Support for this edition comes from the Art League, presenting an evening with Marianne Boruch, winner of the 2026 Jackson Poetry Prize, Wednesday, Nov. 4, at the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette. Get tickets here.
WABASH TOWNSHIP’S PICK FOR FUTURE FIRE STATION SITE UP FOR A ZONING VARIANCE VOTE
Wabash Township will take a step this week to put a new fire station northwest of West Lafayette, near the intersection of County Road 600 North and Morehouse Road.
The county’s Board of Zoning Appeals on Wednesday will review the location, where the township is considering a three-bay fire station with room for up to 12 firefighters, according to plans filed with the county.
Wabash Township Trustee Angel Valentin said this week that if approved first by the BZA and then by the Wabash Township Board, work could start in 2027 or 2028.
“With our run volume continuing to grow rapidly, we’re trying to get ahead of the curve,” Valentin said. “If the growth we understand is coming is already there by the time we get going on this, then it’s too late, if everything has materialized. So, we’re trying to plan ahead with that forecasted growth and to be able to better serve those residents.”
Wabash Township officials have been pointing to development in the unincorporated part of the township for a while now, where population has grown from 17,613 in 2011 to 20,735 in 2020 – or a 17.7% increase. In recent presentations based on Area Plan Commission projections, Valentin has said the population in the Wabash Township Fire Department’s service area was expected to grow to more than 32,000 by the early 2030s.
In those presentations, Valentin has said that growing population pushing out from the edges of West Lafayette had driven up fire calls by 18% in 2026 over the same time in 2025 and up 46% this year over the same period in 2024.
Valentin said the township expected plans to advance at some point for an extension of U.S. 231 through the northern portion of the township on its way to an eventual connection with Interstate 65.
“It’s not concrete or finalized, but we’re trying to get lined up in that area,” Valentin said.
Wabash Township has its main fire station on Klondike Road, between U.S. 52 and Lindberg Road. A second fire station is on Newman Road, between South River Road and Division Road, in the southern part of the township.
Valentin said a new station would be similar to the one on Klondike Road, without administration offices, with the goal to make it a staffed station. He said the plan would be to house an ambulance there, too.
He declined to give estimates on the cost of the project as they were still being worked out. He said construction would depend on securing funding.
The Wabash Township Board earlier in 2026 authorized a 10-year bond issue of up to $5.5 million to build a two-floor, 11,000-square-foot facility on the east side of the township’s property at 2899 Klondike Road. Part of that revenue also is being used to buy the land for a new fire station, he said.
What’s next: The Area Board of Zoning Appeals will consider variances Wabash Township needs to put a fire station in an agricultural zone at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, at Lafayette City Hall, 20 N. Sixth St.
SETTLEMENT TALKS FLOATED IN LAWSUITS HOPING TO STOP $4 BILLION SK HYNIX PROJECT
Could a settlement be in the works in a pair of lawsuits aimed at stopping construction of SK hynix’s $4 billion high-bandwidth memory facility on the northern edge of West Lafayette?