This and That: A Tuesday edition
TCHA's ‘200 Years of Tippecanoe County.’ Lawyer allowed to bail on ex-trustee’s case against Wabash Township. WL up for gas station zoning changes, too. Dining Divas on Flavor Country Urban Diner.
Support for this edition 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.
Clearing some of the notebook for this and that on a Tuesday afternoon …
TCHA LAUNCHES COMMUNITY-WRITTEN BOOK FOR LAFAYETTE’S BICENTENNIAL: More than a hundred people – many of them authors being celebrated – were on hand Sunday evening at the Tippecanoe County Historical Association’s History Center for the release of “200 Years of Tippecanoe County: A Community Tells Its Stories.”
The book, timed to Lafayette’s bicentennial in 2025 and Tippecanoe County’s 200th in 2026, features scores of writers from the community telling 200 stories, 600 words each, about local history since William Digby platted Lafayette in 1825.
“This book is a result of a truly collaborative effort,” Claire Eagle, TCHA executive director, told the audience. “We were fortunate to work with a talented group of almost 80 writers and historians who brought their insight and passion to every page. … Our gratitude also goes out to the many citizens who contributed stories, memories and family histories. The photographs that accompany each of these articles not only come from the TCHA archives, but also personal collections shared by community members to help bring these stories to life together.”
The book, published through Purdue University Press, retails for $49.99, available at the TCHA Arganbright Center, 1001 South St. in Lafayette, and the Tippecanoe Battlefield Museum in Battle Ground.
WEST LAFAYETTE OPEN TO LOOK AT PROPOSED GAS STATION ZONING CODES, TOO: Proposed zoning codes that could limit where new, standalone gas stations could go, design standards and how they – as well as other single-use facilities such as oil change businesses and car washes – would have to include decommissioning costs and plans before construction starts were designed with Lafayette in mind. The city called for a study into the recent proliferation of gas stations in Lafayette and for zoning restrictions that could slow that trend. (Though, not before another eight were in the pipeline since the study started in spring 2025.)
Asked about whether West Lafayette might be willing to sign on, too, Mayor Erin Easter said that was likely.
The proposal – including a one-mile distance requirement from existing gas stations – will be heard by the Area Plan Commission at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, at the County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. The Lafayette and West Lafayette city councils meet Monday, Oct. 6.
Here are more details and a Q&A with Lafayette City Attorney Jacque Chosnek about the proposed gas station zoning codes from a BiL edition this week:
JUDGE: ATTORNEY MAY LEAVE FORMER TRUSTEE’S BACKPAY LAWSUIT AGAINST WABASH TOWNSHIP: Jennifer Teising on Monday lost her fight to keep her attorney in her attempt to get as much as $820,000 in a backpay and defamation lawsuit against Wabash Township, where she once was township trustee.
Thomas Little, a Frankfort-based attorney who filed the lawsuit for Teising earlier this year, was granted a request to withdraw from the case. Tippecanoe Circuit Judge Sean Persin issued an order Monday allowing Little to leave the case over objections Teising raised in court three weeks ago.
Little didn’t offer a reason to Persin during an Aug. 18 hearing, nor again afterward outside the courtroom. But Teising told Persin via Zoom that day that Little was trying to protect himself and his firm from potential malpractice allegations he received after filing the complaint against Wabash Township elected and appointed officials. Teising said Little understood her case and that she didn’t want to start from scratch, if she didn’t have to.
Teising also said at the time she was prepared to respond to the township’s motion to dismiss the case on her own, if necessary. She did not immediately respond to questions from BiL this week. The court gave her until Sept. 26 to file an answer to the motion to dismiss. The next court hearing is scheduled Oct. 3.
The lawsuit spins out of legal and political drama during and after Teising’s time as trustee in the township that includes West Lafayette and areas to the west.
Teising, a Democrat elected in November 2018, was forced from office as Wabash Township trustee in 2022 when she was convicted on 21 felony counts of theft tied to questions about her residency. In a January 2022 ruling, Tippecanoe Superior Judge Kristen McVey agreed with the prosecution, writing that after Teising sold her West Lafayette home in June 2020, tried to recruit a replacement as trustee and told people she planned to move to Florida, Teising’s pursuit of “a nomadic RV lifestyle” for the rest of 2020 and parts of 2021 was the same as forfeiting the position. McVey ruled that forfeiting the position while collecting a paycheck was the same as theft, as she’d been charged.
The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled later that year that the trial court got it wrong and that prosecutors hadn’t made their case. The Indiana Supreme Court backed that up in a February 2024 ruling, saying that if there were reasons Teising should have been booted from office, the prosecution hadn’t presented it.
A complaint filed June 17 in Tippecanoe Circuit Court detailed what Teising characterized as deliberate attempts to track her movements, sharing those with media and conspiring to get rid of her in ways that drew protesters to an address she had in West Lafayette and other moments in “a malicious effort to humiliate” her. The case names a list of current and past township officials and employees.
Teising’s lawsuit – filed under her middle name, Rae, and claiming defamation, civil conspiracy and intentional infliction of emotional distress – asked for $39,992 in backpay for 2022 after she was removed from office, plus damages totaling $820,000. The Wabash Township Board had offered in August 2024 to pay Teising $39,992.41 as a proposed settlement for backpay.
The township’s motion to dismiss argues that Teising’s claims against the township came beyond statutes of limitation, meaning they were too late to warrant a case. The motion also argues that Teising’s claims against individuals overreach what she’s allowed when going after those acting in their official capacities with the township. It also contends that Teising cherry-picked scenes from a charged tenure as trustee by trying to say that “she bears no responsibility for her political and legal troubles” with claims that “she is the innocent victim of a conspiracy perpetrated by everyone that was in her orbit.” The township’s conclusion in the motion to dismiss: “This is revisionist history.”
Here's more background on the case, from the last time the parties were in Circuit Court:
WL DOWNTOWN PLAN UPDATE COMING: Planners will hold a public hearing Oct. 1 on a proposed update to the West Lafayette Downtown Plan. The city is contemplating adding 82 acres to a block-by-block, 262-acre land use plan, adopted in 2020. The new area includes what the city dubbed the Oakwood Village Neighborhood, which is largely south and west of the Village and Levee areas in the current downtown plan. You can check the Area Plan Commission’s proposed land use plan update here. The public hearing on the draft plan will be 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, at the County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. in Lafayette.
9/11 CEREMONY AT WABASH FIRE DEPARTMENT: The Wabash Township and the Wabash Township Fire Department will host a 9/11 memorial service at 6 p.m. Thursday at the fire station, 2899 Klondike Road, West Lafayette. Patrick Flannelly, retired Lafayette police chief, will be the speaker.
TCPL BOOK SALE: The Friends of Tippecanoe County Public Library will hold their next book sale Friday through Sunday, Sept. 12-15, at the library, 627 South St. in Lafayette. Hours: 7-9 p.m. Friday for members of the Friends of Tippecanoe County Public Library (memberships available at the door); 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday; 1-5 p.m. Sunday; and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday, when books will be $3 per grocery bag. Find more details here.
DINING DIVAS AND DUDES: FLAVOR COUNTRY URBAN DINER
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.
Up now: They checked out Flavor Country Urban Diner, 220 Columbia St., which opened this year just off the courthouse square in downtown Lafayette.
The upshot for a spot that once held Bea One and then Merlin’s Beard: “The menu features traditional dishes from different cities, which is actually pretty cool. You can get a chicken club from Saratoga Springs, or a New London Connecticut grinder. Word on the street is it’s even a ‘proper grinder!’ They offer a variety of appetizers, sandwiches and hand crafted comfort food. As you’ll see, this is not your basic diner, and it’s not traditional diner food.”
OTHER READS …
Numbers for Purdue’s West Lafayette campus weren’t out, as of Tuesday afternoon. But Indiana University’s Bloomington campus enrollment set a record to start to the fall 2025 semester. (Early projections at Purdue: This could be the first in a decade not to set new enrollment record, with the university looking to control the numbers despite another year of record applications.) This is from WFIU: “IU Bloomington breaks record with enrollment of 48,626.”
Mirror Indy reporter Claire Rafford had interviews with students still acclimating to a changed landscape of dedicated Purdue and IU campuses in Indianapolis, after last year’s breakup of IUPUI: “How are things going a year after the IUPUI split? We asked students.”
Indianapolis Star reporter had this on new rankings of campuses based on how well they stack up on First Amendment: “Indiana University is the worst public university in the country for fostering and protecting free speech on campus, according to a national First Amendment organization that ranks universities annually. In Tuesday's rankings, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression tanked IU's score largely because leadership cancelled a speaker in response to the anti-DEI movement and placed a sniper atop the student union during 2024's pro-Palestine encampment. … Purdue sits on the opposite end of FIRE's free speech rankings as the country's top public university for its First Amendment environment — though the group notes that could change next year.” The report previews some misgivings from FIRE about how Purdue handled its attempts in 2025 to distance the university from the Purdue Exponent, an independent, student-led newspaper. Here’s more: “Indiana University ranked as U.S.'s worst public college for free speech.”
Thanks, again, for support for this edition from 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.
Very, very good review of Flavor Country. Very amusing!!