DAZE WORK: Jim Baugh tribute shouldn’t take act of congress
Look around at some of the streets, buildings, bridges and distinctive areas of town named for locals or persons of stature who have walked among us.
Commissioner Elbert Irwin’s name went up posthumously on the new West Walnut Street Road bridge that was his vision just as soon as the span was completed over the railroad where Greencastle Township opens up into Madison Township around 1980.
Beloved local educator Mike Tzouanakis, a man who at one time or other served as principal of every elementary school in Greencastle, was honored to see his name attached to the former Northeast Elementary long before he ever passed on.
Famed chemist and DePauw University grad Percy Julian first got his name on the Julian Science and Math Center at his alma mater and later on the road -- Percy L. Julian Drive -- that passes both Greencastle High School and Middle School, usurping First Street, Zinc Mill Road and Tiger Cub Trail in the process.
Heck, even the name Plessinger’s Hill was spawned literally overnight whether legitimately or not south of town from the body shop Aaron Plessinger operated along one of the most accident-prone areas of the county.
Yet, for some reason we can’t get a bridge named for a longtime local police officer who lost his life responding to an accident north of Greencastle on U.S.231.
That, of course, would be the late Capt. Jim Baugh, who was four short months from retiring after 32 years with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department, a tenure that at the time of his death on Jan. 2, 2004, made him the longest-serving deputy in county history.
It shouldn’t take an act of congress to see him honored. Or of the Legislature either for that matter. But it apparently does, thanks to the bridge being on a federal highway under state jurisdiction.
Last Saturday, his widow, Lauralee, and their granddaughter Gayle took the matter to the first Legislative Update session of the year where District 24 State Sen. John Crane (R-Avon) was the lone legislator on hand to hear their plea.
“Seven years ago we started asking for the bridge over the river (Big Walnut Creek),” Lauralee began, her voice crackling with emotion. “Every year we’ve been given different instructions. (District 44 State Rep.) Beau Baird promised this would be the year but Beau’s assistant said he’s too busy. His father (now-Congressman Jim Baird) told me the same thing seven years ago.“
Her concern is what does she need to do to make it happen? Last year, a bill made it out of House committee after being carried by out-of-county lawmakers but died in the Senate.
“I was told,” Lauralee said, “‘We knew it wasn’t going to go there because it wasn’t presented by the right people.’”
It has to be a legislator in the affected area she’s now been told.
This year, she said, “Beau’s assistant stopped it (by saying he was too busy). How does she have that power?”
Even Greencastle Mayor Bil Dory is perplexed that the naming of the bridge for Capt. Baugh has not made it any further than it has.
”There’s been broad support across the county for this,” Dory told Sen. Crane. “There’s been broad frustration, too.”
Lauralee remains frustrated at an inability to put the idea in front of the right person at the right time.
Looking at Sen. Crane, she told him, “This is the first time I’ve sat across from you and had a chance to talk about it.”
Crane’s assistant had gathered pertinent information the week before, but in the short session of the Legislature, it appears it’s all for naught again this year.
“We’re working at it,” Crane said. “We just didn’t get it across the finishing line. Obviously this year it won’t be able to happen. The best I can tell you is we’ll keep on trying.”
Adding to their frustration is when the Baughs visit the jail, there’s a monument to the police dogs that have died. “Not one of them in the line of duty,” Lauralee adds.
Conceding that the idea of a memorial for her two-term sheriff late husband has been shelved for yet another year, Lauralee even contemplates taking matters into her own hands.
“I may just buy a big piece of poster board and put up a sign that says, ‘Jim Baugh Memorial Bridge,’” she said.
She wouldn’t do that, of course, but oh what a sight that would be ...