IS IT TRUE May 8, 2015

1. Could it be true that based on recent IIT’s, that nothing of news value is happening in the village of Evansville which results in a “all’ IIT post primary election speculations?

   IIT that that us farmland owners/operators may get a break in action with a little precip later this afternoon?
   IIT it has been a busy last week and a half to over come a wet spring start?
   IIT that when you see a dust bowl behind farm equipment out in a field that you will remember that that is “not” how armstrongres does it?

   • Overcome is one word, not two.

     • You misspelled Shaun Short’s name at 8:39 a.m.

     • Pogo
       If you are not a proctologist, you missed your calling!

       • If I were a proctologist, I would be looking for YOU.

   • Hey Arm. How many acres to you farm anyway. I’ve been suffering from hay fever again this spring. The few times I’ve been out riding around in the country side I’ve noticed how busy the farmers are out their preparing the land for their crops. I hope you get the seeds in the ground before the rain starts. It’s been a cold wet spring so far. So why are you on the computer and not out in the tractor? Do you have people that work for you and drive the tractor while you are inside on the computer? Or do you have a laptop computer or smart phone in your tractor and blog from inside the tractor while disking the ground? I’d bet it’s the latter. You probably got up at 4 am this morning after working well into the night last night to get those corn seeds planted.

     I do wish that someone would invent a way to keep the dust down behind those tractors in the spring time. I’m not sure how many tractors are out there disturbing the ground but there seems to be small dust clouds everywhere out in the County outside the city limits. And what type of pesticides to you all apply in the spring when you are getting the ground ready to crop seeds? Do you ever wonder if those pesticides can attach to the soil particles (dust) and fly around the farm? I bet that the cab of most new tractors and combines are Air Conditioned and air tight so as to help protect the operator from the dust and heat outside? I know a lot of my fraternity brothers used to love spring time when they could get away from campus on the weekends and go home and drive the farm equipment. Even back in the 1970’s they have AC and enclosed cabs and stereo radio systems or tape decks to make the day go faster.

     I’ll be glad when all the plowing is over and I can breath again. But until that time I’m heading to the pharmacy and buying some Claritin and or Flonase or Zicam or something to get rid of my stuffy nose and watery eyes. Allergies are a bitch this time of the year. I waited months for it to dry out and warm up and now I’m stuck in the house and trying to keep the dust out of the house. I even went online and bought a new metal washable air filter for the furnace. Meanwhile please excuse me while I go boil some more distilled water and use it for my Ayr Saline Nasal Rinse Kit. I just want to breath again.

   • Wow. I posted my first post before I read you entire post. I missed the last sentence about the not how armstrongres does it.

     So my question is how do you plow up the ground and keep the dust down. I’m serious if everyone could do that it would be great. We have to eat and we need farmers to grow the food to feed the world. But if you have a method to keep the dust clouds down behind the tractors I’m all ears. That could be used by others maybe and help lower the total dust in the air. That would be a great thing to share with everyone.

     The only idea I can come up with is a tank of water to spray onto the ground where the plows are breaking into the ground or right behind the plow itself. Maybe a fine mist would help knock down the dust before it gets airborne and the winds catch it and blow it away. That would also help save your precious top soil by keeping it in place instead of allowing the very fine particles to blow away. Small particles (fines) can stay in the air for hours and travel great distances at times. Of course if the winds not blowing this is not that much of a problem. The fine particles will eventually fall back down to earth.

     • Read up on no till farming.

       • You are correct Ghost!

         • Absolutely. The logic and intent behind it is fascinating. I don’t even till my very small raised beds like some folks retill their whole garden every year. I want those microfungi to stay connected and feel right at home. Read about some of the magic that microorganisms perform to help grow healthier food. Also Keep the pesticides and herbicides out of our waterways!!

           There is a really interesting article in a farming magazine I read earlier this year connecting raising healthier, and more nutritious beef than these poor animals raised on humongous feed lots where they live in their own waste 24/7. I believe it was in Mother Earth News but will check for sure and get back to you. It would be well worth your time to read and “digest” it.

         • Mother Earh News. That’s who I think of when I think of modern farming methods.

         • I have a good friend that uses no till farming. His family has been in the farming business for years now over in Gibson County. No till is new and a lot of farmers are not using it. I guess they stick with what has worked for them over the years. Farming is a hard business and if the crops are not harvested it really hurts the bottom line. So every thing new is looked at closely before they try it. Even though major agriculture schools such as Purdue are trying to encourage more farmers to try out no till farming methods.

           What concerns me the most is the use of pesticides. It’s a damned if you do and damned if you don’t thing. If you don’t use herbicides the weed take over the crop. And if you do use herbicides and other pesticides for the bugs you contaminate the very food that you are going to eat. In years past we only grew enough food to feed ourselves. But these days the farmers grow food to feed the entire world and in huge quantities.

           No till is a good farming practice if it works. Evidently it works for some smart farmers that know how to do it right. I know that Bish told me back in the 1990’s that it worked for his family.

         • Using cover crops is showing a gain in no tilling as well. Back when horse were used and period when tractors were first used, cover crops were grown and then turned under as green manure. This practice is coming back with many types of cover crops and combinations of, to get what their after. (free nitrogen, weed suppression, root mass, etc.) Keeping something alive on/in your soil year round is a key for successful no/min till. Key to cover crop is to know when to terminate the growth with roundup, etc. Some do it before planting, some after.

           I must add that farmers of ground that is in the flood plains of the Ohio, Wabash River, and Pigeon Creek must tackle the drift, etc. which does not allow them to farm the same as the rest of us as for as cover crops and no tilling.

     • Nobody, and I mean nobody, reads long posts.

       • That’s hilarious. And accurate. +1 BP.

       • Then Ballonpilot here is a short one just for you.

         So you are a NOBODY! 🙂

2. Evansville Voters:

   The last paragraph says it all: it takes good marketing and yard signs to win your votes. Sad. I urge you to base your vote on talent, knowledge, positive experience, positive leadership, independent thought, and an attitude to serve all the people and not just those you line with politically. If Evansville votes for yard signs and the letter after someone’s name I can guarantee you stagnation and repeated outcomes for the city. Shaun Short.

   • I agree with Shawn Short. Look at the current office holders to see what it gets you.

3. Who will be Mayoral Gail Riecken’s new Campaign Treasurer?

   • If Friend told her two weeks ago that he was resigning after the primary (as he publicly stated) why was the selection not done ahead of time?

4. What activities go on in “… the Corner Office…” that you are so concerned about? Which corner?

   • The Corner should be a medical Doctor. Period. But IN is so backward that they will allow the Ice Rink Manager to be the Corner. We need to change the law so that only Doctors can be the Corner in order to have a professional doctor in charge of the corners office. I like the Corner and think she works hard. I’ve know Anne since she was the Swonder Ice Rink Manger and she’s a peach. She works hard and gets along with everyone. But I wish she were a true doctor. I guess at least she can call in the real doctors to make the analysis of cause of death for her and then her office can report those facts to the public. It’s just that some of the other states actually have a doctor(S) serving as the County Corners.

     • (Coroner…)

5. Its VE day something cool from the national media —> http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/70-years-ago-historic-ve-day-celebration-photos/ss-BBjn1wJ#image=35

   • Thanks for recognizing the date, good to see that I’m not the only one. Over the years at work I’ve sent reminders with my “end-of-shift” emails for Armistice Day, V-E & V-J Days, the anniversary of the end of the Siege of The Alamo (March 6, 1836, RIP Colonels Bowie, Travis & Crockett). To me, these dates hearken back to a time when our country was admired & respected as a bastion of freedom & opportunity. Maybe we can return to that someday… Thanks again!

     • 150th anniversary of the ending of the Civil War last month went unnoticed as well!

6. It is understandable and praiseworthy that Gail Riecken is forcing out John Friend. Besides his recent shenanigans, he has embarrassed himself by his mute support of former Mayor Weinzapfel’s spending, while criticizing Mayor Winnecke’s nearly 100% continuation of Weinzapfel’s policies and initiatives. She seems to understand that despite being an overwhelming favorite, she could still lose if she is seen to be associated with the most embittered elements of the Democratic Party, who are willing to destroy the city in order to pursue their own personal feuds. She should also rebuke those who spread scurrilous and false rumors about Weaver and Missy. The childish tantrums of those whose candidates were defeated should not be allowed to drag down her campaign.

   • AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!! If it were up to the dysfunctional duo of Johna-Missy there would have been a 100% subsidy of the Hotel costing $50M+.

     And who do you think Johna-Missy is going to support in the Fall? It isn’t going to be Gail, that’s for sure.

     And there is no bigger spreader of hateful rumors than Missy, she is the undisputed champion, just ask Scott Danks!

     • It was overwhelmingly the local conservatives you sneered at as the Tea Party that turned the tide against the hotel subsidy. Are you now aligning yourself with them, and/or is this the only way that you can apologize for the venomous rage you have directed against them in the past?

       I do not know what rumors you are talking about. I believe based on reading the newspaper and watching the news that Mr. Danks has a certain amount of personal baggage that he himself would not dispute. That is old news, though.

       I believe that you should let go of your resentment about the failure of your candidates and simply move on. In the unfortunate event that the “Hate Slate” remains in existence, you will have another opportunity to persuade the voters in four years.

   • Some nice things coming from Backfire again. He’s such a peach of a guy. Always bringing up the good news .

     John Friend decided to get out of politics and that was a wise decision. He a man of accounting where there are definite rules that one has to follow. He’s good at that evidently. Politics follows the changing winds so to speak and the rules change all the time. One has to be a good dancer to be a politician. Dancing around hot topic issues is an art not a science. John will go back to making money counting and figuring other peoples money.

     I do hope his injured finger gets better. I heard that he wanted Jonathan to kiss it and that was what the dispute was all about. Now how the finger was injured I’m not sure. Maybe Jonathan sat on it accidentally during the argument.

7. The real message from the primaries is that 93.3% of registered voters chose NONE OF THE ABOVE. This is either mass rejection of the slates of candidates or entrenched apathy among the populace. Neither of these bodes well for a bright future.

   • Yep.

   • You need to be realistic. Both mayoral candidacies were uncontested. There were only two contested races on the Republican ballot, and only a couple more than that on the Democratic side. The Democratic races were purely about personalities and tribal loyalties, not substance. Bozikis vs. McGinn did involve more substantial differences, but a single contest for a basically meaningless seat is not compelling for many voters. Overall, this is not a recipe for a big turnout.

   • Joe, the low voter participation is more indicative of the voting population than the slate of candidates. However, I believe that you could increase voter turnout in the primaries by having a full ballot of contested races and races where you have more than two people vying for a single nomination. Both of those would be hard to do because it’s becoming damn near impossible to find people willing to enter the arena and expose their family to the ridiculousness that follows candidates. Considering how many political geniuses that they have commenting on here, I’m surprised that more of the readers don’t run. Could you imagine “moveon” in a debate? “Well you’re big dumb dummy.” Would be his/her standard retort.

     • Yes, Phyllip, you may well be correct. That is why I included “entrenched apathy among the populace” in my post.

       “This is either mass rejection of the slates of candidates or entrenched apathy among the populace. Neither of these bodes well for a bright future.”

       The sure takeaway from the abysmal turnout is that the people of Evansville as a whole were not moved sufficiently by any of the candidates to get off the couch and cast a vote. Apathy is usually extinguished with a message that moves people as is well evidenced by the current resident of the White House. The message of “hope and change” moved enough people to elect him president. There was no such inspiration in Tuesday’s primary.

       • It was more like “no hope for change”. If it is true that some independent candidates are eying the general election, that is potentially good news.

         • “that is potentially good news.” Really good news. We are affiliating and providing some critical information with one of them. Its kind of a litmus test, however with the data we’ve recovered in the last five years its pretty much a slam dunk if this person moves on it.
           The data is pretty ugly, however the one who might step up has absolutely no connections to the vain, but ugly data.
           Some people might as well seek counsel if this person moves and fills a independent bracket. Like I said its ugly. Real ugly.

         • Simply speaking. . .when a person decides to run for office and is successful, he/she entered the office excited and willing and able to make changes. They are one of many and unfortunately those other officeholders who have been in their respective positions for multiple terms have been agendized. Eventually, the enthusiasm disappears and the status quo appears. So, when politicians seek more than two terms and their message has not changed. . .then change the politician . . .

     • His posts are not what one would call substitive. Right out of Rules for Radicals.

   • Unfortunately the people running don’t care what we think Joe. They still get into office and continue to do as they please. What should happen is that NO ONE should be elected unless they can muster up at least 50% of the Registered voters. That way a none of the above vote would actually mean something. Of course then we would have no one in the office until someone could convince at least 50% of the registered voters to actually get up off their kesters and go vote for them. But I seriously doubt that anyone would ever actually serve in office and be able to meet that requirement.

     So we get just 17% of X% of registered voters. Say we get 50% of the registered voters and there are 50% of the people registered to vote. That would mean that only 25% of the entire population actually voted for them. Now I don’t know if 50% of the population is registered to actually vote. That percentage might even be much smaller. And 17% of a small % is even less. I call that Pathetic that we let a very small percentage of the population actually choose who’s going to be on the November ballot. And we wonder why they think that they are entitled to spend million of dollars of tax payers money without asking us before hand?

     We all know that if all the people in the city were asked to vote on whither or not to give HRC 23 Million Dollars to build a new Motel 6 that the people would overwhelmingly reject such an idea. Which is why the Mayor didn’t ask for a public referendum.

     • “Unfortunately the people running don’t care what we think Joe” Winner winner chicken dinner. And I might add that is they can keep us at each other it all the better for them. They create chaos and then promise to be our savior. It’s why I think it is important that we get along. That’s what these politicians fear.

   • Last election I braved the rain to get out and vote. I sat this election out as mass rejection of the slate. If I have no choice but Winnecke or Rieken, then if I vote I will have to choose Winnecke in hopes that a republican mayor and democrat CC will cancel one another out. I don’t feel like my vote is for a brighter future. The best hope I have is to move the political chess pieces into a draw.

     • IE, you as a business person should know that your reason is flawed for voting for Winnie for hopes that mayor/city council will cancel each other out. The city residents already has four years of that combination and it has not worked! Four more will not make it change. I know your “real” reason for not voting for the other candidate! We had this discussion before.

       • No, it hasn’t worked, but if you think it will be worse with a CC that’s giddy for Gail you are unrealistic.

         • So we have:
           Giddy for Gail.
           Lunacy (expecting different results) for Lloyd.

           Better hope those Demo’s don’t wake up and actually realize they need to vote!

8. I voted for brinkmeyer
   I have brinkmeyer sign in my yard
   I laugh al all time but I would vote for him before melcher

9. There is no question the maturity level of our local politicians is at an all time low. Frankly, I could care less what letter is behind their name, it is simply embarrassing and unacceptable behavior. Personally, I would like to see every council member replaced, but that obviously isn’t going to happen.

   What is troubling, is how many of the comments on here are from people who identify themselves as Democrats through and through, yet are screaming about the need for change. I am no straight ticket voter, and I actually voted for Rick Davis, but to pimp Gail Reicken out as the symbol of change and level headed leadership is simply silly. Gail has shown nothing but a willingness at all cost to put her party leadership ahead of her constituents on numerous occasions. Like I said, I didn’t vote for Winnie, and hadn’t planned to this time, but the Dems managed to find someone who is far worse.

   It also seems silly to hang the entire hotel fiasco on Winnie. Yes, he has bobbled it more than once, but he was handed a very hot and smoking turd from the previous administration. Before the first headache ball swung on the Executive, a sound and final plan should have been in place for both the arena and adjacent hotel. Period. While we certainly needed a new arena, little thought was actually put into what we wanted to accomplish with it and a hotel. Would building it bigger and going after things that actually fill hotels, such as NCAA tournament games been feasible? Who knows, we just got a consultant to tell us we needed a new arena, and current demands would require about 10K in seating, and BAM, there it went.

   And if you really want to place blame, IMO, you can put much of it back on local Demo Poster Boy Frank Jr. Had he done his job, this issue would have been addressed properly in 1990. All he did was render the stadium useless for anything other than basketball and dug into the water table. Basically, he took the jalopy down for an Earl Scheib $99 paint job, and threw on a set of re-treaded tires…then everyone was surprised when it blew into a gazillion pieces on the side of the road.

   Like Stuart said, this town is in desperate need of intelligent and capable local leaders. However, all we seem to do is line up behind our team of choice, and keep recycling proven failed hacks.

   • The executive Inn was a private firm and if they wanted to tear it down that was their business. Did the city buy the Executive so that they could sell it or tear it down? I can’t remember if that happened or not. But I do remember when the Executive was in it’s hay day and the people of the Civic Center use to eat lunch there among many other things. The last time I was there I ran into some of the people from Room 302 in the Civic Center and was greeted kindly. I read that the building was a wreck waiting to happen and have to be torn down as the cost to fix the problems was too much. IE it was cheaper to tear it down and start over from scratch. But that was when Weinzapfel was in office I think.

     I think that the city should have let the free market build a hotel or what ever else the private sector wanted to build in that spot. Obviously no one in their right mind wanted to build a hotel in that spot. The tried it once and it failed. The executive inn was evidently now making enough money to keep it open so they either closed it or sold it. Why would someone else want to follow in that footpath? It’s not a good location to make money. So we have to bribe some out of town clowns to take 23 million of the tax payers money and without strings or partial ownership by the city. What sane business man would give someone else 23 million dollars to build a hotel and not retain some ownership or equity in the building? Only fools let something like that happen. We the people of the City of Evansville are fools to allow the Mayor to give their tax money away like this. I can’t think of any thing more crazy happening without someone actually going to jail for Theft.

     The people of the city better wake up and do some thing before the city is bankrupt. I say again let the private developers buy that lot and build their own building there with their own funds and stop giving developers the tax payers money.!!! And I don’t care if Owensboro or any other city did it. If their mayor jumped off the Ohio River Bridge into the Ohio River would the City’s Mayor do that too? Crazy stuff here.

     • Moveon asks ” What sane businessman would give someone else 23 million dollars to build a hotel and not retain ownership or equity in the building?—–. I can’t think of anything more crazy happening without someone actually going to jail for theft.”
       I can think of something more crazy. Giving I.U. med school $65,000,000 of taxpayer money simply for them to build their building in downtown Evansville.

       • We’ll trump both of you and ask why they’ve continued to ignore the nearly billion dollars in needed and mandated upgrades for the sewer and water infrastructure. One of our consortium members said the logical answer to that would be they lost the paperwork, like a kid and the math homework.(the dog ate it) He went on further to sport them losing 29 million bucks during the audits. Then someone found it and plugged into the next years audit. He said ” Gees wouldn’t you want to clean their sofa.?”

       • Well Common Sense you got me on that one this time. That is even crazier considering the fact that if they build it (IU Medical Center) out on the East Side of Evansville it would cost millions of dollars LESS! The Mayor’s obsession with the down town is killing the tax payers in debt that will take years to pay off.

         • Why does he care? Unlike most of us, his grandkids live in Tucson, AZ so four years from now he will catch that last fly out of Evansville just like Bertrum of EVSC and we will be left holding Santa Lloyd’s bag. . .

         • Dancewithwolves,
           Four more years? Send him there this coming January!

   • I’d like to know who the Engineers were that consulted or designed the revision of Roberts Stadium which cause the Mayor to order a construction project that went into the ground water table and cause the flooding problems with Roberts Stadium. Evidently the flooding problems had to be fixed by installing sump pumps in the floor and pumping ground water out faster than in flowed into the Stadium’s foundation or floor. The engineers who designed that job should be held responsible for the mistake. Don’t they have to have professional engineers working (designing) these type of projects?

     Obviously the Mayor is nothing more than the cities figure head. He’s not a doctor, scientist, engineer or CPA. He needs to surround himself with good professional people and be able to lead a team of professionals to do a good job. Obviously that’s not been happening in Evansville, IN for a long time.

     • Architectural firm was Hafer & Associates. Lead Architect was Mike Buente. Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing/Fire Protection/Civil Engineer was Biagi, Chance, Cummins,London, Titzer. Not sure who Structural Engineer was.
       Decision to lower floor was Architect’s to meet the City Administrations requirements that the following criteria be met for the redesign:
       1.) All seating shall be chairbacks.
       2.) Quantity of seats shall remain approximately the same as the existing number of seats (existing chairbacks, bench seats, and roll around bleachers).
       3.) Existing building structural system shall remain.
       4.) Building HVAC system shall include cooling and not just ventilation (fans).

       Don’t blame the Engineer’s, blame the Architect and City Administration.

       • Could it be true that had decent skyboxes been incorporated into that 1990 redesign, that there would not had been a big push for the new arena?

         • Certainly should have been included, but when they dug the floor, not only did they hit the water table, but they made the new floor too small for anything besides basketball. The original Roberts Stadium had a floor large enough for hockey, arena football, etc, but not after the McDonald-Hafer renovation.

   • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjdHaMeiiQ

10. I believe the engineers on the Robert Stadium renovation in the early nineties was Hafer & Associates. That says it all.

    • Bingo

      • And In-Bed-Ed was the president of ERC for the Hotel…ah?

    • If they (Hafer & Associates) developed the plan to renovate the Roberts Stadium they must have forgot that ground water flows into the lowest area and always flows with gravity and downhill. Duh. Did anyone do any core drilling and figure out where the top of the water table was out by Roberts Stadium. They should have designed the build to go up not down below and into the water table. Duh. How does one still get to work for the city after such a huge Fiasco?

      • CASH DONATIONS!!!!!!!!

      • Couldn’t design the renovation project “to go up” without removing the entire existing structural system and that wouldn’t have met the City Administration’s requirements.

        • So they tear it down after digging deeper into the water table and end up building a new Fraud Center downtown? Yea that sounds about right! How do you kill a successful Arena to build a new on downtown? You dig into the water table and ruin the fomer so that you can build the latter in another place. I wonder if that was the plan from the beginning. If so, I would say that is would have been better to rebuild the new area in the same spot as Roberts Stadium was located. They already had plenty of parking and other necessities on that site.

    • Hafer has been in on every botched project the city has attempted for 30 years and it is always somebody else’s fault. He will continue to reap the rewards of croniery, as the taxpayers are continuously raped. Political donations pave the way.

      • Dear onemeover. . . you are dead on. . In-bed-Ed was also there concerning Lloyd’s Baseball Field. . remember the nearly one Million his firm received and no baseball field. .

        • Thinking the present EVV terminal was also a Hafer & company FUBAR as well.
          Wrong location and real poor goat pasture field design. Can one spell cronies?
          Dude fleeced’em with that turd as well.

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

    • Hafer & Associates was an Architectural firm at that time; no Engineers on staff. Now have staff Engineers.

      • Architects are telling the engineers how to build something. No?

        • Standard practice. You wouldn’t believe the egos that Architects have. Every building has to be a monument to their ego.

11. Time for Al Linsdey to pack it in politically and focus on EFD. He started out bad with MainGate, turned it around and for a very long time was the rare voice of financial reason on City Council, He then forgot Mesker Amphitheater was in the 6th Ward and for the last year appeared focused on Democratic political infighting, instead of fighting like a wounded wolverine for Mesker Amphitheater. IMHO.

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