IS IT TRUE May 2, 2017

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IS IT TRUE that the latest example of failure to do maintenance is being felt by people who enjoy taking an evening walk along the Evansville riverfront?…the song “Boom Boom Boom Out Go the Lights” should be the theme song of the City of Evansville until they can get the lights back on along the part of the walkway that goes from the Four Freedoms Monument to Sunset Park?…to think about borrowing $127 Million for an arena that loses an estimated $10 Million per year, borrowing another $20 Million to gift to a hotelier, borrowing $57 Million for a medical school for less than 250 students and finally borrowing $50 million for some Twilight Zone water meters amounts to $264 Million in borrowed muons for fun and games in a city that admittedly cannot afford to replace light bulbs along a popular walking path?…according to Parks and Recreation, we are not going to have any money for light bulbs anytime soon either?…this is the most stunning admission of incompetence and negligence since we learned that the emergency phone kiosks on the jogging path behind Garvin Park didn’t work?…the next election needs a “light bulbs before fun and games” candidate?

IS IT TRUE that the semipro ice arena in Pembroke Pines, Florida reported in Contractor Magazine that the annual utility coats for the building were $420,000 per year?…this building only has a capacity of 2,000 fans and is used twice per week?…the electricity rates in Pembroke Pines are also lower than the rates payed in Evansville?…when one considers that the Ford Center is 5 times the size of the Pembroke Pines facility and is plagued by higher rates it is possible that the total utility costs to operate the Ford Center could easily exceed a million dollars per year?  …we not only look forward to the lone CPA on City Council to get the accurate figure of the total utility costs for the Ford Center but also hopes she will find out who are paying the utility bills?

IS IT TRUE that when VenuWorks bossman Scott Schoenicke spoke before the Evansville City Council last Monday night he explicitly stated that the operating expenses statement he handed out to Council did not include the utilities for Ford Center?…if one adds a possible million dollars in utility charges that are absorbed by some poor unidentified group of taxpayers the pure operating losses for the Ford Center are running over an average of $1.5 Million per year and have been since the doors were open?…it looks like VenuWorks also conveniently failed to include debt service in the expense statement report?…that debt service is about $8 million per year making the losses for having the shiny object of concrete and glass approach $10 Million per year?…this is $10 Million per year that has to be siphoned away from critical infrastructure, city employee healthcare expenses, and everything else of importance in the City of Evansville?

IS IT TRUE that for anyone who pretends to know a single thing about running a profit and loss statement to ignore utilities as an operating expense is either abject ignorance or intentionally misleading?…to do such a thing in a public business would draw the ire of the Security and Exchange Commission and could result in a legal issue for withholding material information?…we can not imagine why the Winnecke Administration, and the Evansville City Council are putting up with this sort of nonsense unless they are equally inept or conspiring to mislead the taxpayers of Evansville?…to neglect to state that debt service is part of the expenses is even worse?…it seems as though the powers that be in Evansville have been driving while deaf dumb and blind for more than a decade as the saga of Ford Center continues?

IS IT TRUE we have just informed that 2nd Ward City Councilwoman Missy Mosby will be having a political opponent in the next City Council election?   …Ms. Mosby 2nd Ward voters are overwhelming Democratic? …we are told that her primary opponent will expose her voting record concerning the reduction of our Homestead Tax Credits, appointing Republicans to the powerful Finance Chairmanship and the City Attorney positions, her extremely close political ties with Mayor Winnecke and his wife, for openly working against Gail Riecken in the last Mayoral campaign, not looking for creative ways to reduce the annual city budgets,  for strongly supporting the contract between the city and the Thunderbolts/VenueWorks and supporting the multi million dollar penguin exhibit at the Zoo when the city can’t afford to pay city employees current healthcare bills? …that Mosby only won by 12 votes in her last primary election against a little known opponent? …this a developing story?

FOOTNOTES: TODAYS “READERS POLL” question is: Are you disappointed in the Evansville City Council for not being more concerned with the contract between Thunderbolts/VenuWorks and the City?

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9 COMMENTS

  1. Light bulbs before penguins.

    Old Yeller’s primary challenger before another term for her. Ever.

  2. Another excellent CCO editorial. Don’t forget another poster child for targeted disrepair and neglect to eliminate competition for the Ford Center: the former community jewel known as Mesker Amphitheater.

    • Good start to the list, but there were far more events at Mesker. It appears this only lists concerts/bands

  4. Need to get your facts straight first before you go on a rant Editor. It’s not something as simple as burnt out lamps (or bulbs as you call them) but the fact that the levee walkway lighting fixtures (bollards) have been vandalized and damaged by hooligans. Tbese lighting fixtures are old enough (15+ years) that parts are no longer available to repair them. Yes, I agree the levee walkway lighting system is important and needs to be upgraded/replaced, but it’s not as simple or inexpensive as replacing a “light bulb”.

    • While I agree in concept with what you assert, I think the CCO editor was trying to point out a bigger topic and concern.

      Yes, these lights and the lighting system is old and outdated, and there has been vandalism that damaged them so they cannot be repaired, but that overlooks the bigger issue.

      Evansville has a number of “quality of life” issues that it should address. Clean drinking water, functioning sewer systems, and functioning emergency kiosks are just the start. And do not get me started on the neglected and crumbling Mesker Amphitheater that I grew up with.

      I agree that the lights themselves require more than just a bulb change, but that is now. What if the lighting structures would have been better maintained thru their history, and that proper patrols to assure that they were not damaged by the village idiots who think that is funny? These lighting structures near the Four Freedoms are not exactly hidden in a back alley in the middle of nowhere, they are out in the open for everyone to see.

      If we cannot properly maintain things as easy as lighting fixtures on our Riverfront, maybe we should divert money from “shiny objects” and get our house in order

    • The thing is this didn’t happen overnight. They should have seen this coming for awhile. They knew parts were unavailable, but instead of planning ahead no one makes a move until it is too late.

  5. the same crap with council saying they are fiscally responsible then breaking the bank giving the dems everything they want another bunch of damn giveaways this crap is no different than trump and his budget its all lies the dumbass trump is giving the dems a gold plated win on the budget and not a damn cent for the wall hes a liar nothing he says is tied to the truth and the fools who believe him lie as good as he does trump is a democrat theres nothing conservative about this guy

    • Took my wife fishing on her birthday last week Becker at a private lake on the Westside;

      https://mail.tds.net/service/home/~/?auth=co&loc=en&id=150001&part=8

      She didn’t even have to wet a hook, the fish just gave up and started flopping out on the bank when she yelled, “TRUMP IS GOING TO BUILD A WALL AROUND THIS LAKE AND MAKE BILL DANCE PAY FOR IT!”

      Observing your post above bro, it’s obvious you and al sharpie both graduated from Trump University but at a different PERIOD in time.

      Moral to the story; Please DO NOT ever connect the dots alittlelawyer, it will make you go blind.

      Believe me 100% and beyond….

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