A dedicated moment to reflect on the decent legacy of Mayor Sonya Margerum
After weeks of turmoil in local politics, West Lafayette's city hall dedication, in honor of the late Mayor Sonya Margerum, proved to be a welcome palate cleanser
I’m going to be honest that ribbon cuttings typically aren’t my thing – especially for renovated buildings that have been open for eight months, as was the case Friday afternoon at the old Morton Community Center/new West Lafayette City Hall.
But with the sun beating down on a hot, humid day at 222 N. Chauncey Ave., West Lafayette officials were there to honor the late Sonya Margerum, former six-term mayor.
And after a few weeks of shouting over school mask policies, court hearings to deal with felony indictments for one local township trustee and a raft of accusations against another for skeptical spending and erratic ideas – was Fairfield Township Trustee Taletha Coles really saving indigent cremains to press them into diamonds? – an afternoon sweating through the decent details of Sonya Margerum’s career was refreshing.
Call it a palate cleanser.
In the days before she died in November 2019, at age 89, Margerum got a visit from West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis, who let her know the city’s plans to rename city hall in her honor, once $15.9 million in renovations were done to the former Morton Community Center.
“She was very honored by that,” Eric Margerum, one of the former mayor’s three sons, said Friday. “It buoyed her spirits to know this would be part of her legacy.”
Dennis retold stories he’d told many times during his four-term career, about how Margerum had given him latitude to do his job while offering subtle nudges, calm advice and the kind of measured presence that defined the Margerum years in West Lafayette. (Dennis offered a nod to his own style – one that had him apologizing a week earlier by calling out unvaccinated COVID deniers by a derogatory name during two public meetings – opening the day with: “I thought it was going to be a long time before I was allowed to speak in public, again.”)
After being elected to the West Lafayette City Council in 1975, Margerum won the mayor’s race in 1979. Her administration worked on the city’s trail system, worked with the university to develop the Purdue Research Park, created the state’s first curbside recycling program and became a crucial partner in Lafayette’s Railroad Relocation Project, a three-decade effort that removed at-grade crossings on the east side of the Wabash River and built new or improved bridges into West Lafayette. She concentrated on preserving neighborhoods.
And she worked to preserve the building that will bear her name, when West Lafayette Community School Corp. was ready to let go of what was then known as Morton School. The city turned the aging, brick school into the Morton Community Center.
The city already was debating where to establish a new city hall when mold and flooding issues forced it out of the West Lafayette City Hall on Navajo Street on the north side of the city in 2014. Morton became a temporary home that turned into a permanent city hall in what Dennis refers to as downtown West Lafayette – but not until after city departments wandered from old city hall to Morton Center to Happy Hollow Elementary and back to Morton over seven years.
“Welcome home,” Larry Oates, president of the West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission, said Friday.
“I like the welcome home theme,” Eric Margerum said, describing his mother’s tours of neighborhoods to point out defining features, large and small, that residents had done, whether or not with city help, advice or urging.
“Our mother loved the city of West Lafayette and the people who lived here,” he said.
Dennis said: “We’ve always revered Sonya Margerum, and rightfully so.”
It was worth standing through a muggy afternoon for this ribbon cutting for a timely reminder about the kind of political and community service legacy that lands a name on the side of a city hall.
This and that …
PINE VILLAGE PRO FOOTBALL, REVISITED: This week already featured Major League Baseball coming out of the corn, “Field of Dreams” style, for a White Sox walk-off victory over the Yankees in Dyersville, Iowa. Saturday, vintage football teams will descend on Pine Village – a tiny town 20 miles west of Lafayette – to revisit the brief moment in time when the tiny town in Warren County was a pro football hotbed. The Pine Village Villagers became a professional team in 1915, going on to win regional championships and for one game, on Thanksgiving Day in 1915, recruiting All-America Jim Thorpe to play the Purdue All-Stars. (Pine Village won, 29-0.) Saturday’s game will feature players in vintage uniforms, replica leather helmets and a 1920s-style football. The game between the Pine Village Villagers and the Warren County All-Stars takes the field at 4 p.m. at Pine Village Elementary at Indiana 26 and East Lafayette Street. The teams will parade through town starting at 3:30 p.m. Admission: Free.
SATURDAY NIGHT, MOSEY NIGHT: Mosey Down Main Street has had its share of bad luck with rain and bad weather in its return after a COVID-canceled 2020 season. But Saturday night is one more chance for the monthly street fest in downtown Lafayette, right. Here’s the band lineup, in case you like to plan your Mosey that way.
Security Federal Stage, Sixth and Main streets
6 p.m.: The Shake Ups
7:20 p.m.: Mixtapes
8:40 p.m.: Frank Anthony and the Purebred Mongrels
10 p.m.: Slouchers
Q106.7 Stage, Eight and Main streets
6 p.m: Scratch Thing
7:20 p.m.: Relentless
8:40 p.m.: Lone Wolf Sounds
10 p.m.: The Unusual Suspects
Ninth and Main streets
7-9 p.m.: Oasis Belly Dancing Troupe
Hallmark Mortgage Stage, 11th and Main streets
6 p.m.: Joe Shelton
7:20 p.m.: The Leadsmen
8:40 p.m.: Three of a Kind
10 p.m.: Francois Dior
BID FOR PIECES TO HELP THE HAAN MUSEUM: Here’s one for you, if staying indoors is your thing: The Haan Museum of Indiana Art in Lafayette will have a two-day, online auction of items made by Indiana artisans, with proceeds going to help support the museum on State Street. The bidding starts at 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, and ends at 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 15, Check items and register to bid at event.gives/ArtisanAuction.
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Sonya Margerum was a class act and a trailblazer for women. She was spurred to run for office by Purdue Deans of Students Barbara I. Cook and M. Beverley Stone, her avid supporters. I interviewed Sonya about the deans, and she said when campaigning got tough, she stopped by the deans’ home for a pep talk. They said, “Just keep going.” And Sonya did. I miss her calm and level manner.