This and that: A midweek edition
Tennis vs. pickleball enters the chat in a West Side court rehab agreement. So long, for real, Chauncey Hill Mall. Marlee Thomas announces she’s leaving WLFI. Dining Divas at Pizza Uncommon. And more
Thanks today for ongoing help from Based in Lafayette sponsor Long Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Lafayette, presenting Crush, the Bon Jovi Experience Nov. 16. For tickets for the show and details for other events, go to longpac.org.
Sponsorship help for this edition also comes from Purdue Musical Organizations. The 91st Annual Purdue Christmas Show is the must-see event of the year! Gather your family and friends, and create lasting memories as you sing along to your favorite songs and marvel at the extraordinary Purdue student talent on display. Get tickets here.
This and that for a midweek edition …
THE PICKLEBALL CLAUSE IN WEST SIDE’S TENNIS REHAB: The rivalry between tennis and pickleball spilled into a West Lafayette school board meeting this week, as a cost-sharing agreement with the city to help renovate the school district’s tennis courts served up some angst.
In September, the West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission agreed to put $750,000 toward what is expected to be a $1.8 million to $2 million resurfacing and lighting project for West Side’s tennis courts at West Lafayette Elementary School.
The deal was the school offered assurances that the 10 courts would be available to the public anytime they weren’t in use by West Side’s tennis team. The agreement also included provisions for dual striping four courts for pickleball use and automated lighting for play until 11 p.m.
It’s a partnership the city and the school corporation had touted as a good deal for both sides – similar to shared costs for track improvements at Leslie Field next to the high school 14 years ago that looped the facility into the city’s trail system.
Monday night, though, school board members discussed concerns from tennis fans about pickleball players – always looking for more places to play – moving in on the courts along Cumberland Avenue. They also were complaints about potential noise issues for the elementary school and neighbors who lived near it.
Up for discussion: Whether pickleball courts – which are 20-by-44 feet, compared to 60-by-120 feet on a tennis court – and their shorter net heights would be aligned to fit two on each tennis court and how striping would be set up.
A memorandum of understanding between the school board and the West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission was up the school board’s information only on Monday. And West Side coaches reported that they were fine with the arrangement as presented. But it’s a deal worth watching.
CHAUNCEY HILL MALL DEMO: I finally stopped the site of the doomed Chauncey Hill Mall this week, just to be sure demolition was actually happening. Weird to think about a 45-year-old strip mall as a Purdue campus landmark. But still it was bracing to see heavy equipment working behind construction fencing, making short order of the assorted hangouts still fresh in alums’ minds. What’s next is a 13-story, 1,687-bed project that sits on the footprint of Chauncey Hill Mall’s L-shaped retail space. It would have 36,554 square feet of commercial space and 544 parking spaces in an underground garage. The plans also show a multi-layered public plaza space that sits roughly where Chauncey Hill Mall parking is now, near the corner of State Street and Chauncey Avenue. (For more, this is from September, when the West Lafayette City Council gave its rezoning blessing to the site: “Chauncey Hill: It really is Dead Mall Walking this time.”) So long, Chauncey Hill Mall, we hardly knew you.
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SIA’S OUTBACKS TO THE RESCUE: Subaru of Indiana Automotive this week delivered 20 of its preproduction Outback models to the Lafayette Fire Department for firefight training. Most will be used to stage emergency and accident response scenarios, Craig Koven, an SIA spokesman, said. Another 24 Outbacks went to the Greater Lafayette Career Academy, the West Lafayette Fire Department and the Wabash Township Fire Department. “All of the donated vehicles are preproduction models, which cannot be publicly sold nor driven,” Koven said. “Instead of sending them to a junk yard, the fire departments are able to use them for emergency response training and GLCA students can use them for auto technology/repair training.” This week, during a presentation ceremony, Lafayette firefighters put them to use right away.
SPEAKING OF THE GREATER LAFAYETTE CAREER ACADEMY …: Lafayette School Corp. and Tippecanoe School Corp. finalized an agreement that gives the two districts joint ownership of the Greater Lafayette Career Academy’s physical location in the former Lafayette Life offices at 18th Street and Teal Road. Lafayette School Corp. bought the vacant, 94,000-square-foot corporate offices in 2016, the Greater Lafayette Career Academy opened in 2018 as a career-path cooperative between LSC, Tippecanoe School Corp. and West Lafayette Community School Corp. By 2021, the districts had put a combined $29 million into the facility. According to the agreement, the three districts will still be part of the operations, with LSC and TSC owning the facility itself. For more on the Career Academy, this is from October 2021, after one of the renovations that included high-bay automotive, construction trades and welding labs, on top of culinary, nursing, firefighting and other trades education: “'Amazing.' Take a look inside the Greater Lafayette Career Academy.”
WLFI ANCHOR MARLEE THOMAS HEADING OUT: Marlee Thomas, who has been an anchor at WLFI-TV18 since 2020, announced Wednesday that her last day at the station will be Nov. 22. Thomas says she’ll offer more about where she’s landing after that. Her news comes on the heels of the departure of Jeff Smith, who spent roughly 40 years as a reporter and anchor at WLFI, in October. (From the Oct. 6 edition: “WLFI’s Jeff Smith, signing off. A Q&A”) Here’s a note Thomas posted on Facebook Wednesday morning:
DINING DIVAS AND DUDES: AT PIZZA UNCOMMON: Dining Divas and Dudes is a team that has been reporting and rating new restaurants, hidden gems, international fare and updated menus from old favorites for years now via Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette at homeofpurdue.com. Here at Based in Lafayette, we feature some of Dining Divas and Dudes’ latest finds.
Recently, they took in Pizza Uncommon, with two locations, including on Win Hentschel Boulevard near the Purdue Research Park and a new one on State Street in West Lafayette, just down the hill from Purdue’s campus. The reaction, from the review: “You’re really going to need a group to try this place for the first time because you seriously don’t want to miss all of the options. You can’t handle them all alone.”
Check the full Dining Divas and Dudes post/review here: “Slice of Eccentricity: The Art of Unconventional Pizza at Pizza Uncommon.”
OTHER READS …
WFYI reporter Rachel Fradette had a look at feedback the Indiana Department of Education received on the state’s proposed high school diploma changes, after a public comment period ended last week. A state board vote is expected in December. Here’s the story: “The public had their say on Indiana’s high school diplomas — here’s what comes next.”
Former Tippecanoe County Assessor Samantha Steele wound up in headlines this week in Chicago, where she is one of three commissioners on the Cook County Board of Review. The Chicago Sun Times reported that Steele, a Democrat who was elected Tippecanoe County assessor in 2006 and served one term, had been arrested Sunday on suspicion of drunken driving after she crashed into another vehicle and police officers found her lying on the sidewalk. From the Sun Times report: “During her arrest, Steele ‘repeatedly said, ‘Is your penis that small’ to an officer.” For more: “Cook County official arrested, charged with driving while drunk in Chicago.”
Thanks today for support from Purdue Musical Organizations, presenting the 91st Annual Purdue Christmas Show, Dec. 7-8. Get tickets here.
And thanks for support from the Long Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Lafayette, presenting Crush, the Bon Jovi Experience Nov. 16. For tickets for the show and details for other events, go to longpac.org.
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.
These late-morning posts improve my lunch conversations. Not sure how to parse the story about the ex-assessor (say that drunk) with the porn star name but a very different script. I might focus on whether Marlee will shed her endearing Hoosier twang in whatever large market she is bound for. Thanks for making me incrementally more interesting, Dave!
The noise from pickleball will be tough for the neighbors in the summer, especially with lights allowing it to run late into the night. Those neighbors probably ought to petition the city to pass on its insistence on pickleball lines on these courts and instead to work with Purdue on joint funding of pickleball courts by the tennis complex, where there are no residents to annoy.