IS IT TRUE December 12, 2013

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Mole #3 Nostradamus of Local Politics
Mole #3 Nostradamus of Local Politics

IS IT TRUE sources tell the CCO that the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Department now has a vacant executive position available?…this position is in the Community Correction department? …the leading candidate to fill this position is none other than former Evansville police officer and City Councilman, Steve Bagby?

IS IT TRUE we all need to prepare to hear that Mayor Winnecke will announce that the proposed site location for the new downtown IU Medical School shall be in the area of the old Greyhound Bus Station?…there are a couple of requirements in the 30 page version of the Request for Proposal on the IU project website that will make downtown Evansville probability of being named the winner very difficult?…the facilities requirement is for 170,000 square feet of buildings that are efficient and sustainable?…it is furthermore stated that there is a need for room to grow?…it must be realized that this is calling for a 4 acre building that will be quite difficult to place in downtown Evansville because of space constraints even without any room to grow?…you could go up and there is a building of such size at the corner of 5th and Main that was at one time the Old National Bank?…that old building which is younger than most in the downtown is anything but efficient?…the efficient and sustainable requirement sort of rules out any kind of cost effective repurposing of any older building?…the “fight like the dickens” team led by Mayor Winnecke may come up with a proposal and even some incentives but comparing a medical school experience in a downtown with a hodgepodge of buildings and travel by car to teaching beds is a far cry from going to a new state of the art campus in a pastoral setting east of Evansville?…stranger things have happened in this world but the CCO and many of our readers are finding it difficult to understand how the downtown could be the “BEST” solution for the IU Medical School?

IS IT TRUE EFD Chief Connelly cannot hire a part time employee?…the CCO learned that at the union meeting in was disclosed that there is a clause in the contract that forbids this?…it is funny the Chief does not even know the terns of the contract that he helped negotiate and presented to the union body to vote on?… the EFD has a new Rescue Squad truck sitting at the administration building collecting dust?…the Rescue Squad truck was purchased with Homeland Security monies and the Chief will not allow it to be used even though departments all over the country are using the ones they purchased with the same funds?…the Rescue Squad trucks at Station 1 is literally falling apart and has been in service since 1997 and the reserve back up is from 1991.  …we hear that EFD Pumpers and Quints Ladder trucks are so old that the fire department mechanics going to junk yards to find parts to keep them in service?

IS IT TRUE in another situation where bureaucratic idiocy and cronyism are the driving ROTTEN PUBLIC POLICY outside of Indiana (thank you) a recently retired and very respected medical doctor read of the nursing shortage and how faculty shortages are making it difficult to graduate nurses on time?…he approached a community college about volunteering without pay to teach “chemistry for nurses” to help with the faculty shortage problem?…much to this doctor’s surprise there is a powerful union that has authority over the community college that blocked the doctor from doing this good deed?…because this doctor is not a card carrying member of the NURSES UNION he is not allowed by law to teach chemistry to nursing students?…the CCO finds this to be one of the dumbest and poorest examples of poor public policy we have learned of this year?…it is one thing to do something stupid, but it is quite another to pass laws that mandate stupidity?

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41 COMMENTS

  1. Looks like Sheriff Williams is posturing himself to run for Mayor. It’s obvious if he appoints Bagby to Community Correction position it will help his chances to become Mayor.

  2. The way I see it, the Mayor has gone “all in” with his “fight like the dickens” for downtown approach. Politically speaking, if Vanderburgh loses IU to Warrick, this Mayor’s reelection is toast. It might be toast anyway, but this is Custer’s Last Stand, this is Waterloo for our dear Mayor Winnecke.

    He might be able to overcome letting Mesker rot, tearing down Roberts, trying to spend $37.5 million on a private hotel, Johnson Controls, and Earthcare, but this would be the absolute final straw, I believe.

    • If keeping the Med school’s best interest in mind, Downtown cannot be the best location for the new school. If our leaders are, once again, trying to revive a dead Downtown, this could be the best & last chance. But, should our leaders push for the location that best serves the City? Or, the location that best serves the school/students? I say the location that best serves the school/students. As long as Downtown Main has it’s cozy little meandering street, along with the Civic Center closing off main, it will remain “dead”. Take the level of debt that the City now has, add in the new debt that would be acquired if the school were to be located in the City and take away the revenues that the City receives from the casino and Evansvlle just became the Detroit of Indiana. Not to even mention the debt that will be acquired with the required renovation/redo of our sewer system, the renovation that our leaders have dodged for years. Do away with the “drunken sailor’s” spending mentality and make the fiscal decision that best reflects our pocketbook.

  3. I can’t imagine why IU would put that school anywhere but across from Gateway or at USI where their 2 year program has been for so long. Unfortunately there are no ‘teaching beds’, I love that phrase, in the vicinity of USI.

    This is Dicken’s time of the year so maybe the city will crank up its best realtors and, armed with big shoehorns and an alumininum Halliburton stuffed with our tax money and penicillin lollypops, let them make the case for downtown.

    • Dickens on Evansville: “it was the best of plans, it was the worst of plans, what, these fools have no plan”

    • There are great sites in Evansville. The State Hospital Grounds is particularly beautiful and ideally located, but Mayor Oliver Twist is putting all his dwindling political chips downtown. I’m rooting for a private Evansville developer.

    • Agreed, I’ll say if the mayor is successful in getting IU to build or re-purpose a building downtown I’ll vote for him in his reelection run because the man has skillz! 😉

      JMHO

  4. If the son of Steve Bagby is the best one for the job then so be it. I hope he has more backbone and doesn’t lie like his lazy father.
    The best people to ask are those currently working in & with current correctional employees. They know who is best suited for the job. Why not ask many (with assurances their identity will not be revealed) and publically list who SHOULD assume the position and the reasons why.
    John Q Public doesn’t have any idea-myself included- so ask those that know & publish the results for all to see.
    It would be interesting to see who the REAL best qualified person for the job is. If it winds up being Mr. Bagby, so be it. He has to have more going for him than his father ever did.

    • Jumbo ,they aren’t talking about the son of Steve bagby ,they are talking about the retired worthless piece of trash Steve Bagby himself .
      CCO please correct me if I’m wrong

  5. Wonder if Sheriff Williams is going to publicly advertise this vacant position so he can attract the best possible candidate for this job? If Bagby gets this job without the Sheriff advertising this position it will be considered a political patronage appointment.

    I can tell you that many county and sheriff office employees are watching to see how Williams handles this appointment.

  6. Looks like the Mayor has put Roberts dog park before the IU Med school. If he would had spent his time and focus on planning for the Med school and not on the dog park he wouldn’t have last minutes problems in acquiring suitable land to build the Med school.

    If the Mayor fails to attract the Med school downtown his re-election theme should be ” dog park before school”!

  7. Speaking of fire equipment… What ever happened to the Snokel named after Russ Lloyd, Sr?

  9. Was not the city block with the greyhound building on the corner not dedicated for the bi-centennial park by the previous mayor? Or has that been forgotten too, with your cities “lack” of a bi-centennial celebration.

    • Yes but that was a terrible plan from the word go that clearly reeked of ready, fire, aim. It’s too small for a bicentennial park, the design was boring, and it was about as popular as the great lawn.

      Instead of placing the bicentennial park at Sunset Park where funds would be rehabilitating an existing park, have plenty of room to tell the entire 200 year story of the city, and have connectivity with the greenway and soon to be wetlands, we ended up with Weinzapfel’s plan or no plan and we ended up with having to with “sucks less”.

      Now we’ve wasted our bi-centennial opportunity and have nothing to show for it. This is quite the opposite for just about every other city.

  10. The only 40 acre continuous piece of property downtown is Welborn. Since that won’t be sold for various reasons, tear down the Civic Center, give that land to IU, and move the City and County offices into the old ONB tower. Given the rats and roaches in that bulding some the polticos would feel at home. Anyone heard how that hotel financing is coming?

    • 40 acres = 1,320 feet x 1,320 feet. That is nearly the entire downtown. I don’t think Welborn is that large.

      • Actually the old Welborn site is about 30 acres after measuring it.

        The Martins are willing to give up 69 acres on Burkhardt Rd. and the Warrick Wellness Trail will give up 74 acres out of approximately 1300 acres. You have to have around 40 acres for future development for the estimated 2100 students. IU will want to have a bird in the hand rather than two in the bush with respect to having land to expand. The site next to the old Greyhound is around 4 acres and is way too small. The proposed size of the building has little to do with lot size. It is all about future expansion and location, and that is the likely reason why the RFP was silent about total lot size. Hence the reason why both non downtown locations are offering the larger lot sizes.

        40 acres is not really that big; look at IU East in Richmond for example. They have(maybe)4000 students on about 190 acres and that is very small campus with just 4 buildings.

    • IIRC, they are asking for 107,000 square feet. That’s equivalent to roughly 2.5 acres. The Old Central lot is roughly 300 feet x 300 feet which is equivalent to 90,000 square feet. When you add multiple floors to the complex to have well over 107,000 on the lot. FTR, Old North is roughly 1,200 feet x 600 feet.

      I’m having a hard time trying to understand why Old Central which is down Mary/MLK from Deaconess, is adjacent to the YMCA, is adjacent to the METS Bus Terminal, is a handful of blocks from the FC and hotel lot (and yes Main Gate), is catty corner from lots that contain historic apartment districts, AND has run to grow all the way to the Northwest to the old Brucken building (which should be next to the canal from the 01 master plan) is being passed over for a lot that is land locked, too close to the casino, would infringe on the Greyhound Bus Station, is incompatible with its surrounding buildings, AND is far away from the hotel.

      Every time we go through these project site selections, it never ceases to amaze me just how incompetent the city really is. We have a golden opportunity with the old central lot and we have old north rotting away. Yet, we go with 4 lots in no mans land? SMH.

  12. It is clear to everyone by now that the Fed is blowing bubbles and encouraging moral hazard and that’s very problematic though they are in a very strong position to move against bubbles. Asset class bubbles are the most dangerous things to investors. They’re also the most dangerous to the economy as we have seen in Japan, in 1929 and now today. You’ve got to stop them.

  13. Hard to believe Bagby is being considered,
    I can’t think of a poorer choice.

  14. When logic is interjected….IU Med by Gateway is the only site not mired in ego and idiocy.

    • Well the site you mentioned,has its benefits,one rather large one comes to mind with carbon sequestration and the local metro sewers and clean water management thoughts are interjected forward.
      Looking form afar,I see Evansville’s Northeastern growth region benefitting as well as, Newburgh’s and Chandler, Warrick.
      Big pathway available with that if moved forward,however being fair,each of the favored sites can be set forward for Incremental improvements with “conceptual balances*”.
      The Gateway area is best suited for the application I would apply,with the Present USI campus really close,the Throughput of infrasture favors the eastern metro a bit,but not by much.
      The problems any site I see has is challenged by throughput with the present east,west transportation system,its really terrible,think big,and go back to how your Lloyd was fouled up by the Icing last week,or an accident at anytime. You have to improve that,and going through city core out to the north with the lynch Diamond corridor is you best interchange there.
      The downtown sector,could have a fair chance if that was improved for throughput actually too and from downtown,lose your pinch points,move forward.
      Environmentally speaking the most “bang for the buck” could be a blending forward of the CSO planning and campus throughput timing through infrastructures that as applied incrementally defeat both problems.
      The actual transportation timing,and method,and the mandated CSO you must do there anyway. Best carbon footprint sequestering is defeated by road time travel infrastructures,verses engine hour meter run time. Knock those out of the way and you then have a viable path forward at any site.as well.

      “Feet do your duty” comic relief,however incredibly viable for community sequestration altitude.as well.

        • Aye,but a visionary one I suppose,O’Fiendish its the 65 trillion bucks to be spent globally in the next 20 years to solve the problem that brings my focus and drives the point, taken.

          whoosh —-> 🙂

  15. I heard IU originally wanted to build it on University Parkway but Citizens United for a Backwards Westside opposed it. They said it would attract riffraff and they had too much already.

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