Heads up promised before dirt moves on SK hynix
Plus, demolition coming for fire-damaged house on Salisbury Street. Top Indiana officials aim at teachers, state workers who commented on Charlie Kirk assassination. And more.
Support for this edition comes from Greater Lafayette Commerce, presenting its Business Expo Wednesday, Sept. 17, at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds. For more on the businesses participating and what you’ll find there, click the link below.
Support also comes from Lafayette Urban Ministry, presenting the 2025 Hunger Hike on Sept. 21 in downtown Lafayette. Fundraising starts for an event that supports the work of LUM, Food Finders Food Banks and the Haiti Ministry at St. Thomas Aquinas Center. Sign up to walk, to support a team or become an event sponsor at www.hungerhike.org. For more details on the Hunger Hike, click the link below.
A few notes – and deal – on a Sunday …
MORE ON SK HYNIX’S TIMELINE ON MOVING DIRT ON WEST LAFAYETTE SITE: SK hynix officials this week told Based in Lafayette that the South Korean company was still going through several state and federal steps before it would be ready to start moving dirt on its $3.87 billion semiconductor facility in West Lafayette.
Early in September, an engineering firm representing the South Korean company received approval from the Tippecanoe County Drainage Board for a stormwater plan that would allow crews to start grading work to level more than 100 acres between Yeager Road and County Road 50 West. (The drainage board approval did not include that needed for construction, which County Surveyor Zach Beasley said would have to come later.)
Since then, SK hynix has said the stormwater plan approval “will not lead to an imminent start of the construction.”
Asked about when that work might start, SK hynix officials in South Korea said efforts on several procedural requirements – including approvals from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, and the DNR’s Division of Fish and Wildlife – are still underway before grading can start.
“We are also in discussion with the federal government with regard to the procedure on the environmental impacts,” Kanga Kong, a spokesperson for SK hynix, said. “We plan to initiate groundwork should all the requirements by the U.S. government be cleared and will ensure to share the details of the major processes, including the grading work, with the residents in advance.”
The site was rezoned for industrial uses in May. SK hynix is planning a 340,000-square-foot R&D and manufacturing facility where it will assemble high-bandwidth memory chips for use in a growing AI market. SK hynix officials have said they expect the facility to be up and running in 2028 and eventually employ 800 to 1,000 people.
Neighbors who live near the site continue to pushback, earlier this month pleading with the West Lafayette City Council to reverse a decision to rezone the Purdue Research Foundation land from residential to industrial use.
Two lawsuits filed by three residents aim at the zoning decision, looking to halt development. The lawsuits challenge the city of West Lafayette, Purdue Research Foundation, SK hynix and the Area Plan Commission on whether rezoning approved by the city council in early May was properly done. The complaints accuse the city council of overstepping its authority by ignoring warnings from local experts about health, environmental and other concerns in its vote.
Tippecanoe Circuit Judge Sean Persin set a Sept. 23 hearing to consider motions to dismiss all or portions of lawsuits that were filed in June and have since been combined. No trial date has been set.
CITY FINALIZING PURCHASE OF FIRE-DAMAGED HOUSE ON SALISBURY STREET: The West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission is expected this week to finalize the purchase of 2016 N. Salisbury St., a house badly damaged in a fire in May and largely untouched since then. The city has been working through the summer to negotiate a price for the property to buy it through the city’s West Lafayette Enrichment Foundation. According to the redevelopment commission’s agenda, the price set by a pair of appraisals is $126,500. When the redevelopment commission started the purchase negotiation with owner Vijay Bhatia, there were no set plans for the property. Last week, Mayor Erin Easter told the city’s board of works that once the purchase is approved, the city plans to “immediately demolish the structure that's still on top of it.” Look for more on the project when the redevelopment commission meets Wednesday morning.
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PURDUE’S RAINY AFTERNOON/EVENING AT ROSS-ADE: Hats off to the Boilermaker faithful who stuck it out in the Ross-Ade Stadium concourse Saturday during a three-hour lightning delay to see Purdue host USC. A few morning-after reads now that you’re dried off:
J&C reporter Sam King had the keys to a 33-17 loss for the Boilers: “Purdue football shows fight, but turnovers in red zone costly in loss to USC.”
King also had this about how Purdue dealt with a delay that lasted nearly as long as the game was supposed to: “'It was flawless.' Purdue football had to adapt to weather delayed start vs USC.”
From Indianapolis Star’s Nathan Baird: “Purdue can play with a team that may be nationally ranked by Sunday afternoon. Here’s another one of those paradoxes. That’s not where this team wants to be, but at the same time, it’s exactly where it wants to be headed.” Here’s more on the analysis of what happened: “Purdue football proved improvement in loss to USC, knows work still to do, showed it will respond.”
THE MURDER OF CHARLIE KIRK …
A trend being pushed also by some of Indiana’s top elected officials in the days after Charlie Kirk’s murder on the Utah Valley University campus, via CNN: “People are getting fired for allegedly celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder.” From the article: “Dozens of social media posts and messages about the murder of Charlie Kirk, including some that celebrated his death, are being spotlighted by conservative activists, Republican elected officials and a doxxing website as part of an online campaign to punish the posters behind the messages. Prominent far-right influencer Laura Loomer, a US senator, and a site called ‘Expose Charlie’s Murderers’ have all drawn attention to people who have posted messages about Kirk’s Wednesday assassination.” Closer to home, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita – who spies woke threats at every turn in less-fraught moments – called for tips about any teacher or school administrator in the state “making comments that celebrate or rationalize the assassination of Charlie Kirk.” Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, a tight Kirk ally, posted a similar note, promising that “we will review and send these horrid messages to their management teams.” In that theme of monitoring social media reactions during a fraught time, Reuters had this:
The New York Times had this, recounting some of the conversations Tyler Robinson – the Utah man arrested for the murder of Kirk – had on the media platform Discord when friends noted that suspect photos released during the manhunt resembled him: “After Kirk’s Killing, Suspect Joked That His ‘Doppelganger’ Did It.”
RIZZO BACK AT WRIGLEY: While you were waiting out Saturday’s rain delay in West Lafayette, freshly retired Anthony Rizzo was living his best life in the Wrigley Field bleachers, starting beer cup snakes, back-slapping Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, soaking up the adulation of the Cubs faithful and – unreal – getting this opportunity a few rows up from the left field fence: “Watch Anthony Rizzo almost catch home-run ball in Wrigley Field bleachers.”
CONSTITUTION DAY AT PURDUE: Constitution Day is Wednesday, marking the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787.
Purdue will hold its annual Constitution Day of Jeopardy-style games, Q&As and civics education from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in the West Commons on the ground floor of the Purdue Memorial Union. For more information and resources, here’s your link.
Linda Greenhouse, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, will be the Constitution Day keynote hosted by the Program on American Institutional Renewal at Purdue. Greenhouse, who covered the Supreme Court for the New York Times, is the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph M. Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. She will speak on “Preserving or Disrupting: The Supreme Court and the Balance of Power Today.” The lecture, sponsored by the Ann & Bill Moreau Constitution Day Endowment in Honor of Sen. Birch Bayh, starts at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in Deans Auditorium in Pfendler Hall at Purdue. The event is free.
Thanks for support for this edition from Greater Lafayette Commerce, presenting its Business Expo on Sept. 17 at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds.
And thanks, again, to Lafayette Urban Ministry, presenting the 2025 Hunger Hike on Sept. 21 in downtown Lafayette. Sign up or support hikers at www.hungerhike.org.
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.