IS IT TRUE August 29, 2012

11

The Mole #??

IS IT TRUE August 29, 2012

IS IT TRUE some of the details about the City of Evansville’s proposal to the EPA to eliminate the combined sewer overflows into the Ohio River are trickling out and that the original talking point of only having to spend $227 Million to achieve compliance turns out to have been a political sound bite and tells less than half of the truth?…today the City of Evansville is only able to treat 25% of the sewage dumping about 3.4 Billion gallons of sewage directly into the Ohio River?…the highly publicized number of $227 Million over the next 20 years only solves 40% of the problem leaving 2.5 Billion gallons of raw sewage to be discharged into the Ohio River even after spending $227 Million?…that assumes the use of the sewers stays the same as today meaning the population and business base can’t grow for this to make a small dent in the problem?…the first numbers released of $227 Million at this point seem to have been intentionally misleading (that is fancy talk for a pack of lies) to ease the fears of the ratepayers?…that telling lies is never a good policy and that a hard truth is always preferable to a lie?

IS IT TRUE the second phase of the project as it is now being called will bring the cost up to over $500 Million which is what the City County Observer and other interested parties have been saying for years?…we actually praised the Evansville Water and Sewer Department and the Winnecke Administration for innovations in design that clearly were VAPORWARE as opposed to a real solution to the problem?…the dollars reported are of course 2012 dollars and that the price will most likely exceed A BILLION DOLLARS after 30 years of inflation are factored in?…there is no place for this sort of sleight of hand in reporting and that the EPA has not and may very well never approve taking 30 years to fix a problem that is already under consent decree to be planned for a 20 year repair cycle?…that the authors of this plan are going to the EPA with a plan that they know full well does not meet the requirements of the consent decree?

IS IT TRUE the rotten smell of derrière in the south side and the discharges into the Ohio River are repellent to the kinds of people and businesses that the City of Evansville is dependent upon for economic survival?…this problem will cost between $10,000 and $20,000 for every household in Evansville?…implementation of this fix will be adding roughly a small car payment to the water and sewer bills of every home or business in the City or County if reconciliation passes?…this is a price worth paying and a cost that is necessary to bring the infrastructure of Evansville above 3rd World status?…wallowing in our own crap is no way to live and that the Winnecke Administration has an opportunity to set this course correctly as opposed to trying to plead with the EPA to allow poor old Evansville to continue its Calcutta imitation for another 30 years?…kicking the can down the road for 50 years by mayor after mayor does not make it right?

IS IT TRUE that our exposure of the FREE SPEECH ZONE at USI has stirred up a hornet’s nest of responses from both concerned citizens and USI officials?…we understand that many colleges took this step to keep outside influence off of campuses during the 60’s and 70’s when civil unrest over the Vietnam War turned violent?…USI is not alone in designating a small and nearly invisible area as a FREE SPEECH ZONE?…USI needs to take notice of what has happened to other universities that have established FREE SPEECH ZONES and made using them difficult with administrative restrictions?…that last week the latest in a series of lawsuits resulted in the University of Cincinnati’s FREE SPEECH ZONE being struck down as UNCONSTITUTIONAL in a Federal Court?…a simple Google search reveals hundreds of such lawsuits with similar results?…the CCO encourages USI to preemptively take this bull by the horns and make the entire campus outside of the buildings of higher learning into a FREE SPEECH ZONE?…bringing Evansville’s state university into compliance with the United States Constitution should be an expectation of the people of this town?…there is nothing to fear by taking this step?

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11 COMMENTS

  2. If you have been paying attention to the public notices the last couple of weeks, you have seen the legal notices of the 2013 proposed budgets for the 3 largest consumers of tax dollars in Vanderburgh county posted in accordance with State statute.

    They are as follows:

    $303,375,000. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ City of Evansville

    $226,916,261. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ EVSC

    $112,831,000. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Vanderburgh County

    _____________

    $643,172,261. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ TOTAL

    I would ask you to take a hard look around you. Do you see a community that can afford to pony up well over half a billion dollars annually to feed the local spending habits of out of control political subdivisions?

    I certainly do not see that kind of wealth in this community. We are digging the hole deeper and deeper every year.

    It takes no special talent to run for office and vote for every spending resolution presented once you are elected.

    Some of this proposed spending boggles the mind. What is EVSC doing down at that Administration building that consumes that amount of tax dollars? Why does the City of Evansville have $25. million in its 2013 budget for “Riverboat Projects”? That $25. million for riverboat projects is equal to the entire cost for healthcare for the city plugged into the proposed 2013 budget!

    What the hell is going on here? What sort of fantasy world are these people living in?

    ________

    • The Department of Local Government Finance 2012 certified Net Assessed Value (NAV) for Vanderburgh County, which includes the City of Evansville, is $6,745,696,894.

      At the above rate of spending, in a mere 10 years time, these 3 political subdivisions will have spent the total net property wealth of all of Vanderburgh County and the City of Evansville combined!

      How long did it take YOU to accumulate that equity in your property?

      _______

    • I believe you should submit your letter to the editor of the cp. You can have 1 per month printed, this NEEDS to be seen in print by every tax-payer in the county.

  3. Wow nice article!! Let us combine the city-county government to see what kind of money we can bilk out of the county!!!! Vote NO to CONsolidation!!!!!!!!!

    • And we have the dirty little secret behind the push for consolidation/unification/vandygov, when you have a billion dollar plus bill coming due and a dwindling population with which to draw that money from….they are really left with little options other than spreading the debt across the entire county, and hey! if we can redistrict and grab more power in the process…I think you get my point.

      JMHO

    • The county already pays for this. Actually, it pays more than city folks do. So your straw man argument doesn’t work here.

      • Like they donated the zoo to the county, but kept control of it. Wanna bet as soon as the contract for Roberts demolition is let, it will the next deed to transfer?

  5. These municipalities that have been controlled for decades by democrat machine politics are dropping like flies all over the country.

    California seems to be leading the pack, and why shouldn’t they be, most of the midwest has been looking at what goes on out there on the coast and shaking their heads for the last 30 years at least.

    Chicago politics has controlled the State and thus the whole state will suffer for letting the corrupt Chicago regime run things.

    I really do not see how anyone with a scintilla of intelligence could vote for someone like Barack Obama, who came up through the corrupt Chicago machine that has seen former mayor Richard Daley bail out before the city’s fall, their Governor sent to prison, and Rohm Emmanuel sent out there to take Daley’s place in order to keep a lid on things in the hope of keeping Barack Obama viable until the election is held.

    Which democrat machine will be the next to bite the dust? Is ours in the running?

    _____

  6. Well, well, well! Apparently Wienie-Zapple was lying to us when he said that we could afford to build a new arena _And_ fix the sewers! So much for the $128 million arena and the $227 million sewer fix! This county ought to ban people who were born in Southwestern Indiana from running for political office, as the only office holder in the last 50 years who was worth a damn was a newcomer!

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