If you thought efforts to consolidate local government had slowed down in the recent legislative session, you would be wrong. The legislators stopped their progress and made consolidation harder.Governor’s residence suits Pences just fine
Gov.-elect Mike Pence confirmed this week that he, his wife, Karen, and their 18-year-old daughter, Audrey, will move into the official governor’s residence and that he is “humbled” to do so. “It’s a welcoming place in every sense of the word,” Pence said.
The lovely English Tudor home on Indianapolis’ North Meridian Street didn’t suit Gov. Mitch Daniels and his wife, Cheri, however. They initially lived in a waterfront home on Geist Reservoir, then in a gated community in Carmel, although a grown daughter lived in the three-bedroom Carriage House of the residence at one time.
The residence underwent a $1.2 million renovation in 2005, with the cost covered by donations, mostly from craftsmen and designers. At 10,500-square-feet, it has 23 rooms and 11 bathrooms, according to the governor’s website.
A member of the Indiana State Police Capitol unit assigned to security resigned last year after he was accused of sleeping on the job. With full-time residents returning to the home – including the Pence family’s beagle and two cats – the security unit most likely will be too busy for sleep.
Daniels has confirmed he will live at Westwood, the 17,300 square-foot president’s residence at Purdue University, but return occasionally to his home in Carmel.
The student newspaper reported in July that the 17-acre estate was undergoing maintenance and updating and that Daniels would be visiting to “see what he would like to do with the house.”
Purdue’s president is required to live at Westwood as a condition of employment.
