Journal and Courier from Lafayette, Indiana • 17

H's outta here in here amily Sports Center field allows for year round play See Page C4 Local RIDAY EBRUARY 13 2009 IT JOURNAL COURIER JCONLINECOM In brief to benefit Special Olympics Special Olympics Indiana will hold its Polar Plunge fund raiser at 10:30 am Saturday near the north side of Ross Ade Stadium on the Purdue University campus Walk up registration will begin at 8:30 am but partici pants can go to wwwsoindi anaorg to register in advance Participants must raise at least $75 to take the plunge They will receive long sleeved event shirts Those who raise $1000 or more also will have a chance to win two round trip tickets from AirTran Airways A kickoff ceremony at 10:30 am will include a costume party and the lighting of the "lame of by a local Special Olympics Indiana athlete Last year Polar Plunge events raised more than $200000 for Special Olympics Indiana statewide Utility issues balloon alert Northern Indiana Pub lic Service Co has issued a reminder to its customers that helium filled metallic balloons can cause problems if they float away in the air If a balloon drifts into overhead power lines it has the potential to cause a significant power outage NIPSCO urges its customers to securely tie down metallic balloons and not try to retrieve them if one gets caught in a power line acility highlights program Rose walk Commons at 250 Shenandoah Drive in Lafayette will host a meeting for mili tary veterans or the surviving spouse of a veteran at 6 pm on eb 24 Rich Moushon a representa tive of Government Benefit As sociation LLC will discuss the Aid and Attendance program administered by the US De partment of Veterans Affairs Qualified veterans or their surviving spouses may be eli gible to receive up to $1949 a month through the program To reserve a seat for the pre sentation call (765) 449 4475 Eiteljorg trims budget staff INDIANAPOLIS The Eiteljorg Museum of Ameri can Indian and Western Art is trimming its budget by 14 percent eliminating six staff positions and freezing salaries for the rest of the year because of the economy Eiteljorg president John Vanausdall says the downtown Indianapolis museum has seen a decrease in contributions and retail sales and its endowment has dropped from about $22 million in 2007 to $152 million at the end of 2008 Vanausdall says the cuts in operations are expected to last several years He says certain weekend programs also may be affected although not going to sacrifice the biggest impact Staff and wire reports Picking up after the storm By John TerhuneJourna Courier A large Chinese elm tree Iles on top of a 2000 Camaro and a 2001 ord 150 pickup Thursday at the home of Priscilla Nieto 1144 Rochelle Drive in Lafayette "It just went boom" Nieto said MK Jr Some lose power cars By BOB SCOTT bscottjconlinecom Local and area residents began cleaning up debris Thursday after a powerful storm roared through Wednesday night Winds in Tippecanoe Coun ty reached 57 mph during the storm and the area got more than two inches of rain in less than 18 hours At its height Wednesday night around 7 pm the storm knocked down trees tore off siding and shingles flooded roadways and basements and disrupted electri cal service for residents business es and a few schools Power was out at Battle Ground for 800 customers until Thursday afternoon Battle Ground schools held classes despite the lack of power Students ate packaged lunches and windows provided natural light during classes At 1144 Rochelle Drive on La south side Brenda Rus big Chinese elm tree blew over glanced off her house and hit her garage before land Calmer today The National Weather Ser vice forecast for today calls for mostly sunny skies with a high near 44 West northwest wind between 4 arid 7 mph becom ing calm Snow of less than 1 inch accumulation is possible late tonight or early Saturday pith go to jconlinecom PHOTO GALLERY' See more of the damage left in the storm's wake at jconline com ing on a car and pickup truck in the driveway The neighbor Priscilla Ni eto said her vehicles sustained extensive damage also have a hole in our ga rage she said Nieto was just about to leave to pick up her daughter at basketball practice at Tecumseh Junior High School when the tree fell I opened up the door it just went she said River flooding The Wabash River rose rapidly past flood stage of 11 feet Indiana 43 north of Happy Hollow Road It was one of several roads made impassable According to measurements by the US Geological Survey the Wa bash River was at 196 feet at 5 pm Thursday The National Weather Service predicted it would rise to a crest just over 20 feet by early today The Wildcat Creek near Lafayette was at 1557 feet at 6 pm well over flood stage of 10 feet but rising more slowly than the Wabash according to USGS data Aside from the river flooding storm water flooded into lowlands as well With the ground partially saturated from recent snow and ice storm water quickly filled streams and drainage ditches to overflowing See STORM Page C3 Proposed master plan could shape future look By ERIC WEDDLE eweddlejconlinecom Purdue Board of Trustees is expected today to ap prove a master plan for the West Lafayette campus that shapes its growth for the next 30 years Emphasizing compact growth within the existing campus the bold initiative envisions the academic research and residen tial areas slowly shifting into mixed use districts while cre ating more green space and pe destrian walkways around the campus and making State Street its center One of the architects Ricardo Dumont of Massachu Sasaki Associates pre sented it Thursday at the physi cal facilities committee meeting of the board of trustees While dozens of new build ings appeared on the proposal John Collier director of campus planning said that was to dem onstrate big vision and flexibil ity not plans for construction "This is a high level 50000 foot view of the he said have a sense of what should work academic versus residential versus collaboration This is a long range plan We rriay achieve a part of it and we may not achieve a part of Synergy was a guiding force in the design Dumont said repeat edly based on Purdue President rance strategic plan of collaborative disciplines Here are a few of the pro posed plans: State Street will become the center of campus The proposed US 231 southern realignment would allow for State Street to be downgraded to a city road and become a not a di Dumont said It will also create a more pedestrian friendly zone Surrounding the core of the campus will be four each with academic or research facilities residential housing and green space or recreation See PLAN Page C3 Twitter users unite for cause By JUSTIN MACK jmackjconlinecom A handful of Greater Lafayette residents gathered Thursday eve ning in an effort to clean up the water The Twestival a charity event organized by the social network ing service Twitter took place at Local Mountain Coffee at Ross Ade Stadium By using laptops and webcams more than 200 cities hosting their own Twestivals were able to par ticipate The idea for the Twestival first came to life in September when a group of Twitter users based in London decided to organize an event where the Twitter com munity could help those in need while socializing offline What is Twitter? Twitter is a social networking and blogging service that al lows users to send and receive text messages also known as tweets of up to 140 characters in length Tweets on any subject are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them More than 5 mil lion people used Twitter as of September They decided to support Char ity: Water a nonprofit organiza tion dedicated to bringing clean safe drinking water to people in developing nations Each Twestival participant pur chased a ticket ranging from $5 to $50 and all proceeds went to Charity: Water Along with London and Lafayette other participating cities included New York Cape Town South Africa and Shang hai China Nelu Lazar the organizer of the Lafayette Twestival said the glob al fundraiser is predicted to raise $1 million in one month Lazar believes that by rallying together globally for a single aim supporters can provide some re lief for those in need event was meant to be fun but also to have a strong im pact and I think we made a lot of people pay attention to the real is sue that issue being that 11 billion people are without access to clean said Lazar Nelu Lazar sets up the Greater Lafayette area webcam prior to the start of Twestival on Thursday at Local Mountain Coffee By Brent DrinkutJournal Courier At the event Twitter users got to see the program in a new light a heavy Twitter user so I was glad to see the program be put to such good said Purdue se nior Jacob Smith shows that the Internet can be good for more than watching videos and downloading music We can change the world if we re ally want CONTACTUS WHATSINSIDE Local Editor Dave Bangert OBITUARIES C2 dbangertjconlinecom COMMUNITIES C4 5231 TELEVISION C5 5246 WEATHER C8 THINGS TO DO Medieval Dinner Theater is at 7 tonight at the Purdue Memorial Union North Ballroom Purdue students present the comedy Tale of Two during a five course meal Doors open at 6:30 pm Tickets: Purdue stu dents $25 general public $35 ON JCONLINECOM Check out Cozi a free online ser vice that helps you manage your calendar and track chores ind a lihkatjconlinecom imii iiiiiiij11111 iiiiiii i in mi ii.