OSCNA Hosts Candidate Night(posted Oct 1 ) Vacating Georgetown Road and consolidation were some of the topics discussed at Meet the Candidates night sponsored by the Old Speedway City Neighborhood Association. The only contested race among the Speedway Town Council is Traci Lipp challenging the incumbent Lu Hillmer in district five. Lipp explained that she was really never given the opportunity to discuss her opinion about vacating Georgetown Road and she raised the issue with The Speedway Navigator after the question and answer format. Lipp was inspired to run because of her compassion for the town and the residents' perception that the town council does not listen. Lipp plans to use her grant writing skills to help fund some of the town's expenditures. Lipp's platform is to bring the government back to the people while Hillmer stressed her party loyalty by working as a precinct committeeman. Lipp demonstrated her accessibility by inviting people to Meadowood Park Oct 14 for coffee and conversation from 3 pm to 6 pm. She also discussed cultivating a network that has worked well to help with the functioning of the town council. Hillmer said she supports redevelopment and that people should not let fears obstruct implementing the plans even though she acknowledged she did not know all of them. She clung to the statement that if the redevelopment is not going well it can be changed. As for Georgetown Road, she said that the public would have to learn to adjust to the change. Hillmer said she wanted to work on developing a town court again so the money collected from fines would remain in town. Clerk-Treasurer Sharon Zishka, running unopposed, said the town missed its deadline to create a town court. It needed to start on the process a year before the election. She said the earliest it could happen again is 2010. Zishka explained the clerk-treasurer's position functions like a financial officer with no legislative authority. Zishka said she has been working with a grant writer and she has applied for $1.1 million in grant money to help the town's budget. Eileen Fisher, wife of Speedway Redevelopment Commission member Ron Fisher, said she supported the redevelopment of Speedway, "but did not always agree with everything." She did not say what she opposed, but that she noticed that the town has declined since she moved here 12 years ago. She moved to Speedway because of its school system and the close knit community. Bill Suffel, running unopposed in District 3, is building his campaign by promoting to have the safest and cleanest community. Suffel noted that a town manager with experience in redevelopment is needed since the town is about to enter that phase. Incumbent Jeff Hartman, representing district 2, explained his concerns for Georgetown Road were quelled after talking to the SRC and engineers about diverting traffic to Lynhurst Drive and Auburn Street. He thinks the traffic impact will have less effect on these two roads especially if Holt Road is connected to I-65. Hartman disagreed with Lipp that the council did not listen. He cited the code enforcement officer and ordinance 1057 were response from a resident driven issue. Incumbent Gary Raikes, representing District 1, explained that not only is Speedway's future hinged to the success of the redevelopment, but the west side and Indianapolis as well. "Vacating Georgetown Road needs to happen," he said. He said that he was part of the redevelopment task force 11 years ago to study blight, but it was difficult to get support from the City of Indianapolis. He noted this is a classic example that consolidation should not occur because Speedway lost control of its destiny with Unigov. He said it was not until 2005 that Speedway and the three other excluded cities were able to gain more autonomy when the state legislature gave them authority to create their own redevelopment commissions. He noted that Speedway needs to be the epicenter to carry the west side. He noted the major new development on the west side is the Wal-Mart Supercenter. Lipp opposed consolidation while City County Councilor Marilyn Pfisterer said she would act as a liaison. She said it should be an individual choice from the residents whether the excluded cities would want to consolidate. She said there is a provision to let excluded cities join the consolidation like the individual townships of Warren and Washington chose to join the Indianapolis Fire Department. Pfisterer said it was too complicated of an issue to give an yes or no answer, but the residents of Speedway deserve input if consolidation came up as an issue. Democratic challenger Gloria Jean Harvey chose not to answer the question directly, saying she has never resided in Speedway and was not familiar with the issue. |
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