IS IT TRUE Gibson County is presumed to be on the verge of hosting a visit from the President of the United States on Friday and Evansville, or at least the airport will be able to bask in the moment?…President Obama was here for a rally in 2008 during his hotly contested primary against 2016 presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton?…that time candidate Obama nearly filled Roberts Stadium and this writer has to park way down Illinois Street in a residential neighborhood and walk to Roberts?…that year the future president electrified the country with his campaign of “hope and change” and brought the chant “yes we can” to the American people with the enthusiasm of the Notre Dame fight song?…that was then and this is now so it will be interesting to see what President Obama chooses to do with his time in the tri-state?…presidential visits whether one agrees with the politics or not are always gratifying and a chance to show off for the nation?…Evansville and Vanderburgh County will get one shot at this spotlight that will be shining on the motorcade route heading north to Gibson County?…we hope that route is well manicured and free of litter for this visit so “The Daily Show” doesn’t get a second chance in a couple of weeks to take pot shots at our “identity?”
IS IT TRUE the silence has been deafening for those awaiting the verdict of the closed door series of meetings to decide if there is an acceptable bid to have a real groundbreaking for a downtown convention hotel?…it is amazing to see the newer renderings that look almost identical to the former Executive Inn and to imagine the 4 Star, turned 3 Star, turned into whatever fits the budget turning out almost exactly like the Big E would have been with a $10 Million remodel?…we wonder if conventions would have flocked to town if the Big E would have been updated and rebranded as a Doubletree as it once was proposed to have been?…we do know that would have been done at least 5 years ago so the lost convention dollars would not even be a point?…someone should put together a case study of the comedy of errors that was started by former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel’s premature and inaccurate declaration that “if Evansville builds an arena 4 Star Marriott will come to town with no incentive?”…that it is finally disclosed that the same firm that built the Ford Center has been selected to do the new hotel project and that the price is right at the top level allowable for 12 less rooms than originally planned?…the Winnecke Administration says the deal will be done within two weeks and we will believe that when we see it?…what we do know is that as of today there is no legal agreement in place and that another extension is required just as we predicted?
IS IT TRUE it is about time that ground was broken on the full cloverleaf intersection where Highway 41 and the Lloyd Expressway cross one another?…this intersection has been one of the highest traffic nodes in Evansville for many years making this a worthy investment that should have been done long ago?…we hope to see this project proceed rapidly, honestly, and competently as this is one of the opportunities to put the tern “Expressway” into the multilane road full of stop lights that we call the Lloyd Expressway?…it is amazing that the name was ever even considered to have the suffix Expressway attached to it?…this project is an example of real progress that will save many citizen drivers both time and money?
IS IT TRUE the business that President Obama will be visiting is Millennium Steel which is a minority owned business that “slits” large spools of steel in preparation for being transported across the street to Toyota?…the cut to size pieces of steel are then driven across the street to Toyota where they are turned into automobile body panels?…Millennium Steel has similar facilities providing the same service for Toyota plants in other locations including Georgetown, KY and San Antonio, TX?…the particular way that Millennium Steel is operated enables Toyota to have a very high percentage of its purchases to be classified as having been bought from a minority owned business?
IS IT TRUE members of the Evansville City will be attending a political caucus  at City Attorneys Scott Danks office tomorrow?  …we hope City Council members will not discuss any issues concerning the  proposed 2015 City budget?
Taken down by editor because post was demeaning and insulting.
I had seen all that “minority ownership B.S.” being played out in all kinds of configuration since the mid 70’s. There were/are many good workers who do fall into that so call “minority group” which this poster did not see them as a minority, but as a equal performing our daily duties. The times I had issue was when the minority card was played. Not from the hiring, but the attitude as why they were there only.
You missed former state senator, Vi Simpson’s make believe highway company out of Bloomington… another make believe WMBE
41 & Lloyd is not real progress, and it certainly isn’t some big money and time saver. It’s nothing more than proof that history is bound to repeat itself if you are dumb enough to build the Wabash & Erie Canal after it’s become obsolete, then rip it up when it has alternative uses, and now do literally the same thing here.
If you hold this monostrosity to the same standards you hold the Ford Center to, you’ll see just which one is a waste of money that should be used on real things. I for one am sick and tired of temples to roads.
The fact that multiple blocks of taxable land coupled with a church that was so old it seemed like it was before Jesus was lost for a road that was deemed not interstate worthy plus still has a railroad crossing (thank God) is laughable enough. Add on that Winnecke went all the way to the governor for this and you will see what kind of people rule a city with an enormous brain drain.
Considering how outdated Hwy 41 and the Lloyd are, this interchange does seem to be too little, too late. Local people tend to avoid them whenever possible, and this isn’t a tourist destination, so I would have rather seen the money spent on bridge and sewer repairs.
If this city was worth anything, they could do a maglev rail line that would have a conduit cluster in the middle which would address sewer, water, electrical, or whatever they needed to address. I’m still holding out for an automated post office that moves packages from city to city by tube before I die…
http://www.getmacomb.org/img/hydrogen-cycle.jpg
Also, check out the trash technology the Hudson Rail Yards project in NYC is going to have…
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/real-estate/trash-handled-pneumatic-tube-hudson-yards-article-1.1846588
I’ve been looking into this ShotSpotter some more. I’ve refined my thoughts on it:
– I would actually support it IF the lease on it was not long term. If the city can try this out for just a few years, I personally don’t see the harm. It’d be nice if the city would just purchase this but I guess you can’t when the inventor has the patent on it (I’m guessing that’s the case here). Either way, give it a try. If it doesn’t work, axe it and be done with it. If it does work let’s see if it was a big enough success to where we can cut more out of the budget for it.
– Hopefully the city does the right thing and axes Wesselman Woods by 45%, the parks dept by a few mil, and the VOICE program. None of these organizations are doing what they should be doing. They are all choosing to play politics instead.
If that holds up, the cuts should be enough, coupled with the elimination of this phantom unRoberts Park, to fund ShotSpotter.
Is it not true that the “Big E Hotel” stood the whole time the arena was being build with the intent of it being remodeled? Was it not then decided that the substandard building was not feasible?
The flow of public money would not have been nearly so much as it is for the new hotel. Consequently, the potential for greed, graft, and cronyism-for-profit would have been much less than the demolition of the older hotel and the erection of a new one offers. Isn’t it odd how the update of the Exec became unfeasible?
@Armstrong:
Browning (Hotel Developer) got paid for the Exec. Inn (which they bought from insolvent bank) in March 2010.
Arena bonds floated in May 2010.
“Sudden discovery” that Exec would fail in an earthquake came during the summer of 2010.
Executive Inn torn down, and part of that footprint used for Arena. Construction of Arena kicked in then. Browning withdrew–because they couldn’t get a LOAN– and just deeded the property back to the City (they’d already been paid).
i believe the whole thing was a ‘straw man’ play. They knew all along the Exec would be demolished, but Browning got an opportunity to make some coin.
The single story attached lounge was torn down before construction of the arena. The multi story hotel remained. We had seen that eye sore every day while working on the arena.
Could it be true that the stoplights at Walnut and Virginia intersection on US41 may interfere with the true flow of a full cloverleaf at times?
Probably, unless they’re going to raise 41 and have Walnut as an underpass.
Predictable, the whole HyW-41 corridor through Evansville and Vanderburgh county Indiana is a low valued logistical throughput cluster. “Everybody knows it.”
Hunt Construction’s bid has been accepted by HCW, although the public is not yet privy to the details of said winning bid. Now the process of getting private funding in place has started in earnest, although HCW has implied that the financing is already in place, long before such a thing would have been possible. That is, provided that the City Council allows another extension on the deadline. It seems that we were assured that everything would be “nailed down” by yesterday’s deadline when the last extension was allowed. At least HCW has the nearly $1 million the Mayor released to them, and nobody can take that away from them, regardless of how this thing shakes out.
Is it correct that HCW is still the figure head developer, and that Hunt replace the ICI/Skanka as construction manager?
Wondering if Hunt has another free million dollar bonus on a imaginary dead line?
Wonder how the bond rates are holding up.
The National mainstream wonders about that to.
The cost to put an “his and hers outhouse improvement” on your downtowns EPA mandated zombie combined sewer infrastructure would increase as well. Right now, that downtown really is not a very strategic location for anything that increases your towns unbalanced environmental damage to the Strategic Clean water initiatives.
The rest of United States of Americas Ohio river drainage basin connected with that must adjust and preserve what they have given your additions through poorly planned expansion, as well.
http://www.cleanwateraction.org/
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/financial-market-storm-brewing-as-2014-winds-down/ar-BB6JiZs
Test 1
1:The Lloyd Expressway should have been built with clover leaves and overpasses when it was first designed.
2: Since Number one was not the case then I am all for anything that removes stop lights and speed the traffic across town.
3: I fee that there should be a State Law that if any tax money is given to a Private Firm to use to build something that the bidding should be conducted as if the entire project was being done by the Government Agency. IE Public Opening of the Bids. The fact that the Tax Payers are funding 20 Million Dollars of this project’s cost and have no real say in what’s going on is LUDICRIST IMHO. Another SNEAGAL event IMHO
Look at all those people boogie woogies, ri ras and scores striptease bring to town. So glad we haven’t had to watch a Dodgers affiliate play baseball games there instead. Besides who would want to watch an outdoor concert there too? I’m so glad The honorable J weinzapfel got that stopped and built the wonderful Ford Center to fill the calendar during the summer months.
Hey +1
Not to change the subject from today’s ITT, but you folks have any intent in fixing your site? It’s been several days now and my best guess is that you haven’t been doing incremental backups all along to give you a reasonable restore point (like in 24-48hrs).
It’s one thing to be hacked or get malicious code from a plug-in/theme which WordPress is famous for, maybe it’s time to consider a move from freeware to something more robust and secure for your users and advertisers, you really should have had a backup copy no more than a week old that could have put your site back up quickly.
Either way I wish you folks the best of luck, and hope you resolve your problems soon the site is just barely running on a couple cylinders and the longer it goes on the more credibility you guys loose.
This may help you guys.
http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/keeping-wordpress-secure-the-ultimate-guide/
JMHO
This site’s credibility has not been harmed IMHO. In fact I think it’s been improved. The fact that the site is still up and running is a sign that it’s not going away anytime soon.
Those who might wish that it was not here are going away disappointed IMHO. They tried to shut it down and failed big time.
There are plenty of web design programs out there that require no coding and would make this site more secure, look better and work properly. It is not working correctly right now and has always sported an amateurish look, starting with the often pixelated pictures on the front page. It is a fairly easy fix.
I agree 100%, the site now reminds me of a old/defunct business with a outdated neon sign that 2/3rds is burnt out and the last 1/3 is flickering off and on with a sizzling/buzzing sound from the transformer gasping for life. (that might be due to the every few second vertical tick the site has now)
JMHO
I eliminated that vertical tic by using Safari instead of the usual Firefox. I can’t find a setting in Firefox that affects it.
At this time, I still cannot access the CCO site via Google Chrome, so had to revert to IE. I’m glad to see IIT’s still being published, but will be happier when a fully-functional website is once again accessible to all. Best wishes to the CCO staff in their efforts to make that happen!
If
by: Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!
Hope you don’t mind Press but I’m going to send that to ObamaNation.
Fits him perfectly.
And here’s why:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2014/09/05/obama-outperforms-reagan-on-jobs-growth-and-investing/
Every time the Thai Cuisine and Raffi’s advertizement at the top of the page flashes on and off so does the CCO webpage.
Makes for some hard reading with the webpage jumping up and down all the time!
Walden
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.”
HDT
Couple of things:
Bid details for the new hotel do not HAVE to be made public as this is “technically” a private developer entity project, not a City government project. The $20 mil bribe given to HCW is basically “off the books”. We all know it’s wrong to not release details, BUT, it is what it is, and no, I don’t work for either the developer or City. just had 40+ years of commercial construction management experience before retirement.
I eliminated the vertical sync issues of this site with Chrome browser instead of FireFox.
Editor, can you get your web sight under control. It has got to be driving people away…..
We are working on it. We want to test it well before launching.
Take your time and get it right the first time. We can still read the IIT and make posts so it’s working good enough to do that.
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