This and that: A Sunday edition
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This and that: A Sunday edition
Sorting things out in Fairfield Township. Pushback in LSC hallways as new school board member promises to take down LGBTQ and ‘woke’ talk. How to help United Way in home stretch of its $5M campaign.
Thanks to today’s Based in Lafayette sponsor, The Long Center for the Performing Arts, presenting The Wizards of Winter on Nov. 18. The 11-member ensemble features former members of classic rock giants: The Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Def Leppard, Rainbow, Alice Cooper, Blue Oyster Cult and Broadway stars. Celebrate the season with Wizards of Winter. Tickets: www.longpac.org
This and that on a Sunday …
IN FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP: Fairfield Township Democrats on Saturday officially made Monica Casanova the township trustee for the rest of 2022, days after she won the seat for the next four years, starting in January 2023. Casanova, a township board member for the past year, replaces Taletha Coles, who resigned in October rather than face a court hearing that could have been the final step in a monthslong process to oust her.
Two weeks later, a grand jury indicted Coles on dozens of counts of theft, perjury, fraud and official misconduct related to accusations of inappropriate use of township money. Those charges came after in Indiana State Police raid in May of the township offices, a township maintenance barn and Coles’ home.
Casanova said last week that she planned to take on the role, full time, by the end of November. Meanwhile, Perry Schnarr – a township board member who’d stepped in as interim trustee for the past few weeks – said work continued to get a handle on township records that he referred to as “a complete disaster.” Schnarr last week unlocked the township doors for walk-in office hours for the first time since 2020.
“There’s still a lot of work to do,” Schnarr said. (That included the discovery of a $10,000 invoice from October from Fishers-based law firm Massillamany Jeter & Carson for $10,000 for “replenishment for continued representation.” Whether that was for Coles’ representation during the attempt to oust her or for criminal charges she might have seen coming hasn’t been cleared up.)
Meanwhile, Coles faces a March 28 trial, according to court records. Coles’ attorneys filed a request Wednesday with the court to change her address from her home in Lafayette’s north end to one in Indianapolis. Photos taken by Coles’ neighbors and one by the J&C showed Coles loaded boxes into a moving truck after she was indicted. In comment on the J&C’s Facebook page, Coles that news that she’d “moved out of Tippecanoe County is not true.”
AS SEEN IN LSC HALLWAYS: Apparently these posters, telling students and visitors of all kinds that they “are welcome in my classroom,” have been seen around Lafayette Jefferson High School for more than a year, staffers are saying. After last week’s election – in which one Lafayette School Corp. school board winner told about how he planned to work to stifle what he considered to be “woke” curriculum or agendas – the posters started emerging on social media.
LSC’s Facebook site included this take:
In case you missed what brought the pushback, here’s an interview with Chuck Hockema, who won an LSC school board seat under a banner of “Education Not Indoctrination” and followed up with his commitment to check on gay and lesbian teachers and their allies: “LSC’s anti-‘indoctrination’ school board winner ready to check classrooms, libraries.”
UNITED WAY AND THE HOME STRETCH: Counting down the days until Thursday’s end of the United Way of Greater Lafayette’s 2022 campaign, leaders were working to close out the $5 million drive to help support 26 local nonprofit agencies working on mental health, food insecurity, affordable housing and more. As of the weekend, United Way officials reported that the campaign was at 75% of its goal, with less than a week to go.
What you can do: To donate or to get your company involved, get details, links and more at uwlafayette.org/donate.
PURDUE AND IUPUI: WBAA reporter Ben Thorp talked last week with Dan Hasler, the former CEO of Purdue Research Foundation and former Indiana commerce secretary, about his appointment to help herd Purdue’s interests during the mutual breakup of IUPUI and the refigured Purdue University in Indianapolis campus. Here’s a way into that story.
PURDUE’S LATEST AD: Did you catch Purdue’s spot out this week. After airing during the Boilers’ win over Illinois Saturday, the feed was pretty thick with reaction to the “What Can You Imagine at Purdue?” ad that braided threads of Purdue Polytechnic High Schools, Purdue Global and the West Lafayette campus into the sort emotional play the university’s branding folks have been honing for a while now. Here it is (with an instant review from a two-time Super Bowl champ):
Thanks to today’s sponsor, The Long Center for the Performing Arts, presenting The Wizards of Winter Nov. 18. Tickets: www.longpac.org
Tips or story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com. Also on Twitter and Instagram.
This and that: A Sunday edition
IN Cali for funeral. When I'm away, this keeps me in touch.
For every two steps forward we take in this community, the one step back is realllllllly rough (side-eyeing in the general direction of Chuck Hockema and the bigotry he’s promoting)