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
You can’t really understand where we’re at today — Hendricks County, Indiana, or the United States — unless you take some time to understand how we got to this place in time. Not the Cliff (or Spark) Notes version we learn in school, but a deeper dive to discover what’s usually a fascinating story. For … Read more
… but they have a big say in how a large chunk of your tax dollars are spent right here in the county. Specifically, the federal tax dollars that allow our communities to make much-needed transportation improvements they couldn’t fund on their own. Federal law requires every “urbanized area” with a population of more than … Read more
Two major developments within the Town of Plainfield are springing up near the place where Township Line Road becomes Perry Road. Hobbs Station is a major mix of commercial and housing space, while across Smith Road (900 East), Bo-Mar Towns & Flats will provide a variety of housing types. They triggered the usual panicked responses … Read more
Every year, my sister asked me the same question, and after I’d answer, she swore at me. She’s not given to profanity, but property taxes do tend to bring out our sour sides. She lives in one of Chicago’s close-in suburbs, and her annual property tax bill was usually quadruple what I paid on a … Read more
What’s the difference between a town and a city? Most Hoosiers would answer by saying cities are big and towns are small, but that’s not accurate. For example, Brownsburg, with a 2020 population of 28,973, is a town – while Greencastle is a city, although its population was only 9,820. Nor does Greencastle’s status as … Read more
When Rich Carlucci was Plainfield’s town manager, he’d often receive calls about school-related matters from citizens who didn’t realize town government has nothing to do with running schools in Indiana. If the call’s purpose was to pay a compliment about something the schools did, Rich would happily and graciously accept it, then hang up. When … Read more
They may not seem like much, but minutes are kind of a big deal. Last time, we explored a legal meeting, and minutes are the legal record of legal meetings. What makes them important? Once a government body formally adopts the minutes of a meeting (or a work or executive session), it becomes a legal … Read more
In the last column, we discussed the various types of sessions in which local government boards and councils perform their work. Now let’s take a look at their regular legal meetings. Again, what’s here are common practices. The meeting you walk into may be different. Indiana’s Open Door law requires public posting of the agenda … Read more
Maybe you’ve never attended a school board or town council meeting. Or maybe you’ve been to a meeting or two and found the process strange or confusing. Wherever you’re at, I’d like to share some insight into what’s going on and why it’s done that way. Every governing body is unique, and that includes the … Read more