Moore Road

Creamery pasture

Purdue Landscape Architecture Students Share Report

Mark Dollase of Indiana Historic Landmarks introduces presenters on April 29 at Traders Point Creamery.

Landscape Architecture Students and Traders Point!

Over the previous 3 months, three Purdue University Landscape Architecture students have been working on a project regarding the Traders Point Triangle area, an area ranging from Lafayette Road on the south to Hunt Club Road on the north. Their main objective is to provide the community, its leaders and potential developers with an insight to what Traders Point could and should be, paying respect to the natural and historic character of the area. They are working under the belief that the need for preservation and smart growth of the land is apparent as valued open space and woodlands are rapidly giving way to suburban sprawl. Two of the students are local, one from Zionsville and one from Traders Point, and therefore have a vested interest in the area!

The students will be sharing their findings/presentation with us at The Creamery at 6:30pm on Tuesday, April 29th. The presentation is titled "Preservation Methods, Comprehensive Planning & Establishing Community Identity". Please join them for this hour presentation. They have worked long and hard and it would be great to encourage continued support and new ideas from the next generation! Some of their "Context and Goals" posters are currently on display at The Creamery.

See you then!

Cindy Lamberjack

Mayor Ballard's First Pike Meeting & TPAN

Dear Traders Point Neighbors:

Mayor's Night Out with Pike Township residents occurred on April 22nd at the Guion Creek Middle School. A decent sized crowd turned out to listen to the mayor and his top department personnel answer questions that were written by the residents on provided forms and read to the mayor by Susan Blair, PTRA President. The event was strictly limited to the one hour allotted so not a whole lot of questions were addressed. The subjects most represented in the questions were pot holes and when various roads will be resurfaced, particularly 38th Street. Other questions concerned the brain drain, consolidating city government, and why can't a person victimized by credit card theft get a copy of the store's surveillance picture, to which Scott Newman said it is probably just law enforcement habit not to give out evidence but he thought there is no law against it. The mayor spent a large amount of time answering about his desire to increase Indianapolis's international image and connections. He says the city is falling behind and losing trade possibilities, all which can be corrected by expanding the sister city program (Indpls currently has four sister cities).
Joe Wynns, Director of Indy Parks Department, fielded the question about the "failure of the Lilly Lake Dam" at Eagle Creek Park. Wynns sounded exasperated as he accentuated the fact that the dam, which is at 56th Street and creates the reservoir, did not fail. He explained the draining of Lilly Lake was an accident due to the "spill well", which has been known for a while to be in need of repair due to a decayed pipe under the road, giving way. Wynns said the repair of the "spill well" is estimated to cost $200,000 and that money is hard to justify since there are so many other park projects in need, but his department is getting estimates on the replacement of the decayed pipe (apparently to satisfy the outcry over the draining of Lilly Lake incident). Wynns finished his speech by saying there was no emergency, Lilly Lake refilled in a couple days after the incident, and it is holding water indicating there is no leak. In the meantime, the Parks Department will continue to keep the water level of Lilly Lake three feet below the "spill well". In a curious final statement on this subject, Mayor Ballard quipped that he hadn't heard of a "spill well". (Me either; I thought we had "spill ways".)
The director of DPW answered a couple of questions related to areas with drainage problems (areas around 56th Street and Kessler Blvd were mentioned). This subject provided opportunity for the director and the mayor to claim great savings are being found through "value engineering" and the current administration is finding and reducing great amounts of excess and waste by the former administration. In so doing, the city is saying many more projects will be accomplished than formerly planned.
Two of the last questions to the mayor concerned the status of the Pike Youth Soccer indoor facility planning at Reed Road and the potential to rename Michigan Road to the Hamilton County line as Martin Luther King Junior Drive. Regarding soccer, the mayor said he just learned that very day about the potential facility. As to the street renaming, he stated he understands the costs involved to existing businesses; otherwise, he hasn't thought about the issue, and then he said he has no position on the renaming.
Perhaps for TP, the best part of the Mayor's Night Out was what happened prior to the event when HOA presidents or representatives within Pike Township were invited to accompany the deputy mayor on a tour of parts of the township. Steve Jones, TPAN President, represented us. The tour group visited the TP Organic Creamery, heard something regarding our concerns for the Ropkey-Beeler properties, and drove by the Shanghai Road location next to Intech Park where a recent Metropolitan Development Commission decision is very dismaying in that it approved another road to enter Shanghai in violation of a 1998 commitment put on the original development of Intech Park. (For the time being, the recent MDC decision may be moot because the developer (Browning) has decided the market is too soft and is trying to sell its purchase option to Lauth, the original developer of Intech Park). At any rate, we hope awareness of TP issues, especially preservation of rural, low density development, were put on the city administration's radar.

One of the questions during the Q&A was what is the mayor doing about all the roadside litter. He agreed it's bad. Mayor Ballard mentioned that Saturday, April 26th is a nationwide day of litter clean up, and he encouraged all Indianapolis residents to participate. The TPAN request for volunteers to help in an organized TP-wide litter clean up hasn't produced many helpers. There has been one potential offer of a scout troop making this a project with us. Come on, folks, if these kids can help, then it seems the rest of us can also.

Earth Day, Arbor Day, Spring Cleaning, and the like are all converging this week. Here's a bit of essential information connected to a recent national news article about the fact that drinking water supplies everywhere are being found to have remnant amounts of pharmaceuticals. Wastewater treatment plants don't have the capabilities to treat and remove such components and neither do septic systems. The suggested manner of disposing of unwanted prescription drugs used to be to flush them down the toilet, but that is now known to be ill-advised. The new advice on disposal is to take left over or unwanted prescriptions to collection facilities, which are becoming more commonplace. Ask your pharmacist for collection capabilities when you receive a prescription. There is an upcoming opportunity on April 26th at Earth Day celebrations in downtown Indianapolis to clean out your medicine chest of old prescriptions and dispose of them properly. See the attachments.

Sincerely,
MAStevens
TPAN Secretary
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Traders Point ranked top neighborhood by NUVO

Recently several of us with TPAN were interviewed by Nuvo Magazine for a feature story they were doing about Indianapolis Neighborhoods. We did not realize at the time that it would lead to Traders Point being identified as one of the 13 most interesting neighborhoods in Indianapolis! Although you may not think of Traders Point as a neighborhood, we are becoming a neighborhood thanks to people like you. I wanted to share the article.

I have noticed a lot of people are in a malaise about Pike, about property taxes, about property values. I get it. But if TPAN is doing its job, we will help you and the residential real estate community to articulate our area's attributes. Not sure we have a motto or slogan (or that we even want one) but we continue to pursue designation as a rural historic district. If/when we complete that goal we will be Marion County's ONLY rural historic district. Pretty cool.

Here's a big idea in understanding neighborhood promotion. If we are passionate about what is great (such as the Creamery, Eagle Creek Park, proximity to the airport, the shorter commute time, KIB Tree Plantings etc.) we will engage friends and strangers in understanding why we chose this special place. If we are mad about it or something in it, that too will be contagious. (not good)

I encourage all of us to celebrate the distinctives of Traders Point. So please feel free to forward the attached to others!


Traders%20Point%20Neighborhood%20-%20NUVO.pdf

Drury Hotel Update

Recently I wrote about Drury Hotel's plans to erect an 88' foot structure behind Bob Evans at 71st and Marsh. Last night at the PTRA meeting we learned more about. They have modified their plans considerably to scale back the height of the facility. In all other respects it appears to be a magnificant project - steel and poured concrete - unlike sticks and bricks so common with suburban hotels. There was a consensus that Drury should proceed and they will file their new plans with the city very soon. They have agreed to lower the elevation from 7 stories to 5 and they have expressed interest in having close dialogue with the neighbors about all matters pertaining to the project and the adjacent parcel between the proposed hotel and Chestnut Hills. There were several residents from CH and one of them was very opposed and felt personally attacked by the prospect of this use. I think he may believe that the property will harm his property values. In fact, his neighbors were reassurring and realize that the current zoning does permit a low budget extended stay facility such as the one on the south side of 86th Street near Traders Point Shopping Center. The Fire Chief pointed out that these extended stay facilities are much more negative on property values than a hotel such as the proposed. Evidently they can be populated by migrants and transients and even drug dealers and crack heads. The group in attendance began to realize that addressing committments for use and landscaping, signage and lighting for the entire parcel is far superior to doing it piecemeal over a period of years and that this does represent a very high end user that will retain ownership (rather than most hotels which are franchised and resold within the first three years of completion). Drury does appear to be a first class operator and I have verified with my contacts that they are respected throughout the industry. In fact one of the school board candidates was there and he is employed by Marriott. He said Drury is admired within the Marriott corporation for their attention to detail and quality.

I think the group was also very impressed with the Drury architect and his interest in landscaping and berming and agreeing to a low intensity use such as office on the parcel that separates the hotel site from Chestnut Hills. Kevin Durcholz in heading up a committee that will fine tune the Drury plans. I am also on this committee.

In response to our request for a line of sight drawing showing how a two story project on the site to the south would compare to a five story project on the site just north of Bob Evans, they showed convincingly that the effect would be the same visually because the taller building is further away from the housing than the lower two story building could be.

KIB Event

Dear Traders Point Neighbors:

Just a reminder that Saturday, April 12th, starting at 8:30 AM, at the West 86th Subdivision Clubhouse, is the KIB tree and shrub planting project. The weather is predicted to be cool, but that just means vigorous activity will keep your warmer!

As I promised, here's the link to find the Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District's Spring 2008 Tree and Shrub Sale brochure. http://marionswcd.org/
The order deadline is May 7th and the pick up day is Saturday, May 17th. The selection includes a variety of native trees and shrubs at a very reasonable price.

School Board Candidate Forum Summary Report

Traders Point Association of Neighborhoods
Summary of TPAN Quarterly Meeting (3/20/08)
On Thursday, March 20, 2008, TPAN conducted its quarterly meeting at the Traders Point Creamery. The meeting began at 6:45 PM. The purpose of this meeting was to hold a forum for the candidates on the May Primary election ballot for the Pike School Board.
School Board Candidates
Steve Jones, TPAN President, gave each candidate opportunity to give an introduction:
Larry Grau is currently on the Pike School Board in the capacity of filling board member Anne Booth’s remaining term. He has lived in Pike Township for 15 years. His daughter is a Pike High School graduate.
Ricky Hence has been involved for more than ten years in Pike Township and has run for various offices. He has worked for 19 years with Marriott Hotels. He has a child in the Pike School System.
Larry Metzler is a life-long Pike Township resident and is running for his fourth term on the Pike School Board. All his daughters graduated from Pike High School. He works in his family’s plumbing business.
Brownell Payne is a North Central High School graduate and a custom optical business owner. His wife is a school teacher in the Pike Township School District.
Nancy Poore has been a Pike Township resident for 14 years and is running for her second term on the school board. She has children in various Pike elementary and middle schools.
Forum
Forum moderator, Steve Jones, asked the candidates two questions, each of which had been provided in advance to the candidates. After the candidates responded to the prepared questions, the forum was opened to audience questions.

Question #1: What in your opinion is the most important challenge facing the metropolitan Pike Township School District?
Every candidate acknowledged the budget difficulties and the just-passed state legislation to cap property taxes as the most important challenge. The following candidate responses are in addition to recognition of the budget issue:
Larry Grau stated he believes the General Assembly intended school boards to coordinate with other groups, place greater value on education, but be the guardian of tax dollars.
Nancy Poore acknowledged the budget is everyone’s concern, but, that aside, she emphasized that her understanding of the school board’s role is to advocate for schools. She stated the school board members aren’t the ones who establish the budget but they have to try to provide for the needs of education under the established budget. She reminded the audience that Indiana historically placed importance on education by requiring that every surveyed section had to have land set aside for providing for a school.
Larry Metzler reminded the audience that 2007 school budget has yet to be approved by the state; yet, the school district is now working on the 2009 budget under a new set of rules. Larry said he is committed to learning about the impact of the new legislation. He stated his appreciation for the wonderful tax injection Park 100 provides to the Pike School District.
Ricky Hence acknowledged the limited resources for providing quality education and recommended that nontraditional sources of money need to be pursued, such as the Fortune 500 companies located in Park 100.
Brownell Payne supports a “Keep It Simple” approach. He has a large concern about morale within the schools and the need to build it up. He believes school uniforms were a good requirement. He also suggests pursuing nontraditional money sources rather than looking to property taxes.
Question #2: What, if anything, can be done to control or reduce financial burden on tax payers?
Brownell Payne proposed pursuing grants and alternative sources of funding, such as the Lilly Foundation.
Ricky Hence supports looking for nontraditional sources of funding and to spend available dollars wisely, for example, by buying supplies in bulk.
Larry Metzler, in response to the new candidates’ to the school board suggestions, wanted to assure the audience that nontraditional sources of money and grants have been vigorously pursued by the existing board members and school staff. He stated there are not going to be a lot of new money sources and the best solution is to control expenses. He stated that 90% of the budget is personnel expense.
Nancy Poore spoke about the need to build and buy quality so that what is purchased and built lasts and is operated properly. She discussed her effort to have a geothermal heating-cooling system installed at the Eastbrook Elementary School when it is rebuilt. The initial cost to install a geothermal system is greater than installing furnaces and air conditioning systems, but a geothermal system has a dramatically longer life expectancy and fuel operating costs are nonexistent because the system uses the naturally consistent temperature of the earth rather than needing any fossil fuel (natural gas or electricity). As well, a geothermal system does not produce any polluting air emissions. The state agency for Local Government Finance must approve the installation of a geothermal system, and Nancy isn’t optimistic of approval since the agency’s usual conduct is to look only at the initial expense. Nancy also spoke about the large effort to pursue federal grants for Striving Readers, a program for middle schools. She impressed upon the audience that one out of 100 Americans is in prison; and the annual cost per prisoner is $23,000 while the annual educational cost per student is $5,600. Nancy presented the statistics to show it is fiscally conservative to educate the population well and produce productive citizens.
Larry Grau believes the State is going to take over much of the school budget. His goal in looking for new solutions includes considering:
(1) performance based budget; and
(2) asking for a return on investment.
He thinks the questions to ask are why we are doing whatever it is that is not performing well and what is an expenditure producing in terms of furthering education.
Questions & Answers
1. The first question from the audience was about the poor ISTEP scores in Pike Schools. The questioner connected the phrase “return on investment” to the statistic that the Pike School District ISTEP passing rate is only 50% which doesn’t show a good return on the investment of tax dollars into education. The questioner acknowledged that Pike Schools have difficult issues to address; nevertheless, the ISTEP performance is getting worse.
Candidate responses:
Larry Metzler spoke about “English as a Second Language” programs instituted by the school district and said the district has much to be proud of in its Baccalaureate Program, which prompted an audience member to ask if other students are being left out while the Baccalaureate Program caters to its students. In response to Nancy Poore’s discussion on disaggregated test scores, Larry Metzler added that the Pike School District won an award two years ago for both the top and lowest test scores increasing above previously measured test scores.
Nancy Poore explained that, after one year in the school district, a student’s test scores are required to be included in the district’s total assessment of test scores. She said Pike Schools have a mobility index higher than the state average. Nancy also spoke about disaggregated test scores, which led the audience to ask if those break out numbers are available. Nancy praised the school district’s curriculum director who has been doing research on the ways by which a child’s brain learns to process knowledge especially with regard to the best ways to teach reading. Nancy’s message is that having reading skills leads to being able to self learn all the rest of one’s life.
Ricky Hence spoke about the need to offer programs for students with special needs in response to the audience member’s comment about other students being left out if not part of the Baccalaureate Program.
Brownell Payne said his issue is that teachers have no contract and that affects staff morale thereby affecting overall school performance. He said he is an advocate of sports (coaches gymnastics), but he thinks too much money is spent on sports to the detriment of education.
Larry Grau commented that money available for sports cannot be used for class room programs which led him to state he “wants more forums”, presumably to discuss ways to fund needed class room programs.
1a. An audience member asked a school-specific question regarding the College Park Elementary. The questioner had investigated that school’s ISTEP scores from September 2007 and found them to be the lowest of all Pike Schools. The questioner lives in the neighborhood of the College Park Elementary and is concerned that the school’s bad image is reflected in the area’s lessening property values. The questioner has noticed fewer students from the area walking to the elementary school.
Nancy Poore responded by saying she also lives within the College Park Elementary School boundaries. She thinks the drop in numbers of students going to that school is due to the well-promoted year round schools where those former College Park students may have transferred.
1b. The same questioner who raised the poor ISTEP scores also commented on his concerns about the inability to communicate to the school board. He did not elaborate on the specific issue; but, when he brought an issue before the school board, he believes he got little relief from the board’s action. He believes the school board made its decision in advance of the public hearing, which seemed to be just a formality rather than an opportunity for open communication.
Larry Grau alluded to the questioner’s comment by saying he agrees that, by the time of a school board meeting, the board members have already received as much information as they can digest on the issue, and it may seem to others that the school board members aren’t open on the issue.
2. Accompanying the question about poor ISTEP scores was the request to justify why $19 million spent on the football stadium was a necessary expense especially in light of the poor test scores.
Larry Metzler responded that the cost was not $19 million; it was only $12 million. The questioner said he was still bothered by the $12 million expenditure. Larry explained that the $12 million was not just for the football stadium but also included work on school laboratories. He said the total project cost included $9 million for a multi purpose facility that is handicap accessible, year-round turf for the football field that has made the facility usable by the arts and band departments, and locker room facilities at the stadium for female students thereby bringing the facility into compliance with federal Title IX requirements (equality in sports offerings for male and female participants).
3. A question was directed specifically to Nancy Poore regarding the amount of time required to recover the larger initial installation cost of a geothermal system and what trade offs might there be for spending that greater initial expense.
Nancy Poore explained that the initial installation cost can be recovered, depending on the extensiveness of the geothermal system, in about 5 to 10 years. The trade off comes in the form of greatly reduced operating costs compared to a traditional heating-cooling system, and the money saved from reduced operating expenses can be used for paying teachers’ salaries. (Under the Indiana school funding system, capital funds cannot be used for other purposes, but operating funds can.) Nancy also explained that Indiana is far behind its surrounding states where geothermal systems have been used in school construction for many years.
4. A question about allowing school bus drivers to unionize was directed specifically to the two candidates running for their first school board terms, Ricky Hence and Brownell Payne, because the two candidates were quoted in the Indianapolis Star as proponents of unionization.
Brownell Payne said teachers are always first with him but he thinks it is not fair that bus drivers can’t have a union.
Ricky Hence said he is not a single-issue candidate but he thinks contributing to bus drivers’ union dues would be fair treatment.
Larry Metzler defended the school board’s position regarding bus drivers by saying that, when the cafeteria was privatized, the school board fought for the existing cafeteria workers. His grievance is that the school bus drivers did not first come to the school board to discuss their interest in unionizing.
Larry Grau added to the discussion that pay increases to help bus drivers with union dues could result in cut backs in programs and services to students. He stated that programs or services purchased for one school, for example an elementary, must be provided equally at all elementary schools.
ATTENDANCE
The following were in attendance at the March 20, 2008, TPAN meeting:
Blair, Susan, PTRA President
Chaney, Earl
Engle, Madge
Evans, Jose, District 1 City-County Councilor
Hendrie, Marguerite
Hinkle, Phil, State Representative
Jones, Steve
Lamberjack, Cindy and Joe
Lange, Sandy
Marshall, Jan
Ostendorf, Ed
Patton, Lula, Township Trustee
Reller, Ross
Ritchie, Katherine, Pike School Board Member
Robertson, Jeanette
Schmid, Dick
Stevens, MaryAnn

Thanks Bob Kleinops

Ross

I really enjoyed your blog on the traveling Normandy Barn. It prompted me to find some of the pictures I took while the barn was disassembled and moved to 38th street. Being a person who enjoys history, I hope you enjoy these. BK