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Return of the Honor Flight: A photo gallery

This was the scene Tuesday night at Purdue Airport. Plus, Fairfield Township Board dispatches trustee’s ‘spiteful’ swansong budget. A dog park, more pickleball courts coming to Lafayette’s McCaw Park.

Dave Bangert

Oct 12, 2022

Thanks to today’s sponsor, Purdue University, which presents the next in the Presidential Lecture Series, featuring Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan. President Mitch Daniels will host Noonan in a Q&A format at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17, in Fowler Hall at Purdue’s Stewart Center. Admission is free

RETURN OF THE HONOR FLIGHT: A PHOTO GALLERY

Hundreds of people crowded Purdue Airport Tuesday night to welcome 84 veterans arriving home after a whirlwind, one-day Honor Flight of Greater Lafayette trip to Washington, D.C., to take in memorials dedicated to their service in the military. Photographer Vince Walter was there to take in the scene.

William Mitchell, a Korean War veteran, makes his way on the tarmac Tuesday, greeted by crowds at the Purdue Airport. (Photo: Vincent Walter)

Bob Merkel’s family shows support as Merkel exits the plane. Merkel served in the Army in Vietnam. (Photo: Vincent Walter)

Bob Merkel, center in blue, and his friends and family pose after his return on the Honor Flight. (Photo: Vincent Walter)

Emma Workman, a sixth-grader at Frankfort Middle School, made the trip to the Purdue Airport to welcome back the veterans. (Photo: Vincent Walter)

Richard Longer, 7, of Greenfield, was part of the color guard greeting the Honor Flight veterans. (Photo: Vincent Walter)

The Jefferson High School Jazz Band plays patriotic standards as the community gathers and waits for the Honor Flight plane to arrive. (Photo: Vincent Walter)

A veteran and an Honor Flight organizer share an embrace at the end of the day. (Photo: Vincent Walter)

BOARD UNDERCUTS FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE COLES’ ‘SPITEFUL,’ SWANSONG BUDGET

The Fairfield Township Board – in many ways trying to run out the clock on Trustee Taletha Coles’ term, whether it comes when it was scheduled at the end of the year or in court earlier – turned the tables on Coles Tuesday at her final budget hearing.

After two years of Coles neglecting or refusing to submit to the state budgets she didn’t like, the three-member township board returned the favor. The board rejected Coles’ budget, one in which she cut the general fund tax levy by 97%, leaving the next trustee to work with the township’s cash reserves in 2023.

Fairfield Township Trustee Taletha Coles, center, takes notes as the Fairfield Township Board votes to reject her 2023 budget proposal. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

Assured by Ben Roeger, a financial consultant with Indianapolis-based C.L. Coonrod & Co., that the tax levy and budget from 2022 would roll into 2023 if they refused to send Coles’ proposal to the state, sent packing a budget the board called “spiteful” on the trustee’s part.

Coles attended the meeting in the township offices but had little to say.

Next week, Coles faces a hearing in Tippecanoe Circuit Court, the fourth part of a four-stage process meant to boot her from office before her term expires at the end of 2022. The township also was waiting on the results of an Indiana State Police investigation that led to a May raid on township offices and Coles’ home. ISP officials said late last week that police findings were in the hands of the Tippecanoe County prosecutor.

Tuesday morning, Perry Schnarr, Fairfield Township Board president, asked Coles what was up with a GoFundMe crowdsourcing campaign the trustee posted Saturday, hoping to raise $10,000 in legal fees to protect against what she called a political coup and “all the BS.” (The GoFundMe site disappeared late Monday morning, having collected $20 in just under two days.)

“It’s personal,” Coles told Schnarr.

“So, is it something that pertains to us?” Schnarr asked.

“I said, it’s personal,” Coles said, before leaving the conference room until everyone clearing the township offices on Wabash Avenue.

DOG PARK, MORE PICKLEBALL COURTS COMING TO LAFAYETTE’S MCCAW PARK

Plans hinted at this summer to bring the Lafayette’s second dog park, more pickleball courts and a beefier parking lot to McCaw Park advanced Tuesday.

The city’s board of works signed off on a pair of contracts totaling $152,000 to come up with a masterplan and construction management for additions to McCaw Park, on Union Street near Creasy Lane. Construction bids would come later, with work expected to be done by late 2023.

“We’re pretty excited about all this,” Mayor Tony Roswarski said Tuesday. “That park is just so popular. We think we can make it even better.”

Claudine Laufman, Lafayette parks superintendent, said the plan would add 12 pickleball courts, doubling the number at McCaw Park. Designs for a dog park were still being worked out, she said, but that the facility would take pressure off the city’s original dog park at Shamrock Park along Wabash Avenue. Shamrock, tucked near the Wabash River, is in a flood plain, which closes the dog park periodically.

Additions at McCaw also will include new restrooms and a the addition of 146 parking spaces on the west side of the park, near a 32-space lot next to the park’s playground. McCaw Park has 233 spaces on the east side of the ball diamonds, near Lafayette Fire Station No. 5.

The city also plans to add a paved trail in the park that will connect with the city’s trails leading to Munger Park and other parts of the city.

EARLY VOTING STARTS, WHERE YOU CAN VOTE AHEAD OF NOV. 8 ELECTION

The voting season ahead of the Nov. 8 general election starts today – Wednesday, Oct. 12.

Here’s a list of times, dates and locations for early polling stations.

Oct. 12-14: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St.
Oct. 17-21: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St.
Oct. 22: 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Ivy Hall, Ivy Tech Community College, 3101 S. Creasy Lane, Lafayette; and Wabash Township Fire Station No. 2, 51 S. Newman Road, West Lafayette
Oct. 24-28: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St.
Oct. 25: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Tippecanoe County 4-H Fairgrounds, 1400 Teal Road, Lafayette.
Oct. 26: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Mackey Arena, East Entrance, 900 John Wooden Drive, West Lafayette.
Oct. 29: 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St.
Oct. 29: 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Otterbein United Methodist Church, 405 E. Oxford St., Otterbein; West Point Fire Station, 4949 Indiana 25, West Point; and Clarks Hill Christian Church, 9510 Pearl St., Clarks Hill.
Oct. 31-Nov. 4: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St.
Nov. 2-5: noon-6 p.m., Wea Ridge Baptist Church, 1051 E. County Road 430 South, Lafayette; Eastside Assembly of God Church, 6121 E. County Road 50 South, Lafayette; Faith West Community Center, 1920 Northwestern Ave., West Lafayette; and Northend Community Center, 2000 Elmwood Ave., Lafayette.
Nov. 5: 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St.
Nov. 7: 8 a.m.-noon, Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St.

ON YOUR BALLOTS: Who will be on your ballot? That and more, available at Indiana’s voter portal, Indianavoters.in.gov.

FINALLY … A ‘BOOK OF MORMON’ LOTTERY: Feeling lucky about snagging a few cheap seats to see “The Book of Mormon” when it comes to Purdue’s Elliott Hall of Music on Sunday? Producers of the Tony Award-winning musical will hold a lottery for a limited number of $25 seats starting at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, just ahead of the 7 p.m. curtain time. The drawings start at 5 p.m. that day. For details about the lottery and the show, check here.

Thanks, again, to today’s sponsors, Purdue University, which presents the next in the Presidential Lecture Series, featuring Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan. President Mitch Daniels will host Noonan in a Q&A format at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17, in Fowler Hall at Purdue’s Stewart Center. Admission is free.

Tips or story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com. Also on Twitter and Instagram.