“We’ve brought a petition signed by over 100 residents, so you have to do what we want you to do.” It happens from time to time. A group of citizens upset about something goes around the area collecting signatures, then presents them to a government board with a demand that the board immediately take whatever … Read more
In a recent column, I mentioned that Greenwood has what’s known as a Riverfront District. It’s one of several Indiana communities that established a riverfront district after the General Assembly created the concept back in 2004. Hendricks County has only one of them, and it’s been a part of Plainfield since 2021. Wait … did … Read more
It’s officially Quaker Boulevard, but anyone who has been around Plainfield long enough to have watched chilly youth soccer matches at Lovell Field still calls it New 267. There’s a nondescript building below the massive Plainfield water tower near the Boulevard’s north end. Its interior is divided into sections that look like no office you’ve … Read more
Every month, some of Hendricks County’s middle and high school students are summoned to their school nurse’s office, where they’re handed a small cup and asked to urinate into it. They’ve been selected to provide a sample as part of their school’s random drug testing program. While most people assume that the primary purpose of … Read more
In a recent column, I explained why some Hendricks County students appear to live in one town but attend school in another. If you missed it, the upshot was that town boundaries have nothing to do with those for schools. The school boundaries follow township lines, as state law directs. As with pretty much anything … Read more
Few things get many taxpayers more worked up than the concept called economic development. Bringing new employers to a community and encouraging existing businesses to expand boosts the local economy, which is why it’s a priority for many communities. Unfortunately, misunderstandings about the tools local government uses often lead those taxpayers to believe residents are … Read more
Every time there’s a school shooting somewhere in America, social media chatter sites light up with parents and community members demanding their children’s schools add even more protection. One of the most common calls is for schools to install metal detectors at every door. Parents and community members are rarely aware of all the security … Read more
Hendricks County’s population growth has consistently been among the top three in Indiana, and by some measures, among the nation’s fifty fastest-growing counties. Every time a developer plans to address that growing population with a new subdivision or multi-family community, panic fills the chatter pages and races up and down the sidelines at youth sports … Read more
We expect a lot from the many kinds of government employees who affect our lives. We want them to be proficient, efficient, patient, selfless, graceful, and unfailingly polite. We say they should be held to a higher standard. We also expect them to treat us with the respect we believe we deserve. Oh, and we … Read more
About this time every year, familiar rants start to pop up on social media. Most are some version of: “It’s crazy that school starts so early now! When I was a kid, we didn’t go back until after Labor Day and we still got out in June!” It’s absolutely true that school starts earlier than … Read more