IS IT TRUE MARCH 19, 2015

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IS IT TRUE that Dan McGinn, First Ward City Councilman refused to appear with his primary opponent Tom Bozikus on Tri-State Voices taping this week? …McGinn has consistently hid from any appearances and avoided any opportunity for the voters to review his record? …why won’t McGinn defend his record for the past 4 years?
IS IT TRUE that we are stunned and surprised that the City Administration has once again let the Kunkel Group off the hook and further delayed the McCurdy Hotel project that has been in limbo and languishing for over 5 years? …promises after promises have been made and never kept? …the City continues to let this beautiful and grand building deteriorate
IS IT TRUE that the City has also allowed the adjacent River House Hotel to also deteriorate and sit idle without and pressure from City Hall to get this facility back into a useful condition? …one of the best places for dinner was the top floor of the River House with its outstanding view of the river and the ambiance while having a superb dinner? …where is the leadership? …the City seems “all engines ahead” on the Owen Block with money abundant, but silent on this once beautiful facility?
IS IT TRUE that the City must be asleep or otherwise busy and not aggressively repairing the numerous “potholes” throughout the City. Call the “Pothole Hotline” at 435-6000 and report these pesky potholes throughout the City?
IS IT TRUE the Director of DMD reportedly was looking through the “pickle jar” in the DMD cupboard and located another $500,000 that had been misplaced and gave a grant for low income housing to Memorial Housing Corp? …we strongly applaud this grant and the possibility of more first class housing in the inner city.? …we wonder why it took this long and how a half million dollars was just laying around when it could have gone to good use much much earlier? …Memorial Housing Corp has a great reputation and a great track record in providing housing rehabilitation and building new and needed housing? …we would ask the DMD Director to look through the cupboard very closely and find some additional money for even more housing?

IS IT TRUE this is a great community and our mission is to make it better through highlighting and bringing to your attention matters that need to be addressed?

IS IT TRUE that we always looking for tips and our moles to make us aware of the good and the bad? …please Email us with your suggestions and insightful thoughts at citycountyobserver.com?

IS IT TRUE that 71 year old Publisher has been down but not out? …as you may know, the Publisher has had some real serious health problems, surgery and having a difficult recovery?  …we ask you to send him your support and prayers for a speedy recovery?

IS IT TRUE we thank you for your support and look forward to bringing you the news in a way that not only brings you into the discussion but makes you feel compelled to participate? ..the CCO is alive and well and remains your community watchdog?

40 COMMENTS

  1. Is it true mike duckworth is leaving the water an sewer dept to go to work for the company that will in all probability will get the contract for the CSO work.

    • I wondered about that. I saw the job “posted” yesterday. Of course it’s the token posting to make it look like they’re interested in whomever is actually qualified. To which contractor are you referring?

    • Also, could this be rats deserting the sinking ship? Afraid his paycheck might bounce one of these days?

    • Bingo, Stone !

      If you will recall the recent publication by CCO of Winnecke’s campaign contributions, the boys from Commonwealth Engineers–Indy kicked in substantial amounts–$ 10,000 per cat; also, the local office of Commonwealth also ponied up at the trough.

      Duckworth will be Commonwealth’s inside-guy to reaping (raping ?) the CSO larder.

      How about a City Ordinance which prevents City employees from taking positions with suppliers on upcoming projects ? Similar to the IURC official who approved a project for Duke Energy, and then quit to go work for them ? Wow, just typing that sentence made me angry. I wonder if Commonwealth Engineers has ALREADY been anointed with the CSO jewels, and this was part of the plan all along ?

      Also, wasn’t Duckworth brought in to manage Johnson Controls ? How goes that project ?

  2. Good morning everyone and please drive safely. Stay away from flooded roads, barricades are there for a reason !!

    • I drive a 1971 Buick Estate Wagon. The floorboards are rusted through. Can I disregard the barricades and drive through the water, as the holes in the floor will allow the water to flow back out ?

  3. I am an avid City-County Observer reader for the past two years and some change are needed. I am not a native but I am a working-class citizen who appreciates being well informed of the issue that our current community and local area suffer.

    From my personal perspective and well-noted observations, it appears that all of the hands in play concerning politics want to be shook and thanked before the work is done. Furthermore,everyone wants to be the chef who makes the award-winning dish, while no one is willing to be the dishwasher,the food prep guy, the place setter, etc.’

    Evansville and some local areas has become an egotistically-driven market for antics, not politics. Teamwork is about as extinct as dinosaurs and wooly mammouths.

    Why not bring about a change without having to point at our own work with a camera up? Why not digress from putting our name and face to every idea or resolution as if that person is the Messiah of the Midwest?

    Why not leave a 71-plus year old be, as he continues to be a voice of reason in the genuine efforts to make things better, before we make them bigger… why not show respect for the entity of CCO for providing the class and dignity that journalism deserves unlike the Evansville Copy & Paste (COURIER & DEPRESSED)?

    Kudos to Joe Wallace on a job well-done … and continued to prosperity to CCO, Publisher Ron Cosby and his team of Moles … Let’s make Evansville a better house and not a bigger rental!

    • Excellent points! It sounds like you may not know too much about the specifics but I support the general idea of coming together. Evansville has great potential to be a thriving city but right now we’re hurting!

  4. Commonwealth Engineers/ Mike Duckworth:

    The City Council is SUPPOSED to have a representative for each major Public Works project.

    Surely the City Council will provide an OVERSIGHT ROLE for the CSO expenditure of $ 500 Million ? That represents the equivalent of FOUR FORD CENTERS, and we all know how that turned out.

    If the City Council tucks their tails (again), does Mike Duckworth get to decide how the money is spent on the CSO remediation ???

    • There is no one guarding the hen house . . . not even a fox ! The $ 500,000,000 CSO project will thus turn into a feeding frenzy, with jackals and hyenas feasting openly at water’s edge.

      John Friend once opined ” who gets to vet the vetters ?”. Those should be looked back on as our salad days, when at the idea of vetting a project was at least thought about . . . .

      • The trouble with the $500 Million job you describe is that the EPA told Evansville it was a $810 Million job 2 years ago and even Evansville’s feeble solution is acknowledged to be a $545 Million job. Throw in some inflation and a little grease for the good old boys and Evansville is about to embark on a Billion Dollar Sewer project.

        • A billion bucks to fix it with the current working solutions they have. Our Consortiums plan, more like $228 million end point costing for a innovative 21st century solution , and that is absolutely approvable through the EPAs clean water act guidelines. Meets or exceeds every required standard. Under development since 2005. The trouble with the political cronies plan your going to get from that outfit (if you even do) and others is their technology to apply the municipal valuation per invested project cost is one sided funding out and away. That’s just a outdated solution.

          Climate migration will trump the systems clear operational envelop and compromise it moving forward. Our plan has built in operational ranges . In other words the projects signature is always built open for driven expansion and systematic growth. Improving valuations as the solution comes into play.

          There is no more speculation in the sciences that climate migration will continue ,the science is in, fooling around with your outdated infrastructure without regard to more Chaos is simply a head in the sand fix.

          Ædificate Climatico

          • Is there any way to make this job a “bid” contract, with oversight AND public transparency? I thought public projects over a certain amount had to be bid. If someone has an approved solution that cost 225,000 no reason to spend a billion.

        • Snark, I was rounding down. You are correct: the jackals and hyenas will have an extra $ 300 Million to snack on . . . .

          • We’re projecting $228 Million for a regional area with almost twice your population and the same CSO problems, in other words twice the intrusive environmental load. We’re sporting more advanced solutions. Real stuff, not your locational downtowns cronies real estate bailout or zippolla stuff.

    • We know why you don’t want higher voter turnout. Democrats would dominate. I’m not in favor of mandatory voting but I am in favor of making it a mandatory national holiday. Give up dumbass Columbus day and make election day a holiday.

        • Joe,

          Even if he happens to leave, I am sure he would still torture us with his presence in the forums. Where else would he get his self esteem from? He has to be among his other lefties on the CCO.

  5. Hey Joadie! Your boy Obama is going to start a new free trade agreement the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Please tell all those union people you care so much about why this is a good thing for them. I mean after all if Obama wants it. Then it must be the greatest thing ever right?

    • I haven’t read much about it, but from what I understand it’s removing some rather ridiculous sounding regulations on transactions that are already taking place anyway. I’d figured a good conservative like you would be in favor of lifting regulations? Again, I’ve not read much on it, but I don’t support buying things from countries who pay slave wages to children. Greed and unfettered capitalism are to blame, as always.

  6. Did you miss my post where I said that both sides suck equally. i don’t care what side there are on, by the time the political machine pulls them in they only answer to the money. Be it R money or D money. Be it Washington or Evansville.

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