Mike Loizzo

Tippecanoe County officials are considering the possibility of employee raises in the next budget.

Auditor Jennifer Weston provided the commissioners with cost estimates in increments of 1% with each percent representing $577,529. That includes wages, Social Security and the Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF).

Weston says PERF is increasing more than usual.

“It’s been increasing anywhere from a quarter to a half percent lately, and it’s going up 1.2% (next year),” she says. “Yeah, that’s going to be a big hit for us.”

Lafayette leaders are increasing efforts to recycle more.

Last year, the city saved more than $180,000 by recycling and not hauling trash to the landfill. Mayor Tony Roswarski says while that’s good, more can be done.

“We’re going to try a pilot program here, hopefully towards the end of the year if the money all works out,” he says, “where we start taking back people’s blue bins and we give them a large toter for their recycling and then a small toter for their garbage.”

Purdue President Mitch Daniels talks about the FY14 proposed general fund budget, which includes a freeze on tuition.

He credits the increase in funding from the General Assembly on Purdue doing well on the performance-based metrics the state uses to partly fund higher education. The state also is giving Purdue $50 million to build the Active Learning Center, which is designed to make classes more collaborative, instead of strictly lectures.

Daniels also talks about the academic profile of the incoming class for fall of 2013.

The Executive Committee of the Purdue Board of Trustees is accepting public comment on the proposed general fund budget. The hearing Wednesday includes comments on the proposed tuition freeze and student fees.

President Mitch Daniels says by holding tuition steady and decreasing the cost of a meal plan, some Boilermakers will pay less.

"I'm very excited about this. I don't know how many universities in the country will be able to say that students are attending in fall of '13 for less money than they attended in the spring '13, but we're one."

A bicyclist who was the victim of a hit and run has died.

The Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Department reports 62 year old Rodney Smith of Lafayette suffered serious injuries Tuesday, May 14 at 7:21 p.m. He died Sunday as a result of those injuries.

Detectives say a utility van struck him on the Davis Ferry Bridge on North 9th Street. The driver stopped briefly, exited his vehicle, and then returned to it and drove south on North 9th Street Road. 

Tippecanoe County is seeking federal assistance to pay for damage caused by heavy rains over the past month.

County commissioners approved a declaration of local disaster emergency Monday morning.

Smokey Anderson, director of the Tippecanoe Emergency Management Agency, says the flooding resulted in more damage than most residents might think.

A Lafayette cultural event is celebrating 40 years. The Round the Fountain Art Fair is Saturday, May 25, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse. Juried event includes more than 90 artists from dozens of states showing and selling their work. Admission is free.

Indiana’s unemployment declined 0.2% in April. The Department of Workforce Development reports that was the largest one month decline in more than a year and happened even though there were fewer manufacturing and construction jobs available. Indiana’s unemployment is 8.5%, which is close to what it was in April, 2012.

The unemployment rate in Tippecanoe and surrounding counties fell in April – in most cases, more than a full point.

Several Mintonye Elementary school students are being treated for injuries after the bus they were on crashed on Interstate 65. It happened around 2 p.m. Thursday near Zionsville.

Tippecanoe School Corporation Superintendent Scott Hanback says five students and seven adults were on the bus, returning from a field trip.

He says the students are enrolled in the Greater Lafayette Area Special Services (GLASS) program and have some type of disability. The bus involved is owned by the Lafayette School Corporation, which administers the GLASS program.

Public input is needed to create a strategic plan for a National Historic Landmark in Crawfordsville.

The General Lew Wallace Study and Museum staff and board members will craft and finalize the document this year.

Museum Director Larry Paarlberg says they want to know what they’re doing right and how they can improve.

"What are concerns? What are issues? Those will be then fed into the strategic plan, so we develop something where the museum can really play a vital role in the life of the Crawfordsville community, and really, west central Indiana."