Map
The Broad Ripple Gazette
Vol. 13 No. 6
Including the Cultural Districts and Midtown: Meridian-Kessler, Butler-Tarkington, and Meridian St.
page 18
Crossword page 15
Mar 18 - Mar 31, 2016
Broad Ripple Morning Writers Group By Mario Morone
mario@broadripplegazette.com David Rettig moderates the Broad Ripple Morning Writers Group that commences each Wednesday at 7 a.m. at the Cornerstone Café, located at 651 East 54th Street. He recently discussed his interest in writing and how the group formed. “Initially, it was started by James Fowles in early 2015, but he changed jobs and his new job wouldn’t allow him to continue meeting in the morning. I had attended for a few months, and he asked me to take over. I’ve been running the group for four months now. I’ve been focusing on trying to get more authors involved and get some additional people here,” Rettig explained. “I’ve always been writing business leadership articles, some of which are on the internet for people to read and really feel like understanding leadership helps me understand fiction and horror, which is what I’m writing now. I was born in Fort Lauderdale, but moved to Ohio, where I grew up and later moved to Indianapolis for a job. I have an undergraduate degree in Information Technology and an MBA from Franklin University in Columbus. I recently completed a second master’s degree in leadership,” he said. “The creative process (of writing) is interesting. It helps me expand how I think about communicating by going through the daily process in helping me tweak what I do in my day job in IT leadership. I lead a team of five people at a nonprofit affiliated with a local university,” Rettig added. A recent gathering revealed a diverse cadre of aspiring writers with varied experiences. Joel Klee said, “I heard about the group through a friend at a Toastmasters meeting. My interests are in writing memoirs and fiction. I also have an IT background. My undergraduate degree is in Earth and Planetary Science from Johns Hopkins University. I have a master’s degree in Geodetic Science and Surveying from Ohio
An early Indianapolis postcard showing the aqueduct for the Canal over Fall Creek. Note: the caption printed on the postcard is incorrect. It says “Aqueduct over Canal”.
Everything you always wanted to know about the canal... By Alan Hague
alan@broadripplegazette.com
Part Twelve For those readers just discovering this series on the canal now in its 12th part, I will explain why the canal is important and why the Gazette is doing this series. The dam that created the Central Canal was built on the White River in 1836 and the Town of Broad Ripple grew up around it. It is why we are here today. For years the canal has supplied the City of Indianapolis with 60% of its fresh water which is processed for our clean water supply.
By this time in the interview at Citizens Energy Group we had covered all of the canal questions I had received over the years from readers, except for the last one that deals with the aqueduct. I would bet that many of our readers have no idea that there is an aqueduct that the canal travels over on its trip to the downtown processing plant. The one low elevation obstruction to the flow of the original 1836 canal was Fall Creek. If the canal was allowed to connect with the much lower Fall Creek at this intersection, all of the water would flow into Fall Creek and then back into the White River. An aqueduct (a bridge that carries a waterway) was constructed to allow the canal to continue downtown so it could service the businesses there. Remember from installment #1 in issue Volume 12 #18, historically, one use for the canal was to power water wheels at various downtown businesses. It was only later when that use was abandoned as electricity became cheaply available and the canal water was used as a drinking water supply for Indianapolis. According to Ed Malone, Director of Water Production for Citizens, the original
See CANAL pg. 11
photo by Mario Morone
Rebecca Rettig, David Rettig, Christine Orlowski, Joel Klee, Jason Eder and J.C. Fralick.
See WRITERS pg. 3
Random Ripplings
The annual Sidenerds fund raising event for the Sidener Academy (Kessler and Keystone) was held recently at DeveloperTown. Below, attendees learned how to fight with light sabers.
Random Ripplings
On Wednesday, March 9th, Broad Ripple MHS hosted the first IPS Instrumental Music Festival in partnership with Music For All, Inc., an Indianapolis-based Music Advocacy organization which provided nationallyacclaimed music educators for adjudication at the school. 18 bands and orchestras from all across the district visited the Magnet School for the Performing Arts to receive feedback as they prepare for upcoming contests.
INDEX
Colonel Lowell Graham, former commander of the USAF band, ran a clinic for the BRMHS advanced orchestra of Leslie Bartolowits.
1 Writers Group
4 Buzzing Around Town
7 Local Contacts
10 Random Rippling Horton
14 Gettin’ Ripped in Ripple
1 Random Rippling Sidenerds
5 Reader Random Barking
8 Round the Ripple
10 Random Rippling bank
15 Directory
1 Random Rippling IPS
5 Reader Random Lucky B
9 Wine Scene Jill A. Ditmire
12 Hidden History
16 Maps
1 Canal part 12
5 BR Brewpub Quiz
9 Where in the Village?
12 Sudoku
19 Right in my Own Backyard
3 Calendar
6 Classified Ads
9 Reader Random Post
13 Historic Ad
20 BRHS Alumni Blast Off
4 Poetic Thoughts
6 Public Notices
10 Random Rippling Design
13 Crossword