IS IT TRUE June 21, 2012
IS IT TRUE the Leapfrog Group releases an annual report on the best hospitals in the United States?…that this year only 65 hospitals in the country were honored with the distinction of being a Leapfrog Top Hospital?…not one hospital in the entire State of Indiana was on the list?…that California hospitals dominated the list taking 21 of the 65 awards?…the closest geographic distance for someone in Evansville to travel to be in a Leapfrog Top Hospital would be to travel to the Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, TN or The Christ Hospital of Cincinnati?…that the closest children’s hospital to make the list was Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center?…it would be just wonderful if an Evansville hospital would be the first Indiana hospital to make the Leapfrog Top Hospital list and that the City County Observer encourages the local hospitals to make that a goal?
IS IT TRUE the Evansville Parks Board did as expected yesterday and voted unanimously to demolish Roberts Stadium?…that after a number of years of assaults started on Roberts by former Mayor Weinzapfel to prepare the stadium for being declared beyond repair that the prophesy hatched by the Weinzapfel Administration will finally be carried out by the Winnecke Administration?…that as much as there were lots of ideas that were put forward to use Roberts Stadium for, not one thin dime was offered up from the private investment community to utilize the stadium for a profit seeking opportunity?…that the only thing the Winnecke Administration could have done would have been to put up a for sale sign or hold a public auction to collect some small pittance and place it back on the tax rolls?…that after Roberts has met its demise at the hands of local government the best action to take is to sell the 37 acres and use the funds to establish a savings account to repair the sewers which are under EPA order?…that spending $8 Million on a park at a time that the parks are maintained on a third world level is just nuts?…that maybe Roberts had to go but there is no reason and no justification for dropping $8 Million on a park that probably won’t even be mowed on a regular basis?…that 2,300 acres for taking drugs, having sex, and drinking booze is enough for any town?…if Evansville wants to really get some cash then the City should auction off about 1,000 acres of parks so they can actually have a prayer of doing sufficient maintenance on what we have?
IS IT TRUE that on a national level the President of the United States has asserted executive privilege to keep the United States Congress from getting its hands on the documentation about the gun running operation that the Justice Department carried out in Mexico?…that this is a curious position for President Obama to take since no one really disputed Attorney General Holder’s sworn testimony that the White House did not know about or participate in gun running?…the natural thing to think is that the White House or even the President may have their fingerprints on this after all or the executive privilege is meaningless?…that if Attorney General Holder was holding back and President Obama was not involved then the course of action that starts with a charge of Contempt of Congress against Attorney General Holder should have been allowed to run its course?…that this will have some negative effect on the re-election campaign of President Obama whether he was in on it or not?…that some things are pretty mystifying?
IS IT TRUE that the Federal Reserve issued a report yesterday that basically puts the American people on notice that high unemployment will continue through the end of 2014 and that economic growth will be much lower that was projected even in April?…that the Great Recession seems to be dragging into what history may look back on and deem to have been a 2nd Great Depression?…that the traditional bag of tricks to stimulate the economy have just not done the trick and that some serious change to the change is needed?
“that as much as there were lots of ideas that were put forward to use Roberts Stadium for, not one thin dime was offered up from the private investment community to utilize the stadium for a profit seeking opportunity”
That is completely false. There were MULTIPLE tenants interested in using the facility and were willing to pay several thousand in rent plus share in various revenue sources. These tenants were listed in the report.
There were also two privately owned arena operators willing to bid on taking over the facility and filling in its dates to keep it solvent. In fact, Mr. Schoenike from Venuworks got his start with Venuworks by managing a mid-sized arena in Grand Rapids after Van Andel Arena was built.
There was also a citizen who came to the meeting willing to purchase Roberts for $1 with the stipulation that it would go back to the city to be demolished if he failed with his own investment in the arena.
So just because the private investors are tenants who want to rent/lease instead of owning the facility outright like your wanting doesn’t mean there were no private investors.
ALL of the tenants I talked to run their teams like businesses and are now left out in the cold. There is no way their businesses can make the leap to the Ford Center which would fall close to $10k a game.
That doesn’t even include the fact that signing long term naming rights leases to the gates and selling some of the seats to those in Texas looking to buy in bulk would have mitigated the vast majority of the renovation expenses.
“that maybe Roberts had to go”
And what evidence are you basing this assumption on? The water pumps? They are doing fine but are expensive to run and would have been eliminated anyways in the renovations. Water pumps DO NOT mean Roberts is “leaking water.”
The roof? The angled part of the roof was fixed in 2002 and should still be under warranty. The roof on the newer part was never determined to be completely totaled or just a patch job. But either way, it still isn’t enough to total a building which is why the estimate to renovate Roberts was at $4-4.5 mil which has always been cheaper than the mayors plan no matter how many times he changed it.
In fact, both the roof and water pumps have been repaired in the last ten years…
http://www.indianaeconomicdigest.net/main.asp?SectionID=31&subsectionID=276&articleID=39599
The truth still remains that the mayor has yet to tell us one single mid-sized arena he visited, if he talked with SMG/Venuworks, if he reached out to the tenants in the report, what the value of naming rights to the gates are, and/or if he talked to the businesses around Roberts who relied on that income.
Not to mention, no one from any gov’t office has been able to explain why page 13 was inserted after the final meeting, much less how they can build a new mid-sized arena for $4-4.5 million or why the general theme was “something for everyone” even though the task force refused to put tally marks by each public comment.
I don’t know about you but that strikes me as terrible vetting once more, and I guarantee you that if that type of vetting was found in the Earthcare deal or the Homestead Tax or the Johnson Controls deal or any other gov’t contract that everyone loves to latch onto because they know it’s easy brownie points, we would be hearing a different tune.
I know as well as you the CCO know that the evidence clearly points to our local gov’t refusing to investigate Roberts because they are afraid it will compete with the Ford Center for some odd reason that has never been proven. So the question becomes, why sugar coat the fact that Roberts is going to get demolished because we have a whole city full of ppl who would rather find comfort in group think than actually stand up and point out what is obviously wrong.
I met with both the current mayor and previous mayor way back in 2010 within months of starting my blog. I laid it out to them exactly what they needed to do. There was never an intention to circumvent the Ford Center, a new green space, or any of their other goals. So why was it so damn impossible to get an honest effort in vetting this facility?
The train is leaving the station. Hop aboard for Memphis and points south! Chooo Chooooooooooooo
Just more of the backroom deals that have been going on for years in Evansville. Weinzapfel-lite just doing what he was told!!!!!!!!
Jordan,
You said if Roberts was torn down you were most likely going to have to leave Evansville. I’m afraid that going somewhere else is exactly what would be best for you. The Evansville machine does not want someone who thinks and plans like you and it appears the machine is not going anywhere any time soon. Good luck whereever you go. Evansville’s loss is their gain.
Take your plans to build the ballfields and make it happen. Then show Evansville what a success it turns out to be and tell them “I told you so”!
My mama done tol’ me
When I was in knee pants
My mama done told me, son
A woman will sweet talk
And give you the big eye
But when that sweet talk is done
A woman’s a two-face
A woman’s something that would leave to sing the blues in the night
Now the rain is falling
Hear the train a-calling
Doo-wee
Hear the lonesome whistle
Blowing across the trestle
Doo-wee
Doo-wee-da-doo-dee
A crickety crack go echoing back the blues in the night
Evening breeze will start
Trees to crying in the
Oh, and the moon will hide its light
When you get the blues in the night
So take my word
Or the mocking bird
Will sing a sadder kind of song
Maybe he knows things
He knows things can go wrong
From Natchez to Mobile
From Memphis to Saint Joe
Wherever the four winds blow
I’ve been to some big towns
Had me some big talk
But there is one thing I know
A woman’s a two-face
A worrisome thing that’ll leave you to sing the blues in the night
’cause the train done left the building, hear dat whistle blow
@ Big Pappa
I appreciate your support over the past two years.
Due to a death in my family in between the mayor’s recommendation and the Parks Board vote I have not had much time to search or decide what I’m going to do next for sure.
However, I am leaning towards working with another city in this area that is within commuting range of Evansville so that I can keep my residency for when the 2014/15 election comes.
There seems to be plenty of opportunities in the area(s) around Evansville which will give me plenty of time to get things done elsewhere while the current administration finishes out the rest of their term. At this point, it just doesn’t make sense to take on any projects here. Therefore, I have also decided that I’m not going to take on the project of fighting for the ball fields at Kleymeyer at this time. It is my opinion that the current ball fields project will once again end up in a bad location.
However, I really do believe that Rick Davis or a Rick Davis supporter who thinks like Rick will emerge from the pack once more next time around and I want to make sure whoever runs for mayor and the CC spots really hits Lloyd and the others hard on Roberts Stadium.
Is it true…… Are we doomed to live in the city of Mos Eisley on the planet Tatooine?
__
“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villiany…”
A load of Indy pockets got lined (ex $15000 move out fees per building for newly, cheaply purchased buildings that had never been moved into)and that is what downtown is all about. If we HAD needed a new facility, we OWN Robert’s Stadium, and all of the land around it. It was a good place to utilize for a new stadium, but that would never do-so they keep telling the public it’s caving into a sinkhole (as though downtown’s not)when evidently, that’s a lie.
It’s always been the lying that bothers me the most, like both of them (Winnecke AND Weinzapfel) trying to sneak our Homestead tax credit away from us, doing it behind closed doors, and punishing anyone who exposed the truth.
And is it going to be a dog crap Wonderland, or multiple ball fields next to a highway (I guess no one’s told Winnecke what to declare yet)…how many car accidents would THAT cause? And I suppose Hartke pool would go?
Do Winnecke and Weinzapfel have something against our city founders? They make sure that the McCurdy will rot and collapse, bye bye Robert’s stadium, what’s next? Rename the Lloyd? Maybe we should change Evansville to McClintock?
ever notice how the butterflies and the hardness always march together in labor day parades????? It is one of those strange symbiotic relationships in nature. The butterflies get those old nasty environmentally unfriendly structures torn down and the hardhats build new ones.
Hardhats
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