An exit interview with Jo Wade, after 4 decades of driving Greater Lafayette tourism
‘You promote tourism here?’ How Wade and crew worked to change the idea of being a tourist in your own hometown. Plus, WL referendum added to ballot. Backyard chickens face another vote. And more.
Things had a way of piling up over more than four decades on Jo Wade’s desk at Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette, between the maps and promotional materials and swag and everything else that comes from running the community’s visitors bureau.
In the days leading up July 31, Wade’s last day after 46 years with the nonprofit agency, most everything was off the walls and her desk, save for a few odd bits, like a random complaint about a local hotel nearly two decades old and a program for a local roast from ages ago.
“And someone needs to explain this one …,” Wade said, laughing during an exit interview last week.
The can of Scottish Haggis with Drambuie liqueur remained a mystery.
“I can’t for the life of me remember who gave that to me and why,” Wade said. “But there was always something going around here, that’s for sure.”
Here are excerpts from a BiL exit interview with Wade, whose career was built around promoting local tourism and everything going on in the community.
Question: How is the packing going?
Jo Wade: I’m getting there. I have a pile of stuff at home. Books have gone to the West Lafayette Public Library. Other stuff has gone here and there. You know, for 46 years and not being somebody that throws things out very well, it’s going fine.
Question: How did you, 46 years ago, wind up here?
Jo Wade: I left when I graduated from college, and went up to Madison, Wisconsin, to work in an ad agency with two of my brothers. I didn’t last long up there. Purdue called, from where I had been in photographic services while I was in school, and said they had the job I had been doing when I was a student. I came back for that job. When I got there, there was an issue about hiring without looking at others inside the university, so when I got back it wasn’t available. The folks at the Convention and Visitors Bureau at the time came to my old boss at Purdue looking for someone who might be able to do presentations and put stuff together. It was good timing. I also had worked at The Pub for a long time, and that’s where I was working when I came back. I wound up here Dec. 1 of 1980. When I started, my first title was convention services coordinator, and I did photography and presentations and whatever else needed to get done. … It was in 1984 when I was put in charge.
Question: What was it like in 1984 selling Greater Lafayette as a destination or a place to visit?
Jo Wade: Weird.
Question: How do you mean?
Jo Wade: I mean, doing a lot of brochures. Gathering a lot of information by hand. With technology in tourism, we’re usually one of the first to use it – the first places where they’re using their phone to book business and all of that sort of stuff. Back then, there was none of that. We were printing brochures and trying to figure out where to place ads in magazines and trying to figure out how to get the information out, pushing very hard at conventions. It was probably several years before we figured out sports was easier to do than conventions. And we didn’t really have, other than at Purdue, big facilities for that. Still, we were going to religious conference managers and youth events and sometimes with Purdue, setting up booths and that sort of thing to spread the word. It was very different.
We now we realize that the locals, the citizens of this community, are as important as the visitor.
Question: How did you come to that?
Jo Wade: Well, we’ve always said we were heavily about friends and relatives coming to the area. But our international association has constantly been encouraging us to realize that our customer is as much the citizens of the community as it is the visitor. And in Lafayette and West Lafayette, we’ve grown, so we very much have more customers to reach around here.
Question: How’s that changed your messaging, selling the community to people who live here?
Jo Wade: For one, what we always called our “visitor guide” we now call an “experience guide.” It cracked me up that I would have people not pick one up. Local people would tell me, “That’s for visitors. That’s not for me.” Out here, we were like, No, it’s for everybody. If you don’t know and aren’t proud of your community, we’ll never be able to get the community promoted well.
Tourism, I would say, is more into research than just about any other. We look at where every request is coming from and who we’re working with and all of those sorts of numbers. We’re getting as many requests from the citizens who help us get conventions and events to come here as anything else. We’re not the sort of location for conferences or even a sports tournament, that people are necessarily looking to bring it here just because we’re so well known for softball or soccer or anything else. It’s heavily based on people in the community that help promote the community and bring those conferences and all of that here. … Those groups and businesses learn (Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette) has the best library of photos, which we’ll freely give out, and a calendar of things going on. They’re not going to dig up every hotel or every attraction or that sort of thing. So, even if they do their own things, our having the information in depth can help get them going.
Question: From what you’ve seen, what have been the major changes in the community that have been visitor-related?
Jo Wade: We have we have a lot more hotels than we used to have. We have more wedding venues, more people excited to bring sports events here.
We have, I think, a positive view about the community. For such a long time, when I said what I do, people would laugh. You promote tourism here? Tourism is the international word that means every visiting person. But for a long time, I think our community viewed that as resorts and oceans and mountains and Disneyland. We couldn’t get away with using our destination in any of our wording. People would say, We’re not a destination. It was like, Did you know there’s a Purdue University here? We’re not necessarily a two-week vacation location. It doesn’t really matter. Lots of people are coming here for football games, for the Feast of the Hunters’ Moon, for music, for whatever. We’ve always worked to be ready for all that.
We were very event-driven, because we had a lot of festivals, and we’re still event driven. But we have a strong restaurant community. We have strong music venues. There are more things for people to do. Like it’s Greater Lafayette Commerce’s responsibility for workforce development, it’s our responsibility to make those people coming into the community excited about all the things they can see and do. We’re just that one portion of workforce development that is telling you that you could have a good time here and it would be comfortable to live here, and you can make contact with your people while you’re in the community.
Question: If you have somebody coming to town to visit, give me a day you’d plan to show them around?
Jo Wade: I love walking around the community, showing people the public art. So walking downtown – we have a lovely downtown, which surprises a lot of visitors coming into the community. Walking through the campus or even driving around the campus. Then it’s asking them what sort of food they like, and we could do about any kind of ethnic food in town. … A lot of walking around and seeing stuff. Great local coffee shops, so we can start out there with coffee. You know, when you talk about that, it’s not exactly what Jo wants to do. People walk in and go, “What’s there to do today?” Well, what do you like to do? Are you a golfer? We have great golf courses. There are things that wouldn’t necessarily come to mind right away, like maybe renting a canoe or something like that. But if they’re real into something, we can do that because it’s probably going on.
Question: What’s your plan at this point in retirement?
Jo Wade: It’s just time. And I have three grandchildren. I’m going to visit my sister and family in Missoula, Montana. I have a ton of projects at home. I’ll continue with Rotary. And I’ll continue with the Feast. I’ll stay busy, that’s for sure.
Question: When you go somewhere, say to Missoula, do you look a place’s visitors bureau and judge how good it does?
Jo Wade: How good people are at directing you to what’s the best restaurant and what to do? Of course. With this, you’re never really totally on vacation.
THIS AND THAT …
WEST LAFAYETTE SCHOOL REFERENDUM OFFICIALLY PLACED ON NOVEMBER BALLOT: There was more to Wednesday’s Tippecanoe County Election Board meeting than the bristling reaction by members to accusations lodged in the Indiana Senate District 23 recount about how ballots were handled in the May 5 primary. (For a replay of that: “Tippecanoe County clerk, accused by Trump-backed candidate Paula Copenhaver of mishandling Senate District 23 ballot, fights back.”)
The Election Board also officially made room on the Nov. 3 ballot for West Lafayette Community School Corp.’s request to renew its property tax referendum.
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, in June agreed to go back to voters in November, asking them to update an eight-year property tax referendum passed just three years ago.
A proposed property tax rate of up to 57.06 cents per $100 in assessed valuation – 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 new rate would be higher than the current 37 cents per $100 in assessed valuation. But school board members have pledged to set the tax rate each year so projected revenues would remain steady with the roughly $8.7 million the current referendum generates.
In a scenario shown to the school board this spring, the referendum’s tax rate on an owner-occupied home with an assessed value of $350,000 – once all deductions were applied – would bring a bill of $670 under the current 37-cent rate. As new property tax reforms play out next year, the same house would have a referendum tax impact of $708 under a new 42.32-cent rate in 2027. The owner of the same house in 2031 would pay $665 under the maximum 57.06-cent rate, after factoring in changes brought by property tax reform.
For more background …
LAFAYETTE CHICKENS, ROUND 2: When the Lafayette City Council narrowly agreed to allow residents to keep chickens in their backyards, the 5-4 vote came with a caveat of a one-year sunset clause to make sure it was working out and wasn’t a source of irritation for the city or for neighborhoods. That second-year confirmation is scheduled to go to the city council Monday evening.
The ordinance approved in 2025 allows homeowners to keep up to five hens under a series of restrictions on coop and pen sizes, distance from lot lines and neighboring residences and a permitting system would have owners band their chickens. Until a year ago, chickens were listed among livestock not allowed to be kept and raised in the city.
According to a proposed ordinance calling for a second year, the city has issued 45 permits to raise chickens.
“During the evaluation period, (the Animal Control Department’s) experience has primarily involved routine permit enforcement, occasional animal-at-large calls and other matters not unique to keeping chickens,” the proposed ordinance says. “The city has not experienced recurring complaints regarding odor, noise, sanitation or similar neighborhood impacts that were identified as concerns during the consideration of the ordinance.”
The new proposal would extend the backyard chicken permit process indefinitely.
The Lafayette City Council meets at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 3, at city hall, 20 N. Sixth St.
This was the conversation, and the vote, in 2025:
IN LIEU OF A TIM’S PICKS BREAK: Tim Brouk, the guy behind BiL’s Tim’s Picks, is off this week. Until he’s back, here are few things coming up soon.
Free Spirited Festival: The second annual event, touted as the Midwest’s first fully nonalcoholic festival, will be 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, at Wea Creek Orchard, 5618 S. County Road 200 East, just south of Lafayette. Hosted by Generation NA, a nonalcoholic and functional beverage bottle shop in downtown Lafayette, the Free Spirited Festival will feature representatives from 40 brands bringing nonalcoholic spirits, functional sodas and adaptogenic drinks. The event also will have yoga sessions, panel discussions and mixology demonstrations. Tickets are $30, available at freespiritedfestival.com or at Generation NA, 504 Main St. in Lafayette.
Summer movie night: “The Sandlot” will be on the ballpark screen at 8 p.m. tonight/Thursday, July 30, at the West Lafayette Youth Baseball & Softball Complex, 3069 Benton St. Food trucks will be there, too, in an event hosted by West Lafayette Youth Baseball & Softball and SK hynix. Bring blankets or lawn chairs.
LPD’s National Night Out: The Lafayette Police Department will host its annual National Night Out from 4-7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, at Columbian Park. Here’s a schedule of the events and demonstrations. It’s free.
West Lafayette Community Night: The West Lafayette Police Department and West Lafayette Fire Department will host West Lafayette Community Night, their version of National Night Out, from 5-8 p.m. Aug. 11 at Cason Family Park, 2500 Cumberland Ave. Ice cream, fishing, games and mingling with police officers and firefighters – and their vehicles – is on the schedule. It’s free.
Concert and Candlelight Tribute for Mental Health Awareness: Ankit Foundation will host its fourth annual event Saturday, Aug. 1., at Riehle Plaza, at Second and Main streets in Lafayette. Spontaneous Hopeful Monster will play from 7-9 p.m. with a candlelight tribute to follow in an event dedicated to raising awareness about mental health, particularly among youth and young adults, in memory of Ankit Toppo and all individuals who lost their lives due to mental health struggles. For more details: ankitfoundationcorp.org.
Float Jam 2026: The free floating concert hosted by Wabash River Enhancement Corp. returns for a second year on Saturday, Aug. 8. Paddlers will launch from Davis Ferry, north of Lafayette, and paddle 4½ miles downstream to Tapawingo Park in West Lafayette, as local singer-songwriters Annie Hatke and Rosie Inman play. Participants can sign up for a spot in a raft, 10-person voyageur canoe, two-person canoe or kayak, or they can bring their own boat. The music starts at 5 p.m. and is expected to end at 8 p.m. Registration is required to get a spot on a boat and on shuttles carrying paddlers from Tapawingo Park to Davis Ferry. For more information and to register, go to wabashriver.net/floatjam. Here’s a snippet from the inaugural floating concert in 2025:
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, is a little over a week away. A Bangert Brothers team will be there again this year in support of the CASAs for Kids Fund here in Tippecanoe County. 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 up for it this year, here’s the link.
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