IS IT TRUE? March 12, 2011
IS IT TRUE that as pleased as we are that there is seems to be some words directed at the Vann-Pollack Park that Chester Downs raised the flag about this week we are somewhat concerned about the delusional actions which have been discussed?…that Dan Schall, the Director of Parks and Recreation has stated that sometime in the next month that three lights will be installed?…that we wonder why it takes a month to put up three lights?…that we wonder just how long it will take for three rocks to eliminate the illumination provided by those three lights if there is nothing else done?… that the thought process that rationalizes a belief that three lights will solve a blight problem just seems flawed?…that something creative needs to be proposes by a citizens group to solve each parks issues because creativity and cognitive thought is obviously not coming from the Parks Department anymore?
IS IT TRUE that with respect to a single project of moving some basketball courts that Mr. Schall has stated that the job can be done “in house†for $10,000 but that a contractor will charge between $20,000 and $30,000 to do the same thing?…that if this is true that there is something very wrong with either the competitive bidding process that the City of Evansville uses to let contracts or the accounting system for internal costs?…that only when a system is defective or corrupted (as in broken) that a price differential of 200% can exist?…that many repairs and maintenance to parks could be done FREE if not for a ridiculous rule regarding the Teamster’s first right of refusal on overtime to prevent FREE volunteer labor?…that when a system is so insane as to prevent citizens from cleaning their own parks that it is hard to take a department within such a system seriously?
IS IT TRUE that this is the kind of thinking and kind of actions that make one believe that the recently suggested name “Evanstroit” is becoming reality?…that this week’s mainstream media news was filled with gun assisted robbery, murder by stabbing, suicide child molesters, and of course the weekly six pack of meth lab busts?…that the Evansville Police Department truly has their hands full in keeping order here in “Evanstroit”?…that the EPD really deserves respect and admiration for dealing with the mess that our City of Evansville has become?
IS IT TRUE that our Evansville Police Department has recently been the object of discussion for diversity training?…that one of the proposed actions to help with the diversity initiative is to send some officers to traditional black colleges like Howard, Southern, Kentucky State, or Grambling?…that we are really confused as to how sending officers for a FREE weekend at a college campus could possibly be anything but just a FREE fun weekend?…that the City County Observer is pleased and proud of the Evansville Police Department?…that isolated incidents of stupidity are in no way reflective on the attitude of the entire police force?…that the supposed diversity training looks very much like subjecting the entire force to training that a couple of people may need?…that driving a nail with a sledgehammer is not a very efficient way to drive a nail?
IS IT TRUE that in a recent poll in the CP that the question of what grade (A through F) would one give to Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel?…that the top vote getters were A and F?…that during approximately a three hour period when 100 votes were cast that all 100 of the votes have been reported to have been for an “A”?…that there is no way other than a concerted effort to rig the votes that something like that could happen?…that one could not get an exact 100 – 0 agreement on anything at all with any question whatsoever in a poll of random people?…that knowing exactly how WordPress polls works one would have to conclude that someone with a user name and the password added 100 votes to the “A” column and that it happened in one second in the middle of the night and was only picked up three hours later?…that the CP polls and the CCO polls have certainly been the subject of outside mischief on a regular basis?…that there really is only one way to add 100 votes to ZERO to any answer and that it takes a password to make it happen?
If a free weekend junket will help prevent another EPD trampling of an African-American RV owner’s rights to dare and run the stoplight gauntlet of U.S. 41 and come to Redneckersville and have his RV serviced, then I’m all for it! By the way, is it true that no apology yet has been given to the man who suffered property damages, personal insults, and abuse of citizen’s rights at the hands of the officers who I hope will benefit from a trip to a multi-cultural campus?
Any individual who needs a weekend junket to snap them out of the kind of thought process that lead to that incident really should find a different profession. Yes you are correct that the victim of that deserves an official apology and restitution.
is it true that there are only 2 black offiicers on the EPD, and that if they were represented at the same ratio that they are in the local population there should be at least 30?
It is sad but true that the parks system is so used to using bandaids instead of major surgery or even sutures that they have forgotten how to step back and take the time to work up an overall diagnosis and treatment plan. Things are now to the point that everything needs to be done immediately and the time to plan is being negated. The public should be able to help with chores in the parks. It however is the assigned job of the parks dept. and the public has a right to expect that the job be done well on a consistant basis. It would be interesting to look at budgets over the last several years for the parks dept noting how money was spent, what budget cuts were made over time, why, and who made them, and what creative steps were used with budget shortfalls. One change to make that would put union workers doing the heavy lifting and earning their keep yet using other non-union folks part time would be to hire high school and college kids to work as life guards, weeders, cleaners etc. Kids need summer jobs and extra work needs to be done during the summer when they are available. They would certainly be paid less than union workers and would have to have no benefits paid either. It would get jobs done, give tax payers a break, and kids a purpose and sweat equity for college. The word compromise comes to mind.
Kids are used as lifeguards and used to be hired for summer help, I painted all the seats in Mesker Amphitheater one summer while I was in college. I bet there is still a temporary help clause in the contract.
Those polls on the C&P are always getting ambushed.
Remember last year when the ball fields proposal had more yes votes than no? Come on get real, I haven’t met one single person who supported that project.
Yes, it’s very sad that the same people who stuffed multiple votes into that ball field poll then turned around and ambushed good people on the CVB board, and threw them under the political bus speeding its way downtown to dump all those millions into the underestimated, underfunded Arena Money Pit.
The “good people” on the CVB board needed to be changed out long ago. In this case, they ambushed themselves, not just with the dinner issue but many others, including but not limited to the many lies told, and the many kickbacks and pockets being padded. It was ugly all the way around. The arena cost overruns should be another nail in the coffin of several government types. Not to wish the new arena ill. I know that some are excited about it. But we never attend “events” or sports stuff. Too claustrophobic. Too much noise. Can never get comfortable. Just really not interested. Would rather walk a dog in a nice clean, well maintained park any day.
The truth laying under the smoke screen of that Christmas Ambush has not yet been told, and will shock many armchair pundants.
Are you saying Marsha Abell set them up by having them go there and then turn them in?
Nonsense. The days and weeks after that fiasco they went in front of the council and made it perfectly clear they were entitled to the dinner, saw nothing wrong with the dinner, had been doing the dinner for 20 something years now, and would be doing it still if they were still on the ECVB.
Heck the new ECVB is still uncovering things the previous board did. The past board was a complete waste of time and money.
Why would a person rig the poll in favor of the ball fields and then turn their back on the ECVB? The people who supported that boondoggle still maintain their support for it even today and would be trying a third time if they could get away with it.
What doomed that boondoggle in was the CCO exposing the plan for what it was worth, a over priced, over hyped, kick back for the old ECVB board who was by far and away the WORST board we could ever have for generating ideas, executing these ideas, and marketing these ideas.
The new arena should not be in the same sentence as that boondoggle
Follow the money.
As in, Weinzapfel wanted the stadium torn down for free to protect his arena.
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