How great is it that Henke Development obtained the necessary rezoning to begin to make Chatham Hills come to life? It’s more than great! Steve Henke took us on a drive through the 750-acre tract, pointing out how the Pete Dye-designed golf course would be laid out, where homes and commercial properties would be situated and the like. It was a fascinating 90 minutes. It also proved to us what we knew: Henke is a visionary, and he will deliver to Westfield the kind of project it deserves. Our “little city” is about to grow up even more in a big hurry. Watch Chatham Hills come up out of the ground and marvel at the concept and execution. And be glad Henke is at the helm.
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We’re heavily inclined to agree with Dan Drexler, the Indiana state chairman of the Libertarian Party, who characterized Gov. Mike Pence’s State of the State speech last week as “nothing surprising.” We can’t (or won’t) disagree with his assessment that the speech was light on details, and we were curious about the employment numbers Pence cited because he failed to benchmark them against the rest of the nation. We give Pence high marks for his comments on school choice, because we believe it is a parent’s right to have a dominant voice in the education of his or her child. Overall, though, the speech was incredibly bland to us. We don’t know the governor, but we find little to be overly enthused about with this administration. Of course, we were spoiled by the tenure of former Gov. Mitch Daniels (who should have run for president, but that’s an old argument now), which was marked by swiftness, fiscal prowess and overall decisiveness. It’s early, and there still is time to impress, not that the good governor is losing a wink of sleep over our take.