Mosey on, Ken McCammon
Downtown loses one of its best friends. Plus, Battle Ground sixth-grader headed to National Spelling Bee. West Side narrows in on student transfer policy. LSC looks at candidates for board vacancy.
Support for this edition comes from State Bank. Since 1910, State Bank has helped local businesses grow and communities move forward. With decisions made right here and relationships built for the long term, their team works alongside businesses across Greater Lafayette to turn plans into progress. Learn more about how State Bank supports local businesses at https://www.statebank1910.bank/business-tippecanoe
MOSEY ON, KEN McCAMMON
We’re all still a bit stunned over here this morning after word started to get around this weekend about the death of Ken McCammon, longtime president of Friends of Downtown Lafayette.
McCammon – a champion of all things downtown, the collection of neighborhood sharing gardens tended by Grow Local, the fundraising of Beers Across the Wabash, the all-out volunteer effort of the Community Christmas Day Dinner and more – might be best known as one of the instigators of Mosey Down Main Street.
In a 2017 interview, marking a landmark in what was then Mosey No. 50, McCammon laid out how he and Steve Bultinck had come up with the idea in 2008 for a free summer street festival. It was one that started small at one end of Main Street, closest to Sixth Street, and quickly grew into a stretch of vendors, stages and wall-to-wall people that spread to 11th Street.
“I had recently returned from a trip wanting to go to a restaurant for dinner and arrived there to find out it was cIosed, not for the night, but for good. This was the fourth restaurant in about five months to close,” McCammon said at the time. “While attending a gathering with one of the many consultants hired by the city to help spur investment downtown, I told (Lafayette economic development director) Dennis Carson that I was going to do something, didn’t know what, but something to fix downtown.”
McCammon and Bultinck chewed on it over pints a few days later at Lafayette Brewing Co. and went to work.
All those years later: “What we had hoped to accomplish has happened, and we feel very content that we had a role to play in the revitalization of downtown,” McCammon said.
The Mosey team, joining a line of tributes, posted this Sunday evening: “That simple idea —bringing people together — was really what Ken was all about. Because of Ken, our downtown and the entire greater Lafayette area is stronger, more welcoming, and more connected. His impact will live on in the downtown community, the conversations between neighbors, and the countless moments of community he helped create.”
For me, it was the rare Mosey when McCammon didn’t sidle up and give a knowing nod toward a band or to the gathering crowd or to acknowledge a stray breeze on a humid July night.
“What do you think?” McCammon would ask, partaking in the conversation and everything else the Mosey was supposed to be about, while also working the front lines to make sure sound crews had what they needed and covering dozens of other details.
“Pretty cool, right?”
And it was.
Nice work, Ken McCammon. Mosey on.
BATTLE GROUND SIXTH-GRADER HEADED TO NATIONAL BEE AS REGIONAL SPELLING CHAMP
David Betourne crouched on the small stage in First Christian Church’s Fellowship Hall after nearly two hours and seven rounds of the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee of Northwest Indiana Saturday morning, asking pronouncer and West Lafayette Public Library director Marra Honeywell for a moment before his final word.
A year earlier, the sixth-grader from Battle Ground Middle School had gone out in the regional bee on the word “chinook,” finishing tied for sixth. What was he thinking this time, eyes clenched and hands folded white-knuckle tight, the last speller facing a word in a championship round?
“Talking to myself, praying, nervous – all of that,” Betourne said. “I wasn’t really getting psyched up or anything. But I’d thought of that moment before, like what it would feel like and hoping I knew the next word.”
And he did.
Betourne smiled and raced through “biomimicry” to the shouts from his family.
Dexter Sharples of Klondike Elementary finished second. Dylan Meyer of Klondike Middle School placed third.
The regional bee, hosted by LARA Educational Opportunities, drew spelling champs in grades 4 through 8 from 33 schools in Tippecanoe, Montgomery, Jasper, Clinton, White, Benton and Fountain counties.
Betourne will represent the Lafayette area in the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee May 26-28 in Washington, D.C.
“I’m just going to be practicing and practicing, because I have just over two months,” Betourne said after his win Saturday. “I have the app on my phone. I spent an hour or two hours a day practicing. My mom helped me. She’s been my biggest supporter. She and my grandma. … I can’t wait to give this my best shot.”
READY TO SUBSCRIBE TO BASED IN LAFAYETTE? TODAY’S THE DAY.
THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …
STUDENT TRANSFER DECISION IN PLAY FOR WEST LAFAYETTE SCHOOL BOARD MONDAY: The West Lafayette school board is expected to consider a final reading on a student transfer policy Monday night. It’s been in play since summer 2025 when a state law essentially erased a working arrangement with Tippecanoe School Corp. that allowed West Side to accept students from their neighboring district whose families were willing to pay a premium to cover the property taxes raised by West Lafayette’s voter-approved referendum.
Until this year, under a limited transfer agreement with TSC, West Lafayette schools billed TSC approximately $400,000 on top of the money that came from the state’s per-student tuition funding to match operational and educational expenditures covered by a referendum’s 37-cent property tax charged to those who live in the West Lafayette district – an additional tax that amounts to an estimated $400 to $600 for average homeowners. No other district had a similar agreement with West Lafayette.
The current debate among school board members has revolved around pressures to maintain enrollment and the per-student state funding that comes with it; capacity in some grades and classes; how housing availability in the district plays into student body trends; and the fairness of taxing some families of West Side students and not others, particularly as the school board aims for an updated request of voters for a property tax referendum on the November 2026 general election ballot.
After a 3½-hour work session last Monday, the school board is still hashing out some of the options, including a priority system for students and how a lottery would work under a new transfer policy.
Here’s where that discussion landed, with options still in play. It’s the starting point ahead of tonight’s school board meeting.
The West Lafayette school board meets at 6 p.m. Monday, March 9, at the district’s administration offices, 3061 Benton St.
Here’s more on how West Side got here:
LAFAYETTE SCHOOL BOARD SET TO INTERVIEW CANDIDATES FOR BOARD VACANCY: A pair of candidates with experience in Lafayette School Corp. schools will be interviewed Monday night by the Lafayette school board to fill a vacancy, after LSC board member Chuck Hockema stepped down in January with a year remaining on his term.
They are, according to school board president Julie Peretin:
Dewayne Moffitt, an associate relations representative at Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc., is a Lafayette Jefferson High School graduate who spent six years at Tecumseh Junior High School as a student success coordinator. A U.S. Army veteran, Moffitt also spent time as executive director of the Hanna Community Center.
Oscar Trujillo, a Lafayette Jeff grad, taught math and coached the wrestling team at Tecumseh Junior High. He now is regional coordinator for the Indiana Migrant Education Program, where he supports families working in agriculture.
The LSC school board, according to state law, is designated to select a replacement to fill a term that finishes at the end of 2026. The replacement needs to come from LSC school board’s District D, where Hockema was elected and which includes parts of the district’s east, north and central areas.
The LSC school board will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, March 9, at the Hiatt Administration Center, 2300 Cason St.
Thanks, again, for support for this edition from State Bank.
Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.
Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
So sorry to hear this. I always called him the Mayor of Main Street. He did indeed make a difference.
Oh, my. Farewell, Ken. Downtown will miss your determination and your huge smile. You made a big difference in our city.