Michiana Matters EP - 29 Week of 8/10/26

This is Michiana Matters. Your weekly update on the people, places, and policies that shape Michiana. I'm Shelley Harmon Baker, news director, along with reporters Jeff Parrott and Michael Gallenberger. Hi, guys. Hello, Kelly. Hey, hey. Oh, yeah, indeed. Yeah, that's a good word Friday. Oh, I like it. All right, well, let's get started about what we had going on this week. So, all right, Jeff, tell us about St. Joseph County, and they want to try and create a district that will get some more tax money out of Microsoft. Well, what they want to do, and this hasn't been approved yet, but this is the county's... Economic Development Department, they want to capture the property taxes that Microsoft pays and spend it on infrastructure in and around that part of the county. So it wouldn't be shared with all of the taxing units countywide. On the council, how do the Republicans feel about it? How did the Democrats feel about it? Is there some infighting there? So far, it's looking like the Republicans on the council, and they're five of the nine council members. are a little leery of this idea. They think that this revenue should be shared countywide, but there's a bigger issue. They also fear that this is going to lead to more commercial and industrial growth in Granger, which will completely change the whole character of that area. No, I get it. I live in Granger. Yeah, you know, it's very suburb, you know, very family friendly. And, you know, when you've all of a sudden got something big like Microsoft moving in, you know, it feels like it maybe changes the complexion of your neighborhood. Yeah. And so, Council President Brian Tanner, he noted to Shaliel during this meeting that... Recently, rural property owners around the county and farmers have increasingly been opposing commercial and industrial development and rezoning as they've been proposed. You know, we've had the Midwest Continental Divide Trail project that's been real controversial. Solar farms, data centers, and with all that controversy and opposition happening lately, Tanner asked Shalul, he's anticipating development in these large swaths of land out in Granger. If you look at the county's comprehensive plan, basically the area from the toll road all the way down to just north of day road has been identified as commercial industrial development. We are having lots of conversations with a lot of those property owners as their site, which never would have had utilities. Now we'll have utilities running in front of them. Shalia is going to come back to the County Council August 25th. This is going to be a public hearing and final vote on two measures. One is to establish this whole tax incremental financing area, but also to seek approval of $4 million in bonds to start some projects out there, including the Big Douglas Road Railroad Overpass. Okay.

All right. So that's not going to end any time soon. Oh, no. No, no, definitely be on this for a while. Let's talk about a Mishawaka neighborhood that Habitat for Humanity touched recently. Yeah, this is at the southwest corner of Burkett and McKinley in Mishawaka. You might know that that was the Oak Grove Mobile Home Park for decades out there. It was also Northside Little League was also out there in that area. Well, back in 2018, Habitat built a neighborhood. where the ballpark used to be and that's called the fields at highland that's one that president jimmy carter came in and did well this is just a couple blocks away from that this is going to be called woodfield crossing and it's going to be 50 homes and they're going to be a mix of styles habitat for humanity of st joseph county CEO jim williams talked about what's coming out there By Thanksgiving of next year, we hope that you're going to see 21 townhouses, eight two-bedroom cottages, two duplexes, and the start of 16 brand new, well-designed, energy-efficient starter homes that are affordable. Their housing payment is going to be about $1,000 a month. You can't rent an apartment, even in St. Joseph County, for $1,000 a month. That's how transformational this project is going to be. This is a private project, but is there any public benefit to this? Well, yeah, to build the streets, the water, and the sewer that's going to run through that neighborhood. The project's also receiving $2.6 million from the state and $2 million from the city of Mishawaka. Okay. Well, that sounds like, you know what, we always need new housing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. And one more thing on this also on Wednesday, the Elkhart Habitat chapter announced that they're going to be building 36 new homes. And this is all coming from the same state grant that was awarded to this tri-county workforce homeownership initiative. And that was basically the habitat affiliates in St. Joseph, Elkhart, and Marshall counties coming together to apply for this state money to do some of the infrastructure, the utility type work that these neighborhoods need. Okay. Very cool. You know, look as that rises up, man. That'll be pretty interesting. Yeah. All right. Now let's talk about South Bend viaducts and they're trying to make them pretty. I mean, are we talking curtains, a coat of paint, maybe, you know, a throw rug here and there. What are we talking about here? There is going to be some public art and some painting along with that. This is something that the... South Bend Redevelopment Commission approved on Thursday. This is a request from the city to spend up to a million dollars to improve those railroad viaducts. This is three viaducts downtown, the Lafayette Boulevard, Maine and Michigan Street Railroad Viaducts. And these have traditionally historically attracted homeless encampments underneath there. So this work is going to include some improved lighting, signage, landscaping. like I said, public art, surface repairs, and some security improvements. Joe Molnar with the city says that these improvements will, quote, reinforce downtown as a place that prioritizes people, supports adjacent development, and treats infrastructure as an opportunity to create memorable civic spaces, end quote.

It was unclear how those investments are going to affect whether the city allows camping under the bydox. Indiana law took effect July 1st that makes it a criminal misdemeanor to camp on public property. So we're going to see how that... all rubs out too. That's something we should check up on to see if anybody has been fined or arrested or anything and, you know, how in St. Joseph County they're going to, you know, enforce it. Yeah. I'm really kind of curious. Yeah. Okay. Oh, boy, this has been all over the place lately. The South Bend Council and the Continental Divide Trail, Mayor Mueller. I mean, I'm looking for a, you know, a cage match here pretty soon. Wow. Yeah, this is still going on from last week. This has been the best few weeks. controversy back and forth between the council and the mayor's office on this. But yeah, this week the council voted to override Mayor James Mueller's veto of their resolution that they passed recently, which called for the city to pause its whole involvement with this project. What did Mayor Mueller have to say about them overriding that veto? Well, he didn't do any interviews, but he did issue a statement that said he vetoed the resolution because it misstates what state law actually did. does. And he said that vote doesn't change that. He said, quote, this project is still years from a shovel, and I look forward to the work ahead with our state and local partners, end quote. So he definitely thinks this project could still happen and he still wants it to happen. I say cage match, okay, but we'll keep it, you know, keep voting on it or whatever, yeah. All right. Now, while we're talking about tax breaks and, you know, all of the data centers we've been having, you know, here in the area or proposed data centers, one council member wants to kind of get back some tax that we didn't agree to. How do you explain that? Right. This is Republicans on the St. Joseph County Council who are, again, asking Amazon to give back some of the property tax break that they received two years ago when they were approved to build the data center. Republican council member Amy Drake and some other Republicans on the council say that Amazon will pay about $12.6 million in property taxes the first year, but the abatement will save them over $50 million for that year. She says if Amazon would repay the county just $7 million of those savings, it would give each of the county's 71,000 homeowners a roughly $100 credit on their tax bills. I think $100 is a big deal to most people. I think that everybody wants to start seeing these data centers put their money where their mouths are. And I don't necessarily think $100 is the place that we stopped, but I think it's a great place to start. But I also talked with Democratic Council President Brian Tanner, and he says Amazon is projecting over 3,000 permanent, high-paying jobs and also creating a lot of other community benefits. He doesn't think that they would have invested that much without the abatement.

It was a good faith effort that was approved by a super majority of the council as well as the commissioners. So to me, it's a political tactic leading into an election and it has no basis in reality or fact. Yes, there is still some frustration, some concern over data centers as a whole, but at the same time, I think the benefits... that we've already seen out of amazon's investment in the community at least negate some of the concerns that amy and other republicans are continuing to raise we're just going to continue to see data centers be a really hot topic as the elections approach to we're going to have some more stories coming out today and next week just looking at how a lot of politicians who are up for office are trying to distance themselves from data centers. Yeah, when it's a hot topic like that, they, you know, politicians generally want to back off from it. Yeah. And I'm sure that will continue. Oh, yeah. All right, Jeff, thank you very much. Yeah. Michael Gallenberger. Okay, let's talk about Jason Critchlow and the township consolidation proposal. Is he basically saying let's do it for ourselves before they do it for us? That's exactly what he is saying. This is a new state law that was approved this year. that would force many townships to merge if they're considered underperforming within the criteria set up by this new law. That could affect up to a third of Indiana's counties. But there is also an option to do it voluntarily. As you said, a Portage Township trustee, Jason Critchlow, has a plan. He's proposing that the townships in St. Joseph County merge voluntarily, reducing the number from 13 down to just two or three within the county. He says that could improve efficiency and strengthen services. A lot of townships are facing property tax cuts and budget cuts because of what's going on downstate. Meanwhile, fire and EMS protection is becoming more expensive and more difficult. as far as expectations go to meet and provide for residents. Now he says this is just meant to start a conversation. This is not meant to be a final plan. But he thinks there would be a lot more control of what the new structure might look like if the townships are proactive and do it voluntarily rather than wait for the state to come in and do it. Is there a timeline on when the state will come in and take over or do you know? There is. Sorry. I believe they're supposed to release like a list of townships by the end of the year. And I think over the next few years, that process would play out. Okay. All right. Now let's talk about New Carlyle and the Samsung GM plant and what's going on out there. Yeah, this was the plant that was announced back in 2023. The two companies were going to team up to make batteries for electric vehicles. But last year, demand for electric vehicles went down. Federal tax credits for them. ended. So construction was paused earlier this year. There's been talk that the plant could switch from EV batteries to batteries for energy storage systems. We've seen this happen at similar facilities. And that was kind of confirmed this week. Samsung also said it's buying out GM's 49.99% share in the new Carlisle plant.

And they're still going to partner with each other that Samsung said in this press release, that they're still going to develop EV batteries, and they could be made a new Carlisle in the future, but in the meantime, they're going to make batteries. they say, for these energy storage systems or other uses. Okay. And then we had an officer who is on unpaid leave, an Elkhart officer, I believe, for some alleged poor behavior. Yeah, this is 30-year-old Tyler Keppel. He was arrested last month on suspicion of invasion of privacy. Now additional charges have been filed for what police say happened a week earlier. The Elkhart Board of Safety kind of had a discussion of this this week. They held a public here. and Tuesday to consider moving him from paid administrative leave to unpaid leave. City attorney Rose Rivera discussed the allegations. She says court documents say Keppel went to visit one woman who was in acquaintance after she said she didn't want to talk. He had a key to enter, which she attempted to use, but she had engaged the chain lock system. He attempted to break that chain lock system. And then when the call went out, he attempted to first slow down officers and then ask them to disregard the call and to not respond. Now Keppel's attorney during this hearing with the city's Board of Safety said he believed there were serious discrepancies and that his client disagreed with some of the accusations. He asked the city to find him some other duties that might allow him to keep getting paid while this investigation and this trial takes place. But interim police chief Andy John Whitmire said there really weren't any appropriate placements for this sort of situation. Board members unanimously agreed to put him on unpaid leave until the case is resolved. All right. We'll see how that plays out, and I'm sure we're not done. And also, let's talk about what a data center. We never talk about data centers. And this one is for the proposed Bristol with no rezoning. Yeah, this is one that's kind of come up a few times. There were several overlapping requests that have been made to the town council and had to go through the county as well. One was annexation for part of the land, and this was for rezoning. that could potentially lead to a data center. Town officials were very explicit that it wasn't a data center proposal exactly yet. But the rezoning appeared unlikely to get approved after the Elkhart County Plan Commission gave it an unfavorable recommendation. Then the town council president withdrew his support. And then last week, finally, the two landowners involved in this request withdrew it. This land could have been used for a variety of industrial uses under this request. Town officials, as I said, you know, said there was no specific request for a data center yet, but.

As you might be able to gather from our conversation today, data centers are kind of what's being developed. So that's what people were thinking was going to happen. It's a hot topic right now. And not just here, everywhere across the U.S. All right, let's go on to, this is almost a happier story. Edith Pasley Park. Yes, this is a park in Elkhartes. This was the site that used to be the Ullery School. Then it became a park after the school closed. Throughout that time, it's been a gathering place. It's been significant for the city's black community, whether people were there going to school or whether they were there watching basketball games or enjoying it as a park. Now it's been upgraded with the new splash pad shelter and walking paths. Mayor Rod Robertson says the rededication speaks to reconciliation in the area. I can pinch myself that I'm mayor doing the time in which we're doing this kind of work. Because this is the kind of work that means something to a community. And as you can see, it's a beautiful park. The park was rededicated last weekend and named now for Edith Pasley, a longtime community activist and civil rights leader who died in 2006. And this was one of the causes she was involved with was preserving that space after the school closed. During the ceremony, we heard lots of stories about her during the event. You went to that event. Yes. Yes. How was it? It was, um... I know there were no trains there. There were no trains there. But, I mean, it was a full couple hours, I think. Getting the splash pad turned on, seeing kids play with that. There was food there. And, you know, a lot of city officials and family members of Edith Pazley and all, you know, sharing memories of her and talking about the significance of that space. You got a lot of requests for all of the sound from that day, did you know? A lot of community organizations want to. preserve that event, you know, and the speeches and, you know, want to keep that in their archives. Yeah, very cool. You know, nice to hear. All right. Now we move to the state and a little bit of good news with the I read and I learn results. And the good news is that the scores on the third grade I-read test have improved for the fifth year in a row. The complicated part, though, is the I-Learn scores. That test went through some changes and new academic standards. So this year's scores will really be the new benchmark that future years will be based off of Indiana Secretary of Education. Katie Jenner says they're now working toward improvement on those. Our goal will be to take that baseline, where we see it today, and we will work to improve across the board, just like you've seen us do with reading. Now, A through F grades for schools that were a thing in the past are also coming back. Okay. All right. A little bit of good news there. I like it. All right. Now, one of your favorite topics, Michael, let's talk about, is you love when we say to bears. To bears. Yep, they're still planning to come to Hammond, it sounds like. The team confirmed this week that their focus is on two sites near Wolf Lake in Hammond. Now, this is just, you know, a few feet really away from the Chicago City limits. One site they found to be viable and then they're...

continuing with due diligence on the other site that they're looking at in the area. During a press conference, the team leaders were asked whether fans would be disappointed to see the team leave Illinois. In fact, they were kind of told fans will be disappointed to see the team leave Illinois. Chairman George McCasky, though, compared it to the team's previous move out of Wrigley Field and its move to Champaign when a soldier field was under renovation. It's going to require an adjustment. But when I've driven that route, other than a sign telling me so, I wouldn't know that I've just crossed the state border. We also downplayed concerns about Katie Porter County not implementing its portion of a food and beverage tax. That's part of the funding formula for this stadium. We've heard from some officials there that, you know, they're not comfortable with. implementing attacks for something 20 miles away, but George McCasky said he's confident that all the revenue will be generated. Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren says move is designed to give fans a better game to experience. It would also, you know, allow the team to potentially hold a Super Bowl, having a dome stadium. more concerts and other events that aren't currently available in soldier field oh that makes sense i mean what are the people of illinois afraid of i mean coming over they're going to actually see a hoosier i mean and as i you know thought as i'm listening to the questions and answers during this press conference i mean it's so close to the state line i mean You can come over through the city and not have to talk to a Hoosier. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So it seems like a great deal for Illinois because they can still get the benefits. It's close by, but Indiana kind of is trying to come up with a formula to pay the bill. You know what's more... Or help pay the bill. Right, help pay the bill. You know what's more scary than a Hoosier is watching people from Illinois drive here. Have you seen Illinois drivers? I'm from Michigan, and I-94, when I was a kid, we used to play, is that an Illinois driver? And nine times out of ten, you look at the plate, it's an Illinois driver. It's so true. All of a sudden, they go right past you, you know, practically blow your doors off. So, yeah, that's much scarier. I mean, I think we've seen from some Illinois drivers. I don't want to make a generalization. Oh, I do. But there is a, you know, bit of a hurry to get from Illinois to Michigan with spending the least amount of time possible in Indiana. Yeah.

Understood. All right. That pretty much wraps it up for the week. But next week, we're going to try something new just for fun. Uh-oh. Oh, no. Shelly's talking about fun. We're going to start something called What's Your Point? Where the day before I will give both Jeff and Michael will have a topic and you get opposing ends of it. And I'll tell you which end you get. You don't get to pick. Oh. Oh, I know. Oh, no. Yeah. And you know what? And it'll be three minutes total. You each get a minute to make your point. And then you get 30 seconds for rebuttal each. And at the end... we decide who made the better point. Okay. You guys up for that? We'll see. Is it going to be like real important stuff or like trivial stuff? You know, anything. You know what? We may talk about the flock cameras, you know, like, you know, why they're good. And then one of you be why they're good, why they're bad. We may talk about crunchy versus smooth peanut butter. Oh. It can be just about anything. Okay. Smooth is the superior peanut butter just so you know. Agreed. Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. Anybody chunky peanut butter? It's okay to be wrong. All right. We will start that next week. And in the meantime, if you have a story you want us to either check out or talk about, send it to WVPE at WVPE.org. I'm Shelly Harmon Baker along with Jeff Parrott and Michael Gallenberger for Michiana Matters. We'll see you next week.