IS IT TRUE October 22, 2013 Part 2 “Money Problems from Knuckleheaded Practices”

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Dunce

IS IT TRUE October 22, 2013 Part 2 “Money Problems from Knuckleheaded Practices”

IS IT TRUE that one of the things that is needed to make the financial viability of the downtown convention hotel project work for the taxpayers of Evansville is for the apartments to be built as they have been discussed?…without the property taxes from the apartment building the bonds to build the $5.4 Million parking tower will have to be serviced from other sources?…of course the hotel depends on a parking tower and the parking tower depends on the hotel to cover the costs associated with the $20 Million of bonds that are planned to be issued?…if the apartments are removed from the project for any reason whatsoever we have a cash flow problem on our hands?…we would appreciate if you all keep your eyes and ears open for this seemingly easy backslide and let us know if the stories we are hearing about this situation are correct?

IS IT TRUE that there was a recent notice posted that was published for the purpose of soliciting bank fees on a deposit of taxpayer dollars?…when the two bids came in the bid from German American Bank agreed to charge the taxpayers bank fees of $10,000 and Old National Bank bid to  charge the taxpayers $20,000 bank fees?…that German American Bank apparently won the bid and was all set to accept the General Fund deposits until the County Attorney made it known that there was a problem with this bid?…because of this idiotic practice that states “no bank that does not have a branch within 1 mile of the Civic Center can receive County funds” the taxpayers of this county lost $10,000 of bank fees that could have been used for any number of services?…Old National Bank won the deposit bid by default and the taxpayers lost $10,000 due to the moronic stipulation in the the RFP that was adopted around 2000 to 2008?…if Evansville and Vanderburgh County are ever to catch up to where the world was even 20 years ago they will have to stop living as though we are in the 1800’s?…this episode is as if the taxpayers funded a governing body that adopted a practice requiring them to shred $10,000 and toss it into the river?…what we really wonder is why German American Bank is willing to charge bank fees half the price that Old National offered?…a legacy of being the only bidder may just answer that question?

IS IT TRUE longtime public servant Susan Kirk tells the CCO that Z Tuley put the one mile limit in the RFP because there was a particular bank that she did not want to deal with?…the bank did not have an office within 1 mile of the Civic Center so she added that clause so they wouldn’t be able to submit a bid?… the clause will be removed for future bids and Ms. Kirk thought it had been removed but it wasn’t, thus the people of Evansville have lost this $10,000 to the benefit of Old National Bank?

IS IT TRUE we are expecting an announcement today from Warrick County detailing the location of the site they will submit for the IU Medical School?…in the event that Vanderburgh County loses this opportunity because of dogmatic dedication to only downtown Evansville as a preferred location for this medical school it is time to rearrange the characters in the Civic Center at the soonest possible opportunity?

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21 COMMENTS

  1. “..in the event that Vanderburgh County loses this opportunity because of dogmatic dedication to only downtown Evansville as a preferred location for this medical school it is time to rearrange the characters in the Civic Center at the soonest possible opportunity?”

    AB-SO-FREAKING-LUT-LEY!!!
    I’m really intersted to see how the proposals stack up against eachother.

  2. Another example of this downtown-centric attitude costing Evansville.

    The employees and owners of German-American should be livid, not to mention the average citizen.

  3. Do we have a cluster of village idiots running this town or are they a bunch of clowns just passing thru the city on a hay wagon?? Just ask’en an look’en for some answers!

    • A bunch of village idiots seem to be in charge. It became noticeable when the new jail was built outside the city limits instead of close to the civic center and the police department. The county commissioners were on track to build a 28 million dollar jail, the commissioners changed from republican to democrat and the price went up to 35 million. One of the commissioners also hooked up with and married one of the jail contractors. The Sheriff was convicted of stealing $63,000 and got probation. Just about says it all, this is a continuing saga.

      • That was Ray Hammer who took home drug money that the new Sheriff noticed missing. He should have been thrown in the slammer with all the other crooks. It’s things like this that made people feel betrayed by our own government.

        The same guy would throw you and me in jail for 60 days for steeling a loft of bread from the bakery if we were starving to death. $63,000 dollars would buy a lot of bread.

        Yea he got community service as punishment and had to cut grass at the church on weekends for a few weeks. I bet that really taught him a lesson not to steal again.

        He said he forget that he had the money at home and he returned it on his own. But only after Brad noticed it missing and made a issue out of it.

    • Nah,the chuck holes would’a knocked’em off the wagon before they got outta town.

    • Well if they are clowns and most times it seems that way then the only ones on the bus are Bozo’s.

  4. I’m guessing that Russ will have to walk down to ONB, rain or shine, and personally pick up the interest payments.

    Shhheeeeeeezzzzz!

    __

    • The only problem with USI is that there is no Hospital close to the campus other than Deaconess Downtown. St Mary’s and Gateway are both Closer to the medical center if they build the medical center at the Proposed Warrick County location.

      Right now the two years IU medical school is already located at USI. So that’s a plus for USI’s location.

      Remember they shut down the only downtown hospital when they closed down Welborn Hospital. That left Deaconess the closest hospital to the downtown area. And there is not much room around Deaconess Hospital Downtown to build a new medical school facility and all the other necessary ancillary things.

      Out in Warrick County they have room to build dorms or apartments for the students to live and frequent when not in school.

      Warrick County has the advantage as they have the room and the infrastructure for this medical center where the other areas don’t.

      • http://medicine.iu.edu/southbend/

        There is only one place the IU Med Center should be situated and that is on the USI campus. It made sense in South Bend to locate on the Notre Dame campus, and it makes the same sense to locate it on the USI campus here in Evansville.

        Think long term and you will see it is a win-win situation for both schools.

        __

  6. Looks like Z Tuley may have cost the tax payer of this community $10,000. If so, the County Council should take this money from her annual salary. I’ll glad when her term is over.

  7. Thanks Susie Kirk for standing up for the tax payers of this community. Z Tuley should be ashamed of herself.

  8. Three cheers for Ms. Kirk for doing the right thing for citizen of this community. Three boo’s for Mrs. Tuley for not doing the right thing for us.

  9. “in the event that Vanderburgh County loses this opportunity because of dogmatic dedication to only downtown Evansville as a preferred location for this medical school it is time to rearrange the characters in the Civic Center at the soonest possible opportunity?”

    Simple Question: How can you claim go after the city for having a “dogmatic dedication” to downtown for the med school time after time on here but not call out the ECVB for picking site after site on the east and northeast sides of town only? Especially given the fact that they have ignored a district the city has an overwhelming financial and historical competitive advantage for youth and up baseball?

    I just don’t see how can you can claim one is a blind bias but not say anything about the other.

    • This city and all the past administrations from McDonald Sr to today have favored the downtown area of Evansville. Just look at Main street and how many times they changed it over and over again. How many millions of dollars have they all spent on those main street projects and where has it gotten the city? Nowhere. Lots of stores that are run down and closed. They wasted Millions and Millions of tax dollars on planting trees, changing the directions and paving and repaving and putting in old street lights or canopies. But the entire time they kept the parking meters in place and probably raised the fines and cost to park anywhere downtown. And they wonder why all the people left downtown to shop at the malls where they had free parking. Duh. A moron could figure that out.

  10. As for the med school issue itself, I had the opportunity to go out to the site today. A couple of observations I took away from it…

    1. They have an EXCELLENT marketing team. They did a good job hanging tons of yard signs and billboards with renderings and a countless amount of reasons as to why it should go there. They did a good job opening up their bid to the public. They also do a good job spinning a sprawling development into a “wellness trail”.

    2. I measured the colored in site on the grid. Of course, since it’s just colored in and not an actual building layout, it’s unclear if they will use all of that land, how they will use it, and what they will use it for.

    But I measured the lot between epworth, wellness trail, co road 100, and co road 350 and came up with a lot that is roughly 2,500 ft by 1,250 ft. By those dimensions, it could take every bit of 6-8 lots downtown. Old North has the width but not the length. It would if the small houses around it were purchased.

    If not Old North I’d really like to see the old central lot area used for this as well as the historic housing lots across MLK but I don’t know if it can be pulled off. The city doesn’t have good leaders so I have no confidence something good for downtown will come out of this.

    3. At the risk of looking like a prisoner of the moment, I fear Warrick Co is going to win this contest. Looking around the site, I felt like the medical connection idea is a little over hyped. Old Central is just as close to Deaconness Main Campus and this lot is to Gateway. St. Mary’s does have a building going in but it really doesn’t appear to be something that would be a game changer. The rest is a bunch of misc supplemental development that could easily sprout up downtown.

    But overall, Warrick County appears to be running like a well oiled machine. They are united, they are smart, they are dedicated, and they are winning the public p.r battle. I’d hate to see this school turn into another sprawl cookie cutter campus but I don’t see Winnecke & Co. uniting this city like Warrick Co is.

    • Clearly the answer is “Consolidation” of Warrick County into the city of Evansville. Better call Lloyd to tell him to get working on it.

    • Rails: Observing with GIS,reading what has been reported and looking from afar. I do have to wonder,about the Warrick site and the unified efforts that your comment has in sight over the horizon.

      I would like to know, which sewer and water department will service the sites location? Newburgh,or the their northern neighbor Chandler?
      Wondering about that, seems I read about some disagreement or annexation fuss over the issue in recent past.
      Although, both those before mentioned municipalities as well as Evansville are due some serious upgrades in that aspect of the purposed sites infrastructures looking forward for solid sustainable servicing.

      “silent enim lege inter arma.”

      (Cicero)

      “laws are silent in the times of war.”.(“competing.”)

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