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FLOCK RULES, SEWERS, SK HYNIX TAXES, DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT: A CITY COUNCIL EDITION
Lafayette and West Lafayette city councils will look at 2027 budget proposals during their monthly meetings Monday evening. Here are a few notes and highlights to watch beyond that on both sides of the river …
In West Lafayette
About Flock cameras: After several months of fielding pushback over the use automated license plate readers in the city, the West Lafayette City Council will consider a measure that would limit how the cameras and data could be used by police. A proposed resolution going to the council Monday night would limit storage of data collected to seven days, if it’s not tied to an ongoing police investigation, and bar any expansion of the equipment that includes video recording, live feeds or voice files. The change to a seven-day limit on data storage – down from the 30 days allowed in a 2022 city council resolution – would match the current West Lafayette Police Department policy, as laid out by Chief Adam Ferguson during a standing-room-only community meeting in September. The measure up for city council consideration would not do away with the city’s four cameras contracted through Flock Safety. And it would not directly address questions about how the city’s data is handled by third-party contractors, such as Flock. Here’s more background:
A proposed agreement on divvying up local tax revenue from SK hynix: The city council will consider an interlocal agreement that will map how to distribute property tax revenue from the SK hynix site to the Tippecanoe School Corp., West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County from the property’s state-operated Innovation Development District. An agreement finalized in July between West Lafayette and the Indiana Economic Development Corp. would put local the mix of local property tax revenue generated by SK hynix’s $4 billion semiconductor facility north of Kalberer Road at roughly $500 million over the next 30 years, West Lafayette Mayor Erin Easter told BiL this summer. State law for Innovation Development Districts guaranteed a 12% return for the city, Tippecanoe County and the Tippecanoe School Corp. Easter said the city negotiated a 20% local stake in property taxes collected on the high-bandwidth memory facility property. A first draft of the resolution going to the city council had Tippecanoe School Corp. getting 52.74% of the revenue from that local amount, with the rest split evenly between West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County; a revised version says TSC will get an amount based on a state law governing Innovation Development Districts that says a school district’s portion is “proportionately based on each city’s, … county’s and school corporation’s property tax levy applied to property.” According to the proposed city resolution, the rest beyond TSC’s share still would be split evenly between West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County. Here’s more background:
$95M bonds for West Lafayette treatment plant expansion: The city council will consider issuing up to $95 million in bonds to pay for a wastewater treatment plant expansion that would increase capacity from 10.5 million gallons a day to 15 million gallons a day. According to a consultant’s report to the board of works last week, the expansion would not include rate increases to pay it off, with the current schedule of sewer rates covering the project. During previous presentations this year, David Henderson, West Lafayette’s utility director, said the expansion was designed to anticipate 20 years of growth in the city. The most recent major expansion at the plant was finished in 1994. The design would include capacity for a peak flow increased from 22.5 million gallons a day to 27 million gallons a day by the time it’s done in April 2029 and would accommodate room for one more expansion beyond this one on the wastewater treatment plant’s site along South River Road. Easter said last week that the project would avoid rate increases to cover the bonds due in part to incentive agreements that brought the $4 billion SK hynix high-bandwidth memory facility to the city and recently refinanced bonds on other projects. Here’s more on the project.
Then again, about those sewer rates: Meanwhile, the council is expected to consider a final vote that would increase sewer rates by 2% a year over four years to cover current operations, starting Jan. 1, 2027. Consultants with Krohn & Associates told the city council that the rates were meant to cover inflationary costs to maintain the city’s wastewater treatment facility, not the impacts of the proposed expansion. The city council gave initial approval to the rates Sept. 8. In report to the city, consultants Krohn & Associates wrote that the increases in monthly bills for an average residential customer using 5,000 gallons a month would be approximately $1 a month each Jan. 1 in the next four years. According to ordinance, a monthly bill based on 5,000 gallons would go to $49.59 in 2027 and to $52.63 by 2030.
What’s next: The West Lafayette City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday at city hall, 222 N. Chauncey Ave. Here’s a way into the full agenda.
In Lafayette
A loan for apartments next to Lafayette Theater: Under a plan heading to the city council, the former Valley Oaks Health offices on Main Street will be converted into studio apartments and retail space, along with a back stage green room for the city’s $19.4 million renovations next door at the Lafayette Theater. The work, dubbed the Bohemian Theater Project, would include 33 studio apartments with 600 square feet of retail space at 610 Main St. Going to the city council is a proposed $610,000 loan to Upper Main Development LLC to help with the project – a move given initial approval Sept. 24 by the Lafayette Economic Development Commission. The plan would have the city forgiving the loan, as long as the work gets done. The city will consider another loan, this one for $300,000 for Imagination Lofts, a project aiming to build six, three-story townhomes in the 400 block of Wall Street, just north of downtown. For more on those projects:
What’s next: The Lafayette City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Monday at city hall, 20 N. Sixth St. Here’s a link to the full agenda.
THIS AND THAT …
MEET THE NEW LSC SUPERINTENDENT: Lafayette School Corp. will host a community reception for Katie Reckard, LSC’s incoming superintendent, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Hiatt Administration Center, 2300 Cason St. Reckard, LSC’s current assistant superintendent for secondary curriculum and instruction, was selected in September to replace Superintendent Les Huddle when he retires at the end of June 2027. “We welcome the public to come and get to know her as we do, to see her strengths and the ways in which she will work for all our students,” Julie Peretin, LSC school board president, said in a release announcing the reception. Light refreshments will be served. For more on Reckard’s appointment, here’s BiL coverage from Sept. 14:
ELECTIONS: LAST CALL/FIRST CALL: The voter registration deadline in time to vote in the November general election is Monday, Oct. 5. The deadline is 4:30 p.m. Oct. 5 to do that in person at the Tippecanoe County Election Office, 20 N. Third St. in Lafayette. For online submissions, the deadline is 11:59 p.m. Oct. 5. To register, check your status or get more information, go to the Secretary of State’s voter portal at indianavoters.in.gov or to the county’s voter registration page.
The first day of early voting will be Tuesday, Oct. 6. For the first two weeks, early voting in Tippecanoe County will be 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Oct. 6-Oct. 9 and Oct. 13-Oct. 16 at the County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. in Lafayette. Additional sites will open starting Oct. 17. For a full schedule, through Nov. 2, here’s a list of early voting sites and times.
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