IS IT TRUE that sometimes nuggets of truth are posted on the comment sections of both the City County Observer and the Courier and Press?…that while most comments are posted anonymously every once in a while someone uses their real name and posts something that is new and important?…that yesterday was such a day here at the CCO?…that Evansville City Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley made a post in a response to one section of IS IT TRUE that dealt with the nasty smells that are in an around Roberts Stadium even though there has not been a hard rain in a while?…her explanation showed diligence, competence, and concern for the people of Evansville?…Councilwoman Riley explained how the angle of the large sewer pipes in much of the City of Evansville was too low to take advantage of gravity sufficiently to keep the contents of the pipe that causes the smell cleared out during dry times?…what this means is that when it is dry somewhere close below the surface and with a clear air path to the street is a bunch of fecal material waiting for a good rain to wash it away?…this is sort of a double whammy to the repairs needed to make our sewers work AND get us out of trouble with the EPA?
IS IT TRUE when it rains more than an inch an hour the south side, Bee Slough, and the Ohio River are gonna get slammed with raw sewage violating federal mandates?…this half of the problem is now known to be a $500+ Million problem and will have to be dealt with or face fines?…after the rains Evansville smells like a rear end due to those discharges?…the low angle problem exposed by Councilwoman Riley is why it stinks like a rear end when we have not have rain?…that means that the people of Evansville get to smell crap all of the time due to a poorly designed obsolete sewer system?…one early estimate to solve the second problem is another $500 Million bringing the total fix to get the EPA off of our back and to get the smell of a nasty arse out of our air to a Billion dollars?…that works out to a cost of $20,000 per residence assuming 50,000 residences will share the cost equally?…on a 30 year note this pair of fixes will be adding over $100 per month to the average Evansvillian’s sewer bill?…that like it or not this is a necessary condition to become an acceptable city for young professionals to call home?…those who claim that a $10 Million park, a $127 Million temple to sport, reading water meters from a shiny new $50 Million fiber network, or even a downtown hotel that needs $20+ Million of public incentives to happen will solve the City of Evansville’s image problem are delusional?…sometimes one can wonder if a continuous stream of brooze have been pumped into the Office of the Mayor of Evansville for a good long time now as it seems more like Cheech and Chong are in charge than Weinzapfel and Winnecke?…we are leaving it up to our readers to decide who is Cheech and who is Chong?
IS IT TRUE that one thing Mayor Winnecke did do that was right after taking office is to get some focus on the litter problem that has plagued Evansville for as long as most of us can remember?…the Mayor has led an effort that has removed many tons of litter and even has a decent number of citizens on board to pick things up?…the problem of litter to the visitor is still in place?…the best intentions and efforts of Mayor Winnecke and his litter army are never going to be enough to rid a city whose citizens treat it like a garbage can of litter?…for Evansville to ever be clean to a visitor it is going to take all of the 117,000 people who live here to stop living like filth is a good thing?…the CCO commends the Mayor for his litter elimination efforts and encourages the people of this town to get on board with him?…that Evansville may not have the financial resources to fix a Billion dollar sewer problem rapidly but it most certainly has the resources to eliminate the litter problem?…the only question is whether the people of Evansville have the pride and will to implement that FREE SOLUTION?
Will the new system just add a smaller sewer for waste only? Are the storm sewers in good enough shape to last another 20/ 30 years till the sanitary sewers are paid off? I ask because I don’t know, not to stir trouble. The best way will be the cheapest way in the long term.
I’ve participated on the litter cleanup on two different occasions. I was ASTONISHED at the amount of litter that consists of cigarette butts along our streets and sidewalks. It truly is mind-boggling!!
I am a libertarian in the sense that I do not wish to tell people how to live their lives or for them to tell me how to live mine…. however, the apparent disregard of at least the majority of smokers (not all of them) in this community to their cigarette discards along streets is truly pitiful. I notice as I walk along streets, parking garages, parking lots, etc. around town just how many cigarette butts are EVERYWHERE since participating in the litter pickup and having half of a trash bag filled with disgusting butts off the street.
Especially concerning is the apparent opinion of so many of those offenders that their cigarette discards aren’t “litter”. BULL!!! One way to clean up the appearance of E-ville is to fine those who discard anything (including butts) into anything but receptacles and enforce it… although I know we never will… too many will claim we’re “violating their rights”.
+1 hootowl. Thanks for helping clean and for pointing out the filth tossed about indiscriminately by the smoking minority. By the way the butt problem was the same before the new smoking restrictions. I have seen people empty their ashtrays at intersections with a cop right behind them without consequence. The intersection of Morgan and 41 looks like a cigarette butt depository. Another sad truth about River City.
Several years ago we had an extended drought during the summer. Not nearly as bad as this past summer, but quite a long time without any significant rain.
I was inspecting ditches toward the end of summer, in mid or late September I think it was, and happened to be out near Green River Road when a torrential storm system blew through. The run-off completely filled the ditches and pipes all across the Eastside, and I happened to be standing at the discharge end of Harper Ditch where it flows into the old Wabash and Erie Canal at the end of Newton Avenue between Green River Rd. and Stockwell Rd.
For about 20 or 30 minutes, the initial discharge from that huge pipe appeared to be about 50% raw sewage. It smelled horrible, and was milk chocolate brown. I actually called the sewer department thinking there was a ruptured sewer line under Eastland Mall (the pipe runs under both malls from the back side of Shoe Carnival, under Green River Rd., and then between Olive Garden and the next restaurant south of there, and across Eastland’s parking lot north of Macy’s, and out Newton Ave. to the Canal … all in pipe).
Well, by the time the sewer department got there, the storm water discharge was running fairly clear and I was really embarrassed. All that “raw sewage” was just the accumulated trash dumped out on the streets and parking lots … food, dirty diapers, grease that restaurant workers had dumped down the storm drains in their parking lots (I caught two of them doing this later) … just trash and discarded litter, stuff that is supposed to be recycled or go to the landfill. Can you imagine? Twenty to 30 minutes of full pipe discharge out the end of a pipe that I think is about 6 or more feet in diameter!
So, when the Mayor’s volunteer clean-up crews are out picking up trash off the streets, that’s crap that won’t end up in the storm sewers, creeks, and rivers of our community.
That trash also finds its way into the combination sewers and causes trash jams that holds back the turds that generate the stench in neighborhoods served by combination sewers. Think about it.
I also wandered out in such a storm years ago and was horrified to see a ribbon of grey water flowing out of the B-slough discharge into the Ohio river… The distinct ribbon extended several hundred feet out into the river and followed our side of the river as far as I could see. I had recently returned from a mission trip to Mexico where the Missionary told me the primary health issue in Mexico city were related to open ditch grey water canals that carried human waste out of the city. Welcome home to a third world sewer system….
Sorry to say that I voted for our new Mayor. It’s obvious that he isn’t up to the task of making sound financial decisions.
Great PR man but poor business person.
I’m sure to be slammed but in my opinion all tobacco products and also alcoholic beverages need to be outlawed cause of all the harm they cause , marijuana needs to be studied and possibly used as a medecine ,and I don’t mean if you break a finger nail , it is not habit forming such as legal opiate narcotics . And yes I have had alcohol problems in t he past. Tobacco almost killed me 7 yrs but I quit , marijuana is a good pain reliever not habit forming. I have abused all three , now I’m just a pot head in my own home
Congratulations on overcoming your addictions. Let the rest of us choose to drink and smoke as we choose. Though an ex-smoker myself, smokers do have the right to smoke if they choose. Prohibition has been proven not to work and would be a bureaucratic nightmare to attempt again. You are correct on marijuana though, it should and one day will be a legal and taxable product.
All the city needs to do is win the Powerball drawing. 500 million, problem solved!
It seems that one of the few saving graces of the last few local elections is that we acquired Mrs. Brinkerhoff-Riley to do the extensive footwork and notice the details on matters that will eventually accumulate and blow up in our faces. And I’ll bet she’s not paid for what expertise she’s put into it, either
She is a prize, and absolutely serious about working for her constituency. Conscientious about things most of us are not paying attention to, as we are fuming over the Jaccomo game that’s been our last two administrations! The city’s budget is hinky (for several years) dirty deals being shoved unowhere, people getting exorbitant salaries for doing nada, and keeping hushed up, state laws being violated in regard to city monies, so many gophers jumping up!!! It’s dizzying!
Mrs. Brinkerhoff-Riley: EPA fines the city for not meeting generous deadlines-where does this money come from? And THANK YOU for pulling our eyes away from the shell game long enough to focus on what’s going on underneath the table-yet again, dear lady.
And THANK YOU, CCO-for not forcing us to rely on the C/P for any pertinent information at all.
A question for Stephanie Riley, or anyone else who happens to know the facts: Do any of the engineer’s estimates for the sewer work to meet the requirements of EPA’s mandate ACTUALLY INCLUDE the costs for replacing ALL of the combination sewer lines with separate storm and sanitary lines?
What I mean is whether the estimates made public up to this time cover the estimated costs of totally separating storm water run-off conveyance infrastructure from the sanitary sewer line infrastructure … not just the estimates for work to address the problem at or near the combined sewer overflows.
It is my understanding that they do not. I believe these projects just address the combined sewer overflows.
Another question, for the editor this time.
The editor asks, “Is it true … one early estimate to solve the second problem is another $500 Million bringing the total fix to get the EPA off of our back and to get the smell of a nasty arse out of our air to a Billion dollars?…that works out to a cost of $20,000 per residence assuming 50,000 residences will share the cost equally?…on a 30 year note this pair of fixes will be adding over $100 per month to the average Evansvillian’s sewer bill?”
What’s that “guestimate” based on? There are approx. 173,000 residents countywide. The census bureau gives 2.4 per household as an average. Somehow you’d have to determine how many households are not served by public sewer lines.
But it gets more complicated. Then you have to factor in the 35% differential that county-out sewer users pay over and above the charge per unit that city residents pay for the same service. You’d also have to factor in the commercial and industrial rate payers. Only then could you come up with anywhere near an accurate guess as to the cost per user for the estimated $half-billion mandated sewer fix.
I guess you could ask the water and sewer utility for a projected cost per rate payer. They’re supposed to have that figure available, I think. Did you ask?
Real broad brush estimate to get a ballpark figure. The 50,000 is a number for residences in the City that I remember from some census data I read last year. The total in the County was about 70,000. I was just looking for a ballpark number and feel pretty confident on the $100 per month per household as an average. That could turn into $90 in City and $125 in County and even be altered a little from figuring in industrial properties. The bottom line is this is a big expensive deal and will hit family budgets significantly however it shakes out.
I agree with your intent to notify the people of inevitable and hefty rate increases to pay for the EPA mandated sewer improvements. But seriously, the rate increases already have begun, and I have to assume the water and sewer utility must’ve used some sort of formula, based on available data, in order to present to the city council with the plea for rate increases. I’m just looking for some sort of reliable estimates rather than unnecessarily alarming guestimates … which may turn out to be true, but you know what I mean.
Simple arithmetic. If one borrows a Billion bucks at 5% on a 30 year note a number pops out. Divide that number by 50,000 and you get just over $100 per month. There are only 4 variables to play with those being the principle, the interest rate, the term of the loan, and the number of meters to divide it between. Interest is not going down anytime soon and will probably start to creep up. Construction costs will not be decreasing and the population is not growing. One can iterate any realistic range of these variables and the monthly increase still comes out to about $100 per household.
I hope the government doesn’t use the same cavalier formula to arrive at my sewer use billings!
They will probably be less favorable than my commercial assumptions were. Count on $120 per month.
Gee, and I always thought sewer bills were based on the amount of water consumer, hence the varying amounts billed when water consumption changes. Seems to me that you gave an exceedingly simplistic answer, thus oversimplifying the process. I’m sure sewer costs are based on estimated water usage and the amount of water that flows into the sewer, not entirely on the number of water meters.
I am assuming your use will not change. If you are now paying $45 get ready for $145. If you are paying $90 saddle up for $190.
Soon…..
I’d also assume that a public works project of that size would qualify for some form of federal stimulus/grant monies for revitalization/infrastructure improvements, if not it really should be IMHO….a billion dollars is a heck of a lot of money to not have some aspect of federal hands involved besides the EPA mandate.
It just makes sense to me that since the feds are requiring that the work be done they should shoulder some of the cost burden. Maybe our US congress/senate representatives should be looking at that aspect, a works project of that size would boost the local economy in a number of ways which would be a good reelection platform to run on.
Is anyone looking at that aspect….?
JMHO
The EPA order came via a federal court order, and it came as an unfunded mandate.
The EPA has been supporting funding options since the late 1980’S. A quick google search will prove that. The Jon chose to try suing the insurance companies instead of proceeding with attempts to get funding. Of course, he lost. And he lost the appeal. But a favorite environmental law firm of his made some nice money.
If you want a nice close-up view a CSO, go down to the parking lot for the new bridge on the Pigeon Creek Greenbelt, behind Westside Nut Club Ballfield on Delaware (behind Reis Tire). If you walk out on that nice new bridge and look East, your looking right up the poop chute.
Hold on….your telling me that not only did Weinzapfel ignore the problem for 8 years but he chose to sue the city insurance company..lost both times, and put us in the position where the taxpayers will have to fund 100% of the roughly 1 billion dollars when he could have took another course and received federal assistance/funding for the mandate?
Then knowing he screwed up spent $127m on a arena and proceeded with other projects that like the downtown hotel that would have locked the taxpayers into even more debt knowing full well that they would have to also pay 100% of the sewer project, then we have his little buddy elected who thinks it’s fine to tear down a stadium that is paid for and spend another $8M on a dog park? all the while the city books were not reconciled for a year and a half, accounts were merged to hide any possible audit trail and we are suppose to believe this is just a random bunch of mistakes that were honestly made?
My question is where is the angry citizens with pitch forks and rails to run these fools out of town? We have truly turned into a bunch of complacent sheep waiting for slaughter.
JMHO
The City should pursue armor protected street sweepers to address both crime and litter.
Per the Civic Center moles, the City has been dumping 3.4 billion gals of raw sewage into our waterways each and every year, actually, per the moles, 1.1 million on Pigeon Creek at Diamond Avenue. Well, think twice about canoe trip up the Pigeon. In addition, B Slough will cost 130 million, and, before the project commences, the Council will have to agree to six straight years of 10% sewer rate. The utility submitted its plan to the EPA agreeing to the total project of 227 Million, according to sources, but, they know that the feds will NOT buy-in. The feds will press for the project to exceed 600 million. According to reports, our utility debt is 230 million? And, the prior administration encumbered us for around 56 million on the crazy Johnson Control contract and we will have to come up with another 600 + Does this mean the City will have $886 million in debt or approx $7,500 per man, woman, and child? Resources indicate that the Mayor wants to build two new parks both costing 8 million per copy? And, of cource, lets don’t forget about the hotel deal. It appears that some kool-aid is being served?
Does anyone know if the “plan” includes increase capacity to process waste material, as the treatment plant behind the jail was supposed to do, or just more “ponding” capacity as the Weinbach tunnel provided?
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