IS IT TRUE July 27, 2012
IS IT TRUE the Vanderburgh County Human Relations Commission may have sponsored some of the activities (picnic in the park, holding hands by surrounding the YWCA in protest of social injustice, sponsoring medical clinic for black males, and others) from money they have in their Foundation funds? …the CCO invites the Executive Director of the Vanderburgh Human Rights Commission to respond, address, clarify or dispute any or all claims made against the HRC by a private citizen yesterday?…that the CCO shall publish Ms Diane Clements remarks without bias, opinion or editing?…that the many of thousands of CCO readers look forward to an accurate and quick response to our invitation to clear any or all misunderstanding pertaining to the alleged financial misconduct of this taxpayer supported Commission?
IS IT TRUE that the CCO MOLE #2.5 has confirmed that a highly respected and well known Westsider is being prompted by many people to run for a seat on the Vanderburgh County School Board?…that Tony Ricketts is a well known General Sales Manager for the D-Patrick Auto group?…if you ever attended any of the D Patrick Broadway sponsored series at the Center you would see Mr. Rickets welcome everyone to the show?…Mr. Ricketts is the person in the D Patrick TV ad that asks, “what’s in your driveway”? …our sources tell us that Mr. Ricketts is very well educated and is from a well known Westside family? …we are glad to hear that quality people are starting to show strong interest in running for a seat on the Vanderburgh County School Board?…the CCO strongly believes that it’s time to change the people who are presently serving on the school board and end the practice of just shuffling the deck of the same people who have dominated Evansville politics for over 50 years?
IS IT TRUE the opportunity for Mr. Rickets to run was made available to us by an error by the office of the Vanderburgh County Clerk Susan Kirk who certified that Mr. Bix Branson lived in the 3rd District when his home actually is located a short distance outside of the boundary?…that is a shame because Mr. Branson is a good man with a sharp ability to think?…Mr. Branson served honorably and should consider another run when the school board seat for his district or an at-large seat is up for election?…it is hard to comprehend (not really given some of the antics of the Evansville City Council) how a senior elected official could not read a map correctly?…it is even more ironic that in the age of the GPS that an elected official got an F in geography in an election related to the School Board?
IS IT TRUE many of the CCO moles and readers are anxiously awaiting the day of reckoning for the respondents to be revealed with respect to the downtown Convention Hotel?…that day of enlightenment should be upon us in a number of days and that we shall soon know just how enticing the package that Hunden Strategic Partners suggested will be to real seasoned hotel developers?…that the determined value of the finished hotel as stated by Hunden is so close to the value that the CCO published years ago that it should make some local elected and even some un-elected officials blush for not listening?…that CCO analysis took a whopping 4 hours to complete including writing the article?…we wonder where to send the bill?
IS IT TRUE that hot off of this morning’s presses the U.S. economic growth pulled back further during the second quarter as consumer spending slowed — a reading that suggests domestic fiscal worries may become a more significant drag going forward?…the nation’s gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, grew at an annual rate of 1.5% between April and June?…an annualized growth rate of 1.5% is not even sufficient to keep up with the needs for jobs and commerce due to the natural growth in population?…in layman’s terms that means we are mostly worse off that we were last year and the short term expectation is for continued decline?
IS IT TRUE that all of this economic malaise is happening at a time that he City of Evansville is celebrating the near completion of the $7.6 Million construction project at the old safe house to refurbish 31 apartments?…this works out to $245,161 per apartment?…this amount of money for a simple apartment is a fine example of why the government should not be trusted to make financial decisions period?…that plenty of habitable apartments are FOR SALE in Evansville for less than $24,516 each?…why any government federal or local would spend 10 times the market rate for anything is an insult to the taxpayers of the USA?…it should be seen as an insult to the other 300 homeless families that could have had shelter if this money was spent on readily available properties in the free market?…that regardless of the do-good intentions the Vision 1505 project is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars at a time that dollars are scarce?
Monster IIT JOe Wallace!
Another construction project under the guise of “helping the homeless” that is nothing more than a waste for everyone but the guy who got the contract. For $7.6 MILLION, we could have set up a CD account to accrue interest at a paltry rate of 1.91% APY and with just the interest after 5 years we could have gifted the estimated 300 homeless families a sum of money to put toward buying their own homes!
Let’s do some math…
$7,600,000 * .0191 = $145,160 per YEAR interest
* 5 years = $725,800
/ 300 families = $2419
That’s roughly 10% down on any of the $24,000 apartments the Editor mentioned for each of those families…AND you’ve still got $7.6 Million in the bank!
My good friend works for Tony Ricketts at D Patrick and says he is one hell of a nice fellow In fact, my good friend tells me that Mr. Ricketts is extrely intellignet, fair, honest and hard working.
Run Rickets run! You got my vote!
When I good to the D Partick sponsored shows at the Center i got to see Mr. Ricketts on stage welcoming everyone to show. He not only has class but can speak the “Kings English”.
We need someone on the school that has class and is intelligent.
While we are at lets replace Karen Ragland on the School Board because she has proven to be just another self serving person in elcted office.
I know Tony Ricketts very well and know that he would make an outstanding school board member.
He would be fair and objective. He is very intelligent and would not be a “political puppet” to Pat Shoulders and gang.
Out with the old and in with the new. Tony Ricketts for School Board!
Word at the civic center is that Vanderburgh County Clerk, Susan Kirk has caused herself additional elections problems because she certified Bix Branson to run for the school board in the last election.
This coupled with her recent hiring of 4th Ward political bosses daughter and her lack of paying attention to details management style may prove to be all Rick Davis needs to beat her in the upcoming election.
Being in the Civic Center you may not have noticed her step son was hired recently in a city department as well.
I’m hoping that in this day and age she wasn’t just looking at a map. All of the boundary information is in a computer. One should always verify the information and question any discrepancies. Is the computer wrong or is the map wrong? Maybe someone put it in the computer wrong. Maybe someone drew it on the map wrong. Sometimes one side of the street is in one district and the opposite side is in another. When the boundaries are that close it is especially important to check and double check.
Koring Rd is divided so that is an easy mistake.
Evansville housing authority announced they spent $7,600,000.00 on the old safe house to house 31 homeless families … Dividing $7.6 million by 31 is over $245,000.00 per family @ a $1000.00 a month rent a family’s would be paid for 20 years … We would be money ahead if we would of given each family $100,000.00
Good calculation. That really puts it into perspective. On the idea of handing out $100k to each we would be financially better off until next month when the $100k was all gone to Aztar, lottery tickets, and booze. Then they would be back asking for $100k more and wondering why we had to question them about what happened to the money.
If we raised the stake to $125,000.00 we could deposit it in a Canadian bank in their name and all they would have to do to claim it is to deny their US citizenship and become Canadian…. may be a better investment of our hard earned tax dollars….
at approximately $75k each we could have built 101 habitat homes free and clear (plus volunteer labor of course) for that 7.6 million. Put the homes on the tax rolls and each family would have been ahead greatly!
I made that suggestion to a city councilman years ago … initial was told it was a great idea … later was told it was impossible because Mayor had EHA construction contracts locked down for political contributions… apparently EHA board can grant contracts and change orders outside of public scrutiny ……. Really too bad…. concentrated public housing forces people to live closely together who are often in public housing because of a lack of social or economic skills … doomed to fail….
Hopefully you have emailed Joe Wallace with the details of what you know in this regard. I’d be really interested to hear more about that.
eviltaxpayer i can’t agree with more.
Look who is on the EHA Board.
Same faces and same games.
You guess it, the Mayor appointed all of the members of this board. Don’t be surprized to find that the majority of the board members live in Connie Robinson 4th Ward.
The beat goes on.
It would be refreshing, for a change, to have someone run for school board who did not have to be prompted or urged, but rather had a real interest in running, for all the right reasons. It is definitely not a job that one should take lightly, there is a steep learning curve for those who have no familiarity with the school corporation.
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as in steep learning curve you mean learning that lock step march they all do so well? ha ha!
More like: when you come to board meetings unprepared and with few firm convictions about where the school corporation should be heading, and how best to get it there, and little understanding of the corporations budgets and funding, then you are more likely to to stick your finger in the air at board meetings to determine which way the wind is blowing and then vote accordingly.
That is how we get the so called “rubber stamp” boards. If you can not devote the time necessary to do a good job, and if you are not the type to ask questions or you are easily intimidated, please do not run for school board.
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Does anyone know who got the contract for the Old Safe House project?
Never mind… I found it…
The firm behind the construction project at 1505 Third St. is, SURPRISE, an Indianapolis firm, Flaherty & Collins Construction.
When they figured the 10% general contractor mark-up they missed a decimal point, probably an honest mistake.
Tony Ricketts for 3rd Distict Vanderburgh County School Board!
Just talked with a neighbor of Tony Ricketts and they say he is one hell of a nice guy. Also they were very excited about his thinking about running for a seat on the Vanderburgh County School Board.
Every day people on this site grouse about the individuals who run for public office who are relatives of past and/or present politicians. Well it doesn’t take a genius to realize that one of the families with one of the longest records of service in city and county politics is the O’Daniel family, and that they employ Tony Ricketts. So is Mr. Ricketts just the next chapter in the same old story? When are we going to get fresh, new faces in city and county government?
Seriously, does the greed, incompetence, and self serving NEVER end?
Old rule of thumb, when you live in a community-there is no better way to support and uplift that community than to buy, purchase services, spend, and build in your community. Your neighbors need the jobs, need to feed their families-
Weinzapfel hopped into bed with Indy, looks as though things havent changed-shameful for a mayor to wag his tail at Indy for personal political gain and take food out of the mouths of his own constituents-I am sick of it-they ought to be ashamed.
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