IS IT TRUE April 2, 2013

25
The Mole #??
The Mole #??

IS IT TRUE April 2, 2013

IS IT TRUE the Johnson Controls deal that replaces every water meter in the City of Evansville that is over 5 years old in the name of progress and puts some fiber optic cable in the ground to read the meters through now seems to have been successfully marketed to the mainstream media as “SMART CITY”?…through the effective use of propaganda the spin machine in the Civic Center that is bound and determined to drop $54 Million plus interest to replace water meters seems to have pulled the wool over the eyes of everyone in Evansville that draws a regular paycheck from writing articles?…when the free press becomes a mindless lapdog for politicians most hope for an honest future is lost?…there are plenty of cases where “SMART CITY” types of initiatives have turned out to be as the peg jump game at Cracker Barrel labels poor performance “JUST PLAIN DUMB” or even an “EGG-NOR-A-MOOSE”?…what the mainstream media should be doing is booking a trip to Hollywood, Florida and ask those people just how those great savings have worked out for them?…the City County Observer published that over a year ago and will dig through the archives for the purpose of reminding the taxpayers of Evansville just what kind of wool is being forced over your eyes?

IS IT TRUE we also wonder just how in the devil one could save $54 Million by putting in new water meters and putting fiber optic cable in the ground that WON’T COMPETE WITH CURRENT PRIVATE BUSINESSES THAT COMPETE IN THE CABLE TV INDUSTRY?…we bet lots of folks have forgotten that old claim that this NON-COMPETITIVE fiber will take Evansville from second to last in the country to the top 100 without competing?…the marketing around this “SMART CITY” initiative would make the propaganda machine of the now defunct USSR blush?…there are two ways to save money by putting in new water meters that can be read by fiber optic connection?…the first and most obvious is to layoff the skeleton crew of City of Evansville workers who currently read water meters?…the second is the small possibility that the current meters are consistently underreporting water use turning this into a way to make the ratepayers PAY MORE without a rate increase?…laying off the meter readers has been ruled out so scratch that one until they retire?…even if they were all laid off the savings would not even cover the interest on $54 Million and maybe not even on the $17 Million that the IURC approved the city to borrow to pay for this supposedly FREE project?…similarly for increasing the water bills by reading higher use?…for the math to work here it would mean that each of the ratepayers for water and sewer in Evansville would have to pay an approximately $10 per month more for the same use they currently have?…of course that would have to happen WITHOUT A RATE INCREASE to fulfill the SNEGAL promises?

IS IT TRUE the people of Evansville can wallow in the blissful ignorance that city government and the mainstream media wants them too and let this pass OR they can hold the feet of the City Council to the fire and demand honest answers and informed votes?…the people of this town have chosen a temple to sport over fixing the sewers in a proxy election once already?…that sort of took a Pinocchio thought process to follow the tricky fox to Pleasure Island but hopefully this time some rational thought will be injected into the process?…the new mantra should be SEWERS BEFORE ANYTHING?

IS IT TRUE the government of Vanderburgh County is now on record with the confession that the number of miles of road that will be resurface this year will be less than 10 down from 35 just 5 years ago?…that 5 years ago $1.1 Million repaved 35 miles which works out to about $31,500 per mile?…this year a lower budget of $600,000 will only go 10 miles which works out to $60,000 per mile or nearly double the cost only 5 years ago?…repairing roads in the Great Recession must have increased in price by 100% since 2008?…we wonder how this can happen when the federal government tells us there is no inflation?…we would guess that the materials are oil based, the equipment to do the work and transport the materials all use gasoline, and since energy costs are excluded from the official government calculation that this price increase officially does not exist?…this is just another case of blissful ignorance on the part of the American people aided by a press that not only drinks the propaganda Kool-Aid but makes it as well?

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25 COMMENTS

  1. Did you know that the City of Evansville is footing the bill so that the Deputy Controller can get her BS in Criminology? This has absolutely nothing to do with her job! She only has an AS in Accounting and is making a salary that should have attracted CPAs to apply for her position. I demand that she reimburses the City or I will inform the State Board of her abusing the tuition reimbursement program.

  2. I fully expect a second Is It True today – solely on the fact that Evansville was ranked one of the Top 10 miserable cities in the country.

    Here’s a link: http://tristatehomepage.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=601802

    I blame our city leaders for this ranking, particularly the mayor and our sheriff. They joined the League of Women Toadies and the Chamber of Commerce in the consolidation proposal – and I’d imagine there’s still some bitter taste in people’s mouths over that fight. I wouldn’t doubt if the poll was taken shortly after election day. Plus everything that happened in the mayoral run two years ago you can see why people would be miserable in this town. Not to mention the mayor appointing a police chief who goes by “Billy” and leads a gang of thugs who throw grenades into grandma’s open screen door – the WRONG DOOR I might add – well, you can see there’s quite a few reasons why this is a miserable city. Please follow this article up CCO. Can’t wait to hear your prose regarding this important matter.

  3. My water meter reader just drives by the meter and never gets out of the truck. Compare that technology against one that requires installing fiber optic cable to every water customer in the city of Evansville, with all the attendant trenching, wiring, fiber splicing, and maintenance of the fiber optic network and you can clearly see that this is just a jobs program for union labor and another grab at the brass ring for the “money lenders”.

    This is the wrong technology. This is the another outlandishly expensive, perhaps the most expensive, method of reading water meters.

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  4. They won’t compete because the existing service providers are free to use the service and pay the fee for doing so. If new providers decide to move in and benefit also, so much the better.

  5. Well when the addition of 50 or so $8.00/hr jobs with no overtime or benefits is a big press conference ra ra event for Winnecke, I’d have to agree this is a pretty miserable city. Welcome RTW depression!

    • I can see that you do not understand how “prevailing wage” figures into local government contracts. This is a jobs program for “union” labor.

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      • I was referring to the PTI expansion and subsequent press conference and how it relates to the recent ranking of Evansville as a depressing city. Thanks, Mr. Know it all.

  6. Be careful! There is another artile posted that points out the this system in Hollywood, FL is a flop. But do we have sufficient intelligence in the water department and on the city council to see through their possible scam?

  7. The main reason cited by the article from Business Insider had nothing to do with consolidation, schools, our sewers, or meth problem, or anomisity between residents and law enforcement, mass transit, brain drain dining/entertainment or overspending, or corrupt politicians. None of that, it was workplace issues.

    Evidently, Evansille residents do not care for their bosses or their workplace conditions. Hmmmmmmm.

    Anyway, IMO, a ridiculous poll/ranking. There is a lot to gripe about in Evansville, but their is a lot to be thankful for also. Overall I give Evansville a B- C+ as places to live, far from perfect but not the 8th most miserable place to live, BY FAR.

    • We keep spending like there is no tomorrow here in Evansville, which may add our name to this list:

      ________

      [Stockton, California]
      Stockton filed for the largest bankruptcy of any U.S. city in history on June 28, due to the decline in the once hot housing market and intake of debt during its boom years.

      [Mammoth Lakes, California]
      On July 3, Mammoth Lakes filed for bankruptcy.

      [San Bernardino, California]
      On July 11, San Bernardino filed for the second largest bankruptcy of any city in the history United States. San Bernardino opted to head toward bankruptcy rather than making expansive cuts to its police and fire departments as Stockton had.

      [Rockland County, New York]
      The city’s deficit is expected to grow to $95 million, and the belief is that the city may be headed toward bankruptcy.

      [Scranton, Pennsylvania]
      Scranton is now roughly $16.8 in the hole on its fiscal year budget. To help cut costs, the city has slashed nearly 400 public employees to $7.25 per hour, due to an inability to pay workers their standard salaries.

      [Providence, Rhode Island]
      At the end of May, a former state Supreme Court justice and current state- appointed receiver for bankrupt Central Falls, stated that “I don’t see how they can get out of it without going there [bankruptcy].” The city has a budget gap of at least $20 million.

      [Detroit, Michigan]
      Detroit’s economy has been crushed for due to continuing declines in business and the recent housing crisis. The city is under watch of a nine-member advisory board as part of an agreement with Michigan to prevent it from seeking bankruptcy (too big to fail?).

      [Santa Ana, California]
      Santa Ana’s credit rating is rated just one above junk stats by Moody’s.

      [Long Beach, California]
      Long Beach has renegotiated contracts with its police and fire unions to reduce pension costs, in an effort to cut spending and help the city’s $18.5 million budget deficit. While Long Beach is in better shape than Stockton, it is not far from finding itself in a similar fate.

      [Costa Mesa, California]
      In order to save money, Costa Mesa has sold police helicopters, slashed payrolls from 611 to 450. Now, the city is investing 15 percent of its total budget toward capital improvements, doubling what it spent last year.

      ________

      I would really hate to see that happen.

      _

  8. Overheard one of the State Board people saying how miserable he is here and that he’s been begging for years to move back to Indy. I am not surprised if he has to deal with the likes of Rumplebeancounter, Jenny, and Big Dan.

  9. Your article concerning the cost/per mile of repaving/repairing county roads has risen tremendously over the past five years. This reminds me of what I have read concerning some of the repaving projects undertaking by Evansville in the recent past.

    Evansville has leased a very expensive machine to peal away the top several inches of pavement and recycling that same material. That process has saved the city one-quarter to one-half the cost of repaving with “new” blacktop material.

    But when the city has the opportunity to “sell” hundreds of cubic yards of used blacktop material, they close their eyes and GIVE that material to a local company at no cost. It does cost the company to recover that blacktop material, but the local company then sells the recovered blacktop to repave parking lots, streets and roads for private industries and governments. What a deal!

    The material I am referring to city giving away city assets (Roberts Stadium parking lot material) they take the quick fix. The way this was done is in keeping with the overall destruction of a valuable city asset (Roberts Stadium).

    Do we have even one thinking person in local government?

  11. Those who promote municipal Wi-Fi like to make a comparison to the early days of electricity and local government’s role providing that service, for a fee of course. This is not a good analogy at all, as there were existing providers selling electricity to consumers at the time, when say, Southern Indiana Gas & Electric was formed.

    As for currently existing providers in the local broadband market, here is a partial list:

    http://www.switchtobroadband.com/evansville-in-high-speed-internet.html

    These currently existing providers must compete, a concept that is foreign to municipal government, and that competition is what drives technological advances and lowers prices.

    You know how fast this market is moving, and you also know how slow the wheels of government turn. Mixing the two would be like pouring water on your router.

    ____

    • Make that:

      ,as there were “NO” existing providers selling electricity to consumers at the time,

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      • Tucker and Walters did. How’s that working out for you. Looks like Kirk Byram lives in the real world too. He doesn’t live in your hypothetical world. Sorry

  13. Just signed a new lease… Whereas I’ve never been charged for water before , our new lease started charging us $20 water charge in addition to a hike in rent. This is my last year living in Evansville, most likely.

    • Just paid my water bill, my utility bill, my homeowners insurance, interest on my mortgage, and my property taxes.
      Just sayin’.

      • You’ve made your choices, I’ve made mine. I’m not sure what you’re sayin’, to be honest except renting has its advantages.

        All I was saying was the water costs have definitely gone up for me and are being passed along by my landlord because they went up for them.

        • Or maybe your landlord just wanted $20 extra bucks a month in his/her pocket and it has nothing to do with his/her cost increases…

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