Plans Hit a Traffic Jam

Wednesday night, August 18, Union Township residents got together on three-days notice - via 15 information signs posted at strategic intersections - to discuss the fate of the township - 78 people crowded into a Union Township residence, and were joined by Town Councilors Judith Essex and Candace Ulmer. Essex and Ulmer were former township trustees from Eagle and Union respectfully before they became de facto Zionsville Town Council members as a result of government consolidation.

What gave rise to the meeting was the possibility that Cooper Road would be extended from Ind. 334 north through Union Township as part of the roadway link involving an interchange at Cooper Road and I-865 - a proposal on the drawing board being considered by the Zionsville Transportation Master Plan Study Committee.

Residents along Cooper Road south of Ind. 334 and adjacent property owners in what is provincially known as "Horse Country'' rode to the hounds when they found out about the possibility of the Cooper Road-I-865 interchange. Since those plans surfaced, town officials have been besieged with emails protesting the idea, and residents of the area have been packing the working group of the transportation study committee meetings.

At last Friday's meeting (8-20) of the study committee, it was announced that the proposed extension of Cooper Road north of Ind. 334 has "been separated out'' of consideration for the updated Zionsville Transportation Master Plan. No reason was offered why this extension of Cooper Road had been "separated out'' of the proposed planning.

However, Zionsville Confidential has learned the reason for the separation. As originally proposed, the "Cooper Road project'' begins at I-865, extends north to Ind. 334, and the proceeds to connect with 875, and onward to 900 linking with Ind. 32. It should be noted that there are parts of the alignment that would have to be constructed through some very expensive real estate.

With the furor that the project has caused along Cooper Road in the equestrian district, planners were worried that should, for some reason, the project fail to become part of the updated Zionsville Master Transportation Plan, the entire alignment would have been doomed. So, to safeguard the segment of Cooper Road north of Ind. 334, planners decided to split the concept into two parts in the master plan. One wonders just why the extension north of 334 is so important. Not many people live up there. Yet.

How's that old saying go? Oh yes, "Build it and they will come." And then so will the interchange.

Stay tuned.

Going For Broke

How's this for big kahunas.

The Mulberry Street Gang is betting on the come the referendum is a done deal.

So, confident is the Zionsville School Corp. that the referendum tax will pass in November that $5.8 million of the first year's proceeds from the tax was included in the 2011 budget, which the Zionsville school board has on its agenda again at Monday night's meeting (8-23)! Page 8 in the budget shows a line item for "referendum fund" with $5.84 million in it. ZCS apparently feels like they are playing with the house's money because, "The Referendum Fund, if the operating referendum is approved, will also be included in future years." (page 10.) Isn't it grand to play with O.P.M.?

But, perhaps the Robison administration should make some side bets, just as insurance.

It must be in the cards that the referendum will be protested. The 2011 budget is being challenged by a group of local residents, with more than the required number of signatures.

A devoted and die-hard group of anti-tax folks has formed a committee - Zionsville Taxpayers for Responsible Education - to do battle with the Zionsville Community Schools PAC, ZCS Yes. The ZTRE is currently soliciting contributions through a post office box - Zionsville Taxpayers for Responsible Education, P.O. Box 93, Zionsville 46077.

And, from the sounds of the cash register, the money is rolling in - and the group is only two weeks old. But with $5.8 million a year on the table, expect Robison to scramble for his trump card.

David Drexel's money is on the underdog.

Let Them Eat Pizza

When Marie Antoinette told the French people, "Let them eat cake,'' the Revolution began.

But not so in apathetic Zionsville.

When asked how much the $42 million November referendum tax will cost Zionsville taxpayers, the school superintendent Scott Robison quipped:

"About the same price as a piece of pizza a day.''

At $5,850,000 a year for 7 years, make mine double sausage, double cheese please.

Where is the public outcry that will cost Zionsville property owners millions to pay off the School Board's humongous boondoggle of a new sports complex, new football stadium? All that and a multi-million dollar school sitting vacant.

The famous line from the school's financial guru Mike Shafer was that the empty school is being held in "strategic reserve.''

Are we in Kansas yet Toto?

And if residential property owners are not concerned yet, Main Street should be doubly worried because it will shoulder the greater weight of the referendum tax than a residential property of equal value.

Commercial properties, unlike residential ones, are not eligible for deductions for mortgages and homestead exemptions which add up, meaning that Zionsville businesses will have to cough-up almost three times that of the residential properties.

In a letter to the editor in this week's Zionsville Times-Sentinel, Peter Heles of Zionsville writes:
``There are approximately 50 parcels of commercial real estate on Main Street. The average gross assessed value of these properties is $485,000 based on the March 1, 2009 assessment. That means, on average, a commercial property owner on Main Street will pay an additional $10,015 for the seven year referendum tax.''

Heles is worried, as all Zionsville should be, that as hard as shopkeepers are trying to survive in the economic downturn, and in addition to increases in property taxes owing to the reassessments of the past few years, this new tax could cause some to shut their doors.

Pass the pizza.