Our school year continues to be one where students are making great memories and showing amazing progress in their learning. Over 110 of our students enjoyed a great season of Robey PTO basketball, sponsored by our all-volunteer coaches, referees, and scorekeepers. The level of dedication and commitment of the adults who organize this program is a testament to the outstanding support we receive from our parents and the Clermont community.Students and staff at Robey

were also fortunate to be the partner of the Indiana Pacers celebration of Read Across America Day on

March 1. Students received commemorative t-shirts and Dr. Seuss hats as well as a Pacers swag bag and reading materials. Support from organizations like the Indiana Pacers is a wonderful enrichment to our students' experiences, and we are thankful for everyone who promotes excellence with our scholars.

Do you have an hour a week to mentor students and help them learn to read?You can volunteer with the very

successful HOSTS program, which provides easy-to-follow lesson plans for each visit.Call 317-988-8675 or go to

https://hosts.wayne.k12.in.us to learn more about helping.

Support Robey Elementary

TOWN NEWSSpring 2019

CLERMONT

Clermont.in.gov9049 Crawfordsville Road

From the Principal's DeskBy Ben Markley, Robey Principal

Robey Elementary School kindergartners follow music teacher Terri Ewigleben's direction as they sing during their "That's What Friends Are For!" music program in mid-February. More than 100 students, including second-graders, sang to a full

house in the school gymnasium. The performance included readings by students and renditions of "Friend of Mine," "How Does Your Garden Grow?" and "Peanut Butter & Jelly," to name a few.

How Grocery Bags, Daily Walks Can Make a Cleaner CommunityWinter is a prime time for trash to

accumulate along our town's roads, ditches, and yards. Shorter daylight hours, cold temperatures, and occasional snows contribute to people spending less time outside noticing and picking up litter. But as the warmer days become more prevalent and you become more active outdoors, you have the chance to develop a positive habit that not only can improve your health but also help your community.Simply put: Take up regular walks in

your neighborhood and take along a grocery bag to collect litter as you go.Preventing the accumulation of litter

and debris along our roads and in our neighborhoods and business areas can make quite an impact.According to Keep America Beautiful,

"One of the strongest contributors to littering is the prevalence of existing litter. Consistently in our results, we find that litter begets litter."So, if you ignore the trash that finds

its way into your driveway, next to your mailbox, onto the sidewalk or street, or into landscaping around your property, then you may unintentionally be inviting more of it into your life and our town.Help start the season off right by taking

a stroll with a bag or two to pick up what you find in your own neighborhood. If you and your neighbors are able to keep the trash accumulation to a minimum, your litter walks may result in only a bit of fresh air and exercise—not too bad a scenario!

WATCH THE LITTER HOT SPOTS

Litter seems to be a particular problem along Tansel Road, especially by the railroad tracks and as Tansel curves up to Raceway Road. Others: along Raceway and areas near the school.

CLERMONT TOWN NEWS

The Clermont Police Department continues to upgrade its communication capabilities for the benefit of residents and the officers themselves. In mid-2018 a new website

was created for the department to make use of its new ".gov" domain name, and now the department has its first official e-mail address system in place, using the same domain name of "clermontpolice.in.gov."The new e-mail addresses will

allow the officers to more easily send and receive information from law-enforcement and other government entities, as communication-security protocols

are becoming more stringent in the law-enforcement arena. If you would like to contact

Chief Steve Dulworth by e-mail for non-emergency questions or issues, you may do so at sdulworth@clermontpolice.in.gov. Please be sure to report

emergencies to 9-1-1 as always.

NEW POLICE VEHICLE

One of the department's police cars has now been retired and replaced by a new police sport utility vehicle. There are now two Clermont PD vehicles that are SUVs.

Clermont Police News and Notes

Message From Your City-County CouncillorBy Janice McHenry, City-County Councillor (District 6)

Wayne Library Branch Seeks Public Input on Planned RenovationsThe Wayne library branch (198 S. Girls

School Road) was built in 1983 and has largely remained the same since then. The Indianapolis Public Library system will be renovating—not expanding—the building in late 2019 and early 2020. Clermont Town Councillor and

Community Relations Commissioner Mike Beam attended the first of three opportunities for public input on the upcoming renovations at the library. The re-designers were on hand and presented photos of ideas for different aspects of the design plans. Attendees were able to give input by placing dots on favored concepts, which were available for further public input for a few days after the February 20 meeting.The library's re-designers will take the

public input, including results from a community survey, into consideration and then present options for the new library layout from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27, at the Wayne branch. A final meeting for public input will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8, at the library.

Spring is almost here and it won't be long until we will be seeing the spring flowers in people's yards and the trees beginning to get leaves and blossoms. After this winter, what a pleasant sight this will be. Not so pleasant sight is all the trash that has accumulated along many of our streets and roads. While the "Great Indy Cleanup" is coming in April (watch for details), some of us got together on March 2 and picked up along Tansel Road from Raceway to the curve. What a huge difference we made, and you would not believe the amount of trash bags we filled. While we only had 5 working, we really accomplished a lot.The latest I have heard about

the bridge over Eagle Creek on Dandy Trail is work will begin in April, still scheduled to be done in November. There should be signs several weeks before closing. Please watch for updates on this.There were three grant

applications for trails submitted to the State. One was for the Eagle Creek Trail going from Dandy Trail to Speedway, the

other two being the B&O, and what affects us most would be from Raceway

Road to Speedway. They will announce which grants will be awarded around the State in June. The B&O will be having their “Flapjacks 5K” on August 3, so save the date.Never hesitate contacting

me with City/County issues at jfmchenry@iquest.net or 317-298-5285.

WHEN: 6 to 7:30 p.m. on both March 26 and April 16WHERE: 2950 N. High School Road

TOWN HALLS

Volunteers joined Clermont Town Councillor Nancy Baxter (and District 6 City-County Councillor Janice McHenry) on March 2 to pick up garbage along Tansel Road. The Clermont Police Department protected the volunteers from cars as they filled several trash bags with litter.If you want to be part of future group

efforts to keep our area clean, share your interest on Clermont's Facebook page or contact Nancy or Janice.

TAKING ON THE TRASH

CLERMONT TOWN NEWS

MSD Wayne Superintendent Dr. Jeff Butts speaks at a "State of the District" community meeting at Chapel Rock Christian Church on February 20. Dr. Butts has been presenting the

case for a referendum that will be on the May 7 primary election ballot for residents within the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. The referendum will ask voters whether to increase property taxes to raise an extra $10 million for the next 8 years.Meeting dates and a link to his

presentation are available on the Clermont town website.

SCHOOL REFERENDUM Robey Park Advisory Board Offers Free Trees to Clermont Residents

At 48 acres, Robey Park is the largest of the parks in Clermont, but its location next to Robey Elementary School on the southeastern edge of town has made it one of the area's best-kept secrets.The Robey Park Advisory Board,

which is a collection of local residents and other stakeholders, aims to preserve, improve, and promote the park for the use of both schoolchildren and residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. To help make people aware of the park and to help replace dying or lost trees in Clermont, the group will be giving away 400 tree seedlings (17 different species) to residents on Saturday, April 20, at the park.If you are interested in receiving

tree seedlings to plant in your yard, you are highly encouraged to pre-order. Instructions and a list of the available species can be found online at https://clermont.

in.gov/community. A number of the seedlings are being reserved for local students who complete a prompt on the topic of trees.

HELP NEEDED AT THE PARK

The Indy Parks Department manages Robey Park, but volunteers are necessary to keep it in good shape. The advisory board continually looks for more people to join in and care for the park, especially as the group takes steps toward long-term sustainability plans and projects, such as invasive species removal, a rain garden, and native grass and wildflower plantings for pollinators and other wildlife.The tree seedling giveaway

is actually part of a larger day of service at the park where volunteers will be planting 20 trees donated by Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and picking up trash that has accumulated over the winter. Other tasks may include light maintenance on the nature path and mulching or painting around the playground.

Giveaway will figure into volunteer group's plans to promote, revitalize park

WHAT: Park/School Grounds Cleanup and Tree Planting/GiveawayWHEN: 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, April 20WHERE: Robey Park and Robey Elementary, 8700 W. 30th StreetWHO: You! If you want to learn how to plant a tree, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful will be training volunteers as they plant 20 trees at the park and school. You can also make a big difference by picking up litter or helping with other spruce-up efforts. The park's advisory board will also be giving away free tree seedlings.

ROBEY SPRING CLEANUP

If you find yourself out of the loop on what is happening in and around town, you can keep informed regularly online:• Clermont town website: The site has a community calendar page that stays updated.

• Facebook: Follow the pages of the Town of Clermont, Clermont Police Dept., Clermont Lions Club, Robey Elementary PTO, Robey Park, and various businesses in town. Also: Wayne Township Community Chatter page.

What's Going On Around Here?

Back In The DayMarch 1974: The Clermont Lions Club was sponsoring a two-day fish fry to raise money toward a 40-million-electron-volt linear accelerator for cancer treatment and research at IUPUI. April 1974: Indianapolis Raceway Park (now Lucas Oil Raceway) was making plans to voluntarily cut back on noise pollution by running mufflered stock cars for the first time in Indiana. IRP hoped it would reduce noise by two-thirds to help nearby residents of Clermont, Brownsburg, and Indianapolis.

April 1974: The movie "Billy Jack" was re-released and playing at the Clermont Deluxe Drive-in Theater.

May 1974: Clermont resident Mike Mosley started 6th in the Indianapolis 500. Unfortunately, he was out of the race on lap 11 due to a blown engine. Fellow Clermont resident Jim Hurtubise didn't last much longer, with his engine blowing on lap 31.

PLANT NATIVE TREES Reporting PotholesIf you notice a pothole or another

road issue inside Clermont town limits, report it to Clermont Town Councillor and Street Commissioner Lora Miller at lora4clermont@gmail.com for the quickest response.Be aware that not all roads—or sections

of roads—in Clermont are within the town’s purview. These areas include all of Crawfordsville Road (maintained by INDOT), Raceway Road (Brownsburg), Tansel Road from the railroad tracks by Thorncrest Drive and north (Indianapolis), and West 30th Street west of Tansel Road (Indianapolis).A color-coded map showing who

maintains which roads in our area is available online at https://clermont.in.gov/streets.

Town of ClermontCouncillor Lora Miller lora4clermont@gmail.com317-291-0394

INDOTwww.indot4u.com 855-INDOT4U (855-463-6848)

City of IndianapolisMayor's Action Center www.indy.gov/RequestIndy 317-327-4622

Town of Brownsburgwww.brownsburg.org 317-852-1120

Contacts for Reporting Road Issues

CLERMONT TOWN NEWS

Your TownCLERMONT TOWN COUNCIL MEETINGSSecond Thursday of every month7 p.m.Clermont Town Hall

Residents of Clermont and visitors are always welcome.

CLERMONT TOWN COUNCILPresident Nancy Baxter, 317-833-2435, nancybaxter1011@yahoo.com

Police Commissioner Pat Lybrook, 317-291-2406, bella.r3@att.net

Street Commissioner Lora Miller, lora4clermont@gmail.com

Facilities Maintenance Commissioner James Wide, 317-414-7161, clermont4u@gmail.com

Community Relations Commissioner Mike Beam, 317-939-3008, ClermontMikeBeam@gmail.com

Town Hall Office, Town Website 317-291-03949049 Crawfordsville Roadhttps://clermont.in.gov

CLERMONT CLERK-TREASURER'S OFFICEClerk-Treasurer Mark Neal, 317-291-0394, clerktrea@comcast.net

CLERMONT POLICE DEPARTMENTPolice Chief Steve Dulworth, sdulworth@clermontpolice.in.gov

Emergency line: 9-1-1Dispatch line: 317-327-3811Office line: 317-291-0416

Department Address, Website9051 Crawfordsville Road https://clermontpolice.in.gov

March 18MSD Wayne Referendum Community Meeting, 6 p.m. at The Upper Room (parking at corner of Holt Road and Farnsworth)

March 18 through March 29Spring Recess: Pike Twp. Balanced Calendar Schools (Traditional Schools: March 25 through March 29)

March 22Fish Fry by Clermont Lions Club, 5 to 8 p.m. at Lions Club Park

March 25 through April 5Spring Recess: Wayne Twp. Schools

March 27Public Meeting on Wayne Library Renovations, learn about options for the renovated library layout, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Wayne public library branch

April 20Robey Spring Cleanup, tree planting and seedling giveaway, litter cleanup, 9 a.m. to noon at Robey Park

Easter Egg Hunt by Clermont Lions Club, 10:30 a.m. (hunt begins at 11) at Lions Club Park

May 7Primary Election Day, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at your polling place

May 23Summer Recess Begins: Pike Twp. Traditional Schools (Balanced Calendar Schools: Summer Recess begins June 5)

May 31 through July 30Summer Recess: Wayne Twp. Schools

For an updated list, visit https://clermont.in.gov/calendar

COMMUNITYCALENDAR

If a tree in your yard dies or you cut one down, plant a new native shade tree to replace it. Studies indicate property values

are higher where there are mature shade trees, and they offer other benefits, such as reduced heating or air-conditioning costs.

Clermont sits in a unique spot, between two of the premier racing venues in the world—Lucas Oil Raceway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway—which host the two most prestigious races in drag racing and open-wheel racing, respectively.Lucas Oil Raceway (still known to many

as Indianapolis Raceway Park, or IRP) has hosted the NHRA U.S. Nationals since 1961, and it continues to be the largest drag race event in the world, held Labor Day weekend.Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be

running the 103rd Indianapolis 500—the largest single-day sporting event in the world (by attendance)—over Memorial Day weekend.Combined, the two tracks will host

more than 60 racing events this year, from March through October.

Racing Season Soon Underway