best strategy is to embrace the ruby reds, deep greens and rich earthiness of these underappreciated vegetables and just let them be themselves. Why even eat a vegetable if it must be all dressed up to enjoy?

Versatile beets

Take beets. I love them and I’ve found myriad ways to use them. They are versatile and nutritious, but they also are messy and take a bit of work. Beets are great roasted, sautéed and pickled. They can be eaten raw as well, but I wouldn’t go the Dwight Schrute route and eat them like an apple (that scene from “The Office” is unforgettable and painful). Maybe try them grated in a salad for starters.

Beets pair nicely with a range of flavors and work particularly well with goat cheese, oranges and other citrus, walnuts and balsamic vinegar. Beet salads offer a range of colors and textures, highlighting the beet’s natural sweetness. Whatever you do, let the beets shine.

To store beets, first remove the greens and store them in the fridge in a glass of water – they’re great in a sauté. The roots should be wrapped in a damp paper towel then refrigerated in an airtight container. They’ll last one to two weeks.

Kale, yes!

Kale has a similar identity crisis. Unless it’s in a salad, you really can’t disguise it. Again, I’ve tried. Kale has enjoyed an extended stint as a nutritional darling, so much so that the kale-equals-health mantra has become a bit of a punchline, which is unfortunate. To be honest, I’ve never jumped on the kale bandwagon like so many people have. I like kale – like it – but I don’t feel the need to toss it into smoothies or bake it into chips. I’m content to thinly slice the leaves and add them to a salad or stir fry, and I love adding them to soups. I chopped up a bunch of kale I picked up at a recent farmers market and added it an Italian wedding soup with farro. The kale added a nice heartiness to the soup and paired beautifully with the nutty grain.

Finally, fresh-picked kale tastes nothing like the grocery store variety, nor is the texture the same. Buy it from a farmers market vendor, just out of the field.

Kale takes up room, so I usually chop a bunch into manageable pieces, wrap it in a paper towel and store it in a bag in the fridge. Clean the kale when you’re ready to use it; it should last a week or so.

Beets and kale are cool-season crops, so take advantage of them now while they’re at their best. Warm-weather produce is just around the corner!

Other early June produce at the market includes:

• Asparagus

• Baby carrots

• Beets

• Red and green onions

• Garlic and garlic scapes

• Radishes

• Salad turnips

• Bok choy

• Greens (kale, mustard, arugula, lettuce varieties)

• Lots of herbs ready to pot or place in your garden (Mint, oregano, basil, cilantro, sage, lavender, thyme, chives)

• Rhubarb (near the end of the season)

• Strawberries

• The first green beans

DAYS/HOURS FOR THE MARKETS

West Lafayette Farmers Market: 3:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, through October. The market is held at Cumberland Park in West Lafayette with more than 50 vendors.

Lafayette Farmers Market: 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturdays, through October, on Fifth Street between Columbia Street and mid-block to Ferry Street, and Main Street between Fourth and Sixth streets.

Purdue Farmers Market: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursdays, through October. The Purdue Farmers Market is held on the Memorial Mall on Purdue’s campus. This market is a concession-heavy market that allows students, faculty and staff to have lunch options in a unique outdoor setting.

Carol Bangert, editor of Greater Lafayette Magazine, has been a regular at Greater Lafayette farmers markets for more than 20 years. From May through October, she’ll scout out in-season produce at the markets and report back on fresh finds and how to use them.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

WEST LAFAYETTE SCHOOLS SEND TAX REFERENDUM TO NOVEMBER BALLOT

The West Lafayette school board, looking to make up a projected $1.6 million annual decrease in revenues by 2031 under Indiana’s new property tax reforms, on Monday agreed to go back to voters in November, asking them to update an eight-year property tax referendum passed just three years ago.

The move to place a new 57.06-cent property tax proposal on the general election ballot passed on a 6-0 vote Monday evening. Board member Yue Yin attended Monday’s meeting remotely, allowing her to discuss and vote on all matters other than those dealing with the referendum, according to state law.

West Lafayette joins dozens of other districts across that state going to voters as they navigate property tax changes rolling out over the coming years from Senate Bill 1, passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 2025.

The proposed referendum update – with a stated purpose for “teacher compensation for managing class sizes and academic programming” and “operations fund expenditures (maintenance, personnel and student transportation related expenses)” – is being touted by West Side as a measure meant keep revenue steady rather than to bring in additional money.

The school board’s move also came after months of discussion and prep, including a community survey of 400 registered voters that indicated 75.6% of those asked would be in favor. Past versions of the referendum, set at 37 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, have won with 80% or more of the vote in 2010, 2017 and 2023 in a district that typically ranks among the top in the state academically.

“It’s clear that the district is held in very high regard by a large majority of the community,” Dave Beery, a consultant with Dehler PR, a firm the district hired in February, told board members Monday.

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This and that at the start of the week …

STALLED ASCENSION ST. VINCENT ‘MICRO-HOSPITAL’ PLANS AT PURDUE APPARENTLY OVER: It might have been a backward way to make the announcement, but a presentation Friday from Purdue President Mung Chiang about the sudden upswing in hospitals and dedicated emergency rooms in and around West Lafayette tipped off the apparent end of what initially was the first plan for a West Side hospital.

Plans for a micro-hospital from Indianapolis-based Ascension St. Vincent, announced in 2022 in Purdue’s Discovery Park District on the western edge of campus, was conspicuously missing from a map Chiang showed to university trustees during a presentation about the campus’ One Health initiative’s progress.

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