IS IT TRUE May 14, 2012 Part 2

IS IT TRUE the Evansville Redevelopment Commission will be meeting tomorrow and contrary to what was on the official agenda that was distributed this morning it seems as though the “powers that be” have leaked information to some of their preferred media sources that the new Hunden Study will be presented?…this is the study where we are supposed to learn just what the details should be with respect to the downtown Convention Hotel that has been on a stop-start cycle since the summer of 2008 when then Mayor Weinzapfel proudly announced that Browning would be putting up a 4-Star hotel with no public assistance?…that three deals and a rock pile fiasco later, the bridge to nowhere is still in place and connected to the Centre that continues to hemorrhage cash?

IS IT TRUE several well respected members of the MOLE NATION tell the CCO that the numbers in the NEW Hunden Study will call for a 250 room hotel where the old Executive Inn was demolished after John Kish’s epiphany that followed the Haitian Earthquake?… the MOLE NATION furthermore tells us that the study will support an additional 150 rooms in downtown Evansville to accommodate the runaway successes of the Ford Center and the much anticipated resurrection of the Convention Business in Evansville?… if there are 150 new rooms needed that the McCurdy Hotel should be given strong consideration as a candidate for as many of those rooms as possible?…Evansville is one of the only Midwestern cities of over 100,000 people that does not have a restored vintage hotel?…the McCurdy would be truly unique as a restored historic hotel but that as apartments it would not be unique in character?…the NEW Hunden Study may just change the direction of downtown development from anything goes and everything gets a handout to the right things go and handouts are strategic and focused?

IS IT TRUE we have learned through separate sources some of the details regarding the meeting where the Economic Development Loan Committee met to make a $200,000 advance on a not-yet-approved loan to Earthcare Energy?…we now know that at least two members of the voting members of that committee were appointed by Mayor Winnecke on February 28th just before the vote on March 1st?…we have also been told that a 2 inch thick packet was handed out 10 minutes before the vote was taken?… we also have been told that during that 10 minutes the voting members in attendance were told that two more approvals including the approval of the City Council would be required before a check was issued?… we also have been told that all of the voting members who were named last Friday were not in attendance?…we have also been told that Mayor Winnecke’s Chief of Staff Steve Schaefer, attorney Ted Ziemer, GAGE president Debbie Dewey, and City Council president Connie Robinson were lobbying for yes votes?…Dewey and Robinson were doing this prior to casting YES votes themselves?…this sort of thing is enough to make SNEGAL blush?

IS IT TRUE the City of Evansville website keeps an archive of videos of meetings of the Evansville City Council meetings so the public can view them after the fact?…the meeting where Earthcare executives made their pitches and the council voted loan approval is the only one in recent meetings that is not available?…every meeting under the Winnecke Adminsitration except the March 26th meeting is readily available?…we would love to knwo why this information is being suppressed?