IS IT TRUE September 23, 2013
IS IT TRUE that in their zeal to announce to the world that an additional 86 hotel rooms in downtown Evansville will not be completed at the Old Riverhouse the City of Evansville announced on Sunday that a deal had been struck for the Old Riverhouse had been acquired by a company that was going to turn it into yet another old folks home in downtown Evansville?…the timing was so good that they just couldn’t resist getting that news out there just one day before the Evansville City Council is scheduled to vote up or down on what is now a $31.5 Million handout to HCW of Branson, MO to build a 253 room convention hotel on the site of the old Executive Inn?…the Mayor’s office must have let the cat out of the bag before the cat was ready because the Mayor’s office had to retract the announcement about 8 hours after they made it?…the damage is done and if there was ever any truth to this at all which there probably is the argument that 86 rooms are already on the drawing board for downtown hotel rooms is now squashed?…this was not a bad tactical move for someone who is fighting for YES votes?…the real question is why was the Mayor’s office making an announcement about a transaction between two private parties?
IS IT TRUE while the hotel may be the most glamorous and controversial object on the City Council’s agenda tonight it is not the most financially impactful on the people of Evansville?…the most impactful thing that the City Council will be voting on tonight is the embarkation on a mission to bring Evansville into the modern world by starting the ball rolling toward coming into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with respect to repairing the dilapidated sewer system that 50 years of dodging and neglect has landed in the lap of the Winnecke Administration and the people who choose to live in Evansville in 2013?…this first of at least five steps will cost roughly $100 Million and will add 68% to the water and sewer bills of every ratepayer in both the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County?…while this is a legal bill size hit to every ratepayer in the county it is a necessary but not sufficient set of improvements that have to be made with or without an EPA mandate?…this will cost each household in Vanderburgh County about $300 per year forever into the future?…that amounts to about $15 Million per year and about $375 Million over a 25 year period?…there will be at least 4 and possibly 5 such increases forthcoming as the EPA mandate is implemented?…while this is a tough thing for Evansville families to face this is good, this is right, and this is necessary to even remain a viable city to live in?…it is also necessary to attract anything of significance to move into this region to employ real everyday people?
IS IT TRUE when the mob in the street is howling like kindergartners for a hotel, the wise people in Evansville will be focused on that which is necessary and transformational?…working sewers are necessary and will eventually transform Evansville from a city that stinks to city that does not?…having non-working sewers is the kind of thing that makes a place a laughing stock?…in the meantime the bonds issued to finance the Ford Center are consuming over $8 Million per year of tax money and the hotel that the beautiful people are howling for will consume another $2.6 Million per year?…a few years ago an educated young professional named Andrew Smith who grew up in Evansville and ran for the City Council under the mantra of “SEWERS BEFORE STADIUM†was right?…the voting public chose wrong and was blinded by the shiny object that was sold to us as the salvation of the downtown that would bring tourism and big acts to Evansville like they came in the past?…that has not materialized and we are once again faced with a decision of fluff or substance?…we hope the “RESPONSIBLE SIX†hold true to their judgment and vote as they have announced?…there is always another opportunity for attracting a hotel developer?…this may just be Evansville’s last chance to establish a real vetting procedure and move forward to fix the things that really are fodder for comedians?
IS IT TRUE this convention hotel obsession has taken on such a life of its own that the MOLE NATION tells us that certain City Council members will be in need of protective escorts as they show up to vote tonight?…the MOLE NATION is also acutely aware of threats made to the livelihood of certain people and even incentives offered if votes can be delivered?…the threats made to rattle made up skeletons that may or may not be in peoples closets, to attack people’s ways of making a living, or worse are unacceptable and in some cases may be met with formidable responses?…if there is one thing for certain this blasted convention hotel has created a civil war in Evansville that has pitted friend against friend, and family members against each other?…this is just a hotel people, it is not necessary, it is not transformational, it will not attract a medical school, it will not make the Centre profitable, and it is not worth alienating lifetime friends?…all the CCO asks from the City Council and the people in the street tomorrow is that those with a vote will vote from a position of knowledge and the people in the street will respect that judgment?…bricks and mortar are not worth this much angst?…the CCO wishes for peace and good judgment to be with all of the people of Evansville tonight?…Tuesday is a whole new day?
I’m speechless. This was spot on, Joe.
+1
I was speechless last night to,at Oak hill Road and the Lynch road,our driver didn’t switch the vehicle vent closed quickly enough.
Yup the aroma from the sewer high point venting at, and approaching the intersection from the west heading east. I see the road is undergoing improvements to the south,hope the sewers CSO issue is on board with the new road improvements.
That’ good example of how your area can improve infrastructure and through put. The passage east goes all the way to the duo county metro Epworth connection and has good progressive throughput. However the throughput dead ends plugs up and is hampered at an major hwy 41 access laden with stop light intersections.
That corridor should directly connect to the diamond,university parkway to the west. One of them brought up that the EVSC has an new building in between there also. They said they all agreed that is where your new north high school should have been placed,after they explained that too me I also agreed gosh,whats the phrase two council persons say “No brain’er”?
These issues should be solved completed and planned together moving forward for throughput commerce in your area. This would relieve traffic pinch points on your too few east west transfer points infrastructure for an enhanced traffic flow.
I mentioned the idea to the others in our vehicle it was agreed this needs fixed. However the conversation again went to the past and the location of an jail was brought up.
Heck before hitting the hay last night looking from afar,I noticed that jail complex on your northern gateway is kinda land locked by an Rail Yard.
Geez who planned that boo boo? That should be the connection for your pathway Lynch to Diamond. I could see an on site real working CSO control development at that location also. The Creek and flood plain is right there!
Someone in our vehicle said last night, the fellow whom was sheriff at that time was also once an congressman,that’s interesting.
Our conversation continued this morning I told my friends from altitude the power companies corridor that access’s that point to the north a little would be an pathway for progressive throughput commerce there. It goes to diamond somewhat.
Roadway and underground storm ready infrastructure.
They just told me the fellow now is an government contact person for the power company. Oh my,ok….chortled a bit,nice.
Really,seriously that’s an good one.
You know singles get you on,doubles and triples score the runs,sometimes someones pitch offers an grand slam.
Fixing CSO,Transit commerce throughput business growth for an area.
Then you have what your past project focus is today,any base hits, runs? “not so much”.
Well, People,–Now you know why a screen name is needed.
This REALLY,— IS– a “small” town.
Maybe it’s just me, but I am having trouble seeing how a hotel is going to make a difference in Evansville. The only time I am aware that hotels sell out around here is for the frog follies. Maybe it is just me but I do not see this being profitable.
It isn’t just you. It is sensible people. When I point out that Evansville has nothing to offer that would make it a “convention city”, one of the hotel debacle cheerleaders jumps on my negativity. None of them have given me any reasons to think we would become a convention hub.
We HAVE to do the sewer project, and we need to devote the public funds to that. I’m not saying there should be no hotel, nor that there shouldn’t be some incentives offered for its construction. I am just saying that we need to be realistic about expectations.
The latest “blooper” out of the Mayor’s office, in the form of the announcement about the former Riverhouse and the subsequent retraction of it just makes me trust this Administration less than I already did.
Lets not for get statutory procedure in this hotel project. Firing emails back and forth between elected officials and those outside of government is not an acceptable substitute for an Evansville Common Council public meeting.
The council has an obligation to keep the public, for whom they work, informed on what it has discovered since the last discussion of this project at the last council meeting, and the correct place to do that is in a scheduled public meeting of the council, not the local media outlets.
Individual council members should be quick to inform the media that they deliberate as a body and if the media wants information they should attend the public meetings.
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As far as construction projects go, digging trenches and laying pipe in the ground certainly should not be amongst the more expensive projects.
One should also take into consideration the learning curve that comes from doing these projects. As you do more of them you should get more efficient and also find ways to reduce cost, not increase it.
Finally, I hope we have learned from the Green River Road project that the project has to be engineered right and that the firm doing the work understands what is required of them under the contract they signed.
Paying taxpayer dollars two and three separate times to achieve the originally intended goal of a project has to become a thing of the past. These firms are required to put up a bond, but no one in government goes after them when they fail to fulfill the terms of the contract. This has to stop.
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I”m thinking the infrastructure including the roads, flood plain management issues,urban sprawl and CSO events are events co-joined through plan conception.
Better planning for better results. the revisits are predicable without looking forward with infrastructure planning.
Also believe me,any plan in an major river basin,looking forward should include an best plan for expected climate change restructuring.
The science is in people, that’s going to be an issue in your area,might start planning now.
The impacts will be in your face within the timing the CSO mandate is specific too. Adjusting plans to expected climate change is what the federal government supports.
Read the climate change plan June 2013 the executive office of the president.
(You might want to look at the Siberian Arctic sea shelve discoveries by joint science teams on methane hydrates and climate change July this year.)
Just another study confirming climate predictions though thermodynamics of elements.
Seek cost and technical project support it should be there for meeting or exceeding state and federal compliance regulations.
New science/engineering and technical/skilled trades applications jobs must come with it.
The real kicker in the sewer work, is even after the $758 million dollar work is complete…we will still have sewers that will smell. The work being done does not completely separate the two sewer systems. And those that believe that the current sewer project, as it stands, will solve all of our sewer problems are misinformed. It only brings us into compliance with the EPA lawsuit. We will still have an “acceptable” amount of raw sewage that we will dump into the river.
The truth of the matter is that we will still need ANOTHER $500 million dollars (best estimates) to completely separate the CSO system that we currently have. That brings the total of the sewer project to $1.25 BILLION!!!
Brent
The Mayor Pr campaign to force City Council to support his hotel is going to back fire.
I have a friend on City Council and she is mad as hell the way people have been talking to her about this issue.
The Mayor has just dug himself a political grave for the next two years.
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