CityBus ending free off-campus rides for Purdue students, staff
Purdue stunned, but CityBus CEO says subsidizing off-campus rides is putting company in a hole. Plus, prosecutor asks judge to ban references to Odinism, more in Delphi murder trial
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CITYBUS ENDING FREE OFF-CAMPUS RIDES FOR PURDUE STUDENTS, STAFF
Off-campus CityBus rides at no charge for Purdue students and staff will end before the start of the fall 2024 semester, under a plan the public transportation company announced Monday.
Campus loops that carried some 800,000 passengers around the university in 2023 will continue, based on agreements between Purdue and CityBus. But CityBus, which officials said were facing “a financial cliff,” will move to a $99 semester pass or the standard $1 fare per ride to handle Purdue student and staff riders who accounted for 2.2 million of the 4.4 million passengers CityBus had off the West Lafayette campus in the past year.
Purdue officials weren’t pleased.
“Purdue University is surprised to see the proposed change in bus fare by the company CityBus and does not agree with their approach,” Tim Doty, a Purdue spokesman, said. “We are now in conversation with the company leadership and in exploration of alternatives to resolve this to a much better solution. Our students and colleagues will continue to have affordable transportation off campus as they do today.”
Another encouraged students and staff to hold off on the new CityBus semester pass for now, while negotiations continue. Rob Wynkoop, Purdue vice president of administrative operations, said the university and CityBus had been having conversations in recent weeks about a new contract and didn’t expect Monday’s news.
“We look forward to receiving CityBus' proposal, and we'll continue to work to find a solution that benefits the West Lafayette campus community and Greater Lafayette,” Wynkoop said. “To that point, we encourage Purdue riders not to purchase any additional passes until negotiations are complete later this summer.”
Students weren’t excited, either. Some instant reaction, via Purdue GROW, a labor group on campus for grad students: “Cost of living in Lafayette for grad students just keeps getting worse.”
Bryan Smith, CityBus CEO, apologized Monday evening for how the announcement was handled and the way a press release earlier in the day wound up catching people off guard. He said the timing was meant to catch students before they finished final and left for the summer so they’d understand the new fees at the start of the fall semester.
But Smith said he was taken aback, too, that Purdue seemed startled by the development. He said CityBus had discussed the way the contract was structured – with Purdue covering the hours of the campus loops, in the range of $1.7 million and $2 million each year – and how the expectation that the deal would continue to include free rides off campus wasn’t sustainable.
“We had had conversations with Purdue, but it didn't seem to register as anything important,” Smith said. “I’m open to coming to an amicable resolution, and I don’t want to pick a fight with Purdue. … But this is step one of trying to make sure we can continue to meet the community’s needs. If I stick my head in the sand and say, ‘Well, I’ll worry about it when the shortfall comes,’ we’d be in a world of hurt.”
Smith said Purdue, actually, is the first step as the CityBus board of directors prepares in the next 12 to 18 months to adjust fares and policies.
He said a combination of factors – ranging from stagnant state funding that hasn’t kept up with inflation over the past 12 years, property tax circuit breakers cutting into revenues and bus fares that haven’t increased from $1 a ride and 50 cents for seniors and those with disabilities for 20 years – leave projections that CityBus’ expense will outpace revenues and reserves by $2.8 million by 2026.
“In a transit system, you can reduce expenses or you can increase revenues, and no one thing is going to solve it all,” Smith said. “The rational for starting with Purdue was that before I could go to the community and say we needed to raise fares for the first time in 20 years, I needed to be able to look people in the community in the eye and say that I’m charging everybody that rides. …
“The constant refrain – and I've always worked in college towns – is that the college gets whatever they want for free and it's community that's got to pay for it,” Smith said. “The university’s a huge economic driver and there’s no questioning that. But overall, we can’t offer to the university something that’s a better subsidy than we would offer the community.”
Aside from the Purdue campus loops, what will remain free, according to CityBus, include:
Unlimited access to routes covered in agreements between CityBus and Ivy Tech Community College.
Express bus services on route 21A Lark & Alight, route 24 Redpoint and route 35 Lindberg Express, based on agreements between CityBus and various apartment property managers.
Route 23/The Connector that covers Purdue’s campus and downtown Lafayette (see below).
CityBus offers unlimited ride passes for $2 a day or $28 for 31 days. The $99 semester rate would be the lowest daily rate available in CityBus’ fare structure, Bryan Walck, CityBus manager of customer experience, said.
Smith said he wasn’t sure what the dollar figure or changes in service that would add up to continuation of free rides for Purdue staff and students. But he said he’s open to finding a solution with the university.
“I am open to Purdue subsidizing the cost of that pass instead of asking the students to pay for it directly,” Smith said. “I don’t have a number that I would die on the hill for, as much as I need to be able to look at the entire community and say I’m asking everybody to pay a fair and equitable amount. That’s where we are.”
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PROSECUTOR: DON’T ALLOW ODINISM, OTHER THEORIES BE MENTIONED IN DELPHI MURDER TRIAL
Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland on Monday laid out the words, phrases and implied references he wants the judge to ban in the upcoming trial of Richard Allen, the 51-year-old Delphi man accused in the 2017 double murder of eighth-graders Libby German and Abby Williams.
McLeland’s list, filed in a motion Monday, runs four pages and covers ground that would substantially crimp the theories floated by Allen’s defense team since he was arrested in October 2022 as the lone suspect in the girls’ murders.
Prime in McLeland’s in limine filing – essentially asking Judge Fran Gull to set guidelines for evidence or references that aren’t admissible during a trial set to start May 13 – is just about everything tied to the defense team’s alternate, third-party theory that another set of men, involved in a ritual devoted to the Norse god Odin, were the ones to killed Abby, 13, and Libby, 14, in the woods near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi.
Allen’s attorneys, Brad Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin, have leaned heavily on the Odin theory, contending that investigators were too quick to dismiss evidence that might have cleared Allen.
In a series of court filings, Rozzi and Baldwin presented a theory outlined in a 136-page document that suggests the girls were “ritually sacrificed” by worshippers of Odin, not by Allen. They argued that investigators neglected to mention evidence collected in the months after the murders that might have pointed to a group of men in the woods near Delphi’s Monon High Bridge Trail, where the girls were before they went missing.
Rozzi and Baldwin wrote in court motions that the Odin angle came to light in May 2023, when Todd Click, a former assistant police chief in Rushville, sent a letter to McLeland, revisiting pieces of the Delphi case he and others had pursued involving people who lived in his town 120 miles away. Allen’s attorneys say the former assistant police chief “was concerned that for some reason the leadership of the investigative team had failed to share” with the prosecutor the evidence they’d found, which he considered stronger than the probable cause carrying the charges against Allen.
They also argued that an investigator swore under oath that a Purdue professor consulted about the murder scene had told investigators that sticks found arranged on and near the girls’ bodies were not “runes,” which might have been symbolic of cult worship of the Norse god Odin. Rozzi and Baldwin say an audio recording of an investigator’s follow-up interview with the Purdue professor tells a different story – “that ‘it was a given’ that someone was trying to replicate a Germanic runic script” at the murder scene.
The defense team also filed questions in March 2024 about references to “geofencing” data and a map from investigators that purported to trace cellphones on Feb. 13, 2017, the day of the murders. Rozzi and Baldwin contend that investigators had data from at least three cellphones that were in the area – one that came “within 60-100 yards of the crime scene at a time while the murders would have been committed, according to law enforcement’s timelines” – but had no connection to Allen.
In Monday’s filing, McLeland asked the judge to stifle that by barring references to:
Odinism
Cult or ritualistic killing
The names of people mentioned in the defense team’s court filings
Todd Click, the investigator from Rushville
Any references to geofencing
McLeland’s filing also asked the judge to block references to Kegan Kline, who created a catfishing social media account that played a part in the investigation. Kline, who was never charged in connection with the Delphi case, was sentenced in 2023 in Miami County to 43 years in prison on charges including child pornography. The filing also asked to not allow references to Kline’s father, Jerry, and to Ron Logan, who owned the property where the girls were found.
As of Monday, Gull had not ruled on McLeland’s motion or set a pretrial hearing to hear arguments about it.
Jury selection is scheduled to start May 13 in Gull’s home court in Allen County. Jurors will be brought to Carroll County for the rest of the trial. Court documents laid out that investigators believed Allen was the man shown in Libby German’s cellphone footage walking across the Monon High Bridge on Feb. 13, 2017, telling them, “Guys … down the hill,” and leading them to where their murders occurred near Deer Creek. Court documents filed with the charges pointed to the discovery of an unspent bullet that investigators say they found near the girls’ bodies and that matched a handgun Allen owned.
CHARGES FILED AGAINST FORMER WEST LAFAYETTE POLICE OFFICER: Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings, acting as a special prosecutor, filed charges Monday against Jacob Forgey, a former West Lafayette police officer who resigned earlier this year under allegations that he embellished details in investigations that led to dozens of cases being dismissed. The charges included counterfeiting and official misconduct, both felonies. WLFI reporter Joe Paul had more details and background about the evidence that led to an investigation in the West Lafayette force: “Special prosecutor charges ex-WLPD officer with counterfeiting, official misconduct.”
EARLY VOTING UPDATE, NEW SITES OPEN TUESDAY: A handful of early voting sites ahead of the May 7 primary open Tuesday and run through Saturday. Here’s a look at the options.
Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St., Lafayette. Hours: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.
Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds, 1406 Teal Road, Lafayette. Hours: noon-6 p.m. Tuesday, April 30-Friday, May 3; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, May 4.
John Dennis Wellness Center, 1101 Kalberer Road, West Lafayette. Hours: noon-6 p.m. Tuesday, April 30-Friday, May 3; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, May 4.
Eastside Assembly of God Church, 6121 E. County Road 50 South, Lafayette. Hours: noon-6 p.m. Tuesday, April 30-Friday, May 3; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, May 4.
Wea Ridge Baptist Church, 1051 E. County Road 430 South, Lafayette. Hours: noon-6 p.m. Tuesday, April 30-Friday, May 3; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, May 4.
For a full schedule, including on Election Day, go to: www.tippecanoe.in.gov/449/Early-Voting-Schedule
The candidates and races: For a look at all the candidates who will be on Republican and Democratic ballots in the May 7 primary in Tippecanoe County, check here.
Your ballot and voter registration check: To check your voter registration and to see candidates who will be on your Republican or Democratic ballot, go to the Secretary of State’s portal at www.indianavoters.com.
Candidate Q&As: Based in Lafayette this weekend dropped candidate Q&As in contested races that will be on Tippecanoe County ballots. In case you missed them, here’s a way in:
U.S. House, 4th District
Republican: Rep. Jim Baird, Charles Bookwalter and John Piper
Democratic: Rimpi Girn and Derrick Holder
General Assembly seats
Indiana House District 13, Republican: Rep. Sharon Negele and Matt Commons
Indiana House District 41, Republican: Rep. Mark Genda and Joe Sturm; plus Democratic candidate Dan Sikes
Tippecanoe County
County Commissioner, District 2, Republican: David Byers and Jeff Findlay; plus Libertarian Steven Mayoras
County Council, at-large, Republican: Five candidates for three seats – John Basham, Paige Britton, Dan Dunten, Barry Richard and Kevin Underwood
County Council, at-large, Democratic: Five candidates for three seats – Katy Bunder, Ben Carson, Amanda Eldridge, Joe Mackey and Wendy Starr
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Isn’t this the same city bus dude who caught the west side schools off guard by cutting off service at the last minute? What a jackass.