IS IT TRUE? May 27, 2011

IS IT TRUE that News 25 has done a piece of good investigative journalism that deserves congratulations?…that in the aftermath of the alleged sexual assault on the greenway this week in the Garvin Park area that News 25 tested the emergency kiosks that are located on the greenway trail that is used by joggers, walkers, and bicyclists?…that some of these kiosks are not working and when the emergency button is pushed that there is no response?…that there is no notice on the non-working kiosks to indicate that they are broken?…that if a woman or a child was eluding an attacker and sought police protection at these kiosks that it is a throw of the dice as to whether the kiosk nearest was working or not?…that on the 6 pm news last night that Evansville Director of Parks and Recreation Dan Schall was filmed making a statement that he was aware that some of these kiosks are not working?…that Mr. Schall made a statement that emergency kiosks are something that may not be needed since people have cell phones?…that this is one of the most astonishingly uninformed statements of rationalization that a public official has ever dared to utter?…that if your sister, your daughter, or your wife went jogging on the much celebrated Evansville greenway that it is ASSUMED that the emergency kiosks are in working order?…that to have no kiosks is risky but acceptable?…that to have working kiosks is the best situation?…that having non-functioning decoy kiosks is absolutely not acceptable?…that having non-working kiosks is the same as having a non-working 911 emergency response center?…that non-working emergency kiosks trick the public into feeling secure when they are not secure at all?…that if there were no emergency kiosks that maybe young women would choose to exercise elsewhere, carry pepper spray, or be certain to have a cell phone at all times?…that the people of Evansville pay for and deserve better than this?

IS IT TRUE that to rationalize about the inevitable obsolescence of having a non-functioning emergency network is simply not sound logic from a senior government official?…that such an attitude and such poor judgement is not acceptable from a public servant?…that Mr. Dan Schall is a well paid department head for the City of Evansville?…that this is the same individual that presides over the park where a child was stuck by a discarded drug addict’s needle?…that the parent of this child attempted for months to get the attention of the City of Evansville Parks Department and was continually dismissed and delayed?…that only when Dr. Neil Troost stood before the Evansville City Council and told local media the story of the needle in the sandbox did even so much as acknowledgement of the problem come forth?…that the time has come for the person who presided over the needle in the sandbox and knowingly left non-working emergency kiosks on public jogging paths to either justify this performance or step aside?…that a dismissive tone and disregard for public safety has no place in the Office of the Director of Parks and Recreation in any American city?…that Mr. Schall should do something for the people of Evansville who pay his salary and present a solution to these problems, a reason for these situations, or step aside?…that there is no place for this kind of attitude in public service?

IS IT TRUE that any and all officers of the City of Evansville whether elected, appointed, or hired who were aware that these emergency kiosks were not working and kept their silence about this need to go too?…that any and all members of the board of directors of the Evansville Parks and Recreation Department that had knowledge that these emergency kiosks were not functional and perpetuated the situation with their silence should step aside too?…that to compromise public safety with what are essentially decoy devices is a bigger disservice to the public that to have never had emergency kiosks in the first place?…that this is the equivalent of willfully preventing the police department from receiving vital information needed to do their job?….that in a week where Evansville was fingered by the FBI for having a 14.1% increase in violent crime that we also have learned that the emergency kiosks on our greenway are not working and have not been working for some time?…that the Director of Parks and Recreation knew it and said nothing?…that this is not an acceptable way for any city to operate?

IS IT TRUE that if this is not our moment of hitting bottom with respect to maintenance of our infrastructure then we all should shutter at where the bottom will be?…that we have truly become a city where the sewers do not work, the emergency kiosks on public trails have failed, that is spending $128 Million on entertainment?…that this looks more like a scene from “Deliverance” than from a mid sized Midwestern city?