IS IT TRUE December 22, 2104

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IS IT TRUE in nearly every interview with Mayor Winnecke about the death of the downtown hotel project as we know it, Old National Bank CEO Bob Jones is standing with him offering somber support?…we do want to point out that ONB entered into this hotel situation with a good civic intention and remains committed to being a good corporate citizen?…no other Evansville based company large or small stepped forward to attempt to bridge the funding gap between public subsidies and the developer’s comfort level for a purchase price?…the stark reality of what has transpired makes it crystal clear that the market value for the entire project to a private developer is only $37 Million which is less than the construction estimate for the hotel excluding the apartments and the parking garage?…that is remarkably close to the newly appealed assessment for the ONB headquarters?…given the size of the project it is prudent to assume that the value of the ONB headquarters and the hotel/apartment complex is about equal?…as we stated last week, SANITY PREVAILED WHEN THE FREE MARKET DYNAMICS WERE NOT TAINTED BY GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE?

IS IT TRUE we are mystified that the naming rights for The Centre were not appraised a year ago when this scheme was concocted?…one would think that the first logical action prior to an announcement and a happy dance would have been to commission a professional appraisal of the advertising value of the naming rights for The Centre?…we are 100% sure that ONB would never enter into a funding agreement to finance the purchase a piece of property without an appraisal?…we are also sure that ONB would make the borrower pay for the appraisal?…the enthusiasm of cocktails with the Mayor at the rooftop bar must have blinded the analytic reality of those normally good banking minds?…this is testament to the power of a dream no matter how unattainable that dream may be?…the $400,000 per year naming rights deal right across the street for the larger and busier Ford Center should have guided the thought process on the first agreement but it did not?…there is a strangeness about this valuation debacle that begs for some answers?…the writer knows Bob Jones and knows that he is neither a fool nor a liar?…this is not the kind of thing that elevates one to be the CEO of a public bank and a respected leader across the country?…it makes one suspect that we have not heard the whole story yet and that something other than the lack of 6.5 Million is driving this implosion?

IS IT TRUE the coalition of the clueless (ONB, HCW, & City of Evansville) apparently can’t even agree on how short the ONB naming rights were?…Rick Huffman has been quoted as saying the shortage was $8M while Bob Jones says it is $6.5 M?…Huffman was even quoted as stating the project budget was $78 M when it has been common knowledge for over a year that the budget was $71.3 M?…these gaps and the other clueless claim by Mayor Winnecke that the hotel will create 800 jobs when even the biased Hunden Study only claims a fourth of that, are reasons to conclude that this coalition of the clueless has never possessed the mental horsepower to take on a project of any size?…anyone or any group that cannot add and subtract can surely not manage so much as a little league team?

IS IT TRUE the CCO is a bit disturbed at the confessions of Mayor Winnecke that there have been known funding gaps for 3 months, yet he was putting out a press release every couple of weeks about the looming start of construction?…that was misleading and disingenuous?…telling the truth no matter how bad it may have looked would have been and will always be the right policy?…we have to wonder why anyone with a memory would believe a word that comes from the Winnecke Administration about projects or job creation?…that statement about creating more jobs than the hotel was proposed to have rooms took the cake for either incompetence or dishonesty?…as we have said many times, the nonsense and fluff needs to stop?…it is time to get serious about PLANNING and INFRASTRUCTURE neither of which Evansville will survive without?…the bridge to nowhere and the backhoe sentinel are monuments to failing to think, plan, and implement?

IS IT TRUE we are glad to see that the City of Evansville has received a grant of $600,000 to demolish some blighted houses?…at Tom Barnett’s estimate of $5,000 per house for demolition, this money will get rid of 120 blighted houses that need more work than they will ever be worth?…according to Barnett we now have only 9,880 more blighted homes to go to get rid of all of the abandoned homes in the City?

IS IT TRUE finally, we are disturbed to learn through a very well placed MOLE that HCW never executed a franchise agreement with Hilton?…Rick Huffman told Evansville Living over a year ago that he had this in hand?…it was discovered in March that his claim was not true?…Huffman and the Mayor doubled down on that story in June right before they learned the bids for the hotel were well over budget?…today, there still is no franchise agreement, which in all likelihood means they did not have a loan in place either?…we hope that when, and we do mean when, another opportunity for a hotel comes up that it will be with a company whose priciples will be transparent about project milestones and that they will be throuroghly vetted before the City Council jumps into a $20 Million bed with them?

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55 COMMENTS

  1. The Feds need to come down here and do some forensic auditing over the last 8 yrs
    primarily Jonathon weinzapfel and lloyd winnicke ,,,I bet Jennie collins is somewhere involved in this ponzy scheme , don’t forget rusty lloyd he has been hiding

    • “Don’t forget Rusty Lloyd he has been hiding”.

      Russ Lloyd needs to be fired. I think he cost the Mayor an easy re-election. Russ lacks the ability to critically examine a project to determine feasibility and sustainability. The Mayor is a fool if he sticks with this lightweight.

      It’s becoming clear that HCW didn’t have a loan, or the cash equity, to cement this deal. The City even admitted they don’t know the City’s costs on the project which are now wasted, that DMD would compile this. Pathetic.

      • I think it may become necessary for Winnie to fire Rusty by mid 2015. It may not be feasible, though, if Lloyd has “the goods” to bring him down. Winnie is going to have to dump blame for his hubris fest on someone, and Lloyd is the most logical place to try to put it. After all, Winnie can’t put the onus on Carol.

        • I honestly think you’re all crazy to call for the Duke of Center township (Read Russ Lloyd) to be fired from that post… Isn’t that like impeaching Obama (look at what that leads to!)?

          Who’s going to fill that void? Some useless idiot? What sane, half competent numbers person would touch that problem with a 50 foot pole? You’d probably just end up with some naive, ambitious, partisan hack!

          I still think the fact that Lloyd even considered seriously taking on that role after Collins, shows he has a SERIOUS sense of civic obligation – or the man is flat insane. And I don’t believe the latter, yet.

          Re: Fed’s Auditing? HA!

          We can’t even get press coverage of the state audit that drives any political discussions beyond a soundbite…

          Before you all go savaging people that inherited this dramatic mess, why don’t you focus on voting out all the council people that allowed the insanity too?

          I mean, can’t the CCO get poopdeck pappy’s comments, too? Wasn’t he swabbing the decks back then still?

          Shesh!

          • hey I like your name
            Ya have to start somewhere and whomever is guilty of any crimes deserves to be prosecuted , like you say they won’t do anything in vanderburgh county and with a republican governor I don’t see him doing anything
            So if you got ideas ,

          • In the interest of tossing out the bums, when Ms Riecken takes the rains it will be pure pleasure seeing our ol’ Sinister Scheafer’s ass kick out of the Civic Center then he will have all the time in the world focusing on the dating scene, of course, his ex-wife will have relieved him of the Green…be assured that ol’ SS was behind the deceit concerning the Hotel….bit on it!!!

  2. Subterfuge–Websters: Any plan, action, or device used to hide one’s true objective, or evade a difficult or unpleasant situation.
    With all the Hotel revelations suggesting all kinds of possible subterfuge, Jone’s reputation is now floating in the same “bowl” as Winnecke’s and Weinzapfel’s.

  3. I’ve read the first 30 pages of the Hunden study, and it appears that the viewpoint is from a perspective that, this is feasible if nothing negative happens in the economy or if Evansville experiences no decline or has in increase in its tax base. When will we realize that we don’t live in a bubble here in the Valley. At some point the Federal Reserve will have to raise interest rates, and probably sooner than later, and their policy of quantitative easing will come to an end, and when it does, what happens to the value of bonds? Do we think that we aren’t affected by the collapse of the Russian economy because the Saudis are producing more oil, which is driving the cost of oil down, and reports indicate that the Saudis are fine if the price of oil falls to $40.00 per barrel? We don’t live in a vacuum here, and what we also need to understand is that command economies don’t work, and the invisible hand of the marketplace will eventually operate and no nation or group of nations can stop it. To be fair, there is no study that could predict what is happening in the realm of geo-politics, but this is reality. China’s economy is also built on a house of cards as well. They’re building entire ghost villages to create jobs and to continue to stimulate their economy with these developments where no one lives or works, except for the construction workers. And what about our own national economy where we have now accumulated a debt of $18 trillion which doesn’t include the mandated funding for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid which exceeds $100 trillion?

    Closer to home, it just might be a blessing in disguise that the hotel and medical center projects aren’t going through. I spoke with an Owensboro resident, and their taxes are going up in 2015 in part to subsidize the shortfall in revenue for their hotel. This was my concern regarding the hotel project here that if a hotel couldn’t make it on its own, then the taxpayers of Evansville would have to pick up the tab with increased taxation. Don’t you think that at some point, those who were able would seek a place where the tax burden is less and go there? This would place an increased burden for those who either couldn’t move or choose not to leave. I’m sorry, but the glass isn’t even close to being half full.

  4. The City Administration came out and announced a November 19th date for the start of construction. Knowing now that there were valuation issues dating all the way back to March 2014 (at groundbreaking), then that November 19th date was a lie.

    Shortly thereafter, Ella Johnson of the Mayor’s Office announced that the hotel constructions was a question of ” when, not if”. That too was a lie.

    Voters, pay attention.

    • Why are we all surprised to discover the Winnecke lies, a man who seems to be so slick,,,confident, etc. etc. etc….great ribbon cutter, or so it seems..not sure if this City can take five more years of his total disregards of spending, crony capitalism, and unattainable promises to labor…

      • Reason we are surprised with the lies by Mayor’s Office:

        We elected him on a platform of transparency. He has now proven beyond any doubt that our votes were misguided.

    • The problem is that the voters just don’t care! That’s the hard facts. When only 30% of the voters take the time to go to the polls in this last election it tells me that this country is failing. 70% don’t give a rip. That’s the problem. It’s why the politicians can get by with saying almost anything as they know that no one is listening to them anyway. Nothing is being done about the lies.

  5. The leaches thrived for decades unfettered
    the sickened host grew feeble and pale
    when the parasites last came to feast at the table
    the vein collapsed and put an end to the tale

    ~b~

    • Any number of violations of Indiana statute were actionable during the Weinzapfel administrations, especially in the financial reporting area.

      Why the Indiana oversight agencies, and the local county prosecutor refused to be moved to action is certainly a question that needs to be addressed. It is as if any and all agencies with statutory responsibility to protect taxpayers from malfeasance, corruption, or outright fraud, have washed their hands of the City of Evansville, allowing it to operate as a wide open free-for-all where money rules and taxpayers are just so many chickens to be plucked by the wealthy local patrician families.

      Which takes us back to Joe Wallace’s quote for the day: ” SANITY PREVAILED WHEN THE FREE MARKET DYNAMICS WERE NOT TAINTED BY GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE?” I would add that such “government interference” seems to also be a marketable product in this city, with longevity in office being the sought after payoff.

  6. “- it makes one suspect we have not heard the whole story yet and that something other than the lack of $6.5 million is driving this implosion.”
    BINGO!

    • Dear Common Sense….

      HCW was never in this for the long run…as they saw it, the day the hotel opened, they counted on an equity position of nearly 9 million ($22,000,000 less the first mortgage of approx $13,000,000) when the bids were totaled, and then discovered that ten million more would be required, their equity position vanished, but, in the long run, seemingly they would recoup, only if this project made economic sense…too much risk to receive only the development fees irregardless of the apartment aspects…so their Five and Dive plan flew out the hotel windows….

      • You are correct. Harold Hill has once again graced the chambers of Evansville governance and fleeced the bumpkins for a big payout. How the hell can a group of elected officials and their appointees be so effing stupid? The Mayor is a certifiable idiot, and the council barks a little but never bites.

        • As it seems, every time any member of our City Council spoke up, Mr. Ethridge blasted whoever dare to speak up, they were referred to as ‘holding Evansville back” The same for Ch 14 and 25..if it wasn’t for the CCO practically none of the BS would make the light of day. As I recall, it was the Council that demand and got the SBOA to audit the Ford Center which discovered the over payment to EVSC, the 2 million over payment to the Evansville Redevelopment Authority, the overpayment to the vendor in KC and the double payments to VenuWorks, and by the way, we have never been repaid according to the moles….Face it, we have apparently a dishonest and incompetent Mayor and before he is out of office he will have taken us to the brink of bankruptcy

    • These are serious allegations being made against the City Administration about withholding material information about the Hotel project’s funding and prospects from the public; and in other instances, reporting false information (“it’s a question of when, not if”).

      A timeline needs to be developed to determine if any laws have been broken during this process.

      • Very good point. I think everyone on this blog falls into a sort of malaise because we accuse these politicians of bad condct every day, and thus we feel like we’ve fulfilled our social compact.

        But these ARE serious allegations. If taxpayer money was spent chasing something that was clearly not attainable, that’s actionable. If the Developer only had $ 5 Million of Cash available, and the City Administration kept pursuing the deal nevertheless, that is likely actionable as well. An audit of the money (or lack thereof) would be essential to both understanding and preventing reoccurence.

        I second the idea of a timeline, which will juxtapose that famous line “who knew what, and when?”.

      • Absolutely….Winnecke played us a fiddle, announcement after announcement, protracting the process in order for HCW to run up its fees as it appears.

  7. We have listened to 12 years of lies. Weinzapfel started it all with the Ford Center, if we build the Ford Center, people will line up to build a hotel at no taxpayer expense. What we are seeing is unions and democrats plotting on ways to get in the tax payers pockets. I’m surprised the republicans allowed themselves to be drawn into this mess. I’m sure a few moderate democrats are upset about this, but the majority of them are concerned about self serving issues. What we are seeing is a play out of what happed to Detroit and other bankrupt cities. Winnecke has been lying we all know it, yet the unions continue to back him. I suspect that after the first of the year the union leadership will address the city council and the council will approve 40 Million for the hotel. I also suspect Bob Jones is under a gag order and will remain silent. I think there’s another problem on the horizon, the city and county has more employees than can be supported by a decreasing working population. I suspect 2015 will see issues in this area surface.

    • I don’t think the parties mean anything around here anymore…

      Dem, Repub: It’s all corporate owned theater.

      I think closer to Chicago maybe? One school of thought – progressivism. Imposed from the top down, with the “Press” as the protection mechanism.

      • I do believe it is progressivism, but then Chicago is an example of what progressivism looks like. After all, it was Theodore Roosevelt who was the original progressive. I find it fascinating that with more government regulation comes more opportunities for scams, and I guess that is both in the private and public sector as well. As I said, I believe that the free market can sort out the good from the bad and do it more efficiently.

    • According to the audited financial statements as posted on the SBOA website, it is clear that Winnecke has been deficit spending at an rate of over $650,000 per month from the day he walked into the office through Dec 31, 2013…he will be given the honor of being the most liberal, national-democrat-like this city has have had the misfortune being elected. As it has been allegedly reported, his wife once said that she will own this town and by the looks of things, full steam ahead…

  8. Remember the evening when the president of the ERC indicated that “Value Engineering” was in play, code for cheap out the project…two things much have occurred…due to the elimination of certain aspects of the projects, the revenues declined per their original projections causing and the end value to decline even though the cost over-runs went from 17 million to 10 million….so, the adjusted hotel cost would be in the neighborhood of $52 million…and the Fair Market Value of the Hotel declined from $22 million to $20 upon completion…banks would finance only 60%…producing $13 million in the first mortgage…the city money of $20 only 12 was into the hotel and the rest was infrastructure and the garage and so…the first 25 million was public and financial institute funds…now, here comes HCW…under-capitalized, not considering the possibilities of over-runs showing up with only 5 million in cash…even if ONB could have come up with the 14 million, the project was short by 8 million…if it was even close, wouldn’t you think that the City Council would have been included in the process to persuade them to consider upping the funding…we all would have discovered the misleading statements and mismanagement of the entire process…

    Secondly, due to the value engineering, the design and other aspects fell short of their standards… incompetency seems to abound….maybe this is why IN-BED-Ed is no where to be found?

    Obviously, the question: which is more important, the IU Med which appears to be stripped of the funding, at least to some degree, or the Hotel…with ONB’s building value cut in over one half ($1,000,000 less in property taxes per year) or 16,000,000 in lost bonding capacities building them both as the Union button said is pipe dreaming….

    • How do the cost overruns go from $ 17 Million to $ 10 MIllion (i.e., down) ? Are you saying the VE process actually worked ?

      You mention ‘pipe dreaming’ ? Isn’t that the other folly of the City Council, a 9-0 vote approving the Johnson Controls Train Wreck ?

      • That nice sparkling rendition wasn’t the hotel we would be getting…the glass, the meeting rooms, elimination of many rooms, downsizing of the restaurant, lighting and bathroom fixtures…we would be receiving an upscaled Holiday Inn…arguments broke out with Hunt and HCW over the materials that was being substituted by Hunt. So, even if the City Council had passed the 38.5 , the project was still DOA…

  9. “even if ONB could have come up with the 14 million, the project was short by 8 million…”.

    That may be the $8 million that Huffman was talking about ONB “stiffing” the project for, while Jones was trying to justify the amount paid for the naming rights to the Centre, which was the $6.5 million reduction in funding that Jones referred to. Did Huffman accidentally tell the truth?

  10. In the mean time while compiling our social economic data, the analytics consortium has been left chuckling on the first pass. The main stream media there is in a quandary finger pointing, diverting , fluffing, flipping, and flopping stuff at each other, and the public. Basically, because of a simple, valuations / vetting fails. That’s also compounded with a severe need for updated infrastructure in that old downtown section of your city.

    Some of the stuff in this mornings headline titles could even make the ole who’s, in, Whoville Grinch, crack a smile. Makes one what to just say “no kidding.”

    😛 —> http://www.tristatehomepage.com/story/d/story/man-shot-in-the-foot-at-downtown-evansville-bar/36726/TZBBwKadQEafNodg5cGatQ

    And then you have Evansville transparency take —>

    https://www.facebook.com/evansvilletransparency

    Now back to the important incoming global climate migration data, stuff that’s going to count. “You know” when someone comes to their senses there and decides viable utilities with more usable logistics infrastructure might spur some real growth there.
    “Everybody knows that” “But, did you know? Going to a bar on main street Evansville can end up a shot in the foot ? …….. “You can’t make this stuff up! ” HahAhaaaa……

  11. “hotel cost would be in the neighborhood of $52 million…and the Fair Market Value of the Hotel declined from $22 million to $20 upon completion…”
    If I am reading this right you are 30 million in the hole the day you complete the job. What kind of investor would buy into that? I also wonder if we are on the hook for the million the developer says he spent.

  13. Hey , the generation of generation lost another one . Joe Cocker fell to lung cancer. 70, dang him Ray the man Charles. Hears skills love of it all, and expression to music. You see people its the blend that makes the balance. Your political systems art of those failing local politics will never master that. It takes a good human soul. That appears to us to be beyond their conceptions., or acceptance. Hope the best Evansville, as it could be, we can show you the blend. If this is realized. Nice thing about that is ,with the actual hidden legacy in that place, those of you that have been held down for generations so to speak, would be heard, finally, and accepted to the balance that is the taxations demand there. Nobody has to bend over first. A bent contortion trying to get the point across, though, is always good when observed by the ones living the songs soul. “The best is yet to come.” Its in the music. And that’s real easy. Double down, we’ve got that.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaoIYRw3TMI

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg1meK-IgOM

    • Here’s the trick pony, The best that’s yet to come is there. Right now, check out the mannerisms, the voice……..the soul. Its a blend, yep and from what out global social economic consortium as observed you’ve got an asset right there. On the common council, truth flew, the standard bents politicos shot their local mainstream wad but it missed, and they are overinvolved to the max.
      Why ? simply because they junk won’t fly, and she is enough of an analytics based balance that she sported the imbalance of the situation to the population who must sport the cost there.
      See what you might correlate , see what you might compare, see the truth for once.
      We wouldn’t go into this detail in most locations we observe, however what has been sported to our people there is completely unacceptable by united states law. Fix that, and observe the seen balance.

      • Here it is, If one of you has an iota of the sense of the abstract, observe, the vide., Truthfully can you say that doesn’t remind you of someone who sported their dumbass sheets on too the laundry line, and stood them against the wall of truth.
        Heh, heh we see that from afar, guess what so does “everybody else,” “everybody knows that.”
        “Wu’ll did you know? Some of the politicians there are bought by the same theme?

        Who’s that broom Hilda bag with the dress that’s big enough to sport a spinnaker sail on our global sloop platform? Well she was blond, the hair challenged, dweeb, always close by her there seems to be a lil real half bald estate bought pringooo, half azzed, ex weather dork. real estate guy, Lil asshole! Or should we say ex weather “dork?”

        Actually we could own ’em at match point , soon to come. you know like having the world on a string…………..

        They had a problem with the council person we’ve seen as a actual truthful balance there………………. What a mess, but really check it out and the mannerisms and balance of the mix—> You all there really could have the world on a string—->

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrCtc6DJ-EY

          • He, he, click the big screen. Think, politicos, draw a solid conclusion, you all know how much help you really need. 🙂

          • The last musical call too Evansville we’ll choose “this video”, it should say allot, that cinema theme score from the “Last of the Mohicans”, its a violin classic, yet it screams want, loss, and, new horizons.
            And spirit, this grounds one if you actually take time to listen, too actually know just what you fools have ignored. Music is human soul. Its time, we’ve developed the modern analytical answer, human science always works that way…….. That’s a historical, as well.
            Sooner or later the finality of the need comes forth. always has, always will. You, and that cities governance ARE the let down, and that’s not a bullshit turbo generator, what that is, is a human environmental let down. ” For the whole of the Americas. ” CSO is bad!

            Build your infrastructure for this century, its modern mankind’s real call. Observe this is not that far off your Evansville Indiana’s intrusive “OHIO” river front. Landscapes nay, meaning yep, exactly.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGt_KpgXymU

            Forgetting the cinema , thinking what the real historical Mohicans lived, and drank of the Ohio’s “clear waters” You’d have the Algonquin’s call on that “river that runs by you”. In the video you’ll see western mountains, you’ll see stark reality, You’ll hear, the classic violin, to bad that’s only an abstract human, plead. Do something, cut the damned local bullshit.
            Fix your rotten CSO infrastructure.
            The Americas who are left over, would really appreciate that. We love music, its really just the songs of the soul. Souls are not a given, they are earned. The human record proves that, if really studied ……..and understood with an education worthy of ole professor Blacks legacy.

            That’s the cinemas presentation for what one might call Indiana Jones. Well in reality in Evansville Indiana Jones was really a Melvin, her dad was a geologist, and a extreme WWII Veteran, The duration of WWII in a Sherman tank, A real easy target to the enemy Panzers.

            Great Guy, worked a tank if the stories are correct, And I would bet they are, great Guy, and the real stuff. Science work of the arts type fella, knew him even worked with him
            Ask Ole politico Pete Swain If He Knew ’em. Hell the ass was rasied across the street from from him. You see Vanderburgh your gold runs deep, Right Danza!

            Your local nuts just have gamed the true values too the points where informed others are now, on your bents hard.
            We’ve known and know the good people there, if science has any affect we are going keep working daily to use science to systematically destroy the stinking old Evansville machine politicos there, just for the good of mankind , America and, the earths OHIO river valley. We won’t let up, that’s a global promise too your jerks.

            Here’s the music.—> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGt_KpgXymU

  14. I live in an apartment next to the Mall, and I’m within walking distance where I eat McDonalds for breakfast, Wendy’s for lunch and Pizza Hut for dinner. Every nite. It is heavan. The suckers that love downtown are idiots. I never go there.

    • The taxpayers of this city will be spending over one quarter of a Billion dollars in downtown Evansville and it still will be downtown…when communities get their priorities screwed up, bad things happen….Evansville is not immune…..

      • U,R. Correct. Once you say something like that, You’ll have to watch and everybody you care about’s damned sixes though, even the stinking mainstream media will help line you up for’em.

        That place is just a really disgusting politically bent shit hole for politics , The southern Indiana liars lounge, has been for awhile, The plethora of people we’ve talked with there, indicate its treated like some kind of a game for them. For, those that are allowed too play, and, that has been like that for quite some time. And, from what we’ve seen, heard and analytically scored pretty consistently, it isn’t going to far from reality to say that. That dumpy little town needs some gosh darn Federal DOJ intervention, Right now. real time fast. Gomer’em, surprise,surprise ……….. !

        “A little Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie”

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