IS IT TRUE DECEMBER 21, 2015

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IS IT TRUE that the former At-Large Evansville City Council candidate Alex Burton was recently offered a big promotion at Old National Bank and probably won’t run tor District #77 State Representative seat presently held by Gail Riecken?

IS IT TRUE we hope that DMD Director Kelley Coures comments he made to the Evansville Courier and Press that DMD didn’t misuse TARP funds on a blighted home project is correct?

IS IT TRUE that Mayor Winnecke is looking forward to razing more blighted housing in 2016, with the help of the newly re-organized Brownfields Land Bank program?  …we recommend he waits for the results of a compliance audit on Brownfields before making a decision on this issue?

IS IT TRUE earlier this month Mayor Winnecke and City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr requested and received another cash advance payment from the Evansville Water and Sewer Utility Department in the amount of nearly $1.4 million that was earmarked for the 2016 budget.

IS IT TRUE its legend that DMD sold a house to HOPE, Inc. for $1? …HOPE, Inc. may had developed this property for resale at a cost of $400,000 plus?  …It’s also alleged that this remodeled home was sold to a local taxpayer for $120,000 plus?

IS IT TRUE that one year ago, Mayor Winnecke and City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr requested and received $2.4 million  cash advance from the Evansville Water and Sewer Utility Department?

IS IT TRUE todays “Readers Poll”  ask: Do you feel it was smart for the Mayor and his City Controller to request an another million dollar plus cash advance payment from the Evansville Water and Sewer Utility Department?

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24 COMMENTS

  1. Get used to the borrowing from any place this administration can find any cash. Apparently this is what the citizens voted for and they knew what they were getting.

    • Get set for Winnecke and his Wonders to go on an unprecedented spending spree, with a $25million advance on rent from Tropicana. Even with that infusion of cash, I expect the City will be in arrears on its bills this time next year. Maintenance on Police cars and payment for employees’ medical costs just don’t seem to matter a great deal to this administration. They like the shiny new stuff that gets them political donations.

      • and with the 25 million infusion comes a 20 million payback, but maybe that won’t start til Missy’s first term as Mayor. And she will truthfully be able to say she didn’t know a thing about it, she is that clueless. And is there any news on the Icemen negotiations?

      • At least they’ve drawn the attention of the feds. It won’t stop them, they are willful people in need of a dogpark and other important things, but it might slow them down a bit. Every locally raisable tax will be. Every fee that can be levied or hiked by local fiat will be. No tax shall go unimposed. When local efforts at taxation are exhausted expect a major push to lobby the state legislature to open more lucrative avenues for local governments to rob their citizens. No bottle of Scotch shall be too old nor any hooker too young to aid in that lobbying effort.

        That chunk of money from Tropicana would make a nice good faith payment on the EPA sewer mandate. It’d show we are interested in tuning up the infrastructure, in doing the right thing. That will not happen.

    • The problem is the majority of the citizens only know what appears in the local propaganda sheet.

      * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

      “The public relations industry, which essentially runs the elections, is applying certain principles to undermine democracy which are the same as the principles that applies to undermine markets. The last thing that business wants is markets in the sense of economic theory. Take a course in economics, they tell you a market is based on informed consumers making rational choices. Anyone who’s ever looked at a TV ad knows that’s not true. In fact if we had a market system an ad say for General Motors would be a brief statement of the characteristics of the products for next year. That’s not what you see. You see some movie actress or a football hero or somebody driving a car up a mountain or something like that. And that’s true of all advertising. The goal is to undermine markets by creating uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices and the business world spends huge efforts on that. The same is true when the same industry, the PR industry, turns to undermining democracy. It wants to construct elections in which uninformed voters will make irrational choices. It’s pretty reasonable and it’s so evident you can hardly miss it.” (Noam Chomsky)

      • “You deserve a break today.”
        “What’s in your wallet?”
        “It’s your money.”
        “check into cash.”

        What informed consumer would use payday loans, rent to own centers, or reverse mortgages? But somehow the government thinks it can essentially use the same economic theories and avoid the consequences.
        “

    • Beg, Borrow, or Steal. We can Do It! We need that DOG PARK more than anything. We got the Votes and we can keep Evansville moving forward! Our Brownfields organization will be able to keep the properties from unwanted uses and we can rebuild the city to something great.

  2. How many times can taxpayer dollars be spent irresponsibly on fixing up homes that need to be demolished. $400,000 taxpayer dollars out to get $120,000 in????? That is just plain stupid. That one makes Front Door Pride look like a deal. The old safehouse was the boondoggle of all boondoggles. And we wonder why our governments are up to their eyeballs in debt and ineffective.

    • The old safehouse was the boondoggle of all boondoggles.
      No I disagree dollar wise that would be the Ford center
      .

    • We are way beyond the “use by” date on the form of local government now being applied. A professional city manager would be much preferable to this current madness, however, a professional city manager is precisely the opposite of what the chamber wants.

    • Joe I agree
      The old safe house ,I think they call it vision 1505 now ,which they refurbished cost a whopping
      237.5 thousand dollars per apartment ….I mean hell you can build a huge house for that price ,,weinzapfel burned the taxpayers on that one ,, total cost was about $76 million

  3. I do not understand the citys financial relationship with the water and sewer department. I understand how they make their money at the W&S but I am not as clear how they spend it. What is the advantage of forgoing needed maintenance and upgrades. We paid a private company $40,000,000 a year for ten years to manage it on the cheap and then fired them for poor management. None of us likes to pay bills, but all of us want clean tap water sewage disposal. As for the city borrowing from the W&S this has probably been going on since their was a city and water dept. Whether it has always been legal or not I do not know.

  5. “In a democracy, voters who fail to get their guys elected to office will always be comforted by Bandana and Pressanykey with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.”
    ― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War when asked about a 62% loss in the last election

  6. I would like to ask Kelley Coures about how he would handle his own money. I wonder if he would put bike lanes on North Main, expecting to recoup his investment? How about residential real estate investments? Would he put $400,000 into a house and then sell it for $120,000? I’m pretty certain he wouldn’t do either of those things, but he is having fun playing fast and loose with our money!

  8. The real story is the grants that EB received from DMD to rehab houses but never did. When the houses were sold they told the new owners they would require them to do enough work on the homes that would end up equaling the cost of the grants. Examples… 265 Washington and 22 Jefferson ave. Just to name two of them. Over a half million… WHERE IS THE MONEY NOW.

  9. Can someone explain to me why we all work so hard and write so much about improving Evansville when clueless people keep being placed in charge.? Why should we care anymore? Really. Why should we care?
    For many of us it would be easier to leave town and let the politicians and their buddies figure out how to keep robbing the citizens when the citizens are all gone. I have yet to see an improvement that really improves. A bike lane is paint. The space was already there. The Ford center is a loser. Look how diligently Mr. Lumley has worked to make changes in the convoluted blighted property system in this town. He is an honorable man and it will take him years to get done what should have already happened.
    Honestly I can find nothing special about this place to keep us here and yet there are problems with every town. I guess you have to pick the problems that you can tolerate and live there. Trouble is many times these problems are not evident until one has lived there for a while. Then it is too late again. Honestly the only reasons I have found thus far to stay is my house is paid for and very functional for us and we have the best veterinarian in the world which for us is critical.
    On the other hand I don’t look forward to paying for all the sewer and water line fixes, paying ever increasing Vectren bills, and paying for the entertainment castles built as shrines to sports and record companies. Honestly every time I think I have settled my head on the fact that we are stuck and I might as well accept that, a whole new bunch of really stupid crap comes down the pike. To be truthful moving is constantly stewing in the back of my mind. So come on, Someone name something outstanding about this town that cannot be found elsewhere easily. It might make me feel better………….maybe.

    • Your clinging to a sinking ship Martha, it’s no longer the same town we grew up in, the reality that nothing stays the same is hard to accept sometimes , but I feel you need to consider new goals that will take you away from the obvious corrupt mentality that has overtaken our home town. Smaller towns, smaller political intrigue, taxpayer overhead, less crime, and a warmer climate pulls me to explore life beyond Evansville. At 72, I still have wings and can still fly,—- I bet you can too!

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